GRMFBS CH106

Seeing how obedient Xiao Ran was, Zhan Suiru inexplicably felt as though she were bullying someone.

Sitting down in a chair, she gestured with her hand. “Come, sit down too. Let’s have a chat.”

The puppet butler obediently sat down in the chair opposite her.

“Do you know where we are outside?” Zhan Suiru asked.

The puppet butler shook his head.

“Do you want to know?”

“Do you wish for me to know?”

Zhan Suiru sighed. “Let’s change the question. I brought you out here; haven’t you been curious about where this is all these days?”

The puppet butler didn’t speak. The gears within his pupils spun rapidly. He calculated a “correct” answer, but failed to voice it. The gears in his eyes began to slow down, clicking and hitching.

“Outside is the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau’s Infinite Research Institute,” Zhan Suiru said.

She cast her gaze out the window, as if she could see the research institute over ten kilometers away from Chongnan Slope through the simulated outdoor scenery.

“I’ve known about this place for a long time, but I never paid any attention to it.” Zhan Suiru traced the armrest of her chair with a fingertip. “I thought it was because I didn’t have the time. Previously, I spent too much energy on the black market, understanding this world, and adapting to it. Infinite was already a thing of the past.”

The puppet butler listened quietly. When he was quiet, he remained perfectly still, his simulated breathing and heartbeat terrifyingly regular, his pupils neither dilating nor constricting. This gave him an eerie presence—hovering somewhere between human and non-human—yet at the same time, he possessed a vividness that felt more lifelike than ever before.

The machine was abandoning its familiar calculations, straining to listen with flesh and blood it did not know.

“I didn’t think there would be anything in that institute that required my attention. I thought…” Zhan Suiru took a deep breath. “I thought our world had completely ceased to exist.”

But a few days ago, on the day the Tianshi took action, she had detected something incredibly familiar within the aura that radiated outward. That was why she had come to investigate in person; that was why she had posted that mission.

The puppet butler parted and closed his lips again and again. He felt he ought to say something comforting, yet he also felt that wasn’t what Zhan Suiru wanted to hear. He hitched and stuttered even more severely.

“But I just received a piece of information.” Zhan Suiru turned back to look at him. “Xiao Ran, they called that fragment the ‘Apocalyptic Fragment.'”

Zhan Yan stretched lazily.

Working with Artisan had been a very pleasant experience. After asking for a few details, Artisan promptly transferred the points over.

Zhan Yan cleared his inbox as usual and noticed that I Just Saved the World! hadn’t contacted him in a long time. Their last conversation was when Deep Shadow asked why Bi Fang had come to Beiling City. After firmly refusing to discuss the Infinite fragments with him, the two hadn’t spoken since. Zhan Yan was annoyed, but Deep Shadow seemed genuinely terrified that Zhan Yan would pester him about the Infinite fragments.

Tsk, all the Infinite fragments were destroyed by the Tianshi anyway; is Deep Shadow really still acting like this?

Zhan Yan opened the Gossip System and started searching for Gossip System slips regarding Deep Shadow.

[Deep Shadow found a Black Nest.]

…

[Deep Shadow destroyed the Black Nest.]

…

[Deep Shadow devoured the Black Nest.]

…

Zhan Yan: ? Boss, do you have to be this hardcore?!

Is Deep Shadow doing okay right now? He hasn’t gone crazy, has he?

He needed to hurry up and ask!

Approaching Science: [Are you okay?]

It was only after receiving Approaching Science‘s message that Gu Jiancheng realized they hadn’t been in touch for quite some time.

He had been busy tracking down the Black Nest recently and had no time to clear out anomalies. With their missions not overlapping, their communication had naturally dropped off.

But what did he mean by, Are you okay?

I Just Saved the World!: [?]

Seeing this highly expressive question mark, Zhan Yan knew this boss was acting up again.

Approaching Science: [Boss, you silently swallowed a Black Nest. Is your mental state okay right now?]

[Do you need me to keep looking for healing-type supernaturals?]

[Don’t give up on treatment.]

I Just Saved the World!: […]

[What kind of joke are you making?]

Approaching Science: [Did your aftereffects flare up again?]

Oh, no wonder Approaching Science reached out to him. It was merely a single Black Nest. He could handle those just fine in the past, let alone now when he had a boyfriend!

Gu Jiancheng twisted the fitness band on his wrist, resisting the urge to brag about his boyfriend.

Last time the Magician had asked, he had desperately wanted to brag, but unfortunately, he couldn’t. At least not until the whole mess with Monster Doctor and Infinite was completely resolved. Keeping it a secret right now was the only way to keep Yan Yan safe.

Feeling utterly bored, Gu Jiancheng dropped his hand and typed out a reply.

I Just Saved the World!: [I’m fine. Don’t worry.]

Zhan Yan had just scrolled down to the next Gossip System slip:

[Under the loving care of his lover, Deep Shadow has recovered his spirits.]

Hmm?

Deep Shadow is dating?

With a rotten personality like his, he actually managed to get into a relationship?! Which boss managed to pull that off?

Zhan Yan’s curiosity flared up again. Yet, his search yielded nothing!

It made sense. Those with the lowest information interference had their identities and names fully displayed in the Gossip System, like the Dog Demon Gou Hou. Those with strong information interference only had their identities displayed, like his parents before he figured out their secret identities. But this mysterious boss lover of Deep Shadow’s didn’t even have an identity displayed; it only showed their relationship to Deep Shadow.

What level of information protection is this?!

Super strong!

And they could even cure Deep Shadow’s aftereffects—this must be a top-tier healing-type boss, right? I wonder if they were on the list I compiled before.

Zhan Yan really wanted to make their acquaintance. A healing-type who could handle Deep Shadow would probably be a huge help to his parents too, right?

Just as Zhan Yan was about to ask, he received Deep Shadow’s latest reply.

I Just Saved the World!: [I have things to do. Logging off.]

His profile picture went dark immediately after.

[Deep Shadow was in a hurry to call his lover and exited the chaofan forum.]

Zhan Yan: “…”

Heh, log off then. I have a partner too!

Zhan Yan indignantly exited the chaofan forum.

Not long after, Gu Jiancheng called him just as expected.

With his boyfriend’s deep, pleasant voice, Zhan Yan quickly forgot his earlier annoyance.

Zhan Yan: “Guess where I am right now?”

The last time they played this guessing game was over the previous holiday.

Gu Jiancheng sat cross-legged on a cushion, facing the transparent glass wall of the Ocean Hotel.

“If you’re asking like that, you definitely aren’t at home.” Gu Jiancheng held his phone in his left hand and pressed his right hand against the glass. The large fish swimming outside followed the movement of his hand back and forth.

Judging by his tone, Yan Yan had probably gone out to play. He wanted to go out and play with Yan Yan too.

Going out this season meant either heading further north to see ice and snow or heading further south to escape the cold.

“Do you have any more clues?” Gu Jiancheng asked.

With one giving clues and the other guessing, Gu Jiancheng narrowed down the area smaller and smaller.

Zhan Yan shifted his position in the hot spring pool, the sound of water transmitting through the phone line.

“Are you in Quancheng?” Gu Jiancheng asked.

“You guessed so fast!” Zhan Yan exclaimed.

“Can I come find you?” Gu Jiancheng was already getting his hopes up.

“Ah, but I’m leaving the day after tomorrow.”

Gu Jiancheng stopped teasing the fish.

“Let me tell you, there are fake hot spring hotels in Quancheng too. The first hotel I found today was a fake hot spring.”

Zhan Yan began chattering away about the many little things that had happened today, while Gu Jiancheng listened quietly on the other end.

The hot spring water splashed occasionally, and outside the glass wall, the large fish flicked its tail and swam away.

The lights in the room dimmed, and Gu Jiancheng caught sight of the faint smile on his own face reflected in the glass.

Zhan Yan’s chattering suddenly stopped.

The sound of the hot spring water grew louder, as if someone were standing up from the pool.

Zhan Yan sat up straight, placing a hand against the glass window beside him.

“It’s snowing.”

He sat in the room, the hot spring water releasing billowing steam. Outside, snow was falling. It started as three or five tiny, fine snowflakes, but quickly grew heavier. With no wind outside, the snowflakes drifted down lightly, rapidly laying a thin blanket of white over the courtyard.

“It’s so beautiful. Let’s come together next time.”

There was no chance for it this time anyway.

The next day, the dog demon bro Gou Hou enthusiastically invited Zhan Yan to hang out.

“Little bro, since you’re only stayin’ here for three days, we gotta make sure you have a blast!”

Zhan Yan spent two days hanging out with the enthusiastic Northeast bro. Listening to the bro brag non-stop along the way, he successfully found out about the dog café where the bro worked.

Gou Hou didn’t just work at the dog café; he also moonlighted as a dog trainer. This latter business hadn’t fully taken off yet and relied entirely on word-of-mouth from old clients.

“Bro ain’t just blowin’ smoke; every single dog bro trains ends up obedient as can be! Parkour, jumping through hoops, obstacle courses—no problem at all! They understand every command! But…” He smacked his lips. “Sometimes, it ain’t the dog’s problem, it’s the owner who’s useless and doesn’t know the first thing about raising a dog! Little bro, if your family ever wants to get a dog, send it over and let bro teach it for a couple days. I guarantee it’ll turn out brilliant!”

Zhan Yan believed this without a doubt.

“My family has a cat.”

Gou Hou curled his lip and bared his teeth. “Cats… Cats are no good! With a personality like theirs, they’re aloof, crazy, and just askin’ for it. You gotta get a dog!”

Gou Hou was having such a great time chatting about dogs that he didn’t pay attention and bumped into a young woman squatting by a bicycle looking at a map on the side of the road.

“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry, Jie… jie?”

The “jiejie” had a baby face but stood at 187 cm tall, towering even over Gou Hou.

“It’s fine, it’s fine.” Jiejie smiled shyly. “Um, I wanted to ask for directions. Which way should I ride to get to Donghuang City?”

Donghuang City? Isn’t that where the cultivator convention is being held?

He did a quick check on the Gossip System:

[Yuan Shiyi, a physical cultivator from Mount Nanping, has decided to ride her bicycle to Donghuang City to attend the cultivator convention.]

Ah, so she’s heading the same way. A physical cultivator—no wonder she chose to bike.

“Jiejie, you sure are tall. Ain’t you gonna take the high-speed rail to Donghuang City? The train station is miles away from here. You’ll need to catch a cab; who knows how long it’d take to bike there?” Gou Hou said.

“No, no, no, I’m not taking the high-speed rail. I just want to cycle there to get some exercise,” Jiejie waved her hands frantically.

“Oh, oh! I get it. You’re doing that… cycling thing! Free cycling, right?”

Zhan Yan vaguely felt something was wrong and took a look at her map.

The map had a route and circles drawn on it in pen. One circle marked her destination, Donghuang City, while another circle marked Nanping City, right next to Mount Nanping.

“Did you start your journey from Nanping City?” Zhan Yan asked.

“Yes, I’m doing free cycling. I started from Nanping City.” Yuan Shiyi looked quite distressed. “According to my plan, with how many days it’s been, I should have arrived ages ago.”

Quancheng was located north of Nanping City, while Donghuang City was south of Nanping City.

“Jiejie, you’ve been riding in the complete opposite direction!”