GRMFBS CH26

Stir-fried snow peas, salted egg yolk corn, cold mixed three shreds, and mung bean porridge.

The whole family finally got a midnight snack and was very touched.

Full and satisfied, hearts content and at ease.

[Congratulations to you and your family for no longer having to force yourselves to praise the pork rib soup. Thank you for their perseverance and thoughtfulness.]

Zhan Yan: Hehe!

Addicted to mocking me, huh?!

Don’t even think about powering up this week!

The next day, Zhan Yan received a message from Matthias.

Matthias asked if he was free this weekend. He had found a very mysterious, very interesting place, and wanted to invite Zhan Yan to go together this weekend.

Zhan Yan remembered that last time he said he had made plans with a friend to go to another city this weekend?

He asked.

Matthias said his friend had suffered a very unfortunate heartbreak and didn’t have time to host him for now, so he decided to stay here for a while longer.

Zhan Yan asked what kind of place they were going to this weekend. Matthias refused to say, wanting to maintain a sense of mystery.

He promised Zhan Yan: “It was really hard for me to get the ticket! It must be a very thrilling! Very fun place! It’s a world that ordinary people have no access to!”

Upon hearing this description, Zhan Yan became wary, and even involuntarily started searching for the report hotline: “This place you’re talking about… Is it legal?”

Matthias: “Oh, Yan. I’m not quite sure if your country’s laws cover this area. Maybe there are rules there that we don’t even know about?”

Zhan Yan: …Sounds even more suspicious now!

Kind of felt like calling the police, but he didn’t know anything at the moment. Matthias only told him they were going to a fun place and that he got a hard-to-get ticket — nothing else.

Could this silly foreigner have been tricked?

Zhan Yan decided to go check it out with him this weekend. After all, he was familiar with Yunjin City. If the place turned out to be remote and dangerous, he could notice midway and call the report hotline right then.

At night, during his usual goodnight call with Gu Jiancheng, Zhan Yan asked him for his current address. His sister had given him another bottle of essential oil — a small bottle, compared to the one she gave him. Zhan Yan planned to mail it to Gu Jiancheng.

Gu Jiancheng: “Why not wait until you find me, and then hand it over in person?”

“So confident, huh.” Zhan Yan teased. “I’m afraid you’ll have to wait until school starts.”

Gu Jiancheng: “Or maybe tomorrow?”

Could it be that Gu Jiancheng already figured out where he was?

Zhan Yan reviewed what information Gu Jiancheng knew and still felt it wasn’t possible. Gu Jiancheng was probably just joking. But since he wanted to wait and receive it in person, then so be it.

Black Market.

Gu Jiancheng hung up the call.

Really curious what Yan Yan wanted to give him, but now wasn’t the right time.

He unconsciously furrowed his brows. Gu Jiancheng had come to the black market to gather information. Today, Wan Shitong had suddenly contacted him, saying that the Yunjin City side was investigating an anomaly. The specific situation of the anomaly was unclear, but it seemed the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau and the Wen Yao Alliance had discovered something through it, and now their investigation direction had shifted. But they were keeping it very tightly under wraps — even Wan Shitong couldn’t find out. He only knew there was movement on the black market’s side.

So Gu Jiancheng came to the black market. But he hadn’t been here long and hadn’t had time to uncover anything yet.

Someone was trying to stealthily approach him. Gu Jiancheng impatiently clicked his tongue. The shadow under his feet suddenly stretched out and dragged the black market regulator out.

The regulator was forcefully dragged out. He was only startled for a moment, then quickly calmed down: “Uninvited person, who told you how to enter?”

The black market had two layers. The outer ring was open to everyone, but the inner ring was more like a membership club among ordinary people. Only those invited by old members could enter. Those without channels wouldn’t even know the black market had two layers.

Every newcomer entering the black market for the first time had to be led by an old member. Since this person entered without guidance, it meant some old member had broken the rules — either they were dead or had been controlled.

The regulator didn’t even consider the possibility that Gu Jiancheng had broken in by force — the security here wasn’t much weaker than the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau.

Gu Jiancheng said impatiently: “I don’t have time to chat. Where’s the Broker? I want to see him.”

The regulator reached for his weapon: “Who are you?”

Gu Jiancheng’s patience ran out. Shadows surged up from beneath the regulator’s feet, like a tissue dipped in ink. Before he could even utter the first syllable of panic, the whites of his eyes were stained black by shadow.

He no longer resisted.

“Where’s the Broker?” Gu Jiancheng asked again.

“The Broker is not in this district,” the regulator replied stiffly.

The black market didn’t just exist in one city, and the Broker wasn’t necessarily in any particular area. The Broker was extremely cautious. Since something happened in Yunjin City, he would be even less likely to return here.

Gu Jiancheng didn’t ask more. The regulator wouldn’t know much. Anything he wasn’t allowed to say had definitely been sealed by the Broker’s methods — he physically couldn’t say it.

“Turn on your communicator,” Gu Jiancheng ordered.

The Broker’s contact information would definitely be on the regulator’s device.

The communicator turned on, and the Broker immediately saw the regulator with completely black eyeballs, and Gu Jiancheng standing nearby, face hidden in shadow.

“You?!” The Broker abruptly sat upright from his swivel chair.

He and Gu Jiancheng could be considered not-so-familiar old acquaintances — both had come out of the Infinite World. It was just that Gu Jiancheng was the muscle type, while the Broker considered himself a businessman.

The first batch of black cards granting access to the black market’s inner ring were personally handed out by the Broker. He had given one to Gu Jiancheng back then, delivered via Wan Shitong. But Gu Jiancheng had never entered the inner ring. The Broker wasn’t sure if he had kept the card. Given Gu Jiancheng’s personality, it wouldn’t be surprising if he had tossed it away.

Or, to be bolder, maybe the lunatic had been caught and locked up by the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau.

“You’re surprised I’m not insane?” Gu Jiancheng sneered coldly.

“Of course not! We’ve worked together a few times after all — we’re old acquaintances! It’s just that you haven’t shown up in a long time. I didn’t expect you to suddenly appear, gave me quite a scare. I thought you threw away my card. You look well — how have you been these past few years?” The Broker suddenly grinned enthusiastically.

At first glance, you’d think they were quite close.

“Enough with the shock. Stop.” Gu Jiancheng cut him off.

They had worked together a few times in the Infinite World. Every time the Broker saw him, he’d chatter non-stop. Gu Jiancheng once thought he was just a blabbermouth, but later realized — the Broker just had a habit of getting talkative when nervous.

The Broker abruptly stopped talking. After two seconds, he seemed to feel like his behavior just now made him “lose,” so he wiped his face and asked, “What did you come to me for?”

“What’s the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau asking you to investigate?” Gu Jiancheng asked.

“Ah… well…” The Broker said with difficulty, “If I casually leaked it, it’d be hard to explain to the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau.”

The Bureau had always had ties to the black market.

Though the Bureau had a control-freak style, they understood it wasn’t realistic to regulate everything. They knew the principle that overly pure water has no fish. Instead of sealing things off completely, it was better to leave an opening — a place for lurking darkness to operate. That way, when they wanted to track something down, they had a starting point.

The black market was that opening.

“Don’t make me come find you,” Gu Jiancheng said again, impatience rising.

The Broker immediately gave up bargaining: “They’re looking for someone who can create anomalies. They believe the anomaly that appeared in Yunjin City before was artificially created by someone.”

Gu Jiancheng frowned: “They found evidence?”

The Broker shrugged: “Nope, just speculation. How could anyone possibly have the power to create an anomaly?”

All anomalies originated from the Infinite World. Only it had the ability to create anomalies. But ever since it was destroyed over twenty years ago, no new anomalies had appeared.

“But who knows?” The Broker hesitated for a moment, then lowered his voice, “What if… there’s still a piece of it left, trying to rise from the ashes?”

Gu Jiancheng sneered coldly: “Then let’s dig it out and help scatter its ashes.”

“All right, if I get news, I’ll inform you… Wan Shitong,” the Broker said. “Now let my regulator go. Otherwise he might mistake you for a newbie again next time.”

The shadows receded. The monitor staggered briefly, and just as he jumped up, he saw the Broker on the other end of the communicator shouting at him to stop.

“This is a Black Card guest from the inner ring. No need to stop him next time,” the Broker said, then ended the call.

Gu Jiancheng turned and left.

The confused monitor stood frozen in place.

After leaving the black market, Gu Jiancheng contacted Wan Shitong.

“Where is the Magician?” he asked.

A few hours later, Wan Shitong replied, “Also in Yunjin City. Boss, why are you looking for her?”

“Also in Yunjin City?” Gu Jiancheng found the situation a little too coincidental. And coincidences, more often than not, weren’t coincidences—they were likely carefully designed traps.

Wan Shitong was well aware of his boss’s paranoia—anyone who came out of the Infinite World more or less had that problem.

“It’s not a coincidence. She’s been in Yunjin City for several years. Yunjin City is a human city, but it’s been claimed as territory by the Chiming Demon King of the Wen Yao Alliance. These two factions don’t get along. The Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau doesn’t have strong control in this area, and the Chiming Demon King can’t govern human cities as thoroughly as the Bureau can either. So this place is kind of like a ‘no man’s land.’ It’s safer than other places, but all kinds of hidden supernatural forces are also more active. The black market in this region is especially developed.”

Gu Jiancheng was reassured.

He wanted to borrow a certain item from the Magician—to confirm someone’s life or death.

A name that had jumped into his mind the moment the Broker mentioned “creating an anomaly.”

“I found it!” Wan Shitong said. “There’s an event in the city center this weekend. The Magician will be attending.”

…

The weekend arrived quickly.

Before heading out, Zhan Yan deliberately brought along the Eight-Treasure Cinnabar his sister gave him. He separated a small amount from the porcelain box into a more portable little vial, just in case the “surprise” Matthias mentioned turned out to be too surprising.

Ever since the matter with Tian Youcheng was resolved, Matthias had been overly enthusiastic toward Zhan Yan. The moment he saw him, he spread his arms wide: “Oh, Yan! I’ve been looking forward to the weekend!”

Zhan Yan grabbed one of his outstretched hands and forcibly turned the hug into a handshake.

Truthfully, Zhan Yan had also been looking forward to the weekend—he’d been left hanging for days!

They took a taxi. Once inside, Matthias handed the driver a slip of paper with an address.

Seeing a foreigner, the driver was quite intrigued. “Yo! Where are you from? Can you speak Chinese?”

Matthias didn’t understand the Chinese with a local accent, so he smiled politely.

Zhan Yan said, “He’s from Spain. He knows ‘hello’ and ‘thank you.’”

Matthias understood: “Hello, I, from, Spain. Thank you.”

The driver laughed: “Hello hello! I, from China, thank you!”

“You’re taking a foreign friend out for fun?” he asked Zhan Yan.

“He’s the one taking me out. Don’t know where he heard about this place—says it’s really fun.” Zhan Yan asked, “Driver, what does the address he gave you say?”

“This foreigner picked the place?” The driver laughed heartily. “I knew it! What’s there to do at an event center? He wants to go to that ‘Big Heart’ downtown.”

There was a landmark building in Yunjin City that was supposedly designed to resemble flowing clouds, with the shape simplified into a unique curve. This building served as the city’s event center—available for rental for any event.

In front of the center was a large pool of water. On clear days, you could see the building’s reflection. Together with the building’s shape, it looked like a big, reclining heart. Locals affectionately called it the “Big Heart.”

Zhan Yan was relieved.

That place was right in the city center—definitely not some illegal location.

The driver was very talkative, and he and Zhan Yan chatted happily the whole ride.

Matthias, not understanding, asked curiously, “Yan, what are you two talking about?”

Zhan Yan: Heh, now it’s my turn to keep you in suspense.

“He said there’s nothing fun at the address you gave him,” Zhan Yan replied mysteriously.

Matthias panicked: “No way! I went through so much trouble to get that information! There’s going to be a great event at that place!”

Ohhh, so someone rented the “Big Heart” for an event.

Once they arrived, Matthias led him into a convention center. The guy checking tickets at the entrance wore a suit vest, had exquisite makeup on his face, and even wore red contact lenses.

Zhan Yan started to get a bad feeling…

Matthias led him inside, where a huge banner hung in the hall:

“Welcome to the Paranormal Gathering!”

“Look!” Matthias said to Zhan Yan proudly. “Look what I found!”

A Daoist master dressed like a carefully designed video game character, complete with an ancient sword, floated past on a balance board decorated like clouds. A witch in a pointed hat and Gothic dress picked up a bottle of pink sparkling water at the bar. A vampire wearing a cape and pale makeup held a black umbrella overhead to shield from the sun…

Zhan Yan, in a plain T-shirt, stood out awkwardly in the crowd. He was gawked at by various deities, sorcerers, and supernatural beings.

He looked helplessly at Matthias: “You don’t seriously think this is a real paranormal gathering, do you?”

Matthias returned an innocent look.

The Gossip System popped up:

[If you had thought to use the Gossip System to search for Comrade Ma Dazhuang earlier, you’d have discovered he was just a pure-hearted foreigner who, due to cultural and language differences, mistakenly took a niche hobby meetup for a real paranormal convention.]

Zhan Yan: …

He believed Comrade Ma Dazhuang truly had gone to great lengths to get those tickets. Niche hobby meetups like this usually didn’t sell tickets publicly—without the right connections, it really was hard to get in.

But! Couldn’t he have found a reliable translator when buying the tickets?!

“I really thought this was a gathering of the secret world,” Matthias said dejectedly.

Normally, he wouldn’t be so easily fooled. But he had just personally experienced a supernatural event recently and was still caught up in a kind of mystical fervor.

“Zhan Yan?”

Zhan Yan suddenly heard someone calling him nearby. He turned his head and saw his high school class monitor wearing an enormous wide-brimmed hat, dressed in a black gothic dress, her lips painted a black-red shade, purple eyeshadow glittering under the lights, and holding a wand in her hand.

“Yi Yun?” Zhan Yan said in shock.

Their class monitor had been a well-known academic ace, always wearing the school uniform and rimless glasses, looking extremely scholarly.

“Big contrast, huh?” Yi Yun laughed. “Why didn’t you dress up at all? What are you playing as?”

“A regular person who accidentally walked into a supernatural gathering,” Zhan Yan replied.

Yi Yun laughed heartily.

“My friend brought me here. He didn’t understand what was going on.” Zhan Yan dragged Matthias over.

Matthias: “Hello?”

“You two stand out too much like this, you can’t really enjoy it. I’ll take you to get some makeup done,” said Yi Yun.

Zhan Yan translated for Matthias, and the two followed Yi Yun.

The venue was quite lively. Along the way, they passed several sections—besides the usual food and rest areas, there were also more unusual zones like a spellcasting area, fortune-telling area, and so on.

Yi Yun led them all the way to the transformation area (makeup area). She was currently working as a cosplay makeup artist, and she stored her makeup and some cosplay outfits here.

There were already a few people in the transformation area, dressed in all sorts of styles. When Yi Yun entered, they greeted her with grins: “Yo! Where’d you dig up these two handsome guys?”

“Want one?” Yi Yun teased.

“Sure!” A girl dressed as an elf boldly dragged Matthias away. “Come, let me see how to paint you. I’ve never done makeup for a foreigner before.”

Matthias was pushed into the makeup chair and blinked in Zhan Yan’s direction.

Yi Yun looked the two of them up and down. “I don’t have full costumes here. You play a modern-day demon hunter, okay? I’ve got a priest’s robe left—this Ma… Ma…”

“Matthias,” Zhan Yan supplied. “Can you be a priest?”

Matthias drew a cross: “Of course.”

Yi Yun went to rummage for props when suddenly she let out a wail: “My wig!”

She was holding a wig that had been hacked up beyond recognition.

Everyone in the makeup area was drawn over by her cry, and the atmosphere changed.

A good wig isn’t cheap—who was this awful to sneak over and ruin it? Yi Yun had left the makeup area for a while. Who had gotten close?

Zhan Yan opened the Gossip system to investigate.

Oh… it wasn’t someone here—it was Yi Yun’s little cousin.

He noticed the tense atmosphere and lightly tapped Yi Yun, reminding her, “It was still intact when you brought it over, right?”

Yi Yun came to her senses: “I know who did it! That brat from my uncle’s house! That kid came into my room the other day!”

The tension in the makeup area eased again. Everyone started ranting about the brat.

Yi Yun did makeup while ranting: “That kid is such a menace! He broke one of my lipsticks before. My aunt is okay—she compensated me.

“My uncle’s just an idiot. That kid’s spoiled by him. He doesn’t do anything to raise him—everything like food, clothing, school is handled by my aunt—and then whenever the kid wants something, he says yes, and when he messes up, he just coaxes him.

“The kid doesn’t know any better and even likes his dad, thinking his dad’s good to him.”

Zhan Yan listened while pulling up more gossip through the Gossip system.

That kid really was something. Just yesterday he was throwing rocks at stray dogs, and his dad was cheering him on from the side.

Oh! Those weren’t stray dogs—they were transformed dog demons. Now they wanted revenge, hehe!

“Don’t be mad. People like that will eventually mess with someone they shouldn’t and get what’s coming to them,” Zhan Yan comforted the increasingly pissed-off Yi Yun.

He glanced at the mirror. Maybe because of the mood, Yi Yun was doing his makeup fiercer and fiercer. Hm, but it still looked pretty good.

“Thanks for the kind words.” Yi Yun scrutinized his face and exclaimed, “My skills are getting better and better!”

Just as she put down her brush, Yi Yun’s phone rang. She picked it up and instantly broke into a grin.

“What happened?” the elf girl next to her asked curiously.

“The brat didn’t want to do his summer homework, so he set it on fire, but didn’t control the flames well and burned the expensive camera his dad just bought! Hahahahaha!”

“My aunt’s not home, but she’s throwing shade in the family group chat.”

‘Why blame the kid? He’s still little, isn’t he?’

‘How could it be the kid’s fault? Who told the adults not to store valuable things properly?’

‘You finish smoking and don’t even put the lighter away. The kid doesn’t understand—so the adult doesn’t either?’

“My uncle’s now live-streaming the beating in the group chat, hahahahahaha!”

The brat was bawling, saying he finished all his homework and didn’t burn it.

His dad flipped through the charred remains—all blank pages—and didn’t believe him, beating him while shouting, “You dare lie too!”

Zhan Yan believed him.

The Gossip system said those demons only burned the finished homework.

Nice work!