GRMFBS CH251

[Zhan Suiru felt that only her older brother, Zhan Jinli, was a purely ordinary person in the family who needed taking care of, so she headed to Sweet Sweet Cake Shop, only to discover that the puppet she made was working as a clerk in the shop.]

[Zhan Suiru confirmed that her older brother, Zhan Jinli, was Lin Yuan Ghost King through the conversation of the five ghosts.]

Zhan Yan: …Oh no, I was too busy and forgot!

He decided to play dumb: “Right, Jie, back then we were interrupted before we could finish talking. I wanted to tell you that our brother has a little secret too.”

Zhan Suiru: [Mhm?]

Zhan Yan: [Let’s talk about it when we meet, let’s talk about it when we meet! It’s not safe to say over the phone!]

Zhan Suiru: …

It really wasn’t safe to say over this phone call.

She could only let her little brother off the hook for now.

She would settle the score the next time she met him in person!

After hanging up, Zhan Suiru’s forum inbox received a private message from Approaching Science.

Approaching Science: [Ghost King Lin Yuan, divine ability: Fortune and Misfortune Interdependent, but he currently cannot control it freely, making it prone to passively triggering when he speaks or listens to others speak.]

[That’s all.]

Zhan Yan finished replying quickly. He didn’t want to wait until meeting his sister in person to discuss his brother’s disguise; chatting by typing was easier to brush past than a phone call, and a phone call was easier to brush past than talking face-to-face. He wasn’t stupid. With the platform of the supernatural forum available, why not use it?

He searched the gossip posts while sending messages. If it was just his brother losing his disguise, it shouldn’t cause his sister to adopt this tone… Why did she sound almost as if she were about to blacken…

Good grief! Modifying 16 versions only to pick the 1st version in the end, and then adding two more versions just to round it up to 18 versions, right?

No wonder his sister was so furious… This was worthy of being posted to roast an outrageous client, wasn’t it?

Artisan: “I suddenly remember that a while ago, I had an enormous number of orders and was extremely busy…”

Zhan Yan searched and confirmed her suspicion.

Sorry, Ge…

Zhan Suiru sorted out the timeline and confirmed it; that period happened to be the time she built a mini-program for her brother, only to forget to set a maximum order limit, causing his orders to explode.

What a petty Ghost King!

She sent a message to Xiao Ran.

Have the biscuits for my brother been made yet? Swap out all the sugar for salt!

Zhan Yan changed into a loose T-shirt, sitting cross-legged on the bed with his hair still damp. The air conditioner was on in the room, keeping the temperature cool and pleasant. Gu Jiancheng had wanted to blow-dry his hair for him just now, but Zhan Yan had chased him off to take a shower.

Blowing under the air conditioner for a while wouldn’t give him a cold anyway, but discussing his brother’s disguise with his sister right in front of Xiao Gu always gave him a guilty conscience that his own disguise might drop.

Having just finished shifting the trouble elsewhere (not really), Gu Jiancheng also came out after finishing his shower. Broad shoulders, narrow waist, and long legs, with water dripping wetly from his hair.

Zhan Yan took a glance, and his gaze suddenly locked with Gu Jiancheng’s.

Taking a shower in the dormitory during summer was normal, coming out wrapped in a bath towel was normal, and having a roommate in the dorm was also normal.

Yet this wasn’t a dorm, not a rented apartment for an internship, nor were there other roommates.

Gu Jiancheng’s Adam’s apple bobbed.

Zhan Yan felt the room growing hotter and hotter… N-No way, right? He admitted he was tempted, that his heart was fluttering more than just a little bit, but, ah… why was the temperature rising so drastically?

Gu Jiancheng: “The air conditioner stopped.”

Zhan Yan looked up at the AC unit. Ah, true, the cool breeze circulating in the room had vanished without him noticing, and the high summer heat immediately began showing its power.

Gu Jiancheng threw on his clothes, his voice somewhat dry: “I’ll go down to the front desk and ask.”

The room door closed quickly, letting in only a tiny sliver of residual heat. Zhan Yan touched his own cheek with the back of his hand.

The air conditioner had indeed stopped, and the temperature in the room was rising, but it wasn’t happening that fast.

It was him burning up.

Zhan Yan decided to do something else to distract himself.

His sister was still messaging him; Zhan Yan felt he couldn’t let his brother suffer too miserably, so he began to change the subject.

Approaching Science: [Do you have any clues regarding the situation with Mom and Dad?]

Artisan: [The relationship between Tianshi and Chongming Demon King is pretty decent, right?]

Approaching Science: [Yes, both of them quite admire each other.]

[However, they’ve basically hardly ever met in person.]

In other words, this kind of mutual admiration temporarily remained only on the surface, insufficient to break through their respective stances.

Artisan: [Find an opportunity for them to interact with each other?]

Approaching Science: [Do you think that’s safe?]

Artisan: “…”

Zhan Suiru also realized it.

Given how lovey-dovey Mom and Dad were, both of them understood each other’s minor gestures, habits, tone of voice, and every other facet down to the core. If they interacted in person for too long, it wouldn’t take much time before they stripped away each other’s disguises.

Without meeting in person, they couldn’t deepen their favorability; without deepening favorability, one wouldn’t dare let them drop their disguises, and without daring to drop their disguises they couldn’t meet in person… What kind of vicious cycle was this!

Artisan: [Do you think… taking the ‘online dating’ route is feasible?]

Of course, their parents certainly wouldn’t date each other online while wearing their disguises, but interacting through the network wouldn’t drop their disguises and could also raise their favorability. Turning from ordinary mutual admiration into friends, and from friends into close confidants… wouldn’t their favorability gradually rise to where it needed to be? Wasn’t that thing between Square Tile and Hacker broken through via online dating?

Although what their parents faced was far more troublesome, they didn’t expect the two resolute big shots to break through their respective stances entirely anyway; as long as they could work a little harder when conflicts arose from their differing stances…

So the most severe issue was still the clash of stances. How troubling.

Approaching Science: [We can try, but I haven’t found a turning point that would allow them to interact more across the network.]

Mom didn’t like browsing the supernatural forum; Tianshi’s account was only registered last year.

[If only we could resolve the conflict between the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau and the Wan Yao Alliance.]

Artisan: [Their primary conflict lies in their styles of conduct.]

The conflict between humans and demons wasn’t the core issue. Every race had bad apples, and every race had good ones. Even without humans, various different races within the demon clan had conflicts. Even without demons, humans would categorize labels among themselves to engage in internal strife.

Demon Kings and Tianshi wouldn’t be swayed by minor labels, nor swept away by broad labels. The true conflict lay in their philosophies.

The Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau’s desire for control was simply too strong. But this wasn’t Ning Xi’s personal issue; the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau was born precisely for the purpose of “management.”

Even if Ning Xi were replaced, the newly appointed person wouldn’t relinquish the authority in their hands either. Compared to others demanding control possibly for the sake of power, at least Ning Xi demanded control for the sake of stability.

The Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau believed that in the face of Infinite and anomalies, exerting an extraordinary degree of control to maintain safety and stability was necessary. The Wan Yao Alliance, on the other hand, believed that this very kind of control was precisely one of the breeding grounds for anomalies, wasn’t it?

Both sides had valid points: the Wan Yao Alliance’s territory frequently ran into trouble due to loose regulation, while the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau also had a history of almost sparking disasters while collecting Infinite fragments.

Yet how on earth could this contradiction be reconciled, ahhh?

After summarizing for a long time, the siblings unanimously agreed that the root of the conflict still lay in Infinite and anomalies.

Once Infinite’s will and anomalies were completely resolved, wouldn’t Mom and Dad’s philosophical conflict disappear?

Gu Jiancheng returned, and Zhan Yan exited the supernatural forum.

“There was an issue with a nearby electrical cable; the power went out.” When Gu Jiancheng returned, he brought up two bamboo sleeping mats and a pack of cold drinks. He bought them all from a nearby supermarket while the cold air hadn’t fully dissipated yet.

Zhan Yan tried the light switch; it couldn’t turn on either, confirming the power cut.

The hotel didn’t know when the electrical cable would be repaired either, stating that the popsicles and cold drinks in the guest rooms’ mini-fridges were all gifted to the guests free of charge. After a while, staff came upstairs to distribute ice cream as well. These were from the hotel’s large freezers; they needed to conserve ice to keep food ingredients fresh, and letting ordinary popsicles sit there would just result in them melting anyway, so it was better to hand them out to guests.

However, without the air conditioner, the room temperature continued to climb steadily. Neither of them had the mood for sweet cuddles anymore. The two heat sources kept a wide gap between them, sprawling themselves flat across their respective bamboo mats.

Gu Jiancheng quietly adjusted himself to a zero-heat-generation mode. Actually, he could even turn himself ice-cold, but he had no way of explaining that to Yan Yan, so he could only lie on the other bamboo mat spacing out…

Zhan Yan was softly chattering about some matters regarding the gaming exhibition. Gu Jiancheng was thinking about this as well. Zhan Suiru had told him that Luo Yigang had set his sights on Zhan Yan; fortunately, she was nearby, so Zhan Yan hadn’t noticed.

The Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau suspected that the Mind Intrusion on Luo Yigang had not been planted by the Record of the World.

Naturally, while the Record of the World was being hunted down, it couldn’t possibly have had the time to control another person like Luo Yigang. Monster Doctor’s handiwork was definitely involved here.

He had already investigated upon arriving, but failed to catch Monster Doctor’s tail.

This was normal; Monster Doctor didn’t need to come here personally, as he should have completed his control over Luo Yigang the day the Record of the World was captured. And he had missed the opportunity… Gu Jiancheng couldn’t help but feel annoyed. Although he also understood that if Monster Doctor were that easy to deal with, he wouldn’t still be alive today.

The stuffy, restless irritability of summer seemed to transfer onto him, but his train of thought was quickly pulled away by the soft, murmuring whispers echoing in the room.

Zhan Yan was talking about the arrangements for the next few days. He didn’t seem to have much of a structured plan either; the things he talked about jumped from having to go home to pack luggage on the day school started, to wanting to take him to experience a simulated holographic game tomorrow or the day after.

It was completely disorganized and chaotic, yet it pulled one straight into reality in an instant. It was trivial, ordinary, and vivid, reminding one of eating a popsicle halfway through only to find the base melting, prompting a hurried bite at the lower corner; reminding one of deliberately not shaking yogurt just to lick off the thick layer on the lid; reminding one of the air conditioner abruptly losing power, of bamboo mats spritzed with toilet water, and of every unexpected little accident in life. Because of this, missing an opportunity seemed to become far less unbearable.

As Zhan Yan chattered on, his voice suddenly trailed off. Gu Jiancheng turned his head and saw him closing his eyes, his breathing steady, as if he had already fallen asleep.

The sun gradually sank below the mountains, and the stuffy room seemed to be slowly cooling down as well.

Gu Jiancheng therefore closed his eyes too, relaxing under the company of that other breath.

Zhan Yan was indeed sleepy.

It wasn’t his usual bedtime yet, but his thoughts had already begun to drift. His experiences today were thrilling enough. Earlier when he was fleeing at the gaming exhibition, that strange high-angle aerial route planning seemed to have consumed a lot of his energy; he hadn’t felt it before, but now as the sky grew dark, the sleepiness caught up with him.

His phone suddenly vibrated. Zhan Yan opened his eyes and picked up his phone, seeing a message pop up on the screen from his sister.

Zhan Suiru: “Watch out for him harboring improper intentions toward you.”

Zhan Yan glanced at Gu Jiancheng, who was resting with his eyes closed not far away, and typed out a line of characters:

[Jie.]

[Actually, I harbor quite a lot of improper intentions toward him too.]