Gu Sheng's face instantly burned hot, truly scalding...
And her computer just crashed from the overwhelming number of retweets on Weibo...
All sounds vanished.
She took a couple of deep breaths, then hurried to restart the computer.
But just as she pressed the forced restart button, her parents returned home. "Sheng Sheng, go cover for your cousin right away. He's going to be late for his blind date. Your dad and I will head to the supermarket after dinner, so you can come back and eat."
In that moment, Gu Sheng thought of countless excuses, even considering lying down and rolling around, claiming her stomach hurt from hunger. Unfortunately, her mom saw right through her plan. Without even glancing at her, she waved her hand and said, "Don't even think about pretending to be sick. There's a hospital right across from our supermarket. If you're really sick, it'll be convenient." Her mom took off her coat and headed straight into the kitchen, leaving Gu Sheng no opportunity to argue.
She could only hurriedly throw on her coat, grab her phone, and rush out.
As the host of the room, she had just disappeared, but the room was still filled with numerous top-tier Voice Actors...
While running downstairs, she quickly logged into YY Voice Chat on her phone, silently mourning the fact that her data usage for the month would surely exceed the limit again. Unexpectedly, when she entered her own room, everyone had already dispersed.
It had only been a few minutes... But then again, Top talent and Perfect were having dinner, and it was mealtime now. They were probably all off appeasing their stomachs.
But...
She touched her face.
It was still burning hot.
Strictly speaking, she belonged to the category of people collaborating with Top talent, not just a pure fan. She should approach the various common jokes in this circle with rationality. What was there to fuss about? Honestly, nothing at all. In her own community, guys and guys, guys and girls, girls and girls would shout about Couple Pairings and official pairings all the time—it was all just pure Good Buddies, right?
Besides, Top talent only said he liked her voice...
Gu Sheng tried her best to cool down, taking one step at a time downstairs. Finally, after some thought, considering how much Top talent had supported her, she felt she should thank him. After all, receiving such a recommendation from Top talent was worth more than her cover singing a thousand songs.
Before unlocking her bicycle, she sent Top talent a WeChat message: Thank you so much for your kindness...
The key slid into the keyhole, turning with a click.
Top talent had already replied with a voice message: "You're welcome. I'm still eating, so it's inconvenient to type. Is voice okay?"
She replied: "Sure. My computer suddenly crashed earlier, so I left the room. Um... I have something urgent now, so I need to leave home. Sorry about that, Qiang Qingci."
"Okay," his voice was calm.
Only then did Gu Sheng get on her bike. Halfway there, she heard her phone ring again.
Pulling it out to check—Top talent?
Afraid something might be urgent, she immediately braked at the edge of the pedestrian walkway, stopped, and took out her phone.
Qiang Qingci had sent another voice message: "So... does that mean you owe me a few more songs?"
...
...It seemed that way...
Since he enjoyed listening to her sing... there really wasn't any need to be reserved. After all, she was used to singing frequently during YY activities anyway. Besides, Qiang Qingci had indeed been... well, very kind to her.
She agreed: "Okay, no problem. If you don't get tired of listening, feel free to ask me anytime."
Qiang Qingci seemed to pick up on the noise from the road: "Are you outside?"
Gu Sheng: "Yeah, I'm riding my bike."
"Alright, I won't keep you," Qiang Qingci said slowly, his words slightly muffled as he ate. "Be careful."
Such a considerate Top talent...Gu Sheng let out a soft sigh. "Okay, goodbye, sir."
As she slipped her phone back into her pants pocket, she couldn't help but marvel—even the sound of Top Talent eating was so lazily seductive...
She felt reassured, but as she continued riding her bike, a serious problem suddenly occurred to her.
Top Talent really was still eating... and he was eating with Jue Mei and W. So every single word of her back-and-forth conversation with Top Talent had been heard clearly and completely by Jue Mei and W.
Even though she hadn't said anything inappropriate, she still... blushed.
One moment Gu Sheng thought about her Weibo that had crashed from being forwarded, and the next she pondered whether there was anything improper about the things she had just said to Top Talent being overheard... As she mulled it over again and again, she dawdled her way to the supermarket, where her cousin was already waiting with eyes red from impatience.
Seeing her lock her bike and enter, he immediately rushed out from behind the counter, looking at her resentfully. "My dear cousin, if you'd been any later, I would've been cursed to death by my buddies."
"I knew it," Gu Sheng walked behind the counter. "Sword Three, right?"
Her cousin bowed in gratitude as he ran out, hopped on his bike, and sped away.
During dinner time, she only needed to hold the fort for an hour—the most leisurely hour at that.
In the supermarket, there were only her and a young girl who had been hired just after the New Year.
She had probably only been there for two or three days. Gu Sheng had only seen her once before and remembered her name was Dong Yiru, about the same age as her. Gu Sheng exchanged a few casual words with her before trying again to open her Weibo, which was still crashed... Meanwhile, Dong Yiru was tidying the shelves while listening to music. Since there were no customers in the store, she occasionally sent a WeChat message.
Gu Sheng was still trying hard to keep her phone from crashing...
When she suddenly heard Dong Yiru let out a soft "hmm" and whisper into her WeChat, "I almost cried, you know? My Favorite Voice Actor revealed his favorite voice on Weibo 20 minutes ago... I'm seriously crying my eyes out. I'm at work now, let's talk in detail tonight!"
...
It couldn't be such a coincidence, could it...
She didn't dare refresh anymore and immediately logged out of Weibo, afraid that if Dong Yiru saw her Weibo username, her Two-dimensional world id would be exposed. She stuffed her phone into her pants pocket and stood idly behind the cash register, gazing at the hospital gate in the distance.
Her stomach... was a little hungry.
For some reason, she thought of the vegetables and shrimp Top Talent had been eating. Thinking about food at a time like this was pure torture.
She glanced outside, then around the store, and finally checked the time on her phone before clearing her throat. "Yiru, have you eaten yet?"
"Not yet. I'll wait until your parents come, and we can clock out together."
Gu Sheng hummed in acknowledgment.
(⊙v⊙) Somehow, she felt a bit guilty.
"Sheng Sheng," Dong Yiru finished tidying the shelves and walked up to the cash register, asking curiously, "Do you have a favorite voice actor?"
"Um... you mean voice actors for Japanese anime?" Gu Sheng coughed lightly. "Yes, I like watching cartoons... but I don't pay much attention to the voice actors. They all sound pretty good..."
Dong Yiru smiled at her. "What about Chinese voice actors?"
"Dubbed films... I quite like them," Gu Sheng tried her best to act as if she weren't part of the Two-dimensional world at all, afraid that if she slipped up and the girl asked for her id... or if they added each other on Weibo, it would be a disaster. "When I was little, I also liked radio DJs.""There are actually many really nice voices online," Dong Yiru said very seriously. "And many TV dramas—when you see those actors speaking, it's actually not their real voices. They all have voice actors..."
Gu Sheng silently felt her heart bleeding, and gave a soft "Mm."
Thank goodness, thank goodness. Usually, singing or voice acting coming through the microphone sounds completely different from reality.
Thank goodness, thank goodness... Otherwise, pretending to be mute now would be too late...
Seeing she wasn't very interested, Dong Yiru didn't say more.
Suddenly, a WeChat notification sounded—and for both of them, almost simultaneously, not a second apart.
Gu Sheng picked it up to look... It was actually... a voice message from Top Talent...
No idea what it said, fourteen seconds long. She stared at her phone for three seconds, then put it away again... Completely didn't dare listen, okay? Sir, why did you have to send a voice message? What if it's urgent? It's not that I'm not replying, absolutely not that I'm not replying—it's that your fan is right in front of me, one meter away, just across the counter, okay...
She silently held back, her heart bleeding, while Dong Yiru casually tapped to play it. Her good buddy's voice came through: "I know you're at work, but I, think, something really big has happened this time. Do you know? Do you know? Top Talent, ten minutes ago! Shared our song! The one we made ten days ago! The one celebrating the seventh anniversary of his debut work!"
Dong Yiru let out an excited cry and quickly glanced at Gu Sheng.
Gu Sheng hurriedly shook her head: "It's fine... there are no customers right now anyway..."
Truly a die-hard fan, even remembering the release date of Top Talent's online voice acting debut work... so clearly @@~
I should go listen to it later too, what song is it...
Immediately followed by another message, Dong Yiru tapped to open it without hesitation, probably also thinking Gu Sheng wouldn't understand, so it didn't matter.
Gu Sheng also curiously listened in, guessing it was probably still about Top Talent.
Sure enough...
"Let me catch my breath, then tell you some devastating news... When Top Talent shared our song, didn't we write a line wishing our Top Talent would find a financial backer soon?! Top Talent said... wait, let me catch my breath again..." The person on the other end really took a heavy breath, then continued, "Top Talent replied with one, two, three, four, five, six—six big characters: Thank you, currently working on it. Listen carefully! Not 'will' work on it! It's 'currently' working on it!! Present continuous tense! I bet a truckload of cucumbers, it's definitely Sheng Sheng Man!"
"I'll add another truckload of cucumbers..." Dong Yiru murmured, looking at her phone. "It must be Sheng Sheng Man."
Author's note: @@~ Sir, you're really too awesome... P.S. How come we still haven't gotten to the food... Another P.S. When I said "take it seriously," I meant I won't abandon it... This story really has no inspiration, I'm tearing my hair out... Can't write more either...
OpenNovel