GRMFBS CH47

Qin Shihuang really was asking him to send money…

Ptooey! No, this Tianshi was actually the real deal!

In a slight daze, Zhan Yan began chatting with Tianshi.

Tianshi was calm and gentle. She chatted with him at length about matters regarding the supernatural realm, asking if he felt any discomfort from continuously investigating so much information related to the Garbled Anomalies lately. She repeatedly told him to mind his condition and to ask for help if he ever felt unwell.

The great senior Tianshi even offered to impart some orthodox cultivation methods to help nourish and restore his soul.

Zhan Yan was deeply moved, yet simultaneously felt like crying.

Waaah! This is guidance from Tianshi themself! How many people across the forums would die for this chance?! But he just happened to be a little mortal who didn’t possess a shred of talent for cultivation!

How cool was Tianshi’s lightning technique?! He also wanted to summon the wind, ride the clouds, and grasp lightning in his palms, but he couldn’t even open a Yin-Yang Eye! He had experimented with all kinds of basic meditation methods from the forums for days on end, only to fall sound asleep the second he shut his eyes!

Fearing he might be nervous or shy, Tianshi repeatedly reassured him that it was fine and that he could ask whatever he wished.

After racking his brains, Zhan Yan came up with one question that might actually be of use to him:

Approaching Science: [Do you happen to know how one can improve their affinity with animals so they don’t turn and flee the moment they see you?]

Ji Yueming: ?

She had zero idea how to answer that!

Her ideal conversation was for Approaching Science to ask a few questions about cultivation, allowing her to instruct him on nourishing the soul—something all information-type supernatural users required. With a bit of instruction back and forth, wouldn’t a master-disciple bond form naturally? And after that, wouldn’t she be able to slowly guide him into the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau? Even if he didn’t join the bureau, their relationship would still grow closer. Wasn’t this infinitely better than the Wan Yao Alliance trying to throw heaps of money at him?

Approaching Science lacking talent for cultivation? Impossible! As long as one was a supernatural user, they would inevitably possess a certain degree of talent for cultivation.

Yet she never imagined in her wildest dreams that Approaching Science would pull such an unconventional move!

Still, it didn’t matter. She had backup!

Tianshi: [I am not very adept in this area.]

[There are beast-tamers in the Bureau. I’ll ask around for you.]

The senior Tianshi is truly so nice!

Once their conversation ended, Zhan Yan took a casual browse through the rest of the forum.

In the casual chat section, a few trending threads were discussing a massive upset in this year’s demon race sprint tournament. The champion was a horse demon who was currently standing on the podium holding his trophy, looking down imperiously at the rest of the realm.

Only after scrolling past this post did Zhan Yan remember Ma Xingfan with his dyed red-and-yellow hair. Being so busy lately, he had almost clean forgotten about him!

Heh, cheating and still having the gall to be this brazen? Reported!

That guy only had a half-baked understanding of human technology, completely failing to realize that train tickets and security surveillance cameras were full of obvious flaws. One check by the tournament organizers and the truth would come out instantly.

Suddenly, a new update popped up in the Gossip System’s special follow list:

[Zhan Jinli has decided to go on a business trip to further his pastry-making skills.]

Huh?

Right on cue, a message from Zhan Jinli popped up in the family group chat informing everyone of his decision:

Zhan Jinli: [There’s a Western pastry training class in Fengyu City. I plan to go attend it to further my studies.]

“Furthering his studies” was merely a cover; he intended to track the unnamed anomaly using traces left on the soul of the Hungry Ghost. Having finally sorted everything out recently, he needed a plausible excuse to head out.

Taking a Western pastry course served as a brilliant excuse.

Zhan Suiru: [I think…]

Zhan Yan: […You might want to reconsider.]

They were unanimously of the opinion that their brother’s problem didn’t lie in his technique, but in his completely abnormal palate!

Zhan Yan had always suspected his older brother suffered from OCD or some sort of cognitive issue. Even if handed a cake recipe with the exact measurements of sugar laid out crystal clear, his brother would still toss in mounds of sweeteners regardless.

Speaking strictly, this might be a psychological or neurological condition. The entire family had held serious discussions about it before.

When Zhan Yunkai and Ji Yueming first tasted the desserts Zhan Jinli made, both had been brimming with anticipation. They made an agreement beforehand that regardless of how the dessert turned out, they could not crush the child’s confidence. After all, this was the first pastry their eldest son had ever baked with his own hands!

Then, each of them took a spoonful—and fell into dead silence.

It was utterly impossible to utter the word “delicious” against their consciences.

Just forcing themselves to swallow it down took monumental effort.

Later on, they brought Zhan Jinli to the hospital for a check-up.

His body was fine, and his mental state was fine too—Zhan Jinli had visited psychologists before, and while communicating via phone or pen and paper posed no issues at all, he simply refused to speak out loud, ignoring others whenever they spoke to him.

Neither Zhan Yunkai nor Ji Yueming wished to send their son to a mental hospital; it wasn’t a pleasant place, and the doctors hadn’t identified any underlying illness anyway. Since every other check-up came back clean, if he didn’t want to talk, then so be it. Even if it hindered his career in the future, it didn’t matter—it wasn’t as if they couldn’t afford to support him.

This medical check-up proved equally inconclusive. After finishing his cloyingly sweet pastries, Zhan Jinli’s blood sugar surprisingly remained well within the normal range! Ultimately, it could only be written off as the human body being an enigmatic marvel; Zhan Jinli’s constitution was simply built differently from ordinary people.

In the end, Zhan Jinli agreed to his parents’ request to undergo an annual physical examination to ensure his excessive sugar consumption brought no adverse health effects.

For years now, Zhan Jinli’s medical reports came back perfectly normal every single year. It caused him no harm whatsoever, though the effects on his customers weren’t quite so pleasant.

Zhan Yunkai and Ji Yueming tactfully voiced their agreement with Zhan Suiru and Zhan Yan’s concerns.

Unless their eldest son fixed his sugar-dumping habit, attending a hundred pastry-making courses would be useless.

In response, Zhan Jinli silently forwarded a course brochure.

Zhan Yan opened it to take a look. The advanced class focused on fondant cakes. So-called fondant was an edible decorative paste primarily composed of sugar, which could be kneaded and sculpted in any variety of ways thanks to its superior pliability.

The promotional brochure featured pictures of numerous finished works. The simpler ones were molded into fruits and flowers, while the complex creations were practically indistinguishable from scale figurines—painstakingly intricate, featuring fine garment folds, delicate strands of hair, and even beaded strings of gold and silver jewelry, all crafted out of sugar.

Zhan Yan understood now: this was simply sculpting with sugar as the primary medium! His brother was bound to fall head over heels for this!

Then there was zero problem! Fondant wasn’t meant to be eaten anyway; it only needed to look stunning. It fit his brother’s quirk to absolute perfection!

If he mastered this craft, who knew? It might even breathe new life into his bakery, which barely saw any foot traffic at all!

Zhan Yunkai: [This is fantastic! It suits you wonderfully, and you’re bound to do an amazing job! Keep it up!]

Ji Yueming: [Go for it if you wish. Mom believes you’ll break through to brand-new heights!]

Praise him! Heap on the praise!

In the past, finding words of praise had been impossible, and with business so dismal, the boy’s confidence had taken repeated beatings over the years. Now that he had finally found a direction, he needed all the encouragement he could get!

Zhan Yan was more concerned about his brother’s habit of staying mute:

Zhan Yan: [How will you handle communicating during class?]

Zhan Jinli: [I have already discussed it with them in advance.]

Zhan Suiru: [If anyone bullies you, remember to tell me.]

She had also spent a great deal of time mulling over Zhan Jinli’s quirk. But Zhan Jinli’s refusal to speak was rooted in his psyche rather than a physiological defect, meaning she couldn’t cure it or design an assistive tool for him.

If someone tried to pick on him, showering him in insults, he wouldn’t even know how to talk back.

He truly made people worry…

Zhan Jinli: [They cannot bully me.]

Zhan Yan thought: That’s true. When they were young, some kids saw that Zhan Jinli didn’t talk and tried to push him around, only to get thoroughly thrashed by his brother.

Tattling to parents was entirely futile. One parent even stormed to the school, prompting the teacher to summon Zhan Yunkai to the office to mediate. The other parent acted so insufferably arrogant that Zhan Yunkai, in a fit of rage, smashed the teacher’s desk in half with a single slap.

The opposing parent had choked up on the spot, unable to squeak out a single sound. The nasty brat who had been tilting his nose to the sky waiting for Zhan Jinli’s apology burst into tears right then and there.

From that day forward, his father’s legendary feat echoed through the school, and no blind fools dared pick on his brother ever again.

Still, a fight between children was just a schoolyard scuffle, but a fight between adults was considered picking quarrels and provoking trouble.

Zhan Yan couldn’t help but chime in:

Zhan Yan: [Ge, don’t just go beating people up; you’ll end up at the police station.]

Zhan Jinli: […]

[Your ge knows how to do more than just fight.]

The entire family unanimously supported Zhan Jinli’s choice to learn fondant cake sculpting, subsequently diving into a barrage of hypothetical scenarios, simulated challenges, and countermeasures for whatever troubles he might face during training.

Zhan Jinli: It felt quite heartwarming. But he was also a bit distressed.

He only intended to track down an anomaly; whether he actually learned how to bake was entirely beside the point. Yet with everyone taking it this seriously, he had no choice but to study it for real now.

Once they wrapped up the discussion about his brother, Zhan Yan exited the family chat, opened the Gossip System, and began combing through anomalies across Beiling City.

Relying on intelligence provided by the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau, he had managed to pinpoint Garbled Anomaly No. 2 within the Gossip System multiple times. However, this anomaly moved in far too erratic leaps; he could only glean its whereabouts fleetingly through cross-referenced keywords before losing its trail again with its next jump.

Still, Zhan Yan made sure to refresh it every now and then. If he leveled up the system a bit earlier, who knew? Maybe he could catch the Garbled Anomaly red-handed!

He kept refreshing until the Gossip System’s daily capacity ran dry, then shut his eyes to sleep.

The following morning, Zhan Yan was jolted awake by a barrage of fine, rustling chatter.

Outside the window, small birds hopped back and forth across tree branches.

Blue sky, white clouds, green trees, crisp air, and the chirping of birds—

“That’s my worm!” “Ptooey! Shameless!” “Ouch, you hit me!” …

On the second day after gaining the ability to understand animals, Zhan Yan discovered that the skill wasn’t actually that practical.

Most wild animals paid little mind to human life. Even if they occasionally observed something, they couldn’t grasp the underlying meaning behind human behavior or language—humans themselves found studying a foreign language agonizing enough, so how could one expect wild creatures to decipher the nuanced intonations of human speech?

Certain highly intelligent breeds among domestic pets could understand human words and knew a bit more. But if you wanted them to spill the beans, you first had to build a line of communication with them…

Which, for the current Zhan Yan, was a bit too tall an order.

Jogging slowly while mulling over these thoughts, a blur suddenly shot past his side: “Lapped you!”

His train of thought was severed. Turning to look, he saw his major course professor being dragged along by a Siberian Husky, panting and wheezing as he shouted, “Hah… hah… Slow down! Slow down! Whew… Damn it! Are you begging for a beating?! You’re going to drag me to the ground! Hah…”

The professor was gasping for air to that extent, so the shout of “Lapped you!” certainly hadn’t come from him. Could it be the dog?

The dog paused briefly, looking past its owner to glance back at Zhan Yan and Gu Jiancheng, a remarkably smug, punchable grin plastered across its canine face.

Zhan Yan: ???

He turned to look at Gu Jiancheng: “Is that husky taunting us?”

Gu Jiancheng remarked, “Pretty bratty.”

Still, they couldn’t lower themselves to hold a grudge against a dog. He and Gu Jiancheng resumed their steady jog.

Checking the forum briefly this morning, the senior Tianshi had already forwarded materials related to beast-taming to him, though he hadn’t had the chance to look through them yet. He would study them once he returned tonight.

He also needed to figure out how to switch off this golden finger…

“Lapped you!” The bratty critter came charging past once more, twisting its head to cast a thoroughly contemptuous sneer at the two of them.

Zhan Yan: …

Exchanging a glance with Gu Jiancheng, both broke into an accelerated sprint.

“Good morning, Professor! Mind if we help you walk the dog?”

Zhan Yan looked down at the bouncy, hyperactive dog, flashing a picture of pure, harmless innocence.

His own stamina might be average, but Gu Jiancheng’s stamina was off the charts!

Let’s see if we can’t run you into the ground!