Chapter 80
TLC: Lilies
unedited
“Impudent—”
The furious bellow coming from the headphones could shake one to the core.
Went off with a bang’s depth of voice wasn’t half bad, so even when he shouted the lines out, his voice didn’t lack in power.
It was a scene between “Emperor Chang” and “Consort Shu. Whenever “Emperor Chang”’s addiction flared up, he would get furious and irascible. This time, it was just as he would be staying in “Consort Shu’s” palace for the night when she sparked a dispute by bringing up the matter of naming a crown prince again.
“Our lands are Ours, and as for which of Our sons is to be made a crown prince… —That is for Us to decide!”
Those lines were also roared out.
In the background information prompt, it was written that: At the time, much was brewing underneath the surface in the imperial court for the establishment of the heir to the throne . The previous empress was of humble origins and after her death, there was no support left to back up her son. Meanwhile, “Concubine Shu”’s family kept growing in power and riches; her father was a powerful personage within the imperial court, so most court ministers sought good relations with him, joining his camp, certain that soon enough “Concubine Shu” would become officially t.i.tled the new empress and her son would naturally have the highest chances of becoming the crown prince.
As the previous line ended, leaving only the sound of ragged breaths in the headphones, as if the signs of torment brought by the drug addiction.
Qi Jing gave him a like of approval in his heart.
This Uncle Bang might not be much character wise, but he was still the type to take the evaluation of his voice acting to his heart—this time, he took note of the details and showed quite an improvement compared to his performance during the “Old Man Xiao Shan” audition. This, on top of the fact that he had a pretty good foundation made his performance slowly get even more life-like, bringing it to another level.
“We are not nothing without the Yan family’s support… We are the emperor… THE EMPEROR!”
There was no speech prompt for that line; Uncle Bang continued with the previous atmosphere of the scene and bellowed furiously.
After the end of the line, there was a small prompt about “Emperor Chang” falling after breaking a flower vase. According to this train of thought, anyone would come to the conclusion that the character was venting his fury by smashing things around him.
But Qi Jing only listened, staying completely silent.
The next line was the crucial point of this scene, while also being a crucial point of “Emperor Chang”’s character.
Speech prompt: Trembling.
And so, Uncle Bang cursed between pants in a trembling voice, “We are clearly the monarch of the country, the ruler of the land under Heavens, so why… Why do We need to listen to others when considering those matters? We don’t care, We don’t care! We don’t care what Our father-in-law has to say, We absolutely… Do—not—care.”
The last three words were basically squeezed through his clenched teeth.
From the relationship between the characters, it could be a.s.sumed that it was “Consort Shu”’s father who held the true power in the court and “Emperor Chang” had to give in in spite of his wishes. This kind of limitation wasn’t something any emperor could bear with for a long time—that’s why for this part, the tone Uncle Bang chose to go with made perfect sense.
“But I won’t perform it like this.” After praising Uncle Bang in his head, Qi Jing smiled and leaned over the desk to support his chin on a hand, c.o.c.king his head craftily before the screen. He agreed with the other man’s choices, but not entirely.
He had his own, different understanding.
Hence, he would show a different performance.
At that time, Uncle Bang had already started the third scene.
The last scene took time near the very ending of the story—”Emperor Chang” had been pushed back into the corner of the palace by the main character “Qin Tuo”, with no way of retreat left. The two of them had a few lines of dialogue as they stood face-to-face.
“You are here to kill Us, aren’t you? That thing in your hand, is that not the token you rebels call the ‘Order to End the Heavens’?”
A person at the end of his rope would still throw that final struggle, even knowing that they won’t have a good end. It was very on point of Uncle Bang to use this kind of tone at this juncture. He made good use of his baritone voice, making his angry laughter sound like it was reverberating through his chest, “Every single one of you are rebels, each and every one pushing Us to this extent! ‘End the Heavens?’ Hahahaha-!! Is the Heavens something anyone can end? What you are doing is not ending the Heavens, it’s rebelling against the will of the Heavens!”
After saying this, he gasped a couple of times, then laughed eerily.
“Hah, We know… You rebels want to make that Marquess Shunyang the emperor… But Marquess Shunyang is nothing more than a dirty b.a.s.t.a.r.d sp.a.w.ned outside by the previous emperor! It is Us who were t.i.tled the only true crown prince by the previous emperor!”
And that concluded Uncle Bang’s performance of the third scene, using the remaining dozen of seconds to thank the audience and the judges, ask for support, and only then all of his follow-up activities were complete.
After listening to so many auditions, he could already say that a compet.i.tor with this level of skill could be counted as an excellent, so his score certainly wouldn’t be low.
Of course, if the person’s moral standing was comparable to his capabilities, it would be even betterk2026; Unfortunately that wasn’t the case.
“But considering your improvement in voice acting, I’ll still give you a vote.”
Qi Jing had never been stingy with giving votes to his compet.i.tors. Besides, he was already used to the fact that moral quality and the skill of a person should be viewed as two completely separate things, so there was no need to haggle about a little vote because of some personal grudge.
Just as he expected, Went off with a bang’s final score was pretty good—enough for his fans to gloat about it for a while;
【Voice Quality】: 4.0，3.5，4.5，average score 4.0
【Enunciation】: 3.5，3.0，4.5，average score 3.67
【Foundation Points】:4.0，3.0，4.5，average score 3.83
【Charisma】：3.5，2.5，4.5，average score3.5
Judging panel’s evaluation: 4.0+3.67+3.83+3.5 = 15.0 points
Additional audience vote points: 65.7% voting ratio = 0.657 points
Overall score: 15.0+0.657 = 15.657 points
Upon closer a.n.a.lysis, this score would reveal something interesting.
Pu Yuzhi was the most strict among all three of the judges, but according to her strict judging criteria, this score was already nearly ideal. Perhaps she took note of how Uncle Bang had improved in his handling of the tone of his voice.
And Northwest Road’s score was still all kinds over the top, but it wasn’t as exaggerated as before; not as suspicious.
As for the additional vote points, it was calculated according to the ratio of “the number of live votes sent in divided by the total number of voters”. The fans from both sides started hurling curses at each other before the compet.i.tion even started, so with the overbearing amount of Bronze Sparrow Terrace fans likely refusing to vote on that “enemy” of theirs, it naturally resulted in lower votes for his performance.
But despite that, Uncle Bang still ranked first with the highest overall score so far, making Bronze Sparrow Terrace’s fans see red from fury.
“Haa…”
Qi Jing took a deep breath and patted his face with his hand, pulling himself together.
Contestants had only two, three minutes of time each, so from Uncle Bang’s exit to his turn to step on the “stage”, it would probably only be just enough time for him to get up and fetch a gla.s.s of water.
But this time, what he got wasn’t plain water but a thick sugar mixture made by combining granulated sugar with water—after drinking a mouthful, his throat immediately became cloyingly sweet, as if something clung to his oesophagus. Someone unused to this kind of concentrated solution would find the feeling in the throat hard to bear, wanting to rinse it with some clear water.
“Cough cough cough…” He pressed the area near his vocal cords and coughed lightly a few times. But he didn’t rinse his throat.
Since he took the sip until now, his voice had already become a bit more hoa.r.s.e.
His natural voice was really clear, in no way suited for a role of someone like “Emperor Chang” who gulped down immortality pills on a daily basis. His sense of age was also not up to mark—he could do a man in twenties, but a role of a man in thirties was already too much for him. Still, he didn’t want to pinch his voice cords to make up for that, because that would greatly reduce the quality of the performance.
A similar method of using hard liquor would give better results, but Shen Yan definitely wouldn’t let him do that, so he chose a relatively milder method.
There was another reason he did not want to drink shaojiu and that was his father.
He still remembered clearly how his father’s voice became more and more hoa.r.s.e as his alcoholism progressed, as well as his face when he would become temperamental and aggressive after drinking—it was all kind of similar to this character he was about to perform. That thought appeared in his mind out of nowhere, making Qi Jing furrow his brow a little as he couldn’t stop the memories of his past in the family home from surfacing.
“Heh.” Qi Jing snickered self-mockingly.
People always said that a VA would sometimes relate their real life experience on the role, but he never expected that the experience he would relate would be this.
I wonder what father is doing right now… If his habits didn’t change during those years, then he should be watching the news at this hour.
Ironically enough, he also worked in a TV news channel.
He didn’t know if his father would remember him whenever he watched daily news, or if he would remember the son he had long since disowned…
“Contestant No.16, Don’t ask for my return date.”
Suddenly, Yang Chunqu’s call interrupted his thinking, he woke up with a start from his contemplation and instinctively sat up straight.
“Contestant No.16, please prepare your equipment, I will soon move you to the first place of the mic sequence.” Yang Chunqu said smilingly, her bearing still as formal and elegant as before.
But as she called his ID, a small uproar started in the public chat, filling it up with trash talk.
Audience 1: (⊙ o ⊙) Isn’t that Don’t ask for my return date?? That Don’t ask for my return date who played in ⟪Trap⟫??
Audience 2: Heck!! He showed up! That Don’t ask for my return date who’s been making so much noisearound himself actually showed up!! To give up on staying low, even attending a compet.i.tion, he truly is daring… And he’s even competing with Bronze Sparrow for a role, really, so daring…
Audience 3: (＞﹏＜) To be honest, I really like Don’t ask for my return date, what to do, what to do, what to do… (shyly pointing fingers together)
Audience 4: Is the commenter above blind? You actually like this kind of despicable snake that would deliberately drive a wedge between Bronze Sparrow and Little Noodles? That Bang-something from before was still pa.s.sable【still not as good as our Bronze Sparrow tho】, but Don’t ask for return date barely has any voice acting skills to comment on. Imma have some popcorn and wait for the clownery to start, humph.
Audience 5: ╮(╯▽╰)╭ He’s here, he’s here! Let’s see how this weak shou will handle acting out an empress!【Note that I said “empress”, not “emperor”】
Audience 6: ╮(╯▽╰)╭ We are all ears to listen to Her Majesty, the Empress’ imperial decree! The kind from ⟪Empress in the Palace⟫! Hahahaha
…
…
His antis have also arrived huh… Very well, very well.
Qi Jing made a “thumb up” gesture before the screen before unmuting the mic with utmost calmness.
“Contestant No,1, can you talk now? Please try to say something to your mic to test your equipment.” Just as Yang Chunqu had said her routine lines, a very magnetic voice of a young man could suddenly be heard.
“Why is there such a commotion, whence the propriety? What does it make of the host before Our esteemed presence?”
“Pfft…”
Yan Chunqu was originally worried about that noisy discourse in the chat, thinking that Qi Jing was also a “problematic contestant”, but she didn’t expect him to make such a humorous opening remark—that royal p.r.o.noun really suited him well. With this, in that moment of confusion, laughter actually slipped out accidentally.
But as an MC, adapting to all kinds of situations that could come her way was her strong suit.
Hence, Yang Chunqu teased back in the same manner, “Your Majesty, the people outside are waiting for Your Majesty’s performance—may I ask Your Majesty to check the microphone.”
“It’s but a mere mic—We had already ordered for it to be tested well, so there’s no need to worry, host.” Qi Jing said with a chuckle.
That was the deepest he could go with his voice, as well as the most mighty way of talking he could manage.
Adding to that the slight hoa.r.s.eness to his voice, the confidence and steadiness in his speech trained through the news reports training, he sounded completely different than him from ⟪Trap⟫…
Audience 1: …
Audience 2: … Just now…
Audience 3: … Just now, it was actually Don’t ask for my return date??
Audience 4: That’s a scam, Don’t ask for my return date can’t be this gong… Maybe it’s another VA with the same username? It has to be!!
Audience 5: With this voice, it can’t possibly be him!! The audacity to actually have someone else to stand in for him during the official compet.i.tion, can this guy be any more shameless?? Organisers, organisers, it’s a textbook example of cheating. Please, you guys must not condone such shamelessness, investigate it well!!
Audience 6: Hahahaha, the commenter above, I advise you to not clown yourself! Who’s the shameless one, tell me?? As a small Return Date fan, I say it now—that’s his original voice【it’s kinda more gong than before, d.a.m.n it… I like this type the most >///
…
…
The reaction of the audience was within his expectations.
Qi Jing wasn’t surprised at all. Today was not a day where others would surprise him, but the day of him surprising others—thoroughly.
“Hmm, I apologize, I got too deep in the character just now,” He chuckled gentlemanly, still in the same voice as before. He was neither boasting nor depreciating himself, only saying steadily, “Next, I’d like to introduce myself once again—I’m Don’t ask for my return date. I have never changed this ID since I started voice acting three years ago, and I don’t intend to change it, use fake accounts, or find people to stand-in for me.”
He spoke completely at ease, to the point where the public chat seemed to freeze in silence for a moment, as if everyone got stumped by both his voice and his statement. Speaking so frankly was tantamount to openly giving a certain group of people a tight slap to the face, and it was a painful slap; so painful in fact, that they started behaving even more preposterously, throwing tantrums, still h.e.l.l-bent on proclaiming him a liar, even spamming the chat with the “organizators, investigate this” line.
Yang Chunqu had been put in an especially awkward position. From the standpoint of the organizators, as long as the person taking part in the compet.i.tion was the same throughout the whole event, it didn’t matter under what ident.i.ty they partic.i.p.ated or what ID they used.
As for the continuous pleas for the “investigation” in the channel… From her perspective as an MC appointed by the organizators, they had no meaning beside being a meaningless provocation. But keeping the order during the event was also one of her duties, so she couldn’t just completely ignore it.
She could only say, “Dear listeners, the contestants’ compet.i.tion usernames are bound to their national identification numbers but does not involve the confirmation of other usernames the contestants may have. This matter doesn’t fall under the organizators’ jurisdiction. If you have any doubts, then everyone can send an email to the compet.i.tion client service—we will sort all of them out. Now, contestant No.16, please prepare for the performance.”
Qi Jing thanked courteously, “Thank you, host.” Then, he thanked just as courteously to all of his fans, antis, as well as the general audience, “Thank you everyone for being so interested in this ID, and I hope that you will pay just as close of an attention to my following performance.”
The antis got stumped.
After the chat went back to normal, all sorts of “Tom, d.i.c.k and Harry” pa.s.sersby appeared, expressing their interest and appreciation for his approach.
Audience 1: As a mere pa.s.serby who knows nothing about what’s happening, I say… I really like that No.16! Both his words and his style are all so sharp! ╰(*°▽°*)╯
Audience 2: Just as ^^^ said. This round of compet.i.tion is so weird, so many people make so much noise; so G.o.d d.a.m.n annoying. I’ve been feeling quite uncomfortable with that since the start but held back and didn’t say a word. Those guys who have been spamming “investigate” just now really made my IQ drop. But after hearing what this contestant said, it really feels d.a.m.n good!! This type of surprising sharp tongue and what not really makes whatever good impressions I have of him break through the roof!! I’m with you~
Audience 3: Hahaha, someone dabbling in online VA pa.s.sing by… I want to say that I had heard the name “Don’t ask for my return date” before and it seems like he had really few main roles?? But I have listened to one of his works where he voice acted as a supporting character—his acting skills were great and his voice is also quite pleasant, very distinct.
Audience 4: （//////艸//////）Ah… Can I beg you for a hookup…? It’s my favourite voice type… A n.o.ble gong type, or you know…【Ahhhh, I’m getting embarra.s.sed】
Audience 5: Another insider of the online voice acting circle here. I’m not anyone’s fan, I just listen to the audio dramas without interfering into anything, but I really like listening to gossip… Return Date, I had observed the drama you got into from the sidelines and to be honest, I feel that you’re quite innocent hahahaha. It’s just a collaboration with a great G.o.d but it brought an unexpected disaster onto you. I don’t remember any gossip about you appearing before you starred in ⟪Trap⟫, you’re a very respectable and dedicated VA. All the best!
Audience 6: Replying to the one above, I also noticed that. Some haters really think everyone’s IQ is zero and just keep happily kicking up a fuss, but usually I just treat their words as a joke. “Found a stand-in”?? That joke really made me laugh out loud—even telling the guy to go act in ⟪Empress in the Palace⟫… You’re the ones who truly embody the loyal watchers of ⟪Empress in the Palace⟫, so proficient in cat-fights. ╮(￣▽￣”)╭
…
…
When he saw those comments, the pent-up emotions in his heart had disappeared without a trace, leaving him unbothered and relaxed.
There were almost twenty thousand listeners present; being able to convey what he had to say, to receive a response from so many people, had far exceeded his imagination.
Although his and Shen Yan’s situation were completely different, at that very moment, he felt as if they shared this experience.
The next 120 seconds of the countdown would be his response to these people.
To those who supported him.
To those who slandered him.
To those who observed him curiously, to everyone.
“I’m ready.”
Qi Jing heard his own voice travelling from the mic to his headphones, now a bit hot.
A/N:
_(:з」∠)_ I also don’t know why would I stop here… Probably because I don’t want to get ahead of myself with the word count, and it was just right where I stumbled on a writer’s block, en… So I just cut it there. (Oi) And to be fair, as I kept writing, I actually kinda started shipping “Marquess Shunyang” and “Emperor Chang”, what to do??
I didn’t want Kitty’s Papa and 2Yan’s character to always turn out ambiguous ahhhhhh!! …Maybe they have a special quality of making all of the characters they play ambiguous (staring in silence). Although I feel like the last line for the “Emperor Chang” by 2Yan would be an arrow in Shen Yan’s knee… _(:з」∠)_
T/N:
Lucilla: Guess who overslept and didn’t upload the chapter? CoUlDn’T Be Me…
But, but, but! Guys! I hope you have a wonderful Christmas! Thank you so much for reading EROVA and for staying with us to this day! Love ya~