GRMFBS CH193

Zhan Yunkai was deeply disappointed, suddenly losing all interest in going home.

With his wife not at home, what difference did it make whether he went back or not? Forget it, he wouldn’t go back, and would just continue working overtime.

Zhan Yunkai decided to ask Approaching Science whether the Monster Doctor had found any new Candle Dragon Remnants to snatch.

Zhan Suiru also saw it in the group chat and silently lit a candle for her father.

She sat cross-legged on the sofa, a stray lock of hair hanging across her forehead. Simulated sunlight shone through the simulated window, faithfully reflecting the time outside.

Morning had arrived. Unknowingly, she had pulled another all-nighter.

Xiao Ran stood in front of her to her right, bringing her breakfast while using a disapproving gaze to condemn her recent habit of frequently staying up late.

Another “Zhan Suiru” puppet stood to her right. This was the fruit of her staying up for several nights recently.

“Zhan Suiru” also let out a yawn: “I want to catch up on my beauty sleep.”

Zhan Suiru blinked: “Not right now. In a couple of days, you need to go meet our younger brother.”

She had done her best to make this puppet identical to herself, but it would only truly pass the test if it made it through the family hurdle.

Her parents weren’t home recently, and it was better not to make things difficult for her socially phobic brother, so she had to look for Yan Yan.

Yan Yan was very sharp. If it could fool Yan Yan, presumably this puppet would also be able to fool the rest of the family.

Zhan Suiru gave the puppet one final check, stretched her back, and sent a message asking her brother which day he was free.

On the other end, yesterday, Zhan Jinli had finished beating up Ghost King Tie Lao, who hadn’t fought back.

Ghost King Tie Lao didn’t dare fight back. Not fighting back meant it would end after taking a beating; otherwise, if Senior Lin Yuan unleashed his Interdependent Fortune and Misfortune divine ability, he wouldn’t be able to bear it.

How had he been so busy that he forgot to switch the puppet to another office?!

Zhan Jinli cracked his wrists, sparing the sensible Ghost King Tie Lao: “That puppet…”

He suddenly received a transmission from the five little ghosts. He had arranged for the five little ghosts to watch the shop, and on the other hand, to look after his family. The five ghosts would never contact him recklessly unless there was an emergency.

Zhan Jinli paused and began reading the message.

His younger brother went to his bakery and took a bunch of bread and cakes he had made???

What was his brother taking those for? He couldn’t eat anything that sweet.

Zhan Jinli still remembered the agonizing expression his younger brother made when he accidentally ate a piece of bread he had baked at home last time.

Zhan Jinli pondered for a long time without figuring out why Zhan Yan took so much bread, feeling extremely worried, and no longer had the heart to chat with Ghost King Tie Lao.

“Deal with this yourself, I have something to take care of and need to leave first.”

After speaking, Zhan Jinli left, looking visibly in a great hurry.

Ghost King Tie Lao: What kind of message was so important? Why couldn’t such an important message have come a little earlier? He could have taken one less beating.

Ghost King Tie Lao looked around. The “Lin Yuan” puppet was still bound by ghostly energy. Having watched the entire chaotic spectacle, it praised: “As expected of this seat! Even this seat’s imitator and follower is this strong!”

Ghost King Tie Lao: …This thing really does need an adjustment.

He couldn’t bear to destroy it. A puppet with this level of advanced intelligence and martial prowess had not come cheap.

He’d wait until he could get the Artisan to help tweak the puppet’s personality settings and change its appearance, then continue letting it work.

Oh right, where was that cat demon?

In the farthest corner from his office, Ghost King Tie Lao found the curled-up cat demon ghost.

The cat demon ghost was utterly helpless. He knew he had seen things he shouldn’t have, but he hadn’t wanted to! He wanted to run, to hide as far away as possible. He was even fine with forfeiting this month’s wages.

However, this grand hall was Ghost King Tie Lao’s Dharma artifact; if Ghost King Tie Lao didn’t open it, he couldn’t run out at all!

He could only helplessly watch as Lord Tie Lao was beaten for a full round by Lord Lin Yuan.

What caused even more despair was that he was the only living—or dead—soul at the scene; that puppet didn’t count.

Tie Lao lifted him out. The shivering cat demon looked at him pitifully: “Meow…”

Tie Lao indeed didn’t really want to keep this cat demon ghost who had witnessed his dark history around, so he made a suggestion to the cat demon ghost: “Do you want to reincarnate? You’ve contributed quite a bit during this period, so I can bump up the grade of your rebirth destination by one rank.”

After being refined through Reincarnation, the cat demon wouldn’t remember a single thing, hehe!

The cat demon ghost’s eyes lit up, and he began nodding vigorously.

Yes, yes!

He never planned to become a ghost cultivator; switching from demon cultivation to ghost cultivation was incredibly difficult, and the ultimate goal of his hard labor had always been to get a good rebirth and cultivate all over again!

“Lord Tie Lao, could you let me keep the memories of my past life? I don’t want the underworld memories, just let me remember a little bit about cultivating when I was alive, is that okay?”

Ghost King Tie Lao granted the cat demon ghost’s tiny wish, pulled out the Ghost King’s Mark to stamp him, and sent him into the Ming He River to reincarnate.

After sending off the cat demon ghost, Ghost King Tie Lao reattached his office doors and worried over the “Lin Yuan” puppet.

Sigh, right now the Artisan wasn’t taking messages or tasks. When would this puppet ever get adjusted? Before it was properly adjusted, it was best not to let it appear. Hopefully, Senior Lin Yuan would cool down soon and come back to help him with his work…

Senior Lin Yuan had already rushed back to The Bakery via the Yin Road.

He had to see what was going on with his own eyes.

The five little ghosts scrambled to recount what had happened to him, interjecting heavily with words like “It was all his idea!”, “I tried to stop him!”, and “They all had a part in it!”

Zhan Jinli swept his eyes over them.

The five little ghosts shut their mouths instantly, shrinking back obediently.

Lord Lin Yuan’s aura was so imposing! Was he about to officially start the storyline of his triumphant comeback?

Zhan Jinli opened the freezer.

More than half of the bread he had stocked before leaving was already empty.

…Did his brother really take all of this? Even if he ate bread for all three meals a day, it would take him several days to finish, wouldn’t it?!

Zhan Jinli pulled out his phone.

Zhan Jinli: [Why did you take so much bread?]

Zhan Yan: [To prank my classmates.]

Zhan Yan: [I lost playing Truth or Dare with them, and they asked me what the most horrifying thing I’d ever eaten was.]

Zhan Yan: [I said it was the bread you made, explosively sweet.]

Zhan Yan: [They refused to believe me.]

Zhan Yan: [Bro, could you make a concentrated version next time? Make them into sugar balls, or little biscuits would work too.]

Zhan Jinli tripped up over this request.

He had never heard such a demand in his life!

Zhan Jinli paused for a long while before slowly typing out a single word: [Okay.]

Fine. If it’s pranking classmates, then pranking classmates it is. As long as his younger brother hadn’t suddenly changed his tastes and started devouring his bread wildly, it was fine.

Seeing his brother’s reply, Zhan Yan breathed a gentle sigh of relief.

Very good, as long as his brother’s logistical resupply kept up, he could continue frantically flipping through gossip threads!

Mmm, his older sister wanted to come see him. He hadn’t seen her in several months either; by seizing the time to interact with her more this time, maybe he could find related keywords and dig up more of the things his sister did under her Red Crystal persona. What kind of relationship did she actually have with the Artisan, and why had a fragment of the Artisan’s apocalyptic world been handed to his sister? The Artisan’s trouble must never drag down his sister…

Ah, dad also sent him a message, still using his Demon King persona. Since mom wasn’t home, did he not plan on going home either?

Rolling the bread into balls, Zhan Yan stuffed them in while beginning to search through all sorts of gossip threads.

Helping the big shot Deep Shadow investigate the Monster Doctor, cooperating with the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau to investigate the Book of Secrets, helping his dad look for Candle Dragon Remnants, and most importantly, the Artisan.

So busy, so busy. Continue stuffing bread balls.

Zhan Yan stuffed bread balls for two consecutive days, completely failing to notice that his WeChat inbox had once again been blown up by his ordinary social circle, until Bao Qingshan came knocking on his door.

“Zhan Yan, are you hungry? Come out and grab a bite to eat?”

Zhan Yan was deeply immersed in the gossip threads: “You guys eat, I’m not hungry.”

Bao Qingshan used all his persuasion to finally pull him out. Zhan Yan remembered—oh, right, they had agreed beforehand that he would cook while the others bought groceries and washed the dishes. He hadn’t cooked a single thing for two and a half days.

Zhan Yan shut down the Gossip System. Walking out of his room, he discovered Mi Man was there too, with several lunch boxes laid out on the table, all freshly cooked and packed from outside. In addition, there were fruits, yogurt, and the like.

[Mi Man, Bao Qingshan, Chu Chengcheng, and Cheng Yichu are extremely worried about your condition; after discussing it, they believe you might be under too much pressure from the online turmoil, causing you to frantically eat sweets to relieve stress.]

Mi Man greeted him: “Come help me taste this, see if my cooking skills have passed the test!”

Chu Chengcheng: “Do you want an apple? I just bought these, they’re super sweet.”

Cheng Yichu: “There’s also yogurt, this brand is my favorite.”

Zhan Yan felt a slight warmth in his nose.

Wuwuwu, his teacher and classmates were truly wonderful!

But he was really stuffed!

He had just finished scarfing down a massive pile of bread balls…

And what on earth was this online turmoil?

Everyone’s good intentions couldn’t be spurned, so Zhan Yan forced himself to eat a little more.

“I, burp, thank you guys, burp. But I really, burp, really can’t eat, eat anymore.”

Everyone hurried to dissuade him.

Stop eating, stop eating, don’t end up making yourself sick from overeating.

Zhan Yan scrolled through his message box and gossip threads to finally figure out what had happened.

It was still about that game advertisement. With the game launching soon, official announcements were releasing daily teasers about its content. Seeing that their young boss’s popularity was peaking, the person in charge took the opportunity to release the character design played by the young boss.

It wasn’t even a text-based character profile, but a fully animated short. Qi Ye had personally made time to take up the mantle. A network-type powerhouse’s technique combined with her orthodox artistic aesthetic made this ten-minute animation exquisite enough to be hailed as a piece of art; although the plot was simple, it was deeply moving.

What a flawless tragic hero—sunny and cheerful on the surface, but secretly scheming and fond of pulling pranks.

This animation broke out of its niche and went viral, causing Zhan Yan, whose popularity had not yet subsided, to blow up once again.

Following the surge in popularity, all sorts of critiques and speculations arrived in droves.

His sister had been busy recently, so she wasn’t able to purge all the malicious comments as cleanly as before.

So it was because of this. Ah, online noise wasn’t important. He would just treat it as granting him a few extra “information concealment points.”

Zhan Yan managed to fudge past the matter of eating bread, but he couldn’t fool Old Bao—he remained convinced that Zhan Yan was still secretly stuffing himself with sweet buns.

Bao Qingshan was terribly worried, constantly hesitating to speak around him every day. Zhan Yan was helpless against the “inspiration” inherent to the Dried Pine Ravine, so he could only pretend not to notice.

After another two days, his sister came to visit him.

Snapping out of the gossip threads, Zhan Yan stood at that intersection once more.

Bright sunlight shone down on the road, a few sparrows chattered on the telephone poles, and a yellow dog trotted past the road.

Following Ghost King Lin Yuan and the big shot Tianshi, this intersection was now about to welcome the big shot Red Crystal!

Ah, what a miraculous intersection this was!

Zhan Yan continued providing mental voiceover narration for himself.

His sister’s car stopped next to him. Opening the passenger door, she waved to him: “Get in.”

Zhan Yan got in the car and gave his sister directions.

Having scrolled through far too much gossip over these past few days, his head felt a little mushy.

This was his first time meeting his sister since uncovering her persona, but he was already an experienced and knowledgeable person now; his sister shedding a persona could no longer get him overly excited.

The route Zhan Yan directed passed by the veterinary station.

A yellow dog stood in front of the veterinary station, barking and cursing loudly into the interior.

Driving the car, his sister glanced in that direction: “Is that the veterinary station where you work? What’s wrong with that dog?”

Zhan Yan didn’t even need to look; he recognized it just from the familiar cussing and barking.

“Yeah. That dog was neutered at the station not long ago; after it recovered, it comes over every single day to shout obscenities. No need to pay attention to it.”

Both the operating vet and Zhan Yan had tried coaxing the dog, and the vet had brought plenty of tasty treats for it, but the dog refused to accept them.

Zhan Yan had asked, and the big yellow dog said it had just managed to court a beautiful little female dog, but with one slice from the vet, its blissful life was gone.

This grudge was massive, so how could it possibly be offset by a mere few cans of food?

Zhan Yan had reached a compromise with it: cursing people was fine, as long as it didn’t bite.

Zhan Yan brought his sister all the way back to their rental accommodations to rest—his sister had brought another mountain of emergency rations in her car, which needed to be put into the fridge first.

“Sis, sit down first, I’ll go get you something to eat.” Zhan Yan happily ran off to wash fruits for his sister.

Bao Qingshan was also in the rental house today; coming out to say hello, he saw Zhan Yan’s sister opening the fridge, planning to stuff the items she had brought inside.

However, once she opened the fridge, she froze in place, standing motionless for a long time.

Through the puppet’s camera, Zhan Suiru saw the situation in the fridge from afar: stacked inside were numerous packages of pastries and bread with very familiar wrappers.

Isn’t this the bread from her brother’s bakery? Why did Yan Yan have so much here? It couldn’t have been given by her brother when he visited last time, could it? Was his brain broken?

Controlling the puppet, Zhan Suiru opened a bag of bread and sniffed it. Ah, this unimaginably sweet scent was indeed her brother’s craft!

Zhan Yan was still by the sink washing fruits, the rushing water drowning out the sounds on this end.

Bao Qingshan took advantage of Zhan Yan washing fruits to report him: “Lately, he’s constantly been eating these extraordinarily sweet things; he can down several bags of sweet bread in a single day.”

Zhan Suiru: …Zhan Jinli, just how did you manage to lead Yan Yan’s tastes astray?!

Zhan Suiru temporarily left the puppet aside, pulled out her phone, and frantically messaged her brother.

Look at what a great thing you’ve done!

Zhan Jinli: [?]

Zhan Suiru had the puppet take photos of the stacks of bread in the fridge and sent them to Zhan Jinli.

Zhan Suiru: [His classmate said he stopped eating real food entirely before, eating your bread for all three meals a day.]

Zhan Jinli was thoroughly shocked.

Zhan Jinli: [How is that possible?]

Zhan Jinli: [It’s that sweet, how could he eat it?]

Zhan Jinli: [Before, even taking a bite of the standard-sugar version put a mask of agony on his face.]

Zhan Jinli: [Besides, he told me before that he took those to prank his classmates.]

Zhan Suiru: [So you knew all along that Yan Yan took a whole bunch of bread and cakes from your shop?]

Zhan Suiru: [Why didn’t you say anything?]

Zhan Jinli: [He said it wasn’t him eating it.]

Zhan Jinli: [Could you be misunderstanding?]

Zhan Suiru: […]

Zhan Suiru: [He said it and you just believed him?]

Zhan Suiru: [Yan Yan knows how to lie.]

Zhan Suiru: [He was the one eating it all. Several of his classmates saw it.]

Zhan Jinli was even more shocked.

The former Ghost King finally realized that his simple-natured younger brother was, in fact, completely capable of spouting absolute nonsense!