Reading poems from Teyvat

"I have hidden my whole life

"Those beautiful mountain lily-like secrets"

——Xi Murong, "Song-like Andante"

Chapter 1: Secret Planning (Part 1)

Liyue, General Affairs Department.

Although Keqing and Ningguang are not in a superior-subordinate relationship, and Keqing actually has no obligation to report her experiences in Mondstadt to Ningguang, perhaps because she was in a relatively happy mood after returning to Liyue, Keqing still briefly talked about her experiences in Mondstadt with Ningguang and Ganyu when they met at the General Affairs Department. Ningguang just sat aside and listened quietly, while Ganyu was writing furiously, recording Keqing's words and keeping an archive.

Although Ningguang had already verified from Ganyu and Keqing that the boy could eliminate karma, she was still surprised when she heard that the boy could actually command the guardian Yaksha general. Then she was even more surprised when she heard the method of communication between the two:

"But the sound of the flute alone can be used to contact the Great Demon Sage in Dihua Island from Mondstadt. The identity of that bard... I'm afraid he is not as simple as he seems, right?"

Needless to say, according to Keqing's description, he was the only one who accompanied the young man deep into the wind dragon ruins to heal the dragon.

If Shen Zhigui's healing ability is indispensable, then the role he can play when he goes in is probably to appease Tevarin, but what kind of person can appease the East Wind Dragon that has guarded Mondstadt for thousands of years and constantly saved that country in times of crisis?

Ningguang couldn't help but feel suspicious.

So she decided to remind her pen pal Qin to do further research on the identity of the bard.

After Keqing finished telling her story, Ningguang immediately said, "Have the Fatui become so arrogant? They are willing to assassinate Liyue's envoys to stir up diplomatic disputes with Mondstadt. What exactly do they want to do?"

"Annex Mondstadt?"

Keqing was not able to force enough information out of the lady. Rather, under the circumstances at the time, she had no chance to interrogate the lady at all, so she just quoted the boy's inferences in general.

Ganyu and Ningguang exchanged glances, but in the end Ganyu just said: "No matter what the Fatui and the one from Winter Solstice's purpose are, since the Fatui did this to Keqing, we should reciprocate and expel the diplomat from Winter Solstice."

"The current diplomat stationed in Liyue during the winter is the young military attaché nicknamed Young Master?" Ningguang recalled, and then said, "But he doesn't seem very smart. Wouldn't it be counterproductive to expel him and let the Fatui replace him with another executive officer to infiltrate?"

"Then we can only condemn Winter Solstice."

Ganyu said.

Ningguang and Keqing nodded, and Ganyu quickly drafted a diplomatic advisory to Solstice, strongly condemning the fact that Solstice's personnel dared to attack one of the seven planets of Liyue in Mondstadt, and demanded that Solstice hand over the attackers as soon as possible, otherwise Liyue would unilaterally increase tariffs on Solstice.

Naturally, such an announcement was soon known to Tartaglia, who was known as "Prince".

This martial arts fanatic, whose brain was really not very smart, only realized that such a thing had actually happened in Mond after seeing the announcement, but he did not care too much about it. After all, with his brain, if he wanted to seize the Heart of God, he just planned to meet the Rock Emperor at the Summoning Ceremony and then challenge Him. As for other things, although he was a little happy to see that colleague, whom he had never dealt with well, was in trouble, he did not think that this was something he should care about.

Until his subordinates reminded him that if what was said in the notice was true, it meant that the target of Yuheng Star and the suspected immortal disciple at least had the ability to escape from the lady's hands. If the lady's plan succeeded, it would be fine. If it failed, it might arouse the vigilance of the immortals and the Seven Stars of Liyue, and thus unite. At that time, it would be much more difficult for him to take action against Emperor Yanwang at the Immortal Invitation Ceremony.

"How to do?"

Tartaglia asked.

His subordinates obviously knew their boss's habits very well, so they said that it would be best for the lady to send back specific information, or even for the two of them to work together -

"No way. It's good enough that she doesn't give me false information."

Tartaglia just said.

His Fatui subordinates in Liyue were apparently also aware of the fact that the two executives did not get along.

So they gave Tartaglia a bad idea:

They secretly kidnapped a young man who had been with the two men throughout the journey and forced him to tell the exact facts. Moreover, the information sent by colleagues in Mondstadt said that the young man had been moving freely between Yuheng Star and the white-haired woman, which proved that he must be a lustful man. So, as long as the Fatui used their beauty to bribe him with a little trick, wouldn't it be possible to let that person sow discord between the Seven Stars of Liyue and the immortals?

Tartaglia didn't think there was anything strange about this plan.

Anyway, you don't have to use beauty to buy someone off to that extent.

only--

Even though Tartaglia is a martial arts fanatic with fighting as his only thought, his personal aesthetic is definitely not the type that is different from that of ordinary people. And even if he really is, he can instinctively sense that there is a reason why the young man is obsessed with Keqing and Shenhe. After all, the looks of those two people are already out of the ordinary to a certain extent. And if they want to use the beauty trap to bribe the young man, then is there anyone among the Fatui who is that beautiful?

Tartaglia asked his subordinate.

Those people immediately looked at each other.

Then someone came up with a bolder plan:

"What do you think of the Queen?"

"Asshole! Are you planning a rebellion? How could Her Majesty do such a thing?"

"Yes, Her Majesty, how could you do that to someone whose origins are unknown?"

"Is that the problem? The Queen shouldn't do that kind of thing!"

When Tartaglia saw them quarreling, he immediately felt overwhelmed, and then he pulled out the person who was squeezed in the middle of the crowd and said, "Of course I know that the Queen is charming, but you should use your brain when you speak. How could the Queen..."

Tartaglia suddenly thought of something and stopped talking.

That person immediately revealed his thoughts:

"What I mean is, if he can realize the charm of the Queen, won't he be willing to kneel down at her feet and work for her will, thus provoking civil unrest in Liyue?"

"So, how can we make him realize the charm of the Queen?"

"Take him to the capital of Winter Solstice to see the Queen?"

"Are you stupid? With her current relationship with Yuhengxing, if she disappears for more than three days, she will once again team up with that immortal disciple. By then, we might end up making things worse!"

Chapter 2: Secret Planning (Part 2)

This plan, which is so bold that it is almost science fiction, is obviously difficult to adopt.

However, it was obviously unrealistic to secretly interrogate the young man named Shen Zhigui.

So Tartaglia had no choice but to use the method he was currently best at and only knew how to use:

He approached them blatantly, and then, like he did with Zhongli, he kept making fun of these two people, in order to increase his favor towards himself and even Zhidong. As for whether he would really become interested in Zhidong because of this favor, and eventually go to Zhidong's capital to meet the empress and finally fall at her feet and work hard for her, this was too far-fetched. Of course, to be honest, his plan to assassinate Emperor Yanwang was not very feasible, so approaching Shen Zhigui at the moment was just an action that was better than nothing.

Shen Zhigui was quite satisfied with the fact that someone was taking advantage of him.

So of course he would not reject the young master's approach.

After all, he needs this kind of sugar-coated bullet to test his will.

Therefore, these three people would even occasionally get together when they were in Liyue Harbor, and Shen Zhigui would always feel a little strange when he saw that Young Master wanted to get closer to Zhongli. However, he currently did not have the extra energy to study Young Master and Zhongli's thoughts, because he had a lot of things to do.

It’s talking about the door that “reaches the sky to the end of the underworld”.

Although Shen Zhigui could understand and even practice this martial art, unlike the previous martial art "Yu Lei Floating Clouds Change the Past and Present" which he could not even understand, but when he started to practice this serious internal power method, he found that the tricky part of this method was far worse than any of the banned martial arts books he had practiced before!

Because even if it is "coming like thunder and ending with wrath", one can only be paralyzed on one side of the body by the true Qi if one is not careful during the practice. But as long as you can control it, that martial art can give you the pleasure of making rapid progress. But once Shen Zhigui started to practice "reaching the sky and the underworld", running the true Qi and "the mystery of life and death" in his body, no matter whether it is the spirit used to control, or the body through which the true Qi and "the mystery of life and death" flow, as long as they come into contact with these three during the operation, it would be like being caught in a huge millstone that grinds him into dust over and over again and then puts him together again!

Is this a martial art practiced by humans?

After Shen Zhigui completed a cycle of internal energy, he felt that his spirit, true energy and physical form had reached a higher level, but there was no part of his body that was not in so much pain that he wanted to jump off a building. So after he finished his first internal energy training, he even carefully considered whether he should find a shortcut to kill people for training.

On his way back, he also looked for the Hillicul people to conduct experiments.

Although the results were not satisfactory.

Because according to the theory of "the sky is high and the underworld is low", the so-called "life" and "death" are for creatures with intelligence, so if he wants to seize and transform the life and death in other people's bodies by killing them, the target he chooses must be smart enough and have strong emotions, because only creatures with high enough intelligence will have a clear understanding of the situation of life and death, and will have a strong attachment when they are dying, thus causing the form and spirit framework to be distorted to a certain extent, so that "life" and "death" will appear. So for him, killing a hillman is no different from killing a chicken. Even if it is an abyss mage or an abyss apostle, he may not be able to snatch food from the mouth of the "abyss" -

Because the higher their status in the Abyss Cult, the more they are influenced by the "Abyss". Shen Zhigui's "The Heavens and the Underworld" can certainly be called miraculous, but his understanding and application of this martial art is still at the most superficial level, and naturally cannot compare to the control of the "Abyss" over its own believers.

Even in theory, when Shen Zhigui fights against the Qiuqiu people, the Abyss Mage or the Abyss Apostle, he is essentially fighting against the "Abyss" rather than a single individual.

Therefore, Shen Zhigui really had no way to deal with the Abyss Cult, but when it came to ordinary people, even if they were just extremely vicious criminals, Shen Zhigui could not convince himself that he could satisfy his selfish desires in this way.

Although he is definitely not that kind of awkward person.

But he didn't want to be obsessed with the guilt of satisfying his own selfish desires.

So he hesitated for a long time, and finally chose to torture himself step by step. As a result, his activities in Liyue Harbor in recent times have been quite regular. Unlike before, he was not just looking for someone to trigger the system's rewards all day long. He only circulated his energy once a day to accumulate his true energy and "life and death energy". During the day, he would occasionally go to Grandma Ping to learn from each other, and then go to Wanmin Hall to try Xiangling's dishes. Occasionally, when he met Ganyu, he would sit there with her to watch the sunrise and sunset at the pier.

As for Keqing, since she kept her distance from the beginning of the sparring, the sparring between the two was actually meaningless. Keqing obviously didn't want to give Shen Zhigui the chance to defeat her, so Shen Zhigui had to secretly plan to obtain a peerless light skill one day to catch up with her speed so that he could test the conjecture whether he could trigger two rewards from one person. However, he looked at his current martial arts and wondered whether "Come like thunder and end with anger" could be considered a light skill or a swordsmanship?

Or maybe both?

Even with the speed of "Coming Like Thunder and Withering Wrath", he couldn't catch up with Keqing. No matter what peerless lightness skill he had, he would probably only be on par with her in the end. Of course, Shen Zhigui's reaction speed was much faster than Keqing's. After all, he had the "Fish and Birds in the World Fly and Sink" skill, so he could handle any situation with ease. Even now that he could use "The Sky Is High and the Underworld Is Low" to promote the recovery and improvement of his spirit without draining his spirit, he could also use multiple swords at the same time to cosplay the "Ten Thousand Swords Returning to the Origin" in the fairy tale movies he had seen before -

and many more.

Shen Zhigui suddenly had an idea.

If you follow this line of thinking, if you want to defeat Keqing, you don't necessarily have to catch up with her speed.

Even though "the only way to defeat all martial arts is to be faster", but think about it from another perspective. If she is surrounded on all sides, then no matter how fast she is, she cannot escape.

But before he could verify this idea on Keqing - in fact, his own true energy and spirit were not at the level to truly use "Ten Thousand Swords Return to the Origin" - he had the opportunity to verify whether he could trigger the system reward twice on the same person.

And this opportunity comes from Ningguang.

Chapter 3: Secret Planning (Part 2)

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Chapter 4: Poetry Can Express Resentment (Part 1)

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Chapter 5: Poetry Can Express Complaints (Part 2)

Ningguang was silent for a moment.

But soon, she raised her eyelids and looked at Shen Zhigui, with a strange smile on her delicate face: "So, when you arrived at Liyue Harbor, you went to Xin Yan to give her the song in person? But the poem you gave me was not read to me in person."

"It must be because I couldn't find the location of His Excellency Tianquanxing when I tried to recite it?"

But it was probably because the boy was too absent-minded when he said this, Ningguang couldn't really tell whether he was lying or not, because she herself couldn't even remember whether the two of them had really had that encounter at the Sea Lantern Festival before. Although she felt that her appearance was stunningly beautiful, when she thought about the lie that he made to cover up his broken heart and used that poem to deal with Qin's sister Barbara, how could she know that he just used it to deal with Huai'an's request for free food and accommodation at Wangshu Inn?

But if that was all, why did he get close to Xin Yan?

Ningguang really couldn't figure out the reason behind this young man's actions. Even if she wanted to test him, she would probably be fooled by his nonsense. So she looked straight at Shen Zhigui and chose to be frank: "Did we really meet during the Lantern Festival?"

Shen Zhigui immediately said, "It doesn't really matter whether we've met or not, right?"

"If I haven't seen it, then I guess that poem wasn't really given to me, right?"

"The purpose of fishing is to catch fish, but when you catch the fish, you forget the fishing net; the purpose of speaking is to express one's feelings, but when you express your feelings, you forget the words. Lord Tianquanxing values ​​that poem, and I think he only values ​​its literary value so that it can be passed down through the ages. As for my personal selfishness, what's the point of discussing it?"

"It's a different time now," Ningguang looked at him deeply and said, "If you were just a pure bard, I wouldn't care about your selfishness. But now that you are influential enough to weigh the world, your selfishness is naturally not insignificant."

"I understand," Shen Zhigui nodded and said, "Lord Tianquanxing meant that I was just a small stone on the roadside as a pure bard in the past. I could be kicked away and put together with other stones to build a city wall or a house foundation. But now, I have shown another ability. So if you dare to kick me casually, you might hurt your foot. So you want to find out my selfishness, and then guide me, a stone that is heavy enough to weigh the world, to the right place to weigh other things by satisfying my selfishness. Is that right?"

Ningguang smiled and said, "Your Excellency wants to think so. I can't help it, but I am a businessman. What businessmen do is to gain profits by satisfying the needs of customers at a certain stage, so that both parties can get what they need."

"So, what do you need, Master Ningguang?"

Shen Zhigui asked.

"With your keen eyes, can't you see through it?"

Ningguang asked back as a matter of course.

"But I don't think I need to see through it, right?"

Ningguang sighed, put down the document in her hand, and said, "I think the fundamental disagreement between the two of us cannot be solved by a simple statement of each taking what he needs."

"It is a question of how a real man can live in this world and be depressed and inferior to others for a long time."

"Can a little girl live in a lowly position like this for a long time?"

Ningguang asked back as a matter of course.

"So in the final analysis, this is just a question of personality. Lord Ningguang, you want to explore my personality and find my weaknesses so that you can hit them with one blow and make me work for you, while I have always tried my best to avoid falling into that situation," Shen Zhigui thought for a while and said, "Or you can also think of it as a fundamental difference in the means of doing things. For example, Lord Ningguang, your means tend to be to weave webs most of the time, while mine tend to be to sharpen swords most of the time."

“This is a rather novel metaphor.”

Ningguang didn't comment, but just looked at the boy, as if asking him to continue.

The young man said without hesitation: "The purpose of weaving a net is to capture prey, or to make everything that is surrounded by the net fall into the control of the weaver. The net you weave, Lady Ningguang, is a rule. You want this rule to bind everything and control all people, things, and objects in Liyue Harbor. Once there is an "alien" or a person or thing that will destroy the stability of this network, you will gather the resources you can control to crush or subdue the alien. Although you built this network, many times you relied on the privileges granted to the Liyue Seven Stars by the Emperor. Speaking of "alien", the Emperor is actually the biggest alien. It's just that this network itself is just a layer of "decoration" built on top of this alien."

Ningguang hesitated for a moment and said nothing.

"So your goal may be to make this layer of 'decoration' separate from the foreign object of the Emperor, and turn it into a real network that spreads across the entire Teyvat, can penetrate into every aspect of human beings, and control everything."

Ningguang looked at the boy with a radiant look in her eyes: "If I say something like this in Liyue, it will be considered as treason, right?"

"It doesn't matter to me, right? Anyway, I am also an outsider to Liyue Harbor, and a 'foreign object' to the rules you have woven, Lady Ningguang."