Thank you everyone for your feedback regarding the song translations. 🙂 I am happy there are people who read them and find them helpful and not the least bit upset if you choose to skip over them as well.
So, the day of their first meet-up is finally coming to a close. (It only took 8.5 chapters!) What’s next? Hanny, you should be pretty happy about this…. 😉
Chapter 24 – Spicy Crispy Skin Fish (2)
She did not even have time to look at the comments before she was already bombarded one after another by @’s directed at her.
And most importantly, the first people who @ her were all those she had seen just this afternoon. Those types of closer friends were the ones who were the most blunt with their teasing…
Fei Shao: @ShengShengMan (⊙v⊙) I remember that song came out a long time ago. You mean you guys met back then???? Whoa! Holy cr*p…
Dou Dou Dou Bing: @ShengShengMan…… *teary-eyed* To anyone who is going to confess their love to me in the future, if you can’t surpass Unrivalled Allure Toupai DaRen, please just turn yourself around and leave. T T
Wwwwk: @ShengShengMan Mark[1]. One face-to-face meet-up settles this Toupai DaRen down for the latter half of his life.
Feng YaSong: @ShengShengMan ’Til the different directions of the world no longer exist, ‘til the seas dry, only then will I cease to love you or something like that…
Jue Mei Sha Yi: @ShengShengMan… This is a fairytale where a pot of yan du xian has won over the girl.
Geng Xiaoxing: @ShengShengMan Just feebly going to mark here…
She had originally been completely absorbed in the song. Now that she had been hit by a string of @’s, she finally came out of her trance and was able to process the lyrics. “Singing a song, sheng sheng man [slow, long, drawn sounds]” wha-…?
“Toupai sure makes his move fast and gets things done quickly… I just went in and left a little mark…” Even Geng Xiaoxing was also staring at her computer in a daze. With eyes seeming as if they were seeing red hearts of love, she turned around to look at Gu Sheng. “I think these first 22 years of preserving your chastity has managed to touch even Heaven’s heart. The grand prize has been reserved for you…… Gawd, a love declaration like this, a love declaration like this! Ah! …. Ah, ah, ah, ah!” The more Geng Xiaoxing spoke, the more stirred up she became. She covered her face with her hands and shook her head furiously. “I can’t take it anymore. Sooooo romantic!”
Heartbeat… Heartbeat, where have you gone? …
She stood up and took a deep breath.
Deep breath again.
Heartbeat… Heartbeat, where have you gone? T.T …
In all the comments beneath Toupai’s post, the line, “Singing a song, sheng sheng man [slow, long, drawn sounds]” was popping up. Someone had even immediately recognized the location where the PaPa photo was taken and from this, started to deduce that either Gu Sheng or Toupai must be a student at that university…
She really did not know how to deal with such a predicament, so in the end, she simply closed her computer and pretended that she had not seen anything, anything at all. Whether Toupai had said that intentionally… or unknowingly… she honestly did not know. This Toupai DaRen had been immersed in this entertainment circle for so many years, yet he had always carefully guarded all of his personal information. So why was he suddenly starting to go high profile?…
If she were merely a spectator in this, she would definitely stand back and watch all of it enthusiastically.
Just like… Geng Xiaoxing, who was jumping up and down giddily right now…
But the question was, how did she manage to get pulled into this? %>_<%
T.T Toupai… If you keep playing around like this, everyone is going to go nuts because of you, ah…
Fortunately, this was just the 2-D world. Once her computer was shut-off, everything would go away.
And fortunately, she had finished her part in recording the song, and her commitments to the website and Wanmei’s collaborative anniversary celebration were completely fulfilled.
Except, when she reported back in to school the next day, she had an obvious bleary-eyed look. A teacher from her faculty stamped her student ID card and gave her an amused look. “Did you have too much fun over the winter break? But no worries. You and Geng Xiaoxing don’t have any classes this semester anyway. Then, you’ll be heading straight into post-graduate studies, so you’ve got a relatively lighter load than most people.”
She gave an “mm” in reply. Last semester, ah.
Even though she would be moving into post-graduate studies immediately after, she still had a smidgen of melancholy that comes with graduating. But that little bit of sadness completely evaporated when she went back to her dormitory room and saw Geng Xiaoxing still enthusiastically refreshing her and Toupai’s Weibo. She still needed to share a room with this girl for the next two years. Honestly… not even a hint of those pending-graduation emotions anymore.
“Sheng Sheng,” Geng Xiaoxing grinned, “treat me to dinner.”
“Why? …”
“Even our school has been dug up now. What if one day, there’s a ‘let’s all go to find Toupai’s golden master’ event? Won’t you need me to keep my lips sealed?” Geng Xiaoxing beamed at her exultantly.
“Valentine’s Day is coming up soon, Sheng Sheng. Valentine’s Day.” When Gu Sheng was washing her hands, Geng Xiaoxing ran up behind her and reminded her of this.
“Yeah…” Gu Sheng answered her.
Wait. Oh no… Valentine’s Day…
That song, Shang Ye, wasn’t really going to be released, right??!!
She was going to be hunted down and killed for sure ( ⊙ o ⊙), aah!
Gu Sheng dried her hands and went to pick up her mobile phone. After hesitating briefly, she still sent a message to Toupai: You there (⊙_⊙)?
She seemed to have gotten used to Toupai’s habit of not responding immediately to messages. Tossing her phone to the side, she went online and started checking her emails. There were a few times when she had wanted to log into her Weibo, but scared that she would get agitated after seeing another huge number of messages or @’s, she decided to give up on that idea.
She counted up roughly how many song debts she still owed… Yep, already more than forty songs.
Sheng Sheng Man, you’re the god of not following through on your commitments. T T
She opened up her software, trying to take advantage of this time, when Geng Xiaoxing was out for lunch and there was no one else in the dormitory, to finish off recording the songs she had practiced at home these last several days. But then, she discovered Toupai had left her a message on QQ.
Toupai: Want to go to the anime expo?
She glanced at the timestamp. The message had been left this morning.
Gu Sheng grew inexplicably anxious. Several hours had passed already… Would Toupai be unhappy she had not replied yet? …
It was totally normal not to have replied yet… It wasn’t like she was sitting in front of the computer all the time. ╮(╯▽╰)╭ But then, why was she so worried and so nervous? While she was still feeling anxious, Toupai’s WeChat message had already replied back to her.
Mo Qingcheng’s voice was heard against the background of what seemed to be somewhat of an open space, and this gave his voice a slight reverb in the message: “Did you see my message?”
“Yup, I just saw it.” She immediately clarified the situation.
“Want to go to the anime expo?” Toupai’s voice was still as alluring as before.
Fine. Gu Sheng honestly felt that she had zero immunity to his voice.
Her most beloved idol. This was the power of the voice of one’s most beloved idol.
She stared at her mobile phone, her mind finally moving on to the next key point of his message…
So…… Toupai wanted to ask her out on a date? One-on-one? To go to the anime expo with him?
After not sleeping the entire night, Gu Sheng had already been feeling lightheaded. And now, she heard Toupai asking her whether she wanted to go to the anime expo… Could this be considered… a hint of some sort? She honestly did not want to read too much into things T T, but from last night to today…
Should she be allowed to read a teeny bit more into things?…
She leaned back into her chair, holding her mobile phone up in front of her with both hands, and listened to Toupai’s “Want to go to the anime expo?” message one more time. She took some time to pull herself together before saying into her phone, “I’ve never been to one, but I’ve always wanted to go just to see… But, aren’t you really busy?”
Once she sent the message, her heart already felt as if it was ready to jump out of her chest.
“I’m not very busy that day.” Laughter could be heard in his voice.
“Sure, then.” She honestly had never been to an anime expo and usually did not pay attention to when they took place, so what day was “that day”? …
“Okay.” Toupai leisurely answered the question that was on her mind, “This Saturday, I’ll come and pick you up.”
Saturday. February 14th.
In Chinese online culture, the English word “mark” may be written in a thread of posts or comments as a waying saying, “I am leaving my mark here” or “Marking this to come back to later.”