(CC) Chapter 01

Hello, I want to thank a friend who, previously, wanted to translate this novel. She became unable to do so and informed me so I could pick it up. In fact, this first chapter wasn’t translated by me; my friend gave it to me and I just edited it a little. Once again, I’m very thankful, darling. This story speaks to me in a personal level, I hope it will for you too. Also, every play named here is a real play and, in my opinion, all of them are good plays! Oh, how I wish I could act in a musical… There’s not many musicals where I live, but I’ll work hard! Oh… I need to improve my singing…

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Prologue: Kinky Boots

This story began with a chance encounter, originated by a song of cicadas in the afternoon.

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This summer vacation, a new fantasy work will be simultaneously released around the world. Two months ago, film directors looked for a chinese dubbing team and Tan Yiming led his ‘Yiming Amazing Studio’ to auditions. After several rounds of auditions, his team finally won the roles.

For this class S+ masterpiece, the chinese-english confidential paperwork had more than 30 pages, with dozens of supplementary causes.

When Tan Yiming signed the contract, he also joked around with the assistants around him that they might as well invent a pen-forgetting-machine just like ‘Men in Black’ so they can press a button and let everyone forget about the contract to prevent anyone from leaking it.

Then the young assistant who just turned 20 asked: “What’s Men in Black?”

“…” Tan Yiming said: “What a generation gap…”

In order to not delay the production team, the film dubbing would happen only for three days.

The film distribution team was extra cautions and all the scenes were painted black, leaving only a small gap where the actors mouths to be seen.

When the actors on the screen opened their mouths, the voice actors outside the screen also opened their mouths synchronously. In addition, all the plots, scenes, expressions, props…

It was not a voice-acting test, it’s an imagination test.

Tan Yiming’s voice acting is gorgeous and he is particularly good at performing that kind of wild role. He was directly chosen by the director to voice that rebellious character. That character had lots of monologues and was very verbal, and Tan Yiming was also the team’s director… For the past days, he hardly closed his eyes.

After the final line was done, Tan Yiming was so tired that he fell down on the lounge and slept for 20 hours.

When he woke up, it was already the next day’s afternoon.

He wanted to continue working, but the assistant narrowed his eyes and pushed him out of the building.

“Ming-ge! You have to rest!”

There are not many members in the studio, so there’s no clear concept of hierarchy between employees, that’s why even a young assistant dared to “roar” at their leader.

Tan Yiming was astonished and asked: “If I don’t work, how can we pay our company’s rent?”

The office was located at a quiet alley. It’s a small courtyard house with blue tiles, gray brick walls which makes the studio warm in the winter and cool in the summer. No matter who came to visit, they would be complimented as ‘having good taste’.

Of course, the rent also ‘had taste’.

On the porch there’s a lazy lizard who is longer and thicker than an arm. With a long chain around its ankle, it’s their studio’s mascot.

Tan Yiming carried the big lizard into his arms as he rubbed its cool body.

The lizard is very honest. Its two front claws were hooked on his placket, its chin rested on his shoulders and its pupils were in a daze. It chewed the vegetable that were cut in filaments and it tasted and carefully tasted its flavor with its tongue. It kinda looked like a demon lizard.

Tan Yiming asked his son, “Let’s go, Dabao, come with your daddy to the recording studio!”

He thought the lizard wouldn’t answer him but his eldest son immediately opened his mouth, extended his long tongue and hooked it around something. The small button on his neckline was robbed by a tongue!

Tan Yiming was taken aback by it — the lizard’s bite had the force of ten kilograms. This time, his son showed him his mercy and didn’t give him a kiss of true love.

The young assistant added quickly, “Ming Ming, even Dabao is telling you to rest!”

Tan Yiming had no choice but to withdraw from the studio.

Idle, Tan-Workaholic-Ming stayed in the office doing nothing, with no idea of what to do.

Someone that hated him said: “Ming-ge, I already told you to go chat with someone. You said you were looking for a step-mother for your baby lizard… Which lady would have such a taste? Look, now you can’t even find someone to have a small talk.”

Tan Yiming said slyly: “Who said I don’t have one already? Diao Chan, Zhao Jun and Xiao Qiao, wait for me to take back my kingdom and I’ll name you all my imperial concubines…”

“What about the queen? Who will the queen be?”

Tan Yiming patted the big lizard in his arms and laughed, “It depends on my son’s wish. Whoever he likes, whoever is able to win the holy pet will become the harem’s queen!”

Everyone “…”

To be honest, they believe the boss will never find someone in his life…

The assistant girl said “Ming, if you don’t have nothing to do, why don’t you go to the theater?”

“Which play?” Tan Yiming lacked interest, “A modern play?”

“No,” the assistant showed the ticket to him. “At seven o’clock in the evening at ShanHe theater. “Kinky Boots: the musical.”

It was a very rough designed ticket with a very bad cut, it was estimated that the designer only used Xiu Xiu Meitu.

Xiu Xiu Meitu: an online photo editor.

The ticket was printed on leaflet paper and the title and seat were handwritten, however, the writing was neat and gorgeous. At first glance he could see it was written by a boy.

The ticket was stamped with a dark red seal and the writing was blurred.

Tan Yiming carefully analyzed it for a long time, barely seeing the words above: gift ticket, not for sale.

Tan Yiming held the “ticket”, raised his eyebrows and asked “…Where’s this from?”

The girl replied, “I know someone from a dance school… I heard it was a musical play made by some students and that the play was not legally copyrighted, so they are secretly making it. They borrowed the stage and didn’t dare sell the tickets. I have some tickets for relatives, friends, neighbors…”

Tan Yiming looked like he wanted to refuse but somehow, he took the ticket and said: “If I have time, I’ll go.”

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The name of the ShanHe Theater sounds elegant, but it’s stated on the official website — “The owner and his wife founded this theater, one was named Shanxi and the other Hebei, that’s how it was named ShanHe theater.”

When Tan Yiming went out, he accidentally got stuck in the late rush hour, hurried up and finally ended up arriving before the musical began.

ShanHe theater has a long story and is known in the industry as “young theater” .

The word “young theater” not only refers to the small size of the venue and the small number of spectators that can be accommodated. Another important reason is the dramatic motto of “independence, vanguard, rebellion and avant-garde”.

The small theater opened activities in the early 1980’s. As a complement to the mainstream theater form, it didn’t have many rules or regulations.

Tan Yiming thought that, since he didn’t know the background of those students, he could even assume the owner of the theater lent the stage for free.

There are three rows in the ShanHe theater. The smallest row can barely accommodate one hundred people.

But now, the smallest row isn’t even full… And looking around, the majority of the audience are all young, around twenty years old or so, all students who came to cheer for their friends.

Mumbles to the left, whispers to the right, groups of girls changed their topics from minute to minute.

Tan Yiming looks handsome and elegant all dressed up like an adult, but he doesn’t look like a businessperson. Sitting between the students, he feels like he stood out like a fluorescent jellyfish and attracted countless sights.

He noticed that the girl next to him kept glancing at him, so Tan Yiming turned around and generously said hi with a gentle smile.

The young girl was startled and hurried up to turn her head around, sat upright and chatted stiffly with her friend beside her.

Tan Yiming raised his ears, listened with interest and learned a lot of useful information about the play’s background.

They said that the senior students of the Musical theatre department of Huacheng Dance Academy were the ones performing on stage today. That is the first professional dance academy in China and is also the first to open a major in musicals.

Today, the “Kinky Boots” they are presenting has been on Broadway since 2013 and has won the top awards in the musical industry, such as the Tony Awards and Olivier Award. There are two protagonists in the story, one is a shoe maker on the verge of bankruptcy and the other is a sexy and enchanting nightclub queen. The person playing the nightclub queen was the musical department’s monitor who had a good image and temperament. He was one meter and seventy-eight tall and his legs were one meter eighty-five tall.

Tan Yiming: “…??? Wait, isn’t there a problem with those numbers?”

He couldn’t help his impulse to talk to them: “Excuse me, but how can he have taller legs than himself?”

“That’s his summary! His summary!” The girl blushed. “What’s wrong with good looking people having longer legs than themselves?”

Tan Yiming was teased, he thought those girls were very funny and thanked them for their propaganda. Tan Yiming was looking forward to seeing the legendary monitor with a pair of long legs that could shine on the stage.

At seven o’clock, the curtain opened.

Tan Yiming quickly abandoned all his thoughts and tried to focus on the stage.

The first act was very simple.

The first protagonist was the heir of a shoe factory. He didn’t want to be trapped in the countryside and went to a big city alone to start a new life. One day, he received a call from a member of his family to inform him his father died and left him only a show factory with heavy debts and unsalable products.

The hero doesn’t know how to bring that little factory to life, but just when he was mourning about his bankruptcy, he helped a drag queen in a typical “hero saves beauty” scene in the middle of the night.

The nightclub drag queen was sexy and tall. She wore a pair of over-the-knee boots and a trench coat. Her exaggerated makeup was very memorable.

“Pleased to meet you” the queen of the club opened her lips gently with a small frown on her eyebrows. “I’m Lola.”

From the moment the queen appeared, there was a faint rumbling from the audience.

There’s a reason for it — the ‘queen with the boots’ Lola is actually played by a man! Although the actor’s facial features were exquisite and beautiful and, at first glance, appeared androgynous, he raised his chin and showed his true gender.

Transvestites, shemales, queens of disguise… Those disgusting and discriminatory comments echoed in every corner of the theater.

And if the audience attention is not caught by the fast-paced background music, the eighteen side lights on the stage lighted up at the same time, dazzling.

In the middle of the lights, the actor suddenly threw his coat away, revealing a sequin skirt tightly wrapped around him!!!!

The short skirt was narrow, tight and the boots under his feet were ten centimeters tall, the type that you may not even be able to walk with it.

But the young man on the stage danced enchantingly and his long legs were extremely flexible. Dancing accompanied by angels, he sometimes jumped, he sometimes bounced, like a smart and sexy cat, a jumping deer or a proud swan…

Throughout the show, almost all dance moves were focused on him… No. It was “her”.

With such a high intensity activity, the dancers on stage that played the two angels were already out of breath, but the drag queen’s breathing was very steady and his high-pitched voice was never out of tune!

Gradually, the whispers in the audience became quieter and quieter and, in the end, everyone fell for his singing and dancing.

He is Lola, he is a drag queen and he uses every skin on his body to show his beauty and confidence!

Below the stage, Tan Yiming frowned and looked closely at the stage, following the dazzling figure attentively.

….. The tone of that voice… The emotion on his voice when he sings…

How could it be so familiar?!!!

As a professional voice actor, Tan Yiming’s ears would never lie to him — He definitely heard that voice before!

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