GRMFBS CH219

Today, Zhuo Xun, who also wanted to abdicate and make way for the worthy, was lying back in his reclined office chair sunbathing.

Small window open, small breeze blowing, small magazine covering his face—ah, this was comfortable! Especially had that leisure feeling of slacking off at work.

Before seeing Zong Xiaoping himself, Zhuo Xun heard his voice: “Brother Zhuo, something terrible…”

Zhuo Xun remained unmoved.

What could be so terrible again? Always making such a fuss. You hidden Deep Shadow fan—when you encounter something you can’t solve, go beg your idol…

With a bang, Zong Xiaoping slammed open his office door. The second half of his sentence was especially loud: “…Big shot Deep Shadow has been arrested by the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau!”

Zhuo Xun whooshed up from his chair. The magazine fell to the ground, the swivel chair clattered as it slid to the wall, hit it, and bounced back. The small window, driven by the suddenly changing air current in the room, slammed shut hard, hitting the window frame with a loud bang.

Zhuo Xun stood on the office desk, staring wide-eyed down at Zong Xiaoping: “What did you say?!”

The silent corridor became chaotic—everyone had been startled awake by Zong Xiaoping’s shout.

“What what?”

“Deep Shadow was arrested by the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau?”

“Let’s quickly pack up and run!”

“Impossible, right…”

“Who could arrest Deep Shadow?”

“We’re dead—is the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau coming after us? Run run!”

“Didn’t we just cooperate during the apocalypse contact?”

“I knew the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau couldn’t be trusted!”

“Should we run now?”

What was all this?

Zhuo Xun stomped the desk: “Quiet!”

His voice, accompanied by intimidation, spread throughout the entire floor.

The chaotic voices instantly quieted.

“Run what? Wanting to run at the slightest trouble—have some backbone!” Zhuo Xun scolded.

He looked down at Zong Xiaoping: “You too! Can’t you speak properly? Always making a fuss and yelling.”

Zong Xiaoping felt wronged: “Brother Zhuo, this isn’t making a fuss—this is genuinely shocking…”

Zhuo Xun glared at him: “Explain clearly. What’s going on? Where did you get the news that Deep Shadow was arrested?”

Zong Xiaoping: “The forum.”

He opened the forum and showed Zhuo Xun the post.

When Zhuo Xun saw the beginning, he was disgusted: “What is this stuff? A bunch of perverts?”

Zong Xiaoping: “No, Brother Zhuo, let me explain!”

While explaining, he scrolled the post to “Hacker’s” reply, then switched to the hidden task section to show Zhuo Xun where the wanted orders had disappeared.

“Brother Zhuo, look—all three wanted orders are gone. If someone just provided clues, the wanted orders couldn’t be revoked. This must mean he was arrested.” The more Zong Xiaoping thought about it, the sadder he became.

“The Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau really isn’t human! Deep Shadow even helped them before! During the apocalypse contact, such a large area was all cleared by Deep Shadow.”

“What did Deep Shadow do to be wanted by them? Now they’ve arrested him!”

“They’re just prejudiced against us players! Last time Black Wolf came here to fight. The time before, the Tianshi came and arrested the Insect King!”

“Insect King getting arrested was fine… Didn’t you fight with him when mosquitoes bit you in winter?”

“We all honestly retired wuuwuu…”

“What do we do?”

“Demand the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau return him?”

“Pack up and run?”

“Hold another memorial service for Deep Shadow?”

“Stop stop stop!” Zhuo Xun called a halt. “I’ll go check what’s going on first. You all calm down. Just a few years out of Infinite and you’ve all lost your brains?”

Zhuo Xun scolded everyone, very calmly telling them to go do what they should do, having Zong Xiaoping continue monitoring the forum situation. His dignified, calm appearance quickly pacified everyone.

Then he closed his office door, activated the protective array, took out his phone, and started frantically calling Deep Shadow’s number.

Please, big shot, big shot, answer the phone! Don’t have no news wuuwuu!

If even you’ve been arrested by the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau, what will we do? Will we really have to pack up and wander the world from now on?

Gu Jiancheng was on a goodnight kiss phone call with Zhan Yan.

Who said after calling during the day you couldn’t call at night? The arrival-home call was the arrival-home call, the goodnight kiss call was the goodnight kiss call! He not only had to call, he had to call early.

Xiao Gu on their first day apart was very clingy, stickily not wanting to hang up on the phone.

Zhan Yan held his phone, sunk in a bean bag sofa chatting with Gu Jiancheng. After chatting a while, he called a stop: “Wait, let me switch to earphones.”

Otherwise, the phone charm kept swaying—Xingxing on his lap always wanted to reach the charm.

Zhan Yan found a pair of Bluetooth earphones, put them down, then found a wired pair. If the Bluetooth accidentally connected to other devices at home, that would be a disaster.

“When you were renting, were you always playing with Xingxing? I feel like his stamina has been trained up.” Zhan Yan found a cat teaser stick while calling and complaining.

Xingxing wasn’t this lively before—couldn’t even stop during a phone call.

Hearing his name, Xingxing suddenly stopped, looking up at Zhan Yan: “Mew?”

You calling me?

Zhan Yan waved the teaser stick in front of his nose twice more. Xingxing pounced again.

Gu Jiancheng laughed on the other end: “Hey, wasn’t I trying to curry favor with the family?”

Zhan Yan hmph’d. Know you wanted to curry favor. After discovering Rong Sui was my sister, you immediately became willing to work for free, right?

Although the motive was impure, the attitude was correct.

Zhan Yan took another bite of the sweet-savory salted egg yolk meat floss pastry. Mm, sweet and savory, wonderful flavor—Auntie Bai’s skill! His tongue had recovered!

Zhan Yan thought of Gu Jiancheng’s serious eating appearance, plus how his eyes widened the first time eating his dad’s sandwich. Ai ai, Xiao Gu probably couldn’t eat a meal peacefully when in Infinite.

“Where are you now? I’ll send you some pastries.” Gu Jiancheng hadn’t tasted Auntie Bai’s amazing Chinese pastries yet!

Gu Jiancheng was at the Simatela Ocean Trench.

He’d discovered that Yan Yan liked novel places. Like the seafloor, treetops—places ordinary people wouldn’t contact. Although he couldn’t live permanently in these places, he wanted to come see.

In this ocean trench lived several kinds of magical bioluminescent marine life—blue, green, white… Some attached to rocks growing, some could freely swim. Cruising here was like floating in a sea of stars. Yan Yan would definitely love it!

Gu Jiancheng decided to survey all the interesting places in this world first. On the honeymoon, he could bring Yan Yan!

Speaking of novel and beautiful places, Gu Jiancheng couldn’t help thinking of that dream he had.

In the dream, blue seawater underfoot, brocade clouds overhead, transitioning from light orange to deep purple, crimson interweaving with golden radiance. Drop by drop, clouds gently and slowly dripped, melting on the sea surface into warm-colored ripples.

Ai, that place was so beautiful. If only he could go there with Yan Yan—the real Yan Yan.

Too bad it was a dream.

But why would he dream of a 2.3-meter muscular giant Yan Yan?

Gu Jiancheng shook his head, throwing the memory of dragon-head Yan Yan buried in his chest out of his brain.

“Just send it to Nanling Township. I’ll send you the specific address later.”

Nanling Township was a small town near the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau headquarters. In a few days, Gu Jiancheng would be going there to treat Yang Ran. He planned to go early to look around.

Zhan Yan had just seen in the gossip snippets that he’d run to the ocean trench to survey honeymoon travel locations.

Good good good, already thinking about the honeymoon, huh? But have you thought about what reasonable excuse you’ll use to take me to an ocean trench then? Is that place somewhere ordinary people can reach?

The cool filter on real big shot Deep Shadow had almost completely shattered these past two days.

Zhan Yan chatted while crunching on cookies.

Tasted really good.

But he still decided not to give Sister advance preparation that “Dragon Head” was “Approaching Science.”

Hmph, right after he finished scrolling through posts, Sister came over, hugging Xingxing to knock on his door, calling it playing with kitty together while eating gossip. But chatting and chatting, it veered to Gu Jiancheng. She probed and inquired overtly and covertly, even acting hurt at him!

Zhan Suiru always felt her brother was dating a dangerous person. She was very worried. If he were dating an ordinary person, she wouldn’t need to probe so intensely.

“Ai, Yan Yan’s grown up and isn’t close to Sister anymore. We’re no longer those siblings who could eat gossip together and share little secrets.” She hugged Xingxing and sighed, lifting Xingxing’s two front paws to hold in front of the cat’s eyes, fake crying.

Xingxing looked up at her.

How not close? Weren’t you two just snuggling earlier? What’s gossip—is it tasty? Can I have a bite? Why are you lifting my paws?

Zhan Yan hmph’d internally: You have the most little secrets! You have a full four layers of disguises!

Unable to stand Sister’s pestering, he had to pull out his ultimate weapon:

“Oh, Sister has no little secrets from me. Who is that ‘Big Hammer Eighty’ in Qi Ye’s livestream?”

Zhan Yan raised his chin at his sister: “Hmph!”

Zhan Suiru: …Bad, got caught teasing little brother before!

“You’ve been deceiving me all along!” Zhan Yan said he was so hurt, so angry. He decided not to pay attention to Sister anymore.

Now without coaxing little brother properly, there was no way to get information about his boyfriend from him. Zhan Suiru sighed. Teasing little brother brings momentary pleasure; coaxing little brother is a crematorium.

Zhan Suiru was pushed out of her brother’s room.

Looking up, she saw Zhan Jinli holding freshly baked bread, watching her expressionlessly and silently. But Zhan Suiru clearly saw schadenfreude in his eyes.

Zhan Suiru dangerously narrowed her eyes.

Hmph! Just laugh smugly. Your brother and sister are dating and won’t tell you! Single big brother without love’s nourishment!

Zhan Jinli, holding bread, knocked on his brother’s room door.

He felt little brother didn’t seem to accept cake very well. Previously when little brother took things from his cake shop, only the first time did he take cake—afterward, he only took bread.

Although in Zhan Jinli’s view, cake and bread had about the same efficacy, was Yan Yan’s taste just that he preferred bread?

Zhan Jinli glimpsed the opened cookies on the desktop. He suddenly remembered—before, little brother had asked if he could make concentrated versions. Making them into sugar balls or cookies would work.

Got it. The point wasn’t sweet or not sweet. Little brother liked things with a drier, harder texture.

Zhan Jinli decided to start trying to make things like biscuits and sugar frosting.

Zhan Yan, receiving his brother’s loving half-sugar bread, was very happy. He planned to make it tonight’s reserve rations. Before entering the Dawn World, he’d roll it into bread balls and eat it all, ensuring he entered the Dawn World in the best condition to relay Yang Ran’s soul map. This had to be careful—if anything was missed, it basically equaled wasted effort!

After hanging up with Gu Jiancheng, Zhan Yan started rubbing bread balls.

Today he’d eaten a piece of his brother’s cupcake, plus a piece of bread—should be enough to support the gossip system running. If worst came to worst, he’d tell Sister to continue tomorrow. In any case, no detail could be neglected.

Gu Jiancheng, having hung up the phone, was very reluctant, floating in the ocean trench sighing.

He especially wanted to bring Yan Yan here.

Every time he saw starry skies, he’d think of Yan Yan. He always felt Yan Yan and starry skies were especially similar.

Tranquil, vast, inclusive. If he said this to classmates, probably no one would believe it. On the surface, Yan Yan seemed more like that lively personality type with especially good social connections.

But he was good to everyone, yet kept distance from everyone. The starry sky only accepted things because of its own vastness. But acceptance didn’t represent closeness.

Why would Yan Yan put him in his close circle?

Gu Jiancheng stretched out his hand. Small creatures flashing with bioluminescence passed through his fingers.

In this world, there were many places to view starry skies. But even mountains closest to the sky couldn’t reach the lowest drooping corner of the starry sky.

Looking up at the starry sky made it distant and lonely.

But here, it was as if being within the starry sky itself.

Glowing seaweed wrapped around Gu Jiancheng’s fingers.

He thought, here wasn’t lonely.

Another point of fluorescence lit up. A line of text appeared on Gu Jiancheng’s dark phone screen.

“Boss, still need signal continuation?” This was from Wan Shitong.

“No need.” Gu Jiancheng replied.

Wan Shitong was speechless about his boss’s romance brain.

Was an ocean trench a place that could have signal? Couldn’t you wait to float out before calling your little boyfriend?

Wan Shitong felt if what his boss did got exposed, those players who survived from Infinite—count them one by one—their jaws would all drop.

Infinite’s top 1 Deep Shadow, famous for cold calm craziness, now called his boyfriend every single day. Who’d believe it if told? Who’d believe?!

He was curious—what exactly was his boss’s boyfriend? Reincarnation of a nine-tailed fox demon?

At the same time, Wan Shitong, having cut off the signal between the outside world and the Simatela Ocean Trench, didn’t know a man who couldn’t get through had gently shattered.

Zhuo Xun: Why can’t I get through ahhh?!

Big shot, you weren’t really arrested by the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau, were you?!

What to do? Should they mount a rescue? The Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau could arrest even a big shot like Deep Shadow who could overcome aftereffects and explode with full power. Their group—sealed ones sealed, self-crippled ones self-crippled, all retired lying flat with zero cohesion wanting to run at the first sign of trouble—could their small broken organization compete with them?

The Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau suddenly moving against Deep Shadow—did this also represent they were about to move against these players? Give us some sign, big shots! This alliance is full of persecution complex and PTSD patients!!

Unable to control himself, Zhuo Xun started going crazy in his office at the phone: “Ahh big shot, how did you end up in jail? What do we do, big shot—we can’t be without you!”

Gu Jiancheng came out of the Simatela Ocean Trench.

Yan Yan’s family had a sister from the extraordinary world. His disguise would fall sooner or later. When the time came, he’d try to drop the disguise gently in front of Yan Yan, then he could bring him to the ocean trench.

Mm… He remembered previously working with Yan Yan at Zhenke News under the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau. Yan Yan had contacted quite a few extraordinary incidents there. Starting from there should allow him to gradually reveal the world’s truth, then gently drop a disguise? This should be easier to accept.

However, Yan Yan had worked at Zhenke News for an entire summer vacation without being affected at all. His materialist worldview was quite solid… Had to plan properly—don’t stimulate Yan Yan.

Gu Jiancheng fiddled with his phone, trying to take a video in the ocean trench. Even if he temporarily couldn’t bring Yan Yan, he really wanted to share this scene with him.

Gu Jiancheng seriously filmed for a long time.

…What was this black background with white spots? Like a TV with signal problems!

How did Yan Yan film the fireworks last time?

Gu Jiancheng floated out of the ocean trench.

As soon as his phone had signal, he saw Zhuo Xun’s incoming call.

Zhuo Xun generally wouldn’t disturb him without reason.

Gu Jiancheng answered the phone.

On the other end, Zhuo Xun, who’d given up hope of getting through, hadn’t yet noticed. His crazed wailing transmitted over.

Gu Jiancheng was caught off guard by the demonic sound piercing his ears: “…We can’t be without you ahhhh!”

Gu Jiancheng: “? What’s your problem?”

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