Chapter 5

  It's Gintama, not OO, nor OO.

  "Yu Guo, you're back! There's food in the kitchen, want some?"

  As soon as Yūko opened the door, she heard her mother's voice. She wanted to speak up, but she just couldn't muster up the energy. Today was a particularly busy day at the izakaya and she had been kept behind by the manager for overtime, her voice was hoarse.

  After changing shoes in the entrance hall, Youguo walked into the living room with her backpack. She took out an envelope from her backpack and handed it to her mother, "This week's salary."

  "Hey, Yoka, I told you not to work at that kind of place. Listen to your voice and smell the smoke and alcohol on you. You're still in school, what if your classmates see you? The college entrance exam hasn't even started yet, are you really not going to study hard for it?" Hane said as she took over the envelope.

  Yu Guo knew her mother's temper and didn't want to listen anymore, so she picked up her school bag and went upstairs.

  "Hey, Youguo, aren't you going to eat?" Hezi shouted loudly.

  "Oh, for Pete's sake, stop yelling! Yu Guo is smarter than you, what are you worrying about?" Old man Quan Shuiying hastily intervened, his family's child, only Yu Guo was the most promising. Unfortunately, the tuition fees of private high schools were really too high, and their family couldn't afford it at all.

  Yūka's home is a very old-fashioned typical Japanese wooden building. It has two floors, and the second floor has a small balcony where you can dry clothes. However, in recent years, a high-rise apartment was built on the east side, blocking out the sunlight.

  The first room on the second floor belongs to my eldest brother, Gongzheng. His company has been making him work overtime until very late every day, and he hasn't returned yet. The room opposite to my eldest brother's is my second brother Zhengyi's. This otaku is smiling foolishly in front of his computer. Further ahead is Youguo's room, and opposite it is the bedroom of our parents.

  Among these four rooms, Yu Guo's room is the largest because her parents think their daughter is smart and can get into a good university and enter a large company. Even if she will be married in the future, she is still the pride of the Quan Shui family.

  In Youguo's room, only half of the things belong to him. His older brother likes insects and has a large collection of specimens and professional books. As for his second brother, who is an otaku, there are piles of comics, DVDs, figurines, and other items that take up a lot of space.

  After hanging her school bag on the door, Yu Guo directly lay down on her 1.2-meter-long bed.

  As soon as she closed her eyes, the voices of those strange customers from today lingered in her ears. Yuka herself was a radio announcer at school and occasionally mixed with the drama club, so when she heard good-sounding voices, she would pay special attention to them. Today, she encountered so many all at once, which couldn't help but surprise her.

  She suddenly sat up and got out of bed, running into her second brother Masayoshi's room.

  "Brother, brother?" Youguo stood in front of Zhengyi's door and knocked lightly.

  "Haha......, hohoho......, hehehe......" Zhengyi wore headphones and laughed loudly with various non-repeating laughter.

  "Seize justice!" You Guo took a glance at the computer screen, found nothing out of place, and walked straight in, pulling open Zhengyi's headphones.

  "Who is it?" Masayoshi was having a good time, but he didn't expect someone to come and pull his earphones off. He turned around to see that it was his own sister, "Yuka, you're back from work?"

  "Hmm." Yūka nodded and sat down on her knees beside Masayoshi.

  "What's up?" Zhengyi found it a bit strange, this sister didn't have any common topics with him, she was a bookworm, while he was an otaku. He couldn't imagine why Youguo would be willing to sit down in his room filled with otaku culture, and her eyes even shone with an inexplicable light.

  "Hey Justice brother, do you know about voice actors?" Yuka asked with a blink of her eyes, very sincerely.

  "What are you going to do?" Seigi blinked, unable to understand the current situation. "Yuka, if you want to be a voice actor, I'd advise you to give up. With that duck-like quack of yours, it's enough to scare people to death."

  "I don't want to be a voice actor!" Yuka exclaimed, stretching out her hand and slapping shut the notebook of Justice. "Do you know what a wig is?"

  "Wig?" Zhengyi was confused by Youguo's question, this jump is too big.

  "Is there something, um... that can link voice actors and wigs together?" Yuka was also confused, she didn't understand anything about ACG and had no idea where to start asking.

  "Voice actor and wig?" Masayoshi rubbed his chin, where a bit of stubble was growing, and looked up at the rows of manga on his bookshelf.

  Yu Guo rolled her eyes, knowing that Zheng Yi was about to start rambling again, or else he would just give her a random answer. She remembered when they first went to the Ueno Zoo to see the pandas as a family, Zheng Yi told Yu Guo that if you poured hot water on a panda, it would turn into a middle-aged man like their dad.

  This shadow had been with Yuka throughout her entire elementary school years, and it wasn't until she entered high school that she finally learned the truth.

  That's just a setting for a comic book!

  "Oh, I see!"

  When Gintoki was about to leave, Seigi suddenly shouted out, "It's Gin-san, Gin-san."

  "Disgusting!" Yu Guo's face turned red, and he quickly ran back to his own room. What kind of brother would say such things in front of his own sister?!

  ============================================================================

  Another new week has begun, and Yūko sits in the classroom, staring blankly at the bare cherry blossom trees on the school grounds.

  The education in public high schools is to lower the overall level of education, making it a concentration camp for ordinary people's children. The things that teachers are talking about now, Yu Guo would have learned long ago. Her family can't afford to send her to cram school, and she also has to work part-time, so there's no time at all.

  It's cruel to think about it, I'm only 17 years old, is my life going to be decided like this?

  "Senaka, you dropped something." Classmate Narumi Sakaki pointed to the foot of Yuka's desk, where a cream-colored piece of paper lay.

  "Hmm, what's this?" Yūka bent down and picked it up, finding a business card that had been in her backpack all along.

  "What is it?" Sei Hai stretched his neck and widened his eyes, looking at the business card in Yuka's hand. "Atomic Ape Voice Actor Agency! Oh My God! Yuka, what have you done? Are you going to be a voice actor? You're really not taking the Waseda exam?"

  "Shh, we're still in class!" Yūka then put her middle finger to her lips, quieting Narumi down. This guy really is someone who can cause a commotion no matter what the situation.

  Cheng Hai saw the situation, hastily tore off a page of notes, and started scribbling away. After writing a dense and lengthy piece, he handed it over to You Guo.

  Yu Guo took it over and looked at it. These few hundred words were concise and turned out to be the same questions she had just asked.

  "I didn't do anything, just went to work a few days ago and there were some voices, one of whom gave me this business card. I had no idea what the nature of voice acting was, how could I possibly go do it? As for Waseda, I estimate that I wouldn't be able to get in, and even if I did get in, I don't remember being able to read."

  You Guo suddenly remembered, Cheng Hai seemed to like ACG stuff too, so he picked up his pen and added another sentence.

  "Voice actor and wig, what comes to mind?"

  Cheng Hai took over You Guo's note and stared at the hundred or so words, falling into deep thought.

  Until the end of class, Narumi hadn't written anything. After the bell rang, she turned around and said to Yuka, "Gintama."

  "Cheng Hai, what's wrong with you? This is a school, you...you..." You Guo was shocked. Cheng Hai was usually a bit silly, but he wouldn't dare to use foul language in the classroom.

  "Ah, Yu Guo, it's not 'jin yu' (golden jade), but 'yin hun', silver soul. Ugh, Cheng Hai rubbed his temples, explaining weakly, "That orangutan is really too despicable, he just wants high school girls to passionately discuss this weixie term!"

  "Ape?" Youguo saw the APE on the business card and was a bit puzzled - wasn't this the company's name?

  "Hey, don't you know? He's the author of Gintama! And this company on the business card is actually the agency of Sugita Tomokazu, the voice actor for Sakata Gintoki from the Gintama anime! Got it?" Sei felt a sudden sense of accomplishment, being able to return a favor to Yuka. It wasn't often that she got to do so, usually it was the other way around with Yuka helping her with her homework.

  "Oh, I see." Yūka nodded, she had more or less figured it out. "But what's the connection between voice actors and wigs?"

  "That's right. In Gintama, there is a character named Kondou Isao, his nickname is Sakata Kintoki. The one who voiced this Sakata Kintoki is a top-notch voice actor, his name is Ishida Akira." Seikai continued to explain.

  "Ah, I get it! No wonder they said Katsura Kotarou instead of Katsura Kitarou. I mean, I couldn't have remembered wrong, right?" Yuka recalled that night's events and suddenly everything made sense. She had even corrected them so seriously at the time, how embarrassing."

  "Them?" Cheng Hai's eyes lit up, she grabbed You Guo's shoulder and shook him violently, "You really saw Shi Tou, Zu Zhang and Kamyia, right? Where were they? What did they say? Are the real people good-looking? Is their voice pleasant to listen to?"

  "Seah, Seah, stop... just stop!" Yoo-ah was being swung around so much she felt like throwing up.

  "Alright, I've stopped, you answer the question." Cheng Hai hastily let go of his hand and looked at You Guo with an expectant face.

  "You answer me a question first." Yu Guo bit his lip, hesitated for a moment, and asked, "Voice actor, this industry, does it make a lot of money?"

  "Wow! It's a lot! We can make billions in a year!" Cheng Hai said exaggeratedly, "So, Yu Guo, you hurry up and go, then introduce me to Kamilia!"