(CC) Chapter 3

Hello, I’m back 🙂
Due health problems, I abandoned this blog for a while but I’m back now. Still, I happened to come back the same day another translator took it up LMAO so I’ll be handing it over to Cai Cai Translations from now on!

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Act One: The Sound of Music

This story began five years ago with a brief meeting.

※

“Student Xiang Cai, your transfer application was approved.” Chu Ping walked around the desk. She wanted to pat the boy’s shoulder but when her eyes met his, her hand could only fall weakly against his arm. “… That’s why, on behalf of the singing and dancing major of Huawu School, I welcome you.”

“Thank you” Xiang Cai’s eyes were bent and his eyelashes trembled slightly as he showed a well-behaved smile. “Teacher Chu, I’ll be in your care for the next two years.”

“That’s right, that’s right.” Chu Ping was the head teacher but in reality, she was just a few years older than her students. She looked at the seventeen-year-old boy in front of her and had a lot to say but, in the end, she just fixed her glasses and asked softly, “Do you know anything about our major?”

Xiang Cai replied: “To be honest, no.”

“Have you read any books about it?”

“To be honest, no.”

“Uh…” Chu Ping felt a bit helpless but she always had a good temper, so she explained it gently, “We professionalize in singing and dancing, mainly to train performers. Singing, acting, dancing, all three are important.”

While she spoke, Xiang Cai quietly watched her speak.

Chu Ping sighed inside her heart

The young boy’s body had already matured at this age. Since he had been singing and dancing since childhood, his body proportions were excellent. He was admitted to the Huawu School after ranking first on the ballet exam and, back then, his legs were already 18cm longer than his torso. He was born for dancing and had this hardworking aura. After his accident, the dean of the ballet department visited him many times to solve the matters surrounding the transfer.

What a pity…

Remembering this, Chu Ping couldn’t help glance at his feet.

Her voice became soft as she said: “To short it out, most of our students have gone into acting after graduating. Look, many of the great female and male personalities nowadays came from our department! Of course, there’s also a small percentage of those who went to the Musical Theatre department… Your application said you want to apply for it in the future, right?”

“En.” Thinking about the future, Xiang Cai’s eyes finally sparkled. He didn’t intend on giving up dancing but, due his accident, he couldn’t jump around the stage anymore. Which meant that musical theater was his only hope left.

“That’s good~” Chu Ping agreed. “Compared to your classmates, you’ve fallen behind on acting so you must try hard to catch up with everyone as soon as you can. By the way, how many musicals have you watched?”

“…”

Seeing his eyes avoiding hers, Chu Ping guessed he didn’t do his homework.

“It’s okay, you can say it to me” Chu Ping assured him. “It doesn’t matter if it’s ten, twenty, five or eight.” She paused and became suspicious, “Couldn’t be that you’ve never watched one, right?”

Xiang Cai answered: “I’ve watched one.”

“Really? Which one?”

“The Sound of Music.”

“…” Chu Ping thought ‘if you ask any middle school student around, they will all answer they’ve seen it’.

After completing the transfer procedures, Chu Ping walked Xiang Cai to the singing and dancing classroom.

Huawu Facility had a dorm system with daily classes even on weekends and only two free days in the end of the month so students could go home. Every student had three major classes every day and, by the end of the afternoon, they were all exhausted and sleepy.

Xiang Cai took a piece of bubblegum out of nowhere and chewed a bit, blowing a bubble after another.

Chu Ping heard one ‘pop’ after other and she wanted to tell him to stop but, in the end, she gulped her words down.

Xiang Cai’s application was approved by the school directors. Before him, there was never a student who changed their field in this school, only those who couldn’t keep up with classes and left crying for their mothers.

When the school director handed Xiang Cai’s files to Chu Ping, they told her repeatedly: “You must know this boy’s situation. He was born for the stage. It’s a pity he has parents like that… We have held meeting regarding this matter and I’ve decided I can’t bear to see his talent wasted like that, so I’m handing him over to you. I’m sure he will work hard, so you must do a good job on enlightening him.”

Chu Ping is a young teacher so, naturally, she shouldn’t be in charge of the whole department but, since the original teacher was pregnant, she could only put Chu Ping who had just graduated few years ago in her place.

Better than say she’s a teacher, she’s more like a senior. The year she graduated from Huawu School, she heard rumors about a dazzling young swan between the ugly ducklings in the first year. She heard they were the kind of beauty “one cannot look away from.”

Art academies have always been a gathering place for handsome man and beautiful women but, when Xiang Cai entered this school at the age of 11, he had already a group of seniors who cheered for him at the dance studio.

Even wearing the same uniform, having the same posture or features, Xiang Cai is still better than the average. They all called him the little prince of ballet in a warm way; whenever he went to the cafeteria, the auntie in charge would always serve him a spoonful of the smoothest fish and the biggest shrimp; every time a TV station came for an interview, he was always the one chosen to represent them.

But this noble prince of ballet, after staying a year out of school, suddenly changed for the singing and dancing department.

Right after the accident, the school leader immediately sent someone to visit him at the hospital. Chu Ping heard that Teacher Yang, who teaches basic skills, cried all afternoon after returning from the hospital.

The star whose future everyone looked forward to seeing shining brightly in the future had fallen.

Fortunately, Xiang Cai was finally able to return. Chu Ping didn’t know, however, if he could fit in the singing and dancing class.

Chu Ping led Xiang Cai inside the classroom.

They were having a self-study period. Of course, there’s no difference between a self-study period without a teacher and nothing. There were people sitting in groups, people chatting loudly, some people playing gomoku with square pieces…

But all stopped when they saw Xiang Cai entering the classroom.

It was almost as if they were suddenly thrown into outer space, without oxygen or sound. They could only open their mouths and looked awkwardly at the boy who walked helplessly into the classroom.

There’s no need for Chu Ping to introduce him.

His name, his appearance, his dancing skills, his story… Without him knowing, everyone in campus already knew who he was.

It’s just that those people never once thought they would become classmates with the legendary student Xiang Cai.

“Uh… Xiang Cai, you can sit in the third row” Chu Ping assigned him the best seat in the room.

“Thank you, teacher, but I’d like to sit in the back” Xiang said, already carrying his schoolbag toward the last row.

Chu Ping was rather helpless and couldn’t help thinking Xiang Cai’s character was very different from the rumors.

Still, when she thought about the terrible things the boy experienced even though he was so young, she felt it was normal for his personality to change so drastically.

Xiang Cai chose a seat by the window, sharing a table with a girl with a slightly round body with a small and round face filled with surprise.

Xiang Cai threw his empty schoolbag on the ground and, before he could sit down, the girl handed him a bag of spicy dried fish under the desk.

“I’m Qi Ji” she said. “Go on, eat!”

Xiang Cai glanced at the package of dried fish and asked hesitantly: “Pardon me for asking, but don’t you have to weight yourself every week in this class?”

Qi Ji’s eyes widened, “… You are so arrogant.”

“…”

“The singing and dancing class is not that strict” Qi Ji answered. “I heard you had to weight yourself every week in the ballet class?”

“Yes,” Xiang Cai answered more arrogantly than before, “with your height, a girl would need to have a weight under 42kg.”

The girl sighed: “I’ve never seen that number on a scale, just on thermometers.”

“…..” Xiang Cai felt that this classmate speech was a little too much.

While they were chatting, the other students were buzzing. Since the teacher was there, none dared to speak so their words were compressed inside their throats, making them sound like bees or flies.

When Chu Ping left, everything exploded.

The countless mouths whispering to each other were like a continuous rain in the middle of the night, its cold droplets hitting Xiang Cai.

But Xiang Cai was used to it.

Over the past year, he became used to people pitying him, looking at regret and sadness.

He pretended not to hear them and turned to his new desk mate: “What are you listening to?” He pointed to the earphones covering her ears.

Her phone was hidden in her pocket and just a long black cord could be seen from the neckline of her school uniform, partially hidden by her hair.

They weren’t allowed to bring phones in class, so when the head teacher came in, she hurried to hide it.

Qi Ji didn’t expect the campus god would start a conversation. With her round face red, she whispered: “You can’t tell the teacher! Ah, I’ve been confiscated three phones already — My favorite cv’s radio drama is over, I’m listening and recording to broadcast later!”

“….”

This was impressive. Such a sentence could touch all blind spots in Xiang Cai’s areas of knowledge.

What’s cv, what’s radio drama and what is a broadcast?

But Xiang Cai has always been too proud to ask.

He answered in a sophisticated tone: “What a coincidence, I also like radio dramas.”

“Really?!!” Qi Ji was in shock. “Which cv do you like?”

Xiang Cai replied unhurriedly: “There’s no specific cv, just those who climb into the charts, you probably understand.”

If Qi Ji ever talked about sports, games or celebrities with him, he would answer the same vague way.

Qi Ji was really surprised by him. She looked at the balled prince whose looks were as exquisite as a porcelain doll and then at the ten yuan earphones she bought on the street market, hesitated for a while and then asked: “What do you want to listen?”

The earphones were gently placed on his ear and the buzzling sound made by the cheap earphones made him frown.

At the same moment, there was a deep, magnetic and gentle male voice echoing from the earphones.

His voice spread through electric waves, stopping time and space, like a thunder splitting a dark cloud in half, penetrating Xiang Cai’s ears and making his soul tremble.

『Don’t laugh at me, guys, I’m really bad at singing so I’ll read it like a poem. The song “My favorite things” from “The Sound of Music”, for you.』

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(CC) Chapter 2

I really wish to know who ranks a novel 1 star after the first chapter. Was it a problem with my translation? I wasn’t born a native english-speaker, pardon me. If you see any mistakes, please take your time to correct me, please!

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Prologue: Kinky Boots

With the rising volume on the stage, Xian Cai supported himself with one hand on the ground and his waist rose high into the air. His legs formed a beautiful fan in the air and, then, he landed steadily, finishing the first half of the show with a stunning front flip.

The legs wrapped with the high boots were really long and slim. Xiang Cai rested one hand on his waist while the other was raised above his head in the air. All lights on stage were focused on him, making him the central focus of the audience.

Xian Cai’s exaggerated makeup consisted of red lips and purple eyeshadow. He had a layer of sweat on his forehead, dripping down his temple and diluting his foundation at it slid down his face, but not even that could wash his bright smile away.

The applause sounded like thunders—

As soon as the curtain closed, the impeccable smile on Xiang Cai’s face instantly collapsed.

“Ss..!” He supported his leg, daring to move his feet gently. He felt pain every time he took a step.

Seeing him in such pain, the other actor in the play, the male student who played the show factory heir, rushed up to support him with one arm.

The other students surrounded him quickly to help him loose the straps behind his boots. When the boots were taken off, a faint smell of blood could be smelled in the air while Xiang Cai’s socks were soaked with blood. Everyone carefully took off his socks and saw his feet all read and swollen, dripping with blood.

Just now, on stage, Xiang Cai used that pair of feet to dance around for an hour and half, performing a bloody dance to an audience.

In the musical “Kinky Boots”, the actor who plays Lola naturally has a lot of dance moments. Broadway can spend thousands of dollars to tailor a pair of high heel boots suitable for dancing, but their small theater company could only afford to buy a cheap large size of women’s boots through Taobao*. The oversized shoes could not support an adult male jumping up and down on stage.

Taobao: Chinese online store.

“It’s serious!” The logistics student looked worried as he hurried to find a medical box. “Leader, I think it’s better to have a substitution in the second half!”

“Substitution? With who exactly can I change places with, we don’t have a plan B Lola, right?!” Xiang Cai sprayed disinfectant on the wound while sweating cold. He mumbled, “There’s just the straight macho men from our class who alwaysjoke about being gay, or pretended to be a transsexual calling out for men. Everyday going all ‘Gege, I want to eat your pee pee, ya~’, ‘Husband, buy me a skirt, ya~’!! And in the end, when we were told about a musical where the protagonist was a Drag Queen, all of them went into hiding!”

Several ‘straight macho men’ who were scolded like chicken looked down, looking pitiful.

“Or let the ‘Angel’s replace you,” one of the chickens spoke boldly. “The dances are almost the same.”

Angel, Lola’s dancers in the play.

“No, no” as soon as the proposal was spoken out, the classmates who acted as angels quickly refused. “Although there’s no difference in the dances, we don’t know Lola’s lines! And Xiang Cai has a high voice, I’m just a boy, I can’t sing at all!”

…What can be done, then?”

While they chatted loudly, Xiang Cai wiped the blood off his feet and covered his wound with gauze and band-aids.

If you look closely, you’ll be able to find numerous scars on both of his feet. The biggest one had nearly ten centimeters while the shortest one has around three or four centimeters. Like ugly cormorants, they are entangled around his pale ankles and feet.

“Okay, don’t worry about it. Don’t worry. The second half starts in fifteen minutes, shouldn’t the props group go up and change the scene? And you guys, help me out so I can go change clothes” Xiang Cai’s wounded feet stepped inside the boots, his tone very calm as he spoke. “I just hurt my feet, it’s not broken. You think I can’t jump?”

Even if his feet were broken, he would still continue to jump.

With their leader’s powerful sentences, an order was issued and the whole backstage went busy.

Two girls who were in charge of makeup and styling greeted him, one ready to do his makeup while the other held a fishtail dress in her hands, hurrying him to change.

“Wait, wait!” Xiang Cai protected his chest with both hands, embarrassed. “I can change alone.”

“Leader, an adult worrying about this kind of thing!” The female classmate said. “Unless you aren’t wearing underwear!”

“…” The problem was precisely him wearing underwear. In order to wear a mini skirt without showing traces of it, he decided to wear a thong.

He took the fishtail skirt directly from her and hurried down to the men’s locker room. However, the men’s locker room was packed with the people from his class. Most of the actors played more than one role: for example, Lola’s dancers, the Angels, one was Lola’s father in the second half…

Xiang Cai didn’t really want to squeeze his way in so he could only bring the tight fishtail skirt and run to the public toilet outside.

There was a long line outside the women’s toilet and the audience greeted him with enthusiasm when they saw Lola coming. There were even girls who took the initiative to give up their places in line so he could use the bathroom first.

Xiang Cai didn’t know whether to laugh or cry: “Thank you for the kindness, but I want to use the men’s toilet…”

“Oh, of course!” The female audience blushed. “Then use it as you want!”

“…”

Alright, use as you want.

The men’s bathroom was empty and Xiang Cai had no other choice. He took off his minidress and placed it on the washstand.

He would be naked if it wasn’t for that pair of over-the-knee boots. The person is the mirror was very curvy, it was Xiang Cai, but at the same time it wasn’t Xiang Cai.

He blushed a little and quickly dressed himself.

…..

When Tan Yiming pushed open the bathroom door, he saw a slender ‘girl’ standing in front of the mirror with a tight fishtail skirt covering ‘her’ body while ‘she’ had her hands behind her back, fighting against the skirt’s zipper.

‘She’ had very fair skin and, though the bathroom’s lights are dim, he can still see two scapulae bones shaped like butterflies. When ‘she’ moves ‘her’ arms, the thin layers of muscles all move.

Tan Yiming froze. He stepped back unconsciously and checked the sign outside the bathroom — it was indeed the men’s toilet.

However, he thought quickly. The high-heeled beauty inside the men’s toilet was probably the boot queen on the stage.

Remembering how that man sounded on stage, Tan Yiming really wanted to say something.

But before he even had the chance to speak, Xiang Cai spotted him on the mirror.

“Brother!” Xiang Cai’s reflex on the mirror raised his chin towards him. “Help me!”

“…?”

Xiang Cai: “Look at the skirt’s zipper for me, I don’t know why it’s stuck!”

Tan Yiming nodded and walked over.

Approaching, Tan Yiming discovered that Xiang Cai’s long golden wig was stuck in the zipper, so the more Xiang Cai pulled, the more it tangled around the zipper.

“Then help me pull it off” Xiang Cai sighed in relief. “What a scare, I thought I was too fat to wear it.”

In fact, Xiang Cai’s very thin. Really, really slim. Tan Yiming even suspected than Xiang Cai weighted less that sixty-five kilograms. However, than thinness was not in a morbid way, but a slender figure capable of dancing lightly and beautifully.

Even relaxed, Xiang Cai’s posture kept upright, with his two straight clavicles stretched out to the sides.

Since he was wearing high heeled boots, the two had a similar height in the mirror. Xiang Cai glanced at the mirror to look at the man behind him, who was busy with the zipper, and asked curiously, “Dude, you also came to see the musical?”

“Yes.” Tan Yiming answered briefly.

“You came with your girlfriend?”

Tan Yiming shook his head.

“That’s kinda rare,” Xiang Cai was embarrassed for getting someone from the audience to help him with his skirts. With such short distance, he could even feel the man’s temperature. And, even though the man was careful with his movement, he still touched his waist and back sometimes. The man’s hands were warm and dry and his occasional touches brought a strange feeling that couldn’t be described.

The more embarrassed he becomes, the more unable to shut up he gets. He can only divert his attention by talking non-stop: “You know, the professional companies made statistics. Whether if it’s a musical, drama, ballet or any kind of performance, female audience is always several times bigger than the male audience. Even if it’s a free for men, there’re always more women.”

He talked for a long time and, from the beginning to the end, only his voice was heard in the empty bathroom, echoing. All the man answered was with a short, “hm.”

Fortunately, that one man show was finally over.

After a long time, the hair was finally separated from the zipper by Tan Yiming.

The zipper then slides down all the way to the its lowest and the waistband of the skirts falls.

Xiang Cai’s spirit almost flew away and he turned around in a panic, facing Tan Yiming while he zipped his skirt behind.

“…Thank you!” Xiang Cai gave two awkward laughs. “I’m going back to stage now, the second half is about to start… By the way, how do you think I sang in the first half?”

He thought he would only get an affirmative hum from the man and didn’t expect him to not only speak, but answer with a very familiar voice.

— It’s the one that has been appearing on his dreams for years, the voice that he falls asleep to every night.

“You sing very well” Tan Yiming said softly. “CaiCai, I finally found you.”

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(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.”

※

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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<< Contents >>

Cāi Cāi

猜猜
by 莫里_
90 chapters
Yaoi, Musical, Drama

Voice Actor gong x Musical Actor shou

This is a story about ‘learning how to fly again after the wings of your dreams are broken.’

This is also a story about ‘how to love others and also love yourself.’

[Highlight]
① First half happens as students, the second half during their work life.
② After the Gong and the Shout lost contact, they had relationships with other people.
③ All characters in this story are fictional！！！But all the musicals and plays mentioned are real. If you are interested, I hope you will go watch them on theater~

Prelude

01 – 02

First Meeting

03 – 04 – 05 – 06 – 07 – 08 – 09 – 10 – 11 – 12 – 13 – 14 – 15 – 16 – 17 – 18 – 19 – 20 – 21 – 22 – 23 – 24 – 25 – 26 – 27 – 28 – 29 – 30 – 31 – 32 – 33 – 34 – 35 – 36 – 37 – 38 – 39 – 40 – 41 – 42 – 43 – 44 – 45 – 46 – 47 – 48 – 49 – 50 – 51 – 52 – 53 – 54 – 55 – 56 – 57 – 58 – 59 – 60

(TSWWT) O2: Angled Steps on the Subway Station

地铁站里的直角台阶

Angled Steps on the Subway Station

On the first Monday class, the creative challenge was oficially announced.

Cheng Kesong arrived at the classroom too early, so he sat on an empty desk and looked at the materials he had in hands.

Their group’s subject is ‘steps’, a simple word. They need to create a story based on just that word, a graphic research about steps and also draw the storyboard from the beginning to the end, with three full-colored paintings by hand.

“Good morning, Kesong.”

Hugo came through the door, threw his schoolbag on the table and leaned slightly towards Kesong.

Cheng Kesong greeted him by pressing their cheeks together and then sat down again. Doing that on the left and the right side was the greeting ceremony everywhere in Paris.

“So what do you think about our subject? Difficult?” Hugo smiled.

Cheng Kesong’s nose was filled with the woody fragrance carried by the other person, a smell slightly spiced with tobacco, but not a bad smell.

“Stairs, I don’t think it’s difficult.”

“Well, steps can symbolize lots of things and can have lots of meanings. It’s a bridge connecting low and high places and a tool to get somewhere higher” Hugo casually sat on the table.

“Connection, bond, this is good.” Cheng Kesong answered.

“There’s actually many legends about steps. Are there any parables or stories about stairs in China?” Hugo asked.

Cheng Kesong smiled: “In ancient China, an emperor built his palace on a very high place and many a stair with many steps so that the officials would have to climb a mountain every time they wanted to go to the dynasty. That would make everyone feel shocked and think that the emperor was high above them, full of majesty.”

Hugo raised his eyebrows slightly and his piercing moved as he made a surprised expression: “This can also be a meaning!”

While they talked, the four others also arrived.

“Hey there, Valentin! How was the battle yesterday?”

“Morning, Bruno. Don’t even talk about yesterday, my mother sent me out to buy onions five minutes after I started the game…”

“Good morning, Leia!”

“Morning, Julia!”

“Good morning, Kesong” Julia stepped out of the four member party, looked at Cheng Kesong and smiled. “Yesterday, Simon from your class came to me saying you are a ‘omnipotent croissant*’ and told me how jealous he was of my good luck.”

Croissant: Kesong 可颂 means 'croissant' in chinese.

Cheng Kesong answered modestly: “I can only draw a bit, I had a headache only from hearing about the research report.”

Julia raised an eyebrow: “Just give the report to Hugo, the guy will do his best!”

Valentin interrupted: “Talking about that, what can be said about steps?” That sentence immediately created an inspired atmosphere.

After an hour of brainstorming, everyone decided that they should walk around Paris and find some unique stairs with unique stories, take photos and then draw them, then they would prepare for future research.

The six students were divided into three groups of two to do a graphic research about steps.

“Kesong, be with me” Hugo smiled

Cheng Kesong immediately accepted.

The two packed up their respective things. Cheng Kesong brought a sketchbook, water-soluble colored lead and filled the tap water storage with water. Then he walked out of school side-by-side with Hugo.

Both Hugo and Cheng Kesong have heights about 1,80 meters and it’s difficult to judge who’s taller. It’s just that Cheng Kesong was keen on sports back on China and so his body was well-proportionate while Hugo looked a bit too skinny. He also prefers loose clothing, so it looks like the wind is capable of blowing him away.

However, Hugo doesn’t appear weak.

His aura was not weakened by his lean body and delicate features at all, like a bamboo forest on the wind.

“Speaking of the stairs in Paris, I can’t think about one” Hugo said. “Is there any stairs that impressed you when you arrived here?”

“Of course” Cheng Kesong smiled. “When I just arrived in Paris, there was a stair that really gave me a headache.”

“Tell me about” Hugo stared intently at Cheng Kesong.

“At that time, I was living at the 98th province in a very cheap house I rented. There was nothing but a bed, so I had to go out to buy a desk myself” Cheng Keson said. “I thought there were elevators in the subway stations of Paris or that there would be barrier-free facilities everywhere, but I didn’t expect that the elevator in that station was closed for maintenance.”

“So you had to carry the desk by stairs?”

“Yeah,” Cheng Kesong laughed. “The point is that I didn’t only buy a desk that day, I also bought a small bookshelf, so it all had about 30 kilograms. To reach my old house I had to take two buses and a subway, then finally a tram. And that staircase in question had very high steps, around two meters each…”

Hugo used his delicate face to make an exaggerated expression, surprised: “That’s really impressive!”

Cheng Kesong smiled.

“But you are in such a shape that means you’re very strong” Hugo joked.

Cheng Kesong: “I’m in a good form?”

“Yeah” Hugo smiled and asked. “You still live in the 94th province?”

Cheng Kesong shook his head: “I’m now living in Versailles, it’s on the 12th subway line.”

“It’s very convenient to go to school.”

Montparnasse station, the closest to school, reached the 12th line directly.

“About subway steps, they are actually more interesting around the Louvre area.” Hugo said, “The subways station there retains the ancient wrought-iron handrails and wrought-iron ceilings, it’s very beautiful.”

“I think they are pretty around Montparnesse, too. They are interlaced and rich in layers” Cheng Kesong smiled.

Hugo smiled too with his beautiful light-brown eyes.

“So our theme will be the subway steps? Is there any story to tell about it?”

The two have now reached the Montparnasse station and if you look up, you can see the elevator and stairs leading to the second floor platform, the modern linear handrails extended on both sides of the stairs, turning a corner before continuing upwards.

Cheng Kesong speeded up a few steps and standing in the steps in front of Hugo, turned around and looked down at him, saying: “Those steps can tell a story about a chance encounter.”

Hugo connected their thoughts: “The people here come and go in a hurry, no one looks at each other, but if someone is always on your sight, you will inevitably pay attention to them. And taking the subway is very everyday action, so it’s not impossible for two people to go down the same stairs everyday. So this is a love story?”

“Yes, a love story.”

Cheng Kesong stared at Hugo’s eyes that looked up through thick eyelashes and said with a very serious tone.

Hugo’s face suddenly changed: “Careful!”

His voice echoed at the same time Cheng Kesong gasped. Cheng Kesong turned his head subconsciously and saw just a huge suitcase sliding down the stairs, coming down. In a blink of an eye, the suitcase hit Cheng Kesong’s calf strongly.

Cheng Kesong immediately lost his balance and fell down the steps.

Hugo stood right in front of him and, taking a step forward, took him in his arms.

But Cheng Kesong fell from a high place and the impulse brought Hugo down into a trance, his backward steps were empty.

Weightlessness suddenly came. In that brief moment, in less than a second, Cheng Kesong only felt that time seemed to be in slow-motion— the two chests were close together, joining their breaths, they could heard each other heartbeat clearly.

Cheng Kesong unconsciously turned around to protect Hugo from the fall with his own body, stretched out his left hand and grabbed the handrail next to the stairs, stumbling, and then finally stabilized their bodies in a half-lying position.

Hugo rested against him, hand over his shoulder.

The suitcase slipped past the two and fell violently to the corner of the platform, at the bottom of the stairs.

“Oh my God! I’m really sorry!”

A chubby lady immediately run with her heels to the two of them, looking worried and regretful: “Are you two okay? Are you hurt? Oh, I’m really sorry!”

Hugo popped pulled himself up and stretched one hand to pull Cheng Kesong off the ground, his face didn’t look very good: “You should use the elevator if you have such heavy luggage! That’s very dangerous!”

The lady immediately apologized.

Seeing Hugo and the lady making a few more remarks, Cheng Kesong pulled his arm: “Forget it, she didn’t mean it.”

Hugo was willing to let it go.

“Are you okay?” With the perpetrator away, Hugo frowned as he looked at Cheng Kesong.

Cheng Keson turned his arm slightly and looked at his scraped elbow: “I have to go to the pharmacy.”

Hugo’s face changed immediately. He stepped forwards, grabbed Cheng Kesong’s wrist and lowered his head to look at his injury. After a while he looked up, annoyed.

“That lady should at least pay for your medicine!”

“It doesn’t matter, it’s just a minor injury” Cheng Kesong smiled indifferently.

Montparnesse Station is a very important station in Paris. It connects to the train station and is divided into three areas. The space inside the station is vast and has many shops, pharmacies can be found here and all over Paris.

The two bought a disinfectant at the drugstore at the station and found a bathroom to clean the wound.

Hugo squeezed the cotton and carefully helped Cheng Kesong wipe the skin around the wound.

“How do you feel, does it hurt?”

“It’s alright, nothing serious” Cheng Kesong smiled.

Hugo was worried: “Can we still go out to draw?”

“I didn’t hurt a bone, just the skin” Cheng Kesong really didn’t care.

Hugo didn’t answer.

Cheng Kesong tried to divert his attention: Since you said the Louvre Subway’s stairs are very special, let’s go to the Louvre. I remember there’s a lot of steps in the Louvre Museum, we can draw a few sketches and put them on the research report in the future.”

That was very effective. Hugo raised his head and smiled when he heard it.

“Okay, let’s go.”

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<< | Index | >>

(TSWWT) 01: Five Steps Outside the School Gates

学校门外的五级台阶

Five Steps Outside The School Gates

“Hey, Kesong, class is over.”

Simon put down his brush and patted Kesong’s shoulder, “You down for a coffee?”

Cheng Kesong looked away from his homework, smiling “I’m down.”

There’s a coffee machine in the small canteen next to the school gates where you can buy a small cup of black coffee for 50 cents. The small plastic cup can be held fully in one hand and the amount is one gulp, which makes it very expensive.

Even so Cheng Kesong dropped a coin into it and waited for a long time before the machine prepared his coffee.

The private art school is located in the 14th arrondissement* of Paris, close to the Montpasnasse Tower and it can be considered a land boundary, meaning the school area is very small. That small restaurant had two coffee machines, two microwaves and a high table with chairs by the window, so there’s not much space left.

Arrondissements: One way to divide big cities in France, specially Paris. A "district", if I must.

Even if they call it a school, In Cheng Kesong’s view, it’s equivalent to a two-story teaching building. There’s studios with computers where students have classes, the teachers office, bathrooms and the small canteen, and that’s all the school has to offer. As far as he’s concerned about a library and a playground, there’s none.

During class, more than a dozen students were lining up to buy coffee in front of the canteen.

Cheng Kesong picked his small cup from the machine, motioned to Simon and walked outside the school’s gates.

The front door of the school faces the street and there’s five small steps outside the door.

Under the steps there’s a sidewalk that’s one meter wide where a lamppost stand in the middle, with the asphalt road where a row of cars occupied the side of the road.

On such tiny piece of open space, many students stood in place, chatting together in pairs. Some were holding a plastic coffee cup the same style as Cheng Kesong’s, others were holding cigarettes and others were holding a coffee and a cigarette.

Is forbidden to smoke in any public space that has a roof in Paris so, between classes, those 18-year-old rushed to have their fun.

There’s nothing wrong with that.

Simon and Cheng Kesong talked two words and walked their way into the middle of the group of three boys who chatted together so they could talk together about last night’s game.

Cheng Kesong doesn’t smoke. He leaned on the the stone pier of the flower bed next to the steps as he drank his hot, bitter black coffee with small sips.

He didn’t want to finish it that soon.

The early summer in Paris was sunny, the temperature was pleasant and there was a cool breeze swinging around. There’s an aroma of roses blooming in the distance that he doesn’t know where it came from, gently patting his face, making the scene very comfortable and cozy.

Such a good summer, of course he needs to enjoy it a bit more.

Not to mention, that boy hasn’t shown up yet.

He shouldn’t finish his coffee too soon.

After a few minutes, Cheng Kesong had only one sip of coffee left. He looked down at the thin layer of coffee that was clear enough to reveal the bottom of the cup and shook it gently, letting the liquid with the bitter smell swirl around the cup.

The school door was pushed open again and a tall boy with golden brown and medium-long curly hair came out and a small piercing on his eyebrown flashed against the sun.

Chen Kesong immediately opened his eyes.

“Hugo!”

The boy followed the voice and, seeing Cheng Kesong, immediately turned around and walked towards him, leaning on the flower bed as he stood a step higher than him.

“Your class was about nature sketching?” Hugo asked.

He took a small paper bag out of his pocket, took a small piece of translucent paper, took a handful of tobacco from the paper bag, straightened the small sponge filter and skillfully made a cigarette.

His fingers are good looking, slender and agile with small joints, but not weak-looking. The nails are neatly trimmed with beautiful pink flesh, reflecting the stereotypical fair skin of Europeans.

His cigarettes were well-made and his fingertips moved quickly and lightly.

Cheng Kesong removed his eyes from those hands and replied, “Yeah, just saw a set of still lives.”

Still life: a painting or drawing of an arrangement of objects, typically including fruit and flowers and objects contrasting with these in texture, such as bowls and glassware.

“I saw that same set, it’s not easy to paint that one.”

Hugo finished with a smile, holding a thin cigarette between his lips before he lightened it.

There’s also a diamond stud under his lip and, with the slightest movement from his lips, it refracted the sunlight.

Cheng Kesong originally disliked that type of people with piercing on their faces. He felt that they were too girly, or too Gothic etc, which was totally opposite to his own aesthetic.

Until he saw Hugo for the first time.

Hugo is a tall guy with a delicate appearance. His forehead is different from the average guy, his brow bones are stretched and a pair of eyebrows are drawn straight, slightly lifted and slightly lowered on the end, with a sharp tip. The shape of his eyebrows is a nice one and is not awkward to look at, it actually adds a lot to his face.

Similarly, he has beautiful shaped lips, not too thick and neither too thin. The center of his lower lip sink inwards slightly and formed a delicate den on the lip edge, where it happens to have a small piercing.

There are three piercings on Hugo’s face, located on the right eyebrow, the bottom lip and the left ear.

Each one looks right, not too public and not vulgar. It’s almost invisible if you are too far away, but when he walks in the sun, it will always sparkle and caught your attention.

Cheng Kesong felt that love at first sight wasn’t enough to describe.

“Well, it’s probably not difficult to you” Hugo smiled. “Your art is always perfect.”

“I just paint. Mr. Fran said that my painting has only skills and no aura” Cheng Kesong said.

“You just didn’t put emotion into it” Hugo smiled and looked at him. “You always feels so mysterious. You don’t talk much and your expression is always neutral, like nothing can move you.”

Cheng Kesong watched Hugo’s almost blinding smile in the sun and blinked innocently.

Of course there’s things able to move him, the person in front of him is one.

But maybe chinese people’s emotions are always more subtle than western’s. Cheng Kesong can’t show any emotion on his face. However, he quietly enjoys that odd boy’s company. He stands still and talks with him on the fifth step everyday between classes and, after returning home, he may occasionally flip through his Facebook page to see what other drawings he made.

However, he never asked the number of the tall boy from the other class.

Hugo extinguished the nearly extinguished cigarette, glanced down for a while and then patted Cheng Kesong’s shoulder.

“Class will start now, let’s go back.”

Cheng Kesong drank the last sip of coffee and followed Hugo inside.

At the end of the lesson, Cheng Kesong’s teacher Mr. Fran and the students stayed in the classroom.

“Ladies and gentleman, it’s June.”

Mr. Fran played with his perfectly-done beard and blinked playfully, “In June we have an event that everyone’s been waiting for…”

“Creative challenge?!” A student screamed immediately.

“Miss, could you please not take away my chance to reveal the event?”

Mr. Fran sighed, pretending to be disappointed and changed his expression as soon as he heard the audience of students laughing. “Yes, the event is a week-long creative challenge!”

The audience cheered.

“Please, please don’t tell me you are happy because you will not have classes during the challenge” Mr. Fran expressed a very grieved expression.

“Of course not, sir!” Simon raised his hand and shouted. “We cheer because we like the challenges!”

“Oh, that’s good news” Mr. Fran smiled at Simon who sat at the table next to him before he continued to explain the weekly challenge mission.

“We will be dismissing class so you can work with classmates you never worked before to create a story — that includes a research report, a storyboard and at least four complete papers of drawings. Your topics and teams are all randomly selected and you only have one week to complete this challenge. Isn’t it exciting?”

This time, instead of cheering, the audience became depressed.

“What? We need to write a research report?”

“Storyboard? Is the type of storyboard that needs a drawing for everything?”

“Oh my god!”

Simon shouted as he hugged Kesong’s shoulders, “Mr. Fran, please let me and Kesong be in the same group! My omnipotent Kesong!”

Mr. Fran lifted a finger and shook it: “No, no, Simon, you can’t be in a group with your classmate, Kesong’s omnipotent powers belong to others. If you check the hallway now, you can see who are your lucky teammates.”

“What? The groups are already prepared?”

“Yes, you may go and check your groups now” Mr. Fran clapped his hands and signaled the class ended.

The students immediately jumped from their seats and rushed to the crowded hallway.

Cheng Kesong didn’t bother with checking the groups first because no matter which group he ended, it would make no difference to him.

The relationship between him and his classmates is no different from his relationship with people from other classes — except for Simon who is friends with everyone, he doesn’t have many good friends around.

But Simon still took him by the shoulders and pushed him around the crowd, so he ended up in front of the display board with the groups information posted.

Cheng Kesong stood a few heads away from the exhibition board and looked up to find his name on it.

In the dense group standing in front of it, before he could even find his own information he saw a picture with a delicate face. Hugo’s name was under the photo with a “Captain” written next to the name.

Cheng Kesong’s eyes immediately flashed — he saw his name in the list below captain Hugo.

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Index | >>

Those Steps We Walked Together

那些我们一起走过的台阶
by 轻风白杨

9 chapters (completed)

Cheng Kesong had an itch inside his heart since the first time he saw Hugo.
He was helpless since that exotic boy was in a different class.
Until one day, the school released a group challenge to separate classmates.
Cheng Kesong looked at Hugo’s name on his team, excitement burning inside his heart.

Chapter list:

01 – 02 – 03 – 04 – 05 – 06 – 07 – 08 – 09