122: Bonus Chapter: Sound Experiment Week

After the first Club Regular Meeting concluded, Yu Heng returned to the Villa.

Bai Xinran was live streaming, and he was sitting in his room, facing his computer.

The document about the security check was open on the screen.

He put on his headphones, opened AU, closed his eyes, and cleared his throat.

"Hello, madam, I suspect you have contraband on you. Please cooperate with our inspection."

After Yu Heng finished speaking this line into the microphone, he paused.

It felt a bit pretentious. A lot of female-oriented audio dramas are too pretentious, and some intentionally use vocal fry, which is incredibly awkward.

The most important thing for audio dramas is naturalness and immersion. Who talks like that in real life?

Being deep is different from being fake. Showing off and creating a sense of oppression are two different things.

He deleted it and re-recorded, trying to make his tone more natural, like everyday speech, just with a slightly deeper voice.

"Please cooperate with our... inspection."

This time it was right. He continued recording. Ambient sound was easy to handle; the online resource libraries were full of it.

The key was the dialogue and the rhythm of the pauses.

After struggling for more than two hours, he stumbled through the first version.

He listened back once, frowning. It was too dry; there was no sense of interaction.

Just having sounds of opening and closing doors and footsteps wasn't immersive enough.

Yu Heng picked up his phone and sent Bai Xinran a WeChat message: "What time are you finishing your stream?"

After more than a minute, the reply came: "What's wrong? Do you need something?"

Yu Heng: "Come to my room after you finish streaming. I need you for something."

Bai Xinran: "Okay."

Bai Xinran took three deep breaths before knocking on the door.

Yu Heng rarely called for her so late.

"Enter."

She pushed the door open and went in.

Yu Heng wasn't at his computer; he was leaning back in the beanbag chair by the window, holding his phone.

"Sit." Yu Heng pointed to the edge of the bed.

Bai Xinran sat down, placing her hands properly on her knees, her back straight.

"There's something I need your help with," Yu Heng said straightforwardly. "I plan to record some audio and upload it to Bilibili to test the waters—female-oriented, you know, those story audio dramas."

Bai Xinran nodded. Yu Heng had mentioned this before.

"I wrote the script, and I can record the vocal parts myself, but I'm missing some sound effects," Yu Heng said, looking at her slowly. "The material I found online sounds a bit fake. I want to record the real thing."

Bai Xinran blinked, quickly translating the meaning of his words in her mind.

"Are you saying... you want me to..." She felt a little shy.

"Yes, live recording." Yu Heng nodded. "It's fine, I'll only record the sound."

Bai Xinran didn't agree immediately. This was quite embarrassing!

But she didn't feel any resistance; instead, she felt trusted and honored to be utilized.

"What do you need me... to do?" Her voice was relatively steady.

"It's simple. Let's record some basic stuff first." Yu Heng stood up, walked to the desk, and opened a drawer. "Pick one you like."

"Now?" Her voice was a little hoarse.

"It depends on your state. Tonight or tomorrow night is fine." Yu Heng gave her the choice.

"...Now then." If she postponed it until tomorrow, she was afraid she would be too anxious to sleep.

Yu Heng said no more and brought over the microphone from the computer desk.

He turned off the main ceiling light, leaving only a dim bedside reading lamp on.

"Make yourself comfortable. Do whatever feels natural. Don't mind me." After Yu Heng finished speaking, he sat down in front of the computer and put on his monitoring headphones.

—

The next day, Yu Heng skipped his afternoon class and did post-production work at the Villa.

Bai Xinran's sound effects, after noise reduction and appropriate processing, became very useful.

He skillfully embedded these sound clips into the security check audio script.

After the line, "Please open your suitcase," he inserted the clear sound of a zipper and a box opening.

In the pause after, "May I explain what all these items are?" he added the sound of fingers rubbing against the surface of an object.

For the most crucial "inspection" part, he used Bai Xinran's sound effects.

The finished audio was 15 minutes long.

Yu Heng listened to it from start to finish. It had scenes, dialogue, pauses—everything it needed.

He logged into a newly registered Bilibili account, using the ID yu ling dao mu.

The introduction was a single sentence: Sharing stories through sound.

He pondered the title for a long time, typing and deleting repeatedly.

He finally settled on: *Special Security Check at the Late-Night Airport*.

The tags included #ASMR #StoryAudioDrama #FemaleOriented #RelaxationAid.

He clicked upload, watched the progress bar slowly fill up, and the page showed "Under Review."

All that was left was waiting.

—

During a break on Wednesday, Yu Heng took out his phone and glanced at Bilibili.

His account had a small red dot, and he tapped it open.

The audio had passed the review and was successfully published.

Views: 127.

Likes: 23.

Coins: 8.

Favorites: 15.

Comments: 3.

The numbers weren't high, but for the first video from a new account with zero followers, the conversion rate was quite good.

Furthermore, he only posted the first half; the second half was available for a different price.

He opened the comments.

User A: "??? Is this something I can listen to for free? Teacher, please be sure to randomly inspect me next time!!!"

User B: "That voice is too captivating... I'm dead..."

User C: "That's it? (Dog head emoji) I demand the rest! Give us something spicier! You can have all my coins!"

Yu Heng twitched his mouth into a slight smile.

He got a reaction; the direction was correct.

He closed Bilibili, opened WeChat, and sent a message to Bai Xinran: "The audio is posted, and the effect is good. Your sound effects were a success."

After a while, Bai Xinran replied: "Really? (Surprised emoji)"

Yu Heng: "Mhm. If you're free tonight, we can record material for the second episode. This time I need some different sound effects."

Bai Xinran's side displayed "Typing..." for a long time, and finally, she only replied with one word: "Okay."