After the meal, Ningguang began touring Koji's villa. The style genuinely interested her—everything indoors was arranged neatly, giving the rooms a bright, open feel. It was the kind of design she could apply to the Jade Chamber later.
"This is an electric lamp, right?" Ningguang asked thoughtfully.
"Yes. I already sold you the blueprints and layout for the power plant—how's the research going?" Koji nodded.
"The power plant… we'll talk after this city is finished. You eat one bite at a time." Ningguang shrugged. Liyue didn't urgently need it yet, so they couldn't chase speed at the cost of quality.
"Darling, you come back to Teyvat and you don't even come see me—so I have to come find you." Lumine pushed the door open, strode right in, and plopped down beside Koji with her whole backside.
She'd come through a waypoint—whoosh, just like that.
"Traveler… your voice sounds a bit like Noelle's," Ningguang mused, thinking it over before speaking.
"Then it sounds like it, whatever. Noelle and I are really good sisters," Lumine said, not caring at all.
If you listened closely, there was still a difference.
"Your cool, aloof, 'ice queen' tone is pretty similar to Yae Miko's too, Ningguang. People with similar voices aren't exactly rare."
Yae Miko's voice was a little more… obnoxious, which was exactly why she was an obnoxious fox.
"The Guuji of the Grand Narukami Shrine in Inazuma, yes? I've heard of her. A fox adept with deep schemes, and the Raiden Shogun's attendant," Ningguang said. She hadn't interacted much with that Guuji.
A fox who'd lived for over five hundred years—by what Ningguang knew, Inazuma's relative stability owed a great deal to Yae Miko's efforts.
"Ningguang, come over here. Let me hug you." Lumine licked her lips, staring at Ningguang—soft, pretty, and fragrant-looking—and couldn't help imagining what it would feel like to hold her.
"…?"
Ningguang blanked out for a moment. You're a girl, and you want to get all cuddly with me—does that make sense?
"Traveler… you're joking, right?"
Ningguang subtly shifted her shapely hips to the side. She wasn't into women, and she definitely didn't want to "play QQ Space" with the Traveler.
"I'm not joking. I really want to hug you. It's just a hug between girls—what's the problem?" Lumine put on an innocent, harmless smile.
"Let's not, Traveler." Ningguang shook her head and refused.
Her instincts told her that if she believed Lumine and fell into her arms, there was a very high chance she'd get thoroughly "searched" from top to bottom.
"Fine." Lumine looked a little disappointed, then asked with keen interest, "I heard you and Captain Beidou have a… subtle relationship, huh?"
Ningguang found that amusing.
"Captain Beidou and I are simply friends. As for the gossip out there, it's all rumors."
She'd heard it before and hadn't bothered to care. The innocent speak for themselves.
Besides, if she weren't too lazy to hunt them down, all those who spread such rumors would be sitting down for tea with the Millelith.
"Whether it's a misunderstanding isn't actually important. Even if you really did like women, nobody would dare point at you to your face," Lumine said, sounding considerate.
"My orientation is normal. But after rumors like that spread about Beidou and me, my suitors became much more well-behaved." Ningguang shook her head.
Sometimes, rumors weren't only annoying.
"But for Beidou, it wasn't so friendly."
Up in the Jade Chamber, Ningguang hardly ever came down, and gossip couldn't exactly reach the sky. But Beidou had to go out to sea, and during that time she had to endure the crew's nosy, gossipy stares.
If Ningguang hadn't held her back, that woman would've gone straight to whoever spread the rumors and "promoted" them.
Given Beidou's personality, she absolutely could do that.
"Ningguang, do you want to sleep together tonight?" Lumine issued an invitation to share a bed.
"When you say 'sleep together,' do you mean with you… or with all of you?" Ningguang's mouth twitched.
She knew what Lumine's relationship with Koji was. Now that she was back, they were definitely going to be rolling around in bed.
"Of course together. Our bed at home is huge," Lumine said.
Ningguang didn't know what to say. Was that really the point?
This was moving way too fast, and several people on one bed—no matter how you thought about it—was just too weird.
"There is, though. How could there not be?" Koji said. With a house this big, it would be ridiculous if there weren't an empty room.
"I'll take Ningguang over," Lumine volunteered enthusiastically.
Ningguang looked the room over—there really weren't any signs anyone had stayed there—so she relaxed a little.
It didn't take long for her to realize she'd been happy way too soon.
"Why is it still not over…? How can their stamina be that good?"
Ningguang stared wide-eyed at the ceiling. She hadn't expected the bedroom next door to be Koji and the others'—and they were still rolling around, locked in fierce combat.
The walls' soundproofing was excellent, but she wasn't an ordinary person. She could still catch some of the noise.
Her face burned red, and her thighs rubbed together without her meaning to. This was pure suffering.
The sounds were faint, but she could already picture scenes that made her cheeks heat up.
"Ugh… what a sin."
Ningguang was regretting everything now. If she'd known, she would've gone to stay with Keqing instead. Why did she come here to Koji's place?
And so she spent the entire night awake, exhausted into the next day.
Even after the noise finally stopped, she still couldn't sleep no matter what. At breakfast, the dark circles under her eyes were obvious.
"Ningguang, what's wrong?" Lumine asked, putting on a show of concern.
She'd deliberately not had Koji block out sound from the outside. The villa walls were good, but not perfect—something would definitely leak through.
She'd "accidentally" done it on purpose, just to mess with Ningguang.
Hearing that, Ningguang shot Lumine a look. Shamelessly blatant.
"It's nothing. I'm picky about beds. I'm not used to the bed here, so I didn't sleep well."
Ningguang smoothly produced an excuse on the spot to dissolve her embarrassment.
A flawless excuse. Lumine sighed internally—of course Ningguang would be this good.
"Ningguang, I'm curious… how old are you this year?" Lumine asked.
"Asking a woman that is very rude," Ningguang replied coolly. It had been a long time since anyone asked her that.
"Somewhere between thirty and forty. You can guess the rest."
"That's already amazing. To reach the Tianquan position in your thirties," Koji said honestly.
In the world before he came here, if a woman was still unmarried in her thirties, people would call her "older." And Ningguang, in her thirties, already held a position of immense power—what an absurd achievement.
"It's the right time, the right place, and the right people. My ambitions go far, but even I didn't expect to become Tianquan at such a young age," Ningguang said.
She hadn't been born into a great clan—she'd started as an ordinary girl. To achieve what she had now, luck had played a huge part.
If she were given one chance to redo it all, she might not even reach the same height again. The difficulty was simply too great.
(End of Chapter)
[100 Power Stones = 1 Extra Chapter]
[Check out my Patreon to read 20+ chapters ahead]
[[email protected]/Zukooo]
[Thanks for your support!]