"His luck was just too terrible."
Watching the Traveler and Paimon walk her through the entire hot pot ordeal with such sympathetic faces, Fang Qiu lost the fight with herself and snorted out a laugh.
Nobody's luck was bad enough that one person ended up eating every single strange ingredient.
Which meant there was only one possible truth.
Once Fang Qiu started laughing, the Traveler and Paimon gave up holding it in and burst out laughing beside her.
"Fang Qiu, you have no idea — you should have seen Thoma's face when he ate a whole onion and a boiled spicy sour plum," Paimon said, clutching her stomach as she laughed.
"Shame we didn't get it on the Kamera," Lumine said.
"I can picture it," Fang Qiu said, smiling.
A whole onion, all in one go. If it had been her, she'd have wanted to throw up after two bites.
As for the spicy sour plums.
Sour plums made a rather nice juice. Boiled in hot pot broth, though... she didn't dare imagine it.
"Since he's suffered that much already, let's let him off the hook," Fang Qiu said with a soft laugh, looking at Lumine and Paimon and their radiant grins.
She couldn't say about that Eldest Miss Kamisato.
But Paimon and the Traveler had definitely set Thoma up on purpose, to get revenge on her behalf.
Since Thoma had already been punished, and since he hadn't meant any harm in the first place, she'd let the matter drop.
"Mm." Lumine and Paimon nodded, still smiling.
As the three of them strolled on through the rain and came out beneath the Wanwen Bookhouse, Fang Qiu suggested they go up and buy a few books to read on the boat to Inazuma.
Lumine and Paimon nodded.
They'd eaten plenty of pastries up in the Jade Chamber, so none of them were particularly hungry.
And so the three of them went up into the Wanwen Bookhouse.
After greeting the proprietress, Jifang, they set about picking out books.
Lately Inazuma, Mondstadt and Liyue had all put out a fresh crop of titles.
"Hmm... Fang Qiu, what do you think of this one? Forgive Me, My Foolish Little Sister. What a bizarre title... Paimon wonders who even wrote it."
"Buy it," Fang Qiu said with a nod.
"Fang Qiu, this one looks good too — Evolution Begins With a Cat."
"Buy it."
For no reason she could name, that title made Fang Qiu think of Tingyu.
Was there any herb in this world that could let a cat take human form after eating it?
Somewhere in Sumeru, perhaps?
Sumeru's Dendro Archon surely hadn't returned to the heavens the way Rex Lapis had.
The Dendro Archon ought to still be alive...
She wondered whether the Archon had anything of the sort.
"And this one, I, the Twelfth Fatui Harbinger. Uh... wait, this wasn't actually written by a Fatui Harbinger, was it?"
"It's possible. Sister Bai told me about a tomb-raiding novel from a while back — the details were so accurate that the author got arrested by the Millelith. They investigated, and it turned out he really was a Treasure Hoarder."
"With that kind of education, why bother being a Treasure Hoarder at all..."
"Who knows. Still, this one probably wasn't written by a Fatui Harbinger. What Fatui Harbinger neglects their duties that badly?"
They were browsing and chatting comfortably when Paimon glanced out at the street and froze. "Huh? Isn't that Hu Tao?"
At that, Fang Qiu set down the third volume of Junior Sister, Go Easy, Senior Sister's Hurting and walked over to the railing to look down.
Lumine came after her.
Below, Hu Tao stood outside the tavern for a moment, then went inside.
"What's Hu Tao going into the tavern for? Is she in a bad mood?" Paimon tilted her head, puzzled.
"When I set out for Miss Ningguang's, Hu Tao said she was going to find Meng to arrange a funeral. Meng's probably in the tavern." Fang Qiu thought it over and added, "We'd better not interrupt her while she's working."
"All right. Paimon was going to call her over to pick out books with us — Hu Tao would definitely find some interesting ones," Paimon said with a sigh.
Fang Qiu smiled and walked back to the shelf, her gaze drifting to that third volume of Junior Sister, Go Easy, Senior Sister's Hurting.
The thing had made it all the way to a third volume...
And the cover art was frighteningly exquisite. It must be selling well.
Looking at the two classically styled beauties on the cover, Fang Qiu found herself remembering what had happened in bed with Hu Tao that morning...
Her face went red in a heartbeat.
It was so much like the book...
Just as she was about to slide the book back onto the shelf, Paimon floated over.
"Ooh... this one looks pretty interesting too. Fang Qiu, want to get it?" Paimon studied the copy of Junior Sister, Go Easy, Senior Sister's Hurting and went on, "And this senior sister looks like you, Fang Qiu. White hair and everything."
"She kind of does?" Lumine agreed.
"Huh?"
The two of them speaking up out of nowhere gave Fang Qiu a start.
"What's wrong?" they both asked, at a loss.
"N-nothing. My mind just wandered for a second," Fang Qiu said quickly.
"Oh. Then get this one, Fang Qiu. It looks fun," Paimon said.
"Uh..."
For a moment Fang Qiu had no idea what to say.
"Are you worried it isn't any good? Xingqiu said the Wanwen Bookhouse lets you read a sample first. How about we all take a look before you buy it?" Lumine said.
"Uh..." Fang Qiu blanked, then said hastily, "No need, no need. Let's just buy it."
At the same time she was sighing to herself, long and deep. If you can't stop it, all you can do is accept it...
What else was she supposed to do...
She could hardly let the Traveler and Paimon read that book here, in broad daylight, under an open sky...
And she'd just resisted so obviously...
If they read the whole thing, they'd know for certain that she'd read it too...
And then her reputation...
So she decided she'd quietly dispose of the book afterward.
Watching Fang Qiu blush and fluster, Lumine was mystified, but since Fang Qiu wasn't saying anything, she let it lie.
Paimon, meanwhile, had already found the first two volumes on the shelf.
And at that moment, in the tavern below.
"Director Hu, welcome. Though in our establishment you can only have soft drinks — no alcohol."
Seeing Hu Tao walk in with the flush not yet faded from her face and a lingering haze in her eyes, the tavern proprietress — in a cheongsam that flattered a very fine figure — rose and came over to greet her.
She knew Hu Tao well enough; the girl was always out shopping with Fang Qiu.
"I'm not here for a drink, I'm here to find someone," Hu Tao said, narrowing her eyes. "Uh, hold on — how about you give the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor package another thought? Reasonably speaking, drinking that often really does invite trouble. One of these days a person might just stop being around, wouldn't you say? I could give you a discount..."
Seeing that Hu Tao fully intended to keep going, the tavern proprietress pressed a hand to a forehead that had started aching from the sales pitch. "Wait, wait, Director Hu. The package can wait for another time. Let's find your person first."
"That works too." Hu Tao nodded.
With the proprietress leading the way, Hu Tao found Meng at a table by the wall, sprawled across it and dead to the world with drink. Slumped opposite him was another man.
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