1 Prologue - Peppered Pork Stomach and Chicken Soup (1/2)

”I'm telling you, I'm on the bus right now.” Gu Sheng's headset was on, and she was chatting with her roommate in her YY chatroom. ”Wait until I get back to the dorm to talk some more, okay?”

It was six o'clock in the morning. This was the first bus of the day. The sky was still dark.

A certain little moderator of a certain website was chasing after her, intent on getting this little unknown singer to sing a birthday song for the website's anniversary celebration.

She was too lazy to type, so she pulled her into her own YY chat room instead.

Her roommate had a rather impatient temperament and had to finish what she wanted to say before she would stop talking. Gu Sheng listened indifferently as she leaned back in the last row of seats and stared out at the empty bus.

The two had finished talking about official business, so they started chatting about personal things.  When it came to ”personal things,” the topics that two single, bored girls talked about ranged from gossip to Taobao[1] and eventually landed on food.

”I went to eat hot pot yesterday. It was super delicious.” Gu Sheng suddenly remembered yesterday evening's lavishly huge meal.

”What type of hot pot?” Geng Xiaoxing asked her. ”Hai Di Lao? Liu Yi Shou? Little Fat Sheep?[2]”

”Pork stomach and chicken soup base.” Gu Sheng's eyes squinted as she reminisced over the taste. ”More precisely, it should be peppered pork stomach and chicken. It was a pot of 'red and white soup.' The white side was just that basic soup base. The red side was Taiwanese style pork blood with aged tofu added into the soup. Do you know how awesome pork blood and tofu taste when they've been cooked in a spicy red soup?”

Gu Sheng loved to eat. When she talked about good food, her voice would become extremely warm and tender, much more tender than when she was singing a cover for those ancient-style songs.

There were only two or three people on the bus, none of whom had eaten breakfast, and all their stomachs were rumbling in hunger.

Suddenly hearing a girl speaking gently and in detail about piping hot pots of soup was truly a form of torture, especially since this girl's voice was slightly nonchalant and a little husky, making it even more tantalizing.

”Sheng Sheng, are you taking revenge on society, in general? Or are you just taking revenge on me?” Still lying in bed with feelings now of intense hunger, Geng Xiaoxing's voice quivered.

”This is the first time I realized that pig stomach and chicken stewed together could be so tasty. Boiled until it makes a milky-white soup base and the soup has the aroma of herbs and pepper… Fellow classmate Geng, I must take you there to try one time.”

It was seriously amusing to see Geng Xiaoxing's face when she was forced to throw up her white flag.

As Gu Sheng nibbled on her rice ball, one bite after another and imagined her friend lying in bed, wrestling with herself on whether or not to get up and rush to the cafeteria to be the first person in line for breakfast, she felt this world was truly so wonderful.

The resentment she had felt just a moment ago from being forcefully dragged into the YY room to discuss singing for some anniversary celebration had suddenly vanished like smoke into air, you know?

”Gu Sheng, I hate you…” Geng Xiaoxing's voice already had the hint of sobs in it.

She laughed in reply. Biting into her rice ball again, she answered in a voice muffled by food, ”It honestly tastes really good.”

Geng Xiaoxing was silent.

She thought, it was about enough now and she could let it go at that so that when she got back to school, she would not be hunted down to be killed. Right as she was about to say that she was going to exit YY now, a very clear voice with a hint of laughter in it unexpectedly started speaking. ”That is actually a well-known Hakka[3] dish from Guangdong. If you have time, it's actually quite convenient to make at home.”

It was a man's voice.

Moreover, it was absolutely a male voice that, the instant it was heard, any girl would be done for.

But most importantly, Gu Sheng recognized that voice…

Qiang Qing Ci.

The leading artist of the Wanmei [Perfect] Voice Acting Group, Qiang Qing Ci.

Gu Sheng was completely dumbstruck.

She stared unbelievingly at the list of online users in the room.

There was only ”Sheng Sheng Man,” ”Geng Xiaoxing,” and ”Qiang Qing Ci.”

If she was not mistaken, it was Qiang Qing Ci. It really was Qiang Qing Ci.

The most gorgeous voice in the commercial field of voice acting, famous for many years now but yet people still could not guess the age of the person behind it. His fan's most enthusiastic discussions were regarding each year, how many online video game promotional videos or leading roles in ancient television dramas would specify that they wanted him to do the dubbing and how many advertisements for commercial brands had already set that he was to be the appointed voice talent.

Seeing that this was Gu Sheng's personal channel in YY, she really could not hazard a guess at why this sama[4], whose presence would surely cause all 'voice lovers[5]' to go wild with fervor, would enter this chat room in the early morning when the sky had just lit with light. Furthermore, it was obvious he had been listening in for a while already; otherwise, how would he know she had been talking about pork stomach and chicken hot pot?