Chapter 6 – Are You Free?
Ten minutes later, Du Yan rushed in, flustered and out of breath.
He slammed the contract onto the table, wiped the sweat off his forehead hard, and glared at Shi Cha.
“Shi Cha, if you don’t sign this contract, how could you possibly be worthy of all the blood and sweat your Brother Yan has poured into this?”
Although Shi Cha was socially anxious, he wasn’t someone who didn’t know right from wrong.
This variety show might not be the top-tier one in the country, but it was always trending online and had a huge audience base. Even if he was chosen purely for his looks, he knew Du Yan must’ve worked hard behind the scenes to make it happen.
Otherwise, with so many candidates, how could his resume have been seen and selected so quickly?
He was the one who asked Du Yan to find him work, so he couldn’t back out now. No matter how scared or anxious he felt, he had to push through it.
With his eyes downcast and his fingers turning pale from gripping too tightly, Shi Cha said, “I’ll do it!”
Seeing Shi Cha agree, Du Yan plopped down on a chair, handed him a pen, and started plotting enthusiastically.
“You’re just a regular person, right? And you don’t plan to become a celebrity, so we can just go with the flow. Don’t feel like greeting people or talking to them? Then don’t.”
“Cold and aloof — got it? That’s the persona we’re going with: quiet, reserved, and cool.”
The more Du Yan talked, the more he liked his own idea. This way, Shi Cha could be around people, gradually overcome his social anxiety, stay within his comfort zone, and make money. It was a win-win-win situation.
“Man, I’m a genius! Shi Cha, just act cool and say as little as possible! See? Doesn’t your Brother Yan get you completely?”
Shi Cha flipped through the contract and signed his name. He had to admit, Du Yan’s suggestion didn’t sound half bad.
Back in school, because of his personality, many people had already thought he was cold and hard to approach.
After signing the contract, Shi Cha went with Du Yan to the production team’s office to hand it in.
Deep down, Shi Cha really didn’t want to go, but they had signed the contract. Filming would start in a few days, and it wouldn’t make sense to have someone else handle everything for him.
When they arrived, the staff responsible for contracts was in a meeting, so the two of them could only wait outside.
They waited for a whole hour before the meeting finally ended.
As the conference room doors opened, a group of people began to trickle out.
Du Yan immediately stood up straight. Shi Cha, seeing this, assumed the person they needed to speak to was coming out, so he stood up too.
Leading the group was a woman with chin-length hair and a sharp, professional look. As she walked, she was instructing the people beside her, emphasizing that there must be no mistakes in the next round of adjustments.
As she reached Shi Cha, she suddenly stopped walking.
Du Yan saw that Qi Jing had suddenly stopped in front of them and quickly smiled and greeted her, “Director Qi, hello! I’m Du Yan, and this is my classmate Shi Cha. We’re here to deliver the contract.”
The staff member responsible for selecting non-celebrity guests, worried Du Yan might be doing something wrong, hurried over to explain.
“Director Qi, I just recruited this guest this afternoon and didn’t have time to report to you yet…”
But Qi Jing waved her hand, cutting the staff member off. “It’s fine. I know.”
Her stern demeanor from the meeting disappeared. She smiled and greeted Shi Cha. “Shi Cha, I didn’t expect you to be one of our non-celebrity guests.”
Shi Cha still couldn’t maintain eye contact or hold a normal conversation. Hearing her words, he only gave a soft “Mm.”
Qi Jing was a former student of Shi Cha’s mother, so she had seen the quiet, withdrawn boy several times during visits to her teacher.
She had also heard many times from her teacher about Shi Cha’s severe social anxiety — each time filled with sighs and helplessness, unsure how to help him change.
So Qi Jing didn’t take Shi Cha’s aloofness toward her personally.
She asked with concern, “Does your mom know you’re joining a variety show?”
Shi Cha shook his head. After a long pause, he realized he should say a little more, then mumbled, “She doesn’t.”
The staff: “…”
Du Yan: “…”
Du Yan felt like he was about to die from secondhand embarrassment.
Qi Jing also sensed Shi Cha’s discomfort. She glanced at Du Yan and said, “I’ll take Shi Cha to the office for a quick chat.”
Then she pointed at the contract in Du Yan’s hand. “You’re just here to help him with the contract, right? Xiao Wang, finish the paperwork with him.”
When Qi Jing led Shi Cha into her office to talk privately, he let out a deep sigh of relief.
Though being alone with Qi Jing still made him a bit uneasy, it was far better than having a crowd staring at him.
Qi Jing noticed his nervousness too and poured him a glass of water.
“Are you really okay with this?”
Shi Cha took a sip, thought for a moment, and replied, “My friend said… I can treat this as a stage, create a persona, and just focus on playing the part.”
Qi Jing couldn’t help but chuckle. “That chubby guy just now said that, didn’t he?”
Given how socially anxious Shi Cha was, the only person he could really call a friend was probably the plump guy who came with him.
“As much as I hate to admit it, your friend actually has a good point. I remember you graduated from A University’s acting department, right? Your teacher said you were always top of the class. Seems like variety show performance shouldn’t be too hard for you.”
Shi Cha took another sip of water. “It was the voice acting program.”
Qi Jing was nearly ten years older than Shi Cha, and she looked at him like a younger brother. Smiling warmly, she reassured him, “Alright, voice acting. But don’t worry too much — one of the other guests is your classmate too.”
Seeing Shi Cha lift his head with interest, Qi Jing continued:
“He’s also graduating from your voice acting program this year — Lu Lecheng. He just debuted as the center position in a talent show. Since you’re classmates, having him around might help ease your anxiety a bit. When the time comes, I’ll secretly assign you two to the same team.”
As Qi Jing said this, she even winked at Shi Cha. “Director’s cheat — don’t let that slip!”
Shi Cha: “…”
You probably have no idea we don’t get along. No need to cheat on my behalf.
He didn’t mind being in the same group as Lu Lecheng, but he was worried Lu Lecheng might lose it.
“Sister Qi, you don’t have to cheat. I’ll be fine.”
Qi Jing raised her brows. “Really?”
Shi Cha pressed his lips together. “I’ve got to at least try.”
Seeing Shi Cha so firm, Qi Jing didn’t push further.
They chatted a bit more — mostly Qi Jing doing the talking. After checking the time and guessing the contract process was probably finished by now, she didn’t keep Shi Cha any longer to avoid making things more awkward for him.
On the way back, Du Yan couldn’t help but say, “If I’d known you knew Director Qi, I wouldn’t have gone through all that trouble.”
Shi Cha felt a bit embarrassed too. “I didn’t know you were talking about Sister Qi show.”
“And besides,” he added, rubbing the seatbelt strap with his right hand, “I’m not close with her. Before today, we’d only exchanged a few words.”
Du Yan, still driving, glanced at Shi Cha. “That, I believe.”
With Shi Cha’s level of social anxiety, it would be a miracle if he were talkative.
Since filming would begin in three days, Shi Cha also started a livestream that evening, taking the opportunity to inform his fans that he’d be taking a two-day break from streaming.
That night’s bonus stream was mostly gaming.
Viewers in the livestream watched as the normally soft-voiced, multi-talented voice actor transformed into a cold, unstoppable rank-climbing machine.
[“Oh my god, the streamer’s on fire! The other team must be mentally collapsing from getting stomped so hard.”]
[“This guy’s amazing! I thought I was following a voice actor, turns out he’s a secret eSports pro!”]
[“Are we sure the streamer isn’t some high-ranked player on a smurf account?”]
After another game ended, Shi Cha habitually opened his friends list.
It was a new habit he had picked up over the past few days. But this time was different — the avatar named [Cha Henduo] was lit up!
It was the first time in days he had seen that person online.
Shi Cha completely forgot he was still live. All he could think about was: Lin Ran is online! That meant he could finally play games with him again!
He moved his fingers hesitantly, but in the end, he still opened the chat window and began typing.
[Are you there?]
His profile picture was lit — of course he was online. What a pointless message.
Nope, delete!
[All the teammates I’ve matched with lately are awful. Still felt best playing with you. Wanna queue up?”]
Ugh, too much bootlicking! And throwing shade at the others?
Nope, delete!
[Got time? Want to play a couple of rounds?]
Too familiar. What if he doesn’t even remember who you are?
Nope, delete!
He typed and deleted for several minutes — and still hadn’t sent a single word.
Meanwhile, the chat was going wild.
[“What’s the streamer doing? Who’s the person he’s messaging?”]
[“Calling it now — the streamer has a crush. Why else would he be acting so cautiously, afraid to say the wrong thing?”]
[“Wait, seriously? I just became a fan, and he’s already about to soft-launch a relationship?”]
[Good evening. I was the jungler you played with a few days ago — do you remember me?]
Before Shi Cha could even send it, a message popped up from the other side.
[Got time? Want to play a couple rounds?]
The corners of Shi Cha’s lips lifted unconsciously.
So… it’s totally normal for us to talk this casually after all!