Pretending To Have A Certain Persona Can Be Tiring - Chapter 3

The livestream test with Xiao Dai went very smoothly. She was an exceptionally gentle person with no airs of a big streamer at all.

The two discussed the content for the upcoming collaboration, tentatively scheduled for next Friday. Song Yang was looking forward to it, but his smile suddenly froze when he remembered that next Friday was also the day his project proposal would be reviewed.

Tsk, good news and bad news arriving at the same time.

Recalling this, Song Yang immediately opened WeChat and messaged Xu Man:

[Song: Cousin, I ran into a fan of Xiao Dai at school today. It was the student council president. He might watch the collaboration livestream. Will that be a problem?]

There was an unspoken rule in the virtual streamer industry: to maintain the independence and authenticity of the 2D IP and satisfy the audience’s imagination of the specific virtual character, it was best for the streamer to keep their 3D life and 2D persona strictly separated. Acting properly while wearing the skin was standard, and exposing personal 3D information was a major taboo.

Song Yang’s company also had regulations prohibiting real life appearances and the posting of any content related to his personal identity on his livestreaming social media platforms; otherwise, it would be treated as a breach of contract.

A few minutes later, Xu Man replied.

[Boss Xu: You are so good at clamping your voice, who could possibly recognize your real voice?]

Song Yang: “…”

[Boss Xu: Even if you take a step back and assume the worst, you are so obscure that even if you were exposed now, it would not have any impact. It is very safe, do not worry.]

Song Yang: “…”

[Song: Do you ever consider my feelings when you speak?]

The following week was a whirlwind for Song Yang. He had to complete his major course assignments, stay up late every night to revise the proposal with his team, and still find time to livestream. He felt like he was being squeezed dry.

The preliminary review day arrived as scheduled. Song Yang rushed to the lecture hall after class; the student council members had not arrived yet, and there were only a few people scattered inside.

Song Yang saw Tao Ziyi and hurried over to sit beside him: “Where is Sang Ling?”

Tao Ziyi was staring at his phone screen, his fingers typing non-stop: “She just finished class; she is on her way.”

Song Yang took the USB drive out of his bag and rubbed his sore shoulders: “I have been dreaming that the King of Hell is telling me welcome for the past few days. I looked in the mirror today and saw my dark circles look like a panda’s.”

Tao Ziyi: “Hehe.”

Seeing him chuckling while hugging his phone, not even listening to him, Song Yang felt a bit displeased: “What are you giggling about?”

“Hehe… oh? Nothing, just chatting with my husband.”

He paused: “Which husband of yours?”

“Shh, keep it down. I met him last week, and we got together the day before yesterday.” Tao Ziyi smiled, looking shy: “He is from the Fine Arts department, a junior. He is so handsome: 188 cm tall, 18 cm, and has eight-pack abs.”

Song Yang felt his expression go stiff and complex: “An art student with eight-pack abs?”

Tao Ziyi narrowed his eyes at him: “What? Do you have stereotypes?”

Song Yang rolled his eyes secretly: “It is just a little hard to imagine. Also, you have only been dating for two days and you have already seen his 18 cm?”

“I have not seen it, that is what he said.”

Seeing him in that lovesick state, Song Yang clicked his tongue in silence. He quickly scooted over to leave some space, saying with disdain: “You gay guys stay away from me, do not infect me.”

“Sister Tao, Song Yang!” Sang Ling ran over from the entrance of the classroom, accompanied by the Minister of the Literary Department, He Jiamiao.

Minister He Jiamiao was a sophomore. She had a cool, sharp look with a neat high ponytail and wore a black leather jacket, carrying an air of effortless style.

“Senior Jiamiao, you are here.” Tao Ziyi greeted her.

Song Yang also said: “Hello, Senior.”

“Hmm.” He Jiamiao nodded. “Everyone has worked hard these past few days. I just heard from the council presidium that each of the ten groups in our Literary Department is submitting a plan, and the preliminary screening will eliminate six. The four remaining will be handed to the leaders to decide on the final plan. So, it is ten into four tonight. Each group should send a spokesperson on stage to explain their plan. Get ready.”

Despite being full of confidence when finalizing the draft, Song Yang felt anxious at the last minute. Sang Ling gripped her palms, sweating: “Ten into four? It feels a bit risky…”

“What are you afraid of!” Song Yang comforted her. “Our proposal is comprehensive and innovative; it is perfect. Ji Ting will likely be moved to tears after reading it, and then kneel down to kowtow and call us brother.”

As soon as he finished speaking, a snicker came from the other side of the classroom. Song Yang turned and saw a group of students whispering and occasionally glancing at Song Yang’s group. Song Yang knew he was being mocked.

He Jiamiao sighed helplessly and walked toward him: “Song Yang, you kid, you are like a prickly pear. Tame it down later. You do not understand; within the student council, Senior Yin Wei from the presidium is the easiest to talk to. Senior Ji Ting is the fiercest. His tongue is poisonous, and he is merciless when criticizing people. You all need to be mentally prepared.”

The members present gasped. They had long heard that President Ji Ting was stern and decisive, and now that they were about to witness it, it was inevitable that they felt uneasy.

Only Song Yang felt it did not matter, muttering in his heart: What is there to fear? Anyone who can like Xiao Dai must be someone with a knife-sharp tongue but a tofu heart. That is my view on good and evil.

Not long after, the members of the student council arrived and took their seats in the first row. Song Yang spotted the gentle senior with long, straight hair and elbowed Tao Ziyi next to him: “Is that Senior Yin Wei? She is so beautiful.”

“Vulgar.” Tao Ziyi swept a glance at him, then added, “But Senior Ji Ting is indeed devastatingly handsome.”

Song Yang gave a disdainful cut: “Vulgar.”

He looked in the direction Tao Ziyi indicated. Ji Ting was sitting in the middle of the first row, standing out because of his height. He was wearing a black trench coat today, and from the back, his posture was upright and his bearing extraordinary.

Song Yang whispered in Tao Ziyi’s ear: “Is he handsomer, or is your 18 cm handsome?”

Tao Ziyi answered without hesitation: “Objectively speaking, the president is handsomer. However, the president is a high-mountain flower, out of my reach. I have self-awareness; he is not within my dating scope.”

Song Yang scolded him: “Would you die if you did not think about dating?”

The selection began. Their group sent Sang Ling to the stage. After she finished speaking fluently, the judges asked questions, which she answered one by one.

Afterward, the judges whispered to each other without giving their opinions yet. Song Yang stretched his neck in the back, observing that Ji Ting was not participating in the discussion, but rather writing something down on his own paper.

“Could it be that Ji Ting has already pre-selected us?” Song Yang muttered.

“You are overconfident.” Tao Ziyi said, “Why do I have a bad feeling? The judges’ expressions are quite meaningful.”

Song Yang patted his shoulder: “Why are you being a pessimist? Be confident, we have got this.”

However, the slap in the face came very quickly.

“We were not selected.” After Sang Ling returned, she drooped her eyelids, looking quite dejected. “The groups that got in were 1, 4, 6, and 7. We were passed over.”

“Huh?” Song Yang froze for two seconds, his heart sinking to the bottom, his face full of disbelief. “What is the reason?”

“They did not give a reason.”

Song Yang: “No reason? Could there be some inside deal?”

Tao Ziyi clicked his tongue: “I want to know, too. Yang Yang, when this ends, go ask them.”

Song Yang pouted: “Why do you not go?”

Tao Ziyi looked away: “I am a little afraid of those people in the student council; they look a bit fierce.”

Song Yang said: “What are you afraid of? We are all students; they are only two years ahead of us. They will not eat you, right?”

“Did you forget the sharp questions President Ji Ting asked us during the second round of interviews? He confused me directly and left me with psychological trauma ever since.”

Song Yang did not care: “In the end, you were still selected, so there is no need to worry.”

By now, all the groups had finished reporting, and the classroom was buzzing with students discussing the results in twos and threes.

Yin Wei stood on the podium: “Everyone should know the results by now. I hope the groups that were not selected can carefully review their work and keep trying.”

Seeing that the student council had no intention of explaining the reason, Song Yang immediately spoke up: “Senior, I would like to ask why we were eliminated. Even if we die, let us know the cause of death, right?”

The crowd went silent instantly, and many cast surprised glances toward Song Yang. The people in the first row also turned around at the sound. Tao Ziyi was scared stiff, quickly pulling on Song Yang’s sleeve and whispering: “I did not tell you to ask now!”

Yin Wei explained: “Please stay calm, everyone. We will provide full written feedback on the selection reasons and the pros and cons of each plan. We will not neglect anyone’s hard work.”

He Jiamiao, who was standing by the podium, winked at Song Yang, signaling him to sit down quickly and stop causing trouble.

Song Yang pretended not to see and continued: “Then can the seniors give us a rough idea now? I want a baseline because I felt our group had a pretty good chance, and I am quite surprised by our elimination.”

Ji Ting glanced coldly at Song Yang. Seeing his defiant and heroic appearance, he lowered his brow slightly and asked the senior next to him: “Which group is he from?”

That person flipped through the records, looked up, and asked Song Yang: “Are you the group with the offline voice exhibition?”

Sang Ling nodded nervously: “Yes.”

The senior continued: “The consensus of the judges is that the voice exhibition is not advisable. Similar segments have never appeared in previous campus dubbing competitions.”

Song Yang said: “We referred to previous proposals and felt we could expand the content. We thought of having a voice exhibition for contestants before the finals—this is the unique feature of our plan. It is precisely because it has not been done before that it is an innovation. If we follow the rules every year, how can our school’s competition proposals improve?”

The surroundings grew restless, and people started whispering. He Jiamiao, standing by the podium, helplessly held her forehead, as if she had given up.

The senior leaned over and said something to Ji Ting. A moment later, he said: “Tell us more about your thoughts on the voice exhibition.”

Tao Ziyi looked at Song Yang, Song Yang looked at Sang Ling, and Sang Ling swallowed her spit and said: “Our idea is to place display boards by the roadside. Students passing by can scan a code to hear the contestants’ voice displays and dubbing works, and vote along the way.”

Song Yang thought for a moment and added: “Not only can it help the audience better understand the contestants’ level, but it can also broaden voting and promotional channels, combining both online and offline voting paths. Scanning a code to listen to voices is also a relatively novel mode; many students should be attracted by it.”

“Hmm… I will explain this,” Yin Wei looked at the record in her hand. “The idea is indeed novel, but first, you have to consider the time issue. You only set an interval of seven days between the preliminaries and the finals. Is it feasible for the finalists to record voice exhibition materials, create QR codes, and make display boards, and leave time for passersby to vote in just seven short days?

“Secondly, you set the number of finalist spots at 30. If you have to customize a QR code for each person, how many display boards would you need to fit them all? And have you considered the budget and venue issues?”

Song Yang answered immediately: “Senior, both issues you mentioned can be flexible. If seven days are not enough, extend it. If there is not enough venue or budget, shrink the QR codes and concentrate them on one or two display boards.”

Yin Wei said: “Time cannot be extended just because you want it to; you have to consider the rationality of all arrangements. The layout and aesthetics of the content on the display boards should also be taken into account. If everything cannot be coordinated, it is better to discard this segment.”

“The point is, your voice exhibition is unnecessary and valueless.” Ji Ting, who had been silent, suddenly spoke, dismissing them entirely as if he were delivering a ruthless judgment.

Song Yang was suddenly infuriated, and suppressing his anger, he said: “Why does the Senior say so?”

Ji Ting raised his eyes indifferently to look at him, the distant eye contact making one tremble: “According to what you said, the purpose of the voice exhibition is to extend the audience’s participation from online to offline. But since the exhibition voting ultimately returns to the internet, what is the meaning of going in such a circle?

“Since the voice exhibition voting must return to the internet, its function can be fully absorbed by online app voting. How does it broaden voting channels? You already need to arrange promotional boards for the event offline, so why add a pile of exhibition boards to join the fun? How does that broaden promotional channels? It is drawing a snake and adding feet completely redundant.”

Song Yang clenched his fists, wanting to refute something, but was speechless for a moment.

Ji Ting raised an eyebrow, leaned back slightly against the chair, and looked at him with an arrogant posture, arms crossed, continuing to pour cold water:

“There is more than one problem with your group’s proposal besides the voice exhibition. Even the basic details are incomplete; there is no arrangement for personnel division, no specific budget listed, no emergency contingency plans, etc. Your plan only painted a skeleton; I did not see any skin or flesh filled in. With this level of quality, even imitating is like an ugly person trying to imitate beauty. You are still thinking about innovation? There is a reason why the rules have been followed for so many years. Do what you have the ability to do it is a very simple principle.”

They were newcomers to the student council, and it was normal not to have experience writing proposals for the first time. Being criticized so harshly made Song Yang feel incredibly stifled.

He dared not speak his anger, so he could only secretly curse in his heart: This 2D otaku must have greased his little mouth with lubricant to be so good at retorting!