GRMFBS CH51

Zhan Yan had an overwhelming number of tasks on his plate lately.

Coursework; continuously tracking Garbled Anomaly No. 2; combing through the fly’s gossip logs to pinpoint what felt off; practicing the distinction of animal languages; and figuring out how to improve his affinity with animals…

He had already sorted out the issue of distinguishing animal speech, but improving his animal affinity had yielded zero progress so far.

Squatting in the animal husbandry pens to tease the rabbits, Zhan Yan tried his best to follow the instructions in the beast-taming guide sent by Tianshi to release a “natural aura.” As for what this “natural aura” actually was, Zhan Yan had rolled around in the rabbits’ dry hay bales before coming over, and he was currently brandishing half an apple to entice them.

The rabbits stayed as far away from him as physically possible.

The attempt was an utter failure.

Next time, he resolved to spritz himself with catnip extract. That had to count as a cat’s “natural aura”!

Sighing, Zhan Yan set the apple on the ground and took two steps back.

The rabbits instantly dashed forward to snatch the apple.

Forget it, forget it. This couldn’t be rushed, and he wasn’t in dire need of using this skill anyway.

Which just went to show that one should never raise a death flag. The moment Zhan Yan stepped out of the husbandry pens, his phone rang with a call from a senior.

The senior, named Guo Jiang, was an acquaintance from a student club who was now a graduate student at Beiling Agricultural University studying animal husbandry.

Guo Jiang wailed hysterically over the line: “Emergency, bro! One of our lab pigs escaped! Do you have class right now? If you’re free, please help us track it down!”

Zhan Yan: “I’m free right now, but my—”

Guo Jiang: “Fantastic! Where are you?”

Zhan Yan: “At the animal husbandry pens. Wait, I—”

Senior: “I’m heading straight to you! Please, you’re the entire research group’s only hope! Once we catch it, dinner’s on us!”

Zhan Yan: “Wait a second…”

Beep… beep…

The line went dead.

Gu Jiancheng: … Pfft.

Zhan Yan glared at him.

Gu Jiancheng: “It’s fine, it works just the same. When the time comes, we can take a stroll around the secluded areas and scare the pig right out of its hiding spot.”

Zhan Yan: “That is a whole pig!”

It wasn’t a little bunny that could vanish completely behind a bush. With a body that massive, how could anyone miss it?

Guo Jiang was already nearby, sprinting over in a matter of minutes. Reaching them, he reached out to grab Zhan Yan: “Zhan Yan!!! Help me out, I’m begging you! If we lose this pig, our whole group won’t graduate!”

With lightning reflexes, Gu Jiancheng stepped firmly in between them. Guo Jiang didn’t even realize he had grabbed the wrong person; yanking on Gu Jiancheng’s arm, he turned to bolt: “We—”

He couldn’t budge him an inch.

Guo Jiang felt like he was pulling on an iron pillar, failing to produce the slightest shift. Turning his head, he finally realized he had seized the wrong person.

Guo Jiang stared up at him in utter bewilderment.

Zhan Yan: … Pfft.

“Senior, I can help look, but my constitution has changed recently; animals avoid me like the plague now,” Zhan Yan explained.

“…Huh?” Guo Jiang was completely lost.

Zhan Yan leaned slightly to the side; instantly, the rabbits in the pen bolted into the far corner.

Guo Jiang’s eyes nearly popped out of his skull.

Whenever this junior visited the husbandry pens in the past, hadn’t the animals smothered him in affection? Why had it suddenly done a complete reversal?

“Can we… try again?” Guo Jiang was utterly unwilling to give up.

They walked past the chicken coops, the duck runs, and the goose enclosures. Pandemonium erupted the entire way as every feathered creature scrambled to steer clear of Zhan Yan.

Guo Jiang pulled a tear-streaked, miserable face: “Your constitution… how did it—how did it just change like that?”

Zhan Yan: “I assisted in a few neutering surgeries last semester.”

Guo Jiang: … Waaah.

Without their junior’s innate talent, they might never find their pig; without their pig, they couldn’t write their graduation thesis; without their thesis, the whole group couldn’t graduate; if they couldn’t graduate, they’d have to raise a new batch of pigs; raising new pigs would take at least two more years, and those pigs might run off and get lost again…

Seeing his senior on the verge of tears, Zhan Yan consoled him, “A pig is huge. We’ll definitely find it.”

Tears streamed down Guo Jiang’s face: “The lab chicken our advisor raised back then was eventually found in someone else’s stew pot—fully braised and seasoned by the time we got to it!”

Zhan Yan had heard of that. That was the tragic reality for agricultural students: their research subjects were constantly poached by petty thieves looking to score a free meal. To save a few bucks at a farmer’s market, thieves casually destroyed years of dedicated research.

Guo Jiang walked along, drowning in sorrow. Adjacent to the husbandry area were the experimental plots, lush with the green produce of agriculture majors in late summer and early autumn.

“We agricultural students have it so rough!” Gazing at the fields, Guo Jiang recalled another tragedy and let out a choked sob: “It’s just too brutal! Back then, the tomatoes my girlfriend cultivated got swiped by some bastard, and she ended up failing her course…”

Right on cue, a bloodcurdling shriek echoed from the experimental plots: “My crops!!!”

Guo Jiang: “See, I told—”

“You damned pig! Get the hell out of my vegetable patch!! Aaargh—I’m turning you into stew!!!”

Guo Jiang’s face drained of color, and he broke into a dead sprint: “My pig!!!”

A burly, strapping white pig was currently crunching through leafy greens in the experimental plot with gusto. Several tanned seniors wearing rubber boots were shoving and hauling at the beast, desperately fighting to save their graduation theses.

Yet whether it was because the greens were too delicious or because the pig had been fed too well, the group couldn’t dislodge it from the patch. Instead, several students were bowled over by its snorting charges, including the freshly joined Guo Jiang.

The scene descended into utter chaos.

Regardless, they had to drive the pig out of the plots first. Otherwise, even if the pig was captured, Guo Jiang was liable to lose his prized white pig to the wrath of the furious horticulture department.

Zhan Yan jogged over.

The mighty white pig, holding off a dozen men on its own, lifted its snout imperiously. Catching sight of Zhan Yan, it froze—then whipped around and bolted for dear life.

As the white pig charged out of the plot, the agriculture seniors abandoned all thoughts of revenge, dropping to their knees to salvage the battered, surviving vegetables.

Only Guo Jiang scrambled back up, howling as he gave chase: “Zhuang’er! Zhuang’er! Don’t run! Stop! Stooop!!”

Guo Jiang shouted at the top of his lungs, but Zhuang’er paid him zero mind.

He chases, it flees, it finds it impossible to—

Ptooey! Zhan Yan reined in his wandering train of thought. He stayed put on the path; if he gave chase, Zhuang’er’s speed would probably spike by another thirty miles per hour, and Senior Guo Jiang would genuinely never catch up.

Gu Jiancheng had already sprinted after it, however. With his assistance, Zhuang’er was not getting away.

Zhan Yan stood on the field ridge, watching the pursuit from afar.

Zhuang’er was galloping with joyous abandon when a figure suddenly cut in from the flank. Clamping a single hand onto its thick, muscular neck, the figure hooked a leg behind the pig’s sturdy trotters. A shove of the hand and a sweep of the foot flipped the massive white pig right onto its back!

Dazed by the sweep, Zhuang’er twisted its brawny frame, scrambling to heave itself off the ground.

By then, Guo Jiang had arrived. With a flying leap, he slammed down to pin Zhuang’er firmly to the turf.

Still watching from the ridge, Zhan Yan marveled at how well Zhuang’er had been fed and how much brute strength it possessed.

Thankfully, Gu Jiancheng had lent a stabilizing hand to keep the beast pinned; otherwise, Guo Jiang would have ended up giving the campus a front-row demonstration of pigback riding.

By this time, the rest of Guo Jiang’s research group trickled in. Gathering ropes and hoisting bamboo poles, they joined forces to bind Zhuang’er tightly.

Just as this grandiose chase seemed destined for a triumphant resolution, the agriculture seniors marched over, radiating murderous intent.

Well, what followed would be negotiations between the horticulture students and the animal husbandry students.

Zhan Yan and Gu Jiancheng stepped aside to watch the drama… no, to wait.

Under the glow of dusk, two youths in light shirts stood on the field ridge against a backdrop of rolling greenery swaying in the evening breeze.

Not far away, a stout, snow-white pig was pinned and lashed to a bamboo pole, surrounded by a ring of deeply tanned, muscular young men.

In the distance, an amateur photographer visiting the campus to capture scenic shots spotted the tableau from afar and pressed the shutter.

Ah, what a harmonious pastoral portrait of youthful vitality.

While waiting, Zhan Yan’s phone rang with a call from his older brother.

Zhan Yan was deeply shocked.

With his brother’s extreme social anxiety—the type of personality that would text rather than utter a single spoken syllable—for him to actually place a phone call, how massive of an emergency must have occurred?!

Zhan Yan answered instantly: “Ge? What happened?”

Earlier, relying on the traces left within the soul of the Hungry Ghost, Zhan Jinli had fashioned a specialized Yin art. Tracking the anomaly along the Underworld roads, he had sprinted all the way into Beiling City.

He sensed he was extraordinarily close to that entity; it was definitely lurking within Beiling City!

Lin Yuan Ghost King narrowed his phoenix eyes, the heavy, chilling majesty of a Ghost King surging forth.

This time, I will capture this entity!

Yet, Beiling City… Beiling City…

Isn’t my younger brother attending university right here in Beiling City?!

Not good! My brother might be in danger!

Zhan Jinli rapidly dialed his number:

“Where are you right now? How are you doing?”

Zhan Yan: “I’m on campus, doing great. Ge, why are you calling all of a sudden? Did something happen?”

Confirming Zhan Yan was on campus, Zhan Jinli breathed a sigh of relief. The coordinates his Yin art pointed toward were completely opposite from the direction of Beiling Agricultural University!

Furthermore, his Ghost King Seal showed no reaction, proving his brother was indeed safe.

Zhan Jinli promptly hung up.

Zhan Yan: …

Exiting the call screen, he immediately received a text from his brother as expected:

Zhan Jinli: [Do not leave the campus for now.]

Zhan Yan: [Huh?]

Zhan Jinli: [Study diligently.]

Zhan Yan: ?

What was wrong with his brother?

Zhan Jinli still couldn’t put his mind completely at ease. Recalling the chaotic background noise he had heard over the receiver, he typed:

[Why was it so noisy on your end?]

Zhan Yan: [Oh, we just caught a pig. Ge, did you need something from me?]

Zhan Jinli: ?

What on earth… does his younger brother spend his days doing at university?

Regardless, confirming his safety was enough. Still, with that bizarre anomaly darting recklessly through Beiling City, it could cross paths with his brother at any moment. He had to capture that thing immediately!

Spurred by urgency, Zhan Jinli replied with a brief message:

[It’s nothing now.]

He slipped back into the shadows, shifting into ghostly strides to enter the Underworld road, resuming the hunt.

Under the slanting rays of the setting sun, Gu Jiancheng drifted closer with apparent nonchalance.

“Your brother?”

“Yeah,” Zhan Yan said.

“Why did he hang up halfway through?” Gu Jiancheng asked casually.

This was his future brother-in-law; gathering intelligence early was essential for getting along smoothly down the line.

“My brother has severe social anxiety,” Zhan Yan sighed. “He hates talking to people, and he can’t stand listening to people talk to him either. Normally he doesn’t even make phone calls, insisting on texting instead.”

Gu Jiancheng took mental notes in silence. Understood. When I formally meet the brother-in-law, absolute silence is a must; if there’s business, handle it through text on the phone.

Staring at his brother’s reply—”It’s nothing now”—Zhan Yan was utterly speechless. If it were truly nothing, would you have ever placed a call to me?

Time to dig into his brother’s gossip logs right now!

[Zhan Jinli purchased a train ticket bound for Fengyu City.]

Well, he already knew that. His brother was supposed to be going to Fengyu City to study pastry-making.

[Zhan Jinli did not board the train bound for Fengyu City.]

Huh? Did he miss the train?

Then he could just buy another ticket; it wasn’t as if his brother was strapped for cash… probably? Mom injected capital into his bakery every year. Zhan Yan didn’t know the exact figure, but it was undoubtedly plenty to cover his expenses; all the baking ingredients his brother bought were top-tier quality.

Or did his brother deliberately skip the train because he had something secretive to handle under the table, using the ticket merely as a smokescreen?

Scrolling further down:

[Zhan Jinli entered an undisclosed, hidden corner.]

Zhan Yan’s mind instantly flashed back to the time his brother booked a room at a love hotel.

Ge!!!