I'm not feeling right when I transform into Keqing

Noelle followed, but found that Keqing turned around instead of moving forward.

"Hey, Lady Keqing, you took the wrong path. That's the way back!"

……

……

On the way back to Mond, the two men rode their horses one after the other, without speaking a word.

But Noelle would steal glances at Keqing from time to time, just like a cat toy, tickling Keqing's back and giving her goose bumps.

He gently pulled the reins, and the horse slowed down until it was just on par with Noelle.

Keqing said calmly, "We are here to check the seal. Now that we have checked the seal, there is no need to stay there."

"Also, my weapon was damaged in that battle. I didn't make much preparation for this trip, so it's not suitable for me to go too deep."

“So that’s how it is.” After listening to Lady Keqing’s explanation, Noelle nodded and whispered, “I thought…”

He paused mid-sentence and then glanced secretly at Keqing.

"Why?"

"I thought Lady Keqing was embarrassed to meet Captain Jean." Noelle was very honest.

"Heh." Keqing chuckled.

After a few seconds, she spoke calmly.

"What's there to be embarrassed about? Since she's fine and the seal of the Wind Dragon Ruins is intact, I'll just lie in bed and wait for her to come back. Isn't that more comfortable than being out in the wild in the wind and sun?"

Noelle seemed to understand, it seemed that Lady Keqing did not suddenly return because she was embarrassed.

It was already night when they returned to Mondstadt, but Keqing and Noel did not feel tired at all because they had taken the Xiaoqing Pill.

When returning the horses to the Knights, Keqing met Cavalry Captain Kaeya who was leading a patrol.

Kaeya was also a little surprised to see Keqing.

"You're back so early?"

"Well, we have done what needs to be done." Keqing said, "By the way, does Captain Kaeya know about the Ruins Guard?"

Kaiya looked puzzled: "Ruins Guard?"

After a while, in a cafe in Mondstadt, Keqing told him about her encounter with the ruins guard at the Wind Dragon Ruins.

She didn't quite trust the deputy captain's efficiency, and he always looked like he understood, which made Keqing a little annoyed.

As a person with a high position in the Knights Templar, Kaeya should know something about this.

However, Kaia didn't seem to know the reason.

"There have been cases of Hilichurls and Slimes suddenly falling from the sky before, but this is the first time I've heard of Ruin Guardians falling from the sky." Kaeya said.

"I used to think it might be related to the seal of the Wind Dragon Ruins, but you told me that you checked the seal just now and it was all intact..."

This is very strange.

After pondering for a moment, Keqing asked, "Could it be some kind of summoned product?"

"Summon? You said someone can summon the Ruins Guardian?" Kaia smiled, "Then it would probably take an Abyss Mage who is bigger than the Wind Dragon, right?"

In the end, Keqing got the answer: it still needs to be investigated. He will urge the patrol team to increase patrol efforts, and if a patrol team reports a similar incident again, he will go and check it out in person.

Compared to the vice-captain's perfunctory response, Kaia's reply was somewhat substantive.

What Keqing is worried about is not the Ruins Guard itself, but whether this will threaten the seal of the Dao Fenglong Ruins.

Now that Kaeya has noticed this matter and will take precautions in the future, Keqing's goal as Liyue's envoy has been achieved.

As for the thunderstorm incident and the matter of guarding the ruins, since they happened in Mondstadt, as long as the seal was not endangered, it would be inappropriate for her, a Liyue person, to interfere too much and she could only wait for Jean to come back after her investigation.

After saying goodbye to Kaeya, Keqing returned to her room.

Noelle went back to her house to change clothes, and Keqing told her that she didn't need to come over and would see her tomorrow.

So that the diligent maid can have some rest.

Sitting on the chair, Keqing stretched her back.

The most important thing was solved, which made her feel much more relieved.

The next step is to wait for Qin to come back and discuss business.

During this period, she can focus on cultivating herself.

Whether it is the sword immortal in the previous life or Keqing now, neither will slack off.

"Then the main mission."

Keqing suddenly remembered that she still had a main mission, which was the only way for her to get back her innate skills.

Completing the mission is also very simple, which is to [meet with the acting leader of the Knights of Favonius in Mondstadt].

If we meet somewhere else instead of in Mondstadt, there might be some bugs.

This was also one of the reasons why Keqing did not choose to move on and reunite with Jean.

Yeah.

As for the second task.

[Legend: The Appointment of Covering the Moon; Meeting with Ningguang, the Star of Tianquan]

When meeting Ningguang, Keqing frowned unconsciously when she thought of that name.

This cannot be considered now, after all, she is in Mondstadt.

Then there is one left in the task list.

[Normal branch: reply; completion reward: Hidden Wind Purple Spirit Sword (epic quality)]

reply?

Memories flooded into Keqing's mind, and she remembered that she seemed to have accidentally made a pen pal from a distant country more than a year ago.

She also remembered that she received a letter from her pen pal on the day she left.

As the trip was in a hurry, she put it in the briefcase of the accompanying motorcade.

(While I am not busy now, I can just complete this task. The reward is a pretty good weapon.)

Thinking of this, Keqing called the Qianyan soldier who was accompanying her and asked him to bring the document bag.

Not long after, the briefcase was placed on her desk.

After repelling the Qianyan soldiers, Keqing opened the package and found an envelope in a pile of official documents.

The envelope is snow-white without any patterns, which makes the red ink with the emblem of the Snow Country on the seal particularly eye-catching.

This is a letter from Winter.

Chapter 14. To my friends in Liyue

Zhidong and Liyue are thousands of miles apart, but as a relatively developed industrial country, Zhidong also has a lot of exchanges with Liyue, the economic and trade heart of the mainland.

As one of the Seven Stars of Liyue, Keqing does not have time to travel to the distant snow country, but she has many opportunities to come into contact with things from the snow country.

As Yuheng, who is in charge of Liyue real estate, she often handles some trade disputes.

After all, some of the Seven Stars are not in Liyue, and some are dealing with other things.

The opportunity to make a friend from the Snow Country was due to an unexpected trade dispute a year ago.

Keqing remembered that she received a report from the official in charge of port unloading, saying that there were goods on a cargo ship Zhidong that was bound for the Liyue branch of the Northern Bank that did not exist in the cargo manifest.

In short: smuggled goods.

Naturally, as the person in charge, Keqing ordered the confiscation of the smuggled goods, which were placed in a warehouse and would be destroyed on a later date after inspection.

As for those smuggled goods, the people of Zhidong said that they had never seen those things before and they were not products of Zhidong at all.

When Keqing was doing her routine check to see if the smuggled goods contained any dangerous goods, she found a letter among them.

With the attitude of taking responsibility to the end, Keqing wanted to trace the source of the smuggling through this letter.

If we can catch the smugglers, if not eliminate them, perhaps we can reduce the probability of such incidents happening.

But when she opened the envelope, she found that it seemed to be an ordinary letter sent to an ordinary friend.

Because the letter begins with a sentence: Hello, an ordinary friend from Liyue.

Both the words and the content are very ordinary. Although there are many honorifics, they make people feel a chilling indifference.

Moreover, there seemed to be a kind of obsession between the lines of the letter, and the writer seemed to have an unparalleled determination in his heart. A letter that seemed to be just about talking about how he had been doing recently gave people a very strange feeling.

And because there is neither the sender's name nor the recipient's address on the envelope or the letter.

For a moment, Keqing couldn't tell whether this letter was a real letter or not. Maybe it was just a "tree hole" for someone to express their boredom or to confide in.

Keqing didn’t have many good ideas, so she tried to write a reply letter from the perspective of “an ordinary staff member of Liyue Harbor”.

The general content is because it is mixed with items suspected of being smuggled. I hope the owner of the letter can provide some clues.

Of course, Keqing didn't have high hopes. Although she didn't reveal Qixing's identity, based on her identity as a Liyue Harbor staff member, if the other party was really a smuggler, he wouldn't be stupid enough to reply.

Keqing’s biggest goal is just to warn the other party, to make them be cautious and not be so blatant.

But unexpectedly, a month later, she received a letter.

The letter was not received at the post office or the Northland Bank, and was also discovered after subordinates reported the "smuggled goods".

Similarly, the crew of the Zhidong merchant ship was also wondering why there was a letter among their frozen pear specialties.

Keqing initially thought that this was an apology or confession letter, but she didn't expect that the content of the letter was asking her to hand over the previous letter to that person as soon as possible, otherwise she would bear the consequences.

In Liyue, no one has ever dared to say to Keqing, "You will suffer the consequences at your own risk."

So, Keqing smiled and wrote a letter back, asking her, the smuggler, not to be "ungrateful" and to surrender herself to the Liyue Embassy in Zhidong.

Otherwise, when the Liyue envoy contacts their queen, she will be skinned alive.

Another month passed and Keqing received another reply.

The tone of the letter was much better, but there was still a coldness between the lines. What was strange was that it emphasized that Zhidong would not be punished by "skinning", and asked her not to spread rumors.

After a few interactions, the two became familiar with each other.

Later, Keqing found out that the other party was not a smuggler, but just an ordinary citizen of the Kingdom of Winter, and she even felt a little sorry for him.

The other party also changed his attitude towards her from "a rude Liyue civil servant" to "an honest person with some ideas."

Thinking of the past, Keqing rubbed her temples: "What a fantastic acquaintance."

If the acquaintance with this friend from the Snow Country happened in another world, it would probably be enough to make a youth animation.

Recalling this point, Keqing took a pair of scissors, cut the ink pad, and opened the envelope.

Then he gently spread out the letter paper on the table in front of him.

I don’t know if it’s because the words “Snow Country” make people feel cold when they think of them, but Keqing can feel a chill every time she opens the letter.

Cool but comfortable.

These two unrelated words fit her feelings very well.

The beautiful handwriting was still on the white letter paper, and the opening salutation read: "To my Liyue friends."

Keqing was a little speechless when she saw this title, but then she found it funny.

You know, it took more than a year to go from "To the rude Liyue people" to "To the Liyue people", then to "To the Liyue people I know", and now to "To my Liyue friends".

After pouring a cup of hot water, Keqing sat back in the chair and began to read the letter formally under the warm light.

[To my Liyue friends:]

[Time flies. It has been more than a month since our last communication. Regarding what you said in your last letter, that the management of subordinates should be strict but not too coercive, I can only agree with the first half.]

[I believe that efficient management is an important factor in the growth of a group, just like Mondstadt at that time. At that time, Mondstadt was covered with snow, but with the protection of the gale and the highly centralized rule, people were able to survive.]

Seeing this, Keqing frowned. She didn't quite agree with this statement, but when she continued to read, she found that the other party had predicted it long ago.

[You will definitely not agree with the above, and think that the people under the name of the tyrant are just oppressed. It is true that the tyrant oppresses, but it is only the ruler himself who has problems, not the method.]