Captivated By You: Chapter 4

IF YOU MET A PERPLEXING PUZZLE

Mo Lan had a dream.

In the dream, a tall man with his back towards her, with an aloof temperament, his face hidden, then he opened his mouth… it was actually Secretly Captivated’s voice.

After Mo Lan woke up from her dream, she sat on her bed with a rigid and blank expression for quite a while, unsure of how long after, she finally responded and flusteredly took her phone out from under her pillow. She opened WeChat with her quivering fingertips, and sure enough… The first name on the list was GYM.

GYM, Secretly Captivated.

So… everything that happened yesterday was real, she really was added as a WeChat friend by the 2D male god whom she has silently liked for four years!

Mo Lan hugged her mobile phone in her bed and laughed foolishly for a spell, after a moment, she excitedly posted on Moments*:

(a function on WeChat – something like stories on Insta/FB)

After saving 24 years of moral standing, it finally came into fruition yesterday la la la, demanding likes =3=

After posting on Moments, Mo Lan started humming a popular song, she hopped and bounced, and ran out to brush her teeth and wash her face. The workaholic An Xiaoluo was already having her breakfast in the living room at the dining table. She had a piece of toast in her mouth, saw the always quiet and introverted Mo Lan obviously experiencing eight grade syndrome*, and looked at her in astonishment: “Xiao Lan, you shouldn’t be getting too crazy just because Secretly Captivated came out of retirement right?”

(中二病 zhōng èr bìng – Originated from Japan, this term describes adolescent egocentrism and intuitive, emotional thinking. Adults with this syndrome are imaginative at best and self-centred at worst. Source. “Sickness” in teenagers characterised by sophomoric, edgy and pretentious behaviour)

After Mo Lan finished washing up, she took her mobile phone out from her bedroom, and sat down opposite An Xiaoluo, her face still wearing the “I won five million today” expression. Without a word, she glanced at her phone, the next second, she got a fright and almost threw her phone into the dish.

Secretly Captivated… sent her a WeChat message.

Could anyone tell her, what good things had she done in her previous life…

She falteringly opened the WeChat app, in the next second, Mo Lan really wanted to dig herself a hole, because Secretly Captivated only sent her one word:

GYM: Like*.

(two words in Chinese 已贊 yǐ zàn – already like – I think if SC spoke English, he would really just have replied with one English word. Haha.)

Recalling the post that she just posted which was practically her brainless mind opening a brainless door* — — the perfect brainless Moments, Mo Lan sincerely felt like crying over her stupidity.

(Google translate gave swear words and I just translated it literally)

Momo: … Thank you male god, 囧.

An Xiaoluo, who sat opposite her, looked at the rapid substantial changing expression on her face, as if she suddenly thought of something, her eyes lit up: “By the way, by the way, I haven’t asked you, you actually managed to grab the mic last night, ahhh*, why are you so lucky? Hurry up, hurry up, give me some of your moral standing, I also want to talk to Secretly Captivated SAMA!”

(嗷 áo – loud clamour/the sound of wailing)

Mo Lan smiled, her delicate and pretty face a little embarrassed, and just when she wanted to reply to An Xiaoluo, suddenly, her phone vibrated.

She lowered her head, and saw that Secretly Captivated sent her a voice message.

Mo Lan blanked out, confusedly looked at the phone screen, her heart practically already streamed with tears…

Male god, how could you have sent me a voice message so early in the morning, aren’t you afraid that my fragile heart wouldn’t be able to bear it? T^T

Sensing that somebody’s line of sight was continuously sticking close to her, Mo Lan looked up, and smiled stiffly: “Well… cousin, I now want to listen to one, cough, the boss just sent a work voice message, our magazine is quite strict with our private and confidential security system… so, so I might need to use my headphones.”

Better… to not tell An Xiaoluo for the time being.

If she knew that Secretly Captivated became Mo Lan’s WeChat friend… then from then on she could probably just disappear from the ancient-style circle. Oh no, before disappearing… she still needed to let SC’s fans do a human flesh search*, and afterwards to be killed, just thinking about it made her heart sad.

(人肉 rén ròu (abbr for 人肉搜索 rén ròu sōu suǒ) – internet slang for an online collaboration between many people to find out as much information as possible about a certain topic, a large-scale collective effort to find details about a person or event)

An Xiaolu looked at her with an inexplicable* expression: “If you’re using your headphones then just use it, why did you need to explain so much. But… what’s wrong with your boss*, you’re a magazine company and not The Matrix, what’s there to keep confidential.”

(莫名其妙 mò míng qí miào – idiom – baffling, unfathomable mystery, subtle and ineffable)
(你們老板有病吧 – nǐ men lǎo bǎn yǒu bìng ba – is your boss sick is the more literal translation)

Boss… beauty comes first*, I could only sacrifice you first.

(i’m guess it’s like hoes before bros kinda thing)

With a deep breath, Mo Lan’s expression was of a hero bravely meeting death, she wore her headphones, and clicked on the voice message.

The surroundings seemed to be awfully noisy, all kinds of sound occurred, but Secretly Captivated’s voice still clearly solidly and accurately relayed into her ears among the hubbub. En, even if he was simultaneously talking with a hundred other people, Mo Lan was sure that she would be able to identify his voice in just a second.

He spoke, the last syllable lilt up, with a smile in his tone: “Out of bed yet?”

The low voice, very magnetic, somewhat unhurried, somewhat gentle, it didn’t need a single soldier, and it could just capture people’s hearts.

Mo Lan suddenly felt… that she still seemed to have overestimated her own capability.

Her hand reached out, Mo Lan wanted to type back a reply to him, right in the middle of typing, she suddenly thought… no matter what, male god was a respected senior who descended down from his rank who made nothing of hardships to send a voice message, if she still continued to only type out her replies, would she seem to appear somewhat aloof…

So, Mo Lan raised her head and secretly glanced at An Xiaoluo, found that the other person was frowning and looking at a document, for the time being, she should have no time to pay any attention to her.

With a slight cough, Mo Lan stood up, and tried to have a natural expression: “Cousin, I’m going to go to work first.”

“En.” She replied casually without raising her head, An Xiaoluo’s gaze was still on the stack of data in her hands.

Mo Lan drank the last sip of milk from the glass, and walked out with her bag.

Immediately after walking down the stairs, Mo Lan switched on her mobile, sneakily looked around, then answered him with a voice message: “Yeah, I’ve got to get up to go to work, male god, you are up too.”

After the voice message was sent, Mo Lan got a little embarrassed and listened to her voice message over and over again, en… could be considered quite calm, although the tone still held a little quiver, but this is human nature, it was already not bad that she managed to maintain her calmness.

Mo Lan walked to the train station, and as before she entered the train with her headphones, the early morning 7:30 am train… it wasn’t overstating it if she described the crowd as a multitude, Mo Lan who was 165 cm tall forcefully squeezed herself into the crowd looking for a place to stand, she held the handrail in one hand and her mobile phone in the other.

A WeChat message notification rang in her headphones, Mo Lan lowered her head, and clicked open SC’s voice message that just arrived: “Did you sleep well last night?”

She couldn’t help blushing, Mo Lan recalled that she had lay motionless in bed from 10:30 pm last night until 3 or 4 this morning… She just wanted to inexplicably asked, male god you are asking this on purpose, aren’t you T^T

Of course she didn’t have the guts, so she merely opened her mouth, and replied a hundred percent cooperatively: “I slept really well, thank you male god for your concern!”

After some time passed, Secretly Captivated then replied, “That’s good, you’re now… on the train?”

His tone was like the flowing of white jade, as if a prince appeared from nothingness and wandered about, the genuine sound of jade, so nice to listen to that people are reluctant to even breathe.

Mo Lan realised, the background was too noisy when she spoke just now… but it wasn’t like she could control the noise a crowded train makes, that said, this kind of indescribable feeling of being apologetic to male god, what’s going on…

Feeling a little shy, Mo Lan reached out and typed out a reply:

Momo: Male God, I’m really sorry T^T, I was just too excited and didn’t notice that the background was too chaotic just now.

This time, the other party very quickly responded: No problem, don’t have to be sorry. Momo, are you afraid of me?

An inconceivable gentle and soft voice, like a clear and deep spring in the desert, also resembled a stove on a winter’s day.

He called her… Momo.

Hands in a deadlock. Mo Lan could clearly feel, that she had blushed till the root of her neck, almost like a high fever of 39.8°C*… nearly burnt her rationality away.

(104F)

There were still many people in the train chatting and huddling together, but Mo Lan seemed to have heard nothing nor saw anything. Her ears and heart only had Secretly Captivated’s words from a moment ago.

Just when she blankly minded her own business, a middle-aged woman who stood next to her, looked at her with concern, and asked kindly, “Little girl, are you okay? I saw that you’re quite red in the face, were there too many people, and you ran out of breath from being squeezed in?”

The woman’s voice stirred her, Mo Lan quickly shook her head, and replied a little embarrassedly: “It’s nothing, thank you auntie. I- I’m just wearing thick clothes today.”

Even a fool wouldn’t have believed it… In the cold winter weather, she actually said that she wore thick clothes…

Mo Lan tried hard to ignore the woman’s puzzled eyes, she lowered her head and silently typed a reply:

Momo: Male god, I’m not afraid of you… I’m just overwhelmed with gratitude QVQ.

(受宠若惊 shòu chǒng ruò jīng – overwhelmed by the favour shown from a superior)

Yet she heard Secretly Captivated chuckled, a low one, not the same as the previous one, as if… very genuinely delighted. In her headphones, his voice was very clear with a trace of indolence: “Don’t need to feel overwhelmed, we’re not that different, I’m merely an ordinary person that’s all.”

Ordinary person… male god are you kidding me? Was there ever an ordinary person who spoke as beautifully as you?

Mo Lan lowered her head and just wanted to continue her reply, but saw that the other side sent a written message:

GYM: I’ve got something on, will get busy first. I’ll give you yesterday’s song later.

Momo: Okay, male god go be busy ba (waving a handkerchief)

She took off her headphones and put it in the bag, Mo Lan blankly looked at her hand, her palm already burnt through by the block of soldering iron alike her mobile phone, once again she sighed… she must have saved the galaxy in her previous life.

Secretly Captivated even called her Momo, Momo… Momo…

It was said that reverberation would last for three days, Secretly Captivated’s words… in the future, it would probably take root in her ears, sprout, and then blossom one by one.

Reaching out and touching her boiling cheek, Mo Lan really felt that everything was like a long dream. The person she had liked for four years, had even added her on WeChat, lowered his stance and chatted lots with her.

All of a sudden, she thought of the many resources who hung around SC’s Tieba home page all day long, Mo Lan suddenly felt a little smug in her heart, secretly happy, no matter how many kind of resources they had, it would definitely not be inferior to what she had in her own hands.

En… after going home, she must edit all those voice messages and make a ringtone out of them! In this way she could hear him every day, just thinking about it practically made her feel extremely happy.

Flowers bloomed in her heart, suddenly, the train’s announcement sounded, a reminder that the next stop was Zhangfuyuan.

Zhangfuyuan?

Mo Lan stood transfixed, she wanted to go… obviously to Xinjiekou.

So… was this the rhythm of missing your train station?

Sure enough, her good moral standing was probably all used up T^T

When Mo Lan reached the office of the magazine publisher she worked for, she was 15 minutes later than the prescribed working time, but fortunately the boss didn’t notice.

Mo Lan on tenterhooks found her desk and sat down, and started her work day.

She was a writer and at the same time, she also helped to review.

Almost every month, many people submitted their articles to the magazine publisher’s inbox, in order to be fair, as long as each draft wasn’t too bad, at the very least they would allow three different people to review it once. Today, the short and long drafts that have been sent to Mo Lan’s mailbox, have all been reviewed once already. So, that was to say, no matter what, these drafts were of a medium standard.

Mo Lan really liked her job because she adores writing. Therefore, she also liked to read other people’s works, moreover after finished reading, if she felt that it wasn’t clear enough, she would seriously write down all of her suggestions and emailed them back to the writers. After all, if only a cold “Rejected” was sent, it would probably make them very sad. To those who were also writers, it was easier to understand the hard work and difficulties of an isolated writer.

Unconsciously, it was already noon, Mo Lan rubbed her somewhat sour eyes, her colleague Lin Yaru who sat beside her asked her out for lunch, she thought of her previous conversation with Rong Xia Xia of that they would meet up today to pass her the tea leaves, Mo Lan smiled and a little apologetically declined her invitation.

She walked to a cafe not far from the magazine, Rong Xiaxia had already dragged her chin in and was waiting.

Mo Lan quickly walked in and sat opposite her, a little chagrin, “Sorry Xiaxia, I was late to work just now, so am late.”

“No worries.” Rong Xiaxia hardly minded, gestured with her hands, then looked at her, and curiously asked, “Say, Momo, the fact that your favouritest* made a comeback… Has it brought any world-shaking transformation into your life?”

(本命 běn mìng – from what I can tell is a borrowed Japanese term meaning favourite/likely winner)

Hearing Rong Xiaxia called her Momo… Mo Lan instantly felt that her face temperature rose little by little.

She pursed her lips and thought for a moment, “Well… Xiaxia, I can tell you, my favourite added me on WeChat.”

“What?!” Rong Xiaxia’s eyes couldn’t help but widen, “For real? You must not still be asleep right… If based on your description, your male god should be quite aloof isn’t that right? How could he have added you on WeChat for no rhyme or reason? “

Mo Lan sighed, and was also somewhat at loss: “I’m also not sure… maybe male god thought he was too aloof before and became a little sorry for the fans, so he planned to compensate by adding a few people on WeChat?”

“… I don’t think he’s that free.” Rong Xiaxia curled her lips, and tilted her head, she appeared to be pondering very seriously, after a while, she spoke, with a little ridicule in her tone, “If you want me to say it, wouldn’t it be that he likes you?”

In a flash, her body froze for a moment, Mo Lan opened her mouth, indescribably feeling tongue-tied: “You- you, what nonsense are you talking about, his voice is so nice to listen to, how could he possibly like me?”

Rong Xiaxia sighed and looked at her with sympathy: “I say… the logic in your sentence, can you even see it? Who said a voice that’s so nice means not being able to like you? Maybe he would actually turn out to be a short weird nasty uncle.”

Mo Lan distractedly quickly imagined the picture described by Rong Xiaxia, after a while, she stubbornly countered, “But his voice is nice ah! No matter what, it would also be a weird uncle with a nice voice aye?”

“Forget it… I shouldn’t have expected to be able to reason with a voice-enthusiast terminal patient.” Rong Xiaxia stared at her with the incorrigible eyes that Mo Lan was very familiar with, she silently lowered her head and started drinking her milk tea.

The two bantered together for a bit, then Mo Lan handed her the two boxes of West Lake Longjing tea from Hangzhou, and returned back to work at the magazine.

At six o’clock in the evening, Mo Lan returned home, and saw that An Xiaoluo was already in the living room at the computer.

She changed her slippers at the door, then placed her shoes in the shoe rack, Mo Lan walked over and said with a little surprise, “Cousin… you finished work very early today.”

An Xiaoluo looked up and looked at her with a bright smile: “Yeah, it so happened that the boss had something on today, and so let us off early.”

After she spoke, and without waiting for Mo Lan’s reply, An Xiaoluo dragged her to sit by her side, and babbled, “Xiao Lan, you came at the right time, come and help me see which of these novels are better.”

Mo Lan sat down next to her a little puzzledly, briefly and roughly glanced at the titles, and was a little surprised to find that… the few books that An Xiaoluo showed her were all very popular online novels currently.

“Cousin, is your association producing a new drama? These… are all very good.”

An Xiaoluo sighed: “If it’s only an ordinary new drama then it’s okay, but the problem is that we are fighting to get Secretly Captivated SAMA’s title role. Didn’t he announce the day before yesterday that he was accepting new works, so now all the societies are beginning to stir, I reckon that his personal inbox should be close to bursting…”

“That’s right.” Mo Lan nodded in agreement, after a bit, she gushed with excitement, “Don’t know… what type of drama will he first make after his comeback, I’m really looking forward to it.”

“Exactly, SC SAMA has so many fans, just based on all of the fans’ expectations of this drama, how would we dare relax. Aiya it’s so vexing, I’ve already been reading for more than an hour. The boss wanted each of us to recommend one of these novels, then to choose the one with the most votes, and invite him for that drama. But I’ve been looking back and forth, and still don’t know which one is better…” An Xiaoluo stared anxiously* at the computer screen, her tone as if she was dying.

(愁眉苦脸 chóu méi kǔ liǎn – lit anxious eyebrows suffering face, idiom to look anxious/miserable)

Mo Lan 囧, not knowing what to say, and without any other option she comforted her: “Hai, in fact I feel, as long as it’s him dubbing, no matter how crappy the script is, it would turn into something magical*.”

(化腐朽为神奇 huà fǔ xiǔ wéi shén qí – idiom – to change something rotten into something magical)

While she spoke, An Xiaoluo suddenly answered her phone, told Mo Lan something came up*, and immediately after, she left hurriedly.

(有事 yǒu shì – literally got something – to be occupied with something/to have something on one’s mind/there is something the matter – hardest two words to translate cause there’s no concise English equivalent!)

En… actually not eating at home, Mo Lan silently looked towards her direction, and felt a little suspicious.

But she didn’t think too much, she casually took out some ingredients from the refrigerator, cooked herself a bowl of noodles, coupled with some ham sausages, eggs, carrots and other random things, and put it all together to make her full.

After everything was tidied up, Mo Lan returned to her bedroom, and turned on the computer, when the phone suddenly rang.

She glanced at it, her heart suddenly fluttered, it was a WeChat message from Secretly Captivated.

GYM: Are you free now?

Momo: Free!

GYM: 22358, go on YY.

For a moment, Mo Lan, looked at the string of YY channel numbers that the other party sent, and couldn’t believe it, so… was the male god inviting her to go on YY?

Feeling a little excited, Mo Lan logged onto YY, then keyed in the channel number that SC sent to her, and entered the channel room.

As soon as she entered, she was pulled into an encrypted room by Secretly Captivated.

In the upper left corner where the mic sequence was, there was a purple sockpuppet, a small bright green dot placed in front of the name, it indicated that he was on the mic.

A purple sockpuppet… indicated that Secretly Captivated was the creator of this YY channel. That was to say, in other words, this was Secretly Captivated’s usual channel. So, this heaven given benefit, was unexpectedly discovered by her just like that?

Moreover, in this room… there was only Secretly Captivated.

Hai, was she considered to be another species, being together in the same room as male god?

Mo Lan tensed up, nervous and didn’t dare to say even a word, after a few seconds, she figured that she probably wasn’t on the mic, he couldn’t even hear her breathing, hence she finally relaxed slightly.

But when he heard silence, his voice rang low: “Oh… already decided yesterday, I would sing for you.”

Light as the river, sound of jade flowing. His voice was really like an elegant nobleman who just stepped out from a painting.

But… did she hear wrongly? He had never sung before in any events, hence as a result a few anti-fans have previously criticised him for being tone-deaf.

She tremblingly pressed F2, and Mo Lan’s soft voice appeared: “Umm… male god, so now, you’re probably not wanting to sing for me to listen right?”

“En, not convenient is it?” When Secretly Captivated spoke the last word, the last syllable faintly turn, inexplicably made Mo Lan felt that if she said it was inconvenient, she was simply just precisely sinful*.

(罪大恶极zuì dà’è jí – an idiom – guilty of terrible crimes)

“No, no, it’s convenient! It’s very convenient!”

After Mo Lan blurted out that sentence, only then did she realise that her reaction appeared to be a little… hehe, excited.

“Oh.” A low chuckle appeared, and Mo Lan’s mind instantly turned to the young marquis of Yushu Lanfang from《Difficulty Loving Deeply》.

Actually… she felt that SC’s natural voice, although compared with the ancient-style accent it was actually deeper and lower, even a little bit more real, but, when he laughed softly… that hint of distinguished and gorgeousness naturally couldn’t help but poured out, one would also want this kind of unable to-hold-oneself feeling to be implicitly unveiled, then it would be even more fascinating, also it made it even more irresistible that the voice enthusiasts wouldn’t be able to stop themselves.

Mo Lan bit her handkerchief with tears in her eyes, her ears seemed to have been raised by him these past few days, if this continued… how could she still listened to the opposite sex speak T^T.

Pursing her lips, Mo Lan solemnly opened her mouth: “Male god you sing ba! I’ll show that I can stand it!”

Secretly Captivated stopped talking, seemed to be looking for an accompaniment music.

Mo Lan came off her mic, and silently clicked the “Record” button.

Not long after, the sound of the accompaniment music rang in the quiet YY room.

This music… was《The Empty City》.

Mo Lan was excited.

《The Empty City》was an ancient song written for Zhuge Liang, it was also a song that Mo Lan liked very much.

Mo Lan liked this song because she liked Zhuge Liang, this historical figure.

Zhuge Liang

The feather fan silk cloth rose in spirals,
the East met Japanese rose.
A new voice called out from behind the silk curtains.
The dragon’s beard winded around the flute,
wild geese joined the guzheng and flew.

Tao with his middle-aged beard,
the fan-cloud covered the lingering moon.
Zhou Lang went behind to bestow uncommon news.
For the lord hold wine to listen, then ready for spring’s return.

(The poems above are way above my head.)

Mo Lan had always liked this kind of sorrowful hero, when she first read《Romance of the Three Kingdoms》, she really liked this character very much. Although the people around her either worshipped Cao Cao or admired Zhao Yun, however, she right away still suddenly fell in love with Zhuge Liang.

In other words, from the past till now, she had always liked a man who was indifferent on the outside but incredibly formidable on the inside, the type just like Zhuge Liang’s, during the Three Kingdoms period where it was the troubled times of a very powerful army, because of a person’s force, he alone supported half of the country. For a real strategy, the victory was determined thousands of miles away.

I guess SC’s voice would sound so much better (one of the verses is not included)

While thinking, Secretly Captivated’s first line resonated:

The guqin sounded elegantly, killed four times
Watched and smiled at the soldiers approaching the city walls
Left the world magnificently
More devoted than the bare rose-tinted sky
Fearless of all the king’s horses and all the king’s men
A thousand years later, there still would be a hero cooking wine for you
Playing music in the empty city, the legendary life will be recorded

It sounded so good… Mo Lan felt like she was about to cry from his singing…

Clear and sonorous, gorgeous, distinguished and accomplished without boundary. Every syllable and word gathered was placed perfectly, did not lack in any way, he simply grasped the song even more than the original singer. It was truly the ordinary and elegant voice of “Watched and smiled at the soldiers approaching the city walls“, faint, but inexplicably it gave people the boldness from that disdainful look from the corner of the world.

“Born into a world of chaos, hunted amidst sandstorm
Hid one’s murderous spirit until numb
You pointed out the picturesque scene
The refined feather fan silk cloth, 7 strings lightly played
Success or failure in that split second
This song sings of your ostentatious thousand years”

Listening to his voice, Mo Lan closed her eyes, as if she could see the fire beacon reach the sky in the world of chaos, that person, appeared in thick and heavy colours*.

(浓墨重彩 nóng mò zhòng cǎi – an idiom meaning to describe something in colourful language with attention to detail)

Didn’t know why he never sang… but Mo Lan sincerely felt that it was simply a waste of his golden voice.

“Recalling the half of a military horse’s lifetime, war on all sides
Who dominated the battlefield
You’ll paint the picturesque scene
The straw boat went down the river, thousand arrows flew
Life or death in that split second
Conversations and laughter determined your ostentatious thousand years

A clear and melodious gorgeous soprano melody, the perfect technique of changing pitch, and also the voice… with just the right emotion, Mo Lan listened quietly, could not bear to even breathe, for fear of destroying his perfect voice.

En… the climax was coming, she clearly remembered, there was a rap section and two opera lines in《The Empty City》.

“Longzhong Plan vs. Kingdom of Heaven, 3 points
Famous in ancient and modern times
Played the zither, retreated from the upper, middle and lower army
The family heirloom sounded
Led military operations with extraordinary skill (led like a god)
A ruler and his ministers, a pot of wine, a full cup of comradeship

Here comes the rap… Mo Lan was so excited that she wanted to just roll about on the ground! It was really too beautiful to listen to… each line, extremely outstanding. A somewhat absent-minded vocal music (in opera), faintly, but brimmed with the emotions of the king who had just about to inspect the whole of China, it was just like the conversation and laughter vanished in a puff of smoke.

It sounded so good that she was at a loss for words…

“Nanyang’s Zhuge Crouching Dragon*
A drifting life was like a play singing one’s life”

(Zhuge Liang’s nickname)

The only two opera lines in the song ended, but the song still seemed to linger on in Mo Lan’s ears.

In this section, Secretly Captivated sang with his throat, the falsetto meandered a thousand times between emotions, but it didn’t make people feel frail and powerless, it was really the perfect combination of softness and rigidity. A frail scholar who chose to start carrying the burden of a country was all too vivid.

A drifting life* was like a play singing one’s life…

(浮萍 fú píng – lit. duck weed – fig. having no fixed whereabouts; drifting life; wandering existence)

Mo Lan listened until she felt that she was about to cry, what was this kind of natural drama feeling all about? Even though it was just singing and not reciting lines, it still allowed people to feel like they had experienced it themselves, and can’t help but sighed and ache for Zhuge Liang’s homeless and miserable* life.

(颠沛流离 diān pèi liú lí – idiom meaning to wander about in a desperate plight/to drift)

At the end of the song, Mo Lan was unable to return to reality.

However, she heard the other party turn off the accompaniment music, then he spoke in a deep tone, slightly tender: “Like it?”

“Like… like it too much… male god, you sing so well, why have you never sung before?” Mo Lan returned to reality, almost with tears.

The other person blanked for a moment and then chuckled: “Qingmo told me, once in a while, I have to also give other singers a chance to make a living. Moreover, I prefer dubbing.”

… so that was why.

In her mind, she automatically imagined Su Qingmo’s face of admiration, envy and resentment when he spoke this sentence, Mo Lan felt like she finally understood something.

“Speaking of this… since I sang for you, shouldn’t you be repaying me back too?”

A carefree, light, but indescribable gentle voice.

The ears were pregnant again…

Mo Lan blanked. After quite a while, she clenched her fist with a look of virtuous dignity*: “Male god you tell me, as long as I can do it, I will not hesitate to* go through water and tread on fire*!”

(大义凛然 dà yì lǐn rán – idiom – devotion to righteousness that inspires reverence)
(所不辭 zài suǒ bù cí – idiom – not to refuse to)
(赴湯蹈火在 fù tāng dǎo huǒ – idiom meaning not afraid of any difficulty)

“If it’s like that,” Secretly Captivated replied softly, as if there was a smile in his tone. He seemed to pause and thought for a bit, after a while, his low lazy tone sounded again, “I can’t think of anything for the time being, let’s put it on the tab first.”

… No way, it was with great difficulty she drummed up the courage ah T^T

“Then, then it’s all right, when male god thinks of something then tell me.” Mo Lan said, unaware that her always gentle and meek tone was a little melancholic..

“En, okay then, it’s not early, go sleep.” At the end of Secretly Captivated’s sentence, it seemed that he yawned a little, and trembled slightly at the end, alike waving a kitten’s paw, scratching your palm neither lightly nor heavily, it made people incapable of resisting the beautiful and stirring emotion.

“Good night~”

Giddily she bid farewell to Secretly Captivated, got off the mic, switched off the computer and went to bed.

Her mind was still dizzy from automatically replaying over and over again his singing of《The Empty City》, Mo Lan really felt that… these past few days of information were so big that she was already a little unable to bear it.

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Me: Everybody’s in the midst of this pandemic. It’s scary and so real. I’m really thankful for this new hobby of mine. Helps me to take my mind off things. But because of the lockdown, I’ve been busier than normal trying to sort things out for work so have been slower than normal in translating and obviously not paying as much attention (which means more mistakes). But anyhow, hopefully you enjoyed this chapter! I can’t wait to go back and read the whole thing again once the translation is all up! Did you know there’s a radio drama for this novel too? If you can understand Mandarin, you should give it a go – I’m planning to after I finish!