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

One evening three months later, Fanes lay in his room in the side courtyard of Narukami Taisha Shrine, leaning against the headboard as he looked at the quarterly financial statements on the crystal panel.

The bed was a giant block of ice slime, a deep blue, transparent gel shaped into a flat bed. Its surface radiated a slight coolness, making it a godsend on Inazuma's sweltering summer nights.

Fanes stepped barefoot onto the surface of the ice slime, the coolness shooting from the soles of his feet all the way to the top of his head. He curled up into a ball in comfort, rested the panel on his knees, and slowly slid his fingers down.

The first quarter's revenue wasn't too impressive. Inazuma's market acceptance was much slower than Liyue Mondstadt's. In the first two months, most of the people who came to the internet cafe were just there to watch, and not many actually sat down and made a purchase.

It wasn't until the third month that we started to see some repeat customers, mainly adventurers and young merchants, with a few officials from the castle tower occasionally coming to experience it during their days off.

The total profit was barely enough to cover the rent and equipment maintenance costs, with only a tiny bit left over. Fanes scrolled down the page and saw the growth curves for the following months—the slope wasn't steep, but it was slowly rising, with the end of each line higher than the beginning.

Just as he was about to turn off the panel, he heard a soft rustling sound of fabric rubbing together. Yae no Miko emerged from the shadows of the windowsill, her fox form just transforming back into human form, her clothes still damp from the night dew in the courtyard.

Yae no Miko sat down on the edge of Fanes' bed, turned to look at the numbers on the crystal panel, and then raised an eyebrow: "Is that all the profit? You went through all that trouble to transport the whole set of equipment from winter to summer."

Fanes tilted the panel towards her: "It's not much, but every line is rising. What about your Yaedo's report for this month? I heard their performance was halved."

Yae no Miko's tail twitched slightly behind her, but her expression remained calm. She reached up and brushed a strand of hair that had fallen over her shoulder, her tone indifferent.

"A 50% drop is an exaggeration. It's only declined by about 40%, but the core readership is still there, and if a new issue is launched next season, it should be able to recover some of the losses."

Fanes put the panel aside, turned to look at her, and said with a calm tone that seemed to say, "Let me summarize for you: It's dropped by 40%, which is almost equivalent to being cut in half. It was a small business to begin with, and this cut has brought it straight to rock bottom."

Yae no Miko tilted her head to look at him, the composed smile in her purple eyes fading slightly: "You're not much better off, you didn't make any money either. You know perfectly well how much profit you had left after deducting costs in the first quarter."

Fanes leaned back against the ice slime, his hands behind his head: "But I've made money in other countries. The combined revenue of Liyue, Mondstadt, Fontaine, and Sumeru has more than doubled in three quarters. Inazuma is just a small part of my global strategy. And you, my pet, your Yaedo doesn't have any overseas market. Without Inazuma, your books won't sell."

The tip of Yae no Miko's tail stiffened completely. She was silent for a moment, and when she spoke, her voice was still steady, but Fanes could hear the suppressed displeasure within it.

"You just wait. Once I transform Qiusha Qiantang into a comprehensive entertainment venue, your internet cafe might not be as popular as it is now."

Fanes sat up straight on the ice slime and shrugged at her: "By the time you're done modifying it, I'll be iterating to my fifth version. The terminal will be so small it fits in your pocket, and the signal coverage will double. Even if your public bathhouse has a hundred floors, it won't be able to catch up. And even your gods will become our loyal users. What else do you have to say?"

At this moment, Yae no Miko felt a surge of extremely complex emotions. She knew for certain that the terminal Lei Yingdian had placed in her room had become a regular part of her nightly routine before bed—watching food videos until the early hours of the morning, and still reminiscing about the stewed meat from the previous night when her subordinates reported on matters the next day.

Yae no Miko leaned against the windowsill in silence for a few seconds, finally letting out a very soft sigh that sounded like a hum before looking away.

Fanes lay back down on the ice slime, rolled over to face the wall, and patted the cool, gelatinous surface beside him.

"I'm going to sleep. Go find somewhere cool to stay. Aren't you going to revert to your fox form at this hour? Or are you saying you can do whatever you want with your time tonight?"

Yae no Miko did not answer the question. She simply walked over from the windowsill and stood on the edge of the bed, looking down at the slight indentation on the ice slime mattress caused by Fanes turning over. Her voice was three parts pleading and seven parts coquettish.

"Little master, could you get me one too? It's so hot, my mattress gets sweaty all night long."

Without turning his head, Fanes said, "No. There are bamboo and a pond in your yard. You can just lie down by the water."

Yae no Miko stood by the bed without moving. Of course, she could catch a large ice slime to use as a bed, but that thing wasn't something you could just catch and use—it would have to stay obediently in one place without moving. Given her current relationship with ice elemental creatures, that slime would most likely shoot her and the bedsheets out of her bed in the middle of the night.

Yae no Miko bent down and poked the edge of the ice slime. The gelatinous creature trembled slightly when her fingertip touched it, shrinking its edges as if it had been tickled, but it did not resist her touch.

Fanes remained with his back to her, his eyes already closed: "You can't poke me. This is my bed; go find your own."

Yae no Miko's fingers hovered over the edge of the ice slime for two seconds, then she made a very direct decision. She lifted her leg and straddled the edge of the bed, lying down on her side, taking up the half of the empty space behind Fanes.

The surface of the ice slime sank slightly the moment she landed, and the coolness seeped in from the contact surface, making her feel so comfortable that she couldn't help but let out a soft breath.

Fanes felt the mattress behind him suddenly sink a bit, and the entire surface of the ice slime clearly sank inward after bearing the weight of the two of them.

Before Fanes could turn around, Yae no Miko had already reached out and hugged him tightly—not with much force, more like hugging a comfortable long pillow.

Yae no Miko rested her chin on the crown of his head, her tail brushing against his back, her tone carrying a nonchalant "you can't refuse" tone: "Don't move, I'm just lying here for a while."

Fanes was held captive by her, unable to move. Just as he was about to protest, the ice slime beneath him suddenly let out a low, long whimper.

The sound was unlike any other language, but Fanes could clearly feel the entire mattress trembling slightly and shrinking at its edges, like a creature being crushed and struggling to breathe trying to express its dissatisfaction.

The surface of the ice slime slowly swelled up and sank down, with a small section of transparent gelatinous tentacles spilling out from the edge. It swayed helplessly next to the drooping hair of Yae no Miko, as if to say something.

"It's so heavy!"

With his shoulders held by Yae no Miko, Fanes lay in the very center of the ice slime's depression, feeling the protesting, gelatinous creature wriggling and struggling against his back and waist with barely a ripple.

Yae no Miko turned her head to look at the arm draped over her shoulder, then at a bamboo leaf swaying in the night breeze on the windowsill. Her voice carried a calm acceptance of reality: "Shouldn't you get down? It says you're too heavy."

Yae no Miko didn't let go, but just nuzzled her head against his head again: "It doesn't charge me rent."

The ice slime let out an even longer whimper, its tentacles retracted, and the entire gelatinous mass wriggled slightly beneath the two, as if adjusting its position to relieve the pressure, but ultimately it did not push them off.

Ice Slime: Do you think it's easy for me?