GRMFBS CH243

Ning Xi felt there was no problem, and there was no need to call the medical team.

“Where’s Potion A08? Check if he can withstand it. Can’t handle it? If he can’t, switch to something else. Where’s the pharmacist? Come take a look at what to give him. I want him alive and conscious.”

“If that’s truly impossible, dead is fine too. Call Hong Yi over and prepare to interrogate a ghost.”

“Try not to let him die, though. His soul is different from the spirits of this world. Interrogating a ghost would be rather troublesome.”

…

Early the next morning, Zhan Yan woke up and scrolled through his gossip feeds.

Happily enough, the Chronicle of the World that Xiao Gu had worked so hard to catch was still alive.

The Chronicle of the World’s interrogation room was arranged in a secret chamber capable of isolating Infinite influence, just in case the Infinite Will tried to cause trouble through its connection with him.

What was once Yang Ran’s sanctuary was now the Chronicle of the World’s dead end.

Zhan Yan felt deeply satisfied.

However, the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau hadn’t managed to interrogate much out of him so far.

For one, the Chronicle of the World had indeed been beaten rather miserably by Xiao Gu, so they had to take it easy; for another, the Chronicle of the World was genuinely a tough nut to crack.

Mom and Dad had gone out traveling and weren’t home. Only Zhan Yan and Zhan Jinli were in the house.

Their older sister came back bright and early. When Zhan Yan went downstairs, she was just opening the courtyard gate.

Zhan Yan: “Stop!”

Zhan Suiru stood at the courtyard entrance: ?

The courtyard was a mess. Mom and Dad had been enthusiastically tidying up the yard these past few days as a fun lifestyle project. More than half the paving stones had been pulled up, revealing the soil underneath. There were quite a few holes dug in the dirt, planned out for transplanting plants. The path in the courtyard hadn’t been fixed yet; only a few bricks were left laid out on the ground for walking, which also made it convenient for adjustments and modifications.

Zhan Yan directed his sister as if navigating a minefield: “Sis, step on this brick. Right, right, keep going forward. Stop! To the right, step on that brick on the right, don’t go left…”

Zhan Suiru cooperatively zigzagged her way inside, wondering what kind of game her little brother was trying to play.

The early-rising Xingxing saw Zhan Suiru, let out a happy “meow”, and ran out to greet her. The cat stepped exactly on the floor tile Zhan Yan had just told Zhan Suiru to avoid.

A nearby sensor-activated sprinkler automatically turned on, casting a rainbow in the sunlight.

The person and cat in the courtyard were instantly draped in a fine mist, immediately experiencing a rare touch of summer coolness.

Zhan Suiru: …

Xingxing: “Meow-aow!”

Zhan Yan: “Dad installed this automatic sensor sprinkler, but somehow got it backwards. He originally wanted to set it so it would automatically stop when it sensed someone.”

His Majesty the Demon King was absolutely unmatched at cooking, but when it came to the various machines of the human world, he truly couldn’t be called skilled.

Zhan Suiru nodded calmly: “Got it. So you were teaching me how to dodge water mines.”

Since she was already wet anyway, Zhan Suiru hurried to the front door in a few strides.

Xingxing was originally having a great time playing in the water, but seeing her approach, it immediately ran back, wanting to rub its soaking wet self against her pant legs.

“Xingxing! Wait a minute, let me dry you off.”

“It’s fine, let him rub.” Zhan Suiru handed the bag in her hand to Zhan Yan, gathered her hair, and headed straight for the sprinkler.

She lowered her head and studied it for a moment, fiddled with it a couple of times, and the sprinkler stopped spraying water.

“Where’s the toolbox?” Zhan Suiru asked.

Her dad really was hopeless in this area; she had to be the one to do it.

Zhan Yan put the bag on the table and ran off to find the toolbox.

After Zhan Jinli got up and came downstairs, he saw the bag on the table. Glancing out into the yard, he saw his younger brother and sister gathered around the sprinkler, fiddling with it, while Xingxing licked its fur off to the side.

He silently went back upstairs, and a moment later, came out with a large towel.

Zhan Suiru had just finished fixing the sprinkler’s sensor system and was starting to tinker with its remote switch. Turning her head, she saw her older brother coming out with a large towel. She smiled at him and pointed at the bag on the table.

Inside the bag were four paper bags: two red and two cyan.

The red ones had “Older Brother” handwritten on them, while the cyan ones said “Younger Brother”.

Oh, it was the cookies he had requested. Zhan Jinli opened the red bag. The cookies inside were cut into neat and beautiful fish shapes using a mold, and judging by the colors, there were four or five different flavors.

He picked up a cookie to taste.

Hmm… how to put it? Judging from the perspective of a normal person’s palate, this cookie was already so sweet that one could barely taste its actual aroma. But judging from his own abnormal palate’s perspective, this cookie still wasn’t sweet enough.

He opened the other paper bag; it also contained cookies.

Zhan Suiru finished fixing the sprinkler and draped the towel over her shoulders to dry her hair.

Zhan Yan took a small towel, wrapped Xingxing in it, and carried the cat into the house.

“The cyan bags are for you. One bag is cookies, and the other is a different pastry.”

She hadn’t looked at what they were. She had come back in a hurry; after Xiao Ran packed the things, she brought them straight back. She only heard him say that the red ones were for the older brother and the cyan ones for the younger brother, and that they were marked.

The cyan paper bags were printed with patterns of apples and pies. Zhan Yan opened them to look: one bag was small cookies, and the other was small, round pies, about half the size of a palm, topped with a ring of baked apple slices.

Zhan Yan took a bite. Ooh! Cinnamon apple pie! It was filled with apple filling inside; the flavors of cinnamon and apple were a super perfect match.

Seeing his eyes light up, Zhan Suiru put down her towel and laughed.

Once she saw it was apple pie, she knew why there wasn’t a portion for her brother: “You can’t add too much sugar when boiling fruit jam; otherwise, large sugar crystals will form.”

Zhan Jinli looked at his sister and nodded. Of course, he knew that. It wasn’t like he was petty enough to be jealous that his little brother got a few more pies.

He took a bite of a cookie from the other bag.

This one was of normal sweetness. His sister’s friend had made him two portions: one super sugar-loaded, and one normal.

From a normal person’s taste standards, it was quite delicious.

Zhan Jinli shoved this portion to his younger brother. He kept the extra-sugary ones for himself.

Zhan Yan looked at him in confusion and typed on his phone: “Brother, aren’t you going to eat it?”

Zhan Jinli: “This batch is normal flavor, I’m keeping the sugary ones. You eat it.”

Zhan Yan noticed that all of his brother’s cookies were fish-shaped, and then saw the prints on his brother’s paper bags—chibi-style fishing rods, fish, and straw hats.

Pfft… Did Yang Ran still think his brother liked fishing? He was putting his effort in the wrong direction!

Zhan Yan scrolled through the gossip feeds, preparing to see if there was any opportunity to secretly tip Yang Ran off.

The gossip feed showed that Yang Ran was currently trying to make a prototype for the magical artifact ordered by the Linyuan Ghost King.

Zhan Suiru finished her breakfast: “I still have some things to do at the studio, I’ll be back at noon.”

[Using going to the studio as an excuse, Zhan Suiru is preparing to head out to process the Linyuan Ghost King’s order.]

Zhan Jinli typed: “I’m heading to the bakery.”

[Using going to work at the bakery as an excuse, the Linyuan Ghost King Zhan Jinli is preparing to go find Yang Ran to research magical artifacts.]

Zhan Yan said goodbye to his older brother and sister, then went upstairs to continue organizing the cipher charts.

If he drew two more, he would be able to sort out all the diagrams he had memorized the last time he lit the Candle Dragon. He didn’t know if these charts were enough to piece together the complete message; if not, he would have to continue lighting the little candle to go look at Wanyan’s stars.

Hopefully, the little candle was enough…

Zhan Yan spent over an hour restoring the final two charts.

Within the System’s backup interface, he had cleared out a small dedicated space.

One by one, the restored patterns floated around. Before he realized these patterns were encrypted, he just thought they looked like the lines of a mural. Looking at them now, he discovered it was actually a 3D puzzle.

The virtual papers faded away, and the bound lines stretched out, like star trails in the dark night, automatically moving to their proper positions to merge into a glowing, sparkling image.

Zhan Yan stroked his chin and circled it twice.

Not gonna lie, this kind of 3D star-trail image was pretty cool, but missing a corner here and a piece there made it look a bit pathetic.

Currently, he could only tell that it was a four-legged beast, but its head, left shoulder, tail, and lower back were all missing pieces.

So he still had to consume the little candle the Torch Dragon had given him.

Zhan Yan calculated the proportion of the missing parts compared to the whole, then calculated how much of the little candle was consumed last time, and breathed a sigh of relief. It was enough, it was enough!

Before checking Wanyan’s little stars, it was best to replenish some energy first.

Zhan Yan exited the Gossip System and began eating the sweet cookies his brother had given him, while conveniently searching up the Wanyan Ghost King’s gossip feed.

Kitty Wanyan had run out of Chaofu Mountain for many days now. He had been too busy before to check what Kitty Wanyan had been up to lately.

[The Norwegian Forest Cat “Killer” thought the little white cat was really beautiful, so it invited the Wanyan Ghost King to its house to eat. The Wanyan Ghost King took a sniff of the canned cat food and walked away in disgust. The Norwegian Forest Cat “Killer” who failed to kidnap the pretty little white cat, was extremely heartbroken.]

[While passing by Baodan Street, the Wanyan Ghost King was mocked by Garfield Cat “Cheese” for not having a poop-scooper. Kitty Wanyan was furious. In the middle of the night, he climbed up ten stories, opened the screen window, went inside, and beat Garfield Cat “Cheese” up.]

[The Wanyan Ghost King believed that he didn’t need a poop-scooper at all; he had an amazing chef.]

[The Wanyan Ghost King has decided to come find you.]

Zhan Yan abruptly sat up straight.

He wasn’t at school right now! If Kitty Wanyan found his way to the house, he would see his older brother. If his brother’s secret identity was exposed in front of their parents and sister, their parents would definitely investigate, and during the investigation it would trigger a chain reaction… it would be so easy to accidentally rip off everyone’s secret identities and expose them all!

Hmm… there was still time. Kitty Wanyan had only just decided to come look for him and didn’t know where he was yet. He was going to the gaming convention with his sister tomorrow anyway! Then he would just stay out there under the guise of traveling until school started.

His sister definitely couldn’t stay out there forever; she still had to be busy with his brother’s order.

He could also go see Xiao Gu!

Zhan Yan calculated the time. It just so happened that tomorrow’s train ticket was in the morning; he only needed to extend his hotel booking by a few days.

He sent a message to the family group chat saying he wanted to stay out and play for a few more days, and casually fished out another cookie and stuffed it into his mouth. Before he had time to grab some water, the aroma of chocolate bloomed in his mouth.

Ah, ah, grabbed the wrong one. This was made by Yang Ran.

He scrolled through the gossip feeds. Neither his sister nor Yang Ran were planning to meet the parents yet. It looked like they intended to wait until Yang Ran was fully recovered before talking about it.

Pfft… Why did Xiao Gu still want to form a mutual-aid alliance with Yang Ran regarding the ‘meeting the parents’ issue?

…

Zhan Jinli took out the sweet cookies and started eating.

With this amount of sugar added, no one in the house besides him could eat them.

He only just noticed the patterns on the paper bags, and for a moment couldn’t help but think of the fish bait he had tossed into the water to feed the fish, as well as the fishing rod gathering dust in his room…

So his sister still thought he liked fishing… He looked at the words “Older Brother” on the paper bag and felt something was a bit off.

The handwriting on these four paper bags didn’t look like his sister’s; they should be handwritten by the person who baked the cookies, right? But why would the person who baked the cookies write “Older Brother”… Belatedly, it dawned on Zhan Jinli. The patterns on the paper bags were customized, the cookies and pies were customized, the font was handwritten… The person who made these cookies seemed a little too attentive.

Zhan Jinli’s gaze suddenly sharpened.

Could this cookie-baking person be coveting his sister?

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