Chapter 82

Act X: Singing In the Rain (7)

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At the dawn of the new year, everything was new.

Tan Yiming and Xiang Cai finally took that crucial step towards each other.

Before this, Tan Yiming had never discovered that he was a love brain. However, after the two were together, it was as if Tan Yiming couldn't wait to stick together with Xiang Cai for all 24 hours.

[T/N: love brain = very love-oriented and only thinking about love]

Unfortunately, as the boss of a rising company, it was absolutely impossible for Tan Yiming to put everything aside in order to fall in love. He could only seize every opportunity and gather all the free time in order to show affection.

He posted a picture into his circle of friends: In the afternoon, Xiang Cai was sitting near the bay window, quietly flipping through his script. The golden-red sun shined on the boy's hair, causing him to look softer. His silhouette was beautiful, like a work of art loved by heaven.

Tan Yiming racked his brains, and then left the calm and pretentious sentence - ‘I found another dad for Dabao’.

As soon as the photo was released, hundreds of comments exploded in his circle of friends.

Some who didn't know his sexual orientation were shocked enough to fall to the ground when they heard he was bent.

Some ridiculed that they used to see Dabao in the circle of friends a lot and were bored of him. In the future, he could expose Dabao’s new father more often.

Some sent blessings, but also told him to show care for the group when displaying affection in the future, for it was everyone's responsibility to care for single dogs.

It wasn’t known if the screenshot of this circle of friends was posted on Weibo by a well-intentioned person, but it didn’t take long for it to be spread everywhere. The comment section quickly built skyscrapers of gossip, and the long silent online dubbing community forum also had its page bombed and butchered.

Tan Yiming was handsome and admired because of his nice voice. He had a lot of wife-fans and girlfriend-fans. Although he had played in many BL radio dramas, his fans assumed that he was a straight man - who would have thought that Wang Qingyun was not only bent, but that he would begin to show affection directly?

This, this... At least give the gossipers a few minutes of preparation time!!

Wang Qingyun's Weibo was filled with thousands of private messages, and even the front desk phone of Blockbuster Studio blew up.

The most funny thing was that because Gu Liang’s online CP with him is very popular, he was inexplicably dubbed a ‘stubborn wife’ by the melon-eaters. Some people sent private messages to Gu Liang comforting him and telling him not to be sad after breaking up, his next relationship will be better.

[T/N: stubborn wife = wife that has been through hardships.]

Gu Liang: "...?? Can they not see? My son is in the second grade, why does everyone think I am gay?"

His wife Ye Ye let out: "You should be a bit more self-conscious. You have more skin care products than me. The last time you went to a Comic-Con to autograph, you actually put on an eye mask! I really don’t know if I found a husband or a sister."

Fortunately, when Tan Yiming uploaded Xiang Cai’s photo, he specifically blurred his face. So, the people eating melons could crunch around, but they could not pick out Xiang Cai’s real-life information.

Moreover, Tan Yiming was a voice actor behind the scenes, and his sexual orientation did not affect his work. Therefore, the matter of him coming out was inexplicably buried as a hot search, and silently disappeared in a couple hours.

After officially coming out, Tan Yiming went further and further on the roundabout road of displaying affection.

Once, he and Gu Liang were on a business trip to Guangzhou. The plane had just lifted off, and Tan Yiming connected to the on-board WIFI, and began to watch the video of Xiang Cai’s fan shooting.

The video of the fan shooting was not clear; it swayed and there was a lot of noise. Tan Yiming was fascinated, but not only did he watch it for himself, he also insisted on dragging Gu Liang to watch it together.

This behavior could be summed up in two words: selling ānlì.

[T/N: ānlì = basically means to share or recommend something you really like with a friend.]

Gu Liang: "..."

Gu Liang could only bite the bullet and accepted the headset that Tan Yiming handed over.

Tan Yiming explained things to Gu Liang while observing Gu Liang's expression. Gu Liang always wanted to give his boss face, so he could only pretend to be excited for his boss.

As the plane was flying for several hours, Gu Liang was forced to watch the video until they landed in Guangzhou.

When the plane finally landed, Tan Yiming put away the headphones, and asked Gu Liang, "Doesn’t Cai Cai’s singing sound good?"

Gu Liang closed his eyes and shot rainbow farts: "Good, good, very good. Has Xiang Cai’s voice been kissed by an angel? Isn’t his high pitch way too stable?"

As a result, Tan Yiming mistakenly thought that Gu Liang really had eaten his ānlì, and said that when Xiang Cai’s recent musical was staged, he would invite his whole family to watch.

Gu Liang: "..."

Please forgive Liangliang, Liangliang is just a 35-year-old child who needs to support his family!

※

"Xiang Cai, come here for a moment." The dance director beckoned Xiang Cai, calling him to the front.

Xiang Cai had just finished dancing for a while, and was sweating all over. He tied his short hair into a little ball at the top of his head to prevent his curtain of hair from covering his eyes.　　

He picked up a wet towel and walked to the dance director while wiping the sweat from his forehead.

"Teacher, do you have a question?" he asked.

"No problem, it's just..." The dance director coughed and reminded him, "I heard that you have recently started a relationship? It’s not that I have an opinion on your relationship, but you need to pay more attention to your body, rest early in the evening."

Xiang Cai: "..."

The dance director was a girl, and she felt embarrassed when saying such words. However, she still had to say: "Your legs were not stable when you landed that front flip, and you couldn’t lower your waist... These are all basic skills. Since you did it last week, you shouldn’t have a problem in this area, so I think..."

Xiang Cai flushed with embarrassment, and he hesitated with his answer.

After finally finishing his six hours of dance rehearsal, Xiang Cai's body was sore all over, and his legs had ached so much that he felt they were no longer his own.

It had been cold recently and the snow continued to fall. If it had been like previous years, Xiang Cai feet would have frozen into two balls of ice. However, he had been soaking his feet in the medicated tonic for this period of time, so now, when he woke up in the morning, his feet would no longer cramp because of the cold.

He changed into his practice clothes, put on an additional layer of warm cotton trousers and a down jacket, then dragged his tired body forward.

There were several rehearsal rooms on both sides of the corridor. In addition to Waiting for the Midnight Sun, there are also two other plays being rehearsed in the Shanhe Theater. When he found himself standing outside a rehearsal room, Xiang Cai took a peek for a moment. He found that what they were rehearsing seemed to be an original drama.

"What are you doing?" A smiling voice came from behind him, "Stealing the skills of others?"

Xiang Cai was taken aback, and he turned around to find that the person standing behind him was actually Yao Yin.

"Melody..." Xiang Cai waved his hand and embarrassedly greeted him.

Since New Year's Eve, the relationship between Xiang Cai and Yao Yin had been strange. Obviously, the two had such a good relationship before, and they would chat and fight after work. However, when Xiang Cai now stood in front of Yao Yin, he always felt as if he didn’t know where to put his arms and legs.

However, though Xiang Cai was embarrassed, Yao Yin didn't feel embarrassed at all.

He still called him ‘Xiao Cai Cai’ with a smile, and was still serious during work, as if he didn't take the matter of that night to heart.

"It seems that your relationship with Tan Yiming has been very eventful recently." Yao Yin gestured towards his neck.

Xiang Cai hurriedly tied up his scarf, hiding the hickey on his neck. He only wished for himself to melt in place, so as to escape such an embarrassing situation.

Xiang Cai acknowledged him, and said: "You...you haven't gotten off work yet?"

"I should’ve gotten off work long ago." Yao Yin followed his words and said, "As a result, I was caught by the director. He had a quarrel with the producer and the screenwriter, and I had to give my opinion on it."

"Quarrel?" Xiang Cai was a little curious. He was the leading actor. If they were discussing plot-related content, they should call him.

Yao Yin didn't conceal things from him either: "We haven't reached a consensus on the voice of ‘midnight sun’."

‘Midnight sun’ was the hallucinatory voice in the protagonist’s mind. The original author had always used ‘it’ to describe it. Everyone had their own opinions on that voice when reading that novel. It could be a male voice or a female voice; it could be cold and senseless, or it could be full of charm like the snake in the garden of Eden.

However, when the novel was adapted into a screenplay, and when ‘midnight sun’ appeared on the stage, the creators must give it a gender and some traits.

Yao Yin said: "The director thinks that the midnight sun should have the voice of a woman, and it is better for her to have an older, caring voice. Because the male protagonist lacks love, he imagined such an older woman full of ‘sexual charm’ to make her attractive to him. However, the producers and screenwriters think it should have a kind of mechanical synthetic voice. It doesn't matter if it is harsh, because since it gives off the sense of future AI technology, one can't tell the gender."

Yao Yin thought for a while, and then said: "Actually, I think the 'midnight sun’ should be your voice."

"My voice?"

"Yes, because it’s the illusion of the male protagonist. When the male protagonist is talking to the midnight sun, he is in fact talking to himself. So of course it has to be his own voice."

Xiang Cai shook his head: "This won't work. If my voice was recorded and broadcast, it would get mixed with the lines I’m reading live, and the audience wouldn’t be able to distinguish our roles, which will cause confusion."

Yao Yin shrugged: "Then as you are playing the role, what voice do you imagine for the midnight sun?"

Without thinking about it, Xiang Cai replied: "The voice of the midnight sun should be a mature man, one who sounds as broad as the sea and as ethereal as the wind. He can embrace me with his gentleness, and he can hurt me with his sharpness."

"...A mature man." Yao Yin murmured, "Do you think that between the male protagonist and the midnight, they have a homosexual relationship similar* to the ‘truth of the teacher-student relationship’ mentioned by Plato in his Symposium?"

[T/N: *I looked it up, and there was something about how Plato described Socrates (his teacher) as very flirty in the Symposium, and I think Socrates and Plato were both involved in homosexual controversies at some point]

"Almost." Xiang Cai was a little shy, "Of course, this is just the way I see it."

The two talked as they walked out of the theater.

Yao Yin said: "Your idea is rather interesting, you should mention it to the director."

Xiang Cai nodded: "I will find him tomorrow."

Soon, they walked to the parking lot, where Xiang Cai coincidentally discovered that Yao Yin had actually changed his car to a new one today.

Yao Yin used to drive supercars when going to work. His supercars of various colors, brands and models were simply a collection of famous cars.

However, Yao Yin drove a magnificent Mercedes-Benz G-Class today, and its dark blue body reflected the white of the street lights.

Xiang Cai curiously asked: "Melody, have you changed cars?"

"Yeah, I'm tired of driving supercars." Yao Yin played with his car keys as he pointedly added, "And...this car has a lot more space than an SUV."

Xiang Cai understood his hint and didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

He was about to say something when he heard a horn behind him.

The two looked back and saw that Tan Yiming’s SUV was actually parked in a parking space nearby. The window of the driver’s seat lowered, and Tan Yiming held one arm out, with ‘protecting-what’s-mine’ written all over his face.

Tan Yiming looked at Yao Yin and smiled: "What a coincidence, we meet again."

"Unfortunately." Yao Yin's eyes curved, "This is my theater. It would be strange if you didn’t see me here."

Tan Yiming: "..."

Aiya, what a temper.

Xiang Cai was afraid that the two of them would quarrell, and quickly went around to the passenger seat, opened the door, and stomped in.

“Teacher Yao, see you tomorrow!" Xiang Cai said while waving, as if he couldn't wait to bring this to an end.

"Wait, there’s one thing before you leave." Who would have thought that Yao Yin would actually gesture towards the car, walk to the driver's seat of the SUV and put his hands on the door, and then drop his head through the window.

Tan Yiming was taken aback by his sudden movements and asked what he was going to do.

"I won’t do anything." Yao Yin teased him, "I just think that Teacher Tan has a nice voice."

Tan Yiming was inexplicably praised by him: "...If I had a bad voice, how could I have become a voice actor?"

Yao Yin nodded, and asked slowly: "Teacher Tan who-has-a-nice-voice, I, as the musical director of Waiting For the Midnight Sun, am offering you a job invitation. Will you accept it?"

***

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