Chapter 4 - The Fourth Sentence

Translator: tarararawr

The Fourth Sentence

Cloud Dweller replied to her.

Pu Tao’s heart was suddenly beating erratically. She had to put her phone aside for a while in order to calm down and then continue the conversation. She was so afraid that since she was so happy, she might throw out a whole row of “AAAaaahhhhh” without realizing it.

Pu Tao took a deep breath, her chest line slowly fluctuating. After a while, she picked up her phone to put it back in front of her.

As soon as her eyes landed on those three words, her lip’s “up” switch was turned on in a second.

What do I want to say?

Thank you?

But wouldn’t that be like chatting to the heavens until its death 1 ?

Pu Tao stopped in time to change her strategy. She wanted to use the art of communication to prolong this conversation

One again, she planned on using the tone of a soft and moe girl: “Thank you, Cloud Dweller Dada, I will start drawing now! However, I still want to ask, do you have any expectations for the male lead’s general appearance? So I can draw closer towards that direction~”

Cloud Dweller was very formal: “You can draw what is in the script.”

Pu Tao confirmed something when she received the reply.

Cloud Dweller was a forceful king. He showed a slightly lofty bking 2 trait in every part of his habits and choice of words on social media apps.

If she didn’t talk to the heavens until its death, then he could.

Pu Tao immediately decided to stop talking to him at once. She did not necessarily need to rush things right now and being too naggy could easily turn into disgust.

It was better to draw a draft first and have something convincing to talk about. She would make the outline a vehicle to win his attention.

Pu Tao cleared her throat, like the words she was sending over had a voice to it: “Then I’ll think about it carefully and disturb you when the draft is finished!”

Cloud Dweller replied: “Okay.”

Okay.

Not “yeah”, not “oh”, not “all right”, just “okay”.

Pu Tao’s heart became soft and fluffy again. It was quickly proofed into sweet bread.

It was because this word, this answer often appeared in male radio dramas.

Just one word, but it was so indulgent. It was like he did not have any hesitations and was willing to climb up a mountain of swords and enter a sea of flames.

Pu Tao got out of bed and rummaged through the cabinets to find her drawing tablet. After finding nothing, she suddenly remembered that when she was moving apartments last year, she didn’t like how it took up space and since she didn’t use it, she sent it home.

Time is not on my side!

Pu Tao wailed on the inside and could only choose the second best thing to use: a tablet with a drawing tool.

She pulled out the ipad and stylus from her desk drawer and opened the drawing app. She adjusted the parameters, and began to get a feel for the character after looking through the character design requirements Xin Tian privately sent to her on her cell phone.

「Lu Baizhou: Dressed in an impeccable suit, black hair and black eyes, light smile, drooping eyelids 3 , one hand in his pocket, the other hand on the top of the female lead’s head with a touching head kill 4 .」

Pu Tao’s mind instantly composed an image.

She flattened out the ipad and used her finger to gesture—left, right, up, down—to practice drawing on the screen for a while. Once she confirmed how big the character was going to be, she began to draw the outline. After a short while, a male body appeared on the tablet. It was a roughly sketched outline, but the structure from head to toe was perfect.

As Xin Tian said, some skills were muscle memory. Even if her hands were just born, the habits left over the years would quickly “click” together.

After Pu Tao finished refining some simple details, she erased the extra lines, and the male protagonist, Lu Baizhou, changed from words to a drawing.

Pu Tao stared at his indifferent appearance and it simply gave birth to an uncontrollable imagination. She thought that Cloud Dweller, the person himself, looked like this.

She carefully put her stylus down on the tablet and put some highlights on his pupils. The man’s eyes suddenly became full of tenderness. No matter who it was, they would melt under this look.

It would be so wonderful beyond what words could describe if it could start talking.

Pu Tao put a speech bubble next to his head, and then wrote down her own white moonlight 5 : “Why don’t you go to bed? I won’t call you tomorrow.”

Even if this line had nothing to do with the background for the character design and even if it was a bit abruptly breaking character, it completely did not matter at all.

This is an—

Exceptional.

Unique.

Fine.

Masterpiece.

Pu Tao emptied her hands and put them together into a fist. Then, she held her cheeks with one hand to hold in her smile and looked at it. She finally made a few strokes with the stylus on the blank space under the man’s hand. She drew a “shame on you” stick figure 6 and signed it with her name: Pu Tao.

It was extremely shameful, so shameful that it was exhilarating.

After Pu Tao amused herself for a while, she felt for her cell phone and took a picture of this semi-finished outline. She couldn’t wait to share this with her friend.

It was such a shameful drawing that she could not bear it alone.

Pu Tao’s eyes curved as she clicked on the top chat box and sent the picture. She rushed to type up: “Quick! Look! A world famous drawing!”

She was ready to be instantly drowned in her friend’s eye rolls and teasing.

But—

Something seems a bit wrong?

Pu Tao focused her attention and a cold shiver went down her face immediately. Then, the darkness spread from her cheeks to the back of her ears.

She was so smug with herself that she forgot that she had put Cloud Dweller to the top of the QQ chat list when their conversation ended. She thought Xin Tian was the only one at the top, so she clicked on the conversation and sent the messages

In one second, Pu Tao was so delighted that her toes curled up; in the next second, she was so embarrassed that her scalp was numb.

She felt dizzy. Her head was full of marbles flying around and making ding-dang noises.

Pu Tao was stiff for two seconds before she pressed recall in a flurry. She was so embarrassed like a pressure cooker releasing its steam.

If I think about the time it took for Cloud Dweller to agree to the friend request, then he probably didn’t see it.

She consoled herself like this.

Then…

Cloud Dweller: “…”

Did he already see it?

Pu Tao’s fingertips trembled slightly and she was somewhat terrified.

Cloud Dweller: “Why did you recall it?”

Every part of Pu Tao’s face froze. Her heart was in despair as she typed: “I sent it to the wrong person.”

Cloud Dweller: “It’s not for me?”

It’s not… but it seems like, it’s also…

But it definitely shouldn’t be this version…

Pu Tao’s mind was tied into a knot, and her brain was a little confused. Her heart was stuck in her throat, and she responded with great difficulty: “Did you see it?”

Cloud Dweller: “Mhm.”

Pu Tao: “How much did you see? A big picture or small picture?”

If it was just the small picture, then there was still a chance to save herself.

He showed no mercy at all and even slightly teased: “I appreciated every part of the world famous drawing.”

Pu Tao: “………………………………………………………”

The chat box became unusually silent.

Pu Tao did not know how to deal with it in a way that would seem fine. She was a mensao 7 ghost that did not appear the way she seemed. She was not smooth in dealing with people, and in real life, the parts she exposed to others were usually 1/10000 of her inner thoughts.

But it was different now. She was in her nut shell when she accidentally stuck herself out of and rolled up to the stranger she admired. She failed to escape in time. He had picked her up and witnessed her covered in dirt with his own eyes.

In a moment.

Cloud Dweller took the initiative to ask: “Do you like this male lead?”

Pu Tao’s soul came back to her. The man sent a few words that built an escape staircase and gave her an excuse to use.

Her day became more quiet as she made a connection.

The wind from the invisible skylight seemed to be stronger. It pushed her spine and she suddenly wanted to express her true intentions.

Be true, Pu Tao. Acting like a hypocrite will only push you further and further away from him , she said to herself.

Pu Tao made a firm resolution and she used some unwavering strength to type: “No.”

Pu Tao: “It’s the line that I like. I like it a lot.”

Cloud Dweller: “Which one?”

For some reason, her face began to burn again. She bit her lower lip until it was pale. “You should have seen it in the picture. My friend is a part of the post-production of the radio drama. She sent a part for me to listen to, which is this line.”

The chat box became quiet again.

After a moment, a four second voice recording came from the other side.

A short text message followed.

Cloud Dweller: “This line?”

The author has something to say:

Male lead! cnm! 8

Footnotes

天聊死了 (tiānliáosǐle) – it’s like a way of saying you’ve killed the conversation. It could be because you have talked so much that the other person only gives simple and polite answers and then you end up not being able to talk to them anymore. Bking is someone who seems cool without any effort. It comes from forceful king, 逼王, because 逼 is pronounced as bī and 王 (wáng) is king. So something like Gong Yoo’s eyes 摸头杀 (mōtóu shā) – It’s an internet word that means to touch a girl’s head filled with love or to comfort her. There’s even a whole article I read of the different ways a guy can touch a girl’s head with things like you can touch the back of her head, the bangs, with her in your arms, etc and things like it’s taboo to do it if her hair has not been washed or else she’ll reject you. 白月光 (báiyuèguāng) – White moonlight is a man’s first love that he is unable to forget “Shame on you” is said in a way to tease people when they make a shy expression. Here is my interpretation of it~

闷骚 (mēnsāo) – cold on the outside, but passionate on the inside cnm comes from the abbreviations of cao ni ma, which is cursing