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

Ningguang's guest rooms are indeed very well-arranged. Each room has a private bathroom, an east-facing window, and a bed big enough for a person to turn over twice without falling off.

Fanes walked around his guest room, checking the window locks and the air conditioner panel. After confirming that the air conditioner was turned on and blowing cold air out, he threw himself onto the bed.

Fanes had originally planned to go straight to sleep. He had been running all day, from the mountain road of Qiaoying Village to the floating stone of Qunyu Pavilion, which had exhausted him both mentally and physically.

Fanes rolled over, adjusted the height of his pillow, closed his eyes for a moment, and felt himself about to drift into sleep—then he suddenly opened his eyes.

I forgot to log in to the game today.

Fanes reached for the terminal panel on the bedside table, flipped to the game's login page, entered his password, and logged in. The daily quest refresh time had already passed; it was now the start of a new day.

He originally just wanted to sign in and go to sleep, but after opening the task list, he found that there were several timed challenges in today's daily tasks that required teamwork. He figured it would only take a few minutes anyway, so he casually matched with a team and joined in.

After finishing one game, he saw that the event interface had refreshed with a new limited-time level, so he clicked on it, thinking he would go to sleep after finishing it. When he finished the event level, he glanced at the time in the upper right corner of the panel—2:17 AM.

Fanes stared at the string of numbers in silence for a moment, then put the panel back on the bedside table and sat up. He felt thirsty, got out of bed to pour himself a glass of water, and after drinking it, he felt his bladder reminding him to go to the bathroom.

Fanes pushed open the bathroom door, having just finished relieving himself, and stepped out. His gaze passed through the half-open bedroom door and landed on his bed—then he froze.

There was another person in the bed.

Ningguang lay on her side on his blanket, clearly prepared—she had changed into a light-colored silk nightgown with thin straps and a neckline that was just right, stopping right on the line between "appropriate" and "deliberate".

Ningguang's hair was loose and spread on the pillow. One hand was resting on the edge of the bed, her fingertips just touching the edge of the pillow where she had been lying.

Ningguang wasn't covered by a blanket; she was lying on her side in a relaxed and natural posture, as if she had been waiting for a while, or as if she had just arrived. Fanes stood at the bathroom door, looked at the person on the bed, then turned his head to look in the direction of the door to confirm that the lock was indeed closed.

Then Fanes looked down at his neatly dressed pajamas, and then looked up at Ningguang on the bed.

Ningguang didn't move or speak; she simply remained in that side-lying position.

Fanes stood there, quickly reviewing his current situation in his mind—he hadn't gone to the wrong room, the lock was working, and he hadn't heard anyone else come in after he entered.

Then there's only one possibility left: Ningguang had already come in before he fell asleep, but he was engrossed in playing games with his headphones on and didn't notice at all. Fanes added this to his "To-Do" list, then quietly took a half step back, intending to slip back along the wall to the door while she was still resting with her eyes closed, and squeeze through the crack in the door that had been properly locked just moments before.

Just as Fanes' toes touched the edge of the carpet, a hand reached out from the edge of the bed and accurately grasped the edge of the hem of his pajamas.

The force pulled Fanes backward, causing him to stumble half a step. His knee hit the edge of the bed, and before he could regain his balance, he was pulled down onto the bed.

Ningguang's arm had already wrapped around his waist, pulling him slightly towards the center of the bed. Ningguang's voice came from very close, close to his ear, carrying a sense of "you're finally back": "Little Twelve, let your big sister give you a good hug."

Fanes was held in her arms, feeling the tightness of her arms around his waist, which prevented him from sitting upright but wasn't too tight.

Fanes could still smell the lingering scent of perfume on Ningguang's body, as well as a fainter, calming scent of incense.

Fanes turned to look at Ningguang, his voice tinged with regret—as if he should have just pretended to be asleep—"...What are you going to do?"

Ningguang's gaze fell on his face, her breathing maintaining its usual rhythm in the quiet space: "Don't you know my heart? Tonight, no matter what, you're mine."

Fanes lay beside her, remaining motionless in a side-lying position, his gaze fixed on the edge of the thin strap on her shoulder, which shimmered slightly under the light. "Could you let me go first?" he asked.

Ningguang's arm remained draped over his waist, neither tightening nor loosening: "Don't you really care about me?"

Fanes paused for a moment. He opened his mouth, as if something had been pushed to the tip of his tongue, only to be stopped and swallowed back before it reached his lips. Ningguang watched his silence, the composed smile slowly fading, replaced by an even quieter expression.

Ningguang looked at Fanes as if she were waiting for a conversation in which she already knew the answer but still hoped to hear it from his own mouth.

Ningguang tilted her head slightly, as if readjusting the way the conversation began from that tiny angle: "You... never mind. If you can't win people's hearts, you can win something else. You're not the kind of person who's moved by simple words."

Ningguang spoke very gently, her fingertips slowly moving along the edge of her collar, as if checking whether the knot of the thin strap was still in place.

Fanes watched the movement of her fingertips, and then he felt something warm uncontrollably flowing from his nose. He reached up and touched the tip of his nose, looking down to see a dark red mark on his fingertip, and then he froze on the spot.

Ningguang saw it too. Seeing his caught-off-the-cuff look, she stopped what she was doing.

Fanes rubbed his nose with the back of his hand, then lay there taking a deep breath, suppressing the rising heat with each breath. He turned his head to look at Ningguang, as if readjusting the way the conversation began from that tiny angle: "...Alright, alright, stop taking your clothes off. In a year, I will definitely marry you."

Ningguang froze, her fingers hovering over the edge of her collar, the tips slightly clenching. "Why not now?"

Fanes lay on the pillow, turning his head to look at her: "According to the latest laws of Winterfall, men must be at least eighteen years old to marry. The standard marriage age in Winterfall is eighteen. Both premarital registration and marriage registration require valid identification and household registration records. I am still a year away from reaching the legal marriage age. Liyue does not have such a law; that's where your legal system needs further improvement."

Ningguang looked at him, thought for a moment, and then said, "Then you have to stay with me tonight too."

Seeing her unyielding stance and feeling her arms, which had been wrapped around his waist, retract back to their original position, Fanes said, "Alright, alright, Ningguang, don't hug me so tightly."

Ningguang's arm didn't loosen its grip, but only slightly relaxed its strength, as if she was using that point of contact to confirm whether his condition was within the "comfortable and acceptable" range.

Just as Fanes was pondering how to maintain the current balance, the bedroom window was pushed open from the outside—a slender and agile figure squeezed in through the crack in the window, landed at the foot of the bed, and made a soft, short thud.

Xiao Hei stood at the foot of the bed, its amber vertical pupils darting around in the light. Then it saw the two people on the bed, squatted there quietly for a moment, as if it was updating its own observation records with that set of data.

Fanes turned to look at it, his voice carrying a sense of certainty that "you've come at the right time": "Little Black, come here."

Little Black jumped off the edge of the bed's foot, and after landing, it folded its wings and scales. As it fell toward the bed, its body began to shrink and change shape.

A few breaths later, a small black dragon, about the size of a palm, had already squeezed into the gap between Fanes and Ningguang, curling up into a round shape in his arms, its eyes closed, as if it was using its body temperature to confirm whether the comfort level of that position met the expected standard.

Ningguang looked down at the little creature curled up in Fanes' arms. Its body was pressed against his clothes, and the subtle undulations were even and long, forming a structure that neither pressed down on him nor did it not fill the gap.

Fanes reached out and stroked its head, neither adjusting his position nor trying to remove himself from Ningguang's arm. He said, "Sleep. We have things to do tomorrow."

Ningguang's gaze shifted from Xiao Hei to Fanes' face, to that profile that was slowly relaxing, and then she closed her eyes as well.