Exclusive Rights to An Online Voice Actor

Chapter 148

unedited

Blackbox was a web novel author, excelling in power couple and modern mafia plots. Her representative works included the recently completed novel ⟪Trap⟫ and it’s sister novel, the currently serialised ⟪Entangled⟫.

As of now, Blackbox wasn’t really the most prominent figure in the web novel circle, but she has garnered some fame and had a fairly dedicated reader fanbase.

The ID Blackbox gave people a distinctively aloof impression, but in reality, she was a very warm-hearted girl, completely unlike her writing style—a cheerful and sunny little sister.

However, this cheerful sunshine encountered a gloomy overcast day, with dark and oppressive clouds overshadowing it—

And the source of those clouds was one of the Bronze Sparrow Terrace fan group’s owner.

This group owner proudly made a post on Weibo, showing off her accomplishment to her followers: 【Today, there was some lunatic pretending to be the author of ⟪Trap⟫ and causing trouble in the group, saying that Sparrow’s performance didn’t capture the character well enough and that his version was inferior to the other one, so I kicked her out immediately~】

Finally, she also tagged her beloved Sparrow, seeking praise from him.

Her followers quickly applauded her, mocking that ‘phoney’ together all the way until the author of ⟪Trap⟫ herself sent a short three words on her Weibo page.

【Blackbox: ...Got kicked out.】

Blackbox’s Weibo account was marked as verified.

Not only was Blackbox’s Weibo verified, she was also mutuals with a several pretty well-known authors, but the most important thing was, she was also mutuals with the official account of ⟪Trap⟫ production—her identity left no room for doubt, she was the actual author.

Just at that time, their chat room backlog got shared on the forum.

The once chatty and mocking crowd suddenly went completely silent.

After five minutes, those who reblogged the post discovered that the content of their reblogs changed to “Apologies, this post has been deleted by the author”, and it seemed like the author of the post could no longer be contacted. However, there were plenty of people who rushed to witness and screenshot that post in those five minutes, and the comments sharing them were subsequently pushed up as the best comments of the day...

The fans of that sub-group owner immediately went dead silent, whereas Blackbox’s fans started clamouring, each one more astonished than the other.

【Reply 1】: Σ( °△ °|||) What happened to Lord Box? What’s going on, who kicked you out?

【Reply 2】: Σ( °△ °|||) I was about to remind Lord to write a New Year’s special, and then this post appeared out of nowhere. I really have no idea what’s happening.

【Reply 3】: Σ( °△ °|||) Did Lord Box offend somebody?

【Reply 4】: Pffft... I happen to follow both of those people, and when I saw those two posts stacked together on my feed, I couldn’t help but spit out my tea!! So, the ‘phoney’ that lass mentioned turned out to be the real deal?? Hahahaha... (Pardon me, I couldn’t help but laugh)

【Reply 5】: Catching the friend above!! What ‘phoney’ are you talking about, I’m begging for the details of what happened!!

【Reply 6】: I know! (raises hand) Someone leaked a chat log on a forum! The person who kicked Box out is the owner of the fan group chat, they’re the fans of that VA playing Jiang Xiaogong in ⟪Trap⟫ audio drama... The fans of that VA can be quite extreme, so girls, please don’t start any arguments with them, it will only bring more troubles for Box... _(:з」∠)_

In reality, there’s little actual overlap between the web novel community and the online voice acting community.

If it weren’t for the fact that ⟪Trap⟫ was getting adapted to an audio drama, most of Blackbox’s readers have little to no knowledge about audio dramas, not to mention knowing who all of those VAs were, who was popular and so on. Unlike the audio drama-only fans or fans of the specific voice actors, they would primarily evaluate the adaptation based on how well it captured the essence of the novel.

That’s why, as the truth gradually came to light, the impressions of this audio drama among commenting readers were remarkably unanimous.

【Reply 7】: _(:з」∠)_ I don’t get it, you’re the author, why would you get kicked out... Isn’t it supposed to be that after the adaptation rights are given away, the original work’s position remains the highest?

【Reply 8】: _(:з」∠)_ I don’t know if by audio drama, you guys mean that voiced version of ⟪Trap⟫ Blackbox forwarded a long time ago? (I’m sorry, I don’t know anything about the making or standards in that field... But I felt like it didn’t sounded much like how I envisioned ⟪Trap⟫...)

&#k3010;Reply 9&#k3011;: Ooooh, I remember!! I also listened to it!! The voices there were really beautiful and captivating, but they didn’t feel like main characters written by Box at all&#k2026;

&#k3010;Reply 10&#k3011;: = = Ah? Does the person from the comment above mean that voice actor who changed my loyal dog and restrained Jiang Xiaogong into an over-the-top playboy?

【Reply 11】: = = Now that you guys reminded me, I finally remembered. I’ve listened to this audio drama before—but I didn’t even finish it before I closed it. It was so OOC that I couldn’t bear it, both top and bottom were completely OOC. Patting Box, I really don’t know what those people in the voice acting circle were thinking, to actually kick out the original author!!!

【Reply 12】: Both top and bottom were completely OOC +1. If I had to compare, the top was more OOC... Sending the pats for Box as well.

Seeing the growing unrest slowly reaching Qi Jing, Blackbox made another, long post, pulling him out from the crowd of condemnation.

But there was a sense of guilt in her words.

Blackbox: Since I already got kicked out, then I’ll just be honest. ⟪Trap⟫ is the first work I authorised for an adaptation into an audio drama. Prior to this, I was completely ignorant, with no previous exposure to the voice acting community so I just let the production team do it their way. It wasn’t until the first episode was released that I heard the performances of the two main voice actors, and, to be honest, my initial impression was... “These two don’t feel like the characters I wrote”. It’s quite disheartening, isn’t it? The production team only sought the adaptation rights because they appreciated my writing, and I didn’t want to be the one to discourage them, so I decided to accept it. I told myself that I should be content just being able to listen to it, even if it sounded like fanfiction.

However, I’m not posting this Weibo today solely because of the audio drama, but because of various incidents that have occurred recently, which have crossed my bottom line.

As everyone knows, after the release of the first episode of ⟪Trap⟫, the second one was significantly delayed, and there were changes in both the producer and director position. When the original producer was saying goodbyes to me, she mentioned that it was due to her being busy with real-life commitments, and that she couldn’t stay in the production. However, later on, a few of my readers discreetly informed me that the real reason was a conflict between the main voice actors. The VA for “Lin Qu” decided to leave, which led to the producer and director also departing from the production.

At that time, I felt very shocked and disheartened, but the new producer assured me to not worry and promised to find a more competent replacement VA. She also told me that the reason for the prolonged delay in releasing the second episode was due to the previous voice actor failing to submit the recordings for half a year, that he had a reputation of playing dead, and he hindered their progress...

This explanation seemed to align with what I heard from my readers... Driven by curiosity, I discreetly visited the online voice acting forum to dig up some gossip, but to my surprise, I discovered that the situation was far more intricate than what I initially imagined.

I admit that I got rather easily captured by the voice of VA playing Jiang Hui. This is my personal taste, I couldn’t help it.

I admit that initially, I didn’t quite like the VA playing Lin Qu, as I felt like his acting was too OOC. Moreover, I thought that he delayed the recording and ultimately left the production with no sense of responsibility.

But as the truth became more and more clear, I finally realised that I blamed the wrong person.

Had it not been for the controversy surrounding the teaser of the second episode and the confrontation between the former director and the current producer, I might have remained completely unaware of all the details even after it finished releasing.

Had it not been for another version of the run-through getting shared, maybe I would never get to hear Jiang Hui and Lin Qu as I envisioned them.

Mr Don’t ask for my return date, I apologise sincerely. IT appears you were the one who suffered from the unauthorised use of your recordings after submitting them a long time ago. It turns out you actually breathed life into Lin Qu with your voice acting, but got forced to abandon it. I deeply regret misunderstanding your voice acting as out of character, and misjudging you as a person. @CV-Don’t ask for my return date

With Blackbox, the author of the original work, openly tagging Don’t ask for my return date to apologise, it couldn’t have been more evident whose side she was taking.

Qi Jing silently gazed at the post on his phone screen, as well as the rapidly growing number of shares, yet he couldn’t come up with a suitable response at the moment.

After opening the reply box and staring at the flickering cursor, he found himself unable to write anything.

He felt so many, so deep emotions, yet his mind was empty—there wasn’t a single word to capture them adequately.

In the end, he decided against replying for now and gently turned his body to face the other side of the pillow, where the other man’s face lay. They gazed at each other closely, and he felt like he could find more words to express himself just by looking at this man. His phone was playing the recording of their first meeting, and they shared one earbud each to listen. Truth be told, he wasn’t really paying attention to it, simply savouring the bliss brought about by those two cords linking them together in the middle of their bed.

“Are you listening?”

“I’m not,” The other man replied in a low voice, smiling slightly, “I can’t focus on listening when you’re looking at me like this.”

Half of Qi Jing’s face was buried in the pillow, and he also smiled lightly at that man. Even though the lights were off in the bedroom, there was still a flicker dancing silently in his eye.

“There was a time before when, every night before falling asleep, I would listen to this.” It slipped his mouth without much thought, but as soon as he said this, he paused, realising it didn’t come out quite right. He hurriedly grabbed the hem of the other man’s clothing under the duvet, trying to clarify, “Ah, ah, don’t misunderstand! I didn’t treat it as a material for that kind of purpose...”

Material for that purpose.

“Pfft,” Shen Yan couldn’t hold back laughter, and feigning a serious tone, he added to the fire by saying, “I never considered it that way. But now, with you saying this, it actually looks like it could be the case.”

Qi Jing’s ears and neck flushed red. He was fully aware that this man was teasing him on purpose, yet he still couldn’t help resist hastily defending himself, “...I really didn’t. We had only just met at that time, so having such thoughts would be too inappropriate at that time, wouldn’t it?”

In the dim light, it was difficult to see clearly if Qi Jing’s ears were red, but when he felt Qi Jing’s hand tugging at the hem of his clothes, he noticed that it was warmer than usual. He instinctively clasped that hand within his own, the feeling of holding it filling his heart with contentment.

“You didn’t use to in the past, but how about now?”

His low voice was a bit raspy, as if his heart got brushed with sandpaper, making the listener tingle upon hearing it. Qi Jing held his breath, then out of a sudden, he removed the earphone and turned over to press over him.

“This won’t move me now either,” His breath heavy, his hand venturing into Shen Yan’s pyjama pants, teasingly kneading him there as punishment, “I’d rather move myself—”

With all that panting and gasping, they soon got completely carried away.

With all that caressing and teasing, they also soon forgot about the phone and the earphones, pushing them to the side of the pillow to remain forgotten until the next day. Along with that, the reply to that post was also postponed for the entire evening.

There was one thing he didn’t expect though. As he lazily woke up in Shen Yan’s embrace and rubbed his eyes, receiving his daily wake-up kiss on the forehead, he sleepily reached out to pick up the clothes that slipped off the bed the previous night. After getting dressed and freshening up, he habitually scrolled Weibo on his phone while preparing for breakfast. At that moment, he was startled by the amount of his fans tagging him under one of the posts.

He still hadn’t managed to reply to that long post Blackbox tagged him in yet, but there was someone who beat him to it, with the staggering amount of reblogs and comments below it pushing it up as the top comment.

The author of the reply was none other than the person who kicked Blackbox out of the chat group the day before.

Unlike Da Qiao, who disappeared after getting ratio-ed with five thousand reblogs when Sleek horses run fast replied to her before, this girl was still standing her ground and getting feisty despite the turmoil she caused.

【She’s just an author, so what about that! She’s actually blurring the truth by choosing to blindly protect Don’t ask for my return date! Locky told me to remain quiet, but I have to speak the truth—this novel, ⟪Trap⟫, is actually quite mediocre, and the author also has only a few thousand followers on Weibo. If it wasn’t for Sparrow agreeing to play the main character in the audio drama for it, there wouldn’t be as many people reading it! It’s obviously him that brought popularity to this novel, okay??】

—This was the general tone of it.

As for the so-called ‘bold with the justice on one’s side’ attitude, it definitely came out very ‘bold’, even if the justice got skewed with no logic to speak of, leaving a hefty amount of people speechless in front of their screens.

“...Miss, you yourself really are...” Quite a piece of ‘mediocre’ work as an ally. Qi Jing was flabbergasted, clueless how to even react aside from shaking his head.

In comparison, Da Qiao committing the ID suicide immediately was way more sensible.

It’s important to understand that almost every writer would have a sensitive spot, and the most fatal one would be to criticise their writing. The hate directed at them personally didn’t mean as much, but when their works are getting attacked, it feels like someone is insulting their child. And claiming something as preposterous as the ‘secondary franchise’ fanwork—as Bronze Sparrow Terrace called it—being better and more popular than the original work only added to the fire.

It was nothing else than delivering a ruthless blow to the writer’s sense of reason, shattering it in a single strike.

Thus, this usually sunny and radiant Blackbox girl... unexpectedly turned into a dark, raging storm.

Blackbox: ...Thank you for the popularity your audio drama brought to this mediocre novel of mine. However, those who came to read it for the VA alone might get disappointed, since the characters are completely different at the core. As for me, I will keep writing no matter what, no matter if there’s anyone reading. I will do my best to keep my readers interested within my own capacity. Therefore, from this day on, I officially revoke the adaptation rights for the ⟪Trap⟫ audio drama. The production team is no longer allowed to release it under this novel’s title, otherwise I will take legal action for the infringement of the copyright—so be it.

Upon reading this, Qi Jing suddenly felt tightness, like a parched man who didn’t drink for days, making it dry and sore, yearning for something to soothe it.

If someone were to put a hand on his throat right now, they would undoubtedly feel the rapid and rhythmic thumping of his heart, going thump, thump, thump.

“A-Yan—” He called out instinctively in an urgent voice.

Upon hearing his call, Shen Yan, who was currently cooking porridge, turned his head over, only to see Qi Jing sitting in the chair, staring intently at his phone screen. Qi Jing’s expression was serious, and his posture rigid and tense, startling Shen Yan a little. “What happened?”

Qi Jing didn’t answer right away, asking him back in a low voice instead.

“Let me ask you... You had once told me that you never accept the main roles. Does it still stand now?”

This “Geese Fly North” VA never accepted main roles, there was no exception to that rule up till now.

Even for his two roles in ⟪Order to End the Heavens⟫, Bai Ke and Old Man Xiao Shan, neither of them were main roles. The only time he played one was when he temporarily filled in for the run-through, so it didn’t count.

For a brief moment, Shen Yan didn’t reply, then he slowly put down the porridge ladle in his hand. Faced with a question he never answered or even thought about, he truly didn’t know how to respond.

Nevertheless, he wanted to know the reason behind Qi Jing’s question.

“Why are you asking this?”

“I want to do something,” Qi Jing took a deep breath, gripping his phone in both hands. The screen displayed the Weibo post editor, and the cursor blinked rapidly yet steadily, much like his heartbeat—fast, but steady.

“Previously, I was always unsure if I should do this, if that would be the right decision, so I ended up giving up on that idea. However, now, I suddenly found a new determination for it. I believe that it’s the right choice, and I’m sure I won’t regret it. I... I’ve never felt so strongly about anything online before, which is why... I don’t want to pretend it didn’t matter to me.”

Shen Yan listened silently.

At that point, Qi Jing paused for a while, his voice a bit hoarse. “But, even if I decide to go through with it... I can’t do it without you.” He paused once more, then finally confessed his main concern, “If you continue refusing the main roles, I won’t be able to do that.”

Shen Yan still didn’t respond, only lowering his head with a smile. He picked back the ladle and scooped them two bowls of porridge as if he hadn’t heard Qi Jing’s words just now. He calmly checked the temperature, wiped the stove, and washed his hands before bringing the bowls of porridge over as if nothing had happened.

Qi Jing could only stare at him anxiously as he did all of this. Left on tenterhooks, he almost forgot about breathing.

“Then I will also ask you,” At that time, Shen Yan finally spoke, “between my answer and eating breakfast, which is more important?”

After waiting for so long Qi Jing only got this obscure answer, leaving him completely exasperated. However, he didn’t have the heart to pressure Shen Yan to reply, so he just sighed with a helpless smile, “Eating breakfast.”

Shen Yan smiled lightly, placing one of the bowls in front of Qi Jing and saying in a low voice, “Then, if I’m willing to make breakfast for you, then why would you be afraid I wouldn’t agree?”

It was still one day away from the New Year’s when the author of ⟪Trap⟫, Blackbox, withdrew the adaptation rights.

Just as the forum was buzzing with excitement, considering that post from her as the most shocking news of this peculiar New Year show, but the next two posts from Don’t ask for my return date surpassed it in impact, taking the topic to a whole new level of excitement.

His first Weibo post was a reply to Blackbox’s previous statement.

CV-Don’t ask for my return date: ^＿^ Thank You for tagging me for that apology, but to be honest, there was no need for You to do that. I understand the difficult position You were in, and I also understand your disappointment at the time. In reality, it should be me who should apologise for letting my personal dispute reach all the way to the original author, dragging You into it. Apart from this, I want to apologise for giving in to pressure and deviating from “Lin Qu”.

The second post was a text in a quote reblog of his first post.

CV-Don’t ask for my return date: Aside from that, I would also like to make an official request to the author here—I’d like to ask the author to pass the already revoked adaptation rights to me. I guarantee to certainly return you the complete and unblemished ⟪Trap⟫, an even better, more polished adaptation than the first version. If you, the author, trust me, then I would like to request the exclusive rights from you.

A/N:

The main point of this chapter No.1: In the course of producing an audio drama, the author would remain completely uninvolved most of the time, they usually only get notified after the audio drama releases... To say it bluntly, the actual importance of an author in a production team is pretty low（。）...But they still possess the scariest right, which is the right to revoke their authorization (smiles).

The main point of this chapter No.2: Although 2Yan was the one to pounce on his man, he was actually the one to end up eaten up (continues smiling)...

The main point of this chapter No.3: I’m really not a little cliffhanger angel...

T/N:

Lucilla: I think it’s a good time to remind the readers of this translation that this novel released from 2013 all the way to 2015, and the state of the online voice acting circle portrayed here is a bit outdated in this day and age. Back then, the audio dramas were all non-profit and much more niche, basically toeing the line between an organised amateur fan-work and official adaptation. The permission from the author was still required to produce an audio drama, but it wasn’t really purchased, just granted, and the final product was also free to listen to. Nowadays, most of the audio dramas are produced by the professional voice acting studios, with the rights being officially purchased from the authors. The production team along with voice actors are getting paid for their involvement in it, as they are now usually monetized.

Also, if anyone’s interested in getting started with audio dramas, there are discord servers that can help you get started with them! There are a few translations, and you can MTL those that aren’t translated fairly well (knowing the plot of the original novel helps though), so with some help from the other audio drama enthusiasts you can also get into it pretty easily~