GRMFBS CH182

The storm on the internet didn’t cause any impact on Zhan Yan’s life. He didn’t have a main Weibo account, so people who wanted to dig into him had nowhere to dig. His schoolmates did recognize him, but they were currently doing their internships, so everyone was scattered far and wide. The veterinary station here was also in a remote place, and the people in the village weren’t interested in video games; they preferred sitting under trees fanning themselves with palm leaf fans and playing chess at dusk, or playing mahjong indoors.

Only the few classmates interning with him knew. After making a fuss and joking around for two days, they also quieted down.

Zhan Yan had also been busy recently and had no time to pay attention to the storms on the internet.

Speaking of which, this wave of traffic brought him more benefits—he now had more information in the network world that he could use to conceal himself.

Zhan Yan spent his time on another network world.

He was still dedicated to finding out from Red Crystal why he had that “very important” intuition.

Although he hadn’t found it for the time being, Zhan Yan was already able to confirm a few things.

He suspected that Red Crystal was a survivor from the apocalyptic world, just like the Artisan. But Red Crystal was also tight-lipped, so it wouldn’t be very easy to pry any information out of her.

Then Zhan Yan noticed that Red Crystal’s mood seemed not too good these past few days.

Zhan Yan: “What’s wrong? Is your NPC creation not going smoothly?”

After figuring out how to build rooms and items using data, Red Crystal started researching how to build NPCs using data. Zhan Yan hadn’t practiced this, but Play Games With Me and Wan Shitong were very adept at it. Red Crystal sought them out.

Because Red Crystal had already finished learning the network-type basics from him, it went very smoothly when she went to fool Play Games With Me and Wan Shitong, and they didn’t realize she was a newbie at all.

Those two merely thought the big shot Red Crystal wasn’t skilled at creating NPCs.

Zhan Suiru: “Nothing.”

She was very quick to pick up NPC creation. Making puppets was originally her strong suit; now it was just swapping out real-world materials for data in the network.

But even after building the NPC, it was still a drop in the bucket for her current predicament.

There was pollution in Xiao Ran’s ability core. Zhan Suiru was very adept at clearing pollution, but that required her psychic power. Yet she was unable to project her psychic power outside her body in reality.

She had thought about following the cultivators’ method, gradually transforming her psychic power into divine sense, and then utilizing divine sense to clear the pollution. But the ability system and the cultivators’ cultivation system were completely different; she had tried, and it was very difficult. If she waited until she succeeded, who knew how long that would take.

Yang Ran’s soul was right inside the ability core. He could be subjected to pollution at any time, or perhaps he had been constantly subjected to pollution. This pollution could only have been brought out from the apocalyptic world.

In other words, he had already endured it for twenty-six years.

How much longer could he hold on?

How much time did she have left?

Zhan Suiru felt unparalleled anxiety.

The other method was to find a way to guide Yang Ran’s mind into the network, where she could utilize her psychic power within the network to clear the pollution for him.

But this method first faced a difficult problem: how to guide Yang Ran’s mind out.

Wanting to guide his mind out required resolving the cracks on the ability core, and perhaps also resolving the pollution inside. But resolving the cracks and pollution on the ability core required psychic-type abilities. Xiao Ran’s manufacturing ability was ineffective for this.

Seek help from others?

No, she couldn’t trust others. Moreover, it had been almost twenty-seven years since they came to this world, yet the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau’s progress in methods to clear pollution remained slow.

The cultivators’ divine sense had a stronger resistance to pollution than psychic power, but it wasn’t as effective as psychic power in clearing pollution for others.

The modified concept both protected this world from being easily swallowed by Infinite, yet also restricted part of this world’s development.

If she could break through the limitation of the mental concept…

Zhan Suiru temporarily suppressed this thought.

Zhan Yan began scrolling through Red Crystal’s gossip threads, but didn’t find any issues. Sigh, this was also a big shot whose information depth was very hard to dig into.

Zhan Yan pondered for a while and decided to stop thinking about it. Tomorrow, Mom was coming to visit him. He had already negotiated a price with the person who contracted the lotus pond, so they could pick flowers, lotus seedpods, and lotus leaves, and also rent his small boat for a day.

Zhan Yan still felt a little regretful. The scenery here was quite nice, but there just weren’t many places to play. As the Tianshi, Mom had also been to many places and seen many sceneries, so the sights here probably wouldn’t be considered novel to her. It would be great if there was something interesting happening.

At the same time, a half-person-tall weasel was stealthily sneaking back into the village.

Weasel Twenty-Four was extremely unreconciled after being chased away by Wan Yan Ghost King. He activated his connections to inquire everywhere, but hadn’t heard of such a cat demon in the demon race.

Living to such a ripe old age, this was the first time his grandpa was bullied like this by a cat, and it was even seen by so many demons in the clan! He couldn’t swallow this anger!

Later, he finally found out from a highly experienced grandpa in the clan that the super fierce little white cat turned out to be Wan Yan Ghost King.

Weasel Twenty-Four swallowed his anger.

But after swallowing it, he was still very unhappy—he was almost becoming the laughingstock of his clan!

Originally, Weasel Twenty-Four had wanted to give up on asking Mi Man for a title, but after being chattered at and mocked by other weasels, he couldn’t take it anymore. No, he had to make up for it a little!

Making up for it from Wan Yan Ghost King was impossible. Weasel Twenty-Four shifted his gaze to Mi Man.

If he could successfully implement asking for a title in a foreign language, then he would be the first in his clan! And the reason he failed to ask Mi Man for a title before was because of Wan Yan Ghost King; if he could successfully ask Mi Man for a title, it would also prove in a sense that he wasn’t afraid of Wan Yan Ghost King!

Weasel Twenty-Four inferred from the forum posts that Wan Yan Ghost King had already left that place, and probably wouldn’t return in the short term. Not to mention, Wan Yan Ghost King only told him not to cause trouble for his cook. Mi Man wasn’t Wan Yan Ghost King’s cook anyway.

Weasel Twenty-Four decided to sneak back to the veterinary station; he absolutely had to successfully ask Mi Man for a title!

The next day, Zhan Yan went to the intersection to pick up his mom.

His mom’s car hadn’t arrived yet, and Zhan Yan’s mind wandered, beginning to dub a voiceover for himself in his head.

Standing at this intersection, he couldn’t help but think of the scene where Kitty Wan Yan pounced on his brother.

Right here, right at this plain, ordinary, and even slightly shabby intersection, he witnessed a historic meeting between Wan Yan Ghost King and Ghost King Lin Yuan, and his brother dropped his persona right then and there.

And he couldn’t say anything about all of this. Only he, this shabby intersection, and perhaps a few sparrows flying by at the time, witnessed it all together.

The car in the distance drew closer and closer. Soon, this seemingly ordinary but actually extraordinary intersection would welcome the descent of the Tianshi big shot…

“Yan Yan!”

“Mom! I missed you so much!”

The voiceover was interrupted as Zhan Yan threw himself into the Tianshi big shot’s arms.

They hadn’t seen each other for several months!

Ji Yueming hugged her youngest son and ruffled his head of little curly hair, feeling completely contented.

Even if she couldn’t see Old Zhan, seeing her son was also very happy.

“Mom, let’s head straight to the lotus pond. There’s a pergola over there, we can rest there.” He had prepared the snacks and even borrowed a rattan rocking chair from someone. Sitting by the edge of the lotus pond with a gentle breeze blowing the scent of lotus flowers, how wonderful!

Ji Yueming smiled brightly and ruffled his hair again: “Sure.”

When the two went over, they happened to bump into Mi Man. Mi Man enthusiastically wanted to treat the two of them to lotus shoots.

Zhan Yan’s cooking was too good; he had actually gained three jin during this period.

While the three were chatting in the pergola, Weasel Twenty-Four stealthily arrived.

He popped out his small, round head to take a look.

Mi Man was there, that untouchable cook was also there, and there was an extra unfamiliar woman.

Tsk, troublesome. Better wait a bit, wait until that cook separates from them.

The lotus pond owner happened to row his boat over. The boat was loaded with many lotus seedpods, and he waved his hand inviting them to take some.

Zhan Yan ran to the water’s edge to carry the lotus seedpods.

The lotus pond owner was very enthusiastic—Zhan Yan gave too much money. He pulled Zhan Yan to chat, telling him how all these things were best eaten.

Weasel Twenty-Four took a look at the old man driving the boat. He remembered this old man was super chatty, and wouldn’t finish chatting anytime soon.

Now that the cook wasn’t there, only Mi Man and that unfamiliar woman were in the pavilion. Just an ordinary woman, what was there to care about?

Weasel Twenty-Four decided to seize this good opportunity!

He used the blind spot to approach the pavilion from an angle Zhan Yan couldn’t see, preparing to cast a small spell first to hide the commotion here, preventing that cook from seeing it and rushing back.

Mi Man suddenly felt a chilling breeze. He rubbed his arms, goosebumps rising all over his body.

“It’s just gloomy and chilly by the water, huh, and it’s almost July…”

Weasel Twenty-Four prepared to form a hand seal, when suddenly his vision went black.

Ji Yueming knocked out Weasel Twenty-Four and smilingly picked up the conversation: “The moisture is a bit heavy by the lotus pond. Teacher Mi, how is Zhan Yan’s internship going here?”

Why was there even a weasel that had become a spirit here? This was way too unsafe! She’d have to check the little silver lock on Yan Yan later, and find time tonight to inspect the entire vicinity!

Mi Man suddenly felt the cold wind disappear. While still bewildered, he was led off-topic by Ji Yueming. After chatting for a few sentences, Mi Man inexplicably felt a faint oppressive aura from Ji Yueming, and naturally felt it was time for him to leave.

Ji Yueming was very satisfied.

Next was family bonding time!

After spending a happy day with Yan Yan, Ji Yueming was preparing to head back. Yan Yan was interning, with a total of two rest days on the weekend; she would leave one day for Yan Yan to rest himself. The child was grown up, she couldn’t keep him company all the time.

Zhan Yan reluctantly saw his mom off, and after returning, did his daily flip through the gossip threads in the special focus section.

[The Tianshi, Ji Yueming, brought back special local products including lotus leaves, lotus seedpods, lotus shoots, and Weasel Twenty-Four.]

Zhan Yan: ???

Hold on, what kind of thing got mixed in with the special local products?

Zhan Yan scrolled back through the gossip threads and discovered Weasel Twenty-Four, who was unreconciled and sneaked back.

Zhan Yan: …Tell me, why do you hold grudges so much? Look, you flipped your car again, didn’t you?

Continuing to scroll, Zhan Yan found that his mom had also swept the vicinity, catching one, two, three, four, five… a total of seventeen weasels who secretly followed Weasel Twenty-Four to watch the fun, and they were included in the “etc.” of the special local products.

Zhan Yan: …Wait, is watching the fun an inherent trait of you weasel spirits?

His mom first made a trip back to the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau, hauled a string of weasels back, and even distributed some lotus seedpods to her colleagues working overtime.

Weasel Twenty-Four: …

He arrived inside the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau without seeing clearly what happened.

Ji Yueming was in a very good mood after resolving her son’s work safety issues while visiting him.

She received a phone call from Luo Luoluo, who brought her some not-so-good news:

Lan Xiqiao had just called to apologize. Because her competitor used this opportunity to buy big V accounts and internet water armies to smear her, Zhan Yan also got dragged into it.

Ji Yueming’s mood instantly became not too wonderful.

“Tell little Lan not to overthink it, this matter has nothing to do with her, it’s not her fault, she’s also a victim,” Ji Yueming said calmly. “As for those people who dared to involve my son, Luoluo, you know what to do, right?”

Luo Luoluo: “Rest assured! I understand!”

Zhan Yan also quickly heard the news on the internet from his classmates. Some people were hinting that Lan Xiqiao was able to become popular because she had a financial backer, and Zhan Yan was that mysterious financial backer behind the scenes.

None of his classmates believed it.

They had all seen with their own eyes how clingy Zhan Yan and Big Shot Gu were; what Zhan Yan liked were men.

Both Chu Chengcheng and Cheng Yichu, the two fans, were filled with righteous indignation, and comforted Zhan Yan: “Don’t take it to heart, you can tell at a glance these are just petty tricks by stupid and bad people.”

Zhan Yan wasn’t angry; it wouldn’t affect him anyway. He’d just treat this extra traffic as adding bricks and tiles for his concealable information. However, this matter couldn’t be left to ferment forever.

Zhan Yan opened the Gossip System, preparing to first investigate who the mastermind behind the scenes was, and then serve him a grand gift package of exposing his dark history. If he coincidentally had also committed illegal and disciplinary acts, he would add a one-stop reporting service on top.

However, before either Luo Luoluo or Zhan Yan had time to make a move, all the malicious comments related to Zhan Yan on the internet vanished.

[Red Crystal cleared out all malicious information related to you on the network.]

Zhan Yan: ???

What rhythm was this? Why did Red Crystal clear out the malicious comments related to him? Did he drop his persona in front of Red Crystal?!