GRMFBS CH82

[Since ancient times, heroes have always found it hard to pass the test of a beauty.]

Zhan Yan: “…”

The corners of Gu Jiancheng’s eyes and brows softened with an expansive smile. “What’s wrong?”

Zhan Yan’s gaze traced across Gu Jiancheng’s face. “Nothing.”

He rolled the words “test of a beauty” over in his mind. Oh boy…

The moment Zhan Yan agreed to meeting the parents, a wave of worry washed over him.

He hadn’t even mentioned a word of this to his family yet!

Mulling it over, he opened the family group chat. Seeing his father ask about his workout progress, Zhan Yan snapped a photo of his newly toned muscle and sent it in:

Zhan Yan: [My fitness is going to surpass all of yours very soon!]

His family members chimed in one after another with encouragement.

Zhan Yan felt thoroughly pleased. Surpassing his father’s physical fitness was outright impossible—his dad wasn’t even human—but catching up to his older brother and sister was still a realistic goal!

Speaking of which, his brother’s fondant cake training course was coming to an end soon, and he’d be heading home before long.

Zhan Jinli had conferred with Luowang and settled all the arrangements regarding the flesh-and-blood anomalies.

With Wan Yan closely watched, he felt far more relieved. On top of that, he had obtained the Glazed Mirror from Mount Chaofu, a nifty little item that suited his current condition perfectly.

Right now, Zhan Jinli’s divine ability was in an uncontrollable state; whether he was speaking to others or others were speaking to him, it could trigger automatically. The Glazed Mirror was able to set up an additional threshold outside his divine ability—only words spoken with complete sincerity had a chance of activating it.

From now on, there was no need to worry about polite pleasantries, lies, and the like.

Lighthearted and relaxed, Zhan Jinli finally found the mood to deliberate over his graduation piece for the fondant cake class.

As he sketched out his draft, he recalled the message the Chongming Demon King had passed along to him through Luowang.

One part was that Wan Yan was being kept under watch, meaning Lin Yuan could investigate without holding back. The other part concerned Wan Yan’s condition.

Back when Wan Yan was alive as Di Ting, his temperament did have lively moments, but he had never been quite this mischievous.

The Chongming Demon King had looked into Wan Yan’s state. Possessing the divine eyes of double pupils, he could perceive things that eluded ordinary sight.

When Wan Yan lived as Di Ting, blessed with such a divine ability, he disliked crowding around places with too many people.

Yet staying by himself for too long grew boring, so he devised an amusing pastime: capable of hearing the sounds of all living beings, he would frequently pick a creature, listen to its inner voice, and then disguise himself as it. Sometimes he turned into a deer, running through the mountain forests alongside the herd; other times, he transformed into a bird, migrating and soaring with the flock.

The name “Wan Yan”—representing myriad forms and evolutions—had originated precisely this way.

To put it in modern terms, the guy was a total drama queen!

This drama queen currently suffered from an injured soul, which inevitably made his temperament unstable. Even ordinary mortals could undergo drastic personality changes from neurological ailments, to say nothing of an issue rooted in the soul itself.

Wan Yan’s current demeanor couldn’t be called entirely disconnected from the curse Lin Yuan had laid upon him back then, though it wasn’t the sole cause either.

Lin Yuan’s divine ability was “Fortune and Misfortune Intertwined,” rather than a mere “Blessing” or “Curse”—it was far more profound and sophisticated than either of those.

It was a power governing fortune and fate. A living being’s fortune was finite; to truly alter one’s destiny required one’s own efforts, as external intervention would never suffice. Forcibly bestowing a blessing or inflicting a disaster was sometimes outright impossible; even if forced through, other circumstances would invariably unravel it.

Yet “Fortune and Misfortune Intertwined” could make it happen.

Back then, Lin Yuan had invoked “the soul shall find no rest” as a calamity curse to forcibly wrest Wan Yan’s soul from the brink.

Subsequently, that calamity curse of “finding no rest” ended up steering Wan Yan’s unsettled, drifting soul straight toward his most volatile past life experiences as a drama queen.

However, this wasn’t an insoluble predicament. Wan Yan’s wretched temperament stemmed from his wounded soul and lost memories; once his soul was nurtured back to health and his memories were recovered, everything would return to normal.

While mending a soul was a slow process, finding ways to retrieve some memories could be done ahead of time, as his current soul was sturdy enough to bear it.

The sooner he recalled his past, the sooner he’d return to normal, and the sooner the rest of them would enjoy a couple of peaceful days.

Zhan Jinli felt that what the Chongming Demon King said made complete sense.

Yet reclaiming memories was by no means an easy endeavor. It was best to continue nourishing Wan Yan’s soul without disturbing it through supernatural means; ideally, he should remember things on his own, which meant having him come into contact with familiar people and old memories as much as possible.

With his hands sketching the draft, Zhan Jinli’s mind revolved around this matter. As he drew, he absentmindedly painted a rough scene of Mount Chaofu: beneath the Wenyu Tree, Di Ting held its head high, seemingly gazing up at something perched on the branches above.

The veteran fondant master walked over, glanced at it, and remarked, “Oh? You’re planning to make a full scenery piece? Something from myth and legend?”

The teacher still spoke normally. Even though they had an understanding beforehand and the instructor kindly didn’t demand verbal answers, one couldn’t expect a teacher to stay silent and type out lecture critiques during class. Hence, the teacher always spoke normally, merely refraining from casual banter unrelated to the coursework.

Zhan Jinli looked down at his drawing. He had been lost in thought about Wan Yan and hadn’t paid attention to what his hands were doing.

Not waiting for a response and well aware that this student didn’t speak, the instructor added, “Is this your graduation piece? Quite a nice design.”

Looking at the base sketch, Zhan Jinli sighed inwardly. Let’s just go with this, then.

A few days later, Zhan Jinli’s graduation cake was finished: a little kitten climbing a tree.

The teacher’s head was filled with question marks. The rough draft from a few days ago hadn’t looked like this at all, had it?

Zhan Jinli thought to himself: There is no way I could actually base it on Mount Chaofu and Di Ting! If someone in the know saw it, my secret identity would be blown wide open!

The instructor examined the finished piece of the kitten climbing the tree. Regardless of why Zhan Jinli had swapped the design, the execution was outstanding—the movement felt natural, and the details were exquisite.

The fondant teacher was very fond of this student. He learned quickly and skillfully, kept his workbench spotless, and never stirred up trouble; his only drawback was his difficulty communicating with people. Considering this issue, finding a job would likely be an uphill battle for him.

Thinking of this, the teacher couldn’t help but feel a touch of sympathy.

Fortunately, crafting fondant cakes was a peaceful, focused craft. Armed with this skill, making a living wouldn’t be hard in the future.

“Excellently done,” the instructor praised, adding warmly, “Don’t worry, your shop will definitely become a huge hit! Truly!”

The blessing was delivered with heartfelt sincerity.

Zhan Jinli: …It’s so over.

The divine ability of Fortune and Misfortune Intertwined was stirred. Zhan Jinli did his utmost to adjust the flow of his divine ability so that the calamity curse wouldn’t rebound onto the fondant teacher. That part wasn’t difficult, since the original blessing hadn’t been intended for the teacher anyway.

The calamity curse wouldn’t rebound onto himself either. Unless Zhan Jinli deliberately directed his divine ability toward himself, the calamity curse would never lash back at its caster.

However, this “fortune” itself was practically a “calamity” to him! He had zero desire for his bakery to become a roaring hit! He hadn’t opened the shop to make money, nor was he hurting for cash!

Sigh, what a headache.

The semester drifted by lazily, and as finals approached, Zhan Yan suddenly received a message from Xia Yuexuan.

A film crew under Xia Yuexuan was heading to Beiling City to shoot a movie, and she was tagging along to take a look. That was when she remembered that His Majesty Chongming’s youngest son attended university here.

Xia Yuexuan had originally possessed little interest in His Majesty Chongming’s three mortal children, knowing only bare scraps about them: the eldest son was an extremely socially phobic baker with peculiar tastes, the second daughter was an artist with concerning artistic sensibilities, and the youngest son was still in school studying veterinary medicine.

However, after bumping into Zhan Yan on the flight previously, Xia Yuexuan had come away with a rather deep impression of him.

From several rows away, he had noticed someone slipping something into her cup and stepped forward to warn her—a sharp, quick-witted kid with a strong sense of justice, terribly endearing!

Since their paths happened to cross this time, she figured she’d say hello and chat a bit. Well… doing anything more was out of the question, lest someone sniff out something suspicious. She wouldn’t mind bringing him some gifts, but what film company boss went out of their way to shower gifts on the child of an obscure, eighteenth-tier background actor?

Having a brief chat was perfectly fine, though; they hit it off well.

Zhan Yan was very curious about Xia Yuexuan. He knew Boss Xia was definitely a demon, but he didn’t know what kind of demon she was. Opening a film production company in the mortal realm—how fascinating was that!

Zhan Yan: [Sister Xia, what kind of film is your crew shooting in Beiling City?]

Xia Yuexuan answered readily: [A campus horror flick. We deliberately scheduled it for winter break so we could scout and shoot on location at the university right next door to yours.]

Xia Yuexuan: [Oh, right! We’re still short on quite a few background extras. Are you guys interested? We can issue official internship certificates!]

That works! Zhan Yan inquired about the details; the timing fell right after their final exams concluded.

The director was Ji Lele. The name rang a bell in Zhan Yan’s mind, and he thought back. Oh, right! The director who specialized in shooting horror movies yet was terrified of watching his own films! His dad had mentioned him before.

Ji Lele was quite an entertaining figure; Zhan Yan had eaten gossip about him before. Terrified of ghosts yet addicted to directing horror films, Ji Lele was exceptionally “meticulous”: he offered incense and rituals during the opening ceremony, held another ritual whenever they changed sets, and conducted yet another ritual before filming scenes featuring taboos.

There were bound to be many students at their university who needed internship certificates. Zhan Yan didn’t need one, but he had never been on a film set before! Joining a movie set to shoot a film sounded like so much fun! What was more, this was a demon-run production crew!

Zhan Yan: [I want to go! I want to go!]

Zhan Yan: [Let me ask my classmates!]

Zhan Yan asked his dorm mates first.

Duan Hong wasn’t interested; all his focus was channeled into studying for the postgraduate entrance exam.

Bao Qingshan was thrilled! He felt that this film crew was different from regular ones and might bring some amusing experiences. So, he signed up as well.

“What about you?” Zhan Yan looked toward Gu Jiancheng.

Gu Jiancheng asked, “Are you going?”

“Of course,” Zhan Yan said.

He had to go! By going, he’d have an excuse to head home a little later for winter break!

Given that he had carelessly agreed to someone’s demand to meet the parents, and hadn’t yet figured out how to break the news to his family that he had gotten a boyfriend, finding an excuse to stall for time right now was completely justified!

“Then I’m going too,” Gu Jiancheng stated without a moment’s hesitation.

Duan Hong and Bao Qingshan weren’t surprised in the slightest.

Zhan Yan shared the announcement in the class group chat, and it instantly buzzed with excitement. However, the frenzy was short-lived; everyone’s focus remained locked onto finals.

Veterinary medicine was not one bit easier than human medicine. Human medicine only required memorizing human anatomy diagrams, whereas veterinary medicine demanded memorizing diagrams for an entire menagerie of different animals!

[You feel that using the System backup to memorize study materials is extremely handy.]

Zhan Yan: Got it, got it, you deserve the biggest credit!

Once the exams wrapped up, a wave of relief washed over them. Duan Hong, Zhan Yan, and Gu Jiancheng weren’t nervous at all, leaving only Old Bao wearing a funeral face.

During the first half of the semester, Old Bao had missed a ton of classes due to Garbled Anomaly No. 2, leaving his coursework scores painfully low.

Duan Hong comforted him, “It’s fine. Didn’t you catch up on everything later on? You won’t necessarily fail.”

Old Bao said mournfully, “You don’t understand!”

Zhan Yan shot him a sympathetic look.

[Bao Qingshan’s intuition triggers; he feels with absolute certainty that he is bound to fail this exam.]

Because he was joining the crew as an extra, Zhan Yan used his Gossip System to check up on the production whenever he had spare time. To his surprise, he spotted a familiar ghost on set!

[Because of his talent for playing a ghost, the ghost Yu Zhen was scouted by the casting director and joined the film crew to work.]

Yu Zhen was the very same ghost who had worked at the haunted house—the one who got so fed up with his boss shifting his days off that he used sleep paralysis to help his boss “adjust his sleep schedule.”

Not long after that incident, he had been apprehended by the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau. After hearing his explanation, the desk jockeys at the bureau felt a deep, mutual empathy for a fellow exploited worker. Following a routine lecture and critique, they let the ghost go.

Yu Zhen stopped working at the haunted house and turned around to find a job with a film crew.

Working on a film set was great in every aspect except the boxed lunches—which Yu Zhen couldn’t eat anyway! Not being able to eat was fine; he worked to earn money so he could buy sacrificial offerings for himself. Going hungry for a bit was tolerable; once he finished his stint with this crew and collected his pay, he’d go treat himself to a grand feast!

Yet their director held sacrificial rituals every couple of days! The incense smoke curling from the corner of the set practically never ceased!

Dangling a lavish feast all day long in front of a starving ghost—who could endure such torture?!

After holding back for days, Yu Zhen finally caved. Seizing a moment when nobody was around, he stealthily drifted over. Keeping more than half his body concealed inside the wall, he poked only his head out before the incense, sniffing greedily.

The gossip entries on Zhan Yan’s side were refreshing as well:

[Because the upcoming scene is rather terrifying, Director Ji Lele feels anxious and decides to go offer incense once more.]

[Director Ji Lele catches the ghost Yu Zhen secretly consuming the incense offerings; his eyes roll back, and he collapses dead faint onto the floor.]