Exclusive Rights to An Online Voice Actor

Chapter 123

unedited

“Aya—!” The audience was the first to exclaim.

Even if only a text could be passed through the chat, those rows of exclamation marks were almost like a scream audible to the ear—an over hundred decibels one.

Audience 1: (/≥▽≤/) (/≥▽≤/) (/≥▽≤/) TEACHER LONGBOW!!!! TEACHER LONGBOW, AHHHH!!!!!

Audience 2: (/≥▽≤/) (/≥▽≤/) (/≥▽≤/) We can actually hear Teacher Longbow appear in a live performance, I can die happy now!!!!

Audience 3: o(*////▽////*)q Holy!! Teacher Longbow... I am such a fangirl of Teacher Longbow... Previously, when he was still active as an online voice actor, I really loved his works. I always wanted to hear him play as a loyal dog gong, so the role as Lord Shunyang is just right for it, kyaaa~

Audience 4: o(*////▽////*)q Cough cough, the one above, you need to calm down! This is clearly a mainstream work! And they’re brothers!【But... But I also want to hear it←oi】

Audience 5: Hahahaha... Love to see it! I really love to see it!【My man Don’t ask for my return date straight up profited of his own disaster!】

Audience 6: Help... I’m so excited just thinking about how Teacher Longbow is about to play together with Don’t ask for my return date!! It’s my first time seeing a judge stepping down to act as a fill-in, I’m so excited for that, waah!!

As the still shocked Qi Jing took a long while getting back to his senses, the little light by Longbow’s ID flickered, “Good evening.”

After that, he seemed to consider something for a while, then said with a smile, “During the finals, contestants don’t have an assigned number, I can’t call you by one. So, can I just directly call you Return Date?”

No wonder the voice described as ‘like basking in a spring wind’ within the circle, this description was very much deserved. Even without looking at the chat, Qi Jing knew that it definitely erupted into the squeals of infatuation.

“Sure...” Qi Jing steeled himself and smiled. Right now, he was only praying for one thing: he hoped that there won’t be any “Long Term” sort of ship thread cropping out the next day in the forum. No—way—in—hell.Teacher Yuan... Your messing with the rules sure gives me a high blood pressure, mayhaps You know that?

Of course Yuan Zhengming knew. He was even immensely proud of his handling of this matter, “Since cooperative acting is the key feature of the finals, there’s no telling if some kind of issue won’t occur. Once someone can’t show up, it can get thorny, so I planned a countermeasure beforehands—in this situation it would be also unfair to rearrange the audition with another contestant, so the judges themselves would fill in instead.”

All that logic and reason, but it’s all just because of your weird inclinations. Qi Jing dissed inwardly.

Longbow himself didn’t have any objections, “Of course, I will go along with Teacher’s arrangements.”

Qi Jing had no words to say. How could such a hoodlum of a teacher bring up this kind of meek and well-behaved pupil, it really made one ponder life... In introspection, someone of Two’s sort would be more suitable as Yuan Zhengming’s student...

Outside of the competition, Two sneezed, oblivious.

“Return Date.”

“...Yes, sir!” Qi Jing suddenly heard Longbow calling him and replied instinctively—and even subconsciously using the roll call reply from the military training he did back in his student days. After saying this, he stared awkwardly, cringing.

The audience burst out in laughter. Longbow laughed along, his laugh truly reminding one of a sweeping spring wind, “Are you very nervous?”

“A bit...” Qi Jing smiled, embarrassed.

Audience 1: ╰(*°▽°*)╯Pffft, Don’t ask for my return date’s voice is shaking!!

Audience 2: ╰(*°▽°*)╯Pffft, it really is shaking...

Audience 3: ╰(*°▽°*)╯Pffft, just now he was so cocky and arrogant towards great god, so seeing him now getting so meek in an instant is so so cute~

Audience 3: ╰(*°▽°*)╯Pfft, Return Date sir, before Lord Longbow you are like a living image of a student who forgot to do his homework and now is afraid of getting scolded by the teacher!!

Audience 5:╰(*°▽°*)╯Pffft, I won’t say anything, I’m lining up.

Audience 6:╰(*°▽°*)╯Pffft, as above, I’m holding the line. 【I heard that Teacher Longbow’s voice is really pleasant, *rolls around with face in hands*】

Qi Jing silently stared at the chat, his gaze dead—don’t sabotage me in a place like this, what happened to the mutual lenience between us?

Quality-wise, there was a bit of a similarity between Longbow’s and Shen Yan’s voice. But Longbow sounded more upper-class, as if he was from a big-name influential family, while Shen Yan gave a more down-to-earth, steady impression—in a word, both were a great choice to indulge one’s ears.

Nonetheless, this person was a professional voice actor, a veteran among veterans.

As this thought appeared in his mind, the stage fright also kicked in. He who was absolutely fearless when facing Bronze Sparrow Terrace... was actually scared.

“No need to be afraid, just treat me as a usual contestant.” As if understanding Qi Jing’s hesitation, Longbow encouraged him with a faint chuckle. Qi Jing was just in the middle of considering how he could possibly brainwash himself into thinking of a judge as a contestant, when Longbow suddenly added, “After all, it’s not favourable for you to get teamed up with me.”

Qi Jing and everyone else were all just as dumbfounded. Longbow continued speaking calmly, “Since I’m a professional voice actor and a judge at the same time, for the sake of making it as fair as possible, I will give all of the initiative to you—you will be the one guiding the performance of characters’ emotions. Outside of the first line that needs to be started by me, my acting will be completely dependant on your acting, so your ‘Emperor Chang’ will decide on how my ‘Marquess Shunyang’ will turn out.”

The last part was the crucial one. “In other words&#k2014;if there’s any mistake in your acting, I won’t be correcting you, only going along with the wrong interpretation.”

Ah... I get it now. Qi Jing suddenly understood it.

That ‘unfavorability’ Longbow spoke about was in fact connected to the ‘importance of synergy’ Pu Yuzhi spoke of before—when two contestant performed together, if one of them deviated, as long the other one had the skill to do that, they would be able to correct each other through the changes in their tone, slowly getting them back on the right the right tracks. This way, they would still be left with some hope. This was the means of compensating each other’s flaws that wasn’t there in the semi-finals, and only appeared in the very finals.

And with Longbow saying so now, it was nothing else than just telling him that this time, the performance depended solely on him, and that he lost that chance to ‘compensate’ each other. Not only that, he also had to be the one taking the lead. And his weakness was no other than precisely being easily led astray by the others voice actors, being the rather passive type of a VA. This time, for him to have to give momentum to a veteran much more experienced than him like Longbow... would he really be able to manage that?

Qi Jing’s throat bobbed slightly. He felt as if something was stuck there, hard and stinging, making it hard to even speak. He thought back to the feeling from years ago, when he couldn’t find the feeling and was hence repeatedly cut&#k2014;it was about the same as now.

That won’t do.That wouldn’t do, he had to clear his thoughts—what kind of person was “Marquess Shunyang” from the novel?

Although he later listened to the recording of the entire audition... Shen Yan’s non-canon “Marquess Shunyang” left him with the biggest impression, etched deep inside his mind, unforgettable. Other peoples’ more canon interpretation of “Marquess Shunyang” on the other hand didn’t leave much impression on him, all sticking to the appropriate norms.

—Is that the first impression being the strongest?Qi Jing smiled bitterly. That didn’t fare him well...

Looking at the chosen lines, the scene at question was that of forcing the emperor to abdicate, with “Marquess Shunyang” in later stages of his blackening, nothing like the currently speaking urbane and spring wind-like Longbow. Right now, his mind was blank, unable to think of any suitable plan.

“Then, how about we begin now?” Longbow asked.

“Okay...” Fortunately Longbow would be the one to take the first step, he was the one to follow. But he was still nervous inside.

How was it possible for a person as gentle as Teacher Longbow to allow Qi Jing to imagine him as a callous warrior forced onto the ruthless path by his own brother?

Someone as gentle as Teacher Longbow—

“Your Highness.” Two words, yet they already crushed his previous misgivings.

Qi Jing felt like if his hearing nerve got pulled at by something, his body involuntarily sitting straight up, as if a wet, cold brush scrubbed at his back.

“It is only Your Highness’ servant here,” The voice of the man in the headphones came through unhurriedly, “There is no other person.”

If a person’s tone could be likened to the surface of water, then those two sentences didn’t rise even the slightest ripple.

Yet Qi Jing felt as if there was a wall pressing over ahead of him.

Incredible—It was said that the professional voice actors all underwent strict training. Once Longbow spoke, the core quality of his voice changed in an instant— with the projection of his voice shifting to the back of his nasal cavity, and so the slight change from rich to unclear was complete. This way, the resounding depth and steadiness required for the “Marquess Shunyang” was brought out in a moment.

More than that, his voice clearly was backed by a powerful aftereffect—just like the lower body of a true martial artist that could seem to stand like any normal person, but no amount of pushing would make them budge. Longbow’s tone was insipid, but deep inside, each of the words he said had plenty of weight, releasing a terrifying pressure all around him.

Such a strong foundation... Not just any other online VA could compare.

Qi Jing shook slightly, sure enough crushed by this sudden onslaught of pressure. With this added to the already great pressure of having to act along with Longbow, his throat was a bit hoarse when he spoke.

“You—...” At this point, this was still half “Qi Jing”, not a complete “Emperor Chang” yet.

Maybe because there was a certain overlap in their scared mindset at that moment, so the fact that he didn’t yet get immersed in the scene got slightly covered, but as teachers, Yuan Zhengming and Pu Yuzhi should have probably heard it?

Qi Jing was clear about it himself—his speed of getting into the acting mindset was at least twice as long as Longbow’s.

He realised that in reality, the actually capable VAs like Two, Shen Yan, Longbow and so on all shared a trait, and that was the speed of getting immersed into the scene.

Because there was only one person per audition during the semi-finals, whether one did or didn’t get immersed depended solely on their own figuring out of the emotions, he didn’t experience it as much. But once he got to the finals that required both parties to perform their lines in turns, it was much more evident who was quicker and who was slower at it.

The more he understood this gap... the more he feared.

He could almost see the description of this part from the ⟪Order to End the Heavens⟫ before his eyes. “Emperor Chang” fell to the ground from his throne, while “Marquess Shunyang” with the great victory at the reach of his hand closed the door of the secret pass slowly, walking over step by step.

Qi Jing gave a start, then clenched his fists with a furrow.

That’s not right—

He couldn’t only display the emotion of “fear”.

In fact, no matter how afraid, how miserable he was, in his bones, “Emperor Chang” was still a monarch, and he despised his low-born brother from the bottom of his heart. He was afraid, yes, but even while afraid he still had to put his high and royal nature before that, especially prompted by his pride as the legal son of the previous emperor’s first wife.

He had to first forget that the man before him was Teacher Longbow he so respected, forget that this man was more seasoned than him, more experienced, with better skill.

He had to look down from up above at him, mock him arrogantly, belittle him.

He had to, as the proud Son of Heavens—

As he thought of this, his lips moved instinctively, their corners curling up a bit.

“Haha.” Probably because his teeth were still shaking a moment before, when he opened his mouth to speak now, the laugh that escaped his throat had a peculiar morbid taste to it—like that of a person who was so afraid, they turned calm instead, making it hard to say whether they truly calmed down or turned completely insane.

The audience momentarily forgot to type, turning all of their attention to listening.

That voice laughed slightly twice, then suddenly raised high, like the change of when one suddenly raised their hung head. It was clearly the emperor who just fell from the throne, but he still had the frivolity to look down with contempt at the other, “Calling yourself Our ‘servant’, yet you still dare to not kneel before Us?”

Audience 1: ...Woah...

Audience 2: Woaaaah... I’m starting to feel it!

Audience 3: Datey like this is so moe! I really love him in this kind of deranged character roles~【Oi】(≧≦)

“Your Highness... is frightened.” At that time, Longbow lowered his voice a bit, even retracting a bit of that overbearing demeanour—like when a sword edge hits a stone slab, knowing that hitting any further would only damage the blade, he instead chose to slide down its surface uhurriedly. After putting away the sword, the sharp feeling he caused also weakened slowly.

Longbow’s tone seemed to have reverted back to “Marquess Shunyang’s” days of being a loyal subject when he urged gently, “This servant, didn’t mean to harm Your Highness. As long as Your Highness hands over the imperial seal, this servant will...”

Qi Jing cut him short harshly. “What? You keep calling Us ‘Your Highness’, yet you still don’t understand the difference of status between a master and a servant?” Why did they have to rebel, why did this man have to come here and speak of handing the imperial seal. Getting bitten by a dog he once trusted didn’t spark just a simple anger, but more so the indignation and grief of getting betrayed. Though his rage was so strong that he laughed instead, there was still a trace of grievance in his laughter, “You little... you traitorous puny servant, what right do you have to make Us give you Our imperial seal?”

Longbow’s backing down was indeed to follow his acting. Once he thought that, something in him got spurred, and so his voice raised higher as he spoke, to the point where he was just short of shouting out those frenzied words to curse him. The situation turned momentarily, with “Emperor Chang” taking the main spot on scene.

“Ha, hahaha, is it not because you’re already thinking yourself a noble?” Qi Jing laughed eerily—but it wasn’t a laugh of a normal person, more like that of a deranged lunatic. He also used the characteristic of his voice that would raise higher at the end, adding a bit more of the mocking tone to this question.

He actually liked playing the temperamental and twisted characters, but because of his voice sounding too characteristic, all he would usually get to play would be the well-bred and gentlemanly sons of nobility. So now that he got the rare chance to voice act lines like these, it was surprisingly easy for him to get into the role.

After his mocking, he took a breath, then laughed viciously through gritted teeth, “But no matter if it’s for seniority or status, you’re still... lower, than, me!”

Even when abandoning their roles as monarch and his subject, even just in the capacity of brothers, when he dropped “Us” for “I” to refer to himself, he still held the other in contempt.

Although his background wasn’t the same as Longbow’s, he also underwent professional voice training as a TV reporter, but its goals were a bit different, with the most importance attached to “quick, precise, and clear speech”, as well as making the news sound more captivating. Those few things... he could use them all just perfectly here.

Audience 1: ┭┮﹏┭┮ So! Handsome! Ah! I actually love this mental case of an emperor who put the majority of his skill points into ridicule!! 【Oi】

Audience 2: ┭┮﹏┭┮ Aaaah... Don’t ask for my return date’s lunatic is even more handsome than his nobleman!!【Eh, I mean it in a positive way, I really do...】

Audience 3: Teacher Longbow actually got suppressed...

Audience 4: Teacher Longbow carried on with it so well, and later Don’t ask for my return date’s comeback really is so hype, ahhh!! No wonder big brother Emperor is a major villain, he feels like such a sadist!

Audience 5: Back to sadist, great. His initial shaky voice reminded me more of a masochist (pfft), it really made me fear for him... Now it seems like he can finish the acting smoothly~

Audience 6: (*≧▽≦*) Good luck Datey, just like this!! Keep it on!!

With such positive feedback from the audience, his confidence grew as well. And he was just in the high of his performance, with his momentum as “Emperor Chang” growing stronger with each moment. “Marquess Shunyang” also had a pretty long pause from speaking, so it was just perfect for him to continue showing off his acting skill.

If he could keep it on like this, then he should be able to—

Qi Jing opened his mouth, getting ready to also shout out the next line with his current impetus, but he suddenly stopped dead in his tracks.

【You’re just a bastard the previous emperor abandoned outside, with no name or status, yet you still desire to rob me of this land... You should never be born to this world in the first place!】

...Right... The emperor cursed him in the novel, and it was meant to humiliate the marquess, so of course he would mention it, even aggravating the wound with all his savagery.

...But...

Shen Yan’s hoarse voice from his memory suddenly overtook his mind, each word hitting like so many bullets.

【I clearly... deep in my heart, I utterly detest you. But, you’re... my only family in the world.】

When Qi Jing opened his mouth, no sound came out, as if he froze.

In the story, the previous emperor passed away early, and although “Emperor Chang’s” mother got married as an empress, her background was humble. Before she bore the crown prince, she would often get mocked by the concubines in the harem, and after passing away from the illness she only left him as a single lonely son, with no brothers or cousins to rely on. That’s why, wasn’t “Marquess Shunyang” “Emperor Chang’s” only family as well?

The emperor worked his hardest to support the position he only took these years alone, and probably also went through no small amount of schemes and treacheries, yet he had no trusted person by his side.

He certainly... had also wished for this “family” for himself.

Even though he knew that Shen Yan’s performance didn’t stick to the original novel, the logic was there. If “Marquess Shunyang” went down this route, then “Emperor Chang” should also—

“...Gh..” Qi Jing trembled, as if able to see the view of this scene, see the face of the man standing before him.

When acting with another person, the actor didn’t only have to read the other’s voice, but also read their silence. Read their body language, expressions and such.

Right now, Qi Jing felt as if he could see “Marquess Shunyang’s” expression.

When the emperor said this, the other didn’t say anything in reply, eyes looking down in a numb expression—an expression of having his wounded heart getting gouged out from his chest. And when he also imagined it appearing on Shen Yan’s face as “Marquess Shunyang”, he suddenly realised that he was there, listening.

—Shen Yan was listening.

His lips moved as he instinctively changed his tone under the look of those eyes. “You were just abandoned by the previous emperor outside...” At this point, his voice paused, like when a long crack climbs up the tall wall that is about to collapse. The wavering was especially prominent in the last word, said almost as if he didn’t want to hurt this man, “...A bastard.”

I’m finished. At that moment, there were only those two words in Qi Jing’s mind.

I’m finished, I’m finished...

This was a blatant mistake, one he couldn’t cover up anymore.

A/N:

2Yan got imprinted with the first impression Kitty’s Papa made, what a tempting demon... (What a pity, he also couldn’t voice act in ⟪Trap⟫ because of that very reason, *wipes fake tears* ← Eh?)

PS: I also kinda ship “Long Term” ← I’m also a “Time Limit” shipper （Kitty’s Papa: “.....”)