Published at 20th of March 2020 2:11 am

Chapter 258: Iron Turret

This chapter is updated by NovelFree.ml

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

“You can’t get up? What’s wrong?”

Bai Zhi was a bit startled hearing this. She knew this would be a difficult scene to dub, and it could be counted as the longest voice acting segment out of both seasons. Needless to say, there was a large amount of physical strength that’s required, but most importantly, it was emotionally taxing.

She’d heard of some actors being emotionally stuck during a role and unable to withdraw for a long time.

However, when she looked closer, she couldn’t contain it and burst into laughter. She couldn’t help but punch Meng Fan. What was going on? How is this kid so troublesome!

Although she’d found his outfit last minute, the measurements were very accurate. Mango TV’s costume department was supposed to have great quality, how could it rip!

“Uhm, can you stop laughing!”

Meng Fan wanted to cry. He’d seen similar situations happen in various TV shows. It was funny to see it happen to someone else, but when it happened to himself… It’s so awkward and very uncomfortable!

Meng Fan took off his blazer and tied it around his waist. It basically covered the rip. He gestured towards the staff to bring him a new pair of pants.

People were all curious as to what was going on upstairs. Although they couldn’t see, some voices could still be heard that had the host chuckling from the main stage. “What’s going on upstairs? Did something interesting happen?”

The vocal assistant, who could also be considered a secondary host, was also present. Their faces were about to burst from laughing so much. They’d wanted to tell the audience about the entertaining situation, since they would have filmed it anyways. But after hearing the main host talk, they immediately began laughing again. “Meng Fan ripped his pants when he sat down.”

With this, the audience erupted in laughter. They, too, could tell that the celebrity contestants and their guests in the external room laughing as well.

They had just been crying, but now this bast*rd had induced a cacophony of laughter.

Meng Fan was innocent; he wasn’t trying to be humorous!

He’d originally wanted to hide the tear, but it seemed unlikely now. Of course, it wasn’t bad enough that he’d blame the vocal assistant. Only, what the assistant was about to say really made him uncomfortable.

The vocal assistant proceeded with a chuckle: “It’s okay, a rip is fine. Don’t we have Bai Yueguang present? Her talent is tailoring repairs.”

This statement had an origin. There are many clips circulating on the internet of the empress, Bai Yueguang, sewing her dresses and costumes, some even making the news. The articles had expressed this was because Bai Yueguang felt that her formal wear was too exposing, a low V neck or what not, and wanted to sew them up. There was even photographic evidence. Several people had found the news entertaining and had, upon seeing that she was one of the top grossing actresses in the industry, became her fans very quickly.

The vocal assistant evidently saw an opportunity for this joke and reacted fast, too. Without thinking, it had also exposed the criticism she faced regarding her emotional intelligence and stubbornness.

She only tailored her own clothes, okay? And it was on her own clothes. If you want a girl to sew the pants of a man like Meng Fan, and on the behind too… Meng Fan didn’t know how other people would take it. He himself felt it would be an awkward situation, though.

The vocal assistant was quite pleased with the joke and continued to press Meng Fan: “How about you ask Bai Yueguang to patch that up for you?”

Meng Fan was speechless. How was he supposed to answer that? Not answering wasn’t an option, either. Since he was afraid she’d continue pressing, he hurriedly responded: “Bai Yueguang only tailors clothes for goddess level figures, and my name, Meng Fan*, already shows that I’m just a mortal. How could I ask that of a goddess.”

*The Fan in Meng Fan also means mortal.

He then gestured to the staff to hurry up and find him some pants.

The celebrities in the external stage, including Bai Yuegang and the team that Bai Zhi had PKed during the “Director’s Show,” all began to laugh. The atmosphere had been salvaged and was no longer embarrassing.

At this time, Bai Zhi lightly glanced towards the vocal assistant. She didn’t care if she was trying to be funny or if she succeeded or if it was all for comedic effect. Bai Zhi smiled warmly and spoke: “You can’t take your personal issues out in a business setting on Meng Fan because he hit that K-pop idol!”

At that moment, the atmosphere turned really awkward!

Of course, not everyone felt the scope of the awkwardness. Several faces inside the studio felt their expressions go dark.

Some people understood the meaning behind her words and felt that Bai Zhi was very daring. It was so satisfying, though.

“Uncle Kai, hang on! We have a wardrobe malfunction on our end.”

Bai Zhi didn’t care. She knew that the crew would edit out her retort just now and turned to follow Meng Fan and the staff member to the changing rooms.

He ended up changing into another tuxedo, courtesy of Bai Zhi. She’d insisted that Meng Fan looked best in one. After squatting a few times to test its durability, he gave in. The crew had already begun rushing them to the dubbing studio.

Returning to the dubbing studio, everyone was already acquainted. They pretended that that little scene didn’t happen, this ‘scene’ referring to Bai Zhi’s statement. As for what happened before that, Mango TV would most likely broadcast the entire segment due to their history and reputation for making variety shows.

Toward this, Meng Fan didn’t feel opposed. Since he agreed to film the show, he had to accept some consequences.

And after the interruption, Meng Fan felt like he’d regained back most of his energy.

Going live again, the two walked hand in hand into the elevator and onto the main stage and began recording their collaboration act.

The first segment of their collaboration was “Xiao Zhuang Mi Shi.” It’s a classic series where both actors involved demonstrated a high level of acting skills. Da Yuer was played by Ning Jing.

Whether it was her acting skills or her features, she was worthy of the saying, “There can be no more Da Yuers after Ning Jing.” Some people even joked that Ning Jing was the only actress who could tame Ma Jiaozhu into submission. Evidently, in this scene, Ma Jiaozhu didn’t dare to upset Ning Jing.

“What’s wrong?”

“Xu Jiu is missing.”

“Empress dowager, what’s the commotion that you summoned me so quickly.”

“I wouldn’t dare to summon the emperor regent. If something goes wrong, two white flags and a yellow one would have killed their way to Beijing…”

After teasing each other in the beginning, Meng Fan and Bai Zhi were able to capture the characteristics of the roles as well as the psychology behind the plot.

Immediately following, the two began the “love to death” dialogue, which demonstrated the ambiguity of the two characters and the results of their choices.

Meng Fan held back tears as he hoarsely choked, a feeling of being wronged in his voice. “To die like this, Yuer, you’re cursing me! With our feelings for each other, you’re cursing me! For you, I gave up the throne that was at my fingertips. I was willing to dig out my heart for you, yet you curse me.”

Bai Zhi’s eyes glistened as she held her ground, lips quivering. “I’m not cursing you, Duo Ergun. You’re doing this to yourself!”

Next, there was supposed to be a scene of Duo Ergun returning to his lair and crying amid laughter.

But since that scene didn’t contain Bai Zhi, Meng Fan had requested it to be cut, thus ending their performance.

In this performance, Meng Fan’s performance was naturally flawless, but Bai Zhi had stood out more. Her voice was very similar to Ning Jing, and her emotional expression was also excellent. It could be described as a three pointer, very tear inducing. Several people in the audience had teared up.

Of course, some people in the industry, including the vocal coach, Professor Di, could tell that Bai Zhi was able to give such an incredible performance because Meng Fan had carried her. It wasn’t the type of carry where Meng Fan purposely lowered his skills to match Bai Zhi but because he’d been able to bring out her emotions to their peak by articulating it so well himself. This was a difficult task to achieve.

Their interest in Meng Fan was growing, especially from Professor Di. Last night, she’d learned that Meng Fan was a staff member at the Chocolate Factory and had called Director Charlie to clarify some questions. She even casually mentioned “borrowing” Meng Fan, but now she was sure of this decision.

Meng Fan didn’t just do a great job himself; he was also able to amplify the emotional performance of his partner. The latter was more appealing to Professor Di, who frequently assisted on TV series and movies.

After they finished dubbing for “Xiao Zhuang Mi Shi,” Bai Zhi adjusted her emotions and began the second clip, ‘I’m-Sherlocked,’ from “Sherlock.”

In this clip, Bai Zhi had less participation, since she’d picked the clip for Meng Fan to stand out.

A deep and charming voice came on. “NO!”

Irene from the film: “Sorry?”

At this time, the camera panned back to Sherlock. “I-said-no. Very, very-close, but-no.”

Not everyone had seen “Sherlock” before, but everyone knew the Sherlock Holmes that Benedict Cumberbatch played.

Of course, the scene was hard to understand if you weren’t a fan of the show. After all, Sherlock and Irene’s emotional encounter at this moment felt a bit inexplicable, not to mention the fact that they wouldn’t know what ‘I’m-Sherlocked’ stood for.

This segment to most people undoubtedly presented Meng Fan’s English dubbing abilities. Most people couldn’t tell if Meng Fan’s accent was American or British, but they could tell his pronunciations were on point. It sounded very comfortable and eloquent. At the same time, Meng Fan’s vocal range was very similar to Cumberbatch’s. It was charming, and a deep voice was very attractive, too. Explosively crisp!

Of course, some phrases were sped up, which was very satisfying to hear.

“Incredible, incredible!”

Uncle Kai exhaled. He then invited Meng Fan and Bai Zhi — who’d completed their recordings — to the center of the stage and began a series of interviews and interactions. He mostly questioned Bai Zhi and how she felt her performance had gone during the two performances.

However, Bai Zhi continued to divert the topic of discussion to Meng Fan, as if she’d become the guest contestant instead. Uncle Kai saw this and followed the script they had rehearsed. “Meng Fan, your imitation of Sherlock just now, you did it in a British accent, right? Unless I’m mistaken.”

“I only imitated the original soundtrack for this scene.” Meng Fan was modest and answered truthfully.

“I could tell from a few of the sentences. You’re very fast at articulating!” Uncle Kai continued to follow the script, but was curious to find out for himself as well. “Then do you think you could try voicing one of Sherlock’s faster deduction scenes?”

“I’ll give it a try.”

Meng Fan nodded. The scene from “Hounds of Baskerville” began to play.

In the following 60 seconds, Meng Fan’s mouth rattled off like a machine gun without pausing. His shots stunned the audience.

“Wow!”

Uncle Kai was mesmerized. “Meng Fan, you’re not an Iron Hero, you’re an Iron Turret! Your tongue is incredible, it’s like you’re in a shooter game! Don’t you all think so?”

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