Genshin Impact: Watch me turn the tables and kill my servants at the start!

As Fañes was engrossed in finishing his third bowl of stewed beef, he suddenly caught a glimpse of someone sitting in the chair opposite him.

Fanes suddenly looked up, half a piece of bread smeared with meat juice still in his mouth, and froze.

Fanes swore that the area was completely empty just now; he glanced in that direction while eating, and there wasn't even a fly on the chair.

But now a little boy, about eight years old, is sitting there upright, his hands on his knees, his blue hair gleaming coldly under the light, and his red pupils staring at him intently.

The child was wearing an oversized white lab coat, with the cuffs rolled up several times to barely reveal the fingertips, making him look like a little assistant who had sneaked out of some laboratory.

Fanes swallowed the bread in his mouth, stared at the face for three seconds, and felt that it looked somewhat familiar. The contours of the face, the curve of the red eyes, and that "I'm observing you" look in his eyes—he was certain he had seen it somewhere before, but he couldn't quite place it.

Fanes put down his chopsticks, tilted his head, and said, "Young man, you look familiar. Have I seen you somewhere before?"

The blue-haired boy blinked his red eyes, his expression unchanged. He reached out and tugged at the collar of his oversized white lab coat, his tone as calm as if he were reading a lab report: "I don't think so. I don't seem to remember you."

He paused, his gaze sweeping over the leftover food scattered across the table. "You're probably my new colleague? The one who sits on the twelfth seat?"

Suddenly, a string snapped in Fanes' mind.

Blue hair. Red eyes. White lab coat. Sliced.

Fanes suddenly remembered the rumors circulating within the Fools about the Doctor—that the man's slices were scattered across all age groups, from toddlers to the elderly, each possessing independent thought and the ability to act. And here stood the eight-year-old boy before him, wearing a lab coat, appearing in the kitchen at this hour…

"You're the doctor's eight-year-old slice?" Fanes' voice rose a half octave.

The blue-haired boy nodded, his expression remaining calm: "That's right."

He pointed to the plates on the long table that had been mostly cleared away by Fanes and the girl. "You ate all the food I ordered."

Fanes glanced down at the pile of empty plates, the cleaned chicken bones, and the stew pot of beef with only a layer of oil left, and his lips twitched.

"Um... I'm sorry, I didn't know you ordered this..."

The eight-year-old doctor waved his hand dismissively, his gesture carrying a casualness beyond his years: "Never mind, I couldn't eat that much anyway."

The eight-year-old doctor stood up and walked to the other end of the long table. He precisely picked out a small casserole from a pile of untouched plates, opened the lid, and glanced at the pale yellow porridge inside. "Next time, let's eat this oatmeal porridge to soothe the stomach. This is what the sixty-five-year-old doctor ordered."

Fanes: "..."

Fanes peered into the contents of the casserole; the oatmeal porridge was thick and creamy, with a few goji berries floating on top, emitting a mild, grainy aroma. Compared to the heavily oiled and salty dishes next to it, it was indeed much healthier.

"Okay," Fanes replied curtly, "I got it."

The eight-year-old doctor picked up the casserole and turned to look at Fanes. His youthful face held an unfathomable calm, his red pupils gleaming like polished gems in the warm yellow light. He stared at Fanes for about two seconds.

The doctor's tone lightened a bit as he looked at the eight-year-old slice, "Don't be so nervous, new colleague. I'm not going to put you on the lab table."

Fanes breathed a huge sigh of relief, his tense shoulders relaxing: "That's good, that's good, you scared me to death."

Before Fanes could finish speaking, the doctor's eight-year-old slice had already carried the casserole out of the kitchen, turning back to look at him just as he stepped across the threshold. That look sent a chill down Fanes' spine.

"But the other PhDs don't think that way."

The blue-haired boy's voice floated in from the doorway, light and airy, "It's best to stay away from them in the future. And don't get too close to me either!"

After saying that, he disappeared into the shadows of the corridor, his footsteps fading into the distance until no sound could be heard at all.

Fanes sat in his chair for two seconds, then turned to look at the girl who was leaning on the table across from him.

The girl was slowly eating a strawberry from the plate, her expression beneath the mesh veil showing no surprise whatsoever, as if she had known all along that the doctor's slice would appear at this time.

"Why didn't you warn me that someone was coming?" Fanes said with a hint of resentment.

The girl swallowed the strawberry, her voice soft and sweet: "He didn't do anything bad, he just came to get what he ordered. And didn't he say he wouldn't put you on the lab table?"

"He said 'I can't'—but only his slice is safe; there's no guarantee he can't do it on the other slices!"

The girl tilted her head, as if considering whether the logic made sense, and finally concluded: "Anyway, you're fine now, aren't you? Don't think so much. Are you going to eat or not? If not, we should go, or our patrol shift will be changing soon."

Fañez glanced down at the remaining good food on the table and immediately sprang into action. He rummaged through a nearby cabinet and pulled out a clean, empty food container. With lightning speed, he packed the remaining roasted chicken wings, a few pieces of chocolate lava cake, and half an uncut berry tart into it, closed the lid, and tucked it into his pocket.

The girl had already climbed out the window and was waiting for him in the snow. Fanes climbed up after her, and when he landed, the food box in his arms made a loud clatter, startling him so much that he quickly covered it.

The snow was still falling on the way back. The girl held his hand as they walked through the deserted alleyway leading to the Winter Palace. Snowflakes landed on their shoulders and quickly melted.

Fanes touched the food box full of spoils in his arms, and then thought about what the eight-year-old doctor had said before leaving, "Stay away from them," and felt a little uneasy.

But then he thought, well, he's the twelfth seat now, with so many colleagues; he can't keep hiding from the Doctor every day. Besides, he's just a six-year-old kid; if the Doctor really wanted to do some experiments on him, could he really stop him?

Let's take it one step at a time. If all else fails, we can ask the Ice Queen for help!