Chapter 98: Your Voice Will Create Miracles

ZYE was essentially Ye Zhao's one-man company, so whatever he said was basically the final decision. Although Chikata Takeshi had shown some disagreement before, he was just an old-timer in the entertainment industry offering advice. Since Ye Zhao insisted on doing it, he had no choice but to listen.

Fortunately, after seeing Ye Zhao's script, although Chikata Takeshi still didn't think much of Ye Zhao's current plans, at least he saw some feasibility in his plans and actions. Otherwise, he probably wouldn't be rushing around helping Ye Zhao and Bunka Hoso finalize the contract, but would be considering finding another job.

In early June, a quietly held audition hosted by ZYE and co-hosted by Bunka Hoso suddenly kicked off. The target was boys and girls aged 15 to 19 who were interested in voicing roles for broadcasting dramas. Along with the audition forms, a short line from the childhood male lead Shun Tarou and childhood female lead Aki was published, and registration was done by recording one's own voice acting for that line on a cassette and sending it to the ZYE office.

The slogan of the audition forms was thought up by Ye Zhao himself, only nine characters: "Your voice will create miracles."

Of course, relying solely on this kind of audition advertisement was hard to pique the interest of teenagers of that age. Voice acting for broadcasting dramas was a behind-the-scenes job, unlike talent scouts organized by agencies that came with the allure of standing under the spotlight and getting in touch with the entertainment circle.

To make up for this, Ye Zhao set a certain reward for the audition: the two finalists who won the championship would each get 100,000 yen in bonuses, and in addition, every audition they participated in would be paid corresponding salary and travel expenses. Calculating it out, the champion could roughly earn around 180,000 yen in total from this broadcasting drama.

180,000 yen was roughly one month's salary for a new socialite just starting work. Just for this activity, it was enough to qualify as "generous." Don't compare it to the audition Ye Zhao had participated in before; after all, the former was a large-scale nationwide advertisement selection organized by a moving company for hentai, and now it's just a small-budget broadcasting drama. If the bonus needed to be calculated in millions, it would be meaningless.

Horigoe High School had always been known as a star nursery, and like Asahi Girls Academy, Horigoe High School had a class specifically set up for talents, so these two schools became the top choice for boys and girls aiming to become stars.

Today was about ten minutes past three in the afternoon. She hurried into the teaching building, and even though she was almost late, the girl still remembered the school rules and didn't run around in the campus.

Opening the shoe locker, changing into indoor shoes, arriving outside her class, the moment she pulled the door open, the gazes in the classroom subconsciously all turned towards the entrance, but after seeing who it was, they coldly all withdrew again.

The talent course class the girl was in, though it was set up for people aiming to enter the entertainment world, also included ordinary people who were interested in the arts class and willing to pay extra tuition to come in. Of course, even among those aiming for the entertainment world, most were now unknown, including herself.

The few who had really started to become popular in the class now had attendance rates almost at the minimum, choosing to take make-up classes at night, and it was quite a luxurious thing to want to see them in daytime classes.

The girl's position was in the row by the window, the second from the back, she pulled out her chair, sat down, and took out the books and materials needed for the first class. The two or three girls sitting in the middle of the back row exchanged glances with each other, one of them raised her chin like she got a signal, and the three stood up from their seats and came in front of the girl.

"Kondo-san, good morning."

The girl called Kondo looked up somewhat flustered. "Ah, hello."

The leading girl had a brilliant smile. "I heard Kondo-san has become an apprentice to the enka singer Nishikawa Hiroshi-san?"

"Yes."

"How nice," the other girl seemed naive, "If this goes on, soon Kondo-san will debut as a formal enka singer, right?"

"Doesn't that mean singing in kimono on NHK?"

"This..." Kondo had an embarrassed face. "This is too exaggerated, it's just the beginning of learning the basics, it's still a long way from that level."

"Don't be so modest." The leading girl handed over a notebook. "Kondo-san, can you sign it for me? If you don't sign now, there won't be a chance later."

"That's right, that's right, Kondo-san, sign a name!" The other two girls chimed in too.

"Thank you for your good intentions, I wish it could really be like that." Kondo showed a grateful expression, took the notebook, and carefully signed her name on it.

And when she handed the notebook back to the girls with both hands, what she got in return was a string of merciless mockery. "Hahaha, how funny, this guy actually really signed a name for us!"

"That's right, she wouldn't really think she's going to become some big star, would she?"

"Seriously, someone like you who can't even be considered a small-time talent, daring to imitate real stars signing names?"

"Don't joke around!" The girl lightly tore the page with her signature on it, crumpled it into a ball and threw it at Kondo. When the ball hit her shoulder, Kondo subconsciously trembled.

The classroom's sliding door was pulled open again, and the Japanese literature teacher came in holding the teaching materials.

"The students over there, please go back to your seats."

"Yes!" The three girls made small silly faces at each other, sat back to their positions.

While the teacher turned to write on the blackboard, Kondo bent down, picked up the paper ball on the ground. Opening it bit by bit, on the wrinkled paper was the fancy cursive signature she had been practicing hard after deciding to become an enka singer.

Carefully folding the paper and putting it in her school uniform pocket, Kondo lowered her head somewhat dejectedly, her hands under the desk tightly gripping the hem of her skirt. After taking several deep breaths, she finally had the courage to look directly at the podium and blackboard again.

After school, Kondo hastily stuffed the books and notebook back into her bag and quickly left the classroom. The three girls who had mocked her were gathered together enthusiastically discussing makeup from fashion magazines, the small incident from the morning had long been discarded from their minds.

The school was in Nakano, but the enka teacher's house where she stayed and the oden shop where she worked were in Ueno. The path to work had to pass through the underground tunnel in Ueno, and every time she walked in, she could smell the dampness unique to underground.

A homeless man who had come here at some point was peacefully sleeping on one side of the underground tunnel. His loud snoring made Kondo subconsciously glance at him, then her gaze was attracted by an advertisement pasted on the wall.

"Your voice will create miracles," the simple slogan seemed to carry an inducement, making Kondo involuntarily look at the content of the advertisement.

"Broadcasting drama audition? Or planned by Ye Zhao-san?" Kondo skimmed through the advertisement content casually until the end. "The winner's bonus is... 100,000 yen!"

If she could get the champion, she could use this money to alleviate her financial situation... Kondo felt some urge in her heart, then the scene of being insulted by those three girls that morning flashed through her mind.

"Am I really capable... doing meaningless things would only bring ridicule..." Kondo reluctantly looked at the last line of the ad "Bonus 100,000 yen," as if self-comforting, softly said: "Anyway, it's just voices, and no need to show your face, it's okay... right?"

Thinking this way, Kondo carefully took down the audition advertisement.

Meiji-za Theater has been in operation since 1873, after several destructions and rebuilds, it reopened in 1993. This theater, originally acquired and founded by the kabuki actor Ichidai Ichikawa Saburo, was always the performance venue for kabuki actors in the first hundred years. However, with the development of the times, various art genres rose, and this theater was no longer limited to use by kabuki actors; veteran actors, enka singers, famous celebrities, and even idols could perform here.

On Saturday afternoon at 3:30, Ye Zhao arrived at this once-famous theater. After getting out of the car, Kamimura Yuuki sent the congratulatory flower basket to the reception, and Ye Zhao entered the backstage through a special internal passage under the guidance of the staff.

Planned by the legendary enka singer in the enka world Kitajima Saburo, inviting young generation enka singers, arranged in the form of a stage play, the enka performance will premiere this afternoon. Fujisako Ai and Fuda Natsuko were both among the invitees.

In the waiting room, Ye Zhao met Fujisako Ai.

She was wearing a black kimono made of Tanba crepe fabric today, tied with a gold-embroidered obi, her hair in a high bun, adorned with a coral hairpin, from the left chest of the kimono all the way to the bottom edge, embellished with branches of beautiful cherry blossoms.

Ye Zhao couldn't help but praise. "She's really too beautiful today."

The Fujisako Ai who usually wore casual clothes was merely a beautiful woman with outstanding looks, but when she put on the kimono, the whole person emitted an elegant yet glamorous and touching aura. It must be said that no one was more suitable for wearing kimono than her.

Fujisako Ai was sitting on a cushion, body slightly leaning forward, eyes like water. "Ye-kun, thank you for coming."

"How could I not come to such an important performance." Compared to Fujisako Ai sitting upright, Ye Zhao simply sat casually on the tatami mat next to her.

"The performance starts at 4:30?" Ye Zhao confirmed.

"Yes." Fujisako Ai picked up the script next to her hand and gently handed it over. "Do you want to see the performance flow?"

Ye Zhao grabbed her wrist, gently pulled the script from her hand and placed it on the table. "I'd rather keep a little suspense and wait to look forward to it slowly when the performance starts." As he said this, his fingertips unconsciously gently stroked the skin from her wrist to the palm.

Perhaps that touch was a bit itchy, Fujisako Ai subconsciously wanted to pull back, Ye Zhao gripped her hand, leaned forward, and gently licked the shallow red mole with the tip of his tongue, using that force to tightly pull her into his arms. Fujisako Ai naturally leaned against his chest. The Tanba crepe kimono felt slightly cool to the touch, but her skin conveyed a heat that made the heart sway.

"Has Fusaiho-san heard of that?" Ye Zhao buried his face in her slender neck exposed through the kimono collar, gently rubbing it back and forth with his nose tip, asking softly like a murmur.

"That?"

"That one?" Ye Zhao's hand slowly moved above her knee. "I heard that in the past, geishas, during the days of going out in kimono socializing, to seize brief moments to warm their lovers, came up with a method that didn't require worrying about messing up this gorgeous outfit..."

Fujisako Ai's hand lightly patted the hand Ye Zhao had placed on her knee. "Where did Ye-kun hear these strange 'hears'?"

"Well, after getting to know women who always wear kimono, the related knowledge is naturally absorbed at unexpected times." Ye Zhao kissed the delicate skin behind her neck. "I'm a good student."

"Don't think about strange things..." Fujisako Ai struggled a bit. "The performance is about to start soon."

"Hai, hai~" Ye Zhao nodded perfunctorily, tightening the hug around her. "I won't do anything, just stay like this for a while."