Chapter 8
The so-called explosion of male hormones was no doubt referring to voices like that of Bronze Sparrow Terrace.
In a channel where the female population accounted for 99% of the audience, the moment those words left his lips, all of his fans virtually ascended to the heavens.
As possibly the only male present aside from Bronze Sparrow Terrace, Qi Jing was feeling a lot of pressure.
Before Bronze Sparrow Terrace did a career change, he had done some dubbing for commercials. The quality of his voice was very similar to that of broadcasters at the TV station. For Qi Jing who worked at a TV station, having to listen to voices like that every day has made him immune to it over the years. However, he couldn’t deny that with a voice like that, Bronze Sparrow Terrace truly had the right to be called a Great G.o.d.
“You’re Don’t ask for my return date, right?” Bronze Sparrow Terrace asked, one could hear the smile in his voice. The tone of his voice was gentlemanly to the max, any baritone voice-con would never be able to resist him.
Qi Jing responded with a professional smile both in person and with an emoticon.
If he had known better, he wouldn’t have acted cute just now. He didn’t expect Bronze Sparrow Terrace to hear it—it was basically the darkest part of all his dark histories.
Some of the fans appeared to be deeply upset about Bronze Sparrow Terrace’s attention being placed on Qi Jing as they all clamoured for him to take notice of them by sending messages that read: Look over here, Bronze Sparrow-sama!
As an expert at appeasing the fans, naturally, Bronze Sparrow Terrace responded to their calls, “I’m sorry for being late and causing you to wait, my lovely ladies. Allow me to sing a song to compensate you guys for the delay, alright?”
Naturally, the fans would be a-ok with it.
However, the members of the《Trap》Production Crew might now be as ok with it.
As an experienced veteran, Ning Xiaoxiao directly sent Qi Jing a message on QQ telling him to come back in an hour. At first, he was confused by her message, after all, he had never heard of a song that was sixty minutes long. However, after he decided to quietly sit through and wait for Bronze Sparrow Terrace to be done with his singing, he knew he had made the wrong decision when he saw the time displayed at the lower right corner of the screen. It was past 9.20 PM.
So it turned out that “a song” actually meant “more than a song”.
Qi Jing felt like he was being ignorant again.
However, Bronze Sparrow Terrace’s singing truly proved that he was worthy of being crowned a Great G.o.d. It was still pretty enjoyable to listen to even after listening to it for more than sixty minutes. And while he sang, he also took some time to chat with the fans and catch up on the gossip.
When the time had pa.s.sed 9.30 PM, the ever so kind and considerate Xiao Qiao reminded Bronze Sparrow Terrace that he still had run-through arranged that night, thus, the fans request for “one more song” was politely declined. And the concert mode was changed to free speech mode. Bronze Sparrow Terrace politely asked of the fans not to turn on their mics and the ones allowed to turn on their mics were the crew members, Da Qiao and Xiao Qiao.
Qi Jing finally had the opportunity to say his second sentence of the night.
“Nice to meet you, Bronze Sparrow Terrace-sama, I am Don’t ask for my return date. Thank you for taking the time to show up for the run-through tonight and thank you for helping with regarding that post.”
“Haha, there’s no need to be so polite. Since it was just a misunderstanding, it’s good that it was cleared up.”
Bronze Sparrow Terrace didn’t seem to think too much about the post as he continued, “Well then, let’s get started. May I ask what are the scenes that the crew is planning on going through?”
“Uh, can we run through everything?” Knives cutting in from four corners asked.
“You want to go through everything?” Bronze Sparrow Terrace sounded rather surprised by the director’s words.
“Is that really necessary? Isn’t that a waste one time to have to run through everything and record it from the top again.” The sound designer, A lifetime’s lock, had a lot of confidence in Bronze Sparrow Terrace’s sense of play.
“But we were able to…” go through everything the other time.
Knives cutting in from four corners almost slipped up and told them about the time where they brought Geese Fly North in as a subst.i.tute. Luckily, Qi Jing cut into their conversation just in time before she could say the username Geese Fly North.
“Why don’t you just pick a few key scenes for us to rehea.r.s.e, Director? You’re fine with that right, Ms. Rouge?”
“Yep, yep, just pick a few scenes Knives cutting,” Rouge Flower hurriedly concurred.
Knives cutting in from four corners fell silent. In the end, she had no choice but to follow the wishes of the majority and send the lines for the scene in the private room to the Qiao sisters so that they could pin it to the announcements.
According to the novel, this was the scene where the two characters had their first physical interaction. It could be considered the main event in the development of their relationship. It was really a test of the CVs’ skills, their control of emotions, and the subtle changes in tone.
“Well then, I shall begin,” Bronze Sparrow Terrace said, like a gentleman inviting others to dance, he cued his partner by taking the first step. A Great G.o.d truly was a Great G.o.d. Every action he took was oozing with grace and elegance.
“Please,” Qi Jing replied politely.
In the next instant, a thick and powerful baritone voice, slowly recited the lines that Qi Jing was so very familiar with.
“I knew from the very beginning that everything you did was a scheme against me.”
In an instant, it felt like something in the air had snapped.
Qi Jing felt his body stiffen suddenly.
And not just his hearing, it felt like all five of his senses had shut down. It felt like something was buzzing in his mind, but other than that it completely blanked out.
However, contrary to how he felt inside, the atmosphere in the channel had reached the boiling point, escalating from 0 to 100 in a moment’s time.
“Oh my! Bronze Sparrow Terrace sounded so domineering when he read his line! So emperor-like!” As someone with the privilege of using the voice chat, Xiao Qiao couldn’t help but rush to be the first to express her admiration for him. She then playfully scolded by Da Qiao to keep quiet during the run-through.
The fact was, the number of crews that request for Bronze Sparrow Terrace to do a live rehearsal barely made up a handful. Those that specially came to his personal channel for a read-through were even more of a minority.
Since Xiao Qiao was someone who was usually only interested in listening to him sing or the final product of the audio dramas, this was the first time she heard her idol recite his lines live. It’s not the like the crew couldn’t understand why she would lose herself in the moment.
When even the president of the fan club was reacting this way, needless to say, the rest of the fans went crazy in the chat.
Fan 1: o(*////▽////*)q Oh G.o.d!! That was beautiful!! Bronze Sparrow is too amazing!!
Fan 2: (/≥▽≤/)(/≥▽≤/)(/≥▽≤/) Aaaaah my ears are gonna get pregnant!!!!
Fan 3: (*ﾟ▽ﾟ*)╭(*ﾟ▽ﾟ*)╭(*ﾟ▽ﾟ*)╭ An emperor Gong that I’ll be pushing for life!!
Fan 4: (╭￣3￣)╭♡ I love you, Bronze Sparrow-sama!!
Fan 5: (╭￣3￣)╭♡ I love you, Bronze Sparrow-sama!!【Strongly maintaining the formation】
Fan 6: (╭￣3￣)╭♡ I love you, Bronze Sparrow-sama!!【Sisters below please also maintain the formation】
…
Meanwhile, Qi Jing was still frozen in his place.
“Ah…” He finally made a sound after some time, but he didn’t know what to say next.
“Return date-sama?”
He probably paused for too long as the producer, Rouge Flower, hurriedly called out to him, prompting him to continue.
The director, on the other hand, was the same as him, she didn’t make any reaction either.
After around two full minutes of the fans reveling in Bronze Sparrow Terrace’s charming voice, they finally realised that Qi Jing hadn’t said his line. And so the fans all started teasing him.
Fan 1: o(*≧▽≦)ツ Shou-kun isn’t saying anything. Are you shy??
Fan 2: o(*≧▽≦)ツ He must be shy!
Fan 3: o(*≧▽≦)ツ Was Shou-kun also absolutely killed by Bronze Sparrow’s Emperor-cla.s.s Gong voice??
Fan 4: o(*≧▽≦)ツ It’s ok, we understand! Bronze Sparrow-sama’s voice is just too good!【Covers face bashfully】
Fan 5: o(*≧▽≦)ツ Little Shou, was it because you felt like Bronze Sparrow-sama shot his way into your heart that you became too shy to say anything??
Fan 6: o(*≧▽≦)ツ Hahahaha as expected of our all-rounded Gong, Bronze Sparrow-sama!!
…
Qi Jing’s eyes were wide open the entire time. He finally blinked at the screen after what felt like half a day.
He was still feeling as if his brain had short-circuited. It was as if he had just woken up. He patted on his cheeks blankly in an attempt to come back to reality.
It’s wrong.
It’s all wrong—
The scene in the private room was before they revealed their ident.i.ties and lowered their guard against each other. Which meant that they were still on opposing sides.
Although they had an appreciation for each other, the policeman was still an upright person. When he found out that he had been used by the Mafia, and especially by someone he was quite fond of, he should be feeling depressed, lost, and angry.
That line shouldn’t be said with such a calm and composed tone like he was in total control of the situation—
The way he handled the emotions was lacking some fire.
As for the character Qi Jing was voice acting as, he was someone who had been living in the underworld for a long time and had slight s.a.d.i.s.tic tendencies. And such a person would want to exert such tendencies on the person he likes. When he saw the anger and hopelessness on the policeman’s face, he did feel a sense of guilt. However, he was unwilling to show it, instead, he covered it up with a frivolous smile. And the two characters had their first bedding scene through partial seduction and partial coercion by Qi Jing’s character.
Bronze Sparrow Terrace’s voice was already very charismatic to begin with. It made it easy to give people the impression that he was the one in control, like the one who was being held prisoner was Qi Jing’s character and not the policeman.
“I know that you’re scheming against me, but unfortunately, everything you did was in vain.”
That was how it sounded like with the way he handled the line.
Which was why it’s wrong.
It sounded wrong.
Once the CV who started first set the tone for the scene, it was very difficult for the other CV to try to change it.
Qi Jing had read through the script countless times, he could basically recite his line off the top of his head so it should’ve been a piece of cake for him to say his lines. However, right now, he had no idea how to follow up to Bronze Sparrow Terrace’s line.
There were two things on his mind.
Firstly, he probably wouldn’t be able to overwhelm Bronze Sparrow Terrace if he used his normal voice.
Secondly, if he used the voice that was most faithful to how the character was supposed to be, it wouldn’t fit in with what Bronze Sparrow Terrace had done at all.
It was as if he had a game of chess placed in front of him and after he had thought long and hard about his every move, someone overturned the board and restarted the game, forcing him to make his next move instantly.
“Return date, you should say your lines,” the director who had been silent this whole time also spoke up.
“Don’t you dare say that you lost connection just not. It’s a rare chance that Bronze Sparrow is free, you better not waste everyone’s time,” Da Qiao said. As a person who had never seen how crews do run-throughs, she was upset at Qi Jing so she arbitrarily used her voice chat privilege to urge Qi Jing.
“I’m fine with it, Return date might be too nervous, please give him some time to adjust, ladies,” Bronze Sparrow Terrace chuckled.
Sure enough, this gesture won the praise of his little fans. They all complimented him for being gentle, considerate, and caring towards a newcomer. Though what most people here didn’t know was that, Qi Jing had actually entered the circle even earlier than Bronze Sparrow Terrace.
Qi Jing quietly readjusted his state of mind while sitting in front of the computer. He closed his eyes for three seconds and when he reopened them, he took a good look at his lines once again.
With things as such, he could only try to coordinate with the other party to the best of his ability.
“Despite knowing it’s a trap, you still jumped right into it——doesn’t that mean that you’re interested in me?”
Qi Jing tried to lower his voice to make the most Gong voice that he could in order to make himself sound more imposing.
However, as a result of changing the tone of his voice, the flirtatious feeling was reduced while the intimidating feeling increased. That was the adjustment he made to steer the atmosphere of the scene back as close to how the interaction between the two characters was described in the book.
In this way, it didn’t sound as awkward anymore, did it?
“No, that’s not right,” the sound designer interjected to rebuke Qi Jing before the director could even give any comments.
Her words stunned him and he paused once again.
“That voice you did just now was too Gong. It’s too tough and wasn’t compatible with Bronze Sparrow’s voice at all.” The sound designer was referring to when she puts their recordings together in post-production.
As soon as the remark left her mouth, Da Qiao and Xiao Qiao also chimed in words of agreement in the background.
Bronze Sparrow Terrace chuckled and pointed out teasingly, “You sound a little stiff. You can try relaxing your vocal cords a little, there’s no need for you to make your voice sound so Gong. Besides, isn’t this supposed to be a scene of pa.s.sion? Your voice is certainly very s.e.xy. I think the Gong would like it more, if you made the tone a little more seductive.”
“Pfft, how could you say it out so directly, Bronze Sparrow-sama? Although that’s how I felt as well,” the sound designer praised him vigorously.
“Hahaha…”
The fans seemed to be in a frenzy as well as they spammed the chat with bashful emoticons. What’s worse, fans were sending in uniformed messages requesting for a more seductive voice.
Rouge Flower’s indicator light remained grey as she kept quiet. She was rather p.r.o.ne to backing off when faced with a tense situation with differing views.
Instead, it was the director, Knives cutting in from four corners, who cleared her throat to regain everyone’s attention.
“Sorry to interrupt, but this work is indeed about two strong leads. Thus, I personally think that the voice Return date did just now was fine.”
Da Qiao disagreed, “Even if both the leads are strong, there should be a clear distinction as to who is the Gong and Shou. Plus, isn’t his character supposed to be a temptress Shou? His voice should be more seductive, if it’s too Gong, it doesn’t sound alluring at all.”
And Xiao Qiao seconded her words, “Honestly most people prefer cute and adorable Shou voices. But if a tougher Shou voice is required by the plot, they could accept it as well if it was less Gong.”
The atmosphere instantly dropped below the freezing point for a moment.
In the end, Rouge Flower was forced to come out to act as a mediator. She cautiously offered her suggestion, “Return date-sama, can you make your voice a little less Gong. Just a little bit will be fine.”
Qi Jing had no choice but to readjust his voice.
“Is this better? I dropped it from 0.7 to 0.6.”
“It still feels a little off.” This time it was Bronze Sparrow Terrace personally made the comment, seemingly intrigue by Qi Jing’s gentle temperament after turning off that strong aura.
“What about now?” Qi Jing lowered it again from 0.6 to 0.5. If he made it any more Shou, he reckoned that even he himself wouldn’t be able to take it.
“Yeah, isn’t this much better?” Bronze Sparrow Terrace laughed, “It sounds very seductive.”
Qi Jing could only laugh along.
The onlooking fans were more used to the stereotypical strong Gong and weak Shou, so they all felt that the adjustments that Qi Jing made were good. In fact, many fans even took to the chat to say that the voices would sound a lot better now when it’s put together after the change, saying that there was a clear distinction between Gong and Shou now.
Then, they also demanded for Qi Jing to sound more alluring.
The first time Qi Jing heard of such a request was when he was voice acting in another drama. However, he was voicing as the Gong at the time and the request was something the director made of the Shou. And if memory served him right, that was a story about moneyboys.
Alright, since the protagonist in《Trap》runs nightclubs, as long as he completely threw the original cold-hearted, Mafia boss characterisation to the back of his mind, he supposed he could make himself sound a little more amorous.
“Despite knowing it’s a trap, you still jumped right into it… Doesn’t that… mean that you’re interested in me?” Yep, a little more amorous.
“I am indeed getting more and more interested in you,” Bronze Sparrow Terrace chuckled. That was a line from the script, but his own comment.
“Thank you,” Qi Jing replied while trying to maintain his professional smile as much as possible.
However, the fans could no longer keep their calm in the chat. Such suggestive words by Bronze Sparrow Terrace had caused quite an uproar.
Fan 1: ╰(*°▽°*)╯Bronze Sparrow actually said he was interested in Return date-kun!! Is this the sign of a new JQ hahaha~
Fan 2: Σ( ° △°|||)︴What about your little Shou, Noodles?? You can’t be such a playboy, Bronze Sparrow-sama!!
Fan 3: Σ( ° △°|||)︴You can’t be such a playboy +1
Fan 4: Σ( ° △°|||)︴You can’t be such a playboy +2【Although I enjoy NP as well, facepalm】
Fan 5: Σ( ° △°|||)︴That’s right, Crossing the bridge noodles is actually my second life’s core… But I quite like Return date-sama’s voice as well… What do I do, I’m so conflicted!!
…
…
…
Qi Jing felt like the speed at which he was writing his dark histories had increased by a hundredfold tonight.
Just as those thoughts crossed his mind, he received notifications of the director sending him several QQ messages through the production crew group chat flashing at the bottom right corner of his screen. The first sentence that reflected in his eyes when he opened her messages drew a laugh out of him.
From the group “《Trap》Production Crew”—
Director – Knives cutting in from four corners: = = I dare not say it in front of everyone but when you were trying to adjust that first line to match his I was. .h.i.t with the image of an adulterer and a prost.i.tute rolling in the sheets.
Director – Knives cutting in from four corners: I’m really speechless… This is why I didn’t want to PIA with fans around.
Director – Knives cutting in from four corners: Return date-sama, your performance today was also not up to standard, but I can understand why…
Qi Jing admits that he wasn’t really performing well tonight. Perhaps it was because he hadn’t found the way to properly match with the way the other lead chose to play the character.
Furthermore, it might have been because the previous run-through left such a deep impression on him that he couldn’t get it out of his mind.
CV – Don’t ask for my return date: I’m sorry, it’s probably because I’ve been brainwashed by Grandpa’s voice. I’ll do my best to adjust accordingly.
Director – Knives cutting in from four corners: …
Director – Knives cutting in from four corners: …
Director – Knives cutting in from four corners: … Sigh, to be honest, I’ve been brainwashed by Grandpa too.
His typing movement froze when he saw the director’s message in the chat window and subconsciously let out a sigh. The two of them fell silent for a while.
Then, the director sent a new message: Return date, I have a few words on my mind but I don’t know whether I should say it out.
Lilies: Yeh, Qi Jing was killed, by how s.h.i.tty Bronze Sparrow Terrace was :>
Wanted to stab him and his fans when I read this chapter and that feeling only intensified when I’m translating.