GRMFBS CH168

The furious Kitty Wan Yan dashed off to find trouble with anomalies.

Both the big geese and Gu Jiancheng rejoiced.

Gu Jiancheng originally planned to use his Deep Shadow persona to secretly beat the cat and drive Ghost King Wan Yanout of the school, but unexpectedly he ran off on his own.

Excellent! Gu Jiancheng happily continued to cling to his boyfriend.

Then, Gu Jiancheng received the Ghost King Seal that Zhan Yan gave him.

The Ghost King Seal was a small cat paw print pressed onto a stone. Zhan Yan had asked someone to help polish the stone to a suitable size, bought a small crocheted net bag to put the stone inside, turned it into a pendant, and shoved it to Gu Jiancheng.

Gu Jiancheng: …

He remembered the cat paw print hidden under the school pet sterilization operating table.

How could Yan Yan have gotten such a thing?

“Yan Yan, this cat paw stone is so special. Where did you find it?” Gu Jiancheng asked tenderly.

Relying on the fact that his boyfriend was an ordinary person, Zhan Yan started fooling him: “The Wishing Cat gave it to me, probably because it thought the cat food I made was delicious?”

Gu Jiancheng believed it.

That psycho Wan Yan might really do such a thing, leaving a Ghost King Seal to protect the cat food chef he valued.

Gu Jiancheng absolutely did not want to wear a psycho’s Ghost King Seal on himself: “The Wishing Cat gave it to you, you keep it.”

Zhan Yan: “Do you not want to wear it because you dislike the Wishing Cat?”

Gu Jiancheng: “Um…”

Zhan Yan: “If you don’t wear it, then I will—”

Zhan Yan made a motion to put it around his own neck.

Gu Jiancheng snatched it over: “No need, I’ll wear it!”

He couldn’t stand the thought of Yan Yan wearing that psycho’s item on himself even more.

Who cared! He would protect his own boyfriend!

Zhan Yan: “You’re not allowed to take it off once you wear it.”

Gu Jiancheng: “…Alright.”

At the Shadow Avatar.

Deep Shadow: “How did you Ghost Kings of Mount Chaofu end up bunched together with Wan Yan?”

Ghost King Lin Yuan: “…”

What do you mean we ended up bunched together with him?

Did we want to be together with him?!

Zhan Jinli very much didn’t want to bring up that terrible mess, so he didn’t ask why Deep Shadow brought up Wan Yan, unfortunately missing the news that Kitty Wan Yan had already escaped Mount Chaofu once again.

Fortunately, the news Zhan Yan provided to Kitty Wan Yan was very vague, so Wan Yan wouldn’t be able to find him for a while.

In a blink of an eye, it was mid-May, and the school was going to arrange internships. This internship would last until halfway through the summer vacation.

Gu Jiancheng was extremely gloomy, and Zhan Yan was infected by his gloominess as well, gloomily helping him pack his luggage.

The veterinary station where Zhan Yan was interning was in a very good location, situated in the suburbs between Beiling City and Yunjin City. It was convenient for him to return home or to school, so his luggage was easy to pack. Gu Jiancheng’s was troublesome; they had to determine what to pack based on the precautions sent by the breeding farm.

The breeding farm’s requirements were stricter this year; many things that were previously allowed were no longer permitted inside.

When the packing was almost done, Zhan Yan sighed unconsciously and said to Gu Jiancheng, “Stretch out your hand.”

Gu Jiancheng obediently stretched out his hand, palm up, his five fingers slightly spread apart.

He thought Zhan Yan was going to give him something, or maybe place his hand in his—Gu Jiancheng had recently seen this little romance game online, as well as the chin-resting one.

Gu Jiancheng fantasized for a bit and his heart started fluttering. But then he regretfully thought that given Yan Yan’s personality, he probably wouldn’t play such a mushy game with him.

Zhan Yan closed his spread fingers, pulled out the fragrant bead bracelet his sister gave him, and put it on him.

The blended fragrant beads made of spices were dark brown, showing traces of being pressed from crushed herbs. Each bead was the size of a fingertip.

Gu Jiancheng’s wrist bones were clear, and the raised blue veins could be seen on the back of his hand.

Zhan Yan held his slender fingers with one hand and slipped the blended fragrant beads onto his wrist with the other. As he put it on, he couldn’t help but think, Sigh, how can Gu Jiancheng’s hands be this good-looking? He was never a hand-fetishist before.

After putting on the blended fragrant beads, his hand was accentuated to look even better. Zhan Yan couldn’t resist rubbing it a couple of times.

Gu Jiancheng could tell Zhan Yan liked his hand. Originally quite smug, after being rubbed by Zhan Yan, he started blushing. It was as if his fingers didn’t know where to rest—curling them felt wrong, and stretching them out felt wrong.

Zhan Yan was only focused on looking down at the hand and didn’t notice his shyness. He flicked the blended fragrant beads with satisfaction, held his wrist up, and brought it to Gu Jiancheng’s nose for him to smell.

“Smell it, how is it?” Just as he finished speaking, Zhan Yan realized Gu Jiancheng was blushing. Not only was he blushing, but with his wrist held up to his nose, he even obediently sniffed a couple of times.

Seeing him like this, Zhan Yan couldn’t help but feel a bit amazed.

He remembered classmate Xiao Gu wasn’t this easily embarrassed before. How come he was getting increasingly pure and innocent lately?

Zhan Yan deliberately leaned close and brushed against his ear: “What’s wrong with you?”

Classmate Xiao Gu quickly turned his head and pecked his cheek.

Zhan Yan abruptly pulled back, only to see Gu Jiancheng’s eyes looking as if they were on fire.

Ah, I teased him too much.

Zhan Yan casually backed away and let go of Gu Jiancheng’s wrist: “Take a smell.”

Gu Jiancheng still held his wrist up. He looked at Zhan Yan; his heartbeat hadn’t quickened much, but every beat was heavy and profound.

The scent of the blended fragrant beads lingered at the tip of his nose, slightly different from the smell of essential oil. The essential oil’s scent was refreshing and moist, while the fragrant beads’ scent was mellow and dry; the former was like a forest after rain, the latter like summer wind in the wilderness.

The taste of love would also change.

Before his aftereffects were completely resolved, he always wanted to tightly grasp onto something, as if something was straining him, weighing him down, not knowing when it would snap. Even when everything was improving, the sense of insecurity followed him like a shadow. Infinite was far too skilled at this, giving a person an illusion of improvement before despair, so that it could harvest even greater despair and pain. That’s why he was always thinking about “holding on tight” and “letting go”.

But he no longer thought about these things now. When did it start? From when his aftereffects completely healed? From when that little star hung over his Sea of Shadows? He didn’t know when it started, but he began to enjoy love when loving, no longer worrying about other things, and so a delayed innocence suddenly sprouted.

With red ears and astonishingly bright eyes, Gu Jiancheng slowly leaned in.

Even when Zhan Yan got on the light rail heading to the suburban veterinary station, he couldn’t help but think of that kiss.

The hand Gu Jiancheng wore the blended fragrant beads on supported the back of his neck, and the blended fragrant beads he had personally put on him rubbed against the side of his neck.

And then Gu Jiancheng leaned over and started smelling the blended fragrant beads.

The hand was hot, the blended fragrant beads were cold; the breath was hot, the tip of the nose was cold…

Zhan Yan couldn’t help but bite his own lip, feeling that classmate Xiao Gu was getting wilder lately.

“We’ve arrived at the station, get off, get off… Zhan Yan, why is your face so red?” Bao Qingshan asked.

There were four interns in total at the veterinary station. Aside from Old Bao, there were two from the neighboring class—one named Chu Chengcheng and the other Cheng Yichu. They became iron buddies because of the coincidence in their names.

But all three of them had signed the agreement after it was finalized earlier, and couldn’t change it even if they wanted to. Gu Jiancheng’s internship at the breeding farm was the same; there was simply no way to swap with others.

“I wore too much and it’s too hot in the train,” Zhan Yan found a random excuse.

Bao Qingshan didn’t press further. He was in a great mood now, just like he had just been released from prison—those few days in the dorm had been enough suffering for him; an ordinary person couldn’t endure that resentful look from Gu Jiancheng.

Bao Qingshan didn’t feel relieved for long; upon arriving at the place, all the hairs on his body suddenly stood on end.

Seeing his nervous appearance, Zhan Yan asked, “What’s wrong?”

Bao Qingshan: “I feel like this place isn’t very good.”

Understood. This place was unlivable.

Zhan Yan: “Can we change our accommodation?”

Chu Chengcheng: “It’ll be hard to change, we’ve already paid the deposit.”

The apartment they were co-renting here was recommended by seniors from previous years, and every year it was rented out for three months by this group of interns.

If they backed out now, the deposit would be wasted.

Zhan Yan quietly asked Bao Qingshan, “What kind of feeling is it?”

If it was a ghost, he still had quite a bit of the Eight Treasure Cinnabar his sister gave him.

Bao Qingshan was still very uneasy, constantly looking around at the corners of the room: “It’s not the feeling of grave danger, it’s more like… you know that feeling that there are eight hundred giant cockroaches hidden in the crevices of the room?”

Now the hairs on Zhan Yan’s body were standing on end too. He didn’t bring insecticide!

The other two were also creeped out by what Bao Qingshan said: “Let’s inspect the room first.”

After tossing around for a while, they found quite a few ants, woodlice, bedbugs and the like, but didn’t find any giant cockroaches.

The few of them were also tired, and they still had to report to the veterinary station tomorrow after settling in. Since it wasn’t a major problem, they decided to rest first.

While resting, Zhan Yan scrolled through the Gossip System while asking Bao Qingshan what that feeling was all about.

Bao Qingshan was worried: “I can’t say for sure, my cultivation isn’t deep enough…”

But he had also inspected the room and didn’t find any hidden demons or ghosts, nor did he find anything that attracted Yin energy.

Could it be an anomaly?

Zhan Yan had already scrolled through all the gossip threads of this rented house from recent years in the Gossip System, but didn’t find any problems.

Whatever, sleep first. Before sleeping, Zhan Yan first sent a message to his family, telling them he had already settled in and was going to sleep now.

The next morning, Zhan Yan discovered that his family group chat was already flooded with many messages.

After seeing the photos, the family all felt the living conditions were too tough. His mother transferred him a sum of money, telling him to buy whatever was needed; his father utterly despised his lunch, stating he could return home recently to prepare more food reserves; his sister said her friend had a secret recipe for repelling insects and would make him a scented sachet later; his older brother was in charge of delivering the stuff.

Zhan Yan was happy.

Everything else was actually fine, the local convenience store was well-stocked; it was just the food reserves made by his dad that were truly lacking.

Nie Yu was busy these past two days and didn’t take him into the network to practice.

The next step of progress was supposed to teach him how to eliminate anomalies in the network, but he had only just memorized the theory and hadn’t done any practical operations yet. Nie Yu specifically reminded him not to enter the network on his own; the anomalies on the network were too active right now, and there was a manipulator behind them. If he entered the network alone and encountered anomalies without having practiced, it was easy for things to go wrong if his luck was bad.

Zhan Yan listened to advice very well. Neither of his parents were network-types; the protections placed on him might not necessarily be effective after entering the network world. Wasn’t it just waiting a few days? It just so happened he was also very busy with his internship recently.

The next day, the four of them went to report to the veterinary station. The old veterinarian in charge of leading them was named Mi Man; he was humorous and liked to gather with everyone to chat nonsense during his free time.

The work at the veterinary station went quite smoothly, except Bao Qingshan’s sense of unease was getting more and more severe—those eight hundred giant cockroaches could crawl out of the crevices at any moment.

But as it happened, Zhan Yan also couldn’t find anything in the Gossip System.

“I don’t know, this is probably just a premonition. I feel like there are many pairs of eyes glaring at us like tigers.” Bao Qingshan had been worn down to the point of getting dark circles under his eyes over the past two days. Sleeping poorly and eating poorly, he eagerly awaited an improvement in their meals, “When can your brother come?”

Zhan Yan comforted him: “In just these next two days. Just endure it with instant noodles for two days first.”

His dad just returned home the day before yesterday and had already started making delicious food. But Zhan Yan understood very well; the first batch was definitely sent to his mom first, and he would have to wait for the second batch.

If Old Bao’s inspiration was a premonition, then Zhan Yan had no other choice. The Gossip System could only flip through past gossip threads and had no foresight into the future.

If something were to happen, he had his mother’s lightning talismans on him, so he would definitely be fine. Old Bao was a cultivator, so it was highly probable he would be fine too, but the other few were ordinary people.

It would be great if he could find someone to help.

Zhan Yan mentally tallied all the superpowered individuals he knew, discovering that everyone was very busy right now. Only Kitty Wan Yan was very free, jumping up and down looking for anomalies to trouble every day, but because he couldn’t find any clues, he was just striking here and there aimlessly.

Why not just trick Kitty Wan Yan into coming over!