This is one of my favourite chapters. I have a silly grin on my face again. Melanie, this is the scene you had been asking about.
Chapter 12 – Poached “Pearls” with Conch (3)
“Hmm… Our Toupai’s golden master really has such a nice voice.”
Out of nowhere, a familiar-sounding voice threw out this teasing sentence.
Gu Sheng was so startled she hit several wrong notes. She wanted to look over to see who had entered the chat room, but she still needed to finish off what was yet unfinished.
“Oh yes,” Dou Dou Dou Bing sighed lightly. “That vibrato sounds sooooo nice.”
“Pure and natural. No additional fancy embellishment needed.” Jue Mei Sha Yi was also slowly savoring what he was hearing. “This indeed is the voice Qiang Qing Ci loves the most.”
Gu Sheng honestly could not keep singing anymore.
She stopped abruptly and discovered that seven or eight people had actually come into her locked chat room! Furthermore… they had all been given channel administrator rights…
Wwwwk?!
Feng Ya Song?!
Dou Dou Dou Bing??!!
Fei Shao??!!
Jue Mei Sha Yi???!!!
Geng Xiaoxing???!!!
And nearly all of them were online using their mobile phones …
Gu Sheng was completely stupefied.
“Um, well … “ Feng Ya Song very, very politely explained, “Qiang Qing Ci Dada, Sheng Sheng Man Dada, I’m mortified to have disturbed your date … It was Dou Dou Dou Bing who told me to come.”
Dou Dou Dou Bing: “Fei Shao told me to come.”
Fei Shao: “It wasn’t me. Wwwwk was the one who notified me.”
Wwwwk: “I’m eating hot pot with Jue Mei right now…”
Jue Mei: “…… I’m messaging with Geng Xiaoxing on WeChat. Sheng Sheng, you get what I mean…”
Of course, nothing else needed to be said. Geng Xiaoxing was her channel’s orange horse.
She must have one by one given all of them administrator status and sold her out. T T
And then … she had ended up surrounded by a circle of onlookers.
Geng Xiaoxing, in a very grovelling tone, sent a private message to her: You know … Jue Mei asked and I didn’t dare say no.
“Sheng Sheng …” Feng Ya Song complained resentfully, “Toupai is so selfish … He kept kicking us out. I didn’t get to hear the whole song. It kept cutting in and out …”
Dou Dou Dou Bing also felt Qiang Qing Ci was being extremely unkind. “It was such a back-and-forth battle. He would kick us out nonstop, and we would come back in nonstop…… All we wanted to do was watch from the sidelines to see how Toupai has a date…”
The whole time, Qiang Qing Ci had not spoken.
Gu Sheng felt that she needed to clarify the situation. “Actually… It’s… um…” How should I say it? That Toupai asked me to sing? And so I sang? But why did Toupai ask me to sing?…… I don’t know either…
Gu Sheng was not doing well… Faced with this bunch of experienced CVs, who were all very capable of poking fun at people, this little cover singer’s responses were just too pathetic.
Thankfully, Qiang Qing Ci cleared his throat and turned on his microphone. “Sheng Sheng and I had a bet.” Qiang Qing Ci’s voice finally seemed to have completely warmed up and was back in its top form. “She lost, so she needed to sing for me.”
Um … We did? …
His unique ba.s.s voice carried over through her headphones.
Ba.s.s voice, ba.s.s voice, ba.s.s voice, ba.s.s voice. Why was there that loving, affectionate feel in it? Because his ba.s.s voice was unequaled by anyone, ah ……. Gu Sheng quietly allowed herself to indulge in his voice while, at the same time, sighing over how even Toupai’s fibs had more dramatic feel in them than the truth…
Alright … let’s just say we did.
She thought this excuse sounded rather reasonable.
“… Unrivalled Allure Toupai DaRen, next time when you make a bet, can you call me, too? I’m your diehard fan now, eh? How come this treat of getting to sing for DaRen doesn’t include me?” Dou Dou Dou Bing started to tease him again.
“Forget it.” Feng Ya Song jumped in with a “hee hee,” and reminded her, “Each time Ling Long Ti Tou records a new song, she’ll privately message Toupai. You think our perfect Toupai is lacking in songs to listen to?”
Indeed, there was always gossip to listen to when hanging out in Toupai’s inner circle of old friends.
Gu Sheng very shamelessly admitted that she really liked listening to gossip …
“Ling Long Ti Tou has the mature and strong type of voice,” Dou Dou Dou Bing mulled. “I suspect that’s not Unrivalled Allure Toupai DaRen’s style; otherwise, how come after so many years, they still haven’t hooked up? …”
“Nuh-uh. Wrong.” Jue Mei cleared his throat before continuing with a show of seriousness, “Ling Long Ti Tou is too tall. Qiang Qing Ci doesn’t like girls who are really tall …”
Fei Shao was delighting in this. “Dou Bing, it’s over for you. You’re over 170 [cm] …”
“Say any more and I’m going to fight you …” Dou Dou Dou Bing let out a couple of quiet sobs. “All the 180 men have been taken by the 160 girls … Eh? Sheng Sheng, how tall are you?”
“Me?” Gu Sheng replied honestly, “162 …”
“Oooh, Qiang Qing Ci’s ideal height …” Feng Ya Song added at the appropriate time.
Jue Mei sidled up to the microphone, unable to hold back his complaints. “Toupai and I live in the same apartment. We’re only separated by two doors. But when I wanted to listen to Sheng Sheng sing, I had to ask Sheng Sheng’s schoolmate … Oh, sigh … I’m the purple horse, but I really have no authority …”
Gu Sheng was taken aback and only now remembered that Jue Mei and Qiang Qing Ci were roommates …
It seemed the veteran members of Wanmei all had a common hobby: poke fun at Toupai…
And then Toupai would always give the same response: silence…
After knowing her for more than a month now and they had become acquainted with one another, they were starting to include Gu Sheng in the teasing. With no fans around, there were absolutely no limits to what they said, and there were all sorts of hints and alluding. Yes, this was the 2-D world, and she could treat all of those as friendly joking, but she honestly felt really embarra.s.sed. Gu Sheng very intensely felt that her skin was being rubbed down until it was getting thinner and thinner …
A commotion suddenly could be heard in the background of someone’s microphone.
Then, Wwwwk, who had not really partic.i.p.ated in the chatter, cried out, “Hey, Toupai has made an appearance.”
Jue Mei had turned on the microphone to the room, so right then, it was picking up all three of their voices. Soon, they heard Jue Mei say, “I just remembered, you finished a 36-hour shift. How come you woke up after only 3 hours of sleep? And you actually had the mood to listen to singing?” Those words must have been addressed to Toupai.
“Hungry.” Qiang Qing Ci was relatively farther away from the microphone, and his voice could only be faintly heard.
Jue Mei laughed, “All that’s left is veggie leaves. I’ll go get you another box of meat.”
Qiang Qing Ci gave a reply in acknowledgement, and then there was the sound of chairs being moved. He should be sitting at the table now? “Veggie leaves are fine. There’s still a box of shrimp in the fridge.” He paused briefly before, in an unhurried voice, he reminded the other two men, “There’s been avian flu going around lately.”
Wwwwk: “Cr*p! … Forgot about that.”
As Gu Sheng listened in on all this, she felt as if she was listening to a radio drama. Her mind instantly sketched out a picture of two men glaring angrily at Toupai while also regretting that they had eaten meat … And the other man … Mm … Toupai DaRen, his expression thick with sleepiness, was throwing shrimp in to be cooked …
“I’ll say, you three men are being rather inconsiderate,” Dou Dou Dou Bing protested. “There are three women and two men here who haven’t eaten yet …”
“How’s it inconsiderate?” Jue Mei moved closer to the microphone and reminded Dou Bing, “When Toupai is hungry, it’s scary… Let him finish eating and then we’ll keep having fun. Be good.”
Dou Dou Dou Bing gave a “hmph” but gave in. “Fine…” She was quiet for several seconds but then, out of the blue, she grew excited. “Sheng Sheng, Sheng Sheng; Toupai, Toupai; Jue Mei, Jue Mei; Feng Ya, Feng Ya. Weibo, Weibo…”
She could not even make a complete sentence…
But because she was so excited, everyone else got excited as well.
Besides gossip, the only thing that could cause Dou Dou Dou Bing to be like this was … still gossip.
Nearly everyone did the exact same action: pick up his or her phone or computer and open up Weibo.
When Gu Sheng opened up the page in the browser, her computer nearly froze.
The number of @ was astonishing.
This time, she was smarter and immediately headed over to Toupai’s Weibo …
Someone had posted one of those chain tweets that was currently a fad on Weibo:
If @QiangQingCi @JueMeiShaYi @Wwwwk are willing to repost this Weibo tweet, I will send a postcard from j.a.pan to everyone who comments below this post! If my biggest, most beloved idol @QiangQingCi reposts this! And also reveals whose voice he loves the most! I will send a box of chocolates to everyone who comments below this post!!!!
The post was tweeted three minutes ago …
Theoretically, the three people who had been @ were all in the same room having hot pot, and no one should have noticed anything.
But …
Qiang Qing Ci surprisingly… actually… used his mobile phone to repost it: Thanks for the generosity. @ShengShengMan