Captivated By You: Chapter 5

AS IF HEAVEN AND EARTH
CHOSE ME AND YOU

During the weekend, about five something in the afternoon, Mo Lan rushed to finish her draft, after she sent this week’s draft to the editor’s inbox, she suddenly felt very hungry, hence she planned to go to the kitchen to hunt for food.

She walked out and saw An Xiaoluo sat in the living room, with a surprised look, she stared blankly at the computer screen, her whole face was as if spring had come.

However, now was obviously still the start of January where there was still the biting cold wind.

Mo Lan walked over, waved in front of her and asked: “Cousin, have you gone crazy with all the overtime work, why are you giggling here all by yourself?”

An Xiaoluo blinked, looked up at her, and murmured underneath her breath, “Benefitted… simply a heaven sent benefit…”

“What benefit?” Mo Lan poured herself a glass of water, and then sat down beside her.

An Xiaoluo moved the computer screen to the front of Mo Lan as she spoke, “The boss just told us, that in order to celebrate the seventh anniversary of the founding of the Ninth Heaven Dubbing Group, and since it so happened that Secretly Captivated came back, so he planned to produce a short drama, when the time comes, Secretly Captivated, Su Qingmo and Bai Yu Luo Bo will join this dubbing.”

As soon as An Xiaoluo’s voice fell, she almost choked and spat out the water that she just drank, no way… Secretly Captivated, Su Qingmo, Bai Yu Luo Bo, practically a golden CV ensemble that could only be seen but not sought you know! Now, these three people would actually be in the same radio drama?

Sensing every cell in her body was all fired up, Mo Lan placed her glass down, looked at the computer screen with excitement, and as expected she saw a post from Ninth Heaven Dubbing Group’s official Weibo, the main gist was as what An Xiaoluo said, they also asked in passing for a few short drama scripts, and in just under an hour, the number of reposts almost exceeded ten thousand.

“It’s really a once-in-a-blue-moon good news.” Mo Lan mumbled to herself while she read the passionate comments below the Weibo post.

She had a hunch that after the release of this radio drama, it would definitely be a milestone in the future of the Internet Voice Circle.

An Xiaoluo suddenly sighed quietly: “But with such a luxurious lineup… doesn’t it mean that it’s even more difficult to choose a novel script?”

Mo Lan was trying to respond, but felt her mobile phone vibrated, she unlocked it, and found she had been tagged on somebody’s Weibo post.

Weibo?

Mo Lan got a little confused, Secretly Captivated haven’t been posting on Weibo the past few days, thus, she had never gone on Weibo too. Without any rhyme or reason, who would have tagged her?

She opened it, and the next second, she was petrified.

Secretly Captivated… reposted her Weibo post from last year.

• 

  pipa

• 

  gu zheng

• 

  flute

Mo Lan this person, in fact had a little personality trait of a talented girl from the ancient times, more specifically she liked reading ancient books like《Shijing*》, 《Chu Ci*》etc, liked to listen to opera, and not only that but… she also knew how to play a few Chinese cultural instruments, such as the guzheng, pipa and flute.

(诗经 shī jīng – the Book of Songs, early collection of Chinese poems and one of the Five Classics of Confucianism)
(楚辞 chǔ cí – the Songs of Chu – ancient book of poems collected during Han but esp. from country of Chu c. 500 BC)

Senbon Sakura – mix of ancient and modern instruments but with subs!

She remembered, that for a while last year, the song《Senbon Sakura》was very popular among the 2D ancient-style circle, consequently at that time the entire population was consumed with《Senbon Sakura》, if you could sing then sing, if you couldn’t sing then play. Mo Lan was no exception, and she followed the crowd and played a guzheng version of the song, then posted it on Weibo.

After she posted, there were indeed many people who commented saying that she played well, but, that was a thing from last year, and even she had almost forgotten all about it, how was it now… that Secretly Captivated reposted it?

He reposted that particular Weibo post of hers, added @LeSuQingMo, and commented briefly: I like this version.

Consequently, Mo Lan was astounded.

This version… refered to this version of her playing《Senbon Sakura》?

She clicked on the fans’ comments, alike water flooding Jinshan, a mix of praise and criticism:

“Mi Da do you like the Guzheng version of《Senbon Sakura》, I can also play it for you QVQ.”

“…as expected it’s rather savage, being able to keep up with the fast song, girl has quick excellent hands.”

“Male god, I’ve decided to learn guzheng because of you!”

“Mi Da I did play too, I’m way better than this girl okay! I’m already crying and fainting on the rooftop ying ying ying, please see it please repost please reply!!!”

So, faced with such a chaotic situation, now, what should she do?

Reply? But how to reply… just in case it was a poor choice of words, if she gets attacked by his fans then how?

Don’t reply? You must be kidding… the honourable senior male god reposted her Weibo and she doesn’t even reply, wouldn’t this be the rhythm of cutting one’s own throat*?

(簡直是分分鍾烏江自刎的節奏好嗎 – it was a long sentence that I couldn’t make sense of so you can google for yourself and see too 🙂 but I think I’ve got the gist of it)

Mo Lan held her phone and sat cross-legged by the dining table in the living room, she bit her nails, and racked her brains for a long time, but An Xiaoluo suddenly exclaimed, and instantly pulled back Mo Lan’s mind.

“Dang! Xiao Lan, did you know that Secretly Captivated SAMA reposted your Weibo?”

Mo Lan 囧, weakly responded: “I only just found out…”

An Xiaoluo turned her head to look at her, looked practically all over her body from head to toes. After a short while, she slowly said, “Why do I feel… that the atmosphere is not quite right?”

“Atmosphere? What atmosphere? Was the air conditioner set on too high? No wonder I wondered why it’s so hot, I’ll go lower the temperature now.” Mo Lan spoke as she hurriedly got up from her chair, as she intended to quickly leave the battlefield.

“Come on*.” An Xiaoluo’s lazy tone sounded, “You feeling hot, it’s definitely not because of the high temperature, I think, it’s because somebody reposted your Weibo, right? You say, there are so many that tagged Secretly Captivated, and even more countless of comments, how could he be in such a good mood and specially looked for your Weibo, as well as reposted it?”

(得了吧 dé liǎo ba – all right!/ that’s enough!)

Mo Lan was paralysed. After a long time, she turned around, and solemnly continued with a dignified expression: “Maybe he just liked the guzheng version of《Senbon Sakura》! Aiya cousin, don’t just blindly believe, it’s not a big deal to start with, why do you have to make it sound like it was something serious, hasn’t he also reposted a fan’s solo pipa song before?”

An Xiaoluo frowned and stared at her for a long time before she continued a little reluctantly, “Okay okay, but you really are too lucky, do you really want me to say, the solo pipa post that he reposted that year, compared with your guzheng, isn’t it precisely one coming from heaven and one from the bottom?”

Looking at her resentfully, Mo Lan was powerless: “Although it’s true, but why be so blunt… are you really my cousin?”

An Xiaoluo smiled brightly, as if to pacify Mo Lan, she waved to her, saying a little mysteriously, “The Ninth Heaven Dubbing Group are currently recruiting new CVs, both Su Qingmo and Xiao Luo Bo have already arrived, and right now they’re going through the newcomers audition on the spot, how about it, would you like to come and watch it with me?”

“Of course yes!” Her eyes lit up, Mo Lan agreed without any hesitation.

Ninth Heaven Dubbing Group recruitment… That is to also say, Secretly Captivated might be there too?

Mo Lan took her computer out and placed it next to An Xiaoluo, then entered Ninth Heaven’s YY channel, she went in and glanced around, realised that there were more than 3000 people in the channel. Mo Lan was a little surprised in her heart, out of these 3000 people, only about a tenth were here for the audition, the rest… reckoned they were like me and came to join in the fun, right?

Mo Lan turned her head and asked softly, “Cousin, which room are they in?”

Without looking up, An Xiaoluo disclosed the room number and password.

Entering the room with a little excitement, every time she received this type of free benefit, Mo Lan couldn’t help but thanked An Xiaoluo for her good rapport in the Internet Voice Circle.

As soon as Mo Lan entered the room, she heard a soft suffering voice right in the middle of reciting lines, his tone seemed awfully desperate: “Senior brother, ten years have passed, and I’ve always thought you would return. For the past ten years, I have been here, standing in for you to guard this land, guarding the people of your home, not daring to slack off for even a bit, explicitly so that I could return your land for the future generations. But I have never thought, that maybe… you won’t be coming back again.”

En… how to say it, it was sorrowful enough, but too much so that it made people felt it was a little excessive and fake.

Immediately afterwards, another person who came for the audition read the same lines again. While he recited, contrariwise he was a bit more restraint than the one just before, but he seemed to be restraining a bit too much, not dismal enough, slightly dull.

After waiting for the five people to finish reading their lines, suddenly, Su Qingmo’s voice sounded, warm, calm, and a little serious: “En, now I will quickly review the five auditions. First of all, several of your Mandarin was not bad, quite clear pronounciation. However, a common problem was that the grasp of emotion wasn’t there. A few too little, a few too much, furthermore a few were too cautious, it didn’t sound like reciting lines, it was more like reading a textbook.”

Mo Lan silently listened and couldn’t help but sighed in her heart, to be a good CV, it was really not easy.

First of all, you must be a hundred percent wholly devoted to this job, otherwise it was very likely that one would quit the drama midway. Secondly, you must reached a certain standard of Mandarin, or else, if you encountered flat or rising tongues or an indistinguishable nasal sound, it would simply destroy the audience’s ears. Finally, the most important point just mentioned by Su Qingmo, was that one must have emotion. As long as you had emotion in your voice, then only would you be able to moved others.

For example… Secretly Captivated’s voice, just clearly casually grasped the perfect emotion of a drama.

The audition was still in full swing like wildfire*, with different qualifications, good and bad, and of course, one or two words that came out from time to time made good sound.

(如火如荼rú huǒ rú tú – idiom meaning unstoppable)

The CV recruitment soon ended, the newcomers who came to the audition, as well as those who similiar to Mo Lan depended on relationship to come in to listened and watched have all nearly dispersed, the room only remained Su Qingmo, Bai Yu Luo Bo and a few veterans from the Ninth Heaven Dubbing Group, it seemed that their mic was just switched on, but they weren’t actually online, only Su Qingmo and Bai Yu Luo Bo were actually on the mic.

Mo Lan sighed kind of unsatisfactorily, just as she hesitated on whether to exit the room, suddenly, a person’s voice rang in the room:

“I seemed to be late.”

A careless tone, with a little laziness, smashed into the body word by word, dazzled the fans.

It was Secretly Captivated’s voice.

Mo Lan froze, the mouse that just moved to the upper right corner which was about to close the window also stopped.

Bai Yu Luo Bo seemed to be stunned for a moment too, and immediately exclaimed with a little happiness: “Ah Mi Ah Mi, you’ve come? It’s good that you’ve come, let’s discuss about the new drama.”

Su Qingmo also echoed: “The scripts I sent to you a few days ago, have you gone through them? Which one do you think is better?”

Secretly Captivated was silent for a while, everyone in the room waited for his answer. After about ten seconds, he said, low but clearly: “Ye Lanshan?”

The second time her name was called out by him, Mo Lan was stumped for words, she promptly reached out and typed: I’m here.

“Oh…” He paused, then not knowing what came to his mind, once again he opened his mouth, “You’re a writer?”

Flowed like white jade, rang like a bell, exceptionally beautiful.

In an instant, her heartbeat became a little irregular, Mo Lan was mystified by his captivating voice, she flutteringly continued to type: I am… male god, how did you know?

He chuckled, suddenly romantic and gorgeous: “I’ve seen your Weibo.”

That’s why…

Mo Lan couldn’t help but lamented in her heart. Normally, when inspiration came she would post some random snippets of short article on Weibo, but those were merely her YY* writings from when her brain temporarily buzzed with ideas, out of the blue they had all been seen by male god, she felt indescribably awkward, how to break the awkwardness ah T^T

(YY – actual YY in the raws –  pinyin acronym for 意淫 yì yín – meaning to fantasise in this context)

“Xiao Mi, what you just forwarded to me, was this little girl’s Weibo?” Su Qingmo still sounded calm, but still a little curious.

“En, what do you think?” Secretly Captivated still unruffled.

Su Qingmo laughed, when he laughed, the feeling of the deep uncle’s voice shortened the distance between people: “The guzheng song is not bad, her fingers are very beautiful, her hand speed is also very fast… en, but, you don’t really want to hear all of these, do you?”

The puzzled Bai Yu Luo Bo who had been listening for quite a while, finally seemed to react, he immediately interjected: “Ah Mi, why are you looking through other people’s Weibo without any reason ah? Tsk, there must be something up your sleeve right?”

Up until now Mo Lan who had been wearing her headphones, utterly wanted to logout instantly. This kind of scene was really totally awkward okay, fortunately, she wasn’t on the mic now, so she didn’t have to talk.

Secretly Captivated opened his mouth, in a low calm voice, somewhat indolent, somewhat gentle, unimaginably pleasant: “I was just thinking… for the new drama, let’s get her to write the script.”

As soon as the voice finished, there was silence in the room.

Even Mo Lan was dumbfounded.

Inexplicably, she went back to three years ago… she was an obsessed fan of Secretly Captivated for that short crazy period, having spent one day and one night without stopping to sleep or have a rest to write a specially customised radio drama for him.

But what she wrote three years ago, even if she was to look at it now, she would lament as to why she was so moronic and so Mary Sue* that particular year. What’s more, such a major event as Ninth Heaven’s seventh anniversary celebration as well as the golden CV assemble…

(Mary Sue – A Mary Sue is a fictional character, who is so competent or perfect that this appears absurd even in the context of the fiction. )

After thinking about it, Mo Lan still replied and typed out: Don’t need ba, if you let me write the script, your drama probably would be mangled T^T.

Mo Lan wasn’t being modest, she sincerely felt that she wasn’t qualified for this job. The her from three years ago could still use young and experience to describe herself, the her of three years later, really wouldn’t dare to take this heavy responsibility, it would probably crushed her instead…

“It’s Ye Lanshan right? You don’t need to be modest, since Xiao Mi wants you to write it, he must have his own reasons.” Su Qingmo reassured her, his voice very amiable and approachable.

As if Bai Yu Luo Bo had suddenly discovered some new continent, he also buzzingly replied, full of zest: “Yeah, yeah, that is to say… I have never seen Ah Mi so meticulous towards a girl before, how did you two meet?”

How did we meet?

Mo Lan frowned and began to think back.

Roughly probably because… I managed to grab the mic, and then chatted a bit with Secretly Captivated, afterwards… added him as a YY friend, WeChat friend…

The probability of this happening was simply too low until no one would have noticed, even saying it out loud made her doubt herself.

Beside her sat An Xiaoluo with her earphones, a pair of eyes suspiciously continuously swept over Mo Lan: “Xiao Lan… are you hiding something from me?”

cold sweat

Feeling sweat* dripped from her forehead, Mo Lan turned her head to look at An Xiaoluo, unspeakably felt a little mortified: “Umm, cousin, finish listening first, after we logout from YY then I’ll explain everything to you.”

(it’s the cold sweat emoji kind)

Just then, Secretly Captivated voice sounded clearly again, as light as the river, but still very tender: “Do you still remember… the tab that you still owed me?”

Even if he didn’t mentioned a name, Mo Lan knew he was talking to her.

Sure enough… male god’s song wasn’t free to listen to T^T

There seemed to be more and more sweat on her forehead, although now Mo Lan wanted to deny that she didn’t remember, however… she didn’t have the nerved. Consequently she closed her eyes and type heroically: Remembered.

“Good that you remembered.” A low voice, as if it rang in her ear, stunningly suave, so alluring that her heart trembled, “So, the matter of the script will be handed over to you, any problem?”

When An Xiaoluo heard this sentence, she was utterly so excited that she commented on the public forum declaring that Mo Lan’s writing would assuredly be excellent etc, and Mo Lan merely felt that… she was the hero who was driven to join the Liangshan Mountain rebels*.

(逼上梁山 bī shàng liáng shān – to drive to revolt/ to force somebody to desperate action)

After she thought about it, she carefully replied typing: But, what if when it comes to that time and everyone doesn’t feel satisfied, then how? In that case, would I not just be wasting your time?

As soon as Mo Lan’s words were posted, Secretly Captivated had an answer all ready: “Like this ba, you first write an outline and send it to Ninth Heaven Screenplay Department, and at that time we’ll see their response, can ma*?”

(可以嗎 kě yǐ ma is such a hard phrase to translate. “ma” is a question particle for yes-no questions of which there is no English equivalent in my opinion so in order for the story to flow better (as it uses the phrase or part thereof about four times). kě yǐ = can/ may/ possible/ able to/ not bad/ pretty good)

Can ma……

Secretly Captivated unexpectedly used this kind of tenderness to expressed regret, within the regretful tone there was also the gentle and soft tone that asked “Can ma?”, Mo Lan made a fist, indicated that she would throw caution to the wind for the sake of male god. So she took a deep breath and quickly typed a reply: Can! Thank you male god for your recognition, I will definitely try my best to write a good script!

“Pfffftt giggle giggle” The sound was of Bai Yu Luo Bo’s barely contained laughter, and he started talking, the soft and syrupy voice carried a little smile: “Sister… you really deserve to be Ah Mi’s fangirl.”

Mo Lang silently 囧.

“All right, if there are no other opinions, then this matter have been decided. Ye Lanshan sister write well, our new drama will depend on you.” Su Qingmo also laughed, warm, rich and calm, listening to it made people felt very warm and familiar, just like an elder.

After logging out from YY, Mo Lan finished being nervous, and then suddenly felt a trace of excitement.

Three years ago… my wish for Secretly Captivated to dub a radio drama I wrote, was really going to come true? Thinking about it this way, really made it a very exciting thing.

An Xiaoluo who was beside her, casually turned off her computer, casually poured herself a glass of water, then casually looked at Mo Lan, “All right, can you tell me now, between you and Secretly Captivated SAMA, what is going on exactly?”

Mo Lan was in tears, in fact she felt that she had been treated unjustly, besides the fact that SC added her as aWeChat friend, and excluded the part where he sang a song for her, there really was a complete lack of relationship between the two of them… oh wait, just a moment ago, he just fought for her the script writing rights for the new drama.

After listening to Mo Lan’s disjointed and one hundred loopholes* of explanation, An Xiaoluo’s pair of eyes just stared at her, her expression still puzzled after she pondered over it a hundred times*.

(漏洞百出 lòu dòng bǎi chū – idiom – full of mistakes)
(百思不解 bǎi sī bù jiě – idiom – to remain perplexed despite much thought)

After a long while, she then spoke, and unwillingly said, “Xiao Lan, what in the world have you accumulated in your previous life? Secretly Captivated has 1.2 million fans on Weibo, at the moment you have actually become the one out of the 1.2 million fans… using good luck is not sufficient enough to describe it you know, hurry up and tell me what witchcraft did you used!”

“Uh… maybe I did save the galaxy in my previous life.” Mo Lan embarassingly tucked a strand of hair behind her ears, her enchanted face flushed.

That was right… she also felt that she was just too lucky.

---

One of the shorter chapters done and dusted! Hehe.