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

Hu Tao tossed the empty milk tea cup into a roadside trash can, patted the water droplets off her hands, and turned to wave at Fanes and Funina: "Come on! Let's go to the Hall of Rebirth! We don't have anything to do today, so I'll brew you a pot of good tea."

After speaking, Hu Tao didn't wait for their response and walked briskly into the depths of the alley, as if surveying her own territory. Fanes and Funina exchanged a glance and followed.

The facade of the Hall of Rebirth is not particularly eye-catching in the streets and alleys of Liyue Harbor. The paint on the door is dark, and a lantern that has been extinguished hangs under the eaves.

When Hu Tao pushed open the door, the hinges made a dry, turning sound. Then she stepped aside to let the two of them go in first.

The hall inside was more spacious than she initially appeared. To the left was a screen with a light ink landscape painting depicting a small boat with a person sitting on it. To the right was a long table for reception, with several chairs, a few booklets, an incense burner, a stack of documents stamped with seals, and a half-open folding fan on the table.

A plaque hung in the center of the main hall, bearing the three characters "Wang Sheng Tang" (Hall of Rebirth) in neat and clear calligraphy. Hu Tao gestured for the two to sit down, then turned and went into the back hall. The sound of her rummaging through the curtain could be heard.

Fanes walked around the hall, stopped in front of the screen, looked down at the outline of the figure on the boat in the landscape painting, then looked away from the painting and onto the slowly moving clouds outside the window.

After a while, footsteps came from the direction of the back hall. Fanes thought that Hu Tao had returned and turned around to speak—but saw Zhongli walking in through the side door, holding a scroll of documents that had not yet been opened, with a little water stain on the hem of his clothes from when he had just been in the tea room.

When Zhong Li entered, he heard voices in the hall. He looked up and his gaze fell on Fanes, then shifted to Funina sitting in a chair, and then back to Fanes. His eyelids twitched slightly.

Fanes leaned against a pillar and looked at him: "Mr. Zhongli, we meet again."

Zhong Li paused at the door for a moment, then stepped into the hall, placed the documents on the shelf against the wall, and spoke with a subtle hint of "How did I run into you here?": "...You found your way here."

Just then, Hu Tao emerged from the back room, carrying a tray with three cups of tea and a dish of peanut brittle. She paused when she saw Zhong Li standing in the hall, placed the tray on the table, and said something in his direction.

"Zhongli! Can't you see we have guests? Hurry up and cook a couple of dishes!"

Fanes sat in his chair watching this scene, his gaze shifting back and forth between Hu Tao and Zhong Li.

Zhong Li turned his head to look at Hu Tao, his voice carrying a sense of helplessness, as if saying, "I'm a guest retainer, not a cook": "My master..."

Hu Tao bent down and placed the teacups on the tray one by one onto the table: "What's wrong? Are you being asked to cook two dishes? Wasn't the stir-fried bamboo shoots with pork you made last time quite delicious? We have guests today, so don't just sit around doing nothing."

Zhong Li stood there: "...I'll go see what ingredients are left in the kitchen."

After Zhongli finished speaking, he turned and walked towards the back hall, his back view filled with indescribable desolation!

Fu Ningna sat in the chair, holding the teacup that Hu Tao had handed her. Watching Zhong Li's figure disappear behind the curtain, she turned to look at Hu Tao.

"Is this the retainer you mentioned who you treated like a son? He seems quite reliable."

Hu Tao sat down next to him, picked up her own cup of tea and took a sip: "Come on, he only seems reliable on the surface. He brings in countless bills to the Rebirth Hall every day—one day he buys a pot of tea, the next day a box of pastries, and the day after that he finds an old cup at some antique stall, and then the bills are sent to the Rebirth Hall. If I weren't supporting him, he'd probably be homeless by now."

Fanes leaned back in his chair without replying. He mentally reviewed the two conversations side by side and came to a conclusion—Hu Tao was raising Zhong Li like a son.

Fanes picked up his teacup, took a sip, glanced in the direction Zhongli had disappeared, then at Hu Tao, before lowering his gaze: "What a fine way to raise him like a son. Is Zhongli searching for the maternal love he lacked since childhood?"

Walnut was putting a peanut brittle in her mouth when she finished chewing it. She then patted the crumbs off her hands and asked, "What did you say?"

Fanes put the teacup back on the table: "It's nothing. How long will it take him to make your stir-fried pork with dried bamboo shoots?"

Hu Tao glanced towards the back room and thought for a moment, "He's quite quick; it shouldn't take long. If they can't find dried bamboo shoots, they might use something else instead."

Hu Tao leaned back in her chair. "But to be honest, his cooking is actually pretty good—at least it tastes better than what you get in restaurants. Although he doesn't usually cook at the Rebirth Hall, it's not unfair to let him cook once in a while."

Fanes picked up his teacup and took another sip. He glanced at Funina sitting beside him. She was looking down, fiddling with the end of the thin cord on her belt, seemingly adjusting to the waistline and tightness of her new dress, before looking around at her surroundings.

Hu Tao followed his gaze, then leaned slightly forward, as if adjusting the angle between her stool leg and the floor, and said, "Boss, what do you think of the Hall of Rebirth? Isn't it much more lively and welcoming than those strongholds of your Fools' Clan?"

Fañes withdrew his gaze, his eyes sweeping over the furnishings of the hall—the gleaming table corners, the potted plant sprouting new leaves in the corner, the neat rows of documents on the shelves, and the spacing between the folding fans—and then he replied, "Indeed."

After a while, the sound of a spatula hitting a wok came from the back room, followed by the popping of oil and scallions and ginger under high temperature. Then, a fragrance mixed with soy sauce, cooking wine and sugar seeped out from the gap in the curtain, forming an uneven warm current in the air, moving along the edge of the table and the screen, and gradually spreading throughout the hall.

Walnut sniffed: "Hmm, that's about right."

Walnut took another peanut brittle and put it in her mouth. Fanes glanced towards the back room, then at the plate of peanut brittle on the table that was steadily decreasing, picked up his teacup and took a sip.

The light from outside the window is slowly moving along the seam of the windowsill, casting a long, slanted arc of shadow on the bottom of an inverted cup.

The sound of spatula hitting the iron pot came from the back room again, and after a moment of silence, it started again, like a metronome that was self-calibrating, restarting its counting program after a period of pause.

The sound lasted for a while, then was taken over by the sound of water running in the back room and the sound of the stove being moved, like a pre-written process that was progressing step by step to its next stage in a predetermined order.