GRMFBS CH90

The whole family took turns showering Zhan Yan with meticulous care. Zhan Yan repeatedly assured them that he really wasn’t traumatized, that his life was happy, and everything was fine.

Zhan Yan was very unconvinced. He went to private message his sister: “Forget them, but why you? Isn’t that your work?”

Zhan Suiru sent a sticker of someone petting a small cat’s head.

“You’re young. Appreciate what you should be appreciating. Don’t keep dwelling on these things.”

She had seen Ji Lele’s appreciation. How could she not understand Xiao Ran’s sculpture?

But they were all people from the apocalypse, carrying the shadows of the end times. At Yan Yan’s age, why did he need to understand suffering?

Zhan Yan was smothered by his family’s gentle care, busy explaining himself. After putting down his phone, he let out a sigh of relief. He looked up and saw Gu Jiancheng sleeping, only then remembering that he hadn’t had a chance to tell him about bringing a classmate home for the holidays.

Gu Jiancheng was lying on his back on the soft chair. The winter sun shone through the gaps in the canopy, coating his handsome features with a thin layer of light. His lips were lightly pressed together, the lines sharper than usual, making him look a bit dangerous.

Zhan Yan leaned on the small table, watching him from the side. After worrying for a while about how to introduce this good-looking boyfriend to his family, he unconsciously started counting Gu Jiancheng’s eyelashes.

Gu Jiancheng’s eyelashes were quite long, but not curled. They stuck straight out. Sometimes, the light would cast a partial shadow into his eyes, making his gaze even deeper and harder to read.

But when he looked at Zhan Yan, the fire in his dark eyes would always burn through that layer of shadow.

Gu Jiancheng’s eyelashes trembled.

He opened his eyes.

Zhan Yan was resting his head on his arm, watching him. Seeing him wake up, he propped his head up: “You’re awake?”

Now that he’s awake, I have to talk about going home to meet the parents. I can’t keep putting it off. But how do I say it?

Zhan Yan’s eyes darted around. There was a red mark on the side of his face from being pressed on.

Gu Jiancheng gently rubbed it with his thumb. The skin under his fingertip was smooth and cool.

He had to leave soon, but he had to explain it clearly to Yan Yan. How could he explain this properly?

One was worried, the other was troubled. Neither spoke first.

“Are you cold?” Gu Jiancheng went to hold Zhan Yan’s hand. His palm was warm, but his fingertips were cold.

Zhan Yan’s fingertips were enveloped in Gu Jiancheng’s palm, warm and toasty: “It’s fine, just sat for too long. I’ll be fine after moving around a bit.”

Gu Jiancheng looked down with half-lidded eyes and didn’t speak, as if something was troubling him. Zhan Yan had never seen him like this before.

He waited for a while, but Gu Jiancheng still didn’t speak.

“What’s wrong? Did you have a nightmare?” Zhan Yan wiggled his fingers, the warmed-up tips scratching twice in Gu Jiancheng’s palm.

Gu Jiancheng closed his palm to stop him from fidgeting. He looked up at Zhan Yan, his gaze uncharacteristically hesitant: “Yan Yan, something came up. I might not be able to go back with you.”

Surprise flickered in Zhan Yan’s eyes: “Really? That’s no problem!”

Gu Jiancheng: …

“You don’t want to take me home at all, do you!”

“How could that be? It’s just… it’s just… I’m not ready yet!”

Gu Jiancheng was very aggrieved and demanded cuddles.

Zhan Yan appeased his clingy boyfriend with a hug and a kiss.

Gu Jiancheng said his goodbyes to the film crew and left. The extras’ scenes were basically all filmed, so one person less didn’t matter. Besides, the extras’ wages were paid daily, so people were always coming and going.

Zhan Yan sent Gu Jiancheng off with a smile, greatly relieved. But when he returned to the set, he felt a sense of listlessness.

Filming was just so-so. It was novel for a few days at the beginning. But why hadn’t he felt bored before, being so cheerful?

Zhan Yan stayed on set for half a day and felt he couldn’t stay any longer, so he booked a train ticket home and left too.

Ji Lele bid a reluctant farewell to Zhan Yan. Zhan Yan thought to himself, you’re just after my sister’s sculpture!

Wrapped in a down jacket and dragging a suitcase, he walked into the train car amidst the station announcements. After stowing his luggage and sitting down, a stranger came to the seat next to him after a while.

Zhan Yan gave the person a polite smile and turned to look out the window.

He sighed silently in his heart.

The high-speed train began to accelerate, and the scenery outside the window gradually blurred. Bored, Zhan Yan scrolled through his phone and found someone posting photos in the school group chat.

The photo was taken in late summer and early autumn. The sky was vast, and the earth rolled with a wild greenness in the wind. In the distance, a group of people could be seen gathered by a field, and there were two young men on the field ridge.

The person who posted the photo asked: “This photo won a photography award. Was it taken at our school?”

“Looks like it, but it’s hard to be sure with just the field. It would be better if there was a landmark building.”

“I think so too, but the caption under the photo says it was taken in the countryside of X Village.”

Guo Jiang also popped up: “It’s our school.”

“How are you sure? If you have proof, I’ll send a message to the competition committee to remind them. They mixed up the captions.”

Guo Jiang: “Hey, isn’t this the day we were catching the pig?”

“That day, our group’s experimental pig ran away, went to the experimental field, and rooted up someone’s vegetable patch. It took a lot of effort to catch it.”

“See if there’s a pig blocked by the group of people on the side?”

“Hahahahahaha”

The topic in the group quickly veered to the gossip about catching the pig.

“Hey, was it caught by that person in our department who can subdue a pig with one hand?”

Guo Jiang: “Yes, the ‘subdue a pig with one hand’ meme came from our incident.”

“The other junior is someone who can repel beasts on the spot. He’s amazing at chasing away animals!”

Another senior from the agricultural college also appeared: “Is it the one named Zhan Yan? With that talent, it would be great if he came to our agricultural college!”

Zhan Yan watched them discuss him and Gu Jiancheng’s names together and quietly saved the award-winning photo. He pinched to zoom in, and the screen held the backs of two people standing side by side on the field ridge.

After looking for a while, he zoomed out the photo and posted it on his social media without a caption.

Outside the window, the gray-white of deep winter stretched into color blocks. Zhan Yan propped his face up, looking out the window. After a while, he couldn’t help but smile to himself.

A few hours later, the high-speed train arrived at the station. Zhan Yan had come back suddenly today, so he didn’t call his sister to pick him up. He took a taxi home.

No one was home. His parents were on a business trip, he knew that. His sister’s work schedule was also uncertain. But his brother should have been back from his fondant cake class by now.

Zhan Yan looked at the clock. It was already past six in the afternoon. Usually, his brother would have closed the shop and been home by now.

He sent a message to Zhan Jinli to ask about the situation. His brother didn’t reply for the time being. Zhan Yan looked in the refrigerator and decided to go out to buy some food.

Before he could even walk out of the residential complex gate, Zhan Yan ran into the police officer sister from next door, Zhao Wen.

It was the weekend, and Zhao Wen was off duty. She was walking out in a hurry, as if she had something urgent to do.

“Sister Wen Wen?” Zhan Yan greeted her.

Zhao Wen stopped and was a little surprised to see him: “You’re back?”

Zhan Yan: “Just got back today.”

Zhao Wen: “Perfect! Come with me. Your brother is being cornered. Let’s go save him!”

Zhan Yan: “Huh?”

Zhao Wen quickly explained the situation to Zhan Yan on the way.

Zhan Jinli’s cake shop had gone viral. He was trapped in the shop and couldn’t get out.

With his personality of not talking to people, he couldn’t get away for a while, so he had to ask his sister Zhan Suiru for help. But Zhan Suiru happened to not be home and would be back in at least two hours. She was afraid that by the time she got back, her brother would have been squeezed into a dried salted fish, so she called Zhao Wen for help.

Zhan Yan: “…My brother’s cake shop can go viral?”

Has some new infectious disease that turns people’s tastes into a sweet-toothed frenzy appeared?

Zhao Wen: “I’m very surprised too!”

She had also been a victim of Zhan Jinli’s cakes.

The two of them rushed to the vicinity and found that a crowd had already blocked the outside of the cake shop. Many people were holding cameras and selfie sticks, and some were even live-streaming.

Zhan Yan: “…Has everyone finally gone crazy?”

Zhao Wen: “I can’t understand…”

Zhan Yan made a decisive decision: “Let’s go, we’ll go in through the back kitchen door!”

The two of them went around to the back of the street and entered the back kitchen. Zhan Yan took a set of his brother’s chef’s clothes and changed into them. He then tore open two masks and handed one to Zhao Wen:

“You take my brother out from the back. I’ll stay in the shop.”

With so many people gathered and waiting, closing the shop directly could easily cause public anger. Zhan Yan decided to temporarily act as a salesperson.

The two of them opened the door between the back kitchen and the front shop—they almost couldn’t open it, as even the doorway was crowded with several people.

Zhan Jinli was wearing a mask, trapped behind the cash register. Zhan Yan could see a calm despair on his expressionless face.

Zhao Wen, as expected of a police officer, successfully fished Zhan Jinli out of the crowd and into the back kitchen.

Zhan Yan let out a sigh of relief and began to deal with the situation in the shop.

There weren’t many goods left in the shop, and they were all sold out soon. Among the crowd, the customers who were just there for the novelty were easy to deal with. They left after buying their things, at most taking a photo to check in. The internet celebrities were very annoying. They gathered and wouldn’t leave, and had a bunch of questions to ask.

Zhan Yan: “I’m sorry, I’m not the owner. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

This group of people still wouldn’t let him go. While bluffing his way through, Zhan Yan managed to piece together what they were saying—his brother’s shop had gone viral because a post online had suddenly been shared widely. Another part of the reason was the new fondant cakes in his brother’s shop. Photos of them were shared like crazy along with the post, and then it became like this.

When everything in the shop was sold out, he let out a long sigh of relief: “I’m sorry, we’re out of stock. Please don’t wait, everyone. We’re closing the shop!”

After finally bluffing everyone away, Zhan Yan quickly closed the shop.

Back in the kitchen, his brother still had a look of calm despair, looking extremely pitiful. Zhao Wen was searching for the viral post on her phone, letting out suppressed bursts of laughter from time to time. Every time she wanted to talk to Zhan Jinli, she would remember his social anxiety and hold it back, only to continue laughing by herself.

Zhan Yan patted his brother comfortingly: “Everyone’s gone.”

Zhan Jinli conveyed a question with his deadpan gaze: There’s still tomorrow.

When will the popularity of his shop die down?

Zhan Yan: …

He could only pat him again.

He turned to Zhao Wen: “Sister Wen Wen, can you forward a copy to me?”

Zhao Wen: “Puhahahaha! Okay, I’ll send it all to you!”

Zhan Yan took out his phone and started reading the post that had made the cake shop go viral.

The post was from a few months ago. At that time, it had only spread within a small circle. For some reason, it had been dug up again recently, and several major V-accounts had reposted it. The highest number of reposts was nearly one hundred thousand.

The post title:
{About how I wished to get rich and then got hit by a car and received a huge amount of compensation}

Zhan Yan: ?

He finished browsing the post and couldn’t help but look at Zhan Jinli.

My brother has this effect too?

His gaze was too obvious.

Zhan Jinli expressionlessly reached out and turned his head back.

Zhan Yan: “…Pfft.”

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