CH 5

F’s WeChat message came in: “Ms.Yu!!!”

“What’s up?”

“Are you dissatisfied?”

“How could I be dissatisfied?”

“But you’re so calm. When we were synchronized before, you were very excited. (accompanied by a finger pointing emoji)”

“I am excited.”

Several voice messages came in.

“Right? right? When she sent it to me, I was running circles at home. That’s Su! Chang! She actually agreed to do a trial recording! When I sent her the email invitation, I was still worried, but when she replied to my email, she directly attached a recording file and asked me if the vocal range was okay.”

“Waaaa… Su Chang, asked me if this vocal range was okay, I’m going to cry. I can even imagine her tone when she asked me this question. Can you imagine it? Can you, Ms.Yu?”

As F spoke, her pace became faster, with a genuinely excited sob in her voice towards the end.

As the messages came in one by one, the sound effect was like sighing.

“Ms.Yu, let me tell you, Su is not only a good person, but also very dedicated. I didn’t even give her the lines for the trial recording. How could I dare to let her try it? She actually found the original text by herself and even tried a high-profile line.”

“She actually read the original text. You may not know, actually reading the original text is not necessary, usually just reading the script is fine.”

I know, how could I not know.

She has always been reading the original works, often staying up late to read.

Yu Zhou quietly said in her heart.

Several heart-warming emojis were sent over there. Yu Zhou clicked the “+” button in the WeChat conversation box, wanting to choose a suitable emoji to reply, but after looking at them, she felt they were all too few and not fresh enough, so she closed it and prepared to type.

She typed and deleted, deleted and typed, and the cursor kept flashing.

Wang Wan’s voice interjected from the dialogue of the TV series: “Su Chang, is a teacher#1?”

The person on the other end of the phone called her Teacher Su.

“No,” Yu Zhou came back to her senses, sent a smiley face emoji casually, and explained to Xiang Wan, “CV, that is a voice actor. My novel is going to be made into an audio drama, similar to the TV drama we are watching now, but without pictures, just listening. As a voice actor, she will use her voice to interpret the characters in my writing.”

“Interpretation, just like in this TV show, right?” Xiang Wan was curious.

“Yes, it’s similar to when you all used to watch plays like the Butterfly Lovers and Legend of the White Snake. They’re all fake. TV is just like a stage, capturing the appearance of the person, like cutting out a silhouette, and then putting it into these screen stages to perform.”

Xiang Wan didn’t quite understand, but there were too many strange things happening, so she could only accept it.

Whatever Yu Zhou said to her, she wouldn’t be surprised.

She regarded her time-travel experience as a dream from a casual book or perhaps as a fantasy after her death, either descending into hell or ascending into the heavenly realm, both being strange and rare. It was also like starting over as a child.

“So,” she gently tilted her head, her long hair falling down, “the voice you just heard was Su Chang’s. She portrayed your character like that.”

“Yes, you’re good at drawing inferences from one another,” Yu Zhou complimented her with a smile.

This Miss Xiang was interesting and happened to appear when she was unemployed and bored. She could talk to her and pass the time. She was also named Wanwan and was like Little Wan wan becoming a spirit.

If only Wan wan really became a spirit, she could turn her back into a cat and take her out without anyone noticing.

Yu Zhou thought to herself.

“Oh,” Yu Zhou raised a finger, “I know what you can do now. CV, you can learn to do CV.”

Xiang Wan looked at her confusedly.

Yu Zhou absent-mindedly tapped her fist, “Yes, your voice is so pleasant to listen to. Take an online course and find a teacher to guide you. I’ll invest in a set of equipment for you. Then you can work from home. With your talent, I can’t say how much you can earn, but at least it can be a small supplement. What do you think?”

Only then did she remember to ask for Xiang Wan’s opinion.

“I think…” Xiang Wan felt that no profession was as easy as Yu Zhou believed, with no barriers to entry.

“I’ll order a set of equipment for you right away.” Yu Zhou opened JD.com, then closed it and opened WeChat to send a voice message to F, “Ms.F, I have a question for you. What equipment is good for beginners who want to learn to be a CV?”

She was excited, while Xiang Wan lowered her eyelids and smiled, turning her head to continue watching Yang Guang in the drama.

After one episode finished playing, just as it was about to jump to the next segment, Xiang Wan sensed Yu Zhou’s gaze and hesitantly turned to ask her with her eyes.

Yu Zhou held the phone in the palm of her hand, propping up her chin, pondering, “I suddenly realized that your age in ancient times might not be the same as ours in modern times, right?”

“What do you mean?”

“You said you’re eighteen, but the way you laughed just now looked similar to my sister’s expression.”

“How old is your sister?”

“Almost thirty.”

“Thirty,” Xiang Wan whispered, “in my dynasty, if one were to get married and have children early, they could probably become a grandmother.”

“In our time, it might be a blessing not to get married,” Yu Zhou laughed lightly.

Xiang Wan’s gaze shifted, not pursuing the topic any further.

“It’s still early, and we’re bored. Let me give you a little lesson on voice acting.” Yu Zhou noticed her silence and suggested.

Xiang Wan smiled, “Okay.”

Yu Zhou cleared her throat, “This craft of voice acting has been passed down for many dynasties, divided into two schools: Southern Su Chang and Northern Three Sounds.”

After a moment of silence, Xiang Wan asked her, “Did you come up with it?”

“How did you know?”

“It doesn’t sound like something serious.”

“I just thought it sounded more impressive to say ‘south’ and ‘north’.”

Yu Zhou waved her hand. “Three Tones is a big voice acting studio with many talented voice actors. However Su Chang is just one person.”

She leaned closer to Xiang Wan. “Do you understand now?”

“I… understand what?”

“That means Su Chang is very talented. She can be as famous as a whole top-level voice acting studio as a freelancer.”

“Oh.” Xiang Wan nodded.

Yu Zhou frowned. “What’s that expression on your face?”

Xiang Wan smiled softly. “I feel like you’re very proud of her.”

She can even notice that, Yu Zhou admitted, “A little bit.”

She leaned back on the sofa, her arm resting on the armrest, her voice a little hoarse. “She’s my ex-girlfriend.”

“Ex-girlfriend…”

“Yeah, we had… you know, pledged our love to each other, were deeply in love, and very close. But we broke up.” Yu Zhou said.

Xiang Wan glanced at Yu Zhou’s smiling lips and slightly furrowed brow, and asked, “Why?”

“It’s a long story.” Yu Zhou sighed, “This gossip isn’t suitable to talk about when we’ve just met. After all, Su Chang has a lot of fans, if this gets exposed, it would be scary.”

“I won’t do anything.” Xiang Wan lowered her head and looked at her fingertips.

“I know, but heavyweight gossip shouldn’t be talked about when we’ve just met. That’s a principle.” Yu Zhou frowned even deeper.

If she reveals everything, it will seem like the person has no more value to uncover.

Xiang Wan nodded, leaned down to get a glass of water, and drank it gracefully.

Yu Zhou looked down, intending to play with her phone, but then a message from F appeared again.

It was a screen recording.

Yu Zhou opened it without any defense. The recording was a chat between F and Su Chang. The cursor opened the white voice message bar next to Su Chang’s avatar, and Su Chang asked, “How about the author, what did the author say?”

A message from F appeared above the phone, and Yu Zhou clicked on it. She sent a cocky voice message, “Ms.Su wants to know your opinion on the trailing voice file. I think she asked too ‘Su’, so I sent it to you to listen. Did she or not?”

Yes. The nasal sound of those words lingered for a second or two, allowing one’s imagination to run wild.

She might have just woken up, as she often flipped her day and night schedule. If she didn’t have work and wasn’t called by Yu Zhou, she could sleep until the afternoon.

Or perhaps she had just finished her morning work, wiped her mouth with a tissue during a meal break, drank some water, and then asked the question.

Because once, Yu Zhou complained about Su Chang’s tone being too cold during a phone call and said to her, “Don’t talk to me in such a dry way.”

Su Chang laughed lightly on the other end of the phone, took a sip of water, and asked, “How can I be more moist?”

Just like that, after taking a sip of water, with a smiling voice, she sounded moist.

Yu Zhou finally came back to her senses and didn’t reply to F’s message. Instead, she opened her Weibo account.

She scrolled through the comments from readers, answered a few questions, and suddenly her phone vibrated with a private message.

The message abbreviation read: “Ahhhhhh.”

Yu Zhou clicked on it and saw that it was from an unfamiliar fan who said, “Ahhhhhh, Ms.Yu! Ms.Su followed you!!!”