GRMFBS CH62

Zhan Yan had fallen asleep.

He couldn’t remember at which part of the story he’d dozed off—he vaguely recalled something about a little bear getting smeared with ketchup. Then he dreamt of a small bear sitting in front of a tree hole, holding a big watermelon in its arms.

The bear sliced the watermelon open with a knife, pointed the blade at the tree hole, and said, “Look, that’s not ketchup, it’s watermelon juice. You don’t have a watermelon, do you?”

Then he dreamt of a giant bird’s nest perched on the edge of a cliff.

His dad had turned into a huge bird and said to them, “Children, you’re all grown up now. It’s time to learn how to fly.”

His older brother and sister stretched out their arms, which turned into wings, and they leapt from the edge without hesitation, flying joyfully.

His dad looked at him in confusion. “Yanyan, why aren’t you flying? Are you scared? Don’t be. You can’t inherit the demon clan like this.”

Zhan Yan shook his head in panic. “No, no! I’m human! I don’t want to inherit the demon clan!”

His dad looked at him kindly and said, “It’s alright. Dad will help you.”

And then kicked him off the cliff.

Zhan Yan screamed as he fell endlessly, while his brother and sister flew around him cheering, “You can do it!” Finally, he hit the ground.

He jolted awake. The sky was still bluish-grey. A glance at the clock: 4:48 AM.

Zhan Yan climbed out of bed wearily and splashed cold water on his face.

Gu Jiancheng’s story might be good for sleep, but it definitely didn’t prevent weird dreams. The whirlwind of thoughts in his head had now settled, and only one thought remained:

That bird with his dad’s face was way too weird!

Sleep was out of the question. Zhan Yan opened the window—outside, the early birds had started their noisy chirping.

“Try stealing my worm again and I’ll kick you down!”
“Hehe, I can fly!”

Not long after, he heard his dad getting up and washing up. The front door opened and closed, and his gossip system updated:

[Zhan Yunkai is up for morning training.]

[Congratulations, you’ve earned the ‘Woke Up Earlier Than Dad’ achievement.]

Zhan Yan checked the time: 5:20 AM. His dad’s schedule was something else.

Ten minutes later, Zhan Yan spotted another update in the gossip feed under the Chongming Demon King’s thread:

[The Chongming Demon King is circling the cities around Qixia Mountain, spreading divine bird aura and blessing the region with peace and health.]

Half an hour later, the Chongming Demon King finished his flight—his dad’s morning training usually lasted half an hour.

Next update: The Chongming Demon King returned to Qixia Mountain, met with his subordinate, the black-necked crane demon, Gong Yun, and exchanged updates about recent events. That chat also took half an hour.

His dad returned home half an hour later than usual, carrying fresh soy milk from the downstairs breakfast shop, and started making vegetable and egg pancakes in the pan.

Perfect timing.

Zhan Yan looked up at the gossip threads—his dad’s was on the left, the Chongming Demon King’s was on the right.

The empty space between them looked like interlocking gears. He dragged the two threads together—the gears fit snugly, as if made to be one.

They merged. In his information interface, the white star labeled “Zhan Yunkai” ascended to align beside the golden star “Chongming Demon King,” fusing into one entry.

Past information updated, revealing a world he needed to re-understand:

[While pursuing a traitor, Demon King Zhan Yunkai accidentally inhaled corpse-flower pollen. To avoid his wife and children noticing, he took seven showers and used up an entire bottle of perfume before coming home.]

Zhan Yan took a deep, deep breath.

He hadn’t been imagining it.

His dad really was the Chongming Demon King—a flying, ass-kicking, demon king who could stand up to the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau and had a horde of demon subordinates.

Zhan Yan floated downstairs.

The egg pancakes smelled heavenly. His dad, still wearing an apron, smiled when he saw him. “You’re up early today, Yanyan. Didn’t sleep well?”

Zhan Yunkai smoothed out his son’s messy curls.

Zhan Yan’s stomach growled from the aroma.

“I don’t feel like doing morning training today.”

“Then skip it,” his dad replied cheerfully, “Your stomach’s growling—eat first. No good exercising on an empty stomach.”

Zhan Yan took the plate of egg pancakes his dad served and munched happily.

So what if his dad was the Chongming Demon King? He was still his dad—the one who cooked him food, worried about his sleep, and…

Zhan Yunkai took another plate of pancakes and soy milk back to the bedroom.

…was totally obsessed with his wife.

Left alone in the dining room with his breakfast, Zhan Yan sipped the soy milk silently. The fresh-ground stuff downstairs really was good!

But… did Mom know that Dad was a demon?

Probably not. If she did, Dad wouldn’t have to get a job as a C-list actor to keep up appearances. And they even adopted three ordinary kids.

Mom was just a regular human, and Dad was a demon king—having biological children must’ve been tough.

Come to think of it, his dad’s talent agency probably wasn’t a normal company either. Normal agencies were all about profit—there’s no way they’d let someone waste a face like his dad’s by lying low for over a decade. If his dad had offended someone, he wouldn’t be this chill either. The entertainment industry had countless ways to ruin someone. Yet his dad didn’t do variety shows, refused commercials, only acted occasionally. And even with that, the company still showered him with gifts during holidays?

Zhan Yan grew curious about his dad’s agency. Were all the people at Mingtang Entertainment demons too? He’d met a few of them, including the boss, Xia Yuexian. Were they demons?

So curious!

That morning, when he merged his dad’s two gossip threads, the “Spirit” bar in his interface instantly maxed out, granting him a third little star: Information Integration.

[With enough clues, you can uncover hidden truths the system itself doesn’t know. You’ll connect seemingly unrelated information into a new whole.
—Excited? Happy? Your dad is a demon king!]

Well, yes—he was excited. He had always admired the Chongming Demon King, who had long protected the area his family lived in. Now it turned out—his dad had literally put his own home under his protection!

Knowing his dad was the Chongming Demon King changed everything.

Dad had definitely set up protection for the whole family. Which meant… Zhan Yan didn’t need to grind system points anymore?

Ahhhh, he could finally relax!

He logged back into the Supernatural Forum, only to feel like… he suddenly had no more tasks to do.

On the other hand, his private messages were really active. A crowd of people were tagging him, eager for some juicy gossip, and even Lingy Yu and Luo Wang messaged him, curious about the demon who skipped their wedding for the Great Ritual Dancer.

Even the Great Ritual Dancer himself messaged him.

Zhan Yan: tsk tsk tsk.

Approaching Science: [You saved someone before. Don’t you remember?]

Lingzhou Wendí had been waiting all night for him to reply. His inbox had been blowing up with messages from people hungry for gossip.

But he really didn’t remember! He’d joked about “flirting” before, but he’d never actually acted on it!

No one believed him! He’d been labeled a heartless flirt.

Now, Lingzhou Wendí was fuming. Seeing that “Approaching Science” had finally responded, he replied grumpily:

[I’ve saved thousands. You think I go around memorizing their names?]

Approaching Science: You said, ‘I think you dance pretty well. Maybe you’ll be able to assist me one day.’]

“You said that to her yourself, and she’d remembered it for nearly twenty years.”

Lingzhou Wendí’s brows furrowed deeply.

He hadn’t done a paired ritual in over twenty years. The seasonal rites held annually by the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau were always solo for him—no one matched his energy.

So he wouldn’t have said something like that lightly.

“Nearly twenty years ago,” and to a demon, no less.

Demons didn’t practice ritual magic. Human sacrificial rites were a human invention—very inefficient for demons.

He dug through his memories and finally recalled a forgotten episode.

More than ten years ago, the Bureau and the Wan Yao Alliance had held an exchange program to ease tensions between them.

Among the visiting demons was a young butterfly demon trying to learn the ritual dance. She was bad at it and got mocked by both humans and demons for bothering to learn a human-style practice. The Great Ritual Dancer happened to pass by and threw in a few words of support.

But that really was all he said! He never interacted with her before or after—well, okay, maybe he had saved her once, but he’d saved so many beings, he couldn’t remember them all!

This was so unfair!

Now that he remembered, Lingzhou Wendí leaned back in his chair, tugged at his collar, and let out a soft laugh.

When he replied to his forum post, he was all “sir” this and “your excellency” that. But in private chat? All “you.”

Kids these days really were cheeky.

Meanwhile, Zhan Yan opened Ling Yu’s private message.

Besides gossip, Ling Yu had also sent him a mission—asking about the corpse-flower demon.

The Bureau couldn’t track the demon’s past movements the way the Myriad Demon Alliance could, which made their investigation harder.

They had handed over the demon’s clone to the alliance for efficiency’s sake—but continuing their own investigation was a separate matter. Handing it off didn’t mean giving up.

Zhan Yan hesitated.

He used to get along well with Ling Yu, and Tianshi was always kind to him. But… his dad was the Chongming Demon King. And there’s loyalty.

That traitorous demon had really pissed his dad off. If Zhan Yan gave Ling Yu more info on him…

He politely replied that he planned to do that mission for Luo Wang instead, so he was declining this one—“one job, one buyer.”

Nie Yu: ????

Ling Yu Admin: “Did the Wan Yao Alliance pay you more?”

“How much did they offer?”

“I can top it.”

But Approaching Science didn’t respond.

Zhan Yan was already talking to Luo Wang. They hadn’t assigned this mission, but he was offering to help.

Even for free. Because when he merged his dad’s gossip threads, he noticed—every mission he got from Luo Wang gave him double points. The extra was from his dad personally!

Sniffle sniffle—Dad’s the best!

And his dad didn’t even know Approaching Science was his alt account. Such father-son telepathy! Wanting to help him even through a screen!

On the other side, Ling Yu hadn’t received a reply and directly messaged Luo Wang.

Heh. The Wan Yao Alliance has fallen so low? Can’t even Approaching Science your own traitors without outsourcing?

Luo Wang was baffled.

Luo Wang Admin: “What are you talking about?”

Ling Yu Admin: “Don’t play dumb. I asked Approaching Science to look into the corpse-flower demon. He refused—said he was doing it for you guys.”

Luo Wang Admin: “?”

“I never gave him that mission.”

“For internal traitors? We’d never outsource that.”

Especially since this traitor was exposed by the Bureau—the big shots were all furious. No way they’d hand it off.

Besides, the traitor had already been caught by the Chongming Demon King—what’s left to investigate?

Nie Yu gnawed his nails in thought.

What Luo Wang said made more sense. If the Bureau were in their shoes, they wouldn’t outsource it either. But Approaching Science had no reason to lie to him…

At that moment, Luo Wang got a private message from Approaching Science. After reading it, their admin’s eyes sparkled.

Oho~ scored one back!

Luo Wang Admin: “Approaching Science just messaged me.”

“He asked if we needed help investigating the corpse-flower demon.”

“He said he’d do it for free.”

Nie Yu: ?!?

WHY!?