GRMFBS CH181

Zhan Yan was reading the messages in the family group chat.

Ji Yueming: “I am going home tomorrow.”

“Do any of you want me to bring anything? @All Members”

“Have you finished filming? @Zhan Yunkai”

Zhan Yunkai: “I can’t come back, the crew is busy right now”

“[Sigh]”

Ji Yueming: “It’s fine.”

“I can go visit the set too.”

Zhan Yan had the Gossip System open and watched his dad feeling extremely melancholy while making up excuses to prevent his mom from visiting.

Zhan Yunkai: “The set is closed off, no visits allowed.”

“[Sad]”

Ji Yueming: “Pat pat.”

“@Zhan Jinli Mom found a resort in Wenhai District where you can go fishing, it’s also very quiet and not many people go there.”

“Are you busy at The Bakery right now? If you’re not busy, Mom will accompany you.”

Zhan Yan watched his brother in the Gossip System worrying about how to make his mom believe he really wasn’t interested in fishing anymore. Finally, he decided to just accept it.

Zhan Jinli: “The Bakery is okay for now.”

“Mom, I’m already not interested in fishing anymore.”

Ji Yueming: “@Zhan Suiru How is the situation at the studio? Are you tired?”

“Is there anything you want? Or anywhere you want to go play?”

Zhan Suiru: “Everything is going very smoothly at the studio, I’m not tired at all~”

“I don’t lack anything, I made a lot of money before and bought everything I wanted to buy.”

“Is there anything Mom wants~”

“[Kisses]”

Zhan Yan saw in the Gossip System that his mom was both gratified and melancholy; her eldest son was increasingly less worrisome, her daughter was obedient and sweet, but she also wanted to dote on her own children.

Ji Yueming: “@Zhan Yan Yan Yan, how is the internship going?”

“Is it busy or tiring?”

Zhan Yan: “Not busy, not busy, the veterinary station is only busy during spring and autumn epidemic prevention, that passed long ago.”

“There’s a lotus pond in the village over here, Mom, will you come see me this weekend? I’ll take you out to play!”

Ji Yueming’s spirits lifted.

Zhan Yunkai’s resentment deepened.

His wife originally wanted to come see him.

It was all Xiang Liu’s fault!

He would beat him up when he got back!

Zhan Yan lit a sympathetic candle for Xiang Liu.

Sorry for making Xiang Liu take the blame, but he tricked Xiang Liu into swapping shifts with his dad so his parents wouldn’t drop their personas. So in the end, it was still the fault of dating while wearing personas.

Zhan Yan once again sighed with emotion at how inadvisable it was to date while wearing personas.

After tossing and turning with so many things, it was night again, and classmate Xiao Gu’s goodnight kiss phone call came right on time.

Gu Jiancheng decided not to discuss his sister with Yan Yan for the time being. It didn’t matter, he still had another identity as Deep Shadow anyway; his shadow was inside Yan Yan’s bracelet, so no matter what happened, he could protect Yan Yan. And then, he would continue working hard towards the goal of meeting the parents!

Zhan Yan was very satisfied with classmate Xiao Gu’s tactfulness. Sigh, having not seen each other for so long, he was missing him a bit too. When would he be able to take his boyfriend back to meet the parents?

Calculating the current situation, the approach of the apocalyptic world was actually a pretty good opportunity. The Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau and the Wan Yao Alliance had joined forces like this; with the big shots pairing up as partners and continuously adjusting to each other, wouldn’t their relationship improve? As it kept improving, they could become as close as family…

Tomorrow, he would continue striving towards a harmonious and beautiful future!

Zhan Yan got up early to wash up, exercise, and eat breakfast, mentally calculating his tasks. Pay attention to the big shot Deep Shadow digging out the Monster Doctor, see if Dad’s rotational shift goes smoothly, discover that Brother went to cooperate with the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau and the Wan Yao Alliance to discuss setting up the joint formations in the Underworld, help the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau contact the Artisan, inquire about Red Crystal’s relationship with the apocalyptic world from her…

And Mom was coming over next weekend!

Before he could even start, he suddenly heard two “Holy shits!” coming from the two guys in the next bedroom who hadn’t gotten up yet.

Zhan Yan and Bao Qingshan were eating breakfast; the two looked up, exchanged a glance, and completed the following communication through their eyes:

“Did they scroll to some new video again?”

“Probably, we’ll know in a bit.”

“Let’s keep eating.”

Old Bao never spoke while eating; if he did, he’d get the back of his hand whacked by his great-grandmother with chopsticks when he went back.

His great-grandmother looked scrawny and thin, but she was incredibly strong; one strike with the chopsticks could make a person yelp.

It didn’t take long for the two guys from the other room to emerge with messy hair.

Their eyes were wide open, and they made a beeline for Zhan Yan.

Chu Chengcheng: “Holy crap! Zhan Yan, is this you?”

They held up their phones, showing a game advertisement video.

Zhan Yan went to look at the screen.

Ah, the game advertisement he shot previously was released. Zhan Yan hadn’t paid any attention to it after finishing the shoot; the game was about to be officially launched.

He nodded.

Bao Qingshan had just finished his last bite and also stretched his neck to look.

“Hey Yan, you even went to shoot a commercial! Cool! When did you shoot it—why are you two so excited?”

Both of their faces were red.

Cheng Yichu: “Is that just excitement?”

Chu Chengcheng: “That’s jealousy!”

Cheng Yichu: “You actually collaborated with Lan Xiqiao!”

Turns out, these two were Lan Xiqiao’s fans.

Lan Xiqiao was beautiful; with her background in traditional opera, her acting and singing were both excellent, and she even knew a bit of martial arts. Her temperament was outstanding and charming, which in their eyes, was vastly better than those manufactured traffic stars in the entertainment industry with awkward acting skills who constantly bragged about being beauties or handsome guys. She was their goddess!

Now their goddess had collaborated with their classmate, and their classmate was acting so calm!

Jealousy! Righteous indignation! Why didn’t you show off a bit, you brat? We want autographs, ahhh!

Zhan Yan swallowed his last mouthful of porridge. The two began using both threats and promises to ask how he got to collaborate with the goddess.

Zhan Yan: “Ah… it actually doesn’t have much to do with me. It’s just that hiring a big star was too expensive, so they paired her up with me since I was cheap.”

Zhan Yan received another WeChat message from his sister, forwarding him two links.

Clicking them open, one was the video posted by the official game account, and the other was the video forwarded by Lan Xiqiao using her own account.

Her comment section was currently much livelier than the one under the official game account.

There were fans frantically praising how beautiful she was.

It was indeed beautiful. The makeup artists for them were two highly experienced bird demons with superb aesthetics, so there wasn’t any disharmony of a 3D person cosplaying a 2D image. The filming crew was also the best from Mingtang Pictures, and with Xia Yuexian overseeing it, everything was done to perfection.

There were also some who felt Lan Xiqiao shooting a game advertisement was lowering her status.

“Sister, you’ve even been on the Spring Festival Gala, based on your current achievements you should be transitioning to movies now, right? Right now, you should be carefully selecting even TV dramas, so why did you run off to shoot a game ad? Aren’t these usually shot by washed-up actors?”

“Dying of laughter, fans constantly blow up her traditional opera background like it’s so lofty and high-class, and in the blink of an eye she shoots a game ad. Really taking on any job for money, huh.”

“Is the person in front a fake fan? Didn’t you see Qiaoqiao did this shoot out of friendship and didn’t charge a fee? This game was invested in by Shoude Company.”

“And which obscure little company is Shoude Company from what corner?”

“Dying of laughter, you probably only know a few entertainment companies, right? Calling them a small company. They play with venture capital, and not just to make money. Shoude has made many investments of a public welfare nature; they previously invested in Qiaoqiao’s Meihu Opera troupe for their tour and filming, and that was when Qiaoqiao rose to fame. This is called not forgetting your roots.”

More people focused their attention on Zhan Yan, who collaborated with Lan Xiqiao to shoot the advertisement.

“Does anyone know who the person collaborating with Sister Lan is?”

“The little brother is really good-looking, is he a newcomer the company is going to push?”

“But if he’s a newcomer, why isn’t his name even listed?”

The comment section dug around for a long time but didn’t have any definitive news, only a bunch of wild guesses. The most reliable one was that this was a newcomer Lan Xiqiao’s company was about to strongly promote next, but no official account could be found anywhere.

The people below were split into three groups again. One group felt the newcomer was so handsome they loved it, asking where his account was so they could follow him ASAP; one group felt it didn’t matter who she was paired with, it was all the same; and the final group felt Lan Xiqiao was being leeched off of.

Lan Xiqiao checked with Shoude Company’s side, and seeing that everyone there agreed, she picked a comment to reply to and explain.

Lan Xiqiao: “The little brother is handsome, right hahaha. The little brother is a child from the investor’s family, he got dragged over by his elders to save money.”

“Sister Lan replied to me!!! Sister, point the way! The little brother is too handsome, does he have any willingness to shoot more commercials or TV dramas and stuff?”

Lan Xiqiao: “That’s a no, the little brother is still in school right now, and currently has no plans to enter the entertainment industry. Don’t go disturbing him, okay.”

With this explanation, the comment section became much more harmonious. Partnering with the investor’s child wouldn’t lower her status no matter how you looked at it, and of course, it was also because he was good-looking, so the promotional video looked very harmonious too.

“Does Shoude have any thoughts of investing in film and television dramas? Drag the little brother over again to save money!”

His sister sent a private message again.

Zhan Suiru: “Hahahaha Yan Yan, we’re also good-looking and well-proportioned, shouldn’t you give a big red envelope.”

Zhan Yan: “…Sister!”

Hmph! I still haven’t settled the score with you for wearing a persona and deceiving me!

Zhan Suiru: “Looking at your arm definition, your workouts are very effective.”

Zhan Yan: “Then if I teach you my morning exercises, will you learn them with me?”

In this family, only he and his sister urgently needed exercise and health maintenance; they should start practicing right now!

Zhan Suiru: “Wait until you can beat me in an arm-wrestling match first, Master Yan Yan.”

Zhan Yan: …

Angry!

I wasn’t doing it just to trick you into calling me Master.

Why is Sister’s strength so great?!

After teasing her little brother, Zhan Suiru felt refreshed.

She turned around and beckoned to Xiao Ran: “Come here, stand still, don’t move.”

The puppet butler obediently stood before her.

Zhan Suiru took a deep breath.

After entering the network for so long, her long-dormant psychic power had become sharp again.

In this world, psychic power wasn’t allowed to be utilized directly. Zhan Suiru studied the way the cultivators of this world utilized divine sense; although she couldn’t fully apply it, she did gain some inspiration from it. She was attempting to make her psychic power circulate like a cultivator’s divine sense. Although she currently still couldn’t project it outside her body, she had achieved a tiny bit of success.

Now, she was going to begin trying.

It was very important to find her little brother to relax her state of mind before a crucial attempt!

Zhan Suiru retracted her messy thoughts and quietly gazed at the puppet before her.

The puppet butler’s chest rose and fell with his breathing, the simulated arteries on his neck pulsing rhythmically, his face tranquil, and the gears within his pupils rotating at a constant speed.

Zhan Suiru raised her hand and lightly touched his cheek.

Xiao Ran did not move.

Zhan Suiru cupped his face.

Every bone line on this face was polished by her own hands, and the simulated skin was colored by her own hands. She had used fake skin to cover the mechanical structure, using the abilities originating from Xiao Ran to forge the illusion that he was alive.

Now, she wanted this illusion to become real.

“Now, I suspend all your commands. Before I restart your commands, you do not need to do anything, unless you want to.”

The rotation of the gears within the puppet butler’s pupils halted.

It was as if, after the program’s operation was stopped and commands were lost, the essence of a mechanical creation was revealed.

Zhan Suiru rested her forehead against his.

Massive psychic power circulated within her body, condensing like a dazzling jewel. She strained to project this light outside her body to sense another person’s mind.

Nothing. Nothing. There was nothing.

Only the empty shell of a puppet.

Not enough, not enough, it still wasn’t enough right now.

She needed to press closer, to sense more deeply.

Zhan Suiru embraced the unresponsive puppet.

Her mind sensed with all its might, utilizing everything it could. She delved deep into the puppet’s chest, sensing the secret box hidden within…

“…Sui…”

She sensed it!

A faint will, passing through numerous barriers, gave her a difficult echo.

Zhan Suiru trembled because of this.

The connection between them broke. Zhan Suiru released her hands, staring blankly at the unresponsive puppet before her.

She heard it, and she sensed it too.

Yang Ran’s soul was hidden deep within the ability core, but he couldn’t come out, because of weakness, and because of those densely packed barriers as numerous as shattered mirror shards. Even using all his strength, he could only transmit a tiny, faint echo.

What were those barriers? Was it because of those cracks on the ability core?

Most importantly, why was there the aura of pollution within his ability core?!