GRMFBS CH264

The Little Cat Wan Yan was furious, constantly coming up with new ways to escape day after day.

Zhan Yan understood him completely. The two of them were sitting there watching gourmet anime, teasing the cat with delicious visuals, but refusing to let him go find any actual food—it was truly agonizing.

However, Gu Jiancheng had finally found a breakthrough with his brother, thanks to Wan Yan’s unintentional contribution to their “friendship.” Zhan Yan decided that when Wan Yan eventually came to him for a feast, he would make it extra grand.

His brother and sister were busy lately, so the gifts he’d brought back for them were still buried at the bottom of his suitcase. His recent WeChat Moments post had garnered plenty of likes, but it seemed only Xia Yuexian, the boss of Mingtang Pictures, had actually understood the subtext.

She private-messaged Zhan Yan directly: “Is this your dad’s?”

“Is he planning to record a song?”

Xia Yuexian had always known Demon King Chongming’s voice was stunning, but it wasn’t until a video leaked online of him singing “Sunset Red” at a senior citizens’ arts troupe event that she realized he could sing at all. Before that, Zhan Yunkai never opened his mouth to sing, and he delivered his lines so robotically that she’d assumed he was tone-deaf.

Being “tone-deaf” had actually been a blessing; once he finally started singing, the invitations flooded in, and Xia Yuexian had struggled to reject them all. The business-driven ones were easy, but the hardcore fans were persistent and used all sorts of tactics. Xia Yuexian couldn’t help it—if the Demon King didn’t want to sing, all she could do was say no, no, and no.

But after seeing the flashy, cool microphone in Zhan Yan’s post, her intuition as a professional told her this wasn’t for Zhan Yan—it was a gift for his father. So… is Demon King Chongming planning to record? That’s great news! We could arrange a concert! Or if not a concert, an album would be wonderful!

Zhan Yan: “Yeah, but it’s not for public release.”

Ah… Xia Yuexian was instantly deflated.

Xia Yuexian: “Damn, I thought we finally had a chance. You have no idea how many invitations I’ve had to block for him lately. And I get yelled at for it, too.”

Zhan Yan scrolled through the gossip feed and felt a pang of sympathy for Boss Xia. Many people were convinced that Xia Yuexian was suppressing Zhan Yunkai, insisting that someone with such talent must be being threatened into keeping it a hobby!

As they chatted, Xia Yuexian suddenly had an epiphany. “Hey, do you think your dad would be willing to do some voice acting?”

Zhan Yan: “???” Sister Xia, do you hear yourself? If my dad could voice act, why would he have been hiring other people to dub his films for all these years?

Xia Yuexian: “I’m planning a sci-fi movie with an AI character; I need someone for the voice.”

Zhan Yan recalled the way his father delivered lines… Actually, it might work. He didn’t even need practice; it came with a natural AI-like cadence.

Boss Xia excitedly rushed off to discuss it with the Demon King. Zhan Yan sighed—she was way too impatient. But Xia Yuexian was afraid that if she waited, the Demon King would get busy and never have time to record.

A few minutes after she sent the message:

Zhan Yunkai: “Is there a script?”

Xia Yuexian: “[File]”

[Tianshi Ji Yueming was very interested after hearing Demon King Chongming read the script aloud. Zhan Yunkai decided to accept the job.]

Aside from Boss Xia, Matthias also sent a message, asking if that microphone was a new type of magical artifact. Zhan Yan: …It’s just a microphone! Matthias, ever the imaginative one, didn’t mind the correction and insisted he had a surprise in store for him. Zhan Yan wasn’t exactly looking forward to it.

That night, Gu Jiancheng’s goodnight kiss call came through. Zhan Yan glanced at the gossip feed; Gu was using his shadow clone for the call, as his main body was busy hunting the Little Cat Wan Yan.

[Ghost King Wan Yan tried to sneak into the ghost fog to escape while Ghost King Lin Yuan wasn’t looking. Gu Jiancheng sneered, pinned Wan Yan’s shadow, and dragged him back out of the fog.]

Zhan Yan listened to him pouting over the phone: “Yanyan, I miss you so much…”

Zhan Yan suppressed a laugh while watching the chaos in the gossip feed. “School starts in a few days; I’ll bring you something yummy then.”

[Ghost King Wan Yan was furious, let out a ‘Meow-ao’ and charged at Deep Shadow. Gu Jiancheng transformed into a shadow, and Wan Yan’s powerful pounce passed right through him.]

Gu Jiancheng: “A few days feels like forever… I want a kiss.”

Zhan Yan: “Didn’t we already kiss?”

[After being blocked for the 123rd time by Deep Shadow, Ghost King Wan Yan was extremely angry and cursed Deep Shadow so that his phone would drop the call every time he made one.]

Gu Jiancheng: “Can we have one more?”

I can’t stand how clingy he is…

Zhan Yan: “Mmmm…”

“Beep—beep—”

The call dropped.

Gu Jiancheng: ??? Where was the kiss I worked so hard to get?!

He turned around, rolled up his sleeves, and started beating up a cat. “Break the curse on me right now!!!”

The busy Ghost King Lin Yuan returned and helped Deep Shadow break the curse. …Why is Deep Shadow looking at me with such resentment?

Gu Jiancheng angrily pulled up a gourmet anime, shoved it in front of Ghost King Wan Yan, and dragged Ghost King Lin Yuan along to watch it. Breaking the curse is useless now! It’s been hours, and Yanyan has already fallen asleep. I missed out on a kiss today!

The next day, Zhan Yan made up for it with ten kisses. He couldn’t handle it otherwise; Gu’s clinginess had doubled, and he wasn’t even shy anymore!

Zhan Yan: “Hang up, hang up!”

Gu Jiancheng: “Can we talk a little longer?”

Zhan Yan: “No, Sister Zhen Hua is asking me for an urgent order.”

At the Zhenke News Agency, Editor-in-Chief Zhen Hua was sighing to Xi Wen. “Why is it so hard to recruit people?” Ever since Zhan Yan and Gu Jiancheng had left, they hadn’t been able to dig up such quality materialist soldiers, and every big operation turned into a mess.

Xi Wen was buried in his work, slamming his keyboard. Recently, something was wrong in the Underworld; problems were popping up daily, with people claiming to see ghost soldiers on patrol, forcing him to work overtime.

Zhen Hua stared mournfully at Zhan Yan’s Weibo. “I was planning to poach him…”

Back when the apocalypse barriers were breaking and “mirages” were everywhere, Zhen Hua had been worked to the bone. She’d wanted to call her two “temporary workers” for backup, but knowing they were students, she’d held back, waiting to recruit them with high salaries after graduation. It turned out that Zhan Yan was the young master of a big family. Zhen Hua had tearfully ordered five crates of grapes online.

Xi Wen scribbled frantically: “If you can’t poach him, poach his classmates! Did Mount Chaofu reply? What on earth is going on with them?”

Zhen Hua: “His classmates don’t seem like they’re short on cash either…”

Xi Wen exploded, throwing his pen: “If you can’t get people, put down your phone and help me work!”

Zhen Hua: “Cough, cough. I’ll go ask if they can take an outsourced job. They should be on break right now.”

[Deep Shadow Gu Jiancheng and Ghost King Wan Yan were fighting so violently that some Yin fog leaked from the Underworld, and several minor ghosts managed to sneak out and escape.]

Zhan Yan hung up and started working. Editor Zhen had been good to him, so since he had time, he’d help out—especially since Xiao Gu was partly responsible for all this chaos…

Those two couldn’t stand each other, and their brawls were causing major collateral damage.

Gu Jiancheng hung up reluctantly, grumbling about Zhenke News Agency, when he suddenly saw the message from Zhen Hua asking if he could help with an outsourced job. One look at the news items and he understood everything.

Gu Jiancheng: “…” So, the mastermind who increased Yanyan’s workload and robbed him of 47 minutes of sweet, clingy cuddle time was actually himself?!

Gu Jiancheng: “Accepted.” I’ll just have to secretly reduce Yanyan’s workload later…

After finishing the job, Zhen Hua couldn’t resist asking one more time if they wanted to join the news agency, even as part-timers. Xi Wen stood up to stretch. “Well?”

Zhen Hua: “Double-rejected.” QAQ

Zhan Yan cracked his neck. Part-time work was impossible—even Luo Luoluo had tried to pull him in for more commercial work, but he’d refused. Her work ethic was truly terrifying.

The next day, the work-obsessed Luo brought Zhan Yan the “surprise” from Matthias.

Luo Luoluo: “Matthias is here.”

Matthias was incredibly enthusiastic, giving Zhan Yan a massive bear hug. “Yan! I missed you so much! I came to visit!”

Zhan Yan: …A little too scary, bro! “Visit what? I start school in a few days!”

Matthias didn’t care at all: “Then let’s travel to your school!”

Zhan Yan: ? “What are you talking about?” It was nearly 400 kilometers from Yunjin to Beiling—the high-speed train took over two hours.

Matthias was ecstatic: “We can cycle there!”

Zhan Yan eventually decided to grant Matthias his small wish; after all, the guy had brought the contract for the overseas version of their game. There was a tourist route between Yunjin and Beiling.

But cycling was out of the question; Zhan Yan insisted on driving—he had a mountain of luggage. Matthias didn’t have a domestic driver’s license, so Zhan Yan took the wheel. Matthias, buzzing with excitement, drank a few glasses of champagne and spent the entire drive chattering in Zhan Yan’s ear about the occult materials he’d collected in Spain.

Two hours later, the “brain-dead” navigation system directed them to a river three meters wide and told them to drive across. There was a bridge, but it was a wooden footbridge for pedestrians.

Zhan Yan: …

[You thought the brain-dead map navigation was more reliable than your own “Gossip System” map, and unfortunately, you took the wrong turn.]

Zhan Yan: “…Enough! You never mentioned you had remote navigation, I thought you only showed the 30-meter radius!”

Zhan Yan recalibrated his mini-map and backed up to find the path again. Because they’d wasted so much time, night fell before they could reach the farmhouse listed on the map. To make matters worse, the car stalled while passing through a desolate field. Zhan Yan tried several times, but the engine would cut out immediately; they couldn’t even make it ten meters.

The late summer night wind was damp and chilly. The grass rustled, and pale green lights flickered in and out of existence—he couldn’t tell if they were fireflies or the eyes of wild beasts.

The drunken Matthias’s eyes brightened. “Yan, I learned some spells from another friend. They told me these work in situations like this.”

Zhan Yan: “Huh?”

Matthias opened the car door, stood in front of the vehicle, cleared his throat, and shouted into the wilderness in broken Chinese:

“Stop messing around! If you don’t stop, I’ll dig up your graves!”

Zhan Yan: …Who taught you this?!

Matthias continued: “You group of wandering ghosts, I haven’t provoked you! If you keep on tossing and turning, I’ll dig up your bones and make soup!”

[Your car stalled because you ran out of gas.]

Zhan Yan: “Get back in here. The car ran out of gas.” This isn’t an ancient graveyard, and we aren’t being haunted by a ‘ghost-wall’ trap; why are you shouting nonsense… And more importantly, who was messing with Matthias, the clueless foreigner?

The moment Matthias climbed back into the car, it suddenly started.

Zhan Yan: ??? I thought the car was out of gas? How is it running?

[Ghost-Spirit, Ghost-Brightness, Ghost-Machine, and Ghost-Clever escaped the Underworld during the battle between Ghost King Wan Yan and Deep Shadow. They were passing by and, fearing the local Ghost Inspectors would be attracted by Matthias’s ruckus, decided to pick up your car and carry it along.]