GRMFBS CH87

“Go, go, go!” Ji Lele shooed away the group of clueless college students, huffing angrily, “You’ll understand once I film it!”

Still huffing, Ji Lele directed the crew to adjust the set layout, had the sculpture moved over, draped some decorative fabric, personally adjusted the camera angles, tweaked the lighting, repositioned the cameras, and fussed over it for quite a while.

Xie Dongshu had changed his clothes and finished his makeup. Ji Lele talked him through the scene, the two of them gesturing animatedly, their scripts covered in notes.

After a moment, Xie Dongshu closed his eyes to adjust his mental state. He walked onto the set, and with the clap of the clapperboard, his expression as he looked at the sculpture transformed.

Zhan Yan watched quietly. Under Ji Lele’s direction, the parts of the sculpture that felt ugly had been obscured. Soft fabric softened some of the rigid lines, and the lighting emphasized certain parts of the sculpture while blurring others. The entire piece looked completely different now.

It was like a hatchling breaking out of its shell.

Birth, too, is ugly. Wrinkled skin, mucus from the mother’s womb, wounds, and blood…

Strip away the concepts of beauty and ugliness, and only the raw reality of life and death remains.

Xie Dongshu stood before the sculpture, his head tilted slightly upwards, his gaze resting on it. His face didn’t seem to change much, just a subtle shift in the muscles, but his entire aura was different.

Zhan Yan could feel the sorrow in his expression, and it felt as though his sorrow was projected onto the sculpture through his gaze, making the sculpture itself seem sorrowful as well.

The lighting shifted slowly according to Ji Lele’s preset arrangement, fading from bright to dim, then brightening again. Shadows danced across Xie Dongshu’s face and the sculpture.

Zhan Yan’s heart gave a sudden thud. For a moment, he felt as if the sculpture were moving.

It was growing.

It was like… like in an egg that had long turned to fossil, a spark of life had pecked a small hole in the shell, struggling to grow and emerge.

“Cut!” Ji Lele shouted. “Excellent, we’ll keep that take!”

Zhan Yan let out a sharp gasp for air.

Gu Jiancheng gripped his arm, applying a bit of pressure to steady him firmly.

“Yan Yan?”

“I’m fine.” Zhan Yan hadn’t completely recovered yet. “I’m fine, I just… I think I understand what Director Ji meant.”

The hand gripping his arm suddenly tightened, and Gu Jiancheng asked, “Then do you still think I look good?”

Zhan Yan froze for a moment before realizing what he meant. He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “Of course you look good. You look the best!”

Gu Jiancheng was satisfied.

Xie Dongshu had already reset his emotional state and was starting to film the next take.

His acting was excellent; he could definitely be called a true talent.

Zhan Yan flipped through his Gossip System slips. “I think he’s going to blow up soon.”

Having scrounged a free meal, Bi Fang felt very embarrassed. However, he hadn’t managed to find out Xie Dongshu’s true wish, and he didn’t dare try entering his dreams again like last time, afraid of messing things up.

But one thing was certain: Xie Dongshu truly loved acting. Since this was the entertainment industry… Bi Fang recalled that there was someone from the Wan Yao Alliance who was mixing in the entertainment circles.

“Do you know how to contact Xia Yuexian?” Bi Fang asked Luowang.

Administrator Luowang: [It’s simple. I’ll send you her WeChat. Just use your phone to message her.]

Although Bi Fang looked young, he strongly disliked modern technology. After struggling for a while and failing to understand how WeChat worked, he decided to fly over and find Xia Yuexian directly.

As soon as Xia Yuexian stepped out, she saw Bi Fang, who was half a head shorter than her, standing at the door.

She was very surprised. “What are you doing here?”

Ming Tang Pictures was an entertainment company, so the people coming and going were very sensitive to appearances. With his red hair, Hanfu attire, and exquisite features, Bi Fang was very eye-catching. Many of the gazes cast his way were assessing and evaluating, wondering if this was a newcomer preparing to enter the industry.

Bi Fang felt a bit irritated by the stares. He put on a stern face. “Let’s go somewhere quiet to talk.”

“Sure.” Xia Yuexian led him into her office.

Bi Fang asked Xia Yuexian to look after Xie Dongshu, promising he would have a gift to repay her.

Xia Yuexian smiled, her eyes crinkling, as she poured him some tea and brought out some snacks. “It’s a small matter, a small matter. It’s rare for you to visit. Let’s chat.”

Bi Fang didn’t like chatting, but he needed a favor, so he sat down to talk anyway. Eating and chatting, Xia Yuexian—a Heart Moon Fox with a mind as sharp as a whip—quickly wheedled out the reason why Bi Fang wanted to look after Xie Dongshu.

Xia Yuexian laughed so hard she was bent over backwards. “So you were the one who made fires break out wherever he went!”

Bi Fang was annoyed. He glared at her hard and shouted, “Xia Yuexian!”

Zhan Yan watched the two great demons bicker through the Gossip System from afar.

“Oh, don’t be mad!” Xia Yuexian smiled and waved her hand. “You have the face of a youth, so why do you act like a little old man?”

Bi Fang snorted. “You’ve lived for so many years, yet you still haven’t learned to be steady!”

Their bickering didn’t delay their business, though. Before long, everything regarding Xie Dongshu was clearly arranged.

“Are you planning to go straight back to the Wan Yao Alliance next, or are you staying outside?” Xia Yuexian’s expression grew serious.

“Why? I haven’t decided yet,” Bi Fang asked.

“If you stay outside, and you run into the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau looking for Infinite fragments, don’t interfere,” Xia Yuexian advised.

“Huh?”

“I can’t say any more than that.” Xia Yuexian tapped her fingertips, her lips twitching slightly. “Anyway, as long as you know that the seniors have already made arrangements, that’s enough.”

Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau.

Nie Yu was typing on her keyboard so fast it was about to throw sparks. Nie Ling reminded her from the side, “That’s the seventh keyboard you’ve destroyed this month.”

Nie Yu pushed against the edge of the desk, sliding her swivel chair back, and said angrily, “Then they should give me my account back!”

Nie Ling said slowly, “According to regulations, that account belongs to the bureau, not to either of us privately.”

Nie Yu started glaring at her brother. “Whose side are you on?!”

“Keep your voice down.” Nie Ling rubbed her head. “What’s the rush? Don’t we still have the Captain and the others?”

Nie Yu lowered her head and let out a couple of humphs. “The Captain hasn’t made a single move. And the Vice Bureau Chief is sick again…”

Vice Bureau Chief Ning Xi’s cultivation base had been crippled twenty-six years ago, so his health wasn’t what it used to be. Now, he was busy all day long. A while ago, the Council of Twenty-Four, in order to tie Ning Xi down, had ruthlessly dumped a mountain of work on him. Ning Xi worked himself to the bone, and hadn’t even had time to catch his breath before falling ill.

Captain Ji Yueming had said she would handle things, but Nie Yu didn’t know what she had actually done—it looked like the Captain had done nothing at all.

Now, there were more and more Infinite fragments appearing in the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau, while the Wan Yao Alliance and Mount Chaofu remained completely silent. It was hard for Nie Yu not to feel anxious.

Nie Ling helplessly rubbed her head again. His sister was too young; she hadn’t seen how the Captain used to operate back in the day. The Tianshi didn’t just blast things with lightning techniques.

But it was better to keep it from her for now. Nie Yu was emotionally unstable at the moment, and telling her too much might make it easy for others to notice something.

But since he had decided not to say much, he had to figure out a way to coax his sister.

Just as Nie Ling opened his mouth, Nie Yu’s personal terminal suddenly chimed.

“Black Wolf? What does he want with me?”

Black Wolf was looking for Nie Yu to investigate someone.

“The one who called in the tip about the ‘Murder Mystery Game’ last time. Can we find out who it is?”

Nie Yu started searching as she asked, “Why the sudden interest in him?”

Her ability was called “Network Ghost,” but it wasn’t actually limited to the internet; other information networks were also within her purview.

Black Wolf snorted. “The information-type on my team is useless, so I kicked him out. I’m looking for a replacement. That tipster from last time seemed to have decent skills.”

“Let me check…” Nie Yu couldn’t find anything; she encountered a familiar information barrier. “…Oh, it’s him. Don’t even think about it. That guy won’t join the Bureau, and even if he did, he wouldn’t work for you.”

Black Wolf wasn’t happy with that last sentence. “What? Think I’m not good enough?”

“No. That guy is Approaching Science. Just search the chaofan forum and you’ll see.” Nie Yu’s voice grew two degrees livelier. “He’s a fan of our Captain!”

Black Wolf scoffed. “How many information-types does your team have already? And you’re still trying to poach?”

Nie Yu: “It’s not like we’re trying to poach him. Even when we used our Captain as bait, he wouldn’t bite. If you have a way to persuade him to join the Bureau, who knows, maybe he’ll end up on your team.”

“I’m definitely going to try!”

Ending the call, Black Wolf tossed his phone aside and logged onto the forum on his computer.

His teammate asked from the side, “Boss, are you really going to try and recruit that Approaching Science?”

“Why not?” Black Wolf was already deftly searching the forum for Approaching Science.

His teammate was still chattering. “Hey? We fired that guy not because…”

…not because that guy was a plant sent by the Council of Twenty-Four to secretly monitor them?

“That doesn’t stop me from poaching someone,” Black Wolf snorted a couple of times, his dark eyes shining with excitement. “A fan of the Tianshi? If the Tianshi couldn’t even recruit him, I definitely have to give it a shot, don’t I?”

Teammate: Understood.

Their Captain was a combat fan of the Tianshi. Even though their boss wouldn’t admit it, whenever he had the chance, he would indignantly go up and challenge her, only to get beaten up. But who could say that wasn’t a case of love so deep it turned into hate?

Whenever someone belittled the Tianshi’s combat prowess, it was their Captain who rushed forward and tore into them the hardest!

On the other end, Nie Yu hung up the call, feeling much better. “So Approaching Science didn’t just use me as a tip line this time!”

She was almost used to Approaching Science sporadically messaging her to report an anomaly.

Nie Ling knew his sister far too well. “You did that on purpose?”

Nie Yu scrunched up her nose and humphed, “I knew he wouldn’t be able to resist when he heard about our Captain. Let him go pester Approaching Science!”

“Besides, Approaching Science definitely won’t be the one taking a loss.”

“Hey, do you think he realized it’s not me using the administrator account anymore?”

“I’ll log onto an alt account and see!”

Nie Yu switched to a secondary account and logged onto the forum to watch the drama unfold.

Black Wolf searched the forum for Approaching Science and decided that this guy’s abilities were indeed worth the effort to recruit him. But… he didn’t look like a fan of the Tianshi; he looked more like a fan of Chongming!

Before starting his recruitment drive, he messaged Nie Yu again to confirm.

Nie Yu: “That’s because with me around, he didn’t have room to show off on the forum!”

“Do you know why he’s been frantically hoarding points?”

“It’s just to exchange them for our Captain’s Lightning Talisman!”

“He said it himself: he thinks our Captain is cool.”

“But do you know how hard he is to deal with?”

“Our Captain even offered him a Lightning Talisman for free, and he actually refused it!”

Black Wolf’s interest was successfully piqued. This kid had quite a bit of pride.

Then he would give him something to be proud of.

Boss Black Wolf’s recruitment style was unconventional. He didn’t send a private message; he went straight to the boards and posted a thread:

{@Approaching Science, you didn’t even bite when the Tianshi tried to recruit you. You’ve got personality. I want to recruit you. Name your terms.}

That night, when Zhan Yan logged onto the forum:

?

His inbox was once again bursting at the seams, completely filled with people @-ing him.

The most conspicuous was a private message from White Hair Hottie.

Earlier, the young wolf demon Bai Ji had posted a mission in the task section looking for materials for his thesis, and Zhan Yan had conveniently submitted the “Murder Mystery Game” as a case study.

When Bai Ji logged onto the forum and saw the submitted material, his first reaction was: Are people really bold enough to just make up such bizarre cases these days?

Then he looked at the mission submitter. Hmm? Approaching Science? He shouldn’t need to do something like making up data just to scam some points.

So Bai Ji went on the mortal internet to do a search, and there really was a case involving a chain of murders carried out by contract killers!

Oh wow! If this case study is real, then it’s absolutely perfect! It was just lacking a few details, so Bai Ji decided to find Approaching Science and ask.

White Hair Hottie: [Hello. I still have some questions about the Murder Mystery Game case study. Can we chat?]

[I need some more detailed information.]

Because he hadn’t received a reply, there was a long gap after those two messages.

Then, more than ten minutes after Black Wolf posted his recruitment thread, White Hair Hottie sent him another message: [Do you know Black Wolf?]

A long time passed again.

White Hair Hottie: [Were you two close in the past?]

Every two minutes, another message arrived, offering what seemed like a cover-up explanation:

[He made a post on the forum @-ing you.]

There was definitely a story here! Zhan Yan opened the Gossip System.

Oh, ho! Boss Black Wolf was a half-demon. Back when the relationship between the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau and the Wan Yao Alliance was deteriorating, he was ostracized within his clan and ran away in a fit of pique.

And Black Wolf didn’t just run away normally. Before leaving, he pulled a stunt, casually faking his own death and even leaving behind a suicide note stating that he was leaving all his inheritance to his closest nephew, Bai Ji.

Bai Ji was devastated. He cried for a long time and spent years visiting Black Wolf’s “grave” to burn incense, shedding tears every time.

Then, one time, Bai Ji went on a mission with other demons from his family, only to unfortunately bump into people from the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau.

The person leading the team was Black Wolf!

That guy had joined the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau!

He was furious!

Bai Ji went right back and smashed the monument he had secretly erected for Black Wolf, while his older brother stood by and laughed at him!

“Idiot. Everyone else knew where he ran off to ages ago. You’re the only one who got tricked and couldn’t figure it out for years!”

Bai Ji: …Ahhhhh!!!

That bastard uncle! Next time I see him, I’m going to bite him to death!