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

As Fanes rode on the back of the little black dog and flew over Nata, he looked down and saw a continuous stretch of red rocky mountains dotted with lush green vegetation.

Nata's climate is much warmer than Mondstadt's, with a scent of sulfur and wildflowers in the air. Occasionally, you can see geothermal springs steaming in the mountains, with white steam rising from the cracks in the rocks.

Now weighing over 10,000 kilograms, Xiao Hei flies in the sky like a moving dark cloud. With a single flap of its wings, it can cast a large shadow on the ground that lasts for several seconds. Birds passing by will avoid this behemoth from a distance.

Fanes lay on the broad nape of Xiao Hei's neck, the wind blowing his hair back like an upside-down brush. As he squinted at the scenery below, he suddenly noticed something lying on an old tree with an unusually dense canopy in front of him.

The tree had thick branches and dense leaves. In the center of the canopy, there was a slightly sunken platform of branches and leaves. On it, one could vaguely see a figure lying on its back with its limbs outstretched and its posture extremely relaxed.

Fanes patted Little Black's neck, signaling it to descend. Little Black obediently folded one wing and glided down for a while, hovering just above the tree.

The person lying in the tree canopy was half asleep when suddenly they felt the light above their head dim down and the air in front of their noses become cooler.

She frowned and opened one eye to look—the large dark shadow above her didn't look like a cloud at all; it looked more like something huge was breathing a few meters above her head.

She sat up abruptly and looked up to see the enormous, jet-black creature hovering in mid-air, its two amber vertical pupils looking down at her.

Then her gaze shifted from the dragon to the child perched on its back, who was giving her a bright smile and waving.

The girl in the tree looked a few years older than Fanes. She had short, dark brown hair with two thin braids tied at her temples that hung down to her shoulders. She wore several metallic earrings that shimmered with a dark golden luster in the dappled sunlight filtering through the leaves.

Wearing a short-sleeved shirt and trousers for easy movement, with a leather satchel resembling a toolbox hanging from his waist, he looked like a craftsman who spent his days running around in the mountains and fields.

His gaze swept over Little Black three times, from the tip of its nose to the tip of its tail, before landing on Fanes. His tone carried an air of approval, as if to say, "Your pet is quite presentable, kid." "Hey, is this yours?"

Fanes patted Xiao Hei's neck to make it hover in place—Xiao Hei now had thick skin and big wings, and a flap of its wings could keep it still, so it could stay in mid-air for half a cup of tea without any problem—then he grinned at the girl in the tree.

"You have excellent taste! This is my pet, Xiao Hei. By the way, what's your name? You look familiar."

The girl stood up from the tree, brushed off the fallen leaves, and nimbly jumped to the ground. The tree was about two people tall, but she bent her knees slightly upon landing to absorb the impact. Her movements were clean and swift, as if she had done it a thousand times.

Looking up at the giant dragon hovering in mid-air and the child on its back, his voice carried a lazy and casual quality, as if warmed by the sun: "Xinoning. Xinoning, the Son of Echoes."

The moment Fanes heard the name, his memory bank flipped open. Shinonin. Shinonin of Nata.

Although the timeline is almost ten years earlier than the original story, the girl in front of him looks much younger than the official character illustrations he saw in those research posts in his previous life, but the shrewdness in her eyes and the style of her earrings match up.

Fanes' mind raced for a moment, then he leaned halfway out from the dragon's back, his voice brimming with the excitement of "I've struck gold!": "Oh! So this is all of Nata Technology!"

Xinoning's eyebrows twitched: "What do you mean?"

Fanes straightened up, placed his hands on the scales on the back of Blackie's neck, and spoke with an air of certainty that "I have a brilliant idea."

"Nothing much! I just have a project here that's perfect for someone like you with strong hands-on skills. Interested in coming over? I'll give you twenty million Mora."

Xinoning paused, her hand still holding the strap of her toolbox. She looked up, the languid glint in her eyes instantly hardening into a serious scrutiny: "...How much? Twenty million?"

Fanes nodded and held up two fingers, waving them: "Twenty million. Thirty percent upfront, the balance due upon project completion. Food, lodging, and travel expenses included. The working environment is absolutely safe, at least safer than being buried in volcanic ash in Nata."

Xinoning stood there in silence for about two seconds. She looked down at her toolbox, then looked up at the child on the dragon's back in mid-air, and then a playful smile appeared on her lips.

"Could he be a scammer? Giving away a 20 million project to someone you just met? Even the fake medicine sellers in Nata aren't this generous."

Just as Fanes was about to explain, a red figure suddenly appeared from behind the rocky corner of the mountain behind Xinoning, with an air of "I've been looking for you for a long time".

She was a tall, red-haired woman with her long hair tied back in a neat ponytail. Her dark, fitted outfit made her look like a burning flame, and even her gait exuded a sense of "I'm in a hurry, don't waste my breath on me." Upon seeing Xinoning standing under the tree, she immediately spoke, her voice clear but slightly urgent:

"Shinoning! I finally found you! Hurry up and fix my car! The power unit is acting up again, and I have to go out this afternoon!"

The moment Xinoning heard that voice, he jumped up as if he had been electrocuted.

Without even glancing back, she dashed to the side of Xiao Hei's dangling dragon claws, grabbed Fanes's drooping wrist, and leaped onto Xiao Hei's back like a cat chased by its prey. She lowered her voice, conveying an unprecedented sense of urgency.

"Oh no, it's Mavica! Hurry, hurry, hurry!"

Before Fanes could react, Xinoning was already sitting behind him, one hand gripping the edge of Xiao Hei's scales to steady himself, the other waving at the red-haired figure still approaching below, calling out.

"Mavika! I have to go out for a bit! We'll talk about the power core when I get back! Oh, and tell my mom I won't be home for dinner tonight."

Mavica stood under the tree, looking up at the giant dragon that had already flapped its wings and begun to take off, and the figure that had appeared on the dragon's back. The expression on her face changed from "You're going to run away again" to "You actually found a dragon as a mount," and finally settled on a kind of helpless "Fine, I'll catch you next time."

"Shinoning! Remember to write to me if you go far away! The power core issue can't be delayed any longer!"

Xinoning had settled completely into her seat and turned to call out, "Okay, okay! I'll be back as soon as possible!"

In that instant, Xiao Hei's intelligence prevailed. Before Fanes could even give the command, it had already flapped its wings twice and propelled itself into the sky. The speed was so fast that Fanes felt as if he were being pressed into the air current, and the mountains and treetops on both sides were rushing backward at an astonishing speed.

The wind rushed into his ears and mouth, so strong that he couldn't even shout. He could only hold on tightly to the edge of Xiao Hei's scales to keep himself from being thrown off.

Xinoning sat steadily behind him, even reaching out to support Fanes' lower back to help him regain his balance, her tone carrying a sense of relief as if she had survived a disaster.

"Thanks, kid. We can discuss your 20 million project on the way."

The wind whipped their hair back, and Little Black's enormous wings flapped rhythmically, quickly leaving the red rocky outcrops of Nata far behind. On the ground, Mavica's figure grew smaller and smaller until she became a tiny red dot disappearing among the rocks.

Fanes lay on the dragon's back, panting heavily for a while before catching his breath. He glanced at the new passenger sitting behind him and said, "...You ran faster than me just now."

Xinoning tidied her two braids that had been ruffled by the wind, and the corners of her mouth curved up: "You don't understand, when Sister Mavica comes to me, it's always 'the power core is malfunctioning' or 'the weapon system is stuck,' and each time it takes half a day to fix. If you can run away, run away; if you can delay, delay. Anyway, she won't really get angry."

Xinoning glanced at the rapidly receding clouds and distant mountains around him, then added, "And the price you offered is indeed quite attractive. Twenty million is enough for me to stay idle in Nata for several lifetimes."

Fanes lay on the back of the little black dog, facing the wind, feeling that the harvest from today's flight was much greater than expected.

The wind whistled past their ears, and Little Black's wings spread out like two huge black curtains in the sunlight, carrying the two people who had just reached a cooperation agreement on their backs steadily towards the direction of winter.

Xinoning pulled a leather cord from the toolbox and tied her hair back up a bit. Squinting at the horizon in front of her, she casually asked, "What exactly is this 20 million project about? Tell me first, and I'll assess whether it's worth the price."

Faenes, perched on the dragon's back against the wind, shouted in reply: "Make cell phones! Launch satellites! Build a complete Teyvat communications network!"

The wind was strong, making his voice intermittent, but Xinoning still caught the keywords "cell phone," "satellite," and "communication network." She paused for two seconds, then shouted back, "What's a cell phone?!"

Fanes turned his head and shouted back at her, "It's that thing that lets you make phone calls over thousands of miles!"

"That sounds... kind of interesting! (I can't exactly say I don't know what making a phone call is!)"