GRMFBS CH91

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

A few were on display in the shop, but it was too crowded earlier for Zhan Yan to take a close look.

His brother’s fondant cakes were truly getting more and more exquisite!

Riding the wave of this popularity, the fondant cake class had happily put out an advertisement, showcasing the works of their outstanding students. The most prominent one in the center was Zhan Jinli’s “Kitten Climbing a Tree.”

The comment section was full of praise for how beautiful it looked. The other half of the comments, however, were people digging for gossip: Can this student of yours really grant blessings from the underworld?

The class organizers played along with the meme perfectly: We’re not too sure about that. However, this outstanding student is extremely shy and absolutely hates crowds. The current situation might very well be an ‘underworld blessing’ for him, wouldn’t you say?

Zhan Yan couldn’t hold back a burst of loud laughter. He screenshotted the comment about being “extremely shy” and immediately forwarded it to his sister.

Zhan Jinli glared at him expressionlessly.

Zhao Wen had also found the photos of Zhan Jinli’s fondant cakes. “You made all these? That’s amazing! They’re so delicate!”

Zhan Jinli didn’t say a word, so Zhan Yan puffed out his chest on his brother’s behalf: “Of course! My Ge is amazing!”

Zhan Jinli sighed with a headache.

The moment he heard his fondant cake teacher offer a genuine, heartfelt blessing, he knew things were about to go terribly wrong. After that, he began contemplating whether he should just keep his cake shop the way it was and abandon the idea of introducing fondant cakes altogether.

While blessings were indeed effective, how effective they were could be quite flexible. Going viral for a single day was still going viral; staying popular for ten years was also going viral. How long the popularity lasted also depended on objective conditions. It was impossible for a shop with absolutely nothing going for it to stay endlessly popular based on a single blessing alone.

Fondant cakes were primarily meant for display; their exquisite craftsmanship would be the reason his shop’s popularity endured. Without them, relying solely on his unique flavor profiles, the cake shop’s hype would naturally die down before long.

But he had no choice but to make them!

His entire family knew he had taken a fondant cake course! Zhan Jinli hadn’t expected such an unexpected turn of events in the beginning, so he had occasionally shared photos of his work in the family group chat.

Furthermore, due to his “social anxiety,” the course organizers had initially been worried and requested his family’s contact information. When the course ended, they officially created an “Outstanding Student Certificate of Graduation” paired with a showcase of his work—providing both a physical copy and a digital version.

Zhan Jinli kept the physical copy, but the overly enthusiastic fondant teacher had sent the digital version straight to his family.

As a result, his entire family now knew exactly how skilled he was at making fondant cakes. Zhan Jinli couldn’t even use the excuse that he hadn’t learned well or couldn’t make them!

With his family showering him with daily praise, encouragement, and anticipation, Zhan Jinli had no choice but to make them. And once made, they had to be displayed in the shop—otherwise, it wouldn’t make sense!

Zhan Yan sidled up to his brother. “There were some people in the crowd just now who genuinely wanted to buy fondant cakes. I told them the ones in the display case were just samples and not for sale, but they could place custom orders if they wanted something specific. I gave them our contact info.”

“Ge, from now on, you can just do this: keep the shop doors closed, and hang a sign outside explaining the custom order process along with contact information. That way, you can communicate entirely through an app. Once a cake is finished, they can either come pick it up from the storefront or hire a runner to deliver it.”

This way, his brother would no longer get mobbed. They might as well stop selling regular pastries altogether and do their best to stop terrorizing their customers’ taste buds.

Fondant cakes were time-consuming and required advance orders anyway. Customers couldn’t just wait around or pick one out in the shop. Switching entirely to online communication would neatly sidestep his brother’s social anxiety issues.

Zhan Yan meticulously laid out the details of this method step-by-step, covering the order process, deposits, and other logistical issues.

As he earnestly went through the plan with his head bowed, Zhan Jinli looked down at that curly-haired little head. His gaze softened, and he reached out to rub his brother’s hair.

“Okay.”

Zhan Yan jerked his head up in shock. “Ge, you spoke!”

Zhan Jinli: “…”

He lowered his head and started typing: [Don’t talk. Keep using text.]

The protective effect of the Glazed Mirror was limited, and the system’s judgment of “genuine sincerity” wasn’t exactly foolproof either. Even among the crowd just now, quite a few people had already fallen victim to it.

Regular customers were fine; asking for prices and paying the bill didn’t trigger the “wish” condition. But those internet influencers with ulterior motives were a different story. They had badgered Zhan Jinli with endless questions, and when he refused to speak, some intentionally tried to provoke him with their words.

Genuine malice was still “genuine sincerity.” While the disaster curse wouldn’t fall upon Zhan Jinli, there was no telling what kind of awful luck was going to strike that crowd later on.

But if his family members offered him any more genuine encouragement and blessings, he really wouldn’t be able to handle it!

Having sorted out the shop’s affairs, the three of them prepared to head home together.

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

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

Unfortunately, she didn’t manage to carry it all the way home. Halfway there, she received a call from the police station and had to hurry back, handing the cake over to Zhan Yan.

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

Bai Linghui was delighted to see Zhan Yan. “You’re back? Oh, that’s wonderful! The New Year is coming up soon; it’s time to come home. Here, Auntie Bai made lots of pastries, take some back with you.”

She held the beautiful fondant cake by its handle. “Your brother made this? Such skilled hands! He’ll definitely succeed in this line of work!”

When Zhan Yan mentioned that Zhao Wen had been called back to the station by a phone call, Bai Linghui sighed softly and packed up a large pile of pastries for him. As he left, she waved at him with a warm smile.

Carrying the pastries Auntie Bai gave him, Zhan Yan opened the Gossip System. He wanted to see what had called Wenwen-jie away. If he could help, he’d submit an anonymous tip so she could head home earlier.

Hmm… Wenwen-jie went back to the station because a man came in to turn himself in and report a crime. The man’s name is Wei Fu. He claims to be a gambling addict who frequently plays at underground casinos, and he gave up the locations of several of them.

Gambling was heavily cracked down upon, making this a major case. No wonder Wenwen-jie had to go back.

But why would a gambler turn himself in?

Police Station.

Wei Fu was wearing a thick, grayish-brown cotton coat covered in pale, ashy stains, looking as though he had rubbed against some filthy corner. His hair was a disheveled mess, clearly unwashed for days. With dark circles under his eyes and dilated pupils, he looked as if he had suffered a severe shock; his entire demeanor was highly neurotic.

The police officer sitting across from him maintained a stern, professional expression, yet Wei Fu couldn’t stop leaning forward, as if desperately clinging to the officer for support.

“Sit up straight! Behave yourself and keep talking!” the officer barked.

Wei Fu flinched, staring at the officer with desperate urgency. “I’m telling… I’m telling the truth! Everything I said is… is true!”

“A few months ago… I really can’t remember exactly when. It’s been several months, probably sometime during the summer. Yes! It was summer, I was wearing short sleeves!” Wei Fu strained his eyes upward as he tried to recall. Remembering a detail, his voice suddenly grew 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 pants. I even joked with the others about how weird he was!”

“Which casino?”

“The one on Longxi Road! The one I just told you about, hidden behind that small convenience store! I could tell he was a rookie, so I took the initiative to show him the ropes…” Wei Fu’s face was etched with deep regret.

“Explain clearly. Why did you show him the ropes?”

“I just… wanted to set up a sting.” Wei Fu shrank his head back. “Rookies… are the easiest to con. At first, you let them win a few rounds. Once they get hooked and the adrenaline kicks in, you start making them lose so you can drain their money.”

“Did you know gambling is illegal?”

“I know. I wouldn’t dare do it again; I really wouldn’t dare!” Wei Fu nodded vigorously.

“Keep explaining.”

“Later, when he started getting addicted, a few of my brothers and I started working together to close the trap. We started coordinating to make him lose and claw back the money. He lost quite a bit, but he didn’t seem to care much. We thought he was a big fish and didn’t want to slowly bleed him dry, so we set up a big sting.”

“What do you mean by a big sting?”

“Just, just… if you don’t pay up, we chop off a hand…” Wei Fu’s face crumpled in misery. “Feet and stuff too, but we never actually did it! We just said it to scare people! We wouldn’t dare actually hurt anyone!”

“He lost, but he didn’t want to put up any more money. So we pulled out knives to scare him. But then he actually chopped his own hand off! He didn’t even blink! We were all scared out of our minds.”

“And then he said he wanted to keep playing. We were terrified and told him to take his severed hand and leave immediately. But he refused to leave. He still had the knife in his hand, and none of us dared to get close. My brain went foggy, and I told him he didn’t have any money left, so we wouldn’t play with him anymore.”

“Then he said… he said, if a hand can count as money, then can’t other body parts count as money too?”

“And then he sliced his own stomach open…”

Wei Fu started shedding tears, trembling violently. “None of us had ever seen anything like it, so we all ran. I don’t even remember how I got out; by the time I came to my senses, I was already home.”

“After that… after that, he latched onto me. No matter where I hid, he would pop up and demand I gamble with him…”

“Officer, Comrade Police Officer! Please save me! I’m begging you, save me! Lock me up!”

This involved a murder case!

Even though Wei Fu looked like he had been driven mad by trauma and was hallucinating, the earlier part of his story might not be false. The police managed to pry the location of their final “sting” out of him and dispatched officers to investigate.

Wei Fu cried so hard he started hiccuping. “I never went back. I didn’t dare, how could I? It was too terrifying! Comrade Police Officer, I didn’t kill him! I didn’t touch him, he did it all himself! Why did he latch onto me… wuwuwu…”

While watching the live text broadcast of the scene through the Gossip System, Zhan Yan cleaned himself up at home. He set the pastries down and went to take a shower. By the time he got out, the Gossip System slips had just updated to Wei Fu crying and swearing he hadn’t killed anyone.

Zhan Yan didn’t plan to wait for the rest of his confession. The information he had now was enough for him to use the Gossip System to search for what had happened earlier.

He had just entered the keywords and begun searching when, after only scrolling past 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 opening credits of a comedy movie.

A WeChat message from his brother sat on his phone, asking him to come over and watch the movie together.

Zhan Yan: …Ge, are you really still holding onto the idea of fixing my aesthetic sense?

Zhan Jinli had already set out snacks on the coffee table. Auntie Bai’s pastries were placed entirely in front of Zhan Yan; Zhan Jinli had no interest in pastries that weren’t sweet enough.

Zhan Yan sat down on the sofa and pulled up the Gossip System slips:

[The Gambling Ghost Tu Dechang discovered a casino and, overjoyed, manifested his physical form and entered the casino to find people to play with him.]

…

[The Gambling Ghost Tu Dechang chopped off his own ghost hand to use as gambling stakes.]

…

[Because Wei Fu refused to play with him, the Gambling Ghost Tu Dechang felt deep regret. He reattached his ghost hand and ghost stomach and continued searching for his next target.]