19 Chapter 18 – Yan Du Xian Salted Pork Soup 3 (1/2)
With one hand covering an ear of her headset, Gu Sheng listened to the sound of laughter coming from outside the soundproof room and in through her headphones.
”Hi,” she replied. She was trying her best to stay calm and more calm, and as a result, her voice sounded rather feeble.
She never would have thought that he was Qiang Qing Ci, that Qiang Qing Ci was him… A few months ago, the very first time she saw Qiang Qing Ci, she had been playing with her dog and had secretly criticized this man for his fondness of drinking yogurt with fruit chunks… And the time in the store, across the street from him, watching through the glass as he protected his female companion…
Qiang Qing Ci smiled at her again before turning to the recording engineer and requesting, ”Could I trouble you to let me listen to what was just recorded?”
”Everyone's?”
”Yes, everyone's.”
He was very tall, so when he bent over to listen to the recording engineer playback the results of everybody's hard work, his hands were propped on the edge of the desk. Gu Sheng pulled off her headphones, pushed open the door, and walked out the room. When she saw him there, his back facing her, she still felt this was all unimaginable.
A hand snaked up onto her shoulder, and then Dou Dou Dou Bing was next to her ear as she asked with a laugh, ”What do you think? He's got some good looks, doesn't he? He isn't called 'Toupai' for no reason.”
(⊙o⊙)…
”Mm-hmm… Very handsome.” She lowered her voice when she said this.
She had not expected that just as she spoke the word, ”handsome,” Qiang Qing Ci would happen to turn around and look at her…
Her heart skipped a half a beat again.
Was she afraid that he would recognize her?… Or was she hoping that he would recognize her?
She did not know. All she knew was that she was especially nervous right now, so nervous that she did not dare speak.
Qiang Qing Ci's eyes fixed on her for a couple of seconds before he suddenly broke into a smile. Pulling a straw out from its plastic wrap, he stabbed it into the yogurt drink and took a sip. ”Are you thinking we've seen each other before?”
A shocking sentence.
Gu Sheng was so anxious she did not answer right away.
Everyone in the room started to get excited, as if they had discovered a big secret…
”
”Whoa!” Wwwwk exclaimed and then immediately ripped open a bag of potato chips. ”You should have said something earlier. Before Sheng Sheng got here, we were discussing where we should take her to eat and then how we would, in passing, indoctrinate her with your one-of-a-kind, incomparable, amazing guy image.”
”Someone took 'a winding path to find his secluded little haven.' Oh yeah, winding path to a secluded haven[1] [an indirect path to get to the ultimate result]. And we've been kept in the dark all along.”
”Was it in a photo? Or a video?” Feng Ya Song grinned at Toupai. ”Did you secretly upload a video online? High def, no pixels, fully uncensored?”
”Feng Ya Song!” Dou Dou Dou Bing scowled at him. ”Don't talk mature subject matters!”
Everyone was getting more and more inappropriate with what they were saying.
Gu Sheng could not carry on being shy any longer. She nodded and said, ”I've seen you before, but I'm not sure if you still remember…”
”I remember.” Qiang Qing Ci seemed to be recalling the memory. ”That day, you were holding a dog.”
After he said this, he let out a little laugh.
...
A live version of his laughter, coupled with the real live person right there…
Gu Sheng felt a great need to continuously divert her own attention: look at the person, then don't listen to his voice; listen to his voice, then don't look at the actual person... The two stimuli working together were honestly too much for anyone to handle, k? T T
The conversation between the two of them was simply too vague and left people feeling very curious.
But in this type of circumstance, the more they tried to explain, the more troubles they would bring upon themselves. Plus, Gu Sheng could not simply tell everyone to be quiet so she could explain in detail how Qiang Qing Ci had walked into her family's grocery store and bought a bottle of water and yogurt, but the two of them had actually not communicated verbally at all so it was impossible for them to have recognized each other… and thus, they only ended up brushing past one another… Right?
A single, brief encounter and yet she remembered him. That was enough for people to think it was unbelievably strange and start speculating wildly…
Gu Sheng struggled with what to do. Further explanations would not work, but not saying anything would not do either.
”Alright, that's enough joking around.” Toupai cleared his throat and stated flatly, ”How we met is our business. It's not necessary for you guys to join in on the fun.”
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Gu Sheng had an urge to make a run for it. DaRen, your way of putting a stop to things is completely ineffective, you know? It will totally make people think completely in the wrong direction, k? … Everyone laughed, some loudly, some quietly, and the expressions on their faces were all different. But everyone's faces had the same thing written all over them: ”There's a love affair here.”