GRMFBS CH118

Ghost King Tie Lao was furious, and then furiously cleaned up Wan Yan Ghost King’s mess.

Gritting his teeth: It! Doesn’t! Matter!

It! Is! Understandable!

Wan Yan Ghost King was only mentally unstable because his soul was injured!

Half a year later, Ghost King Tie Lao went from being furious to just throwing his hands up and letting things rot.

Let that psychopath Wan Yan search however he liked. Once he had tossed things around enough, he would stop making a fuss. There was no time to waste on him!

Ghost King Tie Lao washed his hands of the matter, arduously accepting the fact that all three of his senior Ghost Kings were unreliable, and continued his life as a corporate slave.

Fortunately, Ghost King Minghe recovered, and Reincarnation became increasingly stable, reducing a portion of his workload.

After making a fuss in the Underworld, Wan Yan ran off to the human realm. Rumor had it that he caused a scene at the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau and was taught a lesson by the Tianshi. Well done!

Later, he was caught and brought back by the Chongming Demon King. The Chongming Demon King really had a way with dealing with little kittens; after Wan Yan was brought back, he surprisingly didn’t make a fuss! He even obediently helped with the work in Mount Chaofu.

Ghost King Tie Lao was extremely surprised. Great, the days ahead could finally be peaceful.

And then!

And then, Ghost King Lin Yuan, who had been hiding perfectly well, suddenly responded to Wan Yan!

Wan Yan’s psychopathic tendencies immediately flared up and he started making a fuss all over again!

Ghost King Tie Lao: …Senior Lin Yuan, why?!

Ghost King Tie Lao, who had been working a 007 schedule for twenty-six years, suffered a complete mental breakdown. Could these senior Ghost Kings please be a little more reliable?! He was literally begging!

Senior Lin Yuan was currently jarring kumquat paste.

Zhan Yunkai’s kumquat paste had already been boiled into a large pot. It was currently sitting there, waiting to cool down before being bottled.

Zhan Yunkai took a spoonful and tasted it. Hmm, the heat control for this pot wasn’t completely perfect, and a bit too much rock sugar was added, which somewhat overpowered the kumquat’s aroma. Chopping the kumquats a bit finer versus just cutting them in half were both textures worth experimenting with.

He would divide this less-than-perfect pot of kumquat paste among the children, and save the next pot for his wife.

He wiped his hands with a towel and called the three children over to fill the jars:

“Jinli, don’t add sugar or honey when bottling it. You can add it yourself when you eat it.”

Zhan Jinli gave an OK gesture.

The golden-orange kumquat paste emitted a sweet and sour fragrance, with large chunks of boiled fruit floating in the translucent paste. Packed into transparent glass jars… Zhan Yan swallowed his saliva.

Xingxing circled around his feet, meowing delicately. It was hard to tell if this little guy’s eyesight was too good or his nose was too bad; no matter what Zhan Yunkai made, it would pester him for a bite.

As Zhan Yan ladled the kumquat paste into the glass jars with a spoon, he tried to persuade it, “You can’t eat kumquats. Be good, stop fussing, you can’t eat this.”

Xingxing’s IQ hadn’t yet reached the level of understanding words; it only knew that whenever Zhan Yunkai entered the kitchen, delicious food would be born.

Zhan Jinli took a small piece of dried meat from the cabinet, lured Xingxing into the room, fed it, and then closed the door. Along the way, he also petted the cat and swiftly dodged Xingxing’s claws.

This little guy held quite a grudge. The last time it got shocked by static electricity from Zhan Jinli, Zhan Jinli neither apologized nor coaxed it afterward, and Xingxing remembered it all along. But the little foodie didn’t mind tricking Zhan Jinli for food and drinks first, and after getting what it wanted, still refused to let him pet it.

Zhan Jinli locked Xingxing in the room, went to wash his hands, and returned to continue jarring the kumquat paste.

Heh, it was just a mere little kitten!

After finishing the snack, Xingxing realized it was locked in the room and started scratching at the door.

Zhan Suiru: “If you act like this, Xingxing will hold an even bigger grudge against you in the future. Just coax it a little, it doesn’t understand what static electricity is.”

She had already managed to coax the little guy earlier with cat treats.

Zhan Jinli coldly shook his head with a stern demeanor that would make the five little ghosts excitedly scream “The Ghost King has returned!”.

Apologize to a cat? Impossible!

Raising it was already his greatest concession!

The three of them quickly finished jarring the kumquat paste, then poured water into the pot used for boiling the paste. The resulting kumquat water was immediately divided up and drunk.

The golden-honey kumquat water was fragrant, sweet, and sour. Zhan Yunkai also added a few fresh mint leaves to it; the amount was just right, not overpowering the unique aroma of the kumquats, while adding a hint of minty coolness, making it very soothing to drink.

Zhan Yan watched helplessly as his brother added three large spoonfuls of honey to his cup, and looked away with an imaginary toothache.

“Sigh, why are you watching him?” Zhan Suiru put an arm around her brother. “Whatever goes into his mouth, doesn’t it have to have several times more sugar added?”

She took two sips of the kumquat water, feeling perfectly content, when her phone suddenly started ringing and pinging.

Zhan Suiru picked up her phone and looked.

The Broker sent her a message, saying that the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau had delivered the item she requested and was currently loitering in the black market waiting for her.

The people from the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau insisted on meeting with her face-to-face.

Zhan Suiru: ???

What was wrong with the people from the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau?!

Ning Xi was such an obsessively persistent person. Upon learning that the Artisan didn’t want to meet and only wanted to transfer the item through the Broker, he immediately thought of a solution: when the Broker handed the item over to the Artisan, wouldn’t they have to meet offline too? As long as they latched onto the Broker, wouldn’t they be able to meet the Artisan?

For this reason, Ning Xi specially selected a person from the bureau to deliver the world fragment of the apocalyptic sequence. This person had a nickname in the bureau: “Master.” It was only one horizontal stroke different from “Tianshi,” but their tempers were worlds apart.

The Broker was on the verge of a mental breakdown from being pestered by Master.

“I’m begging you, Master, let me go. The Artisan isn’t in the black market right now. You won’t see him even if you follow me.”

Master smiled gently, unhurried and soft-spoken, “Your Excellency Broker, please hear me out. You must know that worry harms the body; you should relax your mind. I will not do anything; you just need to continue with your affairs and treat me as background music.”

The Broker’s face was completely crumbling as Master’s profile flooded his mind:

Gu Zhixing, nicknamed “Master”, famous for his strange technique “Please Hear Me Out”.

Ability effect:

When Gu Zhixing says “Please Hear Me Out”, one can only leave after listening to Gu Zhixing’s entire “speech”.

This was a very bizarre, hard crowd-control skill.

And Gu Zhixing was also a master of chicken soup for the soul—especially persistent, extremely patient, with an incredibly good temper, and, a total chatterbox.

The Broker was currently filled with nothing but regret. Why did he momentarily let his guard down and allow Master to come in?

He was now forcibly crowd-controlled in the reception room, unable to leave. Not only could he not leave, but he also had to listen to Gu Zhixing’s platitudes, listening for several hours straight. Gu Zhixing’s technique was, after all, called “Please Hear Me Out” and not “You Can’t Leave If You Listen To Me Speak,” so his targets would be forced to hear every single word Gu Zhixing said completely and clearly.

Plugging one’s ears and cutting off one’s hearing was useless; the chicken soup went straight into the brain. Buzz, buzz, buzz, the brain was about to resonate with the chicken soup.

“Who the hell can treat you as background music?!” The Broker pulled out the supernatural earplugs labeled “Powerful Mute, Experience the Feeling of Having No Ears” and tossed them into the trash can.

He abruptly stood up from his swivel chair. As he walked toward Gu Zhixing, he accidentally tripped over the chair leg and pitched forward.

Gu Zhixing kindly reached out to support him, only to be caught off guard when the Broker shoved a coin into his hand.

“You are not to speak for the next 24 hours,” the Broker said.

This was the Broker’s special ability: Forced Trade.

The coin bounced off Gu Zhixing’s palm.

“Sigh, this is not good.” Gu Zhixing realized he had been tricked and reproached, “Mr. Broker, please hear me out. Interpersonal interactions rely on sincerity. As the old saying goes…”

The Broker looked utterly despairing. The Forced Trade had no effect. Gu Zhixing had come prepared, or rather, Ning Xi had come prepared, equipping Gu Zhixing with a set of high-resistance gear. Unless the Broker wanted to completely fall out with the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau, dealing with this using his limited means meant he wouldn’t be able to escape Gu Zhixing’s hard crowd control no matter what.

The Broker had tried all sorts of ways to escape. Gu Zhixing was a relatively simple-minded person who couldn’t anticipate the Broker’s various tricks, but unfortunately, that control freak Ning Xi had a brilliant mind, sealing off every possible method the Broker could think of.

After Gu Zhixing fell for the Broker’s tricks yet again, only for them to be rendered ineffective once more due to Ning Xi’s preemptive defenses, he said to the Broker in amazement: “Mr. Broker is truly impressive! When the Deputy Director prepared these things for me, I strongly disagreed, thinking we shouldn’t assume people are so dark and sinister; it wasn’t good. I didn’t expect they would all be put to use! Mr. Broker actually managed to find so many methods! But why isn’t such wisdom put to better use? Please hear me out…”

The Broker: …

Ahhh!!!

What kind of brain did Ning Xi have, what the hell?! How could he anticipate even these insidious methods in advance and prepare countermeasures?!

Once this crappy mess was resolved, he was definitely going to ask the Artisan for mental damage compensation! He would have the Artisan develop and customize a trade channel that worked through a door! Next time the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau sent someone, doing it through a door would be enough! He never wanted to meet them face-to-face again!

Unable to escape, the Broker forcibly endured it for seven hours before he couldn’t take it anymore and sent messages to the Artisan begging for his life.

Broker: [I tried my best.] Broker: [Artisan, for the sake of our relationship, I’ve already tried extremely, extremely hard to be loyal.] Broker: [That control freak Ning Xi is just too insidious; he blocked off all my escape routes.] Broker: [Master’s demonic voice pierced my ears for a whole day, and I still didn’t yield or agree to let him see you.] Broker: [My brain is buzzing right now.] Broker: [So,] Broker: [Come save me, please!]

Zhan Suiru felt complicated.

Her relationship with the Broker was rather complex. The two of them had collaborated for many years, and the Broker always harbored some unwillingness to let his “big money-making baby,” the Artisan, slip away, constantly trying to test the waters.

Zhan Suiru found him annoying, and the two were always messing with each other during their cooperation. The black market faction was rather unique, full of a mixed bag of people harboring their own motives. The Broker especially liked to act mysterious, keeping others guessing his true capabilities, which made it easier for him to manage things.

On the one hand, the Broker was accustomed to acting mysterious; on the other hand, he held onto his reluctance regarding the Artisan. Therefore, he paid special attention to his image in front of the Artisan. Sometimes Zhan Suiru would firmly rebuff him; the Broker would be rebuffed every time, yet he’d always stubbornly hold his ground. She had never seen the Broker act this soft before.

Was Ning Xi’s brain capable of thinking of even more, even more comprehensively than the Broker’s?

Was Master really that terrifying?

Then there was even less of a reason to go!

Zhan Suiru turned off her phone, pretending she had already started her beauty sleep.