Chapter 167: Dubbing

Chapter 167: Voice Acting

"Is now a good time? Give me a minute."

Su Qingcen hung up, and moments later, sent a WeChat video invitation to Meng Fan.

As the call connected, Meng Fan saw that Su Qingcen was in a hotel room, likely having just finished work; she was dressed quite formally, her makeup exquisite.

Su Qingcen, seeing only the dark backdrop and faint streetlights behind Meng Fan, asked curiously, "Hm? Are you out?"

"Yeah, just heading back," Meng Fan said with a smile. "So, should I go through the motions of small talk, or just start laughing?"

Su Qingcen burst into a giggle. "Don't, don't, don't. There's no need to be so deliberate. I actually find talking to you quite pleasant—honestly, you're addictive."

"Now you're making me nervous. Maybe I should just stick to the laughing."

Meng Fan hailed a taxi. He had been a bit tense at first, but within a few sentences, he had regained his composure. Perhaps it was growing up with an older sister who was a big star; he had never viewed celebrities or idols as untouchable figures. From a distance, they might seem unreachable, but up close, it was easy to maintain a sense of equality.

"By the way, you mentioned work? Is it for the concert tour? I heard the second stop is in Hangzhou—shouldn't rehearsals be starting soon?"

"Rehearsals are already underway. Tonight was just a promotional appearance on a variety show."

"Which show? When does it air?"

Meng Fan chatted with Su Qingcen naturally. As for why she had been in low spirits, she didn't say, and Meng Fan didn't ask. The conversation flowed like a fan casually interviewing his idol about her daily life.

After a few minutes, Su Qingcen turned the tables, curious about the world record Meng Fan had set.

The two kept the video call going, drifting from concerts and variety shows to world records and manga projects. The taxi driver, listening in, opened his mouth several times, nearly turning around to tell them to stop bragging—he was embarrassed for them!

The ride lasted less than ten minutes, and Meng Fan stepped out to enter his apartment complex.

Su Qingcen didn't find it strange that Meng Fan lived on his own. Seeing he was almost home, she said, "Thank you. I feel much better now. Get some rest."

"Right. Goodnight."

"Night."

Back home, Meng Fan was far from ready to sleep. He felt no fatigue; on the contrary, he was buzzing with excitement—not just from the video call, but from the newfound resonance in his voice.

He took a quick shower, threw on pajamas, and ducked into his study to open his laptop.

He had previously downloaded plenty of voice-acting software and saved clips he enjoyed and had tried to dub before.

He pulled up a few original clips, re-familiarized himself with them, and began to practice.

Or rather, he began to explore the changes brought about by his enhanced vocal resonance.

As he experimented, he realized his vocal range, timbre, and quality had undergone a massive transformation.

These changes allowed him to adapt to a much wider variety of characters.

Gradually, he discovered his control over his voice had strengthened significantly—at least four or five times what it had been before.

Meng Fan wasn't foolish; he knew this was tied to his singing ability. After all, range, quality, timbre, volume, pitch, enunciation, resonance, breath control, and projection were all fundamental to singing. As his singing improved, these basics naturally followed, bringing him a series of unexpected surprises.

"It seems the singing tasks are a must, and I need to prioritize them."

With increased vocal control, his ability to mimic voices had naturally risen as well.

Meng Fan’s original voice was mid-to-low, and with hard practice, he could only capture a solid, deep quality. Now, he found he could grasp other mid-range textures—rich, mellow, full, or rugged—and even low-range qualities like somber, heavy, sorrowful, soft, raspy, or breathy tones. With a little practice, he could master them all.

High-pitched qualities like bright, piercing, or shrill tones were still a bit difficult, as his range, while improved, wasn't limitless.

But overall, his vocal versatility was leagues ahead of where it had been, allowing his ability to portray characters to grow exponentially.

Zoro from One Piece had been his favorite character to dub, though he had only done it for fun, posting quirky videos to Bilibili—videos that he thought were interesting, though they didn't get many views.

He pulled up a clip from the Thriller Bark arc, where Zoro takes on all the pain Luffy suffered from Kuma’s Paw-Paw fruit.

The clip wasn't long, starting from Kuma extracting the damage and ending with Zoro’s iconic line, "Nothing happened." It was just that one line, a few groans of agony, and ragged breathing.

Meng Fan had always loved this scene, but capturing the tragic heroism, stubbornness, and iron will through just those few sounds was incredibly difficult. He had tried countless times, never reaching even one percent of the original voice actor’s performance.

This time, after deeply contemplating the character, he dubbed it once more. As he listened back, goosebumps broke out all over his skin!

Excited, Meng Fan went on to dub a dozen more characters.

Most were roles he loved and that suited his old voice; now, they were effortless. If he wanted to mimic the original actors, he could hit seven out of ten, sometimes even nine, making it nearly indistinguishable from the original.

Most of these Japanese anime clips were ones where he could even recite the lines in Japanese.

Voice acting had always been a dream, and now that he had the ability to realize it, he felt like a child who had been given the world. The excitement was so overwhelming he couldn't stop. He didn't head to bed until past 4:00 AM, having cycled through every character he had ever attempted, drifting off to sleep with a smile on his face.

He woke up after only two hours, hopped out of bed, and headed downstairs, sending a WeChat message to Wu Tong on his way: "It’s still a bit chilly this morning. Don't come down today."

Wu Tong replied quickly: "Okay."

"Shall I bring you breakfast after my run?"

"Okay."

After his run, Meng Fan bought breakfast and happened to run into a female classmate, so he asked her to drop it off for Wu Tong, saving her the trip.

When the classmate heard it was for Wu Tong, she gave him a thumbs-up. "Impressive! You've reached this level already? Keep it up!"

Back when people first learned Meng Fan liked Wu Tong, everyone thought it was a toad lusting after swan meat. Slowly, people seemed to forget that "setting." They no longer thought Meng Fan was being delusional; they didn't see anything wrong with his pursuit, and some even thought they were quite a match.

Meng Fan’s gradual weight loss and growing charisma were the external reasons, but the growing aura of competence he carried was the internal one.

Meng Fan ate his own breakfast, showered, and dove back into voice acting, lost in the joy of it.