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

In the afternoon light, the tea plantations of Qiaoyingzhuang are covered with a patchwork of shades of green, and the bamboo baskets of tea pickers appear and disappear among the tea bushes.

Fanes led Funina along a smooth dirt road, with Little Black, now the size of a palm, perched on his shoulder, occasionally tilting its head to the side, attracted by butterflies flying by.

The mountain breeze, carrying the fresh scent of sun-dried tea leaves and the aroma of earth, swept across the space between the two. Funina was squatting by the roadside, fiddling with a cluster of wildflowers in full bloom, when she heard footsteps approaching from afar.

When Hu Tao jumped down from the stone steps at the other end of the tea field, she was still clutching half of a candied hawthorn skewer she hadn't finished eating.

Hu Tao was taken aback when she saw Fanes, then her eyes lit up: "Boss! You're here to visit Qiaoyingzhuang too?"

Hu Tao's gaze paused beside Fanes, then fell on Funina, where the candied hawthorn skewer paused for a moment.

Hu Tao tilted her head, as if using the bamboo skewer as a reference point to search through her notebook for an unverified record. After a moment, she spoke, "Water Goddess?" (Technology changes lives! Water Goddess Funina is also an official influencer, okay?)

Funina stood up, brushed the mud and grass seeds off her hands, and wore the standard smile she had practiced countless times in diplomatic settings: "Yes, you are... the head of the Hall of Rebirth?" (Don't ask, it's just that my phone crashed. It's perfectly normal to see the Hall of Rebirth crashing while scrolling through your phone in the middle of the night!)

Hu Tao finished the candied hawthorn in a few bites, twirling the bamboo skewer in her hand. Her tone was relaxed and casual, like someone meeting an acquaintance: "Just call me Hu Tao! Oh my, I didn't expect the Water God to be in Liyue too! The tea and water at Qiaoying Manor are great, but there are a lot of mosquitoes at night. Did you bring mosquito repellent?"

Funina's smile froze slightly for a moment at the mention of "a lot of mosquitoes," but she maintained the same curve: "I brought some. I brought some before I left."

Hu Tao's gaze darted back and forth between her and Fanes, as if using this time to confirm the accuracy of her observations, and the corners of her mouth curved slightly.

"You came together? That's perfect! I've been here for two days, drunk several pots of tea, and walked quite a few sections of mountain road. I was just wondering who I could talk to."

After Hu Tao finished speaking, she naturally walked to Fu Ningna's side. "Is this your first time visiting Qiaoying Manor, Water God? I know which shop has the best tea and snacks. I'll take you there later! Their osmanthus cake is freshly steamed and served piping hot. The syrup on top is homemade and not too sweet."

As Funina walked arm-in-arm with Hu Tao toward the tea plantation, she glanced back at Fanes. Her gaze held a subtle hint of "Am I being dragged by a new acquaintance to some kind of trip I didn't have time to sign up for?" But she didn't stop—she let Hu Tao pull her down the hillside.

What happened over the next three days, in Fanes' later recollection, could only be described as "as natural as a leaf being pushed along by the wind."

Hu Tao took Funina to eat osmanthus cake, steamed dumplings, and braised pork with dried bamboo shoots at the tea shop in Qiaoyingzhuang. Then they squatted by the stream to watch the ducks swim by, and walked along the mountain path to an old ginkgo tree that was said to be several hundred years old. They used the fallen leaves to create a pattern on the mud next to the tree roots.

Walnut took out spare incense sticks and a small dish of offerings from her backpack, arranged them skillfully, bowed to the tree roots, and then handed a stick of incense to Funina.

Funina held the incense stick and awkwardly followed suit with a bow. Hu Tao took the opportunity to summarize, "You see, the key to a sense of ritual is participation. Doing it right is a tradition, doing it wrong is innovation."

When Funina inserted the incense stick into the incense burner, her movement was a beat slower than Walnut's, but she inserted it firmly without it tilting.

A customer of Wangshengtang: This was totally worth it! The Water God himself offered incense to me! I'll choose Wangshengtang again in my next life!

Fanes sat on a rock nearby, watching the two of them walk further and further along the mountain path. Hu Tao's voice could still be faintly heard through a tea field—she was introducing the "3rd Anniversary Package" recently launched by the Temple of Rebirth to Fu Ningna. After listening for a while, Fu Ningna actually asked, "Is that package limited to a limited number of people?"

Fanes leaned into the curve of the stone, took out his terminal from his pocket, snapped a picture in a low voice, put the panel away, and didn't open it to look at it again.

The next evening, they walked along the mountain path toward the ferry crossing of Chenyu Valley. Hu Tao walked ahead, gesturing that if they had come earlier, they could have caught the local Spring Lantern Festival.

Funina followed behind her, responding with a few details about the lanterns and festivals. The two would stop from time to time to confirm the route, taking turns bringing the conversation back or steer it away at the bends in the mountain path. Fanes walked at the very back, with Xiao Hei perched on his shoulder, listening to the conversation between the two in front of him, which jumped from "lantern festival" to "the classification of coffin wood," and then from "the classification of wood" to "which shop makes the best mochi."

Fanes realized that the two had achieved a natural alignment in frequency within two days, like two pianos that were originally in different keys finding each other's registers in a continuous ensemble, maintaining the vibration of the same set of chords at the edge of that span.

That evening, Fanes booked a riverside room at the inn in Qiaoying Village. Funina stood by the window, watching the darkening ridgeline in the distance, while Hu Tao was already squatting by the bed, packing her luggage.

Walnut's fingers rummaged quickly through layer after layer of fabric—from the everyday storage box to the neatly folded clothes, and then to the spare coin purse at the bottom of the bag, each layer kept in the compact order after being moved—she could still find the item she was looking for within a few breaths, but she stopped before taking it out.

Hu Tao looked up and towards Funina by the window, saying, "Lord Water God, have you been to the Jade Pavilion before?"

Funina turned around: "No. I've only seen it from afar a few times."

Hu Tao tightened the drawstring on her duffel bag: "Let me tell you, that place is really high. When you look down, the entire Liyue Harbor is below you. When the wind is strong, standing on the edge feels like you're being pushed forward by the wind. Your eyes need some time to adjust before you can see the details on the ground clearly."

Fañez, leaning against the doorframe, added, "Let's go tomorrow night. I've already confirmed the time with Ningguang; she'll be waiting for us upstairs."

Upon hearing this, Hu Tao sprang up from the edge of the bed: "Tomorrow night?"

Standing by the window, watching Hu Tao's reaction, Fu Ningna reached out and adjusted the wick of the nearly extinguished oil lamp on the windowsill, making the flame burn brighter again. Then she said, "Then you should go to bed early tonight so you'll have the energy to go upstairs tomorrow."

Hu Tao sat on the edge of the bed, unfolded her folded coat, and folded it again. Her tone was still filled with barely suppressed excitement: "I'll try my best. But to be honest, places like Qunyu Pavilion are usually not open to ordinary people. I've only been up there a few times when I accompanied old customers of Wangsheng Hall to deliver goods. It's not open to the public at other times."

Fanes, looking at Hu Tao's state, leaned against the doorframe and said, "If you really can't sleep, you can go downstairs to the lobby and sit for a while. There's tea there, and a few local chronicles you can read."

Hu Tao didn't answer him. She was looking down and smoothing out the crease in her coat collar with her fingertips, then draped it over the back of the chair, as if she had completed the last preparation.

But that didn't stop Hu Tao and Fu Ning Na from falling asleep at 2:30 in the morning; no doubt, it was their cell phones that caused the problem.