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

Fanes' last memory was of the grove of trees at the foot of Tianqiu Valley.

The rock squid on the grill was still sizzling with oil. He was reaching for the skewer next to him that had just been brushed with sauce when he was suddenly struck on the back of the head with a blunt object.

Before everything went black, the last thought that flashed through Fanes' mind was—Damn, are the Treasure Thieves this brazen now? They even dare to knock on the Fatui Enforcer? And Yakoda is squatting next to him eating a chicken leg, why isn't that girl making a sound?

What?! He's already been knocked unconscious! That's alright then!

When Fañes regained consciousness, the back of his head was still throbbing. Everything was pitch black, with only a few rays of light filtering in from a small ventilation window high above him.

Fanes tried to move his hands and feet, only to find that he was tightly bound by hemp rope, with his wrists and ankles tied behind his back. The rope was quite tight, and his struggles were useless except for causing him pain.

Fanes squinted to adjust to the dim light and found himself locked in a small room.

Several broken wooden crates were piled in the corner, the ground was compacted soil, and the air was filled with a damp, musty smell. Beside him, seven or eight children about his age were squatting haphazardly, all looking dejected, some of them sobbing quietly.

Fanes' gaze swept over the children and then suddenly stopped.

A little boy with dark blue hair was crouching in the corner. His red eyes stood out in the dim light, and the outline of his face—Fanes' eyes widened suddenly.

Fanes almost blurted out, "Doctor, what are you doing here?", but reason stopped him at the last second. No, he had seen the doctor's eight-year-old slices before. Although the hair and eye colors matched, the boy in front of him had a completely different aura.

Even the pediatric version of the doctor's slices exuded a chilling calmness, while the boy in front of him huddled in the corner, his lips tightly pursed and his eyes slightly red, looking nothing more than a frightened child.

"Doctor?" Fanes called out tentatively.

The little boy with dark blue hair looked up, his red eyes filled with confusion and wariness: "I'm not a doctor, you've mistaken me for someone else!"

Fanes breathed a sigh of relief, but was also a little disappointed. If the Doctor had also been kidnapped, that would have been a real mess. But then he thought, how could a fragment of the Doctor's caliber be ambushed by a group of heist crews? He was probably just being fooled by his own overly tense nerves.

A rustling sound came from the side. Yakoda peeked out from beside him, her cat-ear hat askew, her goggles nowhere to be seen, her light golden hair a mess, but her starry eyes still shining brightly.

"Boss! You're finally awake! I thought you were going to sleep until tomorrow morning!"

Fanes glanced at her and saw that Jakoda was also tied up, but the knot was looser than her own. She wiggled and moved to his side like a caterpillar.

"Boss, I just secretly checked, there are at least three people guarding outside. The room is locked, and the window is too high to climb up. What do we do?"

Fanes' mind raced. He looked down at the knot on his wrist—a professionally tied knot, clearly done by an experienced hand. He tried to pull it off, but it wouldn't budge. He glanced at the children around him, all pale with fright, some of the younger ones already wiping away tears.

"You ask me what to do?" Fanes lowered his voice, "I just woke up too!"

Yakoda panicked: "Boss, aren't you the Executor of the Fools?! Aren't you the Twelfth Seat?! Aren't you...?"

"Yes, that's me! But I'm tied up! Have you ever seen an executive officer who gets hit in the head and then manages to break free on the spot?"

Yakoda's starry eyes dimmed for a moment, but quickly brightened again: "Then let's think of something! Boss, you're a smart one, think of something!"

Fanes took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. He glanced at the children in the room and suddenly noticed the little boy with dark blue hair secretly looking in their direction. When their eyes met, the boy quickly lowered his head, but Fanes had already seen something different in his eyes compared to the other children—there was no sobbing, no fear, only a suppressed light of thought.

Fanes' heart skipped a beat. This kid is interesting.

Before Fanes could ponder further, footsteps and rough voices came from outside. Fanes immediately shut his mouth, leaned his head against the wall, and pretended to still be unconscious.

The lock clicked a few times, the wooden door was pushed open, and a burly member of the treasure-hunting gang poked half his body in, scanned the room, and seeing that all the children were obediently huddled up, he snorted with satisfaction and closed the door again.

After the footsteps faded into the distance, Yakoda leaned closer and whispered, "Boss, it looks like they're going to sell us somewhere."

How did you know?

"I just overheard them chatting outside, saying that this batch of goods is of good quality and can fetch a good price."

Yakoda's starry eyes twinkled in the dim light. "Boss, we need to think of something quickly. I'm still so young, I don't want to die!"

Fanes leaned back against the wall, staring at the ventilation window above for a long time. The window frame was rusty, and a corner of the glass was broken, through which one could see the gray sky outside.

Fanes suddenly remembered something—he hadn't brought anyone with him when he came to Tianqiu Valley, not even Shui Pang. The Fools probably still hadn't realized he was missing.

Fanes sighed and slammed his head against the wall: "I'm doomed. This time I've really messed up. From now on, I'll definitely bring more people with me when I go out!"

Yakoda nudged him with her shoulder: "Don't be discouraged, boss! Didn't you say before that you're tough? Tough people always find a way!"

Fanes was jolted to the side by her nudge, and the corner of his mouth twitched involuntarily. He looked up at the dark blue-haired boy who had been silent in the corner beside him. The boy lowered his head again after meeting his gaze, but Fanes noticed that his fingers were secretly, little by little, rubbing the knot behind his back.

The thought in Fanes' mind grew clearer and clearer: This child is no ordinary person.

However, he didn't have time to investigate further, because he heard footsteps outside again, closer and more frequent than before. There was more than one person; at least three or four.

Fanes immediately closed his eyes again, feigning unconsciousness, but his ears were perked up, picking up on any sounds outside the door. The footsteps stopped at the doorway, followed by the sounds of rummaging through things, interspersed with a few mumbled complaints—

"We need to sell this batch of goods quickly." "The buyer in the north is pressing us hard." "That white-haired girl looks quite clever; we can't let her get away." and so on.

Fanes closed his eyes and silently pieced together these words in his mind. The buyer from the north. Pressuring him. The white-haired girl. He roughly understood—this group of thieves specialized in the human trafficking trade, kidnapping children and selling them north. Yakoda was being targeted because her hair color was too striking.

Fanes' fingers clenched tightly behind his back.

The Fools should be realizing he's missing soon, right? Water Fatty may be simple-minded, but he's reliable enough. If they find out he didn't go home for lunch, they'll definitely be looking for him everywhere.

Fanes silently prayed that Fatty would have a poor appetite at noon today, and that he would discover Fatty's absence soon so that the intelligence network could be activated quickly.

Meanwhile, in the lobby of the Northern Bank in Liyue Harbor, the Water Fatty was shoveling rice into his mouth from his third bowl. After a couple of bites, he suddenly stopped, a puzzled look on his round face—why didn't the adults come back for lunch today?