Ten days passed in the blink of an eye.
It was late morning.
Fang Qiu slid back the folding screen and pushed open the window. Brilliant sunlight instantly poured in, flooding the dim room with warmth.
"Mmm… I've been holed up at home for ten whole days. I'm practically rusting. Time to go get some fresh air."
Basking in the warmth of the sunlight, Fang Qiu stretched out her whole body with great vigor.
For most of those ten days, she'd done little more than curl up at home reading light novels.
Reading light novels, snacking on pastries, sipping cold drinks — that had been her entire existence.
Alongside sweets, she'd also picked up some dried beef jerky from a nearby shop.
It was quite good.
A shame there was no cola to go with it.
She had fully and completely become a homebody — Little Autumn, the Dried-Fish Girl.
Aside from going out to eat, she had paid one visit to the filming set of Sword and Fairy.
Production was proceeding in an orderly fashion.
Most of the actors she had pointed out that day had been cast.
She happened to arrive while Yun Jin was on set offering guidance, and sure enough — just as she and Ningguang had suspected — traditional opera and dramatic acting really did share common ground.
The leads were mostly from the Yun-Han Opera Troupe, so their acting spoke for itself, naturally.
Even those who weren't from the Troupe had been brought to life under Yun Jin's direction, performing with vivid expressiveness.
Yun Jin herself had taken a small role in the production as well.
A minor one, of course.
The star of the Yun-Han Opera Troupe didn't have that kind of time to spend filming a drama.
Beyond that, she had also previewed some of the completed footage — and the quality was surprisingly excellent, easily surpassing ninety percent of the dramas from her past life and grinding them into the dirt.
The special effects, too, were exactly as she'd imagined: simulated using Visions, and the results were strikingly impressive.
They'd even brought in professional Storytellers to voice the narration.
On the publishing side of things, Bai Qing had also stopped by during this period, informing her that the tunnel excavated under Yuheng's direction had been successfully completed. Named the Flourishing Tunnel, it had opened to traffic just a few days prior.
Merchants who had been pent up for ages threw everything they had into it, and vast, sweeping caravans began rolling continuously toward Mondstadt.
A truly magnificent sight.
Thanks to the experience gained from constructing the Auspicious Tunnel, the Flourishing Tunnel had been built to an almost intimidating standard of solidity. Even the endless stream of heavy wagon trains had not left so much as a mark on it.
After all, Keqing had personally supervised every step of construction.
Quality was guaranteed.
The publishing house's sample copies had set off with the caravans, bound for Mondstadt. Without the long detour, they should arrive quite soon.
The distribution contract remained the same as before: the author received one quarter of sales.
As for sales figures and her wages — 5 Centimeters Per Second had maintained its previous sales numbers, and her income had been extraordinarily generous: a full one million five hundred thousand Mora.
Part of that came from book sales.
The rest came from licensing royalties paid by teahouses across the city for the right to feature her stories.
According to Bai Qing, ever since her books had risen to prominence, quite a few teahouses had begun hiring female Storytellers — women who recounted Fang Qiu's tales to their patrons.
Stories like Your Lie in April or Your Name — narratives with a more feminine sensibility.
For the male-oriented crowd, there was naturally Sword and Fairy, which remained the absolute favorite among listeners.
"You need to get out of the house too, or you're going to turn into a fat little cat."
Ignoring Tingyu's indignant "meow meow meow" of protest, Fang Qiu scooped her bodily out of the cat bed.
Then she locked up the doors and windows and headed out, making her way toward Wangsheng Funeral Parlor.
All along the route, the atmosphere of the Moonfeast Festival was thick in the air.
Everywhere she looked, families were gathered together in warm celebration, and many young people who had gone to work in Mondstadt had returned to Liyue for the holiday — traveling back through the newly opened tunnel.
Tingyu, for her part, sat quietly and obediently curled up in Fang Qiu's arms.
As she walked, Fang Qiu half-listened to the conversations of the people around her.
"Have you heard?"
"Heard what?"
"Apparently, someone dredged a strange stone up from the bottom of the sea, and it's supposedly been sent up to Yujing Terrace."
"Really? Could it be a divine omen?"
"Do you think it might be one of Lady Ningguang's treasures? After all, not long ago she used the Jade Chamber to drive the god back into the depths of the sea — plenty of things could have spilled out."
"If it's a treasure from the Jade Chamber, then whoever pulled that stone up just struck it rich."
"Hssss… now that you mention it, that actually makes sense. Maybe I should rent a boat and go diving for scattered valuables myself?"
"I'm in, I'm in."
A lively chorus of agreement rose from those nearby.
Fang Qiu caught their conversation and couldn't help but pause for a moment, slightly stunned.
Good grief.
Miss Ningguang's Jade Chamber, plunged into the sea — it was apparently about to usher in a grand age of maritime exploration.
Do you want treasure? Then go out to sea and find it. I left everything there.
She continued on until she reached Wangsheng Funeral Parlor. The moment she arrived at the entrance, she spotted Hu Tao standing in front of the notice board, teasing Sanmi.
"Fang Qiu, what brings you here?"
Hu Tao greeted her with a cheerful smile and said: "Have you eaten yet? Want me to cook you something?"
"No, no, no — I already ate."
Fang Qiu waved her hands repeatedly.
Xiangling's Slime cuisine was dark cooking of the most terrifying order, while Hu Tao had a talent for turning any dish she touched into something deeply, profoundly wrong.
One look and you could tell it wouldn't taste good.
Not that Hu Tao had ever actually cooked for her — so she'd never had to find out firsthand.
But she had watched with her own eyes as someone who cherished food as much as Xiangling took a single bite and couldn't help spitting it straight back out.
That said enough.
Fang Qiu set Tingyu down on the ground. The moment she landed, Sanmi bounded over with great enthusiasm.
Clearly in the mood to make friends.
Tingyu did remember Sanmi, but she played it cool — aloof and a little dismissive. Still, with Sanmi persistently pressing in close, even Tingyu found it hard to maintain total indifference.
"Oh, right — since you're here, why don't we spend this Moonfeast Festival together?"
Hu Tao said with her usual bright smile.
"Sure."
Fang Qiu smiled lightly. She was chatting with Hu Tao when she crouched down to give Sanmi a gentle pat; Sanmi softly nuzzled her hand in return.
Tingyu, not to be left out, shouldered her way over and nuzzled Fang Qiu's hand as well.
Fang Qiu couldn't help but smile faintly to herself.
That Tingyu — always the tsundere.
Just as the two of them were happily chatting away, Fang Qiu suddenly caught an unfamiliar voice from behind her.
"When it comes to interesting ideas, that Hu Tao character is guaranteed to give you something refreshingly unexpected. I say we make this our first stop."
"Oh-ho? Who's calling out the Director's name?"
The moment she heard that voice, a faint smile curved the corner of Hu Tao's lips. She turned around and said.
Fang Qiu, thoroughly puzzled, instinctively turned to look as well — and saw, not far away, three people walking toward them with animated conversation and laughter.
The one on the left was Xiangling, with Guoba bounding and tumbling somersaults behind her.
And the two people walking alongside Xiangling —
One was a girl in outlandish foreign clothing, her blond hair slightly tousled, with a pretty, lively face — though she was clearly not from Liyue.
Fang Qiu had only glanced at the blond girl for a moment before her attention was completely seized by the other figure at the girl's side: a white-haired child, equally oddly dressed, who was floating — actually floating — in midair.
This little girl… she was flying!
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