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Chapter 78

TLC: Lilies

Editor: unedited

Qi Jing recalled the day he first arrived at the provincial capital.

He got off the train alone, an old edition of ⟪City Guide⟫ in his hand. But although it’s only been three years since that edition was printed, the train station was new, built in a development area that replaced a former wasteland. This meant that there were no marks on the map—no marked metro station, no marked bus stop, no road to follow.

Just like that, everything became unfathomable, leaving him at loss of what he should do.

To keep himself from getting lost, he needed to buy a new map and familiarise himself with this place once again.

That was also the case at the present.

As he pieced together the puzzle called Shen Yan he came to the sudden realisation of the shocking truth that he didn’t have all the puzzle pieces—if he wanted to complete it, then those pieces he had at hand simply weren’t enough...

“Are you getting off work soon?”

Shen Yan was currently writing down the microbiological examination report with his head lowered in the laboratory. When he suddenly heard Qi Jing’s voice coming from the entrance, he got startled and thought he was hearing things—only when he turned his head back did he realise that he wasn’t hearing things. Qi Jing really stood there, leaning against the doorframe as he watched him.

“Why are you...” here. Due to this surprise, both Shen Yan’s speech and movement became a tad slow from the shock.

“I came to pick you up.”

Qi Jing said casually as he strode over with a light smile on his lips, then found a chair to sit down. He didn’t hurry Shen Yan, only signaling him to keep working at his own pace.

Shen Yan finished writing the examination report in silence, disposed of the petri dishes, turned off the microscope, and finally when he walked over to the sink to wash his hands, he couldn’t help but ask Qi Jing again, “It’s ten before five now and you have a competition at six... Why did you go out of your way to come here?”

“I just felt like it,” Qi Jing simply chuckled, but his gaze never strayed away from him, “Either way... If I stayed at home, I’d just be idling away; I’d rather come over, have a chat with you and ease my nerves.”

It was just an excuse.

But it was a very good excuse, since Shen Yan didn’t continue inquiring about it.

Even though he said he came over to chat, the two of them didn’t in fact speak to each other, quite tacit in keeping the silence. The room was completely quiet, with only the sound of flowing faucet water to be heard. And just like during the time when they were communicating through the internet, the moment of silence between them was, in most cases, actually rather comforting, intimate.

And there were bound to be intersections between blanks, so there was no need to choose any particular topic to talk about.

Outside the window, the leaves of a parasol tree had almost all fallen, leaving only barren branches. The sky was overcast, making it look like a giant canvas covered in grey mould and the branches were the painting, only black, white and grey colours intersecting on its surface—the more one looked, one could feel the nearing of winter.

When I was feeling my very first heartthrobs for this man, the leaves outside the window were still half green, half yellow, yet now they were actually all gone. Qi Jing thought to himself, silently recalled the time captured under this parasol tree.

He kept getting attracted.

He kept getting closer.

But today, just when he felt they were already so close, a sudden sense of distance hit him all at once.

Just as when he used to look at the things he liked at the display windows when he was a child—he could see it, yes, but he was still kept apart from it by the window glass.

“If only, I could get closer to you...” He said without thinking too much. Not at all caring if Shen Yan heard him, or if he understood him.

But Shen Yan should have heard that, otherwise he wouldn’t lift his head up at this moment as bewilderment flashed across his eyes.

Qi Jing just chuckled, “Would you mind if I approached you now?”

—On the surface, he was just talking about physical distance.

Hearing this, Shen Yan shook his head slowly, so Qi Jing stood up and took a couple of paper towels in passing, taking those two, well-defined hands in his to wipe off the water for him.

At that time, Qi Jing saw the band aid on Shen Yan’s left hand. When he was washing his hand just now, Shen Yan took care to avoid getting water on it. He chuckled in a low voice, “Your state now seems much better than during noon... Otherwise, with you acting so muddle-headed, you would have washed all of it away, the band-aid included.”

With his head lowered, Qi Jing focused on wiping, while Shen Yan lowered his head to focus his gaze on him instead.

“Are you still worried?”

Qi Jing hesitated, then smiled bitterly, “Not really...”

Rather than being worried, he was reflecting upon himself, upon how he currently knew nothing and could do nothing to prevent the problems to come.

He knew that even if he spread his hand to its fullest, with only one viable hand, it was impossible for him to think of holding both of Shen Yan’s hands—likewise, there was a limit to what one could do under limited conditions.

“I just feel like I’m no good, and can’t help you in any way.”

“You can’t use your hand, it’s not like it’s your fault.” Shen Yan replied. He thought that Qi Jing was talking about how he couldn’t take care of cooking, indirectly causing him to cut his hand.

“I’m not talking about this.” Qi Jing said, shaking his head with a laugh, then continued his still unfinished work.

No one can help him—Sleek horses run fast had said so before.

But, he didn’t want to be part of those people, part of the “no one” he mentioned.

He wanted to break the glass before his eyes, to become a “special one”—he wished that when the next year comes and the parasol tree grows new, tender leaves... That he would still be able to walk by that man’s side just as before.

Once they finished clearing everything up, it was just about the time to get off work and the two of them left the hospital together.

On their way back, the small streets and alleys were all full of people, especially the lively food market in the neighbourhood. The puffs of white steam spiralled above the street food stalls, sending the delicious scent of food wafting all around, both the look and scent of it making one feel warm. The sounds of store owners hawking, people bargaining, the rush of bicycles weaving through the street all made up the unique scent of life.

“Let’s cut through the small side alley.” Qi Jing proposed. The liveliness of a food market had it’s charm, but it didn’t really suit the atmosphere for a talk during a walk.

Shen Yan nodded his head.

Taking a detour around that sea of people, they left the busy streets behind them, entering a rather peaceful alleyway.

Autumn was ending, so the branches of two persimmon trees at both sides of the alleyway were heavy with brilliantly red fruits, their colours festive and looking like a plentiful of small red lanterns from afar. Looking from a closer distance, those persimmons were also covered in a thin, white layer of frost, much like the bits of snow found on those lanterns at the end of the year.

“The persimmons are ripe.” Qi Jing looked up with slightly narrowed eyes, his voice sounding quite happy. Then, he suddenly took a big step forward and was no longer going side by side with Shen Yan, going ahead by himself.

Shen Yan had been silent throughout their stroll—only when Qi Jing left his side did he seem to wake with a start, his eyes following closely at the back of that figure.

At that time, Qi Jing had already gone almost five meters ahead of him, only slowing down under the persimmon tree.

Shen Yan also stopped subconsciously.

Qi Jing turned over and couldn’t help but laugh at the sight of him instinctively stopping those five meters away, stopping down as well, “Shen Yan, do you want to take a bet?”

Shen Yan hesitated, only asking after a long while, “What kind of bet?”

Qi Jing leaned back against the persimmon tree’s trunk, bending one of his knees to also support his foot on its bark. He turned his head sideways and met Shen Yan’s eyes, his posture relaxed and leisurely—just as his gaze.

“In the next fifty minutes, I will be having my first competition.” First, there was an opening statement.

“Mn.”

“Do you still remember my initial goal for taking part in it?” Qi Jing asked with a laugh, then took the lead to answer his own question, “It was to change everyone’s opinions towards my voice, to win that round against the great god Bronze Sparrow Terrace.”

“Mn.” Shen Yan still remembered it all.

“Then...” Qi Jing stopped talking for a moment, then continued after taking a deep breath, “Let’s say that if my total score in this competition exceeds Bronze Sparrow Terrace’s score, and I win—you would have to promise me something.”

With virtually no hesitation or delay, Shen Yan nodded his head immediately.

Qi Jing laughed in spite of himself, and instead offered to let the other man think it over, “Why did you agree so quickly? You can still take your time considering it.”

Shen Yan answered truthfully, “Because I think that I would certainly agree.”

Hearing those words, Qi Jing straightened back his slightly inclined head to look at him, something in his gaze growing soft. So soft that it was about to turn into water and spill all around—he had to quietly look away, so as not to truly let it spill.

“Then you listen closely,” Qi Jing said slowly, word by word in a low voice, “If I really fulfil my end of the promise and beat Bronze Sparrow Terrace in overall score, winning against him in that round... Then I would like you to tell me something, something I still don’t know about you.”

Shen Yan was stunned.

Qi Jing continued, the tone of his voice raised for a bit.

“If it’s something you’ve always wanted to tell me, but didn’t have the chance to... then it would be even better.”

Only when he finished saying that he found some courage to meet the other party’s gaze.

He didn’t know if there was a shock on Shen Yan’s face just a moment ago, but he was sure he did hesitate. Because as he looked up, he realised that Shen Yan was still looking down with his head lowered, even taking twice as long time as he did.

During that time, he kept waiting patiently.

Finally, Shen Yan’s pursed lips opened just a bit and only after another moment of silence he actually spoke up, “If in reality... those things weren’t something you would wish to know, would it still be ok?”

“What you want to say is what I wish to hear, didn’t I tell you before?” Hearing him getting so close to yielding, Qi Jing secretly felt unbearably happy, and hurriedly pushed forward lightly, not letting this opportunity slip, “I promise that no matter what you say, I will accept it all, and that no matter what you say, there will be no change to our relationship.”

Shen Yan’s lips gently closed shut again.

At this moment, Qi Jing’s heart was just like the branches of the persimmon tree above him, the plentiful persimmons weighing down heavily, their burden too big, making each movement of the branches strenuous and difficult to bear.

“With the motivation, I would get a lot of encouragement when I’m competing.” He didn’t forget to coax Shen Yan patiently in a roundabout way.

Shen Yan seemingly wanted to say something, but he didn’t open his mouth in the end.

“My own voice isn’t really suited for that role, so it’s the most challenging one for me, but you... Are you not willing to give me some form of reward?” He once again changed his approach, this time going for the rascally, spoilt tone.

Hearing him speak like that, Shen Yan’s lips curled up a bit into a smile as if completely weak against Qi Jing.

Catching that change in his expression, Qi Jing immediately left the persimmon tree and came over to his side, grasping his hand and murmuring in a low voice that made it hard to refuse, “Hmmm? How about it?”

How about it?With this tone, this kind of question, how could he bear to say no.

“Ok...” Shen Yan heaved an inaudible sigh. But the colours that filled his eyes as he watched Qi Jing were soft and warm, “Let’s wait for the results of your first competition to come out, then we’ll talk.”

Qi Jing had never been more excited for his own competition.

Before, he had treated it as something unimportant to him, he wouldn’t be bothered by what score he would get. But this time, he had to do his best—vowing to crush Bronze Sparrow Terrace.

Whether he wins or not was already irrelevant to him; what really mattered was to fight that opportunity for the two of them to have a heart-to-heart talk.

At least that’s what Qi Jing thought.

But Bronze Sparrow Terrace’s fans didn’t think so at all, including Jade Butterfly whose relationship with the great god, albeit unknown, was certainly not simple.

On the other hand, not even an hour after the long since retired “Swift horses run fast” had made a new post on weibo, the news had already spread far and wide on the forum, causing an uproar. In a mere few hours, his fans had already opened several new threads dedicated to discussing these news.

The topic of the discussion was, of course, the meaning behind that single “dumbass” from their idol’s post.

Since his ID had just appeared in the discussion thread for ⟪Order to End the Heavens⟫, it didn’t take long for netizens of the online voice acting circle, famous for their god-level brain holes to let their imagination go wild, all of them reaching the conclusion that maybe the great god was giving his reply to that situation. After all, he had already disappeared for so long and the time of his appearance was way too coincidental, making one instinctively link it with the whole incident of “Kitty’s Papa’s flatmate”.

And as for the precise meaning of that “dumbass”, the opinions differed.

One side argued: It certainly means “You’re all dumbasses, how could it possibly be me”.

The other side refuted: This must mean “You’re all dumbasses, how could it be Don’t ask for my return date, of course it’s me”.

All the bickering could only be considered a pandemonium.

But no matter which side’s arguments received recognition, at least the objective of using Sleek Horse as a distraction had been achieved.

Qi Jing made full display of his signature style from his times as a “god of playing dead” and was slow in declaring his stand. What’s more, Sleek horses run fast was way more of a popular topic in the circle, so the public opinion was hence slowly directed away—everyone was more enthusiastic about discussing the possibility of the return of the legendary god.

Some of those who were fans of Bronze Sparrow Terrace and also Qi Jing’s haters—had also joined the discussion. Their reactions further assured Qi Jing that he was slowly getting rid of the suspicion of his identity as “the flatmate”.

【Comment 2542】：

╮(╯▽╰)╭ As I was saying, how could it possibly be Don’t ask for my return date? Bouncing back and forth between my darling Bronze Sparrow and Little Noodles like that, I couldn’t stand him from the very beginning.

So seems like it really is as some have speculated before and it was the already retired great god~

I can understand it if it was him, the god’s friend surely followed the god’s guidance, so there’s no wonder that his performance was superb. Still, it will be my family’s Bronze Sparrow who will perform the best during tonight’s “Marquess Shunyang” audition!! Even though so many people keep their eyes on Kitty’s Papa, I also feel he wouldn’t outdo Bronze Sparrow... Fine, in fact I really liked his acting, but after all, life core is a life core—Bronze Sparrow will always be my No.1 Love!! (╭￣3￣)╭

【Comment 2548】：

<(￣︶￣)> Shaking 2542’s paw through the internet! Seems like there’s plenty of Sparrow fans here, hehehe... Although I have a good opinion about Kitty の Papa but just as the commenter from 2542 had said, I can support him for a bit if he goes against anyone else, but when he’s competing with my life core... No hard feelings, but my vote is still for my life core, sorry.

As for Don’t ask for my return date... To be honest I don’t feel especially strong about him... I prefer the royal gong type of voice, while in ⟪Trap⟫, Don’t ask for my return date was really shou; I’m not a fan of that. I can’t really comment about him as a person. I guess I neither like nor hate him, but basically, as mentioned before, my life core will compete against him, then I won’t support him. This is a principle! A principle!

【Comment 2550】：

╮(╯▽╰)╭╮(╯▽╰)╭╮(╯▽╰)╭ What?? Don’t ask for my return wants to compete with our Bronze Sparrow for “Emperor Chang” with that weak shou voice of his? In any case, the character itself is an emperor, I sure hope he doesn’t turn the character into an empress (pffthaha).

That’s why people always say that it’s most important to have self-awareness. No matter how much hype he creates around himself, what he hypes up is simply above his actual abilities. I’ve seen a lot of people discussion some case of Kitty’s Papa’s roommate—besides Bronze Sparrow’s audition, I didn’t listen to anything else, so I don’t know what is it actually about, but after taking a glance it seems like Don’t ask for my return date tried to pass himself as a retired god, trying to hype himself as Kitty’s Papa’s flatmate, resulting in him getting face-slapped by the said god himself?

Hahahaha, really, he had that coming... I can’t wait to listen to tonight’s first audition and see how this weak shou will make a fool of himself under everyone’s eyes!!

【Comment 2552】：

Although Don’t ask for my return date’s and Sleek horses run fast’s voices are indeed a bit similar, when it comes to their characters, the godly status speaks for itself! There’s certainly a guarantee of credibility when it comes to people worthy of being titled as a god!! (That’s right, I’m indirectly praising my family’s Bronze Sparrow-sama and Noodles-sama =￣ω￣=）

Just look at it, our god had come out to do the faceslapping, but he was polite enough to only softly curse him with a single “dumbass” and didn’t inconvenience him in any way. If it was Return Date, he would probably burst into profanities and start smearing people’s reputation, pupupu...

This case is simply a failure of self-hyping and in a way, it’s also a model case of clowning yourself.

Good luck Bronze Sparrow-sama!! Put this death-courting Shou back in his place in the competition~ (～o￣▽￣)～o

...

...

My antis truly love me dearly—Qi Jing exclaimed to himself. He started to seriously consider if he should demand compensation from Sleek horses run fast for defamation.

He was really curious what those people would think if they knew his relationship with Shen Yan, Sleek horses run fast and Crossing the bridge noodles. Still... Those things couldn’t be mentioned during the competition, especially since he was about to take part in his first audition—it would be for the best for him to stay as far as possible from the centre of the drama.

On the other hand, only after opening QQ he realised that Jade Butterfly actually sent him over a dozen messages.

She left her messages at different points in time, so when Qi Jing went through them all at once, he could see clearly the change in her thought process throughout that day and its sight itself was plenty entertaining.

【Morning】

Jade Butterfly: I saw the rumour on the forum... Return Date, so you’re actually “Kitty の Papa”’s flatmate?? Come online right now!! I need an answer!!

Jade Butterfly: I can’t believe it, really... Return Date, you really are too good at deception—when I mentioned him to you before, you actually made it seem as if you didn’t know him, yet you’re actually his flatmate?? You’re a homo, so your roommate would be your partner in bed?? Impossible, he’s obviously a straight guy... You seduced him first, didn’t you? That must be the case, right??

Jade Butterfly: You come online quickly, give me an answer right now!!

Jade Butterfly: And I actually wanted to reach out to him to collaborate... If he’s a homo then how am I supposed to voice act with him, how awkward would it be!!

【Noon】

Jade Butterfly: I seem to have misunderstood you, so it wasn’t you??

Jade Butterfly: Return Date, there’s someone on the forum who says it wasn’t you, but the already retired Sleek horses run fast. I know him, his voice is indeed very similar to yours, but well, he sounds more manly and not so promiscuous...

Jade Butterfly: Anyway, I may have misunderstood you on this matter. Don’t take it to heart, I hope we’ll have a nice cooperation in the future as well~

Jade Butterfly: Poke me when you’re online, I need a word of assurance. I need to know if it was you, or was it Sleek horses run fast.

【Afternoon】

Jade Butterfly: Sleek horses run fast actually posted on weibo... So it really was him??

Jade Butterfly: Then I really misunderstood you. Ah, sorry for turning you into collateral damage in the mess, forget it please.

Jade Butterfly: Hehehe, Sleek horses run fast is a 100% straight dude, so “Kitty の Papa” is a straight guy as well, two straight men renting out an apartment together is probably for the convenience sake, I just thought too much... And here I thought he had something going on with you.

Jade Butterfly: Sleek horses run fast, huh... To be fair, your voices are really similar, I used to love this type... Still, that incident with a female fan of his got really big, haha... He also took advantage of quite a few of his fans, so he can be deemed quite sensible for leaving the circle quickly before he lost the entirety of his reputation. This kind of man has to be straight, there’s no way can he be a gay. I’m relieved then.

...

...

“‘That incident with a female fan’?”

Qi Jing stared at it for quite a while and only this bit of gossip made him react, his eyes widening.

With Sleek horses run fast having leaked such allegations from the woman who had once “pursued” him yet unable to confirm whether this gossip was true or false, Qi Jing felt a need to light him a candle and offer three minutes of silence—that was precisely the remaining time before the begin of the competition.