Chapter 23

Act IV: Billy Elliot (4)

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Yao Yin leaned against the blue sports car before the night sky, and the keychain was set on his slender fingertips, spinning in the air.

He asked with a smile: "Tan Yiming, I don't like girls, why should I send a girl home?"

His hint was so obvious that he almost put his mind on his face. He fell in love with Tan Yiming at first sight, and was even more fascinated by him, otherwise he would not have taken the initiative to introduce professional work to Tan Yiming.

This pursuit was a bit aggressive, and Tan Yiming had noticed it before. However, he didn't expect to be forced to face it tonight.

Tan Yiming hesitated for a few seconds and replied, "I’m just going to ask, what do you see in me?”

Yao Yin was full of artist spirit, persistence, perseverance, and a bit of idealization. Tan Yiming didn’t hate him, but to be honest, Yao Yin looked—even though it was rude to say—he looked like a person with a rich love history. Tan Yiming didn’t think that there was any place in his own body that was enough to attract this young man with romance in his bones.

"I have heard this joke." Yao Yin snapped his fingers. "When I say what I like about you, you will change all the places that I care about."

Tan Yiming: "..."

Yao Yin: "I am interested in your gender, you can change it."

Tan Yiming was really helpless.

He asked inquisitively: "Yao Yin, have you thought of whether I like the same sex?"

"In front of me, sexuality has never been an issue." Yao Yin shrugged. "As long as I have the thought, even a straight male nerd like George with a girlfriend will not be able to hold on for three rounds."

"..."

The young man pressed the car key. In the middle of the night, the engine roared, and the lights on the body began to light, starting from the rear wing and crawling towards the headlights, illuminating the darkness all around. The butterfly-wing doors opened upwards, and Yao Yin sat directly in the driver's seat, looking sideways at Tan Yiming.

"Get in the car, I'll take you back." Yao Yin said, "You can rest assured that I am very gentlemanly and I won't do anything to you—but if you want to do anything to me, then it’s very welcome."

Speaking to here, Tan Yiming could only sit in the car with a smile.

The electric door slowly dropped, and the night blue luxury car sprang out like an arrow.

The luxury car was full of power and could accelerate to a speed of up to 100 kilometers per hour in just a few seconds. Tan Yiming hadn't fastened his seat belt yet when his body shook backwards, and his head rested heavily on the seat. He seriously suspected that Yao Yin was taking revenge on him.

The closed compartment was very quiet. In the front passenger seat, Tan Yiming leaned and turned to look at the scenery outside the window.

In the end, Yao Yin broke the silence first.

Yao Yin asked how he felt about dubbing a film for the first time.

Tan Yiming replied: "Very tired. Too tired." He raised his hands and pinched the bridge of his nose, remembering the torture he had just suffered in the recording studio. He felt like he had been stripped of a layer of skin. “Do professional voice actors have to suffer like this?”

"That's only natural. There is no such thing as a job that can be successfully completed without effort." When it came to work, Yao Yin showed his professional side. "If I remember correctly, you're interning at an investment bank, right? Isn’t that more stressful?"

Tan Yiming replied: "It’s not the same. In the financial industry, you can make a hundred times your money by putting in ten times the effort, and the investment is directly proportional to the gain. When I work overtime in the company until midnight, I can get double overtime pay; however after working in the studio for a few hours, I didn't even make enough money to go to a better restaurant for a meal."

Revenue ceilings were found in all walks of life, and the ceiling for the commercial voice acting industry was much lower than in other industries. Even if he was at the top of the industry, the profit made in a year was not as good as a bonus he would receive in a big investment banking case.

"So, if I have a dubbing job next time, would you not do it?" Yao Yin asked him with a smile.

"..." Tan Yiming thought, ‘Yao Yin really guessed my mind too thoroughly’. "I would."

Of course he would. He liked it, he loved it, even if there were 10,000 voices in his mind telling him not to waste time on such a low-paying job, he still wanted to do it.

When he stood in front of the microphone, when he was in a silent recording studio, when he used his voice to inject soul into the character ... the organ in his chest was beating constantly.

Tan Yiming said, "I have classes on Monday morning, Thursday afternoon, and Friday morning. I have internships at other times. Only on the whole day Saturday, Sunday, and every weekday evening can I record."

Yao Yin said amusedly: "If you can only spend this time, what is the difference between doing this part-time? Most of the professional voice actors on the market are available on call 24 hours a day. If you choose your job, your job will also choose you."

"No way, I still need a serious job to support my family." Tan Yiming calmly said, "If I can also afford a million-dollar luxury car, then I will pursue my dream without worries."

They happened to stop at a red light.

Yao Yin stopped the car and turned to look at Tan Yiming.

Under the dim car interior lights, the man's facial features were covered with a gentle and ambiguous light. On appearance, Tan Yiming looked like a good gentleman with soft ears, but after a long period of contact, Yao Yin found him to be extraodinarily principled. When others advanced, he took a step back, but when he retreated to the bottom line in his heart, he was as hard as a rock, immovable.

He had an extremely calm plan for his life, and what attracted Yao Yin was this ‘different from appearances’.

Yao Yin put his arm on the steering wheel and said, "It's better to resign, I will support you."

Tan Yiming: "... Are you kidding me?"

"No, you seem to be saving money. You must be able to save more."

Tan Yiming didn't know how he saw that he was saving money.

"Thank you for your love, but you don’t have to." Tan Yiming could only say: "Yao Yin, counting this time, the number of times the two of us have met can be counted on one hand. I don't know much about you, you also don’t know my background, my experience. Without these foundations, I can’t accept your show ... show of goodwill. "

For his last words, he wanted to say ‘show of love’, but felt embarrassed to say this out loud so could only be replaced with ‘show of goodwill’.

Coincidentally, the traffic light turned green, and Yao Yin turned his head casually, releasing the handbrake and stepping on the accelerator. The car continued to move along the road.

"I see. You are the slow-burn type of romantic." Yao Yin looked at the road in front of him. "You don't accept love at first sight, you only accept love after a long time."

"That’s about it."

Since puberty, the people who had confessed to Tan Yiming had been endless, and many of them had pursued him only after meeting him a few times. He really couldn’t understand, how could someone's love could be so impulsive and quick?

His expectation for feelings was a long stream and a natural flow. An instant's sudden heartbeat was the product of hormones, and he was better at long-term planning.

Without speculation, the atmosphere inside the car cooled down again.

The dull atmosphere spread, and driving in the middle of the night made one prone to sleepiness. Yao Yin moved his finger and awakened the CD player.

A few seconds later, a slightly familiar prelude floated from the speaker.

The piano was the main melody, accompanied by six stringed instruments. In the beginning, the sleepy Tan Yiming thought that Yao Yin was listening to a concerto, but after the intro, a clear and pure male voice drifted along with the accompaniment—

“At a certain moment,

My heart’s door suddenly opened.

Heart to heart,

We met so sincerely.”

His drowsy sleepiness immediately flew away, and Tan Yiming sat upright in surprise: "This is not ..."

"Well, this is a song sung by your kid." Yao Yin glanced at the electronic screen. "It's called ‘Goodbye Rach’. It seems to be the ending of some musical. The name is quite interesting."

Previously, Tan Yiming had asked Yao Yin to help harmonize some songs for guess, and Yao Yin was able to complete it quickly with little effort.

Yao Yin quite liked the voice of guess, and the background music was still his favorite symphony. He simply put the music onto a disc and played it in the car on a loop.

"The child’s voice is pretty good." Yao Yin asked playfully. "Speaking of, what relationship do you have with him? You actually took the initiative to ask me to help, it should not be ..."

Tan Yiming didn’t think that Yao Yin would have a one-track mind. "Where did you get that from? This is a friend of mine on the Internet, he and I are from the same ... well, it's a community of interest."

"What community? Gaming community?"

"No, I can't explain it in a few words." Tan Yiming said, "He is a new member of our community. He is a very shy, innocent kid. I usually chat with him a lot.”

"Oh—" Yao Yin prolonged his voice, "—'chat with him a lot ', this sounds quite in line with your long-term love standards.”

Coincidentally, the music entered the next chapter, and the boy's singing sounded like a cry, expressing surging emotions from the bottom of his heart.

“Have you heard? Have you heard?

Those sounds you created,

Came bumping into me, bumping into my heart

Giving me guidance.

That is worth a lifetime of cherishing.

Tan Yiming: "..."

These lyrics sounded too coincidental.

It was almost ... like the boy was confessing to his idol.

Tan Yiming was shuffled a bit on the leather seat, and raised his ears subconsciously, listening to the next lyrics.

The whole song was not long and the lyrics were very simple. Because Chinese had four tones, it was actually not suitable for narrative singing, and it was prone to ambiguity. Onstage, Chinese musicals not only tested the literary skills of the lyricists, but also the clarity of the singers' syllables.

Each of the sounds coming out of the speaker were extremely accurate and carried countless emotions.

“May from now on,

You listen to your inner voice,

Let me see the scenery.

The time you and I spent together,

It is worth a lifetime of cherishing.”

The song gradually came to an end, but the boy's clear voice lingered on the ears of the two listeners.

“His singing is pretty good." Yao Yin followed the tunes gently, and his index finger beat in the air like a baton. "Is he a singer? I have a few friends who do the soundtrack of TV dramas in China and need a backup singer. It doesn’t pay much, but it's a serious job, anyway. If your kid wants to earn extra money, I can help introduce you. "

Tan Yiming: "... Why do you like to introduce people to work so much?"

The car turned off the main road and headed towards the dormitory building.

Yao Yin looked at the navigation while answering: "Because I am a person who loves flowers and cherishes them. I met a good seedling and naturally hope that he can thrive. Treat it as a rich man's habit. "

Tan Yiming understood: "So in your eyes, I am also a flower worth cultivating?"

"No." Yao Yin was serious, but the words he said were not serious at all. "I am the flower myself, and I hope you can loosen my soil."

"..."

The car quickly stopped downstairs in the dormitory. Tan Yiming unfastened his seat belt and was about to get out of the car, but was stopped by Yao Yin.

Tan Yiming thought he wanted to talk about work so he turned his head and waited.

Yao Yin said with a serious face: "Tan Yiming, in fact, this car has an unknown function, I haven't demonstrated it to you yet."

"... What function?"

"Its seat can be flattened to 180 degrees, and the space is very large, large enough for two adult men in the car to ..."

"Thank you, you're welcome." Tan Yiming pushed up the door and quickly got out of the car. "Excuse me, you still have three soundtracks to play. You are now returning, and you can finish your work at eight in the morning."

"..."

... The most exhausting thing in this world is work.

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The author has something to say: The lyrics of "Goodbye Rach" in this chapter were dictated by me, and there have been certain cuts and modifications for the plot of the novel.

The next chapter returns to Cai Cai’s perspective.

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