[Genshin Impact] A world where only travelers are alone

Mingxun hurriedly wrapped the strip of cloth around his wrist, but he still tried to remain calm: "Sorry, sir, please wait outside, my clothes are not yet-"

Before she could finish her words, the door behind her creaked open.

Zhongli walked in slowly, looked at her who was already dressed neatly, and asked, "What did Miss Xun Ming want to say just now?"

Mingxun didn't expect him to come in directly. He could only swallow the half-made lies in front of the iron facts. He put his hands behind his back calmly and said, "Nothing, I just want to ask sir where to put these dirty clothes temporarily."

Zhongli glanced around and replied, "Just put it in the basket that the groom used to put clothes in."

Mingxun stuffed the wet clothes into the clothes basket, then bent down and picked it up, hoping to block Zhongli's sight in this way.

She didn't know whether the origin of the short sleeves was related to Zhongli's sudden visit, but based on her understanding of Morax, if he really noticed the injuries on his wrists, he would definitely ask what was going on.

But Zhongli didn't say anything, and never even glanced at her wrist.

Mingxun breathed a sigh of relief as he passed by Zhongli.

But he spoke at this moment.

"Where are you going, Miss Xun Ming? Just leave your wet clothes here. The waitress had something urgent to do and left the house not long ago."

Not a dangerous question.

Mingxun's suddenly tense heart calmed down again, and he put the clothes basket back to its original place according to Zhongli's instructions.

At this moment, she still naively believed that her concealment had deceived Zhongli's eyes. It was not until she looked up and met the amber eyes staring straight at her that she realized that her cleverness was like a joke in the eyes of the demon.

Perhaps he could tell from her trembling eyes that she had understood, so Zhongli no longer wanted to tease her and whispered, "Miss Xun Ming, can you show me your right wrist?"

There was no excuse for him to find. Since Zhongli had already become suspicious, no matter how much he said, it would only make the matter more obvious, Mingxun thought.

She decided to take a different approach.

Tears fell easily, Mingxun stopped talking and just hid his hands behind his back.

She rarely resisted something so strongly. Most of the time, she was like a pretty doll that could be manipulated at will, and would choose to agree with whatever others said.

It is now, and even more so in the past.

Zhongli took a few steps closer and said meaningfully: "If you had been like this in the past, perhaps things wouldn't have developed to this point. But crying can't solve all problems, nor will it make the self-inflicted wound on your wrist disappear."

"Ms. Xun Ming, you can't hide it."

The sobbing stopped for a moment, and then turned into the woman's tears flowing even more violently.

Zhongli sighed, took off his gloves and wiped the tears from her cheeks.

This was the second time he wiped her tears. The last time was at Xun's house.

Morax two thousand years ago would never do such a thing. Mingxun's tears were a new toy to him, and it would make him even happier if these tears were shed because of him.

Even though he had become able to empathize with Mingxun and taste the annoyance in her sorrowful tears, he had not yet learned to touch and comfort her with these hands that had killed enemies.

But Zhongli is also an ordinary person now.

The arms, which had been hidden under gloves for years, shone with the luster of gold and stone. Although the posture was cold and hard, the movements were slow and gentle.

Zhongli lowered his eyes to look at her still fluttering eyes, and sighed again: "Don't cry."

Perhaps she realized that he had no intention of digging deeper, so she stopped sobbing.

Now that the purpose has been achieved, this short-sleeved shirt is no longer suitable to be worn.

Zhongli originally asked the waiter to prepare two sets of clothes, one long-sleeved and one short-sleeved. He sent the short-sleeved clothes only to make Mingxun give up and explain the wound. But if he really wore this dress to go out, it would inevitably seem like he was hurting someone.

He asked Mingxun to wait here while he went next door to get another set.

The door closed, locking the woman inside.

Zhongli didn't plan to come back so soon. Mingxun was a person who loved to dwell on trivial matters, and he needed to give her some time to think about it.

Unfortunately, someone let him down.

"Sir," Mingxun, who had changed into long sleeves, was silent for a long time before finally speaking hesitantly, "Who are you talking about in the past?"

Zhongli paused and looked at her intently.

Mingxun was unusually bold and looked directly into those inhuman amber eyes: "Who are you looking at through me?" She was still unwilling to admit her identity, but her tone was extremely serious, and it didn't sound like she was acting.

Zhongli suddenly realized something was wrong.

*
When Ling Yuan rolled back to Chenyu Valley from Liyue Harbor in disgrace, Fu Jin had already started flipping through the little gadgets that Ming Xun had specially prepared for her because she was too bored.

At the moment, she was concentrating on reading one of the storybooks. When she saw Ling Yuan coming back, she couldn't pull herself away from the wonderful words. She could only express her concern verbally: "How is it, did you see Ming Xun?"

Ling Yuan turned back into his original form, looking dejected, with his huge head resting on Fu Jin: "I saw him, he looks in good spirits."

"In good mental state?" The vague statement made Fu Jin curious. After all, the Ni beast had always had a simple mind and said whatever he wanted to say directly.

She glanced at her suspiciously: "Didn't you see Mingxun's hand?"

Nie Shou felt guilty and wronged: "She wouldn't let me see, and I can't beat the man next to her."

"Huh?" Fu Jin became interested. "Is there a mortal that you can't beat? Is everyone out there so powerful now? I clearly remember that even the guys with the Eye of God couldn't beat you in a team of four. If you weren't always too lazy to fight and let them win, they wouldn't have been able to get your armor scales."

At this point, Fu Jin got stuck: "...Wait, this mortal is not the Rock God, right?"

She told Ling Yuan in detail the story of the Rock God transforming into a mortal, which she had forgotten to tell him earlier. The more she talked, the more possible it seemed to her.

Ling Yuan didn't know whether he felt it was too embarrassing to hand the task over to a mortal or he simply didn't want to use his brain, he just kept nodding his head throughout the whole process without any objection.

Fu Jin was immediately relieved: "That's good. She won't be so presumptuous around Yan Shen."

Ling Yuan tilted his head: "How do you know?"

Logically speaking, when the two of them met Mingxun, Mingxun had already left Morax. They had only heard of the story of the gods and the priests but had never actually seen them.

Fu Jin smiled sheepishly: "Hey, didn't I ask this before out of curiosity?"

However, she originally just wanted to listen to Mingxun tell two short stories, but she didn't expect the latter to directly propose to write the story of himself and Morax into a storybook for her to kill time.

Yes, it was the book she was reading before Ling Yuan came back.

Fu Jin pushed the storybook towards Ling Yuan, and asked her to read it together. However, after reading only a few chapters, Ling Yuan pushed the storybook away with a smack of her lips: "I thought it would be a first-person perspective, why is it a bystander's tone?"

Fu Jin also felt strange when she said that. After all, this was Ming Xun's memoir. Isn't it strange to write her own name and Yan Shen's name directly?

"And Mingxun in this story is really kind-hearted..." Fu Jin felt a chill as he watched, "She is obviously a very evil person."

Although it was Ling Yuan who was always cheated instead of her, she still felt a little scared.

"In short, they are like two different people."

"Hmm, Mingxun really doesn't seem to think that the self next to Yan Shen and the self now are the same person..."

*
The idea of ​​viewing the priest as separate from myself came to my mind probably when I first saw Morax in my dream.

Mingxun never thought of herself as a fragile person, but the wet collar of her clothes from cold sweat silently proved that she was indeed afraid.

Afraid that the lie would be exposed, afraid that Morax would really look at him with disgust as in his dream.

She knew that she was not worthy of such a luxury, but she could not help but maintain her dignity and uphold the noble image of the priest.

Everything Mingxun did now was never to make Zhongli recognize him, reconcile with him, and return to the past of Morax and the priest, but as bait to evoke his memories.

She wants Zhongli to reminisce about her past self.

[I am not as good as her, so it is enough for you to love her, but don’t look for her shadow in me. ]

"Who are you looking at through my eyes?"

In the Hall of Rebirth, she asked again.

Without waiting for Zhongli to reply, she continued, "No matter what, sir, the one standing in front of you is me, Xun Ming, and no one else."

The names arranged in reverse order represent their completely different personalities.

"I've always been looking at you—" Zhongli avoided addressing him and suddenly asked, "Are you willing to marry me?"

(End of this chapter)