GRMFBS CH116

Bound by his in-game persona as a cool and aloof master, Zhan Suiru was too embarrassed to ask her younger brother what was wrong. After a few rounds, Zhan Suiru found it utterly dull and logged out of the game.

Zhan Yan felt much more relaxed after playing a few rounds of the game, but it was a pity the master had to log off. Zhan Yan quickly sent his thanks and compliments.

Before quitting the game, Zhan Suiru finally enjoyed a bit of flattery. She switched to her identity as his older sister to chat with her brother. Her brother’s state today wasn’t quite right. Could he have been bullied while he was out?

Zhan Yan: “Huh?”
“I’m fine.”
“Just tired.”
“Let me tell you, your brother is very popular!”
“I met so many people today and talked for ages.”
“When I got up for morning exercises, many people offered to teach me. I’ve already learned a set of Baduanjin!”
“Tomorrow, they plan to teach me the Five-Animal Frolics. I’ll teach you when I get back!”

She got it. Her brother’s social battery was empty for the day, so he couldn’t churn out any more flattery. But he could still squeeze a little more out to chat with his sister. What a chatterbox.

Zhan Suiru started to flatter her brother in return: “Of course, Yan Yan is the cutest.”
“You learned it in just one morning? That’s amazing!”
“Okay, I’ll be waiting for you to come back and teach me.”

Nothing particularly special happened in the following days of the cultivators’ conference. Yuan Shiyi made a name for herself in the physical debate of scriptures, successfully building the reputation of the Vajra Sect; Bao Qingshan had a sudden inspiration midway through, felt something was amiss at home, and left in a hurry; Zhan Yan continued his rebellious reverse introductions.

Zhan Yan went home two days early, not waiting for the conference to end. One reason was that his school was about to start, and the other was that he had pretty much exhausted the potential of all the people and demons at the conference that he could give reverse introductions to. There wouldn’t be much to gain by staying longer.

Carrying a bag of gifts for his family, Zhan Yan had just entered his residential community when a neighbor stopped him. “Little Yan, why isn’t your brother’s cake shop open? How do I order a cake?”

This was a neighbor from the same square-dancing group, a bit older and not very good with mini-apps.

Zhan Yan helped him operate his phone. “Uncle, do you want to eat bread or buy a fondant cake? My brother’s fondant cakes just look good, they’re pure sugar to eat. If you want something tasty, you’d be better off buying from another bakery.” As for the others, it was best not to recommend them, as it could easily lead to neighborly disputes.

“Hey,” the neighbor waved his hand, “You don’t know, your brother’s cake shop is super popular online now! Lots of people are sharing it. My little grandson is insisting on one for his birthday, calling it an ‘edible figurine’.”

The Lantern Festival was already over, and the hype for his brother’s cake shop hadn’t died down yet?

The neighbor was still talking: “They’re also saying it’s a pity your brother’s shop isn’t open, they can’t even go take a picture, otherwise your brother’s shop would be even more famous. Is it done? Ah, thanks!”

Then it was a good thing it was closed. Otherwise, if a crowd of people came to take pictures, his brother would probably be performing his “calm and desperate” act again.

“You’re welcome,” Zhan Yan said, waving goodbye.

The neighbor remembered something else. “Oh, Little Yan, your dad is at the arts troupe, so no one’s home—ah no, maybe your brother is home. Never mind, bye!”

Arts troupe? How did his dad get involved with the community arts troupe?

Zhan Yan first went home to drop off his things. Indeed, no one was there. His mom had to go to the Anomaly Management Bureau every few days, though on the surface, she said she was going to the company. His brother was probably at the cake shop; although his store wasn’t open, the number of orders was overwhelming.

Zhan Yan first went online to search for his brother’s cake shop. The popularity was truly high. Beautiful pictures of the fondant cakes were still circulating widely online, and people were always asking questions below them.

“It’s a fondant cake, it’s edible.”

“It’s from a shop in Yunjin City called Sweetie Cake Shop.”

“But their physical store isn’t open right now, you can only order through the mini-app.”

“Why isn’t it open? What a shame.”

“They say it’s because there are too many customers, and the shop owner is socially anxious.”

“Hahahaha, so socially anxious he closed the shop? Just how socially anxious can you be?”

“I can confirm! The owner is super socially anxious. I managed to snag an order on the mini-app before. When I went to pick it up, we communicated entirely through our phones; the owner didn’t say a single word. But the cake was absolutely beautiful! The details were so exquisite! [Image][Image]”

“Hahahaha, is the social anxiety that severe?”

“Wow, that’s gorgeous!”

“Sis, what kind of hand speed do you have! Teach me how you managed to get one!”

“Why can’t I buy anything when I go into the mini-app? The ‘add to cart’ button is gray?”

“The owner only sells to locals because the cakes are not easy to transport. Also, the cake shop is too popular, and the order queue is already full. You can try to grab a spot when one becomes available.”

Zhan Yan couldn’t help but laugh as he read their comments. This matter had to be traced back to before the New Year when his sister helped his brother set up the cake ordering mini-app.

Zhan Suiru had forgotten to set an order limit. In the beginning, because the mini-app wasn’t widely known, Zhan Jinli didn’t notice any problems. Until one day, Zhan Jinli woke up to find he had several hundred cakes to make.

Zhan Jinli frantically went to his sister, and Zhan Suiru urgently added an order limit to the mini-app. However, the previous orders had already been placed. Later, they tried to apologize to the buyers and issue refunds, but some buyers said they weren’t in a hurry and were willing to wait, refusing the refund.

There was no other way. Zhan Jinli’s order queue was backed up for three months right after opening.

Zhan Jinli: “…”

“Did you do this on purpose?”

Zhan Suiru: “I’m sorry for getting you into this, but I really didn’t do it on purpose.”

Zhan Jinli stared at his sister for a long moment, then finally ruffled her hair resentfully and ran off to the cake shop to start working overtime.

Zhan Yan had secretly asked his sister if she had really not done it on purpose, only to have his cheeks pinched and kneaded by his sister.

“Of course it wasn’t on purpose!” After kneading her brother’s face, Zhan Suiru became thoughtful again. “But it’s good for him to get a lot of orders at once, so his shop doesn’t go cold after the hype dies down. Now is a good time to save up.”

It hadn’t gone cold. The cake shop’s popularity had already declined significantly before the New Year, but for some reason, a new wave of traffic suddenly appeared a few days after the New Year, forcefully extending his brother’s popularity.

His brother was busy because of the cake shop, and his sister seemed to have something suddenly come up at her studio. There wasn’t much going on in the Wan Yao Alliance. After New Year’s Eve, the previously active demons and monsters had all gone into hiding, and the garbled code anomaly hadn’t appeared for a long time. But why would his dad, idle at home, get involved with an elderly arts troupe?

Zhan Yan tidied up briefly and, filled with curiosity, ran to the arts troupe’s activity center to see his dad.

At that moment, Zhan Yunkai was in the community activity center, feeling a bit lost as he watched a group of elderly people—who looked a generation older than him—play instruments, sing, and dance. Some were doing traditional ballroom dancing, while the more fashionable ones were doing jazz and Latin dance.

Zhan Yunkai felt that his presence here was all his younger son’s fault.

To trace this matter back to the beginning, it started when Zhan Yan accidentally ran into the community’s square-dancing group during his night run. With his super personal charm, he successfully mixed in and became the lead dancer, and with his own power, he sparked the square-dancing members’ interest in his family.

Later, Zhan Yunkai, who had been avoiding community social relations, was discovered, and his guard was lowered during their repeated enthusiastic invitations to go grocery shopping together.

The community was full of hidden talents. One family had moved from the south and was particularly good at making soups and pastes, such as Chuanbei Pipa pear paste, ginger-jujube paste, and kumquat paste… convenient for making drinks, delicious, and nourishing. Zhan Yunkai expanded his own soup repertoire by learning from them and also learned a whole bunch of paste recipes, preparing to make some for his wife to take to her company for drinks.

Then, by accident, he was discovered to be an actor.

Actually, up to this point, it was still fine. Zhan Yunkai’s popularity had long since faded, and with Xia Yuexian’s efforts, he had successfully maintained the identity of an 18th-tier actor. Therefore, after the community members learned he was an actor, they were curious about the profession for a while but then thought nothing of it. When someone praised him for looking particularly good in TV series, Zhan Yunkai would just say it was all thanks to makeup and styling.

However, the square-dancing group and the arts troupe had overlapping members.

Just today, the old man who taught Zhan Yunkai the soup and paste recipes urgently came to him for help, saying that a few people from their arts troupe’s performance team suddenly had to drop out, leaving the team short-staffed. In a couple of days, they were going to compete against the neighboring community’s arts troupe, and they couldn’t afford such a major blunder!

As everyone was getting anxious, the old man remembered that there was a professional actor in the community, so he pulled Zhan Yunkai over.

Having just learned a bunch of ancestral recipes from the man, Zhan Yunkai felt too embarrassed to refuse and could only be dragged along.

“I’m a terrible actor. I’ve only ever played roles that don’t require any acting skills,” Zhan Yunkai repeatedly and sincerely told everyone before being forced on stage.

But no one believed him. How bad could he be? He was a professional, after all, while they were just a group of amateur old folks!

Thus, when Zhan Yan arrived, he witnessed his father powerfully demonstrating to the elderly arts troupe the principle that “relying on experience alone is not advisable.”

The others all had long faces. This group of retired arts troupe members was very competitive. The reason they were so anxious to find a replacement was that they didn’t want to lose to the neighboring community in the competition a few days later. But with Zhan Yunkai as a replacement… wouldn’t they lose all the same?

Zhan Yan forcefully controlled his expression. Don’t laugh! My dad controls the family’s food supply!

Seeing his younger son’s constantly twitching mouth, Zhan Yunkai helplessly waved him over.

Zhan Yan obediently walked over and offered a suggestion: “Are there people in other groups who like to act? Maybe have my dad substitute for a member of another group, and that person can play this role?”

Bai Linghui from the choir raised her hand high. “Me, me! I’ll act, I’ve wanted to for a long time! Hey, Old Zhan, can you sing?”

The soup-and-paste old man objected, “But this is a male role!”

Bai Linghui replied, “It’s just a delivery guy. It’s not like it can’t be changed to a female role.”

And so, Zhan Yunkai was successfully rescued from the skit team and moved to the choir. Although Zhan Yan had never heard his father sing, the Chongming Demon King was a bird demon. He should be able to sing in tune, right?

After resolving the arts troupe matter, Zhan Yunkai returned home in the evening and began to cook kumquat paste. A batch of kumquats from the south had just become available.

Zhan Yan and Zhan Suiru helped wash the kumquats. The sky had already darkened, and Zhan Jinli still wasn’t back.

As he worked, Zhan Yunkai thought, the Lantern Festival was over, and there was nothing else going on in the Wan Yao Alliance, so he had started looking for the Linyuan Ghost King again. But the Linyuan Ghost King had gone missing again and was completely unreachable. Wan Yan was still imprisoned on Mount Chaofu. What was he hiding from this time?

Meanwhile, in the back kitchen of the cake shop, Zhan Jinli was expressionlessly working on his one hundred and forty-ninth cake.

His dear, good sister… he wished her career to flourish, and that her work orders would be plentiful, too