GRMFBS CH239

The most terrifying boss in the Infinite world, the one with a 0% survival rate, the nightmare of countless players, the being who had forced Infinite itself to issue a special mission, and the “Lord” Rong Sui, who had once hunted Deep Shadow for three whole months, fell silent once again.

Come to think of it, when it came to reputation among the players, she might actually have been even scarier than him.

Zhan Suiru couldn’t help mentally listing Deep Shadow’s flaws:

He had once been wanted by three different sides — now he wasn’t anymore.

His aftereffects had made his mental state unstable — now that was already healed.

He was publicly known for having a terrible personality, arrogant and cold — but he wasn’t like that with Yan Yan, and in fact he had even loved the house and its crow enough that over the past month he had treated her so well that she had begun to wonder whether she had misunderstood his personality.

And most importantly, he loved Yan Yan a lot.

Forget it, forget it.

Zhan Suiru sighed.

Actually, the list of advantages Deep Shadow had rattled off wasn’t all that important. As long as Yan Yan liked him, that was enough. The only thing that could truly persuade her to accept Gu Jiancheng was one fact: Deep Shadow loved him so much that he had healed his own aftereffects through that love. In that case, there probably really wasn’t anyone else in the world who could love Yan Yan more than he did.

“Do you need to capture Chronicle of the World directly, or do you want to use him to fish out his destination?” Zhan Suiru replied to Tu Yue.

Even the summer night wind carried warmth, and the crickets hidden in the bushes chirped nonstop. Gu Jiancheng only felt that the moonlight in the sky was brighter than ever and that the air itself had become unbelievably gentle.

He couldn’t help smiling.

Oh yes, he had dealt with the biggest obstacle standing between him and being with Yan Yan! From now on there wouldn’t be any more obstacles!

Ah, he really wanted to go see Yan Yan. Even a phone call would do… but it was already so late. Yan Yan was probably asleep by now.

Hmm… since he had already settled things with Zhan Suiru, could he ask her in the future to help cover for him so he could go see Yan Yan?

Zhan Suiru had just finished communicating with Tu Yue.

“We don’t need to fish with him.” These were Ning Xi’s exact words. “Catch him. Whatever we want to know, we interrogate him directly.”

A dangerous figure like that spending even one extra day outside was a risk. Those ordinary people he had used as his “cicada shells” were still being treated in the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau’ hospital.

“I’ll handle the interception. You pursue him,” Zhan Suiru said, lifting her head to look at Gu Jiancheng — just in time to catch the smile he hadn’t yet put away.

Zhan Suiru: …

Alright. She believed it now. Deep Shadow really did love her younger brother very much. Just look at that grin. Sure enough, love lowered people’s intelligence.

Gu Jiancheng quickly switched back to the disguised face, instantly looking steady and reliable.

“No problem.”

The next morning, Zhan Yan woke up to the sound of cicadas.

He yawned. The cicadas really were too energetic. How did they manage to scream for twenty hours a day?

Summer cicadas only seemed cute in literature. Besides, now in Zhan Yan’s mind they were connected with another troublesome figure — Chronicle of the World.

Zhan Yan got up to wash. While brushing his teeth, he opened the search panel and started searching for Chronicle of the World and “Shedding Cicada.”

Mm… still not caught. The new messages were once again a whole string of [Loading…]. So annoying. Sooner or later he was going to level up enough to force every [Loading…] to finish loading!

Dad was downstairs preparing breakfast. As usual, Zhan Yan went out for morning exercise. It still wasn’t hot this early, and a lot of people were taking their dogs out at this time. Along the way, Zhan Yan petted cats and teased dogs, then came back only to be aggressively sniffed by Xingxing.

Xingxing bared his teeth at him unhappily and yowled. Zhan Yan was forced to change his clothes and wash his hands again.

Sunlight spread across the dining table. Chilled mixed noodles had been set out on it. The noodles, soaked in cold water, were springy and chewy. The toppings were arranged neatly on a plate, and the sauce sat in a bowl.

Dad, Mom, and Brother were all sitting at the table. Xingxing crouched by his own little bowl, eating with his head down, his tail happily swishing back and forth across the floor. Zhan Yan joyfully mixed his noodles. Life was still peaceful and beautiful.

It would have been even better if his sister were here too. The braised pork and diced pickles were already finished too, but right now it wasn’t safe to mail them to Xiao Gu.

Zhan Yan lifted a chopstick-full of noodles and casually opened the forum at the same time to clear out his private message inbox.

This was usually an activity that didn’t require much brainpower, making it perfect to do casually while eating.

Artisan: “No need to keep checking for the person I wanted you to find before. I already found him.”

Zhan Yan: “Cough cough cough cough!!!”

Dad, Mom, and Brother’s eyes all immediately turned toward him.

Zhan Yunkai: “Too much sauce? Too salty?”

Ji Yueming: “Did it go down wrong? Go get some water.”

Zhan Jinli was already up and had poured him a cup of cool water.

While drinking, Zhan Yan quickly explained, “It’s okay, it’s okay, I just accidentally choked.”

What did “already found him” mean? Had Sister already stripped away Xiao Gu’s cover? Or did it mean she had “found” someone from among the pile of players he had sent over earlier as a delaying tactic? Had she mistaken someone else for Xiao Gu?

Seeing his eyes red from coughing, Zhan Yunkai said, “Eat slower. If there’s not enough, Dad can make you more.”

Why was this kid eating so urgently? Didn’t he know he could just ask for more?

Zhan Yan’s eyes were watery. He really had choked.

After coughing a few more times, Zhan Yan recovered a little and immediately started searching the gossip feed.

[Zhan Suiru discovered that Deep Shadow is Gu Jiancheng.]

Ahhhhh, he woke up and found that Student Xiao Gu had lost his cover in front of Sister… what exactly had happened last night?!

What on earth was going on? How had Xiao Gu been exposed? Most importantly, how were he and Sister doing now?

Ji Yueming looked at him with concern. “How is it? Feeling better now?”

Zhan Yan: “Mm-hmm, I’m fine now.”

No. He absolutely had to suppress the urge to immediately start searching gossip lines.

He was eating together with his family right now. If he started reading while eating… Zhan Yan didn’t trust himself to control his expressions.

So he began eating at lightning speed.

Ji Yueming thought: How had this child become this hungry?

She turned and looked at Zhan Yunkai.

Zhan Yunkai’s face said: I guarantee I haven’t starved him!

Zhan Yan slurped up his noodles in a rush, hurried upstairs, and began investigating what exactly had happened the previous night.

Librarian Tu Yue had gone gossiping with Sister…

And he had even said that it was Approaching Science who suggested Deep Shadow had a lover…

Once Sister broke through the mental barrier of “Deep Shadow wouldn’t fall in love,” she had immediately realized Gu Jiancheng was Deep Shadow…

Ah! After all that guarding and worrying, the one who caused Xiao Gu’s cover to drop was actually me?!

What even was this? Why did it have to happen this way?! Zhan Yan almost wanted to roll around on the bed.

If he had known Deep Shadow was Xiao Gu, then he definitely would never have made those complaints in the first place. What did it mean to eat gossip only to discover it was about yourself?!

But Deep Shadow’s terrible personality was genuinely shocking to imagine having found a partner… who could possibly have guessed that the constantly disdainful, always-“heh-heh,” single-mindedly overbearing, cool, flashy, arrogant Deep Shadow and the constantly coquettish, adorable Gu Jiancheng were the same person?!

And besides, how was Tu Yue, a perfectly respectable information-type big shot, this gossipy?! Did the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau really not give him enough work already?

Wait… no, that wasn’t right. When had he ever directly told Tu Yue that Deep Shadow was in love? Back then he had only half-jokingly said “because of love” in the big information-users’ group chat “Did You Eat Gossip Today?” Could it be that Tu Yue was in that group too?

Hmph! He was definitely going to dig up Tu Yue’s hidden identity!

But that could wait. First he needed to see how Sister and Xiao Gu were doing. With Xiao Gu having helped save Yang Ran, at least they shouldn’t actually be fighting…

Praying with all his heart, Zhan Yan kept scrolling down the gossip feed. Looking on the bright side, if Xiao Gu’s cover had dropped last night and Sister still hadn’t come to look for him by now, then the problem probably wasn’t too serious, right?

[After Zhan Suiru pointed out his identity, Gu Jiancheng removed his disguise and said, “Although I don’t think now is a good time to talk about this, since you brought it up… then let me reintroduce myself: Gu Jiancheng, Zhan Yan’s boyfriend.”]

Zhan Yan: …Bro, were you really being that direct?!

He nervously kept reading.

No long nose… pfft.

Ah, how great! Even though Sister hadn’t openly said she accepted Xiao Gu, she was clearly tacitly accepting it! As expected, saving Yang Ran had been a massive point gain!

Zhan Yan let out a huge breath of relief.

Once he got past Sister’s hurdle, from here on out he could focus wholeheartedly on raising Xiao Gu’s favorability with Brother.

Though Brother’s favorability would probably be a bit hard to raise, considering how Xiao Gu had practically ground him to death earlier.

Worrying.

Still, it wasn’t all bad news. At least now he no longer had to use the Approaching Science account to keep covering for Xiao Gu in front of Sister. One less task to grind was still a good thing.

Zhan Yan consoled himself optimistically.

And then he received a message from Sister — this time sent from Zhan Suiru’s real identity directly to Zhan Yan.

After leaving last night, Zhan Suiru had thought about it all night and still felt that she couldn’t just let the matter of Deep Shadow dating her younger brother pass so easily.

Although Yan Yan was very clever, Deep Shadow was an old monster who had clawed his way out of a place like Infinite… heh.

“Old cow eating tender grass!” Zhan Suiru angrily typed while chatting with Yang Ran.

How long had Gu Jiancheng been in Infinite? And how old was her younger brother?

No matter how smart Yan Yan was, he would still have a hard time outmatching a guy this scheming, sly, and old-handed.

Zhan Suiru also remembered how she had asked Deep Shadow to investigate Gu Jiancheng for her. That guy had even pretended to agree! Heh!

What worried Zhan Suiru most, actually, was Gu Jiancheng’s mental health. Even if the aftereffects were gone, the impact Infinite had on a person’s psyche and worldview could never be erased. Was Deep Shadow’s view of love really still healthy?

Could Yan Yan actually tell whether Gu Jiancheng was genuinely treating him well, or whether he was only deliberately guiding him in order to satisfy his own desires?

Yang Ran suggested, “Go ask your younger brother about how the two of them usually get along.”

Because of lack of experience, Zhan Yan might mistake some hidden controlling behaviors as acts of love. But from the behaviors themselves, they would still be able to judge.

Zhan Yan saw the gossip line containing Sister and Yang Ran’s conversation.

Ah, what was there to worry about? He’d just prove it for Xiao Gu right now!

Zhan Yan: “He’s really funny, hahaha.”

“Before, he thought I liked melodramatic TV dramas, and he wanted to surprise me.”

“So he went and memorized melodramatic TV lines, prepared eight speakers to play background music, and it just happened to be raining that day, so he acted out a melodramatic scene for me in the rain.”

Zhan Suiru: ?

Was that something Deep Shadow could actually do?!

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