GRMFBS CH124

Gu Jiancheng’s voice was deep and low. Zhan Yan felt that single sound was like one of those small feather brushes used for ear cleaning, probing into his ear and giving it a sudden twirl, sending a tingling sensation through his entire body.

Zhan Yan’s expression remained calm, but the roots of his ears turned a little red. “I didn’t hear that clearly, say it two more times.”

Gu Jiancheng saw the little heart on the sports bracelet accelerate by several beats. He couldn’t help but bite the inside of his lip, a smile blooming from the bottom of his eyes. “Meow meow.”

Tonight’s goodnight kiss was meowed.

After hanging up, Zhan Yan rubbed his tingling and itching ear, his mind replaying “meow meow meow” as he opened the gossip system.

He still remembered hearing tonight, while teaching the square-dancing troupe Baduanjin, that his dad had become the treasure of the senior cultural troupe.

Did the people in the cultural troupe judge by looks? Or was His Majesty the Demon King, like him, the type who was particularly liked by the elderly?

Thinking about it, something didn’t seem right!

He scrolled back through the gossip logs and eventually found it.

Their community’s cultural troupe was going to compete with the cultural troupe from the neighboring community. The other community had a retired vocal music teacher and a piano professor from a music conservatory.

Although the grandpas and grandmas of the cultural troupe were retired, their competitive spirit and desire to win had not weakened in the slightest. They were trying very hard to beat their neighbors. The problem was that although the members were all very passionate, none of them were professionals. The best they could say about their singing was that it wasn’t off-key.

Zhan Yunkai had initially remembered to keep a low profile, but after listening for a while, he just couldn’t bear it anymore—besides being a neat freak, His Majesty the Demon King also had a touch of OCD. The Demon King, who couldn’t stand off-key singing, began to help the choir members correct their pitch.

The old man who taught Zhan Yunkai the decoction paste recipe was so anxious about the competition that he developed two blisters on the corner of his mouth, which was not very conducive to health preservation. Later, when he discovered that Zhan Yunkai was a professional, he invited him to teach. Thus, His Majesty the Chongming Demon King became the vocal teacher of the senior choir and earned the title of “Teacher Xiao Zhan.”

The choir was counting on Teacher Xiao Zhan to lead them to victory against the neighboring cultural troupe, and so the Chongming Demon King became the treasure of the senior cultural troupe.

Zhan Yan stared at the four words “Teacher Xiao Zhan” and grinned foolishly.

Hahahaha, this was probably the only place his dad could be called “Xiao” (Little).

The next day, Zhan Yan returned to school with various jars of sauce prepared for him by “Teacher Xiao Zhan,” along with four or five boxes of various cold-cut meats.

The beginning of each school year was always the most chaotic. The dorm leader, Duan Hong, was afraid of the cold and had gone home for the winter break instead of staying in the dorm. The dorm, which had been empty for over a month, needed cleaning and airing out. The doors of all the dorm rooms were open, with brooms, mops, and water basins rushing about.

Zhan Yan wiped the windowsill with a rag, removing a layer of dust. He was about to wash it in the basin when his hand touched a patch of warmth. He turned his head to look at Gu Jiancheng, who was getting water. Gu Jiancheng was currently squatting and mopping under the bed. Feeling his gaze, he looked up and subconsciously broke into a smile.

So silly.

Just as Zhan Yan’s lips began to curl up, a loud voice suddenly came from the dorm entrance: “Hey, Old Duan, do you guys have an extra mop in your dorm? Can I borrow…”

The sports committee member’s voice grew smaller and smaller. Duan Hong wasn’t in the dorm; only Zhan Yan and Gu Jiancheng were there.

Gu Jiancheng had his sleeves rolled up above his elbows. He unhurriedly finished mopping the last corner, then stood up and handed the mop to the sports committee member.

“Th-thank you!” The sports committee member quickly vanished with the mop.

Halfway down the hall, he ran into Bao Qingshan, who was just coming back from taking out the trash, and they almost collided.

“Sports committee? Why are you in such a rush?” Bao Qingshan asked.

“N-nothing.”

It was just the first time he had seen Gu Jiancheng squatting on the ground, reaching under the bed with a mop. This down-to-earth appearance didn’t quite match the “big shot” impression he had always had, and it was a bit shattering.

In the dorm room, as soon as Gu Jiancheng turned around, he saw Zhan Yan grinning again.

He couldn’t believe his chuunibyou act had fooled people for this long.

Gu Jiancheng knew that his classmates were a bit intimidated by him. This was a lingering effect of his not-so-great mental state when he first arrived at school.

In the past, Gu Jiancheng had never cared about this effect. Why would the great Deep Shadow care about what others thought of him? In school, besides Zhan Yan, everyone else was just like cabbages and radishes to him.

However, at this moment, Gu Jiancheng suddenly realized a problem. These classmates’ opinions would affect Zhan Yan’s opinion of him!

What kind of image did he have in Zhan Yan’s heart? Gu Jiancheng suddenly didn’t dare to think about it.

Zhan Yan didn’t notice his boyfriend; his phone suddenly rang. The phone was in his pants pocket, but both his hands were wet. Zhan Yan thus gave Gu Jiancheng a look.

Gu Jiancheng pinched the corner of the phone to pull it out and helped Zhan Yan answer the call. It was a delivery courier, telling him a package had arrived at the East Gate. It was a bit large, and he should go pick it up as soon as possible.

Old Bao was very curious: “What did you buy?”

Bao Qingshan’s mind raced, and inspiration struck. A delivery right at the start of the school year, could it be related to the Chaofan world?

Zhan Yan: “It’s a new variety of grapes I bought. I don’t know if they’re any good. I bought a bit too much, so everyone can share.”

The doors to all the dorms were open. After Zhan Yan finished speaking, many people suddenly appeared in the hallway.

“Oh, we couldn’t possibly!”

“How can we let you go get it yourself?”

“I’ll go! I’ll go!”

The foodie classmates were suddenly filled with enthusiasm, offering to help get the delivery. Zhan Yan couldn’t refuse and gave them the tracking number. More than half an hour later, several classmates returned, carrying two boxes of grapes.

Even without opening the boxes, they could smell a rich grape fragrance, mixed with the sweet scent of lychee.

Duan Hong found a pair of scissors to open the box: “This cardboard box is all wet. Could the grapes inside be crushed?”

The fragrance was so strong through the cardboard box, it was very likely that some grapes had broken and the juice had seeped out.

He opened the cardboard box, and his words became a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The packaging inside the box was actually quite serious. The grapes were wrapped in thin tissue paper, with a layer of bubble wrap on the outside, and the remaining space was stuffed full with newspaper. But even so, many grapes were still crushed. After sorting through them, about a third of the fruit was spoiled.

This spoilage rate was a bit high.

The others frowned at the sight: “Why are so many spoiled?”

“Will the seller compensate?”

“If they don’t, it’s a huge loss.”

“Let’s try them first before we say anything,” Zhan Yan said.

They washed the good grapes and shared them among everyone.

The grapes were extremely juicy. As soon as they entered the mouth, the juice burst out. The sweet grape flavor mixed with the lychee aroma was very rich. The flesh was delicate and seedless, with no residue, melting instantly.

Everyone who ate the grapes was amazed.

“What variety of grape is this? It’s so delicious!”

“It has a hint of lychee flavor too. I’ve never had this variety of grape before.”

“Hey, what’s the name of this grape?”

Zhan Yan checked the shopping platform. It was just called Mentong Big Grapes, with no other variety name.

“Hey, why didn’t they give it a nice name? If it had a suitable name, it would be so much easier to promote.”

“Yeah, like Rose Fragrance or Jasmine Fragrance. This one could be called Lychee Fragrance.”

Zhan Yan thought: Given the relationship between Puyang Xia and Li Huodan, if he knew his grapes were being called Lychee Fragrance, he’d probably die of anger. But if your relationship is so bad, why did you cultivate your grapes to taste like lychee?

Could it be… could it be that there were some hidden feelings of love that were hard to express, which turned into resentment due to unrequited love?

Another classmate asked: “Hey, is it grape season now?”

Grapes are a summer and autumn fruit. It was only March now; it didn’t seem like there should be any grapes.

“They’re from a greenhouse, right?”

Zhan Yan checked the gossip system. These were really not from a greenhouse. Mentong County was too poor to have built greenhouses. This batch of grapes was forced to ripen by Puyang Xia using his own demonic power.

Originally, when he saw this piece of gossip, he should have felt that old senior Puyang was really working hard to save his improved grapes. But ever since he discovered that these grapes tasted like lychee, Zhan Yan couldn’t bear to look at it directly.

You really love lychees, old man!

There must be some gossip in this! He would check it later!

But besides the gossip, these grapes were truly delicious. It was just a pity that they were so unsuitable for transport. It would probably be very difficult to open up a market through online sales.

Zhan Yan scrolled through the product reviews. Many people had already received their orders, and most of them were negative reviews because the spoilage rate was just too high.

What if they were made into a more transport-friendly form, like raisins?

Ah, they had tried making raisins, but this type of grape would lose its characteristic lychee flavor after being made into raisins. After becoming unremarkable, the raisins from the small area of Mentong couldn’t compete with raisins from other major production areas and were equally hard to sell.

Actually, this situation wasn’t entirely unsellable. The current price of 6.6 yuan per jin was relatively cheap. They could raise the price, improve the packaging with air columns, foam, and soft paper, and send more to compensate for the spoilage rate.

The quality of these grapes was definitely good enough to be a premium product. However, in that case, they would have to build up the grape’s reputation first. And premium packaging would be another cost. If they didn’t sell, the losses would only be greater.

As Zhan Yan was scrolling, he suddenly discovered that the current price of these grapes was actually being sold at a loss! Puyang Xia was subsidizing it himself!

My goodness, I love it even more!

What kind of feud do you two have? Can I have a bite of this gossip?

Zhan Yan was engrossed in consuming gossip and thinking of a solution for the Mentong Big Grapes, not noticing that his surroundings had quieted down. He wiped his hands with a wet wipe that Gu Jiancheng handed him, and then a peeled grape was fed into his mouth. The unique fruit aroma filled his mouth. The taste was sweet but not cloying, refreshing and mellow. It would be a real pity if he couldn’t eat them anymore in the future.

Zhan Yan swallowed the grape in his mouth, and another sweet, moist grape was pressed against his lips. He subconsciously opened his mouth and took it in. His lips touched a hard fingernail, and he suddenly snapped back to reality.

Gu Jiancheng was peeling grapes one by one and feeding them to him. Everyone else in the dorm had been scared away.

Zhan Yan: …

I really didn’t mean to show off our relationship!

Gu Jiancheng gave him a gentle smile: “Want more?”

“No more.” Zhan Yan put the remaining grapes away, to be eaten after they finished cleaning the dorm.

Raisins wouldn’t work, but grape juice should be fine, and grape wine should also be possible. If they could invest in a grape juice or wine factory in Mentong County, they could safely transport this type of grape out.

Investing in and building a factory was no small matter. He would have to search the gossip system again to figure out the whole story behind the big grapes, whether it was worth investing in, and avoid accidentally坑ing his mother.

He would first search for what kind of love-hate relationship existed between Puyang Xia and Li Huodan.

[Puyang Xia was very angry because he still couldn’t cultivate lychee-flavored grapes, so he went to fight the lychee demon, Li Huodan.]

…

[Puyang Xia was very angry because he still couldn’t cultivate lychee-flavored grapes, so he secretly poured some unfermented fertilizer at the roots of the lychee demon, Li Huodan. Li Huodan was very angry and drove a flock of sheep to eat Puyang Xia’s young grape leaves.]

…

[Puyang Xia was very angry because he still couldn’t cultivate lychee-flavored grapes, so he told the villagers near the lychee demon, Li Huodan, that the old lychee tree in the village would not flower or bear fruit, so it might as well be chopped down. Li Huodan pulled up his roots and ran, then taught the villagers near Puyang Xia’s main body to prune and top the old grapevines.]

Zhan Yan: …Could this be the legendary “love turning to hate”?

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