Chapter 56

Act VII: Fan Letter (8)

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Xiang Cai stood straight under the spotlight. No one knew: he secretly fisted his left hand and hid it in his pants pocket.

He knew in his heart that every word he said and every subtle expression on his face would be faithfully conveyed to Tan Yiming, so he must not show any hesitation or weakness.

As the host had said, being able to dub alongside Tan Yiming was very lucky.

But for Xiang Cai, this surprise sent by fate arrived too late.

If it had been five years ago, given an opportunity to stand by his idol and dub together, he would definitely be too excited to sleep well for several days. Yet at this moment, he simply had to let this opportunity pass by.

After Xiang Cai rejected him, the camera quickly shifted to Tan Yiming in the studio.

The host did not expect that things would happen so unfavorably for Tan Yiming who had randomly picked a person who was actually Chen Ziran’s fan.

The host asked hesitantly: "Teacher Tan ... Now that things are this way ..."

"..." Tan Yiming was only silent for a few seconds, then he smiled and said, "Since this audience member is a fan of Teacher Chen, I cannot insist that he partner-up with me."

He understood Xiang Cai.

Both of them knew well of the unspoken love of five years ago. Even if they've met again, they did not dare to touch on that unresolved awkward subject of the past.

Especially not now that Xiang Cai had a boyfriend and a new life ... for emotional and rational reasons, he must draw a line between them and himself.

...

Xiang Cai pass the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to appear onstage to the nearby professional dubbing team fan.

The girl froze directly. Her eyes widened in disbelief, and her appearance was awkward and cute.

Xiang Cai gently patted her shoulder: "Please replace me and fight alongside your idol."

"Thank you!" The girl said incoherently: "Sister is so magnanimous! I- I- I- I will never be black again towards Chen Ziran. I will buy his face mask, lipstick, and cream when I go back!"

"..." Xiang Cai said, "No need, sister, save the money for Teacher Tan."

The staff led the little fan backstage, and the audience in the venue could watch the scene in the recording studio through the big screen.

Xiang Cai saw her stand shyly in front of Tan Yiming, flushed, gesturing and dancing in her admiration.

Xiang Cai saw Tan Yiming discuss the plot with her and divide the roles. When she was so nervous that she tied her tongue, Tan Yiming enlightened her patiently.

Xiang Cai saw the two of them walk into the recording studio together, saw the On Air sign light up, and saw the girl tremble with her first sentence into the microphone ...

Great.

Xiang Cai had visualized those scenes countless times in his head in the past, and today, someone finally realized it for him.

...

There was no suspense about the result of the game. Given that the voice-over clip assigned to Tan Yiming was too difficult, and that his teammate was an ordinary fan without foundation, their group naturally lost.

Tan Yiming had long been mentally prepared for this predetermined-outcome. He was still very kind, reaching out to shake Chen Ziran and sincerely saying, "Thank you for your advice."

Chen Ziran blushed. His win was completely the result of the program group’s black-box operation. With what qualification could he “teach” a professional voice actor?.

Instead, the small fan next to Tan Yiming was aggrieved with red eyes, always blaming herself and saying that her performance was too poor, that she dragged her idol's hind legs.

Tan Yiming said, "How can I blame you?"

The little fan said regretfully: "It would have been better if the little brother who was selected came up on stage. His voice was very nice! With him, maybe you could have won?"

Tan Yiming smiled and said nothing.

Before the little fan left the studio, she hesitated to make a request.

"Teacher Tan ... Can I hug you for a moment?" She said carefully, "In fact, today is my seventeenth birthday..."

Seventeen……

Tan Yiming thought for a while and then laughed.

He opened his arms and gave the little fan a warm hug that she would never forget.

The little fan wandered back from the recording studio to the auditorium. When she returned, she was surrounded by all the lemon spirits.

Even the fans sitting in front of her turned around and stared at her eagerly, wanting to know more about what happened backstage.

"Teacher Tan was really nice! His voice is very pleasant and super magnetic; I think it sounds much better than in radio dramas!"

"He also cheered me up so that I didn't get nervous, and wished for me to enter the ideal university!"

"He has a good smell of men's perfume, not cologne, a bit like ... the ocean under the sun?" The little fan said this, with shameful red ears. "Oh yes, he must love fitness because his chest, shoulders, and arms were really thick. He would be powerful as a boyfriend!!"

"I'm shorter than him–so much so that his voice spilled from the top of my head!! And when he talked, his chest vibrated with him. I really was A#$^$E%*#$~! "

Hearing this, the little girls around her gave an envious sigh of admiration.

This one said "I admire", the other said "sour", and some people said "Awei is dead" …

[T/N: Awei is dead (or Ah Wei is dead, maybe) means ‘Ah, I’m dead’. As in, ‘So cute I died'.]

Xiang Cai didn't understand their idol-worship lingo, but still he enjoyed their cuteness.

They were like a group of little sparrows, enthusiastically twittering and sharing delicious grains.

The boy supported his head with his hands, looked sideways at them, and quietly listened to their endless chatter.

The little fan accidentally bumped into his gaze, and blushed. She hurriedly lowered her voice and said, "I'm sorry ... is this bothering you?"

"It's okay." Xiang Cai shook his head. "You talk, I'll just listen."

...

By the time the recording of this episode was finished, it was already dark.

It was six whole hours of continuous video recording. Not only were the guests exhausted, even the audience sitting down could no longer hold up.

In the end, the celebrity team "beat" the professional team with a 3-2 final score. The difficulty factor of the dubbing script drawn by the commercial team in almost every round was very high, but it couldn’t have been any other way. This was the frustration of the entertainment industry.

After it was over, Xiang Cai planned to leave immediately. However, after thinking about it, he went backstage and farewell Chen Ziran.

Chen Ziran being continuously roasted by the spotlights on the stage for six hours, and was already hot enough to be a dead dog.

Seeing him coming, the dead dog got up with difficulty, took Xiang Cai’s hand, and said with emotion, "Xiang Cai... you are really my good brother!"

A question mark slowly popped over Xiang Cai’s head.

Chen Ziran: "Before I went into the studio, you've said I was like a dog, but in the face of so many people, you admitted that you are a fan of this dog!" He hugged Xiang Cai, "Bark bark bark!"

Xiang Cai: "..."

Xiang Cai pushed Chen Ziran's head aside with disgust.

Chen Ziran would be on tour in a nearby city tomorrow. After this show’s recording was over, he would be transported during the night.

Chen Ziran asked, "Otherwise, you can take my car for a while, and I'll let the driver take you to the school gate?"

The agent beside him immediately gave Xiang Cai a warning glare.

"No need," Xiang Cai said. "My school and leaving the city are two different directions. Don't let the driver go in circles."

"But it's so late, and there are a lot of people leaving so it's inconvenient to take a taxi."

Xiang Cai laughed: "I don't know if the big star knows of human suffering, but there is another kind of transportation in the world, called the night bus."

"No! No way!" Chen Ziran shook his head in fright. "The night bus is too unsafe. What's the 'Bus to the underworld', ‘Night bus No. 18’, ‘The mysterious red passenger on the bus' ... the ready-made urban ghost stories!” He cried anxiously. "You are so good-looking, what if you are caught by an unsightly female ghost and taken to be the husband of the house?”

"Then I’ll tell her that I changed my gender, let her take my love number plate [?], and then I’ll see you in my next life."

In the end, Xiang Cai still declined Chen Ziran's offer and left alone.

Shortly after he left, Chen Ziran's lounge door was knocked on again.

Chen Ziran thought that his good brother had forgotten to take something. However, the one standing outside the door wasn’t who he expected.

"I'm here to thank you." Outside the door, Tan Yiming's attitude was natural.

"Ah?" Chen Ziran thought to himself, what are you saying thank you for, thank you to the show team for their failure?

Tan Yiming said, "Thank you for the drink your assistant delivered before we came to the studio."

Chen Ziran: "..." He awkwardly wanted to disappear in place.

He glared at his agent in complaint, and eventually chose to tell the truth.

"It's a long story ..." Chen Ziran said, "The male audience member you picked first today was actually my buddy. He came here to help me and bought the drinks ..."

"Oh?" Tan Yiming had been clear on these things for a while, but he still pretended to know nothing. He asked, "Then, is he here now? I want to thank him in person."

In fact, Tan Yiming didn't know what he could say after seeing Xiang Cai–he just wanted to see him. It didn’t matter if he didn’t even say a word.

"He just left!" Chen Ziran glanced back at the clock on the wall. "He’s been walking for about 10 minutes..."

Before he finished speaking, Tan Yiming turned away and ran.

Chen Ziran: "... ????"

...

Xiang Cai walked in the dark towards the bus stop on the street. In the early summer night, there was a burst of warm wind, making people drowsy.

Xiang Cai stood on the platform and waited silently for the night bus back to school.

The warm yellow street lamp dragged his figure out. Xiang Cai absentmindedly stared at the shadow under his feet.

The shadow under his feet was him, but not him.

It could only outlined his figure, but it could not outline his heart.

Just then, a rampant basketball broke into his world and directly smashed through his shadow.

Xiang Cai looked up towards the direction of the basketball, taken aback. It came from a tall figure, struggling to hide his long legs and hands behind a stop sign nearby. Unfortunately, he couldn’t hold it for ten seconds before he was caught by Xiang Cai.

"Hi?" Cen Manchuan showed a silly eight-toothed smile.

Xiang Cai did not expect that he would appear at this moment.

At the same time, he was glad that Cen Manchuan had appeared.

Xiang Cai picked up the basketball and ran to him, plunging into Cen Manchuan's arms.

"How come you came?"

"After playing basketball with my brothers, I estimated that you should be finishing recording around this time. I rode a taxi directly from the basketball court." Cen Manchuan asked proudly, "Uninformed, you see me descend from the sky. Xiang Cai, are you pleasantly surprised, or not?”

Xiang Cai was, of course, pleasantly surprised.

Cen Manchuan was very tall, over 1.9 meters tall, and with his strong muscles, making him look like a giant. His basketball clothes, basketball shoes, and even hair accessories that he wore were all bought by Xiang Cai with his accumulated performance fees. Cen Manchuan was usually reluctant to wear them, but today, when he went to see his brothers, he was fully armed and successfully blinded them.

Only...

Xiang Cai pushed Cen Manchuan away with disgust: "You are so sweaty, stay away from me."

"It doesn’t smell, it doesn’t smell, you smell it ..." Cen Manchuan was like a giant golden retriever who wanted to pamper him, and he held Xiang Cai in his arms, "... Your boyfriend is fragrant!"

The two made noise in the dark, their laughter hitting the night breeze and quickly drifting away.

A few minutes later, a night bus slowly approached and stopped in front of them.

Xiang Cai glanced at the license plate and found that it was not the one he was waiting for.

However, Cen Manchuan said, "Let’s get on!"

Xiang Cai: "This is not the bus back to school."

"It's Saturday! Let's have a great night adventure!" Cen Manchuan said. Relying on his height advantage, he put Xiang Cai under his arm and jumped into the bus.

Xiang Cai was startled, laughing while protesting.

The driver raised his eyebrows and glanced at the loud young couple, asking them to find a place to sit down quickly.

In the end, the frail little swan was dragged to the last row of the bus by his golden retriever. The two sat down next to the window, head to head, and whispered today's events.

Xiang Cai didn't know that if he looked out the window at this time, he would see a familiar figure on the side of the road, staring at him dully.

However, in this world, after all, there were no ifs.

...

That night.

Xiang Cai abandoned his original plan and set foot on another bus.

Tan Yiming had no right to catch up with that bus.

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The author has something to say: Tomorrow, we will enter a new scene.

[T/N: Happy Holidays, those reading this in December 2020!]

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