GRMFBS CH91

Zhan Yan saw the photos of the fondant cakes his brother made again.

A few of them were displayed in the shop, but the shop was too crowded at the time, and Zhan Yan didn’t have a chance to look at them closely.

His brother’s fondant cakes were becoming more and more exquisite!

The fondant cake class, riding the wave of popularity, cheerfully put out an advertisement, featuring their outstanding students’ works. The most eye-catching one in the center was Zhan Jinli’s “Kitten Climbing a Tree.”

The comment section was full of praise for how beautiful it was, and the other half was asking for the gossip—can this student of yours really bestow netherworld blessings?

The course provider played along with the meme smoothly: “We’re not too sure about that. However, this outstanding student has a very shy personality and really dislikes crowds, so the current situation might also be a kind of ‘netherworld fortune’ for him, right?”

Zhan Yan couldn’t help but burst out laughing. He screenshotted this “very shy” comment and forwarded it to his brother.

Zhan Jinli glared at him with a blank expression.

Zhao Wen had also found the photos of Zhan Jinli’s fondant cakes: “You made all of these? Amazing! So exquisite!”

Zhan Jinli didn’t say anything. Zhan Yan boasted on his behalf: “Of course! My brother is amazing!”

Zhan Jinli sighed with a headache.

He knew things were bad when he heard the fondant teacher’s sincere blessing. After that, he began to consider whether he should just keep his cake shop as it was and not introduce new fondant cakes.

Blessings of this kind, while effective, had a very flexible degree of effectiveness. Being popular for a day is still being popular, and being popular for ten years is also being popular. How long the popularity could last was also related to objective conditions. It was impossible for a shop that was lacking in every aspect to stay popular for ages just on the strength of a single blessing.

Fondant cakes were mainly for viewing. Their exquisiteness would become a reason to extend his cake shop’s popularity. If there were no fondant cakes, with just his unique flavors, the cake shop’s popularity would fade back down before long.

But he had to make them!

His whole family knew he had taken a fondant cake class! Zhan Jinli hadn’t expected such an accident at the beginning, so he had occasionally shared his works in the family group chat.

Moreover, because of his “social anxiety” problem, the course provider was not very assured at first and had asked for his family’s contact information. After the course ended, they had even formally created an outstanding student graduation certificate, complete with a description of his works, one physical copy and one electronic version.

The physical copy was with Zhan Jinli, but the fondant teacher had enthusiastically sent the electronic version to his family.

This led to his whole family knowing about his fondant cake skills, so Zhan Jinli couldn’t even use the excuse that he hadn’t learned well and couldn’t make them properly!

With his family praising, encouraging, and looking forward to it every day, Zhan Jinli could only make them. And after making them, he had to display them in the shop, otherwise, it wouldn’t be reasonable!

Zhan Yan sidled up to his brother: “Among those people just now, there were some who genuinely wanted to buy fondant cakes. But I told them the ones in the cabinet are just samples and not for sale. They can customize whatever they want. I left them a contact method.

“Bro, you can do this in the future: don’t open the shop for now. Hang a customization instruction and contact method on the door. This way, you can communicate directly through software. When the cake is done, have them come to the shop to pick it up, or find a delivery service to send it.”

This way, his brother wouldn’t be mobbed again. It was fine to stop the business of ordinary pastries, so as not to harm the customers’ taste buds.

Fondant cakes were inherently time-consuming and required advance customization. It was impossible for customers to wait and choose in the store. So, switching to online communication would avoid his brother’s social anxiety problem.

Zhan Yan meticulously laid out the details of this method, including the customization process, deposit, and other issues.

He looked down, carefully sorting out the details. Zhan Jinli looked at this little curly head, his eyes softening, and he reached out to rub his head.

“Okay.”

Zhan Yan looked up in shock: “Bro, you spoke!”

Zhan Jinli: …

He lowered his head and started typing: “Don’t speak, still typing.”

The effect of the Glazed Mirror was limited. The judgment of “sincere” was also not very stable. Among the crowd just now, many people had already fallen for it.

Pure customers were fine. Inquiries about price and payment wouldn’t be judged as wishes. But it was a different story for those internet celebrities with ulterior motives. They pestered Zhan Jinli with questions, and when he didn’t speak, they even tried to provoke him with their words.

Sincere malice was still sincere. The curse wouldn’t fall on Zhan Jinli. What kind of bad luck these people would encounter later was uncertain.

But if his family sincerely gave him more encouragement and blessings, he really couldn’t bear it!

After settling the shop’s affairs, the three of them prepared to go home together.

Zhan Jinli took a flower basket-shaped fondant cake he had made in the past two days, packed it up, and gave it to Zhao Wen to thank her for her help today.

Zhao Wen happily carried it: “My mom will definitely be happy to see this!”

Unfortunately, she couldn’t take it home. Halfway there, she received a call from the police station and had to rush over, leaving the cake with Zhan Yan.

Zhan Yan delivered the cake to Auntie Bai’s house.

Bai Linghui was very happy to see Zhan Yan: “You’re back? Oh, that’s great! It’s almost the New Year, you should be home. Here, Auntie Bai made a lot of pastries, take some back with you.”

She held up the beautiful fondant cake: “Your brother made this? Such skillful hands! He’ll definitely succeed in this line of work!”

Zhan Yan mentioned that Zhao Wen had been called to the station. Bai Linghui sighed softly and packed a pile of pastries for Zhan Yan. When he was leaving, she waved with a smile.

Carrying the pastries from Auntie Bai, Zhan Yan opened his gossip system. He planned to see what had called Sister Wenwen away again. If he could help, he would file an anonymous report to let Sister Wenwen come home earlier.

Hmm… Sister Wenwen went back to the police station because someone came to turn himself in and report a crime. This person, named Wei Fu, described himself as a gambler who often gambled in underground casinos. He provided the locations of several underground casinos.

Gambling was strictly investigated, so this was considered a major case. No wonder Sister Wenwen had to go back.

But why would this gambler turn himself in?

…

Police station.

Wei Fu was wearing a thick, grayish-brown cotton coat, stained with many grayish-white smudges, as if he had rubbed against some corner. His hair was also disheveled, having not been groomed for many days. He had dark circles under his eyes, and his pupils were dilated, as if he had been stimulated by something. He appeared very neurotic.

The police officer opposite him had a stern, business-like expression, but Wei Fu’s body couldn’t stop leaning forward, as if he was very dependent on the police officer.

“Sit up straight! Behave yourself and continue your confession!” the police officer ordered.

Wei Fu trembled and stared at the police officer anxiously: “What I said, what I said is all, all true!”

“A few months ago… I really don’t remember when. It’s been several months, probably in the summer. Yes! It was summer, I was wearing a short-sleeved shirt!” Wei Fu’s eyes rolled up hard as he tried to recall. After remembering a detail, his voice suddenly became louder. “That person… no, no, that ghost, that monster! The first time I saw him at the casino, he was wearing a long-sleeved shirt and long pants. I even laughed at how strange he was with others!”

“Which casino?”

“The one on Longxi Road! The one I mentioned before, the one hidden behind a small convenience store on Longxi Road! I could tell he was a novice, so I took the initiative to play with him…” Wei Fu’s face was full of regret.

“Be clear, why did you play with him?”

“Just… wanted to set up a scam.” Wei Fu shrank back. “Novices… are the easiest to cheat. Let him win a few rounds at the beginning, and when he gets hooked, make him lose to get his money.”

“Do you know that gambling is illegal?”

“I know. I won’t do it again, I really won’t do it again!” Wei Fu nodded vigorously.

“Continue your confession.”

“Later, he slowly got addicted, so my brothers and I started to cooperate in taking his money, which is to say, we started making him lose to get our money back. He lost a lot, but he didn’t seem to care much. We thought he was a big fish, so we didn’t want to get the money slowly anymore and set up a big scam.”

“What do you mean by a big scam?”

“Just… if you don’t pay, we chop off your hand…” Wei Fu’s face was mournful. “Or a foot or something, but we’ve never really done it! We just say it to scare people! We wouldn’t dare to really hurt anyone!

“He lost, but he didn’t want to pay up anymore. We took out a knife to scare him. But then he actually chopped off his own hand! Without even blinking! We were all terrified.

“Then he said he wanted to continue playing. We were all scared and told him to take his severed hand and leave quickly. But he wouldn’t leave. He was still holding the knife, and we didn’t dare to get close. My mind went blank, and I told him he had no more money, so we wouldn’t play with him anymore.

“Then he said, he said, couldn’t a hand be used as a stake? So could other parts of his body be used as stakes?

“And then he cut open his own stomach…”

Wei Fu started to cry, shaking uncontrollably: “We had never seen such a scene, so we all ran away. I don’t remember how I ran out. By the time I came to my senses, I was already home.

“Later… later he started haunting me. No matter where I hid, he would show up and make me gamble with him…

“Officer, Officer! Please save me! I beg you to save me, please arrest me!”

This even involved a homicide!

Although Wei Fu looked like he was hallucinating from being driven mad by shock, what he said before might not be false. The police asked for the location of their last scam and sent people to investigate.

Wei Fu cried and hiccuped: “I haven’t gone back, I didn’t dare to go back. How could I? It was too scary! Officer, I didn’t kill him! I didn’t do it, he did it all himself! Why is he haunting me, boo hoo hoo…”

While watching the text-based live broadcast of the scene through his gossip system, Zhan Yan went home to freshen up. He put down the pastries and took a shower. When he came out of the shower, the gossip feed had just updated to Wei Fu crying and saying he didn’t kill the person.

Zhan Yan didn’t plan to wait for his further confession. The current information was enough for him to use the gossip system to search for what happened before.

He had just entered the keywords and started searching, and before he could scroll through two entries, he looked up and saw Zhan Jinli sitting on the sofa, waving his phone at him.

The TV screen was paused at the beginning of a comedy movie.

In his phone’s WeChat was a message his brother had just sent him, asking him to come over and watch a movie together.

Zhan Yan: …Bro, you still remember about trying to fix my aesthetic taste?

Zhan Jinli had already prepared snacks on the coffee table. Auntie Bai’s pastries were all placed in front of Zhan Yan. Zhan Jinli was not interested in pastries that weren’t sweet enough.

Zhan Yan sat down on the sofa and pulled out the gossip feed:

[The gambler ghost Tu Dechang discovered a casino and was overjoyed. He manifested a physical body and entered the casino to find someone to play with him.]

…

[The gambler ghost Tu Dechang took off his own ghost hand to use as a gambling stake.]

…

[Because Wei Fu refused to play with him, the gambler ghost Tu Dechang was very regretful. He put his ghost hand and ghost stomach back on and continued to search for his next target.]