Really, Really Miss You

As in the lyrics, peach blossoms that could steal one's heart seemed to be found in Mo Qingcheng's eyes, and once you looked directly into them, it was simply impossible to resist him.

Gu Sheng's face immediately flushed a deep red…

She watched as he turned around and addressed the recording engineer. "It's good."

As if she had been granted a pardon, Dou Dou Dou Bing's voice was immediately heard in the headset as she burst out, "Ridiculously amazing! Mo Qingcheng, that monologue of yours was ridiculously amazing!" And since she had opened up the dialogue, everyone started speaking at once. It was a chaotic discussion filled with sighs of praise. They all felt that once this cover was released, the number of clicks and downloads of it would instantly break records…

All those voices talking together were lively and jumbled.

Gu Sheng could not seem to hear things clearly. She honestly felt like she could not hold herself together any longer. Her favorite voice ,plus the real live Toupai right there in front of her, plus the song and monologue a moment ago. Instant lethalness.

"What do you think?" Mo Qingcheng asked her as he pulled off his headset with one hand.

"... Very perfect." Her voice seemed extremely scratchy to her. "What I mean is, the parts you sang and your monologue were absolutely perfect..."

He laughed. "Thank you."

The red in her cheeks deepened another few shades. She swore, the most perfect memory in her life was singing this duet with Toupai. Seeing him sing live, listening to him deliver an impromptu monologue. Especially since… the words in the monologue were so entrancing…

"Sheng Sheng, are you feeling a tug at your heartstings?" Feng Ya Song's voice suddenly jumped into her headset.

"Your heart is about to leap out of your chest, isn't it?" Fei Shao grinned, his arm wrapped around Feng Ya Song's narrow shoulders. "I'm a guy and my heartstrings felt plucked at, let alone you being a girl …"

Gu Sheng was about to burst into tears from embarrassment, and she hastily took off her headset.

Fortunately, Toupai had already removed his headset, so he had not heard anything. He helped Gu Sheng hang up her headset, then opened the door and gestured for her to step out first. She had just walked out of the soundproof room when an odd feeling overcame her. Everyone was watching both of them with a knowing look, suggestive of an unclear type of "relationship" between the two of them. Gu Sheng's gazed flitted around, and she felt especially helpless…

In the past, at school, she was always part of the sidelines and would join in with the heckling… Even in YY events, when she was occasionally a guest host or something, she would definitely be the one doing the teasing! Could this be… karma? She was getting her just deserts? T T

Yet Mo Qingcheng's expression was completely unperturbed as he allowed everyone to poke fun as they wished, not even bothering to pay any attention to them… And not bothering to put a stop to them either… He walked out of the recording room, and after a short discussion with the recording engineer regarding their work from a moment ago, he told Gu Sheng, "Have a drink first. Later, there will be a few lines that you'll need to sing alone and re-record."

"Okay…" Having been offered this great excuse, she swiftly fled the room and headed out into the large reception area to the water dispenser, where she grabbed a disposable paper cup and poured herself some water.

Behind her, the two girls would now and then exchange a few bits of chatter and giggles. She gulped mouthful after mouthful of water to help herself calm down. Her mind, however, kept continuously replaying the melody of the song from earlier as well as the sight of Toupai wearing his headset and singing…

The girl who had given her directions to the room noticed she was there and immediately halted her conversation. She walked over and put on a show of bending down to get some water from the cooler.  When her cup was full, the girl straightened up again, and, with eyes sparkling, she lowered her voice and asked in a deliberately furtive tone, "Are you… Sheng Sheng Man?"

Gu Sheng nearly sprayed the mouthful of water she had been drinking.

"Don't worry, don't worry. I'll keep it secret. It's my work ethic." The girl carried on in her clandestine voice, "I saw you and Toupai singing just now."

The stress she had just managed to suppress shot up again.

This girl couldn't be… couldn't be… couldn't be… couldn't be the same girl who had made that Weibo tweet, could she?

"I promised Toupai I would never give away his face or any of his news and information." The girl immediately confirmed Gu Sheng's suspicion. Still acting like a thief, she whispered into Gu Sheng's ear, "Don't worry. I definitely won't leak pictures or information about your face either… But I am honestly so, so jealous… Sheng Sheng, how did you and Toupai meet, huh?…"

Gu Sheng forced an awkward laugh. "Uh, just… under very ordinary circumstances."

She could not go and say that one random morning, Toupai had somehow popped into her YY channel and started teaching her how to cook, right? If she said that, the girl would either think Toupai was crazy or else she was crazy…

"Oh, you're too embarrassed to tell me. I get it," the girl said with a knowing, secretive smile.

She felt so embarrassed she could just die…. What was this?

It must have been her luck today… To have her 2-D world identity exposed like this. She wanted to die…

"Sheng Sheng."

Right when she was trying unsuccessfully to remove herself from this gossipy, nosy atmosphere, Toupai's divinely gorgeous voice unexpectedly descended from the heavens … He was suddenly there beside the magazine rack in the main waiting area and beckoning to her. "Come on. It's your turn to re-record."

Gu Sheng hurriedly answered, "Alright," threw her paper cup into the wastebasket, and obediently walked over toward him.

She could not be concerned about what that girl would think right now. First things first was to escape out of there…

Toupai was most definitely someone who demanded perfection. When she stepped into that soundproof room again, basically the person communicating with and coaching her was Mo Qingcheng. In this regard, he was definitely the experienced senior, and Gu Sheng very, very cooperatively re-recorded many times until she was finally able to pass this strict teacher's requirements. By the time the song was at last complete, all the people who had been hanging around watching the fun were hungry and had devoured all of the snacks on the table already.

"Gah, you two are absolute perfectionists," Fei Shao grumbled. "All I can see in front me is rice, ah. Just rice…"

"This is a connection of the souls, you understand, Fei Shao?" Feng Ya Song sipped at the coffee he had made for himself and gleefully explained, "As two people who both possess such nice voices, all beautiful feelings begin through the interaction of their voices…"

"Haven't they 'connected' for two months already… before they decided to meet-up?" Wwwwk apparently thought he was well-informed.

...

...

...

...

Gu Sheng felt that she absolutely, most certainly could not stay here with these people any longer. She had thought that she was capable of handling the things of the 2-D world, but now, she was not even able to utter a single word and had basically been teased to pieces.

"I… have something going on at school this evening." She determinedly decided she was going to flee. "I can't join you guys for dinner."

"Come on, Sheng Sheng. We're counting on you for us to have some fun tonight…" Fei Shao blurted out.

"Yeah. We'd never dare make fun of Toupai normally," Feng Ya Song added, joining in on the protesting. "Plus, we can never find anything to make fun of him about anyways. What a rare opportunity now that you came."

"Make fun of him? Yeah right. We'd be too scared of him telling us how to properly slice open a chest."

...

...

"I'm so sorry. I really do have something to do." Gu Sheng interrupted them, tears almost forming in her eyes. "Next time. Next time, okay?" While she was still talking, she was already pulling on her down jacket and tying on her scarf.

She was about to reach for her clothing and snack-filled backpack, but a hand had already beaten her to it and lifted it up.

Mo Qingcheng had also just put on his black down jacket. "It's on my way. I'll accompany you back to your school."

...

...

DaRen… Wha-… What are you doing carrying my bag for me?

I'm going to kill myself for making Toupai carry such a heavy backpack, k? T T

Unfortunately, after Mo Qingcheng said this, he very simply threw out the statement, "I'm leaving first; don't wait for me for dinner," and then, holding her massive, light blue backpack with one hand, he opened the door and headed out. Gu Sheng did not even have time to weigh out the pros and cons of the situation and could only run after Toupai and her backpack. Right as the door was closing behind her, she clearly heard someone let out a wolf-like howl. Apparently, the blood in them that fed off gossip was boiling to the point they could no longer control it.

The door closed.

Toupai was walking especially quickly, and Gu Sheng had to work hard to catch up to his footsteps

As she was about to tell him, "DaRen, you can give me my schoolbag back," she noticed that girl from reception gawking at her with a look that made her hair stand on end. So, she could only pretend to be oblivious and, with head lowered, follow Toupai out the main doors. Even when they were standing in front of the elevator, her eyes were still glued to her bag that was in Toupai's hand…

A light happened to be burned out in that elevator lobby at the end of the corridor, so the space was rather dim.

Mo Qingcheng raised his arm and glanced at his watch. "It's still not too late. Is your school far from here?"

"Not too far," Gu Sheng answered truthfully. "If all goes well with the bus schedule, it'll take about 20 minutes to get there."

"That's not bad." His voice was light and pleasant.

Gu Sheng still could not believe that she was here like this with him, like they were familiar friends.

They were standing there, just the two of them, casually having a conversation.

She glanced him over from bottom to top, continuing her struggle over coming up with a way to get her schoolbag back.

Just as the elevator doors were sliding open, Mo Qingcheng happened to lower his eyes to look at her. "They are a bit too rowdy. Since you aren't actually in a hurry, I'll grab something simple to eat with you first before I take you back to school."

"Huh?" This suggestion was too frightening. She did not know how to handle it.

"What would you like to eat?"

"Huh?" Did she agree to his request?

Mo Qingcheng could not help letting out a laugh. "How about yan du xian [salted pork soup][1]?"

... She swore, she was going to cry right then and there...

"No objections?" He motioned for her to enter the elevator first. "Then yan du xian it is."