GRMFBS CH95

“Hey, Deep Shadow, are you normal right now?” The Magician still kept her distance, her toes lightly pointed, ready to flee at any moment.

Gu Jiancheng lowered his hand. “Who are you calling not normal?”

The Magician: …

Tch! You’re normal, you’re normal, you’re the most normal one! As if it wasn’t you who came to her asking for a cure for your madness before!

“What are you wearing on your left wrist? How did you control the contamination just now?” The Magician was very curious.

Deep Shadow wasn’t the only one with this problem, but he was the most severe case. Methods to control contamination and stabilize one’s mind had always been precious, let alone a method like Deep Shadow’s that could pull someone back from the brink of losing control.

The corner of Gu Jiancheng’s mouth curled up into a lingering, tender arc. “I’m not telling you.”

The Magician: …

Tsk! She could smell the sickeningly sweet stench of love!

…

Perhaps because the little tabby cat had slept too much before, it was incredibly excited at night, pestering Zhan to play with it.

Zhan Yan tied a small toy ball to his bathrobe belt. When he swung it to the left, Xingxing would pounce to the left. When he swung it to the right, Xingxing would pounce to the right. He swung it wildly in a 360-degree rotation… Xingxing leaped, twisted its body mid-air to change direction, but didn’t adjust its angle properly upon landing and fell face-up into the soft pile of blankets.

Xingxing lay there, its four paws flailing wildly at the toy ball in the air.

Zhan Yan was shaking with laughter and stopped swinging the bathrobe belt. Xingxing, as it wished, hooked the toy ball and held it in its paws to chew.

After chewing for a couple of bites, it felt strange. Huh? Why wasn’t it moving anymore?

Zhan Yan playfully tugged the bathrobe belt away from Xingxing. “Why hasn’t Xiao Gu called yet, hmm?”

Xingxing yawned and leaned against Zhan Yan, wanting to sleep.

“Hey, no, you have your own bed.”

Xingxing stubbornly jumped onto the bed and curled up by Zhan Yan’s neck.

“Why are you so clingy? Hmm? Is it because my neutering-maniac constitution has worn off and reverted?”

“Xingxing…”

Zhan Yan’s phone suddenly rang.

Gu Jiancheng’s call saved Xingxing from the fate of being put back in its cat bed once again.

The Magician had already left. Gu Jiancheng was still in the old building complex slated for demolition. He had picked a relatively high roof and was lying on the layer of snow on top. The city’s light pollution left a small patch of clear, cold darkness here, allowing the moonlight and starlight to sprinkle down.

The layer of snow reflected a shimmering light. Gu Jiancheng looked as if he were floating in light. He looked up at the night sky.

“Yan Yan, looking at the night sky in the snow, it’s so beautiful.”

When Zhan Yan answered the phone, he had intended to ask him why he was calling so late, but he was caught off guard by this sentence. For a moment, it was as if he himself had been pulled into the snow to look at the night sky.

A sky full of brilliant stars floated in the black-crystal-like night sky. He could lie face up in the clean, cool snow…

“I’m in my bed,” Zhan Yan blinked. “Aren’t you cold?”

Gu Jiancheng laughed. “Yan Yan, ah, Yan Yan.”

Every time he slid towards melancholy, Yan Yan would always pull him back to the other side of reality with a single sentence. A warm bed on a cold winter night, the aroma of a bakery at five in the morning, sharing two sweet popsicles on a scorching summer day, snuggling together under a blanket to watch a horror movie…

Well, the last one wasn’t quite right. Neither he nor Yan Yan was afraid of ghosts and ghouls. But he had learned; next time, he would pretend to be scared.

The two chatted aimlessly for a while. Gu Jiancheng got his goodnight kiss and hung up the phone, both satisfied and not satisfied enough.

Zhan Yan stared at his phone screen for a while, then got up, wrapped himself in clothes, and quietly walked out onto the balcony.

The cold night wind made him shiver.

The night was deep. The streetlights, near and far, and the windows of a few scattered houses glowed.

Zhan Yan looked up at the sky and could only see the moon and a few scattered stars around it. Zhan Yan counted seriously for a long time and could only find five.

Ai, where did Gu Jiancheng go? I’ll have to ask him and we can go watch them together next time!

Zhan Yan returned to the bedroom. Xingxing was already fast asleep, purring.

Zhan Yan whispered to the little tabby cat by his pillow:

“Goodnight to you too.”

He turned off the bedroom light.

The next day, Zhan Yan started helping his brother with the cake-ordering process.

He and Zhan Jinli sat on the sofa, going over the process while asking about his brother’s needs. Xingxing was curled up on his lap, stretching its paw to reach for the pen on the table, its tail sweeping back and forth.

Zhan Suiru saw Zhan Yan writing and drawing on a piece of paper and came over to ask, “Yan Yan, what are you doing?”

Zhan Yan told her the truth.

Zhan Suiru mercilessly laughed at Zhan Jinli.

Zhan Jinli glared at her expressionlessly.

“Don’t bother with that. I’ll make a mini-program for him.” Zhan Suiru paid no mind to Zhan Jinli’s dagger-like stare and threw her arm over his shoulder. “Hey, other people would kill to go viral. Why are you suffering so much?”

Zhan Jinli reached out to remove Zhan Suiru’s arm and happened to touch Xingxing’s sweeping tail.

The air was dry in the middle of winter, and a layer of static electricity had built up on Xingxing’s fur, all of which was conducted to Zhan Jinli’s hand.

Both person and cat were stunned by the shock. Xingxing turned its head and screeched at Zhn Jinli.

It thought Zhan Jinli had attacked its tail!

Zhan Yan figured out what had happened and was busy holding Xingxing back to prevent it from clawing his brother.

Zhan Suiru couldn’t stop laughing. “Come on! You yell at it too! I’ll teach you, meow-ao!”

Zhan Jinli silently watched his sister having a psychotic episode, quickly grabbed a pen and rubbed it on Xingxing’s back a few times to build up static, then, with lightning speed, grabbed Zhan Suiru’s hand and pressed it onto Xingxing’s back.

Zap—

“Meow-ao!”

Zhan Yan forcibly held onto the enraged, clawing Xingxing, looking at his brother and sister with a reproachful gaze.

Hey! How old are you two!

Xingxing is just a kitten under a year old!

Zhan Jinli and Zhan Suiru silently moved their battle to a different location.

Zhan Yan: …

Ai!

When are Mom and Dad coming back! Someone needs to control these two childish fools!

Ji Yueming wouldn’t be back for a while.

The Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau had scheduled the transfer of the infinite fragments for New Year’s Eve.

Tianshi put on a spectacular display of passive-aggressiveness in the Bureau’s internal group chat.

Making people work overtime during the New Year, how shameless could they be?!

The people from the Council were all playing dead. The Director joined her in being passive-aggressive: “Isn’t that right? I don’t know where such a large sum of overtime pay will come from. Hey, have you guys received your overtime pay?”

Tianshi: “Not yet. Why has the Bureau’s funding suddenly become so tight?”

Director: “It wasn’t before, but didn’t some genius insist on hiring an outside information-type to look for the infinite fragments a while ago? That guy is rich! Doesn’t even blink when offering a reward! In comparison, I’m just a poor beggar! Scrimping and saving here and there, it’s hard to even upgrade our Bureau’s equipment.”

Tianshi: “Isn’t arranging equipment upgrades Ning Xi’s job?”

Director: “Hah! He’s so exhausted he got sick, so I have to do it.”

Tianshi: “Our Bureau doesn’t even have sick leave subsidies. I wonder who, ignorant of the hardships of the common folk, has been throwing all the money around! It sounds so heartbreaking.”

A group of people lurked in the chat group without speaking, but the messages in their small private groups were flying!

This is the first time I’ve seen the two big bosses so openly confront the Council. Awesome! So satisfying! More, more!

The Grand Captain and the Director went back and forth, and they managed to squeeze a large sum of money out of the Council, enough to cover everyone’s overtime pay, raise the New Year’s subsidy by another level, and still have some left over.

Ji Yueming’s mood improved considerably. Lying on a rocking chair, she slowly wagged a finger at the great dancer. “See? I told you these people needed to be put in their place.”

Lingzhou Wendi was greatly shocked. “I’ve never seen you be so good at confronting people before.”

Ji Yueming smiled reservedly. “I wasn’t really that good at it before.”

She had learned it all from Old Jian.

Zhan Yunkai looked so proper on the outside and cared about his image in front of the children, but in front of her, he was very unrestrained.

When the two of them watched dramas together, he was so sharp-tongued! Ji Yueming, influenced by him, had picked up some skills as well.

Unfortunately, she wouldn’t be able to go home before the New Year. She didn’t know if Old Zhan could come home early.

Yan Yan’s suddenly mutated sense of aesthetics, it was really worrying!

Zhan Yunkai decided to ignore Wan Yan. He was going home now!

Wan Yan’s bizarre thought process was incomprehensible! And he was so stubborn, you couldn’t beat him into submission.

He wasn’t about to let this psychotic cat delay his reunion with his wife and children!

Zhan Yunkai found the Ghost King of the Minghe and hoped she could keep Wan Yan trapped in Chaofu Mountain for a while longer.

The Ghost King of the Minghe was very puzzled. “He’s not working anymore, why keep him?”

Zhan Yunkai: “I’ll go out and look for Linyuan. After I find him, I’ll use him to threaten Linyuan into helping with the work. Then I’ll let Wan Yan out and lock him outside, and let Linyuan work in peace in Chaofu Mountain.”

The Minghe Ghost thought this plan was feasible.

So Zhan Yunkai spread his wings and happily flew home. Finding Linyuan and all that could wait until after he had gone home and spent the New Year with his wife and children!

Chaofu Mountain had no internet or signal. These past few days, he had only been able to send and receive messages when he occasionally took a break and left. The excuse he gave his family was that the film crew was in a closed set.

His Majesty Chongming had not seen Ji Yueming’s later message about only coming back before the New Year. Filled with anticipation of seeing his wife, he flew back to Yunjin City. Upon landing, he first transformed back into his human form to find a place to tidy up his image, then went to a flower shop to buy a bouquet of flowers.

He hadn’t seen his wife in months!

Zhan Yunkai hid the flowers behind his back, squared his shoulders, and knocked on the door.

Even through the door, he could hear his youngest son’s cheerful shouts: “It must be Dad who’s back!”

Zhan Yunkai: …

The most wonderful first sight should be reserved for my wife! Don’t you get it, you brat!

Zhan Yan had already opened the door. The joy on his face turned to sympathy when he saw his dad’s meticulously dressed appearance. “Dad… Mom isn’t home yet. She said she won’t be back until before the New Year.”

Zhan Yunkai: “Oh…”

Looking inside, his eldest son was looking down, typing a “welcome home” message on his phone. His second daughter was sitting cross-legged on the sofa, chewing on snacks while watching a trashy drama, and gave him a high wave, saying “hi.”

Zhan Yunkai dryly placed the bouquet on the table.

By the time his wife came back, his flowers would be all withered…

He turned his head and saw his youngest son still following him, his face pitifully written with “So… are you still making me a feast?”

Zhan Yunkai: …

He ruffled his son’s little curly hair. “Go play. Dad will make you something delicious!”