The so-called “cafeteria” in Tianyin Building was actually several booths similar to coffee shops, opposite to which there were windows serving both Chinese and Western cuisine as well as a self-service counter. The environment and price were far beyond those of an ordinary cafeteria.
Peng Xiangzhi and Su Chang found a quiet corner to sit down. Peng Xiangzhi ordered spaghetti while Su Chang only asked for a glass of water.
Oh, it turns out she didn’t want to eat. She was just…lonely.
Hahaha, the word “lonely” doesn’t really fit her.
As they chatted about this and that, Su Chang looked up, catching sight of Xiang Wan checking the menu at a Japanese-style window, while Yu Zhou stood beside and lowered her head to look at the exquisite food models in the display window.
She was always like that, got tricked by the models and ended up buying some flavors that she didn’t even like. Then she would exchange with Su Chang.
But she was so fond of these window displays with models that she would even drag Su Chang to her school’s cafeteria just to have the food there after several years of graduation.
After the third time, she ordered the extremely terrible curry pork cutlet rice, she asked, “Why is it sour?”
Su Chang handed her own food over consciously.
Yu Zhou forgot that she had ordered the same thing three times already. If they were still together, maybe she would have ordered it for the fourth or fifth time.
Sometimes Yu Zhou would purposely arrive early at the cafeteria and wait for Su Chang. Then she would watch as Su Chang came up the stairs and looked round coldly before refocusing on Yu Zhou.
Then Yu Zhou would wave at her excitedly while saying, “Senior, over here.”
The older senior Su Chang wrinkled her brow but also walked over with a smile.
Such a senior was usually the shining star of the school and she fulfilled Yu Zhou’s teenage vanity. Because when Yu Zhou was in school, she never dated any of the shining stars.
However, she was not someone who really enjoyed being in the limelight. If she was really caught and posted online for many people to gawk at and comment on, she would be too nervous to sleep the whole night.
Yu Zhou was a chūnibyō girl who only wanted to play the role of a little hero in a safe environment.
“Wanwan! Zhouzhou! Over here!” Peng Xiangzhi’s shout brought Su Chang back to reality. She saw Yu Zhou and Xiang Wan walking towards her.
The little girl she used to sit with in the cafeteria has grown up and she now has a smaller girl by her side, wearing clothes that she used to wear when she was young and enjoying her care.
She was now holding Xiang Wan’s bookbag and she would tell Xiangwan when she came over, “Don’t trust the models. You should still choose according to your usual taste.”
Su Chang held the warm glass in her hands as she smiled and nodded at them.
“Teacher Su and Director Peng.” Yu Zhou hesitated for a moment but still sat down generously in front of them, holding Xiang Wan’s card.
“Why are you calling Su Chang a teacher too, following others?” Peng Xiangzhi smiled at her.
Yu Zhou tapped her meal card lightly on the table and said to Peng Xiangzhi: “Everyone else is calling her that.”
“I watched some interviews of the trainees and Teacher Su is particularly popular,” Yu Zhou said.
“Do you watch that too?” Su Chang suddenly spoke up.
“Yes, I watched it a little.”
Su Chang’s breath was messy for a second, then calm again. She wanted to say it seems like Yu Zhou hadn’t cared about these things before, but she also felt that with four of them present, it was risky to bring up the past and worry about Yu Zhou being uncomfortable.
Seeing that Su Chang didn’t speak, Peng Xiangzhi asked Yu Zhou again, “Why did you come here to eat today?”
“My mom is leaving, she said she wants to meet up with her old friends in Jiang city before leaving, so we’re not cooking tonight. I wanted to come here and find Xiang Wan to eat together as well as experience this supposedly delicious cafeteria, haha,” Yu Zhou said.
She took another look at Xiang Wan. After that night, she was a bit embarrassed for a day or two. She even wore her bra at home when she thought Xiang Wan was here.
But everything was normal for Xiang Wan, straightforward and unaffected. Yu Zhou felt she was being paranoid so didn’t think about it anymore.
“Oh, by the way, you came at just the right time,” Peng Xiangzhi said. “We’ve already scheduled the first season of the audio drama. I’ll send you a trailer later. I think we did a pretty good job.”
“Really?” Yu Zhou was thrilled.
Her eyes met Su Chang’s across the table. Seeing she was so happy, Su Chang smiled too as she took a sip of water.
After the meal, Yu Zhou crawled into bed early to listen to the trailer of “Shrine”.
The grand and majestic sound effects slowly opened the curtains, first chaos with a few gods and ghosts, demons fighting and carnality rampant, then the Buddha’s niche descended and everything was collected. The euphonious flute seemed to be a fascinating mist, finally focused on a drop of water.
The water droplet fell with a “ding,” before Shen Bai’s lines arrived.
Yu Zhou played it once, then played it again.
Then she put on her slippers, ran to Xiang Wan’s room, sat on her bed, placed her phone in the center of them and played it again.
“Ba Da Qin Chai’s original work, produced jointly by Zhi Er app and SC studios, urban supernatural baihe audio drama, ‘Shrine,’ season one, August 27th, stay tuned.”
Yu Zhou’s hand was shaking with excitement. She said to Xiang Wan, “Wanwan, did you hear that?”
“That’s the audio drama.”
Turning words into voice, building scenes with sound effects, dragging fantasy from the mind to the ears, turning the implicit emotions in her fingers into something she could voice aloud.
The character’s dialogue, the pauses in her tone, the entrance and exit of music, the adjustment of rhythm, it all seemed to bring her story to life.
It was different from listening to other audio dramas, different from all audio dramas. This was her story, which made her heart surge with excitement.
“Xiang Wan, this is an audio drama,” she repeated, her voice a little lower the second time.
Xiang Wan looked at her. This talkative girl was currently barefaced, with long black hair tucked behind her ears. Usually, she talked a lot, repeating something over and over again, sometimes even confusing people.
But now sitting in front of her, she was wearing pajamas while listening to an audio file on her phone with only two short sentences.
“So this is an audio drama.”
She lowered her head, listened to it again and then dragged the play bar to the trailer section, played it once more. Then she suddenly looked up before asking Xiang Wan, “What is SC Studio?”
Xiang Wan shook her head.
“Oh, I forgot you don’t understand English.”
As soon as the words were out, she suddenly thought that it might not be English, but Pinyin.
SC… Su Chang.
Su Chang’s studio? When did she have a studio?
No, she should have thought of it earlier. The original cast and production had changed, so there must have been an investor who had added more money. If it wasn’t Zhi Er, then it must be…
She propped her chin up and remembered the few exchanges she had with Su Chang about her work. She had asked why Su Chang was a freelancer and didn’t sign with a company or start her own studio.
Su Chang said there was no need because she only liked voice acting and didn’t need to start a studio to produce audio dramas. She didn’t enjoy investing.
Yu Zhou’s heart was in turmoil.
Back in her room, she remembered how happy she was when they met in the afternoon and how Su Chang smiled faintly across from her. Yu Zhou picked up her phone and found Su Chang on WeChat.
She typed and deleted, then deleted and typed again, until finally she sent: “I listened to the trailer, I really like it.”
Fifteen minutes later, Su Chang replied: “It’s good that you like it.”
“It’s good that you like it.” These four words were very subtle, usually used when giving gifts to others. They would say thank you and express how much they liked it and you would reply, “It’s good that you like it.”
So Su Chang’s words seemed to imply that she had produced this audio drama.
Yu Zhou had nothing to say and was about to put her phone away when Su Chang sent a picture.
There was a little cat squatting in Su Chang’s house and she was patting its head absentmindedly while taking a blurry photo.
“Is this your cat?” Yu Zhou asked curiously.
“It’s a stray cat I found downstairs. It won’t eat cat food,” she replied.
Yu Zhou sent her a voice message, “It’s still too young to eat cat food. Check if there’s any cat milk powder in the pet shop and feed it with that. See if it’ll lick it first. If not, try to use a syringe to feed it.”
“Do you know how to do it? If not, ask the auntie to help. Don’t bother it and don’t touch it. The kitten would be under stress in a new environment. It’s best to leave it alone for a while and let it adapt,” she warned.
“I won’t bother it,” Su Chang replied in a voice message.
“Don’t give it a bath either,” Yu Zhou added. “A kitten this young should not be given a bath. I know you’re a clean freak, but even if it’s dirty, don’t wash it.”
“Okay,” she agreed.
Yu Zhou thought for a while and had no more advice to give. Su Chang then asked, “What’s this cat?”
“What?” Yu Zhou asked.
“It’s black and white. What breed is it?”
“What breed? It’s just an ordinary cat, a Chinese rural cat.”
“Then I think it’s a cow cat,” Su Chang said.
Yu Zhou laughed, “Can you even THINK it is?”
“Yes.”
Insane, Yu Zhou was annoyed and stopped talking to her. “I’m going to bed. You keep an eye on it,” Yu Zhou said before ending the conversation.
“Okay, good night.”
It’s so funny, Yu Zhou laid the phone on her chest and sighed. Su Chang had never owned a cat before, if its fur got all over her expensive clothes, she would be insane.
Oh, it should be the poor laundry worker who would go insane.
A person with a monthly salary of 3,000 yuan like her shouldn’t bother with this matter, sorry for offending. Yu Zhou chuckled as she walked to the bathroom in her slippers. She knew she shouldn’t fuss over another person’s matter, but she couldn’t help herself.
The so-called “cafeteria” in Tianyin Building was actually several booths similar to coffee shops, opposite to which there were windows serving both Chinese and Western cuisine as well as a self-service counter. The environment and price were far beyond those of an ordinary cafeteria.
Peng Xiangzhi and Su Chang found a quiet corner to sit down. Peng Xiangzhi ordered spaghetti while Su Chang only asked for a glass of water.
Oh, it turns out she didn’t want to eat. She was just…lonely.
Hahaha, the word “lonely” doesn’t really fit her.
As they chatted about this and that, Su Chang looked up, catching sight of Xiang Wan checking the menu at a Japanese-style window, while Yu Zhou stood beside and lowered her head to look at the exquisite food models in the display window.
She was always like that, got tricked by the models and ended up buying some flavors that she didn’t even like. Then she would exchange with Su Chang.
But she was so fond of these window displays with models that she would even drag Su Chang to her school’s cafeteria just to have the food there after several years of graduation.
After the third time, she ordered the extremely terrible curry pork cutlet rice, she asked, “Why is it sour?”
Su Chang handed her own food over consciously.
Yu Zhou forgot that she had ordered the same thing three times already. If they were still together, maybe she would have ordered it for the fourth or fifth time.
Sometimes Yu Zhou would purposely arrive early at the cafeteria and wait for Su Chang. Then she would watch as Su Chang came up the stairs and looked round coldly before refocusing on Yu Zhou.
Then Yu Zhou would wave at her excitedly while saying, “Senior, over here.”
The older senior Su Chang wrinkled her brow but also walked over with a smile.
Such a senior was usually the shining star of the school and she fulfilled Yu Zhou’s teenage vanity. Because when Yu Zhou was in school, she never dated any of the shining stars.
However, she was not someone who really enjoyed being in the limelight. If she was really caught and posted online for many people to gawk at and comment on, she would be too nervous to sleep the whole night.
Yu Zhou was a chūnibyō girl who only wanted to play the role of a little hero in a safe environment.
“Wanwan! Zhouzhou! Over here!” Peng Xiangzhi’s shout brought Su Chang back to reality. She saw Yu Zhou and Xiang Wan walking towards her.
The little girl she used to sit with in the cafeteria has grown up and she now has a smaller girl by her side, wearing clothes that she used to wear when she was young and enjoying her care.
She was now holding Xiang Wan’s bookbag and she would tell Xiangwan when she came over, “Don’t trust the models. You should still choose according to your usual taste.”
Su Chang held the warm glass in her hands as she smiled and nodded at them.
“Teacher Su and Director Peng.” Yu Zhou hesitated for a moment but still sat down generously in front of them, holding Xiang Wan’s card.
“Why are you calling Su Chang a teacher too, following others?” Peng Xiangzhi smiled at her.
Yu Zhou tapped her meal card lightly on the table and said to Peng Xiangzhi: “Everyone else is calling her that.”
“I watched some interviews of the trainees and Teacher Su is particularly popular,” Yu Zhou said.
“Do you watch that too?” Su Chang suddenly spoke up.
“Yes, I watched it a little.”
Su Chang’s breath was messy for a second, then calm again. She wanted to say it seems like Yu Zhou hadn’t cared about these things before, but she also felt that with four of them present, it was risky to bring up the past and worry about Yu Zhou being uncomfortable.
Seeing that Su Chang didn’t speak, Peng Xiangzhi asked Yu Zhou again, “Why did you come here to eat today?”
“My mom is leaving, she said she wants to meet up with her old friends in Jiang city before leaving, so we’re not cooking tonight. I wanted to come here and find Xiang Wan to eat together as well as experience this supposedly delicious cafeteria, haha,” Yu Zhou said.
She took another look at Xiang Wan. After that night, she was a bit embarrassed for a day or two. She even wore her bra at home when she thought Xiang Wan was here.
But everything was normal for Xiang Wan, straightforward and unaffected. Yu Zhou felt she was being paranoid so didn’t think about it anymore.
“Oh, by the way, you came at just the right time,” Peng Xiangzhi said. “We’ve already scheduled the first season of the audio drama. I’ll send you a trailer later. I think we did a pretty good job.”
“Really?” Yu Zhou was thrilled.
Her eyes met Su Chang’s across the table. Seeing she was so happy, Su Chang smiled too as she took a sip of water.
After the meal, Yu Zhou crawled into bed early to listen to the trailer of “Shrine”.
The grand and majestic sound effects slowly opened the curtains, first chaos with a few gods and ghosts, demons fighting and carnality rampant, then the Buddha’s niche descended and everything was collected. The euphonious flute seemed to be a fascinating mist, finally focused on a drop of water.
The water droplet fell with a “ding,” before Shen Bai’s lines arrived.
Yu Zhou played it once, then played it again.
Then she put on her slippers, ran to Xiang Wan’s room, sat on her bed, placed her phone in the center of them and played it again.
“Ba Da Qin Chai’s original work, produced jointly by Zhi Er app and SC studios, urban supernatural baihe audio drama, ‘Shrine,’ season one, August 27th, stay tuned.”
Yu Zhou’s hand was shaking with excitement. She said to Xiang Wan, “Wanwan, did you hear that?”
“That’s the audio drama.”
Turning words into voice, building scenes with sound effects, dragging fantasy from the mind to the ears, turning the implicit emotions in her fingers into something she could voice aloud.
The character’s dialogue, the pauses in her tone, the entrance and exit of music, the adjustment of rhythm, it all seemed to bring her story to life.
It was different from listening to other audio dramas, different from all audio dramas. This was her story, which made her heart surge with excitement.
“Xiang Wan, this is an audio drama,” she repeated, her voice a little lower the second time.
Xiang Wan looked at her. This talkative girl was currently barefaced, with long black hair tucked behind her ears. Usually, she talked a lot, repeating something over and over again, sometimes even confusing people.
But now sitting in front of her, she was wearing pajamas while listening to an audio file on her phone with only two short sentences.
“So this is an audio drama.”
She lowered her head, listened to it again and then dragged the play bar to the trailer section, played it once more. Then she suddenly looked up before asking Xiang Wan, “What is SC Studio?”
Xiang Wan shook her head.
“Oh, I forgot you don’t understand English.”
As soon as the words were out, she suddenly thought that it might not be English, but Pinyin.
SC… Su Chang.
Su Chang’s studio? When did she have a studio?
No, she should have thought of it earlier. The original cast and production had changed, so there must have been an investor who had added more money. If it wasn’t Zhi Er, then it must be…
She propped her chin up and remembered the few exchanges she had with Su Chang about her work. She had asked why Su Chang was a freelancer and didn’t sign with a company or start her own studio.
Su Chang said there was no need because she only liked voice acting and didn’t need to start a studio to produce audio dramas. She didn’t enjoy investing.
Yu Zhou’s heart was in turmoil.
Back in her room, she remembered how happy she was when they met in the afternoon and how Su Chang smiled faintly across from her. Yu Zhou picked up her phone and found Su Chang on WeChat.
She typed and deleted, then deleted and typed again, until finally she sent: “I listened to the trailer, I really like it.”
Fifteen minutes later, Su Chang replied: “It’s good that you like it.”
“It’s good that you like it.” These four words were very subtle, usually used when giving gifts to others. They would say thank you and express how much they liked it and you would reply, “It’s good that you like it.”
So Su Chang’s words seemed to imply that she had produced this audio drama.
Yu Zhou had nothing to say and was about to put her phone away when Su Chang sent a picture.
There was a little cat squatting in Su Chang’s house and she was patting its head absentmindedly while taking a blurry photo.
“Is this your cat?” Yu Zhou asked curiously.
“It’s a stray cat I found downstairs. It won’t eat cat food,” she replied.
Yu Zhou sent her a voice message, “It’s still too young to eat cat food. Check if there’s any cat milk powder in the pet shop and feed it with that. See if it’ll lick it first. If not, try to use a syringe to feed it.”
“Do you know how to do it? If not, ask the auntie to help. Don’t bother it and don’t touch it. The kitten would be under stress in a new environment. It’s best to leave it alone for a while and let it adapt,” she warned.
“I won’t bother it,” Su Chang replied in a voice message.
“Don’t give it a bath either,” Yu Zhou added. “A kitten this young should not be given a bath. I know you’re a clean freak, but even if it’s dirty, don’t wash it.”
“Okay,” she agreed.
Yu Zhou thought for a while and had no more advice to give. Su Chang then asked, “What’s this cat?”
“What?” Yu Zhou asked.
“It’s black and white. What breed is it?”
“What breed? It’s just an ordinary cat, a Chinese rural cat.”
“Then I think it’s a cow cat,” Su Chang said.
Yu Zhou laughed, “Can you even THINK it is?”
“Yes.”
Insane, Yu Zhou was annoyed and stopped talking to her. “I’m going to bed. You keep an eye on it,” Yu Zhou said before ending the conversation.
“Okay, good night.”
It’s so funny, Yu Zhou laid the phone on her chest and sighed. Su Chang had never owned a cat before, if its fur got all over her expensive clothes, she would be insane.
Oh, it should be the poor laundry worker who would go insane.
A person with a monthly salary of 3,000 yuan like her shouldn’t bother with this matter, sorry for offending. Yu Zhou chuckled as she walked to the bathroom in her slippers. She knew she shouldn’t fuss over another person’s matter, but she couldn’t help herself.
