GRMFBS CH219

Zhuo Xun, who also wanted to abdicate and yield to someone more capable today, was lying back in his reclined office chair, basking in the sun. With the small window open, a light breeze blowing, and a small magazine covering his face—ah, this was true comfort! He completely had the leisurely mood of slacking off at work.

Before Zhuo Xun saw Zong Xiaoping, he heard his voice: “Zhuo-ge, this is bad…”

Zhuo Xun remained unmoved. How bad could it be? Making a fuss out of nothing all day long. You, a hidden fan of Deep Shadow, should just go beg your idol when you encounter something you can’t solve…

Zong Xiaoping slammed open the office door with a bang, the second half of his sentence exceptionally loud: “…Boss Deep Shadow has been taken away by the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau!”

Zhuo Xun shot up from his chair with a whoosh. The magazine fell to the floor, the swivel chair rolled back with a clatter, hit the wall, and bounced back. The small window, caught by the sudden change in indoor air pressure, slammed shut with a loud crash against the frame.

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

The once-quiet corridor fell into chaos, everyone having been roused by Zong Xiaoping’s howl.

“What, what?”
“Deep Shadow was caught by the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau?”
“Let’s pack our things and slip away!”
“That’s impossible, right…”
“Who could catch Deep Shadow?”
“This is terrible, is the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau going to make a move on us? Run, run!”
“Didn’t we cooperate during the apocalypse border incident?”
“I knew the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau couldn’t be trusted!”
“Are we running right now?”

What was all this?

Zhuo Xun stomped on the desk: “Quiet!”

His voice, carrying a deterrent force, echoed throughout the entire floor. The chaotic noise instantly quieted down.

“Run what run? Wanting to run the moment something happens, do you have any backbone!” Zhuo Xun reprimanded. He looked down at Zong Xiaoping: “You too! Can’t you speak properly? You just have to make a fuss and howl.”

Zong Xiaoping felt wronged: “Zhuo-ge, this isn’t making a fuss out of nothing, this is a genuine shock…”

Zhuo Xun glared at him: “Speak clearly, what happened? Where did you get the news that Deep Shadow was caught?”

Zong Xiaoping: “The forum.”

He opened the forum and pointed the thread out to Zhuo Xun.

Zhuo Xun looked disgusted when reading the beginning: “What is all this? A bunch of perverts?”

Zong Xiaoping: “No, Zhuo-ge, listen to my explanation!”

As he explained, he scrolled down to the reply from “Hacker,” then switched to the hidden quest board to show Zhuo Xun where the wanted posters had disappeared.

“Zhuo-ge, look, all three wanted posters are gone. If someone had merely provided a clue, the wanted posters wouldn’t be revoked. He must have definitely been caught.” Zong Xiaoping grew sadder the more he thought about it.

“The Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau really isn’t human! Deep Shadow even helped them before! When the apocalypse bordered us, such a massive area was entirely cleared out by Deep Shadow.”
“What did Deep Shadow do to be wanted by them? And now they’ve even arrested him!”
“They just have a prejudice against us players! Last time Black Wolf came, they fought right here, and the time before that when Tianshi came, she took the Bug King away!”
“So what if the Bug King was caught… weren’t you looking to fight him when you were bitten by mosquitoes in the dead of winter?”
“We’ve all honestly retired, wuwuwu…”
“What do we do?”
“Go to the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau and demand his release?”
“Pack our bags 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, all of you calm down. You’ve only been out of Infinite for a few years and you’ve already lost your brains?”

Zhuo Xun gave everyone a scolding, then very calmly told them to go back to what they were doing, and told Zong Xiaoping to continue monitoring the situation on the forum. His authoritative and calm demeanor quickly soothed everyone.

Then, he closed his office door, activated the protective formation, took out his phone, and began frantically dialing Deep Shadow’s phone number.

Please, Boss, Boss, pick up the phone! Please don’t let there be no news, wuwuwu! If even you were caught by the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau, what are we going to do? Are we really going to have to pack our bags and wander the world forever?

Gu Jiancheng was calling Zhan Yan for a goodnight kiss phone call.

Who said you couldn’t call at night after calling during the day? The “I’m home” call was the “I’m home” call, and the goodnight kiss call was the goodnight kiss call! Not only would he call, but he would also call early.

On their first day apart, classmate Xiao Gu was very clingy, acting all mushy on the phone and not wanting to hang up.

Zhan Yan held his phone, sinking into the beanbag chair while chatting with Gu Jiancheng. After a while, he paused: “Wait a second, let me switch to earphones.”

Otherwise, the phone charm kept dangling around, and Xingxing, who was climbing on his lap, kept trying to reach for it.

Zhan Yan found a pair of Bluetooth earphones, put them down, and then found a wired pair. If the Bluetooth accidentally connected to another device in the house, it would be game over.

“When you were renting, did you play with Xingxing all day? I feel like his stamina has leveled up.” Zhan Yan found a cat teaser wand and complained while on the phone.

In the past, Xingxing wasn’t this active; he couldn’t even sit still for the duration of a phone call.

Hearing his own name, Xingxing suddenly stopped and looked up at Zhan Yan: “Meow?”

Did you call me?

Zhan Yan waved the teaser wand in front of his nose twice more, and Xingxing pounced on it again.

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

Zhan Yan hummed. I know you want to curry favor with the family. After finding out Rong Sui is my sister, you immediately became willing to work for free, right?

Although his motives weren’t pure, his attitude was very proper.

Zhan Yan took another bite of the sweet and salty salted egg yolk meat floss pastry. Hmm, sweet and salty, the taste was exquisite; it was indeed Aunt Bai’s handiwork! His tongue had recovered!

Zhan Yan thought of Gu Jiancheng’s serious expression when eating, and how his eyes widened the first time he ate the sandwich his dad made. Sigh, classmate Xiao Gu probably couldn’t even eat a meal in peace while in Infinite.

“Where are you right now? Let me mail you some pastries.” Gu Jiancheng hadn’t tasted Aunt Bai’s amazing traditional Chinese pastries yet!

Gu Jiancheng was currently in the Ximataila Trench.

He had discovered that Yan Yan liked novel places. Like the bottom of the sea, the tops of trees—places ordinary people wouldn’t come into contact with. Although they couldn’t live in these places long-term, he wanted to come and take a look.

Several magical fluorescent marine creatures lived in this trench, blue, green, white… some growing attached to rocks, some swimming freely. Swimming here was like floating in a sea of stars. Yan Yan would definitely love it!

Gu Jiancheng decided to scout out all the interesting places in the world in advance so he could bring Yan Yan here for their honeymoon!

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

In the dream, the seawater beneath his feet was azure, and the rosy clouds above his head were like brocade, transitioning from light orange to deep purple, crimson intertwined with golden radiance. Drop by drop, the clouds gently and slowly dripped down, melting into warm-colored shimmering waves on the surface of the sea.

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

What a pity it was a dream.

But why on earth did he dream of a 2.3-meter-tall muscular hunk Yan Yan?

Gu Jiancheng shook his head, throwing the memory of face-planting into Dragon Head Yan Yan’s chest out of his mind.

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

Nanling Township was a small township near the headquarters of the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau. In a few days, Gu Jiancheng would be going there to heal Yang Ran, so he planned to go over early and take a look.

Zhan Yan had just seen in the gossip strip that he ran to the great trench to scout honeymoon travel locations.

Fine, fine, fine, you’re already thinking about the honeymoon, are you? Then have you thought about how to use a reasonable excuse to take me to the great trench when the time comes? Is that a place ordinary people can go to?

The cool filter of the real Boss Deep Shadow was almost completely shattered over these past two days.

Zhan Yan chatted while crunching on the small cookies.

The taste was really good.

But he still decided not to lay the groundwork for his sister in advance that “Dragon Head” was “Approaching Science”.

Hmph, right after he finished skimming the forum thread earlier, his sister came knocking on the door hugging Xingxing, under the guise of playing with the kitty and eating melons together. In the end, the chat veered off towards Gu Jiancheng, with her probing and inquiring both openly and secretly, even acting heartbroken in front of him!

Zhan Suiru always felt her younger brother was dating a dangerous individual. She was very worried. If he were dating an ordinary person, she wouldn’t be probing so urgently.

“Sigh, Yan Yan has grown up and is no longer close to his sister. We are no longer the siblings who can eat melons and share little secrets together.” She sighed while holding Xingxing, lifting Xingxing’s two front paws up to the cat’s eyes to fake cry.

Xingxing looked up at her.

How are they not close? Weren’t you two just cuddling? What are melons, are they tasty? Can I have a bite? Why are you lifting my paws?

Zhan Yan huffed internally: You have the most little secrets! You have a full four layers of secret identities!

Being pestered endlessly by his sister, he had no choice but to pull out his killer weapon:

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

Zhan Yan tilted his chin up at his sister: “Hmph!”

Zhan Suiru: … Crap, I got caught teasing my brother earlier!

“You’ve been lying to me all this time!” Zhan Yan expressed that he was so, so heartbroken, and so, so angry. He decided he was going to ignore his sister.

Now, if she didn’t coax her brother back into a good mood, there was no way she could fish for information about his boyfriend from him. Zhan Suiru sighed. Teasing her brother was fun for a moment, but coaxing him afterward was a total nightmare.

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

She looked up and saw Zhan Jinli holding freshly baked bread looking at her, expressionless and silent, but Zhan Suiru clearly saw schadenfreude in his eyes.

Zhan Suiru narrowed her eyes dangerously.

Hmph! Just you be foolishly happy. Both your younger brother and sister are dating and no one is telling you! You single oldest brother without the nourishment of love!

Zhan Jinli knocked on his younger brother’s door holding the bread.

He felt his brother didn’t seem very receptive to cake. Before, when his brother took things from The Bakery, he only took cake the first time, and afterward only took bread.

Although to Zhan Jinli, the effects of cake and bread were about the same, was it just that Yan Yan’s taste leaned towards bread?

Zhan Jinli caught a glimpse of the opened small cookies on the desk, and he suddenly remembered that his brother had previously asked him if he could make condensed versions. Like turning them into sugar balls or small cookies.

He understood. The point wasn’t whether it was sweet or not; his brother liked things with a drier, harder texture.

Zhan Jinli decided to start trying to make cookies, frosting, and similar items.

Zhan Yan was very happy to receive his brother’s half-sugar bread made with love. He prepared to use it as tonight’s emergency rations, kneading it into breadballs and eating them all before entering Dawn World to ensure he entered in the best condition to relay Yang Ran’s soul map. This had to be careful; if he missed anything, all their efforts would basically be for naught!

After hanging up with Gu Jiancheng, Zhan Yan started rolling breadballs.

He had eaten a small piece of his brother’s cake today, plus a piece of bread; it should be enough to support the operation of the Gossip System. If it wasn’t enough, then he would tell his sister to continue tomorrow. In short, he could not overlook a single detail.

Gu Jiancheng, having hung up the phone, was very reluctant to let go, sighing as he floated in the great trench.

He especially wanted to bring Yan Yan here.

Every time he saw the starry sky, he would think of Yan Yan. He always felt Yan Yan was very much like the starry sky.

Tranquil, vast, and tolerant. If he said this to their classmates, probably no one would believe it. On the surface, Yan Yan looked more like someone with a lively personality and excellent popularity.

But he was nice to everyone while keeping everyone at a distance. The starry sky was only willing to accept because of its own vastness. But acceptance did not mean closeness.

Why did Yan Yan put him into his inner circle of closeness?

Gu Jiancheng reached out his hand, and small fluorescent creatures passed through his fingers.

There were many places in the world to see the starry sky, but even the high mountains closest to the sky couldn’t reach the lowest hanging corner of the stars.

Looking up at the starry sky, the stars became distant and lonely.

But here, it was like being in the midst of the starry sky.

Fluorescent seaweed wrapped around Gu Jiancheng’s fingers.

He thought, it was not lonely here.

Another spot of fluorescence lit up. A line of text appeared on Gu Jiancheng’s pitch-black phone screen.

“Boss, do I still need to keep the signal going?” This was sent by Wan Shitong.

“No need,” Gu Jiancheng replied.

Wan Shitong already had nothing left to say about his boss’s lovestruck brain.

Was a great trench the kind of place that could have a signal? Couldn’t you just wait until you floated out to call your little boyfriend?

Wan Shitong felt that if what his boss did got exposed, every single player who survived Infinite would drop their jaws.

The number one Deep Shadow, renowned in Infinite for his calm madness, now had to call and look for his boyfriend every day. Who would believe it if word got out? Who would believe it?!

He was even curious, what was the background of the boss’s boyfriend anyway? The reincarnation of a Nine-Tailed Fox Demon?

Meanwhile, Wan Shitong, who had cut off the signal between the outside world and the Ximataila Trench, didn’t know that a man who hadn’t been able to get his call through had gently shattered.

Zhuo Xun: Why can’t I ever get through ahhh?! Boss, you didn’t really get caught by the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau, did you?!

What should they do? Should they mount a rescue? If the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau could capture a boss like Deep Shadow—who could overcome the aftereffects and unleash his full strength—could their broken little organization of retired slackers, who either sealed or crippled themselves, lacked any cohesion, and just wanted to run at the first sign of trouble, really stand against them?

The Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau suddenly making a move on Deep Shadow—did that also mean they were going to make a move on all the players? At least send a message, bosses! Everyone in this Alliance suffers from persecution paranoia and PTSD!!

Unable to control himself, Zhuo Xun started having a breakdown at his phone in his office: “Ahhh, Boss, how did you end up in the slammer? What are we going to do, Boss, we can’t live without you!”

Gu Jiancheng emerged from the Ximataila Trench.

Since Yan Yan’s family had a sister in the supernatural world, his own secret identity was bound to drop sooner or later. When the time came, he’d try to drop it gently in front of Yan Yan, and then he could bring him to the trench.

Hmm… he remembered working with Yan Yan at the True Science News Agency affiliated with the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau before. Yan Yan had come into contact with quite a few supernatural events there. Using that as a starting point, he should be able to gradually reveal the truth of the world, and then gently drop his secret identity, right? It should be easier to accept that way.

However, Yan Yan wasn’t affected in the slightest after working at the True Science News Agency for a whole summer. His materialistic worldview was a bit too sturdy… He needed to plan carefully and not stimulate Yan Yan.

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

Gu Jiancheng recorded earnestly for a long while.

…What were these white spots on a black background? It looked like a TV signal problem! How did Yan Yan manage to capture it when he filmed the fireworks last time?

Gu Jiancheng floated out of the great trench.

As soon as his phone got a signal, he saw the missed calls from Zhuo Xun.

Zhuo Xun generally wouldn’t bother him if there was nothing important.

Gu Jiancheng answered the call.

On the other end of the line, Zhuo Xun, who had already given up hope of getting through, hadn’t noticed, and his crazed wails transmitted right over.

Gu Jiancheng was caught off guard, his ears pierced by the demonic noise: “…We can’t live without you ahhh!”

Gu Jiancheng: “? Is something wrong with you?”