GRMFBS CH86

This time, the reply didn’t come from Bi Fang; it had switched to Luowang.

Administrator Luowang: [I’ll explain it to him right now!]

While Luowang went off to explain to the old-fashioned, stubborn Bi Fang what the entertainment industry was and what it meant to “blow up and get super popular,” Zhan Yan continued browsing the forum.

It had been a long time since he had browsed the mission section. Zhan Yan spotted a familiar ID—White Hair Hottie was looking for people to collect information regarding anomaly rank drops. Zhan Yan recalled Qi Ye mentioning before that he was busy writing a thesis and hardly even played games anymore. Collecting data on anomaly rank drops for a thesis… it seemed Bai Ji was attending a demon clan school.

Zhan Yan conveniently submitted the chain rank drops of the anomaly “Murder Mystery Game” as a case study for the mission.

White Hair Hottie wasn’t logged into the forum at the moment, so the mission points would have to wait until he reviewed and approved it.

Zhan Yan browsed around a few more pages and casually knocked out several more missions before Luowang’s side finally wrapped up.

Administrator Luowang: [I’ve explained it clearly.]

Having accidentally repaid kindness with enmity, Bi Fang felt deeply embarrassed and rushed off in a fiery panic to undo the technique.

The next day, Ji Lele was dissatisfied with a particular scene and kept fine-tuning it. The crew’s schedule was readjusted, leaving the extras and Xie Dongshu with free time.

Xie Dongshu wanted to take the opportunity to treat Zhan Yan to the meal they had agreed on earlier; if he kept putting it off, it wouldn’t be good if they ran out of time before leaving the film set.

Xie Dongshu also brought along his roommates, Gu Jiancheng and Bao Qingshan.

It was the winter break right now. Although it hadn’t snowed yet, the weather was quite chilly, so they decided to go for hot pot.

Beneath the copper pot, the charcoal burned brightly. The broth bubbled up in tiny pockets between the ingredients, sending up savory, fresh, and spicy steam that made everyone’s mouth water frantically.

The place Xie Dongshu chose was a famous old shop with its own secret broth recipe handed down through generations. While its flavor couldn’t quite match Zhan Yunkai’s culinary skills, it was still very good.

With hot pot, half depends on the broth and half on the ingredients. With a solid broth and fresh ingredients, Zhan Yan found it quite enjoyable.

His chopstick skills were only average. Aiming for a meatball, he went in with his chopsticks, but the meatball slipped away.

Just as Zhan Yan was about to pick up a spoon, Gu Jiancheng used another pair of communal chopsticks to snatch the meatball with steady, swift precision and dropped it into Zhan Yan’s bowl.

Zhan Yan gave him a thumbs-up. “Impressive!”

After only a few bites, Gu Jiancheng suddenly stopped his chopsticks and turned to look outside the restaurant. Bao Qingshan reacted half a beat slower and looked over as well.

Zhan Yan turned his head. Standing outside the shop was a boy with short red hair wearing an unseasonably thin tunic. His top was brick-red and his lower garment was a wing-feather cyan-green, making him look like a Hanfu enthusiast.

The youth had exquisite features and a pair of large, bright eyes that were fixed unblinkingly on them.

Zhan Yan opened the Gossip System.

Whoa! Bi Fang got here fast!

Should he expect anything less from a mythical avian anomaly?

Zhan Yan had assumed he would come secretly to undo the Minor Auspicious Fire Technique, just like how he had previously slipped in unnoticed to ask about the wish. Why had he taken human form and shown up in person?

As Xie Dongshu was eating, he noticed the other three had all turned to look outside in unison. What was out there? Xie Dongshu looked over. Oh, a rather good-looking kid. And this kid was staring straight at him. Xie Dongshu immediately misunderstood: Could this be a little fan of mine?

He gave Bi Fang a very pleasant smile.

Bi Fang hesitated for a moment, then walked over.

Undoing the Minor Auspicious Fire Technique didn’t require him to show his face. He had stepped forward only because he had caused someone such enormous trouble and needed to apologize in person.

Gu Jiancheng shifted, vigilantly moving closer to Zhan Yan. He could sense that this was a powerful demon—Bi Fang hadn’t made any real effort to disguise it, merely reigning in his demonic aura.

This aura matched the aura of the technique on Xie Dongshu. Had he come to seek revenge on Xie Dongshu? He had known they needed to keep their distance from this guy!

Bao Qingshan’s eyes were filled with curiosity. His intuition told him there was tea to be spilled here!

Completely oblivious, Xie Dongshu asked warmly, “Do you know me?”

Bi Fang nodded.

Confirmed—he really was a fan!

Aiyah! He truly didn’t have many experiences of being recognized by young fans like this!

“Have you eaten? Do you want to sit down and have some with us?” Xie Dongshu asked again.

Bi Fang hesitated. He had wanted to resolve this quickly and leave, but there were too many ordinary people around, making certain things inconvenient to say.

With a stiff expression, he sat down next to Xie Dongshu and quietly dispelled the Minor Auspicious Fire Technique on him first.

Gu Jiancheng couldn’t make heads or tails of this. What was going on? Did he decide the lesson had been sufficient, so he came to release the technique? But why take human form to meet in person? And he actually sat down!

Not only did Bi Fang sit down, but he also started eating.

This was Bi Fang’s first time eating hot pot. He had had very little interaction with humans in the past and had never tried this sort of food. His eyes were fixed intently on the charcoal fire underneath the pot.

Xie Dongshu assumed the boy was just nervous and found it rather endearing, so he asked the server to bring an extra set of tableware.

Seeing that Bi Fang wasn’t touching his chopsticks, Xie Dongshu picked up the boy’s bowl to serve him a portion first. “Do you have any dietary restrictions?”

Bi Fang shook his head.

Xie Dongshu picked a bit of almost every ingredient, filled the bowl to the brim, and mixed a sesame sauce dip for him.

Bi Fang picked up the bowl and gulped it straight down into his mouth!

Xie Dongshu jumped in fright. “Slow down, slow down! Are you that hungry? It’s scalding hot!”

Naturally, he wasn’t afraid of heat—the guy could literally breathe fire!

After swallowing it all, Bi Fang’s eyes lit up. He loved spicy food! Hot pot was scorching hot and fiery spicy! Extremely satisfying!

After watching how the others used their chopsticks to fish out food, he caught on rapidly.

With hot pot, the more people eating, the livelier it gets. Slices of meat, tripe, meatballs, and glass noodles bobbed in and out of the rolling, spicy broth.

Bi Fang locked his sights on a slice of beef that had tumbled a few times in the pot. Just as his chopsticks went in, Gu Jiancheng’s chopsticks cut in sideways, intercepting the beef slice right in front of Bi Fang.

Bi Fang paused, looking up at Gu Jiancheng. Gu Jiancheng stared right back.

Heh. I just cooked this beef for Yan Yan. Nobody touches it!

Bi Fang was naturally a fiery-tempered demon. Sensing the implicit provocation from Gu Jiancheng, his temper flared up instantly.

The two locked horns. Their chopsticks darted back and forth like martial arts masters trading blows. In the blink of an eye, a freshly surfaced shrimp paste ball vanished; with a flash of chopsticks, a newly poached oyster landed right in Zhan Yan’s bowl. A diving fish ball was plucked out with pinpoint accuracy by Bi Fang, while a perfectly tender slice of conch was claimed by an unyielding Gu Jiancheng.

Xie Dongshu and Bao Qingshan sat like two innocent bystanders caught in a clash of martial arts legends, watching the flashing blades and flying chopsticks completely at a loss for where to even dip their own.

Zhan Yan couldn’t eat fast enough to keep up with the speed of their duel. His bowl was already piled into a towering pyramid, yet Gu Jiancheng was still managing to keep the tower perfectly balanced while battling it out with his chopsticks!

“Stop!” Zhan Yan called out.

Two pairs of chopsticks clamped onto the very same duck intestine froze at the same time.

Gu Jiancheng and Bi Fang both remembered simultaneously: someone else was paying for this meal.

Both sides let go and ceased hostilities. The innocent duck intestine tumbled back into the broth to roll through three more boiling turns.

Bi Fang gave a light cough, his expression stiffening even further.

Gu Jiancheng blinked, looking toward Zhan Yan with a face full of innocence.

Zhan Yan didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “Are you trying to stuff me to death?”

“What a shame, I didn’t get to record that in time,” Xie Dongshu chuckled with a sigh. “Ah, youth is wonderful.”

Bi Fang slowly averted his gaze. Gu Jiancheng was promptly stuffed with a meatball by Zhan Yan.

The second half of the meal proceeded peacefully. Zhan Yan didn’t have to reach his chopsticks into the pot a single time for the rest of the meal.

By the end of it, Bi Fang had downed half a pot of the broth. If Xie Dongshu hadn’t stopped him, he would have chugged the remaining half as well.

Xie Dongshu’s eyes went wide. He felt this kid had real potential to become an eating-show streamer.

Looking at the reluctant gaze Bi Fang cast upon the bottom of the pot, he asked hesitantly, “Are you… still hungry?”

To him, the kid didn’t look like he came from a family lacking money; that Hanfu set obviously wasn’t cheap.

Bi Fang at least remembered that he couldn’t blow his cover in front of ordinary mortals, and that an ordinary person’s appetite was probably about this much.

“I’m full,” he said.

Xie Dongshu breathed a sigh of relief. He had genuinely been worried the kid might burst a gut.

Having finished eating, Bi Fang remembered he had come to apologize. Clearing his throat twice, he sat up straight with great embarrassment, returning to his posture as an upright, well-mannered, and refined red-haired youth.

“I’m sorry for causing you trouble,” Bi Fang said.

Xie Dongshu felt the kid was being far too polite. “It’s fine, it’s fine, it’s just a hot pot meal.”

For some reason, looking at this kid gave him an odd sense of familiarity; the way he ate reminded him of Qiuqiu.

Bi Fang asked him solemnly, “Do you have any wishes?”

Xie Dongshu laughed, teasing, “What kind of wish could I have? As long as fires don’t break out wherever I go, that’s good enough for me.”

Bi Fang coughed again.

Pouring him some sour plum drink, Xie Dongshu asked with concern, “Did the spice get to you?”

He had never seen someone drink hot pot broth straight like that!

“Besides that, do you have any other wishes?”

Xie Dongshu smiled. “Me? Just being able to act well is enough. What’s your name? How old are you? You’re still in school, right? What grade are you in? Which school do you go to? Where are your parents?”

Bi Fang was stunned by this barrage of questions. How old was a human with this appearance supposed to be again?

“Bi Fang.” He glanced around hesitantly. “This year, I am one hundr—”

Zhan Yan burst into a violent coughing fit.

Gu Jiancheng took the sour plum drink from his hand, set it on the table, and gently patted his back. “Drink slowly.”

He was no longer quite as guarded. Since Bi Fang could fight over hot pot with him like that, he didn’t seem like someone looking to stir up trouble. Later on, he could just ask Approaching Science to see what Bi Fang’s deal was.

Bao Qingshan cut into the conversation from the side. “You look about fifteen or sixteen to me. You haven’t started university yet, right?”

Bao Qingshan winked frantically at Bi Fang.

Good heavens! He truly hadn’t expected the visitor to be Bi Fang himself! And to be so completely clueless about the mortal world! He had blurted out his real name right off the bat.

Fortunately, Xie Dongshu didn’t know demons existed in this world, and hearing just the pronunciation without seeing the characters made it difficult to make the connection. But if he were allowed to keep talking about his age, things would really get weird!

Catching the hint, Bi Fang realized there was a problem with his answer; if he was questioned any further, he’d definitely blow his cover! He nodded and beat a hasty retreat: “I have to go now. Goodbye!”

Xie Dongshu: “Hey—did I scare him off? Seems like that kid’s grades might not be too great.”

“Probably, probably,” Bao Qingshan said, wiping away a bead of cold sweat.

But why would Xie Dongshu be tied up with Bi Fang? Could it be related to his ‘Fire God’ constitution? It’s so frustrating not being able to fully follow the gossip! And there’s nobody to share the tea with.

Bao Qingshan glanced at his two roommates beside him. One had eyes slightly red from coughing, while the other was helping by handing over tissues and water.

Tsk, tsk, tsk! No point in expecting this PDA-flaunting couple to know the truth.

Ah… mingling among ordinary mortals is truly lonely!

And I still have to eat dog food!

When they returned to the crew, work hadn’t resumed yet. A group of people was gathered around unpacking a delivery, with Ji Lele shouting from the side, “Careful, hey, hey, don’t bump it.”

Zhan Yan checked the Gossip System—oh, his sister’s sculpture had arrived.

Ji Lele was admiring the unpacked sculpture with rapt attention and a face full of praise, looking as if he desperately wanted to share the appreciation with someone else. However, the expressions of the people around him were rather hard to describe.

Turning his head and spotting Zhan Yan, his eyes lit up. “Quick, come take a look!”

Zhan Yan: “…That won’t be necessary, right?”

Ji Lele: “Others might pass, but you’re the creator’s brother! How can you not understand her?”

Zhan Yan: “You just want someone to chat with!”

Ji Lele: “Cut the nonsense, get over here!”

Zhan Yan dragged the other three along over with him.

Bao Qingshan felt that this sculpture was ugly in an entirely groundbreaking way, yet his intuition told him there might be some story hidden behind it.

Xie Dongshu was an actor; he had to interact and perform alongside this sculpture, so listening to the director’s perspective would help his performance.

Gu Jiancheng came along half to keep Zhan Yan company, and half because this was a sculpture by Zhan Yan’s sister—the essential oil in his hands had come from her. This sister was definitely extraordinary! He needed to learn as much about her as possible.

With more people gathered, Ji Lele became even more delighted, explaining it to them with high spirits and animated gestures.

Halfway through, Bao Qingshan couldn’t hold back anymore and whispered to Zhan Yan, “Your sister’s aesthetics… are quite unique.”

Zhan Yan had a pained look on his face. “Even at home, she never forced me to appreciate them like this.”

Xie Dongshu had already slipped into actor mode.

Gu Jiancheng had a serious look on his face. “I think Director Ji makes a lot of sense.”

Ji Lele’s eyes lit up. “A kindred spirit!”

Zhan Yan: “…You don’t have to forcibly distort your aesthetics.”

Gu Jiancheng shook his head. “No, I’m trying hard to understand it.”

He couldn’t appreciate the beauty in this sculpture the way Ji Lele did just yet, but he was working hard to understand it; he felt this sculpture was in pain.

Zhan Yan: “Do you think I should understand it too?”

Gu Jiancheng: “I think we can work hard toward that direction.”

Whether it was him or Yan Yan, it would be best for them to learn more about his mysterious sister.

Zhan Yan: “Then do you think if I view you through an aesthetic lens that understands this, you’ll still look good to me?”

Gu Jiancheng changed his tune instantly: “Actually, not understanding it is pretty good too.”