GRMFBS CH152

Zhan Yan held the cat and coaxed his coquettish boyfriend.

The little kitten hadn’t seen Zhan Yan in over a month and missed him terribly. It bounced onto Zhan Yan’s chest and refused to get off no matter what; tonight, the kitty was going to sleep together with him!

Zhan Yan: “Get down! We can sleep together, but you’re not allowed to press on my chest! You’ve gotten fat, you’re too heavy!”

Upgrading the animal communication ability through the Gossip System was very useful. Now that Xingxing could understand him, communication was much easier.

Gu Jiancheng on the other end of the phone: “Is that Xingxing?”

Zhan Yan: “Yeah, that’s him. I was gone for too long, he’s unhappy.”

Xingxing stopped lying on his chest, pressing against the pillow instead, meowing and grumbling to express his dissatisfaction with Zhan Yan for leaving him behind for so long.

Gu Jiancheng: “What does he like?”

Meeting the parents begins with winning over the boyfriend’s cat!

“He likes to eat, but he’s super picky. He likes doing parkour on the cat tree at home…” Halfway through Zhan Yan’s sentence, the dissatisfied Xingxing started swatting at his phone. “Xingxing, stop making trouble, I had to go to school, I had no choice but to leave.”

The little kitty couldn’t understand what “going to school” meant. Zhan Yan said he could understand it as hunting.

Xingxing: “If you went out to hunt, why didn’t you bring me anything delicious when you came back?!”

Zhan Yan: …Tomorrow I’ll make cat food for Xingxing.

Without needing him to explain, Xingxing became logically consistent on his own. He believed it must be because Zhan Yan’s hunting skills were too poor that he didn’t bring anything delicious back. It was okay; when he grew up, he would train hard at his hunting skills to support Zhan Yan.

Gu Jiancheng: “Xingxing is so clingy with you.”

“Yeah, he’s the first kitty that isn’t afraid of me.” Zhan Yan couldn’t help but smile as he spoke. He remembered back then, because Xingxing was so clingy to him, he had wanted to name Xingxing “Xiao Gu”.

Gu Jiancheng started pestering him, asking what he was smiling about. Zhan Yan simply wouldn’t say.

After hanging up the phone, Zhan Yan saw Xingxing looking at him with a face full of confusion.

The child was too young; he couldn’t understand what dog food was.

“Alright, time to sleep.” Zhan Yan turned off the light.

Xingxing opened his two round eyes in the darkness, remembering he had to continue complaining: “You left me with a bad guy who constantly deducted my food!”

Zhan Yan listened for a while and understood. Xingxing thought his older brother was a bad guy.

During the time he wasn’t home, Xingxing had been resisting the bad guy’s oppression every day. Although he was always suppressed by the bad guy, Xingxing was very brave and indomitable.

No wonder his brother was so skilled at picking up cats.

Zhan Yan: “He’s not deducting your food, his cooking is just at that level.”

The little kitty couldn’t understand what “cooking” meant.

Zhan Yan: “It’s hunting. His hunting is just at that level, he can’t find better tasting food. The things he eats himself taste even worse.”

Xingxing: “Mew?”

“Really?”

Zhan Yan: “Of course, I wouldn’t lie to you. In the next few days, I’ll find something he eats for you to taste.”

Xingxing agreed, obediently curling up to prepare for sleep.

Zhan Yan closed his eyes, thinking in his mind about how Xingxing’s language and comprehension abilities had advanced by leaps and bounds this past month.

Little animals were like humans; to learn how to understand and express themselves, they needed to be exposed to others’ expressions and interact with others more. During the time he was away from home, the person Xingxing spent the most time with was his brother Zhan Jinli.

Could his socially anxious brother actually be a chatterbox towards small animals at home?

Zhan Yan fell asleep in a daze. The next day when he got up, he was just preparing to grab his older brother and sister to pass on the fitness exercises he hadn’t managed to teach them previously, but the two of them hurried off right after finishing their meal, looking very busy.

Zhan Yan: …

Seeing her younger brother looking puffed up with anger, Zhan Suiru rubbed his head: “When I get back I’ll trim your hair for you, and bring you some cookies.”

Her younger brother had been out for a month, and his hair had grown long enough to tie up again.

“Okay.” Zhan Yan raised his phone again and made a request to Zhan Jinli: “Brother, can you bring back some pastries you make when you come home today?”

Zhan Jinli and Zhan Suiru stopped simultaneously.

The siblings’ eyes met.

Zhan Suiru: See! Your sweet-tooth monster tastes really have led our brother astray!

Zhan Jinli: …

He lowered his head and typed quickly: [What do you want pastries for?]

Zhan Yan: “For Xingxing to taste.”

Zhan Suiru subconsciously asked: “Did Xingxing annoy you?”

Zhan Yan: “…No. Xingxing keeps thinking our brother deducts his rations; letting him taste it will make him understand.”

Zhan Suiru: …

Pfft.

Zhan Jinli agreed.

After the siblings went out, they tacitly stopped before parting ways and turned to look at each other.

Zhan Suiru: “You’re coming back every day these next few days, right?”

Zhan Jinli typed: [Of course.]

Yan Yan rarely came home. If their parents couldn’t come back because of work matters, that was one thing, but as two freelancers, they definitely couldn’t leave their younger brother home alone.

Zhan Suiru was very satisfied with Zhan Jinli’s performance; there was no need to start a sibling war.

In this family, their parents were deeply in love and sweet, requiring no one else to worry about them. The three of them were all adopted. Zhan Suiru herself was an adult who had transmigrated back, so these things didn’t affect her much. Although her brother Zhan Jinli had social anxiety, according to Zhan Suiru’s observations over the years, her brother was extremely self-consistent and comfortable in his own world; he was the type of person who could feel at ease wherever he went.

Only Yan Yan. Zhan Suiru still remembered what Yan Yan looked like when their parents first brought him home as a child. A tiny little thing standing there, extremely eager to get close, yet not knowing how to.

Yan Yan’s head of little curly hair had always grown very fast since childhood. When he was little, their parents took them to the barbershop for haircuts, and he would sit there completely stiff. Later, their parents stopped taking Yan Yan to the barbershop, and their mom learned how to cut hair to cut it for him.

When they were little, after Zhan Suiru and Zhan Yan became familiar with each other, she heard him quietly mention that when he was in the orphanage, the auntie would always pull very painfully every time she cut his hair.

Later, when Zhan Suiru cut his hair, she also pulled it sometimes when she was unpracticed at first. But Zhan Yan would still smile very happily.

He wasn’t afraid of the pain of being pulled, but rather he didn’t know how to face the disdain of “causing trouble for me again” from others, which would make him feel embarrassed and at a loss.

Even now, Yan Yan was a bit lonely. He seemed to get along well with everyone, but once they separated, he would very naturally fade away.

Zhan Jinli felt his sister had asked a strange question.

Ghost King Lin Yuan, who liked lying at the bottom of a cold pool as a single fish, couldn’t understand loneliness, but he could tell that his younger brother wanted someone to keep him company.

So he’d just go home to keep him company, what was there to discuss?

He gave Zhan Suiru a look that said, “You stopped just to say this?”, and then left.

Zhan Suiru: …

Heh.

Zhan Yan had to go to the company today, but he didn’t need to leave as early as his brother and sister. Sister Luoluo told him to arrive at ten o’clock, and that going early would be useless.

So Zhan Yan made cat food for Xingxing. Xingxing ate with immense satisfaction, clinging to his leg and refusing to let go when Zhan Yan was leaving.

Will you come back after you leave? I don’t want to eat food from someone with terrible hunting skills anymore!

Zhan Yan promised the little kitty he would return today.

Upon arriving at the company, Zhan Yan was taken directly to the styling room by Luo Luoluo.

Shoude Company didn’t have related business operations; the styling team was borrowed by Zhan Yunkai from Mingtang Pictures, and included two little demons.

The makeup artist was a flamingo demon, gossiping via voice transmission with the cameraman, a peacock demon.

“So this is His Majesty Chongming’s kid?”

“He looks quite cute.”

“I kept hearing His Majesty Chongming say his kid looked good, and today I finally get to see it.”

“Aren’t there two others?”

“We probably won’t get to see the other two today.”

“What a pity.”

Zhan Yan watched them live-stream gossiping about him in the Gossip System.

The flamingo makeup artist asked Zhan Yan to sit down, scrutinized his face first, and praised greatly: “Being young means having great skin. Your facial features fit the character very well; just a little makeup and you’ll have a lot of charm.”

Zhan Yan: ?

What charm?

He hadn’t looked at his character settings!

But the flamingo makeup artist had already started tinkering with his face, telling him not to move his facial muscles.

Zhan Yan had no choice but to wait. When the makeup artist told him to close his eyes, he closed his eyes; when told to smile, he smiled. He obediently followed instructions on the surface, while secretly eating the two bird demons’ gossip using the Gossip System behind their backs.

The peacock demon said there was a little cow demon among the herd of cow demons on the grassland who was very interested in human society. He came to human society to play for a few years, but when he went back, he couldn’t find his herd. Later, he only managed to find them through the Wan Yao Alliance’s hotline—his herd had forgotten to tell him they were migrating.

The flamingo demon said a while ago, a rabbit demon frantically sought a doctor, saying he had turned yellow. With one look, he knew it was because he had eaten too many carrots and gotten colored. Flamingos were very familiar with this matter, and he passionately praised a certain brand of carotenoid supplement; he had relied on eating it every day to get a dazzling coat of feathers and find a wife.

The two bird demons then exchanged tips on feather-care ointment.

Eating gossip didn’t delay their work. Zhan Yan felt various small brushes brushing back and forth on his face, along with small scissors and various pens.

After a while, the flamingo makeup artist put down his tools: “Done.”

Zhan Yan opened his eyes and looked at himself in the mirror.

He now understood what the flamingo makeup artist meant by “charm” earlier.

His eyebrows extended downwards towards the sides of his nose bridge, his inner eye corners hooked downwards, his cheekbones were raised; his entire face suddenly had an added non-human feel.

Zhan Yan couldn’t help but stare a little longer. He had never looked at himself so carefully in the mirror before. Now, looking at this adjusted face, he felt a strange sense of familiarity yet unfamiliarity.

He blinked, absently feeling as if a pair of horns had grown on the head of the person in the mirror. Blinking again, the illusion from just now was gone.

“So good-looking.” The flamingo makeup artist was extremely appreciative of his own craftsmanship, happily praising it for a long time.

The peacock demon helped bring over the props and costumes: “Don’t do the hair styling yet, otherwise it’ll get messed up when changing clothes.”

Zhan Yan took a look at the clothes: inside was a sleeveless high-collar tight sweater, and outside was a very loose jacket.

After he put them on, the flamingo demon pulled his jacket down, tugging it all the way to the crook of his arm: “That’s not how you wear it, it looks good worn like this. Yes, the muscle definition on your arms is truly not bad!”

The jacket hung precariously on his forearms, leaving his shoulders and upper arms completely exposed. Seeing the flamingo demon reaching out to squeeze his arm, Zhan Yan hurriedly shrank back.

[The flamingo demon Yan Hang sent a voice transmission to the peacock demon Kong Meng: “His Majesty Chongming’s cub is even shy, teasing him is so fun.”]

Zhan Yan: …

He tugged at his clothes. So this was the “charm”; who was like you bird demons, loving to show off your feathers all day long!

“Tie your hair yourself? Tie it a bit lower, right here is fine.” The flamingo demon handed him a rubber band, and after he tied it, had him tie a ribbon around it as well.

This character also had a small prop setting: he had to hold an apple in his hand.

Zhan Yan had a sudden inspiration: “Can we change it to grapes?”

Since it was all for promotion anyway, if the game’s promotion became popular, could it bring a wave of popularity to the ‘Lychee is Inferior to Big Grapes’?

This matter had to be asked of the game designer. Luo Luoluo found someone to contact them.

Qi Ye happened to be in the studio. Her boss came every day, and after finishing her assignments from the Academy of Fine Arts, she was very free the rest of the time. The Academy of Fine Arts’ studio wasn’t as quiet as here, so she came over to hang out whenever she had free time.

Upon receiving the message from the “Sugar Mommy”, Qi Ye very readily agreed.

In this game she was collaborating on with Wan Shitong, they had a division of labor, and she did all the character designs. This character she designed just needed to hold a fruit; it didn’t matter whether it was an apple or a grape. If the sugar mommy wanted to change it, she could of course change it.

There was no problem on the designer’s side, but the costumes and props department didn’t have a grape prop model prepared. It wasn’t grape producing season right now, so it was hard to even go buy a bunch, and buying it online at the last minute and waiting for delivery would also delay things.

Zhan Yan remembered a place that had them: his sister’s studio.

The studio was relatively empty, so Qi Ye would bring her drawing board and stuff over. When Zhan Yan went last time, he even saw a still-life set, which included a grape model.

Zhan Yan immediately contacted his sister.

Zhan Suiru wasn’t at the studio, so she called Qi Ye directly to ask.

Qi Ye happened to be there, so she accepted her boss’s task of delivering the grape model to her younger brother.

On her way to Shoude Company riding her bicycle, Qi Ye couldn’t help but think: A grape model, no way? Could it be such a coincidence?

Upon arriving at Shoude Company, Qi Ye saw Zhan Yan wearing the character costume she had designed, waving at her very happily. He fit the character too well!

Ah, the cub of her fantasies walking into reality! Qi Ye’s eyes shone as she clutched her chest.

“Cub! Here are your grapes!”

Zhan Yan: …

“Don’t just call me that! You’re not much older than me anyway.”

“You said you were making a game, it couldn’t be this one, could it?”

Qi Ye: “Yeah, yeah.”

Zhan Yan: “You’re so amazing! I heard this project is quite big, I thought you were making one of those small games before.”

Qi Ye laughed proudly three times: “You came to work part-time as a model? How much are they paying you?”

The younger brother’s appearance was too good; if he wasn’t expensive, she wanted to book him for more shoots in the future!

Zhan Yan: “No money. This is my mom’s company, the partner felt that using me would save money.”

Qi Ye: …

“Coconut’s Work Diary 98:

Went to work today, the boss asked me to deliver a prop to her younger brother who was modeling.

I thought the younger brother and I were both corporate slaves.

Who would have thought, the younger brother is working without a salary.

Because the company belongs to their family.

Today is another extremely lemony day!”