GRMFBS CH42

The day before heading back to university, Zhan Yan picked up his express package. He headed into a pre-booked private room at a tea restaurant to unpack it.

He and Gu Jiancheng had agreed to meet here. Arriving early gave him time to inspect the package so he could slap a seal onto Gu Jiancheng as soon as he arrived.

The parcel was flat, containing nothing more than a playing-card-sized card. This was Fang Pai’s sealing technique.

Fang Pai had sent him a passcode—like unlocking a phone screen, tracing a pattern across the design on the back of the card unlocked it. Inside, the Danxiang Seal was split into six charges; all it took was tapping it onto someone once to apply it.

Foolproof operation! The points paid to Fang Pai were well worth it!

Zhan Yan first tapped it against himself.

A single strand of hair on his head, the silver locket around his neck, the hair-tie charm on his wrist, and the strap hanging from his phone all flashed at once. Inside the card, the seal dividing the Danxiang Seal into six portions gave off a fracture chime imperceptible to ordinary ears. The bottled-up power surged forth like opening a floodgate, only to instantly split into four streams. Like long whales siphoning water, they swallowed every drop clean.

Faint, phantom burps seemed to echo through the air.

Bring it on! Whatever anomaly dares show up, the boys will smash it to dust and ashes!

Zhan Yan was completely oblivious. He only noticed a notification pop up in his Gossip System:

[You have successfully used the Danxiang Seal Card.]

All set!

The Gossip System continued to update:

[Danxiang Seal Card energy depleted.]

Just then, Gu Jiancheng arrived. Zhan Yan closed the Gossip System, missing the freshly updated line.

Gu Jiancheng handed him a small gift box.

“What’s this?” Zhan Yan unwrapped it curiously. Inside was a fitness tracker.

“Didn’t you say you wanted to work out?” Gu Jiancheng said. “This tracks your daily activity and vitals. It’s waterproof, so you don’t even have to take it off in the shower.”

Naturally, the real highlight was the modification he had commissioned afterward. A small sealing array was hidden inside the tracker, containing a fragment of his shadow. If the wristband detected that Zhan Yan’s vitals were critical, the sealing array would automatically trigger and unleash it. Kept sealed under normal circumstances, it wouldn’t cause any adverse effects.

Holding it in his hand, Zhan Yan felt something slightly off about the texture on the back. Turning it over, he saw their initials engraved on the casing.

He looked up at Gu Jiancheng.

Gu Jiancheng’s eyes sparkled brightly, the tips of his ears reddening.

Smiling into his eyes, Zhan Yan held out his wrist.

Gu Jiancheng lowered his head to fasten the band on him. Under the light, Zhan Yan’s wrist was blindingly fair, the faint bluish veins clearly visible beneath the skin. Gu Jiancheng kept his gaze lowered, his expression hidden, his Adam’s apple bobbing.

Zhan Yan watched him adjust the strap with a broad grin.

Aha, now the very tips of his ears are flushed red, too.

Gu Jiancheng had been remarkably clingy lately, leaving Zhan Yan without a spare moment all day to check his Gossip System. When it was finally time to part, Zhan Yan slipped the seal card into his phone case. During their goodbye hug, he palmed the phone in one hand and pressed it firmly against Gu Jiancheng’s back. One down!

Returning home that evening, Zhan Yan started by giving Zhan Suiru a huge hug as she lounged in the living room.

Zhan Suiru had sharp eyes. While hugging him, she gently ruffled her younger brother’s hair, but the moment she let go, her gaze snapped right to his wrist. “What are you wearing on your hand?”

What could possibly be worthy of sharing wrist space with the hair tie she had gifted him?!

“Bought a fitness tracker,” Zhan Yan said, omitting the subject with an utterly straight face.

Oh, the kid bought it himself. Never mind then.

Zhan Yan then went over and gave his dad and mom each a hug in turn. His older brother stood cloaked in the staircase’s shadow, watching him with dark, fathomless eyes.

“What’s got into Yan Yan today?” Ji Yueming thoroughly enjoyed her youngest son’s rare display of affection.

Zhan Yan spread his arms toward Zhan Jinli, stressing playfully, “I’m heading back to school tomorrow! You won’t get to see me for days! Don’t I even get a hug?”

He had pissed his brother off a couple of days ago by throwing him under the bus, so he had to seize this chance to coax him back!

Zhan Yan stared at Zhan Jinli with wide, gleaming eyes.

Zhan Jinli crossed his arms and stood there without a word.

Zhan Suiru lightly tapped his calf with her foot.

Ji Yueming looked at him with a sweet smile. “Jinli—”

Zhan Jinli took two steps forward and opened his arms, catching his brother in a full embrace.

Taking advantage of the moment, Zhan Yan pressed his phone against his back. Even after tapping it, he refused to let go, wheedling and clinging until Zhan Jinli sighed in exasperation and patted his shoulder. How could anyone stay mad at such shameless pestering? Besides, he hadn’t genuinely been angry in the first place.

Zhan Suiru’s fingers flew as she texted Zhan Jinli: [Yan Yan is being so sweet, why are you being so petty?]

Zhan Jinli felt like scoffing.

Sweet? He’s only sweet to his sister! He was sweet to their parents too, but when it came to him, the boy was an entirely different creature.

Ever since he was small, Zhan Yan had loved tormenting him. With their sister, Zhan Yan would drag her out to run wild; with him, it was constant, deliberate teasing.

Zhan Suiru was still typing: [Given your dreadful personality, you should be thanking your lucky stars that Yan Yan still wants to hang out with you!]

When Zhan Yan was little, he used to be afraid of his older brother. But after catching a fever and being carried on Zhan Jinli’s back, he had started trying to get close. Yet Zhan Jinli had harbored that peculiar trait of neither speaking nor wanting to hear others speak since childhood, leaving Zhan Yan’s attempts repeatedly rebuffed.

He hadn’t even been ten back then. No matter how many times he got discouraged, he would always rally his spirits and go look for Zhan Jinli, scheming up ways to coax any reaction out of his brother—which gradually evolved into teasing.

Even Zhan Suiru had wondered how he had persisted so long. Yet Zhan Yan had never once given up.

How lonely would it be for an older brother to be all on his own?

Ji Yueming smiled warmly as she watched the two break apart, rubbing Zhan Yan’s hair. “Stop bullying your brother all the time.”

Zhan Yan chuckled. His brother would never truly stay mad at him!

Opening the Gossip System:

[Danxiang Seal Card energy depleted.]

Whew, all done!

Back in his room, Zhan Yan logged into the chaofan forum and counted his points.

The six sets of the Danxiang Seal had cost a pretty penny. It hadn’t entirely drained his balance, but more than half was gone.

Painful! But deeply satisfying!

I’ll grind out a few more bounties tonight so I can save up enough points to buy protective talismans for everyone soon!

Zhan Yan combed through his direct messages to pick a few invitation missions. These exclusive requests usually paid far better than open bounties posted on the public board. Furthermore, connections mattered just as much as points! Being able to redeem physical goods this time had relied entirely on Fang Pai’s help.

He wasn’t afraid of people finding out he was in Yunjin City. When he had contacted the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau to handle Garbled Anomaly No. 1, they could already deduce he was nearby. Yunjin City was vast, and the surrounding supernatural factions were quite tangled; with the Gossip System’s information concealment, no one could dig deep enough to expose his true identity.

What he actually feared was the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau attaching tracking spells to the package. Even if he spotted them via the Gossip System, he had no means of dealing with such spells. After all, he was just an ordinary mortal who couldn’t even open the Yin-Yang Eye.

Fortunately, Fang Pai’s sealing technique had solved that headache.

The Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau had actually been wronged here. Ning Xi had never ordered anyone to trace the delivery.

They wanted to build goodwill, not make a mortal enemy!

Besides, slipping a covert tracker past an information-type supernatural user was near impossible anyway.

Zhan Yan picked through the tasks and finished them, then checked his points.

Ugh… not making back the points I spent feels so itchy!

These were all minor bounties; relying on them to refill his spent points would take forever.

Zhan Yan glanced through the prize pools for the forum’s Ten Great Unsolved Mysteries. He had cracked one, leaving nine behind. Unfortunately, the remaining nine were either things he couldn’t dig up or things he couldn’t disclose even if he knew.

Take “What does Tianshi look like under the mask?” That was strictly off-limits. Saying it would offend the wrong people.

Zhan Yan had actually searched for it out of curiosity in the Gossip System, but turned up nothing. The system didn’t display pictures, and he couldn’t find a descriptive passage of their features. However, he did dig up a gossip snippet about someone blushing furiously with a pounding heart upon catching a glimpse of Tianshi unmasking!

Yet no matter how wildly the forum speculated, the senior Tianshi had no idea. Zhan Yan had discovered through his searches that the grandmaster was simply too busy to ever register a forum account. Aside from glancing at it once or twice through Administrator Lingyu’s account, they had shown zero interest and never bothered signing up.

Another mystery made him drool with envy: {How many points does Artisan actually possess?}

The forum’s points leaderboard only showed rankings, never exact point values. Since points could be traded, rankings constantly fluctuated; top-tier figures routinely dropped dozens of places after buying an item.

Artisan, however, was an anomaly. Ever since claiming the number one spot, he had never dropped.

Some suspected Artisan never spent points, but that theory was swiftly debunked. Users who completed missions commissioned by Artisan were paid in points, and the payouts were generous.

The truth was simply that Artisan earned points at a terrifying rate—far outstripping the runner-up by leagues!

Zhan Yan searched the gossip logs, but couldn’t uncover Artisan’s exact points balance. Much like how the Gossip System wouldn’t spit out the forum’s URL, it lacked specific raw data.

What he did uncover was how Artisan amassed such wealth!

Not long ago, Artisan had completed a massive commission for the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau, netting an enormous bounty! Points were merely a slice of the reward!

Zhan Yan salivated just reading about it. Sure enough, an exclusive manufacturing monopoly was pure profit!

With Artisan rolling in wealth, if only there were a way to earn some of those points!

Unfortunately, Artisan’s gossip logs didn’t contain anything that could be monetized for intelligence. The most common entries were notes about maintaining his puppet butler…

Zhan Yan opened his direct messages with “I Just Saved The World!” Even if there weren’t any huge commissions, small ones would do.

“I Just Saved The World!” hadn’t asked him to collaborate on any bounties these past two days. Had he slacked off?

Approaching Science: [Up for a collaborative bounty?]

Usually, “I Just Saved The World!” chose the assignments, being the man of action between them.

I Just Saved The World: [Taking a break lately. Not doing any.]

I Just Saved The World!: [If you have free time, you might as well work on my commission.]

Remembering that commission made Zhan Yan’s head ache. Every day, he searched through Yunjin City’s gossip logs, cross-referencing various relevant keywords to maximize efficiency. At first, he had unearthed quite a few supernatural factions of varying sizes. But the further along he went, the harder it became. Once he exhausted every keyword he could think of, he had to sift through the logs one by one.

Sooner or later, I will unlock that ‘fuzzy search’ function!

This commission was a bottomless pit…

Approaching Science: [What exactly are you trying to investigate? Can you give me more specific parameters? Doing it this way is far too tedious.]

I Just Saved The World: [No. Can’t handle it?]

Zhan Yan ground his teeth.

He had realized early on that “I Just Saved The World!” was arrogant and insufferably cocky—his username alone gave that away. Using his own wanted poster to test someone’s competence wasn’t something a sane person would do!

Approaching Science: [It’s your points. Spend them however you like.] [File Attached]

Zhan Yan compiled the intel he had gathered over the past two days and sent it over.

Sooner or later, I’ll take every last point you have!

Gu Jiancheng accepted the file and casually transferred the bounty points.

Hmph. Collaborate on a bounty? Tomorrow I’m taking the high-speed rail back to university with Yan Yan. Where would I find the time?

Approaching Science just needed to obediently finish the task assigned to him.

Glancing at his watch, Gu Jiancheng noted it was time for their nightly goodnight call.

Logging out of the forum, Gu Jiancheng dialed Zhan Yan’s number.

Zhan Yan’s tone sounded slightly off. Had something upset him?

Taking a deep breath, Zhan Yan collected himself. “It’s nothing. Just ran into a chuunibyou online!”

Gu Jiancheng instantly shared his indignation. “Tell me who; I’ll help you curse him out!”