GRMFBS CH139

Zhan Yan’s eavesdropping on the meeting was cut short. 

Dawn had broken, and even if he skipped his morning exercise, he still had class this morning.

His mind muddled after staying up all night, Zhan Yan completely forgot about settling scores with Gu Jiancheng. During class, he secretly let his mind wander and continued searching for information.

They had arranged a duty roster. The members on rotation weren’t limited to the two major organizations, the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau and the Wan Yao Alliance, but also included some powerful individuals who hadn’t joined for various reasons but were strong and reliable enough, like Qingniao, the Bluebird.

Arranging this roster was quite troublesome because they had to separate those who didn’t get along, like the Great Dancer and the Nine-Tailed Demon King, or the Traveler and the Qingyun Demon King. These powerful figures with old grudges wouldn’t sabotage official business, but if a dangerous situation arose, it would probably be difficult for them to cooperate with any real chemistry.

Zhan Yan watched helplessly as they scheduled Tianshi and the Chongming Demon King together.

Zhan Yan: …Ahhh!!!

How on earth did you manage to precisely step on a landmine among so many people!

A major reason his parents’ identities hadn’t been revealed was that they had never worked together at close range. The couple had been loving for so many years and were incredibly familiar with each other’s habits and small gestures. If they worked together closely, wouldn’t they find each other more and more familiar? Once or twice would be fine, but the rotation would last at least three months, up to a year! After a year, there might be even closer collaborations. Wouldn’t their identities be revealed in a matter of minutes?

Zhan Yan was going crazy.

He looked at his second little star for information protection. The energy bar was almost full last time, but for some unknown reason, it had been completely emptied. This time, the newly refilling energy bar was less than half full. The good news was that Ning Xi was also worried about Ji Yueming’s physical condition, and others also felt it was relatively safe for now and that the big guns should be saved for later. So, they scheduled Tianshi and the Chongming Demon King’s rotation for later. The two wouldn’t be cooperating for the time being.

Zhan Yan decided to save up energy! Madly save up energy! He had to grind out that second little star before his parents started working together!

Zhan Yan worked hard at grinding for a day. In the afternoon, a message came in the family group chat.

His mom said she had a business conference in a few months and would have to be away for a while.

His dad said he had received an offer for a role in a drama and would have to be away for a while for closed-set filming, with an uncertain start date.

Zhan Yan suddenly realized a serious problem: his parents’ upcoming absences would be completely synchronized. Once would be fine, twice would be fine, but three times, four times? Would the filming schedule always perfectly coincide with company business?

His parents weren’t fools; it would be a miracle if they didn’t notice something was wrong!

Ahhh, what to do? Just thinking about it was despairing.

He had to find a way to change this arrangement.

However, the powerful figures were experienced and had gone through many hardships. The bit of credibility “Approaching Science” had accumulated wasn’t enough to persuade them. Or rather, no one could make them lower their guard on a matter that could affect the entire world, unless a better plan emerged that could replace the current one.

Zhan Yan was clueless for a moment, but then he thought of someone who might be useful: the Artisan.

The Artisan came from the post-apocalyptic world.

Others had also thought of what Zhan Yan had thought of.

The Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau was also frantically trying to contact the Artisan during the meeting, but the Artisan hadn’t replied. He hadn’t even read the messages.

Ning Xi came out of the meeting and asked the person in charge of contact about the situation. Upon learning that the Artisan hadn’t replied, Ning Xi’s brows furrowed even tighter.

“Could it be that he just hasn’t seen it yet?” the contact person asked.

“Impossible. The Artisan comes from that world, so he must have felt the Gravity Tide. He’s a smart person; he would surely know we would contact him next. He’s intentionally not looking at the messages.” Ning Xi thought of another point. “Or maybe he’s caught up in something, which is preventing him from looking at the messages.”

But whether he was intentionally not looking, or was tied up by some unknown matter, at a time right after the Gravity Tide had just occurred, it was not a good omen.

“Go investigate.”

Whichever guess it was, they needed to know what the Artisan was doing now.

Inside the workshop, Zhan Suiru sat cross-legged on the carpet, tinkering with the intricate mechanical structure inside the doll butler’s chest.

The doll butler also sat obediently on the carpet, motionless, letting Zhan Suiru tinker, only its mouth seemed to be stuck on repeat: “You have a new message notification. You have a new message notification. You have a new message notification…”

He was giving Zhan Suiru a headache. “Move the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau messages out of the priority notifications.”

The doll butler: “I suggest…”

Zhan Suiru: “Shut up, no suggestions allowed!”

The doll butler closed its mouth, aggrieved.

New messages were still constantly being sent, all stored inside his body, read and understood from the moment they were sent—understood. This word now had a special meaning for the doll butler.

Before, he could also read and understand this information. This was a necessary part of assisting Zhan Suiru’s work; he could judge the type of information through “understanding” and do a preliminary classification.

For him, the meaning of “understanding” ended there.

But now, the act of “understanding” had taken on some other meanings for him.

Among the messages from the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau, some words caught his attention, some sentences were read by him repeatedly. This unfamiliar instinct combined into a feeling he had just experienced—discomfort.

It took him a while to confirm this feeling he had only experienced once—because when Zhan Suiru was sitting across from him chattering away, the feeling became very unclear.

Zhan Suiru was performing a not-so-routine inspection on him. The process was drawn out, taking five times the usual time and still not finished.

Zhan Suiru had noticed the change in Xiao Ran. Fearing the process of change would cause damage, she began the inspection and adjustment, but she also feared that new adjustments would hinder this change.

This made her more and more hesitant with each disassembly and adjustment. And before finishing this work, she didn’t want to deal with any trouble. The Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau was the trouble of all troubles.

Without even trying, Zhan Suiru knew what kind of attitude the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau had towards her now. It was nothing more than wanting to get information from her but not daring to fully trust her, worrying that she still cared for the post-apocalyptic world and might do something bad to this world for the sake of her own. Then they would start with endless probing, persuasion, and attempts to bring her under control.

Control freaks are all paranoid.

After a while, the doll butler thought of what to say: “I believe that your current avoidance of contact with the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau will only make future contact more troublesome.”

Zhan Suiru was actually unable to say the four words “No believing allowed.”

So the doll butler started nagging in her ear incessantly.

Zhan Suiru endured it.

After nagging for a while, the doll butler suddenly inserted a new broadcast: “You have a new message notification.”

Zhan Suiru: “Turn off all message notifications.”

The doll butler paused for a moment, as if a person wanted to say something but couldn’t find the right words. Its mouth opened and closed a couple of times. “This message is from Approaching Science.”

Zhan Suiru looked at him suspiciously. “You have a favorable impression of him?”

Xiao Ran had never been so proactive in wanting her to see a certain message—except for mission messages.

What was so special about Approaching Science? Isn’t he just an information-type? Apart from two missions, they had no other interactions.

But dealing with Approaching Science was always easier than dealing with the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau.

Zhan Suiru wiped her hands. “I’ll go check Approaching Science’s private message. You are not allowed to nag about the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau’ messages anymore.”

The gears in the doll butler’s pupils spun a few times, agreeing to this deal.

Zhan Suiru opened Approaching Science’s private message.

She was met with several large pictures, all of a keychain. The style was ordinary, very common.

Approaching Science: “Do you recognize this item?”

Zhan Yan speculated that this keychain was related to the Artisan.

First, the item description for the keychain included “the dead air of decay and decline,” a description that fit the post-apocalyptic world well.

Second, Zhan Yan had already seen the Artisan in a dream, but after checking his system backup, he hadn’t come into contact with anyone similar on the day he had that dream.

The last time he dreamed because of the Candle Dragon’s power was after contacting the Wanyan Ghost King, and he dreamed of the Wanyan Ghost King’s past.

According to this pattern, he should have dreamed of the Artisan’s past only after coming into contact with the Artisan. If it wasn’t because he had contacted the Artisan, could it be that the keychain itself was related to the Artisan?

But the sample size was too small; these were all just speculations.

Zhan Yan decided to use this speculation to try and get closer to the Artisan first.

He had already seen in his gossip system that the Artisan didn’t want to deal with the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau. This was very worrying. Zhan Yan had very little confidence in his relationship with the Artisan. He was racking his brains trying to figure out how to persuade the Artisan to help.

Zhan Suiru looked at all the photos carefully.

These photos showed its front, back, outer ring side, and inner ring side details clearly, not missing any detail.

But this still didn’t change the fact that it was just a very common keychain.

Approaching Science wouldn’t be playing a trick on her with an ordinary keychain, but for such a mass-produced item without any special markings, what could be seen from just a picture?

Zhan Suiru was about to ask more when she suddenly noticed Xiao Ran’s gaze. The gears in his pupils spun, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, like the dilation and contraction of a feline’s pupils when thinking.

“Do you recognize this thing?” Zhan Suiru asked.

“No record in the memory,” the doll butler said. But his gaze remained fixed on it.

It was normal for there to be no record in his memory. Xiao Ran’s memory was rebuilt in this world. It wasn’t Yang Ran’s memory, just the memory of a doll butler.

But he was reacting to this keychain. If this keychain was an old item from the post-apocalyptic world that had drifted into this one, did that mean his soul was indeed still preserved in that cracked ability core? Was he reviving?

Zhan Suiru’s fingertips trembled.

Approaching Science mistakenly thought this item was related to her; in Approaching Science’s view, she was the Artisan. But in the post-apocalyptic world, the original Artisan was Xiao Ran.

The more Zhan Suiru thought about it, the more she felt this was possible. She hoped it was so.

Xiao Ran couldn’t possibly have developed a favorable impression of Approaching Science just because of their two mission interactions.

Artisan: “Can’t confirm. I need the physical object.”

“How do we trade?”

Approaching Science didn’t want anything, only hoped that she would contact the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau and tell them about the situation in the post-apocalyptic world.

Zhan Suiru: …

Why did it circle back to dealing with the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau again?

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