Chapter 60

Act VIII: The Cat Who Wants to Become Human (4)

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After two hours of driving in the rain, Tan Yiming's car only managed to drive three kilometers away from the theater.

This distance could easily be reached by foot.

The sweet voice of Goddess Lin Chi-ling [T/N: Taiwanese voice actor] came from the navigation: "It is twelve kilometers away from Huacheng Dance Academy. Estimated time of arrival is fifteen hours. The road ahead is congested, please pay attention to driving safety on rainy days~"

Xiang Cai: "..."

Tan Yiming: "..."

Fifteen hours, that was long enough to fly to the United States!

Fanfan's belly made a rumbling roar.

"Why don’t we find a restaurant first?" Xiang Cai looked at the time. "It's almost seven o'clock. Let’s eat something for now, don't starve the child."

Tan Yiming also agreed to the proposal. "Then I will call Gu Yan so they don't wait for Fanfan for dinner."

The two planned with a harmonious atmosphere.

Xiang Cai brushed the public reviews and found that at the next intersection, if one turned right, there was a famous hot pot restaurant. Cold and rainy days were best matched with hot pot. And ... As soon as he thought that Cen Manchuan was fishing with the group of gibbons, he had an inexplicable impulse not to ‘fall behind’.

Tan Yiming added, "We both have to protect our throats and not eat spicy foods. And, this young one can’t eat spicy food either so we can all have a nourishing mushroom soup pot instead.”

Xiang Cai suggested, “It's better to have the soup mandarin duck-style [T/N: split in half]; and half tomato soup.’

"It turns out you like sweet and sour things."

"Neither." Xiang Cai laughed. "Even if it can’t be spicy, we can still order a red one for our eyes to enjoy.."

Fanfan, who was struggling to grab a head in the canyon of the kings, hummed: "You adults are so strange, do you like to lie to yourself so much?"

Xiang Cai, who was inexplicably poked in his sore spot: "..."

Tan Yiming turned his head to glare at him: "Give me your mobile phone, you are not allowed to play games."

Fanfan honestly handed over his mobile phone, and in a flash, pulled out a Switch from his school bag and started playing Mario Kart. He drove the car off of the main road position, and then ‘popped’ out, and ‘popped’ back onto the track.

Accompanied by the background music of racing cars, the silver-grey SUV struggled hard in the rain. Tan Yiming thought that if he had known today, he would say nothing about the Switch as a company employee benefit.

In the end, instead of eating Sichuan-style hot pot, they went to a Cantonese restaurant with a good reputation.

Xiang Cai’s clothes were blown half-dry by the heater in the car, but still stuck to his body. His shoes were full of rain and so when he walked, it made little splashes.

With his appearance thus, an honored restaurant such as this one, would definitely not let him in.

At the critical moment, Tan Yiming remembered that he had a spare suit in his car.

Xiang Cai asked a little embarrassedly, "Where can I change into it?"

Tan Yiming coughed: "This car has a screen attached, so you can change it in the car. Fanfan and I will take our seats first."

After that, Tan Yiming pretended to be calm while getting out of the car. He hugged Fanfan, closed the door, and then left without squinting.

Xiang Cai looked at the big and the small receding figures, then looked at the suit in his arms. He brought it to the tip of his nose and sniffed—sure enough, the clothes also had the good smell of sunlight and the ocean.

...

Tan Yiming was approximately five centimeters taller than Xiang Cai. He thought that if Xiang Cai wore his clothes, it might look a little sloppy and he’d have to embarrassedly roll up his pants and cuffs.

However, Xiang Cai wore it just the right length for his body, but the waistband and shoulders were somewhat loose.

He didn't wear the suit jacket, only changing into the trousers and shirt. The hem of the shirt slid into the waist of his pants, and the length of the pants and sleeves were just right.

Tan Yiming couldn't help but marvel: "Everyone says people who practice dance have long hands, long feet, and a long neck. Today, I finally see it."

Tan Yiming thought, Xiang Cai must have been God’s most beloved work of art before descending into this world.

Xiang Cai replaced his soaked canvas shoes with Tan Yiming's larger leather shoes.

The leather shoes were a little too wide for his feet, so when he walked, it looked like a little swan just washing ashore, his swaying motion adding an approachable awkwardness to the elegance.

They asked for a large portion of the house-specialty porridge, and ordered five or six appetizers as well as two small stir-fried dishes. As soon as the dishes were served, the stomachs of the three people growled in succession. They were bitterly hungry, and didn't care about chatting for a while.

They sat at a small round table. Fanfan had short arms, and so Xiang Cai helped him get the foods that he couldn’t reach.

Fanfan clamped a shrimp dumpling from the steamer and sent it to Xiang Cai in a courteous manner.

Fanfan's upbringing was very good. He held the bowl in a proper manner while eating, unlike some children who played while eating. Originally, Xiang Cai guessed that he liked playing games very much, and he was worried that he would hold the game console when he was eating and not let go. How could he know that this child knew the truth of ‘what to do and when to do it’, concentrating on eating when he was eating, and putting the game console away earlier.

Xiang Cai said with admiration: "I have met some children who are the same age as you. You are well behaved and we don't need to worry about you not eating properly. I have also seen a 10 year old whose mother had to chase after him to feed him because he was easily distracted by kids' cartoons."

Fanfan snorted triumphantly, his appearance quite proud.

Tan Yiming was curious and asked, "So, have you seen many children?"

"Yes, there are children’s roles in many plays. If the drama like Beauty and the Beast, was resident in a certain city, two or three children will take turns playing the same role. Children who aren't scheduled to perform can go to school normally."

Fanfan was fascinated by it and quickly asked, "What if the musicals was not in a resident city?"

"If it's a touring drama, such as Les Choristes, the many young actors in their crew who can’t settle in a certain city for school will be taught by the resident teacher.”

[T/N: Les Choristes is a French musical film about a group of young boys starting a choir.]

When Xiang Cai saw that Fanfan was staring at him intently at his explanations, he asked hopefully, "I just heard Teacher Tan mention that you have dubbed since the age of four? Then your script reading is definitely fine. If you want to perform onstage, I can help you with similar opportunities. Next time the crew is recruiting young actors, I can recommend you."

Who would imagined that Fanfan would immediately lower his head and shake it vigorously: "I don't like acting."

Tan Yiming hurriedly stopped Xiang Cai and joked: "Don't dig him from me. Do you know how difficult it is to find a qualified voice actor? He was born to eat from the dubbing bowl of rice."

Who would imagined that just after Tan Yiming said that, Fanfan suddenly raised his head and yelled with a loud voice: "I don't like dubbing either!"

"I ... I ..." The boy's chopsticks inadvertently poked at the rice in his bowl, and he whispered, "... I hate dubbing."

Xiang Cai didn't have to look at Tan Yiming's face, he could imagined that his smile must have cracked.

Although Fanfan was not Tan Yiming’s child, he did grow up under the eyes of Tan Yiming.

The first time Fanfan entered the studio, the first time he read the lines in front of the microphone, the first time his first dubbing work was released...Each first times and each step of the way, he was accompanied by Tan Yiming.

The Gu Yan couple still joked and said that it would be better to let Fanfan admit Tan Yiming as his godfather.

... But now, Tan Yiming's godfather heart was cold.

Rebellious! Rebellious! The seven-year-old was starting to rebel!

He asked incredulously, "Fanfan, haven't you been doing well all this time, why do you suddenly hate dubbing?"

"There is no reason why." The little boy almost completely buried his head into his body. 

Employees suddenly wanting to leave the circle without warning—Tan Yiming had been in the industry for many years and had seen this happen many times. He was a good and approachable boss. He was moved by emotion and knew reason. He had hundreds of ways to find out why his employee would want to leave.

The problem was that Fanfan was neither an employee nor an adult for that matter.

He could only rack his brains and guess: "Did it affect your studies? Did it delay your playing time with peers? Did your mother store your salary in a bank card and say that you have to wait until you are 18 years old for her to give it to you??"

Fanfan shook his head to each one of Tan Yiming’s questions. His eyelids were drooped listlessly and he looked pitiful.

Tan Yiming continued to ask, when under the table, Xiang Cai suddenly kicked him.

Tan Yiming: "?"

Xiang Cai gave him a look telling him to shut up quietly.

Tan Yiming immediately shut up, in a tacit understanding.

Xiang Cai’s eyes gently turned to Fanfan, he handed him a tissue, and asked him: "Did your classmates gossip about your dubbing?"

The next second, Fanfan cried.

...

The world of a child was simple and pure, yet complex and complicated.

Recently, Puppy Story was released. This live-action movie told a warm and lovely story about the relationships between a group of puppies and their owners. Fanfan dubbed one of the fierce bulldogs. In the second half of the movie, the bulldog broke his front teeth, and his howling voice changed from ‘wang wang’ to ‘fang fang’.

[T/N: In Chinese, ‘wang’ is a word for the barking sound like ‘woof’ is in English]

The teachers in the school knew that there was a powerful ‘little voice actor’ in Class 2 (1), so as soon as the film was released, the school organized classmates to go to the cinema to watch the film in the name of a Spring Tour [T/N: field trip type of thing].

After watching the movie, Fanfan held his head high, especially proud. The teacher sent him to the stage to share his feelings of dubbing.

Before Fanfan had spoken, someone suddenly shouted: "Fang fang! Fang fang! I'm a great bulldog, fang fang fang!"

Fanfan: "..."

In the movie theater, the sounds of the dogs barking ‘fang fang’ rang out, and even Fanfan’s secret crush, Ban Banhua, covered her mouth and laughed!!

Little cool guy Gu Fanfan was instantly sad, broke down, and fell into a trough—he blamed it all on the dubbing. Filled with hatred, he thought, if he stepped into the recording studio in the future, then he was a dog!

Fanfan cried and laid in the arms of Xiang Cai, saying aggrievedly, "Xiang Cai Gege, I'm so sad ..."

Xiang Cai helped him wipe his tears, and kicked under the table again.

Xiang Cai (mouthed without any sound): If you dare to laugh out loud, you are dead.

Within five minutes, Tan Yiming was kicked twice in a row. He fought hard to hold back a smile, thinking, he was really such a miserable class monitor.

Fanfan's tears wet Xiang Cai’s shirt. That movie had been released in theaters for more than half a month, that is to say, Fanfan endured the ‘ridicule’ of his classmates for more than half a month, alone.

In the eyes of an adult, half a month was short, passing with a blink of an eye. But in the mind of a child, each day of those two weeks was very long.

Xiang Cai asked him distressedly: "Have you ever told your teacher about this?"

Fanfan replied distressedly: "... I don't want to snitch to the class teacher."

"What about your parents?"

Fanfan whispered, "My mother always said that I will become an excellent voice actor like my dad in the future. I don't know how to talk to them."

Xiang Cai helped him up, and saw that his pair of round eyes were swollen because of tears. He felt even more distressed.

Xiang Cai touched his hair; the boy's hair was soft, laying softly on the top of his head.

Xiang Cai carefully organized the language in his head and figured how to enlighten him.

"Fanfan, shall we take these problems apart and look at it?" He said patiently, "The first problem is that you were ridiculed by your classmate for playing the role of a dog. The second problem is that because you were ridiculed, you feel embarrassed and don’t want to be a voice actor anymore. The third problem is that you don’t know how to explain your feelings to your parents. Am I right?”

Fanfan nodded with tears.

"Well, let's analyze them one by one." Xiang Cai said, "First of all, your classmates laughing at you is really wrong. When I was in high school, a male classmate said that a female classmate was too fat, and when the teacher chatised him, he still thought it was just a joke. At that time, our teacher said something I still remember—'Whether this is a joke or not is determined by the “victim”'. A unilateral joke is not a joke. If you are being bullied, tell the teacher. It is not snitching.”

Fanfan nodded and decided to gather the courage to tell the teacher about it in class on Monday.

"As for the second point ..." Xiang Cai gave Tan Yiming a wink, "Ask your Uncle Class Leader for his opinion."

Tan Yiming was amusedly watching their conversation when he was suddenly cued. He hurriedly gathered his thoughts, and put on a serious expression.

He pondered for a while then said, "Fanfan, voice actors and actors are different. Actors can choose roles. He can choose a playboy role this time choose a cold killer the next time ... However, a voice actors' work is the opposite. On every occasion, the role pick us. For example, my voice is suitable for men in their twenties to forties. As long as the role is within this age range, whether it is a leading role or supporting role, it will be sent to me."

Tan Yiming described his experience over the past few years in language that a child could understand: "Everyone wants to play a smart, powerful, flawless and positive role, but who will play the bad guys and fools? We have to use our voices to make the character come alive. For example, when crying, as long as your emotions are in place, the weeping of the villain will be the most touching."

Fanfan seemed to understand, but not completely understand. He asked, "So they think that the bulldog is stupid, because I am a good voice actor? I earned it?"

"Of course." Tan Yiming reached out from the other side and patted his shoulder.

In this way, Fanfan sat between Tan Yiming and Xiang Cai. His upper body was held by Xiang Cai and his little hand was held by Tan Yiming. At this moment, he felt as noble as a little prince.

Tan Yiming said: "Of course, we will respect your choice. But you have to think clearly whether you don't want to be a voice actor because you were being bullied or if you really dislike the profession. If it is the latter, your uncle can talk with you and your parents. After all, 'being a good voice actor' was initially your parent's wish, not your wish."

Hoping that their child would become a dragon—Every mother and father would involuntarily entrust onto their child the ambitions that they have not been able to accomplish, but forgetting to ask what the child really wants.

"Uncle's job now is completely different from my parents' wishes." Tan Yiming talked about the past. His intention was meant to enlighten Fanfan, but Xiang Cai was fascinated. "They cultivated me from an early age to make a lot of money, invest in the land, and do promising work. However, in the end, I did not fulfill their wishes, instead, fulfilling my own wishes."

Until now, his parents had not been able to forgive his decision to ‘destroy his own future’. Every time Tan Yiming went home to visit the old couple, he was eventually kicked out by his relatives’ chattering. Later, Tan Yiming became more conscious about it. Aside from making regular monthly payments, he had less and less contact with his parents.

While Tan Yiming was enlightening Fanfan, Xiang Cai did not interrupt.

He watched them silently, thinking that if Tan Yiming got married and had children, he would be a very gentle father.

He didn’t know if he would have the opportunity to attend Tan Yiming's wedding.

...

Tan Yiming's voice was very magnetic, warm and soft. He was clearly talking about his sad past, but when it came from his mouth, it was as easy and sweet as a bedtime story.

Gradually, Fanfan stopped his tears. He finally remembered his cool guy persona, sitting upright a bit awkwardly. However, he still stubbornly grasped one adult's finger with each hand, refusing to let go.

Tan Yiming joked to him: "Holding on so tightly, are you afraid that we will run away? Okay, I will take you home later."

But Fanfan shook his head and said that he didn't want to go home today.

The little boy was so good-looking, and since he cried, his eyes were swollen as he pitifully asked not to go home to see his parents today.

Tan Yiming thought for a while and simply called his parents and said that today, Fanfan would stay at his house. Tomorrow he would drop Fanfan off at school.

The three of them rested in the restaurant for a while, and then waited until the rain subsided before leaving to checkout.

At the checkout, Xiang Cai insisted on treating him. He had a ride from Tan Yiming and borrowed his clothes. He didn’t want to owe Tan Yiming too much, so he could only make up for the lingering sense of debt in his heart by paying this.

Tan Yiming saw his persistence and did not continue to be polite with him.

The three walked out of the restaurant and Xiang Cai took out his phone to look at the navigation: "The subway station is just next to the intersection. I can take the subway directly back to school. Although it is a bit crowded, at least there are no traffic jams."

When Fanfan heard it, he immediately ran over and grabbed him by the waist, reluctant to let him go.

"Don't go," Fanfan said coquettishly. "I'm staying at my uncle class leader's home today, so you can come with me."

"..." Xiang Cai’s heart sped up, and he hurriedly said, "Tomorrow I have classes in the morning."

He was going to graduate. How could there be classes?

Fanfan could only reluctantly let go of his hand, hook Xiang Cai’s finger, and say, "But you promised to accompany me to fight King’s Glory!"

Xiang Cai thought, did he kill Zhang Fei in the cradle? Why did his boyfriend always demands to play games with him, and now this child also demands to play games with him?

[T/N: Zhang Fei is an important historical figure, so Xiang Cai is saying: did he do something so wrong to deserve this.]

He didn’t have six fingers. Why did they feel that he was so good at playing games?

But there was no way. Looking at the child's pitiful eyes, Xiang Cai couldn't refuse him. Xiang Cai could only pull out his phone and Fanfan added his WeChat (such a small child actually had WeChat!). He promised him to organize a game at night.

"What about Uncle Class Leader?" Fanfan said, "You can also add him, so that the three of us can form a team together."

Tan Yiming: "..."

Xiang Cai: "..."

Tan Yiming and Xiang Cai looked at each other speechlessly. In the end, Tan Yiming smiled, took out his mobile phone, and said calmly, "Then let’s add friends."

"...Ok."

After hiding for so long and avoiding each other so long, they carefully didn’t contact each other after their reunion. Even their phone numbers were tacitly not exchanged. Now, because of a child's joke, they had reunited.

...

Late at night.

Yiming Qingyun: Have you arrived at school?

guess: Arrived, I’ve just taken a shower.

Yiming Qingyun: Well, that's good.

guess: Thank you for your clothes.

Yiming Qingyun: It doesn't matter, you invited us to dinner too.

guess: How can I return the clothes?

Yiming Qingyun: Send it here, the address is xx district, xx street, xx community.

guess: Ok, I will send you the tracking number.

Unlike the enthusiasm during the meal, now that they were back on the Internet, the conversation between them suddenly became jerky.

There were no emojis flying around, no jokes, no wavy lines...

They completed all dialogue with the simplest questions and declarative sentences, trying to abandon all emotional colors.

The chance encounter in the rain, the air-conditioned blanket with the scent of the sun and the sea, the loose suit, and the bowl of warm porridge, all the tears of a child ... Those memories that could link them together were set aside and tucked away.

Xiang Cai rolled over on the bed. His wet hair was not blow-dried, and it stuck directly to his pillow.

He thought, how interesting, five years ago he tossed and turned to chat on the dorm bed. Today, five years later, he was still doing the same thing.

He didn't seem to have grown up at all.

He clicked on Tan Yiming's account, and swiped his finger on the button of ‘Don't let him see my circle of friends’, but eventually failed to press it.

He didn't know that, at the same time, Tan Yiming also opened his account and was looking closely.

Because he needed to find a job during the graduation season, Xiang Cai used a photo of his identity card as his avatar. Black hair, smiling lips, bright eyes, and a white shirt...these elements together formed Xiang Cai’s appearance.

Tan Yiming stared at the smiling face in the photo, pressed his finger down for a moment, and saved the profile picture to his phone.

Yiming Qingyun: Good night, sweet dreams.

guess: Good night, sweet dreams.

But they both knew, that night was destined to be a sleepless night for them.

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The author has something to say:

Little Theatre:

Cai Cai: Teacher Tan looks like he will be a good father at first glance. I wonder if I will have the chance to attend his wedding.

Me: Rest assured, there is definitely a chance.

***

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