Chapter 244: Run in With A Liar
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
The alpaca-shaped building belonging to Mango TV in the Malan mountains was very prominent and visible from a distance.
On December 2nd, 2:00 p.m., Meng Fan, Bai Zhi, and their group arrived at a hotel near the creature-like building. The hotel was well-known for receiving celebrities.
“Tired?”
“I’m okay.”
“Get some rest, I’ll come find you at three o’clock.”
“Okay.”
After separating from Bai Zhi, Meng Fan entered his own room. Just when he put down his bags, he received a call. It was from Lou Lan.
“Iron G.o.d, You haven’t come to the studio in almost 30 hours.” Lou Lan sounded upset. “If you don’t come, I can’t even stay awake. I’m so used to working with you, everyone else just doesn’t cut it. We’ve been recording for 10 hours, and I’ve had time to nap for five of those. Ugh. How did that saying go, ‘Once someone visits the ocean, they will turn their backs on the most charming of lakes!’ I’ve gotten used to your efficiency. When I see other people, it’s like they’re s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g with me.”
“Oh stop. You didn’t complain any less when you worked with me, either.” Meng Fan smiled. “I’m out right now. If you have any work for me, just give it to someone else. I’ll be back the day after tomorrow.”
“Day after tomorrow?! Alright. I’ll save some non-urgent work for you. Sigh. I have to go, another 30 or 40 hours of suffering await me.”
After chatting, Meng Fan hung up the phone a little speechless. The big bearded guy had developed a reliance on him.
After resting for a short while, he heard a knocking on his door. When he opened it, Meng Fan was stunned for a moment. Aside from Bai Zhi, Su Qing Cen was there as well. Apparently, Su Qing Cen was at Mango TV to record an episode of “Happy Camp”. She had come to say hi after hearing from Bai Zhi that Meng Fan would be there, too.
After meeting up, the three headed towards Mango TV central. With Meng Fan’s stature next to the two celebrities, strangers would most certainly think he was their bodyguard. But of course, with Meng Fan’s level of presence, he was not a suitable bodyguard at all.
“I’ll be done soon. Once I’m finished, let’s go for late night eats!”
After interacting with Su Qing Cen for a while, her cute and playful personality naturally began to come out. The spokeswoman for the ‘domineering’ older sister trope was nowhere to be found. And she loved to eat. As soon as Changsha snacks were mentioned, it was like she was a machine, listing off all the dishes. Even Meng Fan felt hungry from listening to her.
“I don’t think I have the blessing.”
This was the second time Bai Zhi said this today. She looked sullen. “You don’t know how terrifying ‘Voice Legend’ is. Don’t mention late night snacks, I’ll be blessed if I can sleep well before tomorrow. After the script reading and the promotional materials, it will be very late. At night, there’s nothing else to do aside from endless practice and rehearsal.”
Bai Zhi was already familiar with the strictness of the show from the previous season. The program had selected several clips to dub over, and it took a lot of time to be fully prepared for all of them. Plus, they were working with the number one voice acting a.s.sistant in the country, who was extremely demanding. Last time, she stayed up all night to meet his requirements.
She could only sigh sadly at Su Qing Cen’s irresistible suggestion. “If you’re still here tomorrow, we can grab late night food after our shoot wraps up. Otherwise, you can only go alone. Hmmph. Especially tonight; don’t expect to see us!”
“That’s so pitiful! Then I can only go by myself. Don’t worry, I’ll take pictures for you guys.”
Su Qing Cen batted her eyes at Meng Fan and Bai Zhi playfully, then turned towards the recording room of “Happy Camp.”
Meng Fan and Bai Zhi approached the set of “Voice Legend”. Coincidentally, they just happened to meet Prince Zhang Xiao whose acting skills can be likened to performing plastic surgery.
Prince Zhang Xiao and Bai Zhi had collaborated previously, but there weren’t many opposing scenes. The two weren’t familiar, and only nodded at most in greeting. At most, they would utter a few words of small talk out of courtesy.
The guest star Prince Zhang Xiao invited was Huang Yi, also known as the National Daughter-in-Law. The two had cooperated previously in some TV series and films, and had a great personal relations.h.i.+p. In addition, she had a great relations.h.i.+p with Mango TV. She arrived immediately after receiving the invitation.
Bai Zhi wasn’t familiar with Prince Zhang Xiao, but she was close to Huang Yi. It had been a while since they last saw each other. As soon as they met, they immediately began to chatter endlessly. Their laughter filled the conference room.
Seeing that the two women were not going to stop anytime soon, Prince Zhang Xiao took the initiative and turned to Meng Fan, offering his hand. Smiling, he greeted him: “h.e.l.lo, I know you, Iron Hero.”
“h.e.l.lo Mr. Prince, I’m your fan.”
Meng Fan pulled out the copy of “Unreliable Actors Say If” that he’d asked sister Sun to prepare and handed it over. Smiling, he said: “Can I get your autograph?”
Seeing his own book, Prince Zhang Xiao beamed even wider. He received the pen and signed it in a few strokes, even adding a personalized message.
After the two women finished their banter, the two groups of guests took turns reading their scripts with their a.s.signed producers. The script was simple and only needed a quick run through since there weren’t many corrections to make. The errors that needed addressing could be done during recording anyway. Afterwards, they moved into shooting the marketing and promotional materials.
The promotional photos and videos were simple as well. Even though Meng Fan had no experience in acting, he was still able to follow the photographer’s guidance. The effect of the shoot had surprised the photographer several times. He’d looked up to a.n.a.lyze Meng Fan several times. For a photographer who was sensitive to subtle changes, Meng Fan was almost mystical. He was way too photogenic!
Regardless if it was his temperament or his facial feature, it’s as if they were all levelled up!
“Done?”
“Done.”
“Thank you. Sorry for the trouble.” Meng Fan had never done such a thing before, and felt out of place. He finally let out a sigh of relief after changing back into his original clothes. He asked for directions to the washroom and hurried over.
“Huh? Fan!”
While Meng Fan was still shaking, a person appeared in the stall next to him. Halfway through his business, he called out Meng Fan’s name. He then said “I’m busy” and hung up the call he’d just been in.
Meng Fan turned his head and froze for a moment, too. “How unlucky am I to run into you in the toilet.”
“Stinky brat, what are you saying!” Tao Dong Li gave Meng Fan an unhappy glare. “Are you that unwilling to see me?”
“You’re a liar, why would I want to see you!” Meng Fan closed his fly and headed to the sink, suspiciously eyeing the guy. “What are you doing here?”
“I came down for a meeting.” Tao Dong Li finished up and approached the sink as well. Smiling, he said: “What are you doing here? Let me guess, you’re attending some reality show, right? You’ve been pretty busy lately, huh? Are you trying to break into the entertainment industry? Do you need me to help with anything?”
“Hold up. I’m here to help Bai Zhi, don’t meddle with me.” Meng Fan immediately turned off the sink and wiped his hands on a paper towel. “You’re a liar and that’s a fact. I won’t forget what you did to me anytime soon.”
“You stinkin’ brat, why do you have to be so sensitive! It’s already been a dozen years and you’re still holding onto it. I only sold you a fake anime figurine, why are you so angry?”
Meng Fan’s eyes widened. “Fake figurine? Is that really all? Do you know how many people laughed at me when I showed off my Batman figure in Spiderman’s underwear? You even told me it was brought from abroad and told me how amazing Batman was! Do you know what childhood trauma is?!”
Tao Dong Li heard this and began to laugh. “Didn’t you take it to fool Xiao Shan as well? Count it even!”
Hearing his nephew’s name, Meng Fan’s face finally cleared up. He asked for some videos and photos from Tao Dong Li, but he remained firm. “Even? Not in this lifetime. The figurine is no big deal, but the most important thing is that you cheated my sister from us. You promised you guys would return to Wenzhou after graduating college, hehe, but the two of you ran off to America instead! I couldn’t see my sister for years! And even later, you promised you’d return to Wenzhou again, but you went to Beijing instead. Now, I can barely see my sister twice a year.”
Meng Fan had four older sisters in his family and only his oldest uncle’s daughter, Meng Cai Ju, was the gentle type. The other three were as crazy and demonic as it got. Meng Cai Ju was almost 10 years older than Meng Fan, and Meng Fan relied on her heavily as a child. When she got married, Meng Fan was still a child. In addition to many things, including the fake figurines, Meng Fan had regarded his older brother-in-law as the biggest liar in the world.
After growing up, Meng Fan naturally learned the way of things. He was now used to interacting like this with him, and n.o.body bothered correcting him.
“I’m going back to Beijing tonight. You wanna come with me?”
“I’m still busy here. I’ll come visit when I’m free.”
“Then I’ll buy you dinner before you leave?”
“I don’t think I can make it. You can go about your own business.”
“Wait, take a photo for your sister. You’ve lost a lot of weight since last time, haven’t you?”
“You think I haven’t video chatted with her?”
The two left the washroom and chatted for a while before separating. Meng Fan headed to find Bai Zhi. Tao Dong Li turned around to a quieter area to answer his phone call. There were some important issues mentioned before their meeting got interrupted that he had to confirm.
When Meng Fan arrived in Bai Zhi’s booth, she was still in the process of filming.
“You’re done so fast?”
“Mine was simple.”
Ten minutes later, Bai Zhi completely wrapped up her film set. She quickly changed out of her clothes and makeup and was brought to the practice room by a crew member.
They arrived on set, but the voice acting producer hadn’t. The editor took out some voice clips and told Meng Fan and Bai Zhi to select one.
The annual finale of “Voice Legend” was organized as a one-on-one showdown, where the eight winning actors and their guests would separate into four groups to compete.
The procedure was simple.
First up was a vocal show of the celebrity contestants. During recording, both of them had to record a dubbing. The final broadcast will be one of the clips, where some of the guest star’s clips will not be broadcasted at all. This depended on whether the guest star was famous enough or good enough.
Once the individual voice clips were completed, it would be the contestant’s and the guest star’s collaboration stage. They also recorded two clips, where the clip that has better overall dramatic effect will be chosen for broadcast.
Lastly, it was the directors test. The two voice clips from each group performed according to the director’s request will be edited, and then broadcasted to the audience to determine the winners.
After the four groups compete, the audience will then decide the final winner.
Some of the selected voice clips had been prepared by Bai Zhi herself, while the rest were prepared by the crew. Meng Fan could have prepared his own clips as well, but he arrived too late to do so.
“Fan, take a look. If there’s none that you like, or something you really want to dub, you can let the program organizers know.”
Meng Fan looked at the prepared voice clips. To him, they were all too easy.