Chapter 31

Act V: Avenue Q (3)

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Yao Yin's pajamas didn't fit well, with the pants and sleeves rolled up several times. He raised his hand and stretched his waist lazily, exposing a beautiful collarbone.

Tan Yiming's gaze involuntarily stayed on his fair skin for a while, but quickly shied away.

He stared, "Your pajamas ..."

"What's wrong?" Yao Yin looked down at the old-fashioned checkered pajamas he was wearing. "George took it out of his closet and said that it had just been washed."

When he said this, his eyes became alert. The young man carefully lifted his collar with his fingers and brought it to his nose, hesitating and carefully smelling it again—Yao Yin breathed a sigh of relief: "It's fragrant, smells like detergent."

"Yes, it has just been washed." Tan Yiming said, "Xiaorui visited the dorm a few days ago. In order to leave a good impression on her, George cleaned the dorm inside out several times and threw out eight bags of trash. His laundry card was maxed out."

"That should be it." Yao Yin shrugged. "It was inconvenient for me to sit on the rug in jeans to play games, so he turned over his pajamas."

Yesterday, Nintendo released the new work Legend of Zelda. Yao Yin tripled the price and snatched a set from the market, and immediately rushed to clear the game with George. Because it was late, Yao Yin did not return home, instead opting to play with George well into the night.

Now, Yao Yin had faint dark circles under his eyes. He was holding a cup of black coffee in his hand and pouring it down his throat like he was drinking plain water.

On the table was a bowl of steaming congee with preserved eggs and lean meat, along with a few refreshing side dishes. Cut fruit was placed on a dish with a few buttered slices of bread stacked beside it.

"..." Tan Yiming was a little surprised. "You've made all this?"

"How is that possible?" Yao Yin held up his beautiful hands that looked like works of art. "I am an artist. These hands are used to play the piano, thank you."

"..." Tan Yiming thought faintly. Ten minutes ago, he seemed to hear the doorbell. "These are the takeaways you've ordered? How much, we’ll split with you."

But Yao Yin shook his head: "No need for money."

"You don’t have to be polite. You've ordered takeaway for me and George as well, so we should share in the cost."

"I really don't need money," said the young man. "This was prepared by my chefs, and the butler drove it over. The money is already paid for in their wages and it is clear."

"..." Okay, sorry, he underestimated the power of money.

"But I didn't expect your place to be so broken down." Yao Yin complained. "As soon as the sun set, the room was as cold as a refrigerator. George had wanted to turn on the electric heater, but as a result, the electricity tripped as soon as it was plugged in. Our two hours of hard work on the game was unsaved and disappeared, just like that."

Tan Yiming was quite used to the electrical outage: "The dormitory allocated by the school is like this, although it is small and shabby, it is very cheap and suitable for poor students like us. In fact, shouldn’t you have a special game room in your house? Why didn’t you just call George directly to go to your home? He would definitely have been happy to play games in a  warm cozy environment.

Yao Yin unexpectedly put down his coffee and stared at him with a smile.

"Tan Yiming, are you really stupid or pretending to be stupid?" Yao Yin raised his eyebrows. "If it wasn't for an excuse to enter your house, why would I, a ‘So-dog’ play Zelda with George, a ‘Nindo’???"

A So-dog is a fan of Sony [T/N: Playstation]; a nindo is a fan of Nintendo; the fans of both parties get into fights when meeting, and they all feel that their game is No.1, more superior than the other. Last night, Yao Yin endured the burden of humiliation and went deep in the enemy territory. This felt no less wrong than LeBron James making fun of Kobe, or Manchester United fans cheering for Liverpool.

Yao Yin thought that he had sacrificed too much to chase a man. He not only spent money and time, but also betrayed his beliefs.

He had worked so hard, if he can't catch Tan Yiming, he would really doubt his own charm.

"..." Tan Yiming was silent.

Before getting to know Yao Yin, there were other boys who had expressed their favor to Tan Yiming. However, after Tan Yiming refused, they would not entangle again.

But Yao Yin was full of tenacity, fully grasping the offensive pace and taking initiative. And the most commendable point was that Yao Yin never mixed personal feelings with his work. The two often met in the recording studio, but no colleague knew that Yao Yin was pursuing him.

All this had caused Tan Yiming to feel subtle guilt, like if he did not accept Yao Yin, he would commit the evilest and unforgivable sin.

But the problem was that when Tan Yiming looked at Yao Yin, he really lacked that heart-racing feeling.

After seeing Tan Yiming retreat, Yao Yin changed the subject with interest.

"How are you spending the Spring Festival?" Yao Yin said, "Returning to China?"

"Not going back." Tan Yiming breathed a sigh of relief at the changed of subject. "The company does not have vacations, and even if I did take a vacation, the ticket to go back would be too expensive."

It was said that during holiday seasons, one often thought of their relatives. After being in the United States for so many years, Tan Yiming did not return home during the Spring Festival. He used to have no money when he was studying, but now he had work, he couldn't spare the time. This was the dilemma  of ordinary international students.

Tan Yiming asked: "How about you? Are you going home?" Whether it was money or time, it was something that Yao Yin could afford.

"No," Yao Yin shrugged. "My parents signed up for a touring group during the Spring Festival, so I won't go back and make trouble."

"That is pretty good." Tan Yimin’s eyes lit up. This year he worked two jobs alone, and saved a lot of money in his hands. Otherwise, he should also apply for a Spring Festival touring group for the old couple? "Where are your parents going to play? Europe? Australia?"

With the wealth of the Yao family, they would definitely not travel around China.

"Oh," Yao Yin said slowly. "Antarctica."

"..."

"It is a tour group run by my dad and friends, and they can still add people now. Why, do you want to give a post to uncle and aunt?" Yao Yin said readily, "I don't need the money, just treat it as respect to elders."

"... Thank you. I think they are good staying in China."

※

With the approach of the Spring Festival holiday, the campus of Huawu Academy gradually emptied out.

In addition to Xiang Cai, three other boys remained for the Spring Festival. For convenience of management, the school gathered the four of them in one dorm.

Those three children were younger than Xiang Cai. Huawu Academy was a six-year program and one could enter school at the age of 11. The three boys were so excited when they heard that they could live with the legend of the school, they didn't know where to put their hands and feet.

Xiang Cai became a big brother for the first time, and was actually more helpless than his younger roommates.

The several people were somewhat restrained at first, but they soon became familiar. Two of the children came from remote mountain areas. In order to save money, they stayed in school during the Spring Festival and secretly went outside to find a job distributing leaflets. There was also a child whose parents were in a divorce lawsuit, and each parent found a sweetheart outside. No one wanted this oil bottle and simply entrust him to school.

Seeing their struggles, Xiang Cai suddenly felt that those things he had encountered weren't so bad.

They were curious about the Musical Theatre Department, and kept asking him questions.

Xiang Cai took them to the audio-visual classroom, showed them classic musicals, and taught them to sing.

Unexpectedly, the school's computer actually stored their semester final exam video materials on it. At the begging of the others, Xiang Cai shyly turned out his exam videos and showed it to them. When they saw Xiang Cai playing two roles and singing "Goodbye Rach" with the melodious accompaniment, their three jaws dropped.

One child said, "Xiang Cai, musicals are so interesting! Can I switch to Musical Theatre?"

The other two boys did not want to be outdone, raising their hands and clamoring to change departments.

"I want to be a musical actor too!"

"I want to be as powerful as my brother."

"When school starts, I'll ask the class teacher ..."

Xiang Cai never thought that he would one day inspire other people's dreams and become their ‘role model’.

Dancing was very good, singing was also very good; ballet was very good, and musical theatre was also very good. Xiang Cai had unknowingly fallen in love with this profession, and he knew that one day in the future, he would definitely stand on that stage.

...

By the 30th, the last day of the year, the entire campus became extremely quiet. Except for the security guards on inspection, there were only homeless wild dogs and wild cats.

After another heavy snowfall last night, the temperature dropped to minus ten degrees, and the water pipes in the boys' dormitory were frozen and burst. No repairman could be found in this weather. Xiang Cai could only ask the dorm auntie for a small pot of water and wiped his hands, feet, and face.

The dorm auntie went home at night to celebrate the New Year, and would not return to work until the third day of the new year.

Before leaving, the dorm auntie left the key of the computer room to them—boys this age, if one didn't pay attention, they would go over the wall and go to the Internet cafe outside! It would be better to open the school computer room to them in advance, so they don't leave the school gates, ensuring their safety.

The other three boys had happily long gone online already. The dormitory was cleaned up and Xiang Cai was left alone. After eating dumplings in the cafeteria, he strolled to the vocal room.

At nine o'clock tonight, the Voice of Jiuxiao Spring Festival would start, and the president said that there was expected to be seven to eight thousand listeners. Xiang Cai had never sung a song in front of so many people. He was very nervous, worried that he wouldn’t perform well and discredit the community.

But he was even more worried that he was dragging Qingyun's hind legs: after all, this was the Great God's "first time as shou", and a "shou" to himself, to boot!


Xiang Cai still felt it was incredible surreal even now when he looked back. 

They had practiced "If You Were Gay", many times in private. In order to express the characteristics of the characters, Wang Qingyun deliberately raised his voice to be very high, twisted, and stiff-mouthed, so clumsily cute.

Xiang Cai was shocked when he heard this voice for the first time, which was very different from his original voice. Even Xiang Cai, a senior fanboy, almost didn't believe this voice was from the same person.

"I learned this technique from my seniors in the recording studio." Wang Qingyun explained with a smile. "Otherwise I would not be confident to take on this task."

Wang Qingyun explained a lot, what vocal cords, mouth, mouth shape, chest, abdominal cavity, or something ...

It was a pity that Xiang Cai wasn’t listening to his words over the radio wave, just listening foolishly with a spirit of blind worship, thinking: voice actors are a different specie. ...

It was only eight o'clock but the Voice of Jiuxiao community was already lively.

The host was on their string of words for the last time; the subtitle group was doing last minute checks on the subtitles; the CV who will soon be on stage started to do vocal exercises ...

Xiang Cai was stiff all over and he was so nervous that he couldn't think of a word to say.

His mind was full of: Don’t ruin this, don’t ruin this, don’t ruin this, you can’t hold back the community, you can’t hold back the great god!!!!

His pale complexion completely exposed his inner nervousness.

He was more nervous now than when he broke into the selection contest of Out of My World. So nervous that his throat became sore.

If he performed alone, he would not have been under such great psychological pressure.

But performing with his partner ... Wang Qingyun.....

Just then, Wang Qingyun chatted with him privately.

Yiming Qingyun: Guess?

Yiming Qingyun: Are you there?

guess: ... here ...

Yiming Qingyun: I didn’t see you talking in the group, I thought you were not online.

guess: Just ... don't know what to say ...

Xiang Cai licked his dry lips and felt tingles from his toes to the strands of hair.

guess: I can't seem to remember anything.

guess: I can't seem remember the lyrics, nor the tune.

guess: I feel like my brain has gone blank.

Yiming Qingyun: Blank?

Yiming Qingyun: That's ok. When singing, you can just think about me.

guess: ...???

Yiming Qingyun: Isn't this a coming out song?

Yiming Qingyun: Just persuade me to come out of the closet.

guess: ...

——What!

Xiang Cai almost fell to his knees in the vocal classroom: In front of thousands of fans, he was going to persuade the great god to come out?!. No pressure?! This was killing him!

***

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