Jungkook did not seem to mind.

"It's okay. Let's just chat then." He finally said a full sentence. There was still a sense in his voice, though, that he had just woken up, or in other words, his vocal chords still had not completely warmed up yet.

Such a fortunate thing. It made his voice seem a lot more real.

As a cover singer of ancient-style songs, she was completely powerless to resist voices spoken in ancient-style that were able to conjure up vivid images.

If her mind was brought back to modern times ... Uh, well, she could remain slightly more composed.

She sent back: "Sure, Dada."

And then ... did not know what she should talk about.

Lisa never mingled in the online entertainment circle. In the 2-D world, besides knowing the fellow members in her own music association, the only others she would associate with were the occasional person who asked her to sing songs composed by someone else. The reason why she had chosen to be an ancient-style cover singer and not be a CV in the first place was because she felt that singers did not need to socialize. She could teach herself the post-production work, and then she would still be able to have fun by herself. A CV, however, could not voice act a drama with just herself, right?

That was the reason why many CVs had their own public WeChat accounts and could handle the attention with ease.

Singers who were articulate were a rarity.

Lisa leaned back into the couch and contemplated for a long while what conversation topic would be suitable to talk about with DaRen.

"DaRen, you're not busy?"

"Mm. Resting right now."

"Well, um ... DaRen, what do you usually do during your rest periods?"

"Sleep." Jungkook paused briefly, then added, "Or go to the recording studio."

So ... the rumors were true that Toupai had a career that was very busy? Being a commercial voice artist was just a ... side job?

Lisa's admiration for Toupai grew that much more.

"DaRen, wlll you be going to the recording studio today?"

"Mm-hmm."

"Doing voice acting for a video game?"

Collaboration between video game producers and the various 2-D world entertainment circles was the most common type of partnership seen. This included working with writers and CVs, and even big name ancient-style singers were often invited to sing the theme songs for video games. She seemed to recall there was a recenty released video game that had teamed up with three of the different circles: writers had provided background support while CVs and ancient-style singers had taken part in the promotional video.

"Mm-hmm."

"Um... DaRen, it's been three years since you participated in Wanmei's anniversary celebration. How come you've decided to take part this year?"

"This year happens to be the tenth anniversary celebration." Jungkook was quiet for a moment. "It's not very likely I'd be able to get out of Wanmei's tenth anniversary event."

No wonder this time around he was making an appearance. Tenth anniversary was a big event.

"That's true ... Um, then, DaRen, are you planning on coming back into the online entertainment circle?"

"No," he answered simply. "After this tenth anniversary celebration, I'm going to completely retire my mike in the online world."

"...... That's a shame."

Several years ago, Jungkook already had stopped accepting new projects, voicing dramas, and doing special performances for birthday celebrations. These last few years, all of his works had come out of a recording studio and were all commercial voice projects ... However, even when he was still doing online voice acting, he had not voiced very many dramas. All of his friends in the circle were veteran figures who had been around in the beginning when online voice acting had not yet become popular.

People who were not close to him were not familiar with him at all, and those who were close were all good friends...

Not the least bit of gossip about him was available.

Or rather, no one had information on him to gossip about.

The direct result of this was that Lisa could not find a topic to carry out a conversation with him. She knew very much about Jungkook, knew how many dramas he had voiced, to the point she could even recite every single classic line he had ever spoken. But ... she also did not know him. As a real person, which city he lived, what his occupation was, and even whether he was working or still studying were all things she knew absolutely nothing about.

She thought hard about what question she could ask next.

"Your chatting is more like an interview," Jungkook very gently corrected her.

(⊙o⊙)... It did seem so.

Lisa blew out a breath, then confessed, "I actually don't know what DaRen likes to talk about..."

"I haven't been in the 2-D world for a long time. Treat me like a 3-D world [real life] friend. Talk about anything."

"Uh ... well... DaRen, have you eaten?"

Alright. 3-D world topics were even less exciting.

Who could tell her, how were two people, who had completely gotten to know each only through online interactions, supposed to talk in a real life, 3-D world way?

She gradually started to recover her sense enough to recall her original intention for contacting Jungkook. "Oh right, Daren, I remember the reason why I wanted to talk to you ..."

Mirth could be heard in Jungkook's voice. "That was not an easy thing for you... Go ahead."

"It's just that, I suspect, because DaRen you helped me get that opportunity to sing with all those Dadas, there might be some... not so good rumors circling on the Internet." From the standpoint of one of Jungkook's supporters, Lisa told him very seriously, "At the start, my thoughts on this were really very simple. The opportunity to work with all those Dadas ... is every little unknown singer's dream. But now, I'm afraid ... I've brought some negative impact on DaRen, you."

"Mm. Such as?"

"Such as... losing fans? Such as... gossip flying everywhere?"

"Mm."

......

Toupai seemed ... as if he did not really care?

After a little while, Jungkook sent over a relatively longer voice message. "If what is being said on the Internet is making you unhappy, when you shut off your computer, it all becomes nothing. As a voice actor, the only thing that I should care about is my own works. Besides what is said about my works, anything said by other people has nothing to do with me."

Now that he explained it this way ... Lisa immediately felt as if she was behaving childishly by actually taking something on the Internet seriously. And she had even been worried that it would have a negative effect on him ...

(⊙o⊙)... So deserving of being their Jungkook DaRen.

But... how did it turn into Jungkook comforting her?

Jungkook sent another WeChat message to her. In a teasing tone, he asked, "Are you satisfied with my answer?"

"Uh-huh..."

"Then, Lili," Jungkook said, his voice sparkling with laughter as he lowered it, "do you still owe me something?"

(⊙o⊙) ... Did she?

Uh ... indeed, it seemed she did.

"DaRen... what would you like to listen to?" Fortunately, it was still only the afternoon and nobody was home yet.

"I heard Mingyu say that you know how to play some instruments?"

Mingyu? Then that must have been Rose who told him ...

"A few. I learned the piano as a child. Later, because I liked ancient-style music, I taught myself the guzheng and xiao." Lisa guessed at what Jungkook was proposing. "DaRen, you want to listen to me sing and play at the same time?"

"If that's okay with you."

It was okay... but she was worried she would not do a very good job.

Lisa hesitated for a few seconds but, in the end, still agreed to do it. She pulled out her laptop, set her microphone beside the piano, cleared her throat slightly, and put on her headset. She then sent a WeChat text message to Jungkook: I'm good now. Dada, come to my room.

She did not even have a chance to send over the chat room number before Jungkook had already entered the room ...

She never thought he would still remember after only coming once.

She put a password protection on the chat room before clearing her throat again. "DaRen, what would you like to listen to?"

Jungkook's voice was heard in her headset. "Whatever you are used to singing, that will be fine."

"Mm... I'll sing the song that I sang when I was applying to become part of my music association." Lisa remembered, that particular time, she had also sung and played at the same time, so she was especially familiar with this song and did not need to look at the music. Exhaling anxiously, she confessed, "I'm a little nervous. I might hit some wrong notes ..."

After recalling the song in her mind for a moment, she began to play the musical introduction.

The piano accompaniment for this type of ancient-style song did not attempt to showcase technique; it only needed to be kept simple and clean.

Ultimately, it still depended on the quality of the singer's voice.

The introduction came to an end, and Lisa began singing the lyrics:

"The blowing sand disperses, disturbing the clear sky. His loyal heart shining only for his bright moon [his Lord]

Looking into the distance, beyond the city, where weapon is meeting weapon

Another calamity in this floating life

The ruler, guarding the palace alone; his stateliness no longer like that of yesterday. Who is that weeping here?

Old friend has always been faithfully standing in front of his Lord, never questioning, never complaining

......

Old friend, hair now snowy, marked by the vicissitudes of life, never once demanding the chance to re-make his choice

Hoping only that his Lord would put away warfare; something that even offering up his head would not be able to exchange

Ultimately, the city walls have been broken open; looking out from on high is a sea of smoke and fire

Powerless to do anything; corpses strewn everywhere; old friend's heart has left for some place afar.

......"

She was playing and singing at the same time and could not allow herself to be distracted. Vaguely, she seemed to hear Jungkook laugh lightly and state the name of the song: "Gu Ren Tan [Sigh of the Old Friend]."

Orig. 古筝. Chinese zither with 16 or more strings.

Orig. 箫. Chinese vertical, end-blown flute. Usually made of bamboo.