GRMFBS CH147

Zhan Yan relayed Deep Shadow’s message to the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau. Nie Yu forwarded the message to several relevant higher-ups.

Tu Yue was stunned into silence, thinking to himself that Deputy Director Ning’s intuition was truly incredible. Ning Xi was also silent. He had only made a conjecture and had not expected it to yield results so quickly.

Only Nie Yu was muttering, “Right now, Artisan is contacted through Approaching Science, and Deep Shadow is also contacted through Approaching Science. I remember his relationship with the Wan Yao Alliance is pretty good too…”

“Right,” Ji Yueming said. “Didn’t the Chongming Demon King pay out of his own pocket to supplement his mission points before?”

Nie Yu replied, “He’s basically become our central liaison for important figures.”

“Captain, do you like him quite a bit too?”

“I think he’s great,” Ji Yueming said.

“A true master player,” Nie Yu declared. “Terrifyingly so!”

Ning Xi rubbed his forehead, repeatedly emphasizing the importance of Approaching Science. In the last two days, the verification results for the news about the apocalypse had come in. The information provided by Approaching Science, Artisan, and Deep Shadow was all accurate.

Approaching Science had contacted them within twelve hours of the gravity tide, providing two pieces of information: the time the apocalypse would make contact and the fact that the apocalypse was already dead. He likely had not been in contact with Artisan at that point, which meant he had discovered this on his own.

Ning Xi’s appreciation for talent welled up again. “Is he still refusing help?”

They had previously worried about Approaching Science’s contamination problem. Tianshi had even proactively contacted him, but the kid only asked how to increase his affinity with animals and made no other requests. He wouldn’t learn the meditation techniques they offered him and refused the free elixirs. Tu Yue mentioned that he had never once asked for help with ability growth or avoiding contamination in any of the information-sharing groups.

Nie Yu had grown accustomed to Approaching Science’s unintentional flexing. “He’s just never suffered from information pollution.”

The talented individual was developing just fine on his own. Ning Xi continued to rub the bridge of his nose, now thinking about the information provided by Deep Shadow and Artisan. Artisan said the apocalyptic world was destroyed by him, with no living things left. Deep Shadow said that the world’s most powerful and terrifying BOSS, the “Lord” Rong Sui, had gone mad.

Why would Artisan destroy his own world? How did he do it? What was his relationship with “Lord” Rong Sui? What happened between them? Where did Rong Sui go? Was he dead? Or did he survive, like Artisan?

To figure these things out, they still needed to find Deep Shadow and Artisan, and the only way to contact them was through Approaching Science. Ning Xi was very uneasy about having such a crucial link controlled by someone else. There needed to be some kind of tie. If not an emotional one, a material one would do.

“Isn’t there anything Approaching Science wants?”

Tu Yue replied, “He’s investigating a player from ‘Infinite’ called ‘Monster Doctor.’ Pure White Puzzle and I have just found some leads recently.”

Ning Xi sighed. “Keep investigating.” Monster Doctor was someone they needed to look into anyway. How could Approaching Science be so incorruptible?

The supposedly incorruptible Approaching Science was, in fact, worrying every day about how to maintain his parents’ secret identities.

One day, in a specialized classroom, Zhan Yan suddenly heard a familiar voice that sounded exactly like his father’s. Zhan Yan whipped his head around.

The student at the next table was watching a video, and the sound of someone singing “Nothing is more beautiful than the evening glow” came from his phone. After just a couple of lines, other students also turned their heads.

“Who’s singing this? That voice is amazing.”

Even through the phone’s poor speaker quality, the voice was undeniably beautiful. The tone was mellow and steady, like sunlight on a babbling spring or the chime of a distant mountain bell.

“I don’t know. It’s a video circulating online. I think it’s some amateur senior choir.”

The student watching the video shared the link in the class group chat for everyone to see. Zhan Yan opened the link. Wasn’t this the community arts troupe his dad had joined? The singer was surrounded by several people, showing only half of his side profile, but Zhan Yan recognized him instantly. It was his dad!

The students around him were still gossiping.

“Whoa, which senior choir is this good! This must be a retired professional singer, right?”
“I’ve never heard a singer with this kind of voice before.”
“Who is the singer?”
“This video has gone viral. Can anyone find the source?”

The link was posted by a major influencer without citing the source, but it already had over a hundred thousand shares and 999+ comments. The top comment was, “Damn, for the first time, I want to go to a concert to hear ‘Evening Glow’.”

Zhan Yan seriously considered it. If he arranged a concert for his dad that overlapped with his own shift, could he get his dad to switch shifts with someone else and not be on duty with his mom?

“Looks like someone’s found the source of the video.”

Zhan Yan snapped back to reality. No, no! The biggest problem was that if his dad’s identity was exposed, his B-list actor persona would become famous again!

Zhan Yan frantically scrolled through the comments. A few people said the man looked familiar, and then he found his dad’s fans.

“That’s our Lao Zhan! I recognized that face in a second!!!”

 “Who’s Lao Zhan?”
 

“Zhan Yunkai, the guy in the red-robed, golden-armored costume who went viral last year.”

 “Oh, I remember him! The food blogger.”

 “Tragic. @ZhanYunkai @ZhanYunkai @ZhanYunkai please come and explain that you are not really a food blogger.”

 “Maybe don’t explain. I’m already drooling over all the soup recipes he’s been posting on Weibo. The other night he tempted us all by posting pictures of the kumquat paste he was making.”

 “The video is so blurry, how can you be sure who it is?”

 “It can’t be Zhan Yunkai, right? He’s in the entertainment industry. If he could sing this well, would he still be a B-list actor?”

 “I wouldn’t believe it if it were anyone else. But knowing how chill Lao Zhan is, it’s really possible.”

 “I’ve never seen an actor who doesn’t participate in any activities besides filming. I suspect he’s a rich kid just doing it for fun.”

 “@ZhanYunkai @ZhanYunkai @ZhanYunkai is the singer in this video you or not?”

Netizens were truly detectives. The video’s source had been tracked down to a video channel for a senior community arts troupe. It was barely managed, filled with performance and practice videos of the elderly members, all unprofessionally shot on a phone propped up on a stand.

The video channel was started by Old Master Tang, the one who made the medicinal paste. The old man liked to document things, but his hard drive couldn’t handle the accumulation of videos over the years. His children taught him to start a video channel and use it as online storage.

After the channel was discovered, someone sent a private message asking if the person in the video was Zhan Yunkai. The old man, unsuspecting and unaware that their “Teacher Xiao Zhan” was a once-famous actor, replied directly: “Yes, he is. Which neighbor are you?”

By the time the old man realized something was wrong, it was too late. His reply had been screenshotted and shared as proof. He frantically called Zhan Yunkai. “Hello? Teacher Xiao Zhan, I’m so sorry, I think I’ve caused you some trouble…”

Zhan Yan watched the text-based live feed in his gossip system. His dad pulled his phone out from his feathers, answered the call, and reassured the old man before turning to contact Xia Yuexian for help.

The damage control failed. It was because Director Liu, whom Zhan Yunkai had once helped out, got involved.

After the screenshot of the old man’s reply circulated, some people remained skeptical, wondering why they had never heard Zhan Yunkai sing if he had such a great voice. Director Liu forcefully shared the post: “One listen and you know that’s Zhan Yunkai’s voice.”

He also enthusiastically replied to netizens in the comments.

Netizen: “If Zhan Yunkai’s voice is that good, why does he use a voice actor?”

 Director Liu: “Because his line delivery is terrible. It’s heartbreaking. How can he sing so well but be unable to speak his lines?”

 Netizen: “How bad is it? I don’t believe you.”

 Director Liu: “I have behind-the-scenes footage to prove it!”

 Netizen: “Well, hurry up and post it!!!”

 “It’s been ten minutes, why haven’t you posted it yet! The suspense is killing me.”

 “Let me see, let me see!”

Director Liu took ten minutes to carefully select a clip from his hard drive. It was Zhan Yunkai’s longest line, over six hundred words of semi-classical text. Most importantly, Zhan Yunkai looked absolutely stunning in his costume for that scene.

In the video, Zhan Yunkai, dressed in a red robe and golden armor, stood by the water. He recited the lines in one breath without stumbling, his voice pleasant and his reading fluent, but completely devoid of emotion. It was like an AI voice from several years ago.

However, the scenery was beautiful and the man was handsome. The netizens’ enthusiasm surged, and they all went to watch the original show. The show had a profit-sharing agreement with the platform, and Director Liu was also an investor, so he was overjoyed.

Viewers who had seen the original came back to complain: “It’s ruined. Now when I listen to the dubbed version, the voice isn’t good enough, but when I listen to the original, there’s no emotion in the lines. What am I supposed to do now?”

Zhan Yunkai’s Weibo comments also exploded.

“Bro, I’m begging you, hold a concert. Why do you insist on acting when you can sing so well?”

 “Let’s have an interview. What has kept you out of the music industry for all these years? Do you just love acting that much?”

 “Please stop acting, you’re really not good at it. Switch careers. I’ve already figured out your next industry. Trust me, I’m a professional fortune-teller. As an actor, you’ll only ever be B-list, but if you become a singer, you’ll skyrocket to fame.”

Zhan Yan watched as a fight broke out in his dad’s comment section.

“Okay, I get why people are telling Lao Zhan to sing, I want to hear it too, but what’s with telling him not to act?!”

 “Do you know what a waste it would be for a face like that not to be on screen?!”

 “How does Lao Zhan’s bad acting affect anyone? He doesn’t take on roles that require great acting anyway.”

Zhan Yan spotted another familiar figure.

Nine Your Head: “What’s so great about this?”

As expected, he was immediately attacked by other users. Zhan Yan checked his gossip feed. Sure enough, the familiar ID belonged to Xiang Liu.

[Nine-Headed Demon King Xiang Liu is using his alternate account “Nine Your Head” to badmouth Zhan Yunkai. He is furious after losing an argument due to being outnumbered.]
…
[Nine-Headed Demon King Xiang Liu is using his alternate account “Nine Your Head” to badmouth Zhan Yunkai. He is very resentful after fighting to a draw.]
…
[Nine-Headed Demon King Xiang Liu has learned that the parrot demon Wu Ying abandoned her research on “breed improvement and demonic aptitude.”]

Zhan Yan read the context around this piece of gossip. Xiang Liu had heard that Wu Ying gave up her research after listening to Zhan Yunkai and felt that Wu Ying considered Zhan Yunkai superior to him, which made him furious. He had also heard about the part where Zhan Yunkai used Tianshi as an example.

Zhan Yan scrolled through the gossip, and an idea suddenly struck him. He decided to start manipulating Xiang Liu.

The first step in manipulating Xiang Liu was to be able to talk to him. The “Approaching Science” account wouldn’t work; everyone knew Approaching Science was a fan of the Chongming Demon King.

Zhan Yan created a new alternate account and joined Xiang Liu’s sock puppet account on the forums in trash-talking the Chongming Demon King. He quickly became an online friend Xiang Liu could chat with. He learned a lot of gossip about his dad from Xiang Liu.

Xiang Liu said Chongming was a hopeless clean freak. Zhan Yan followed the gossip thread and found: [Chongming dislikes how everywhere Xiang Liu goes becomes a swamp and forbids him from entering his territory.]

Xiang Liu also said Chongming had obsessive-compulsive disorder. [Chongming told Xiang Liu to straighten out all nine of his heads before talking to him.] Xiang Liu’s nine heads had been moving around just fine, but after Chongming’s comment, he suddenly didn’t know how to position them comfortably, and his necks were stiff for days.

After getting all the gossip, Zhan Yan helped Xiang Liu connect the dots: Chongming greatly admired Tianshi. Chongming couldn’t defeat Tianshi. Chongming wasn’t particularly close with Tianshi yet. Chongming and Tianshi were scheduled to be on duty together.

An idea popped into all nine of Xiang Liu’s heads. He would switch shifts with Chongming, use the opportunity to befriend Tianshi, and steal the partner Chongming admired! Then, when he argued with Chongming in the future, he could even bring in Tianshi as backup!

Heh heh heh.

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