Chapter 36
Sitting in the car, Shi Xuze propped up his head and looked at the hustle and bustle of traffic outside the window. For the first time, he felt out of place in the city.
The hustle and bustle of the city, the laughter and enthusiasm of comic book signings, all seem distant and unfamiliar.
The heavy makeup on her face had been on for too long, causing an unbearable itching sensation, but the intensity was far less than the pain of her chest being tightly gripped.
It was the first time that Shi Xuze didn't raise his hand to scratch his face, and it was also the first time that there was no Sister Chang or makeup artist around to slap his restless hands away.
"Turn your face around."
Shi Xuze suddenly realized and turned around as he was told, only to find that Yao Yingmo had taken out a pack of makeup remover cotton pads and placed them on her legs, looking at him gently.
He didn't even scratch his face, so how did she find out?
"Take off your makeup first. You don't usually wear makeup, and your skin can't handle wearing it for so long."
I have a rash on my neck. If I don’t remove my makeup, my face will definitely be burned tomorrow.
Shi Xuze thanked her, opened the table in the back seat, found a mirror from the pocket behind the chair, and took off his makeup in front of the mirror.
He wiped with the makeup remover cotton pad with great concentration, even a little too much force, as if he wanted to remove not only the makeup on his face, but also the innocence and carefreeness of the past.
Yao Yingmo frowned as he watched, and simply reached out and grabbed his wrist to stop him from continuing to ruin his face.
"You'll rub the skin off your face too." Yao Yingmo sighed softly, took the makeup remover pad from his hand, threw it into the trash can on the car, and took out a new makeup remover pad. With normal and gentle movements, she gently stroked his cheek with the makeup remover pad, "Let me help you."
The wet and cool feeling against the skin, slowly and gently, Shi Xuze lowered his eyes, and was caught off guard by Yao Yingmo's gentle gaze.
He had once again caused her trouble, but she never lost her patience with him.
"Why?" he whispered softly.
There was a roar of traffic outside, but Yao Yingmo didn't hear clearly, "Huh?"
Shi Xuze looked away, "Nothing."
Yao Yingmo didn't ask any more questions. He stretched out his other hand, cupped Shi Xuze's face, and held him still. "Don't move."
Shi Xuze really didn't dare to move again.
When his face was completely refreshed, the car stopped right at the entrance of the community.
Yao Yingmo put the makeup remover cotton pads back into her bag, and Shi Xuze put the mirror and table back in place.
While walking in the neighborhood, Yao Yingmo took the initiative to suggest, "Come to my house later."
Shi Xuze was slightly stunned.
"You've been signing all day and then rushed to the hospital. You haven't eaten all day." Yao Yingmo paused. "I haven't eaten either. I have to make a midnight snack anyway, so I can make an extra portion for you."
The excitement of signing books during the day and the tension in the hospital at night kept his adrenaline at an extremely high level.
Now my mood is slowly returning and my stomach and intestines are starting to protest.
Shi Xuze awkwardly covered his stomach, trying to block out the growling sounds of hunger.
Yao Yingmo's chuckle came to his ears. Shi Xuze pursed his lips and gave up struggling. "Okay, thank you."
"How about noodle soup?"
"good."
Zhou Yu had already fallen asleep, but the thought of Yao Yingmo in the hospital kept him tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep. Even though he knew Yao Yingmo wasn't the one who fell, a nagging anxiety still gnawed at his heart, leaving him no peace.
So when he heard the door open, he got out of bed and changed his clothes.
When he walked out of the room, he didn't see Yao Yingmo, but only saw Shi Xuze sitting in the living room, taking off his earrings and hair accessories in front of the mirror that Yao Yingmo used to remove her makeup.
The sound of the kitchen range hood continued to ring, and the food and hot oil sizzled. Zhou Yu paused and changed direction.
He had just reached the kitchen door when Yao Yingmo heard the noise and immediately turned around, a smile on his face. "Xiao Yu, are you still awake?"
Zhou Yu's gaze drifted towards the wok where Yao Yingmo was stirring over high heat. He swallowed and said, "I can't sleep."
Yao Yingmo's eyes curved as he asked, "Would you like to have some midnight snack together?"
Zhou Yu: "Okay."
Yao Yingmo pointed outside and said, "Okay, you wait outside too."
Zhou Yu walked back to the living room and sat down at the seat farthest away from Shi Xuze.
He was very quiet, and even the sofa didn't make any noise when he sat down. The sharp attitude that appeared when he met Shi Xuze the previous two times was also completely absent.
He just sat there silently, not causing any disturbance.
When Yao Yingmo brought out three bowls of noodles, Shi Xuze had just taken off all the decorations on his body and put them into a transparent bag.
"Come and eat noodles."
A bowl of colorful and mouth-watering hot noodle soup was placed in front of Zhou Yu and Shi Xuze respectively.
Although it was a last-minute midnight snack, Yao Yingmo spared no effort. Not only did he specially stir-fry a rich topping of vegetables and meat, but he also put a lot of effort into boiling the noodles, making them springy and chewy. Puffs of white smoke drifted upward, bringing a fresh aroma that would easily dispel any pent-up anger.
Shi Xuze scooped a spoonful of soup with a spoon, blew it to cool it down a little, and then put it into his mouth.
After taking a sip of hot soup, Shi Xuze inexplicably calmed down and felt the desire to talk again.
As he used his chopsticks to flip the noodles up from the bottom, he said, "When I was little, my parents always thought I was too talkative and would chatter endlessly. Even if they scolded me, they could only keep me quiet for two or three minutes before I couldn't help talking again."
Yao Yingmo imagined a miniature version of Shi Xuze, his head bobbing as he followed his parents, his mouth opening and closing. Admittedly, the image wasn't hard to imagine, as it wasn't much different from his current self.
"When I was in elementary school, a well-known cartoon was looking for a child to voice the main character. My parents thought since I loved to talk, they'd let me do as much as I wanted, so they sent me to audition. Luckily, I had exactly the voice the animation team was looking for, and my personality was very similar to the main character, so I auditioned for the alto role."
"It was fate, I guess. At that time, my teacher had just founded New Blade Studio and was the dubbing director for that cartoon. When I was dubbing, he was very strict and didn't let me off easy just because I was a kid. But he never scolded me. He would just patiently explain things to me and have me repeat them over and over again."
"I didn't know what happened at the time, maybe because I really loved to talk. I didn't lose my patience and completed the recording after countless repetitions. After the recording was completed, the teacher asked if I would like to learn from him, and I nodded. Since then, I have made steady progress and have come this far."
"Many fans think that I was cast as the lead role right after my high school debut because of my talent. And because of my strong skills, I quickly gained a large number of fans and established my position as a top voice actor. But in fact, I had been doing voice acting for many years before that. It's just that I was too young and used a different name. After my voice changed, my voice was different, so I was not recognized."
"I'm not a genius, but I was lucky enough to meet a teacher at a very early age. Under the teacher's arrangement and protection, I grew up very smoothly."
“If I hadn’t been a teacher, I wouldn’t be Hu Guang.”
Shi Xuze paused for a long time, his voice choking with emotion. "I never thought that my teacher would leave me one day. I thought he would work until retirement. I had already made up my mind that when that day came, I would help him organize a grand stage and gather everyone in the circle to celebrate with him."
"But now... it's impossible."
Zhou Yu suddenly stood up while pressing down on the table, which startled both Yao Yingmo and Shi Xuze. The atmosphere that was originally set to make them want to cry was suddenly interrupted.
Yao Yingmo widened his eyes and looked at Zhou Yu in surprise and suspicion, trying to figure out what he was planning to do.
Shi Xuze also swallowed back the words that were about to come out of his mouth. He was not sure whether Zhou Yu thought he was too noisy or whether he thought he was causing trouble for his sister.
The two of them had their own thoughts, but their eyes were closely following Zhou Yu, watching him walk into the living room, squat in front of the TV, open the TV cabinet, and take out a pack of tissues from it.
Only then did Yao Yingmo notice that there was only a thin layer of tissue paper left on the dining table.
If Shi Xuze cried, there would indeed not be enough tissues.
Zhou Yu slapped the tissue paper in front of Shi Xuze. His momentum did not seem like handing out tissue paper to comfort someone crying, but more like throwing a letter of challenge.
But his words betrayed him and ruined the cool image his actions had created. "Your face is going to clumping up."
"Thanks."
After being interrupted by Zhou Yu, Shi Xuze's emotions that had accumulated to a peak disappeared and turned into a faint chuckle with a hint of self-deprecation.
He lowered his head and picked up a handful of noodles.
After his heartfelt confession and the little episode, the temperature of the hot soup had dropped to a level that was suitable for Shi Xuze to drink without hurting his throat.
The noodles are a little softer than when they are freshly cooked, but not yet clumping. Shi Xuze actually likes this taste very much.
Zhou Yu was not afraid of the heat and hardly spoke a word. Shi Xuze had just started eating when his bowl was already empty.
Taking the tissue was the greatest concern he could show, and he had no intention of staying at the table to listen to Shi Xuze's inner journey.
Yao Yingmo has been soft-hearted enough towards Shi Xuze, and Zhou Yu doesn't want to be soft-hearted towards him too.
So he said something to Yao Yingmo and went back to his room to continue sleeping.
When he left the table, Shi Xuze looked up and then continued to eat his noodles.
He and Yao Yingmo were the only two people left at the table. He looked at Yao Yingmo's expression and decided to finish what he was saying.
"Today, my teacher told me that the reason he assigned me to be a dubbing director was to train me to the point where I could take over the studio. But I was so excited that I only thought about the fact that I could finally choose to work on an IP owned by Mr. Zhao He, so I never really thought about what was wrong. At the beginning of last year, my teacher told me that I still need to improve my coordination skills as a dubbing director, and that I'm not ready to be a dubbing director yet."
"I should have noticed something was wrong from the contradictions in the teacher's words."
Shi Xuze sighed deeply, and the white smoke rising from the soup bowl swayed slightly, just like his current mood, with no support and could only sway with the wind.
"But I promised the teacher."
"I promised the teacher that I would make Starry Sky the best it can be, and then quickly grow up to be able to take on the heavy responsibility of the studio, continue the teacher's hard work, and then make it bigger."
As Shi Xuze spoke, he no longer choked, and instead, a sense of conviction was conveyed steadily and firmly through his voice into the ears of the listeners.
Yao Yingmo looked at him and felt that his whole spirit was different.
He grew up overnight, just like she and Zhou Yu did back then.
But if possible, no one wants to go through it.
Yao Yingmo smiled at him and said, "You will do it."
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