Something else was supposed to occur (or, more accurately, be released) on Valentine’s Day. Did you remember?
Chapter 28 – Spicy Crispy Skin Fish (6)
Dong Yiru was still in a state of exhilaration and was even scrolling through the comments for her to see. They all said the same thing, all along the lines of “My heart has shattered.” Below Mu Mu’s Weibo re-post, there was no lack of people within the entertainment circle excitedly wanting the inside gossip on what the female subject of the photograph looked like from a frontal view. Mu Mu was especially serious when he replied to a yellow-V Weibo-er who was a closer friend: Pretty. The type I like.
And then below that was another string of comments in the vein of “Is this a hint that someone wants to steal someone else’s girl ( ⊙ o ⊙)?！”
The line-up of comments was very orderly and under control…
“You know, Mu Mu is my absolute cosplayer idol. If I were not paying attention to him all the time, I would definitely have missed this. Don’t worry. It really was deleted almost instantly… Probably no one got a chance to save the photo…” Dong Yiru was still going on and on with her blah blah blah…
Gu Sheng was at a loss for words.
I need to calm down. Calm down…
That was all she could think.
She could not stay in the grocery store any longer. Fortunately, Dong Yiru was still in the middle of her work shift and did not dare talk too much with her. Gu Sheng found an excuse and ran out of there all the way home. Once she stepped in through the doorway, she saw her mother washing dishes in the kitchen. Hearing the sound of the front door, her mom turned to take a quick backwards glance. “Why are you suddenly back? Didn’t you say you weren’t coming home this week? I didn’t leave any dinner for you.”
“Mm … I went to a schoolmate’s house. It’s close to here. I came back since it was on the way.”
Mom did not say any more and simply pointed at the refrigerator. “Your dad and I are on duty to take care of your [maternal] grandma through the night. If you’re hungry, there are buns in the fridge. Get some to eat yourself.”
She answered with an “mm.”
It was good there would be no one at home, definitely good. Otherwise, if she was acting abnormal the whole night, she was sure her dad and mom would interrogate her.
She wandered back into her room and felt her own face. Burning up, so burning up. She could completely imagine how red it was. She had been teased in so many ways and so fiercely today that in retrospect, she rather admired herself for even being able to last all the way back home. T.T
Toupai…
Qiang Qing Ci…
Mo Qingcheng…
These three names combined together made up one person. And this particular person was the voice she had liked from the time she had first stepped into the entertainment circle. Back then, she did not know he could sing. Her only thought at the time was that one day, she would compose, arrange, and write the lyrics and dialogue for a storyline song, and if Toupai could deliver one or two spoken lines in it, she would feel complete.
Complete.
At that time, her thinking was so simple…
She changed into her pajamas and sat out on the little balcony of her room. Her hands unconsciously rested on her guzheng. Her heart was still beating irregularly, sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly…
She and Toupai… How had they evolved into this sort of relationship? … Was Toupai being serious, or was this just more of the teasing that was normal in the 2-D world and he just could not be bothered to clarify?
She recalled how, occasionally, a big name in the entertainment circle had hinted that she was interested in Toupai and some romance rumors had then followed-suit, but those rumors also died out very quickly. Mo Qingcheng genuinely was not someone who liked to publicly clarify or declare his opinion on anything. On the contrary, he somewhat gave the sense that he was actually dissociated from the 2-D world. With the exception of this time…
She touched her hand to her face again…
Still so hot. T.T
Was this an indication that her mind was going to spend the night drifting around in s.p.a.ce somewhere?…
Without thinking, she plucked a note on her guzheng. A “tw.a.n.g” rang out. All of a sudden, something buried in her mind was prodded out. “Shang Ye”… Today was Valentine’s Day. Toupai said he was going to post “Shang Ye” on Valentine’s Day?! Oh no, oh no! The wave after wave of comments that were going to come were just too scary. She had not figured out what she was supposed to do… But if she continued being high profile like this, she really was going to go utterly insane.
She took a deep breath, then got up from the balcony and went back to her own bed. Lying there on her stomach, she stared at her mobile phone. Given the choice between either dialing the phone number or sending a WeChat message, she decisively went with the latter option… Keeping it to that form of communication seemed to at least allow her to maintain her composure a bit more.
She thought for a moment, then decided on typing the message: Still busy?
Very quickly, a voice message was returned from the other end.
Mo Qingcheng’s voice could be heard clearly: “Wait a sec. I just finished showering. Let me put on some clothes.”
Her brain very successfully helped her conjure up an image. The next second, she was burying her face furiously into her pillow. Too, too much allowed for the imagination…
Soon, she heard her phone ring, and it was not a WeChat alert. It was an incoming phone call. Gu Sheng turned her head to the side and looked at her phone. Mo Qingcheng’s name showed up on the screen. He had actually, truly called her. Not WeChat. A phone call… Gu Sheng hesitated for a dozen seconds or so before she finally answered.
“Have you eaten dinner yet?” This was the first sentence Toupai said to her in his first phone call to her.
“Not yet…” Gu Sheng answered unthinkingly.
“I’m still at the hospital. Want to have dinner together?”
Oh G.o.d, who could give her a few pounds of courage so she could refuse Toupai for the second time in a day?
In that tranquil atmosphere of her room, she could even hear the steady sound of Mo Qingcheng’s breathing coming from her phone… She very despicably chose to ignore his question and asked about the priority that was on her mind instead. “I wanted to talk to you… because, actually, I wanted to talk about that song we recorded…”
His voice was gentle. Immediately, he understood what she was talking about. “Shang Ye?”
“Mm-hmm… Shang Ye.”
“What about it?”
“I wanted to ask, that song… could we… post it on an ordinary date instead?” As a singer, she could not bear to not release a song that she had put so much heart into recording. But if they were to post it on this particular day, she did not know if she would ever dare go online again. T.T
“Mm. Sure.”
That simple?
So… simple.
Gu Sheng was relieved.
“But we might need to change it to a different song, then,” Mo Qingcheng said with a little chuckle, “because they all know that I’m going to post something today as a gift for all of them.”
She knew, of course, the “them” he was talking about was his fans.
Right. He had promised already… so he could not go back on his word and not upload a song. Gu Sheng also felt that would be inappropriate, but… if that song was released today, she truly felt she would not be able to keep it together. Seriously, she honestly, honestly would not be able to keep it together.
“How about this? Tonight, let’s collaborate again on a new song.” Mo Qingcheng very considerately offered her another suggestion. “Do you have a song arrangement that is ready to go? Send it to me and I’ll sing it, how about that?”
“…… Okay.”
It seemed that was the only option.
Toupai was not a singer. If he was, his computer would have to have some stock songs ready, right? And he would not be caught in a bind where he wanted to change songs last minute but had nothing he could use.
“I think, in my computer… the newest one I have is ‘Jinli Chao‘ [Legend of the Koi].” She was a little embarra.s.sed to tell him this. After all, right now, the whole country was making covers of this song, and having Toupai sing it seemed… not special enough.
“Nice. We will stir-fry koi tonight.” His voice seemed to resonate slightly, and he did not mind at all. “You do the harmony?”
“…… Okay.”
She gave in and agreed. Getting up off her bed, she started to look for her new arrangement of “Legend of the Koi.” Actually, it was precisely because the whole country was making covers of this song that she had decided to also have some fun and had made an arrangement with her guzheng playing the main melody. Harmonizing… She had only tried it once or twice. As she thought about harmonizing with Mo Qingcheng, she still felt tremendous pressure weighing down upon her.
It was half an hour of hard work before she finally completed the background music.
Even when she had sent it over, she still felt uneasy…
Until…
He sent over a WeChat message: “I posted it. You can go have a listen.”
That fast?
Did he do it in a single take?!
He truly was Toupai [number one, lead attraction], indeed.
She opened up Toupai’s Weibo. Since he was still at the hospital, after he received the background music, he could only use the Changba app to record the song and then directly upload it from there. Hence, it was a very simple, clean Weibo tweet. There was no additional explanation and no one was @ either.
Gu Sheng breathed out in relief. The harmonies… People should not be able to tell it was her, right?
That would be the best situation. T.T
Only three minutes had pa.s.sed, and the Weibo post had been re-tweeted more than a thousand times.
She suddenly did not dare click on the link to listen to the song. But deep inside, she still very much wanted to immediately have a listen of Toupai’s version of “Legend of the Koi”…… In the end, she finally mustered up her courage and opened up the link.
While she was still inhaling a deep breath, she could already hear the musical introduction that she had played on her guzheng.
This song’s introduction was relatively long…
And it was with that guzheng music playing in the background that she very clearly heard Toupai use his unique, low voice to gently introduce the song: “This song is a gift from me and her to all of you. Happy Valentine’s Day.”
Toupai is playing on words and similar sounds. He said 炒锦鲤 “chao jinli”, where this “chao” means to stir-fry and “jinli” is the koi fish. The t.i.tle of the song is 锦鲤抄 “Jinli Chao.” In this case, the “chao” is a different character and is actually a j.a.panese literary style.
唱吧. A free social networking app that acts almost like a mobile karaoke machine. During singing, it will automatically record and add in built-in effects such as reverb and echo. It can then directly upload onto other social networking sites such as Weibo or QQ. Changba.com
Additional Comments:Any of you fill in images in your mind of an unclothed Toupai just out of the shower?