In the blink of an eye, ten days went by.
Early morning.
A long, easy sea wind swept the mist off Liyue Harbor.
The weather was perfect.
Bright sun, gentle breeze, clear skies.
At the docks of Liyue Harbor.
Seagulls beat their wings and settled on the mast of The Alcor. They had barely found their footing when a burst of shouting sent them scattering back into the air.
"Look — it's Miss Fang Qiu and the others!"
At those words, more than a dozen sailors aboard The Alcor crowded to the rail to peer down.
"Miss Fang Qiu really is as lovely as ever. With her aboard for the voyage, this'll be the finest trip of my whole sailing career. Uh… hold on. Why are there two Miss Fang Qius? Did I eat something bad?"
"I see two of them as well. What in the world is going on?"
"Tsk. I told you that pot of chicken soup tasted off last night. Something really was wrong with it — we're all seeing things."
"This is your fault, the lot of you, insisting on medicinal chicken soup. I said it yesterday: the herbs that little girl Qiqi measured out aren't to be trusted…"
"We're done for, we're done for. What if our bodies give out after we've set sail? Is there still time to make it to Bubu Pharmacy?"
"Didn't that little girl Qiqi show us the note yesterday? Doctor Baizhu is out on a house call. He won't be back until this afternoon…"
Watching the group approach from a distance — two Fang Qius among them, one of them hauling a mountain of luggage — the sailors were thoroughly rattled.
"Shenhe, why don't you let me carry some of that…" Fang Qiu said, eyeing the load in her arms.
Shenhe had spent a long stretch investigating The Chasm — six full days. Fang Qiu had already begun to worry for her safety by the time she finally came home.
Seeing that she was unhurt settled Fang Qiu's nerves.
Once Shenhe was back, Fang Qiu had told her about going to Inazuma for the Irodori Festival.
Shenhe had wanted to come along, but The Chasm had been restless of late, and she and her colleagues were still looking into it.
And when Fang Qiu mentioned that the Traveler and Paimon would be sailing to Inazuma with her, Shenhe stopped worrying.
"It's fine. They aren't heavy," Shenhe said, shaking her head.
"Shenhe can hoist a floating rock the size of a small hill. A bit of luggage is nothing to her," Paimon said around a mouthful of the big meat bun cradled in her arms.
"Paimon, you're just looking for an excuse to slack off," said Lumine, a case in each hand, sparing Paimon a sidelong glance.
"Paimon can't carry much anyway, and you know it. Paimon's total combat strength is one-fifth of a boar," Paimon said, entirely unbothered.
That gave Fang Qiu pause.
There had been a time when she was no different — about one-fifth of a boar's worth of fighting power herself.
Back then her Vision might as well have been a decorative trinket. The most it could manage was a single stick of ice, like a popsicle.
Her physical fitness hadn't improved a bit since, but her Vision could now condense a great sword five or six meters long.
Among the Hilichurls, anything below a Lawachurl posed no threat to her in a straight fight.
One swing, one corpse.
And "anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day" had pushed her strength up another notch.
These days she figured she could put up a real fight even against a Lawachurl.
Whether she'd win was another question, but it would be close.
Knowledge really does change your fate.
Once she was aboard, she'd have to press Sister Beidou — the woman the Storytellers called the Uncrowned Lord of the Ocean — for pointers on sharpening her combat skills.
After that, beating a Lawachurl would be no trouble at all.
They walked the rest of the way to The Alcor. The moment they reached the hull, Beidou planted a boot on the gunwale and looked down at them.
"Well now, you've made it," Beidou said with a hearty laugh.
"Good morning, Sister Beidou," Fang Qiu said, smiling.
Kaedehara Kazuha came over to the rail as well.
Once the greetings were done, Beidou sent a few sailors down to bring up the luggage.
"Uh… M-Miss Fang Qiu, let me take that," said the sailors, stopping in front of Shenhe with the look of men doubting their own eyes.
"Fang Qiu?"
Hearing them call Shenhe by her name, Fang Qiu blinked, then burst out laughing.
The Traveler and Paimon laughed along with her.
"My name is Shenhe. I am Fang Qiu's…" The mix-up hadn't ruffled her in the slightest; she began to introduce herself, then stalled halfway through.
"Family," Fang Qiu said, stepping forward with a soft laugh.
Shenhe glanced at her standing there in the sunlight, all smiles, and something warm unfolded in her chest. The corner of her mouth curved up. "Mm. Family."
"So she's Miss Fang Qiu's family! No wonder they look so alike — and both of them so beautiful," the sailors said as understanding dawned.
At the same time, they let out a collective breath of relief.
So the little girl called Qiqi hadn't botched the herbs after all…
After offering her a silent apology, they stepped up to take the bags.
The instant Shenhe let go, one of the sailors was dragged sideways by the weight and went down hard, man and case together.
"What are you doing? You can't even lift that?"
An older sailor rolled his eyes at the young man, then turned to Fang Qiu and Shenhe. "Sorry about that. He didn't sleep well last night. I'll take it."
Without waiting for the younger man to explain, he strode over to the case and reached for the handle.
The case moved. Not entirely — it shifted, barely.
The old sailor stared.
This case… Shenhe had been carrying it like it was made of air…
How could it be this heavy…
"It's full of books. Well over a hundred pounds, at the least," Shenhe said.
Between Paimon's barely-swallowed laughter and the worry on Fang Qiu's face, both the old sailor and the young one who'd fallen went red to the ears. The old sailor put his back into it and hauled the case off the ground.
In truth, a hundred-odd pounds was nothing to men like them.
It was only that Shenhe had carried it so lightly, without her posture tilting so much as a hair, that they'd assumed there was nothing inside but clothes…
Who'd have guessed it weighed over a hundred pounds…
Soon enough, they had the luggage aboard.
"We've got a while yet before we sail. The rest of the fleet is still loading that Ningguang woman's cargo. Go take a walk first," Beidou said with a wave of her hand.
"Mm." Fang Qiu nodded, then turned to look back toward the harbor entrance.
Word had gotten around these past days that she was going to Inazuma for the Irodori Festival, and no end of people had promised to come see her off.
She'd told them she would only be gone a month or so, but they insisted on a proper farewell anyway.
There was no talking them out of it.
Then she spotted Xiangling and Guoba, each shouldering a bundle — one large, one small — racing toward The Alcor as if the docks were on fire.
"It's Xiangling and Guoba!" Paimon said at once.
"Fang Qiu! Traveler! Paimon! And Shenhe! We're here!" Xiangling called as she ran, Guoba bounding along beside her, waving.
"Ruu-ruu-ruu!"
They came to a stop in front of the group, shrugged off the bundles, and pressed them into Fang Qiu's hands. "I stayed up all night making this dried meat. Something to chew on when the voyage gets boring."
"Really? That's a huge bag!" Paimon's eyes lit up. "Paimon can't wait to try some."
"Didn't you just eat a meat bun?" Lumine said, exasperated.
"One meat bun isn't nearly enough to fill Paimon up," Paimon said, hands on her hips.
"Why do you look so proud about it?" Lumine rolled her eyes at her.
"Xiangling, Guoba, thank you both," Fang Qiu said with a smile.
"No need to thank us, no need at all," Xiangling said, smiling shyly.
"Ruu." Guoba rubbed the back of its head.
Before long, Yun Jin and Xinyan arrived too.
At the sight of Master Yun, plenty of heads turned her way.
"Fang Qiu, safe travels. Once you're back in Liyue, let's create a new opera together," Yun Jin said with a smile.
"Of course." Fang Qiu laughed softly. "I'll write a story for you on the way home."
"…Really?" Yun Jin's eyes brightened.
"Mm. And then I'll be troubling you to adapt it for the stage," Fang Qiu said with a nod.
"Then I'll be looking forward to it with everything I've got," Yun Jin said, smiling.
"Heh heh, I won't bother with goodbyes, because I'm sailing to Inazuma with you," Xinyan said, grinning. "But hey — the music for both Sword and Fairy productions turned out amazing. What do you say we write a couple more on the way there?"
"Sure." Fang Qiu smiled.
They fell into easy conversation.
Not long after, two more figures came walking into the harbor.
The moment they appeared, every hand on the docks stopped working to stare.
One was dressed in purple, her purple hair gathered into cat-ear twintails.
The other wore blue, with blue hair and a pair of black-and-red horns atop her head.
"It's Ganyu and Keqing! Paimon never thought they'd come to see us off too," Paimon said, startled.
Paimon wasn't the only one caught off guard — Fang Qiu was as well.
She was on decent terms with the two of them, true, but with the workload at Yujing Terrace, she'd never imagined they would carve out the time to say goodbye.
A member of the Liyue Qixing and the Chief Secretary of the Qixing, both turning out for a send-off…
It was far too grand a display.
And the main thing was, she'd only be gone a month or so.
Was any of this really necessary?
"Safe travels. When you're back, let's find some free time and go browse the shops together," Keqing said first, once they'd reached her.
"Sounds good." Fang Qiu gave a small nod. "I hear the market district is putting out clay figurines of Rex Lapis in his dragon form. I want to buy one — shall we go together?"
A clay figurine of Rex Lapis.
Which was more or less the same as a statue of the god himself, wasn't it?
That shop's figurines were said to be exquisitely detailed, lifelike down to the last scale, brimming with divine presence.
The only problem was how few they produced at a time.
Every batch was snapped up the moment it appeared.
Some had gone at auction for as much as a hundred thousand Mora apiece.
Which left Fang Qiu shaking her head in wonder. Rex Lapis indeed — even with his soul returned to the heavens above, his popularity remained terrifying.
She'd planned to buy one and set it up at home to make offerings to.
He was the God of Wealth, after all.
Let him bless her with a great fortune, so she could hurry up and buy a Jade Chamber of her own, just like Miss Ningguang's.
But thanks to that same terrifying popularity, she still hadn't managed to get hold of one.
Going along with the Yuheng, though — she'd be sure to land one.
"Then I'll look forward to it." Keqing's gaze skittered away at first; then she seemed to catch herself, and she smiled as she spoke.
Fang Qiu paused.
Maybe she was imagining things.
But ever since they'd made plans to buy a Rex Lapis figurine together, there was something more intimate in the way Keqing looked at her.
And she genuinely did seem to be looking forward to it.
"Fang Qiu, this is for you." Ganyu drew out a jade pendant knotted onto a red rope and held it out to her. "There's some of my Adeptal power inside this pendant. If you run into danger, it will trigger on its own and block the enemy's attack."
"Something this precious — I couldn't…"
Fang Qiu was only halfway through when Ganyu smiled and said, "Don't worry. It isn't so precious to me."
"All right, then. Thank you. I'll take good care of it."
Fang Qiu accepted the pendant and looked it over closely.
The ice-blue jade gave off a faint blue-white glow, and carved into its face was a qilin, that auspicious beast.
She tied it at her waist.
With the pendant accepted, they went on talking together about Inazuma.
Time slid by, and more and more people came to see her off.
Even the Tavern Proprietress and the pastry shopkeeper turned up.
The fleet would be casting off soon.
Fang Qiu kept up her end of the conversation, but her eyes kept straying to the harbor entrance.
Hu Tao… still hadn't come.
Had something happened?
Or was she unhappy that Fang Qiu was leaving for Inazuma?
Come to think of it, when she'd told Hu Tao about the trip, Hu Tao's face had looked rather grim.
If she'd known…
"Fang Qiu, Traveler, it's about time. Get ready to board." Beidou's voice carried down from The Alcor.
"Sister Beidou, could we wait a little longer?" Fang Qiu said.
"No problem," Sister Beidou said, her eyes narrowing slightly.
She knew perfectly well why Fang Qiu wanted her to wait. Director Hu of the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor hadn't arrived yet.
She remembered it clearly — the first time she'd ever laid eyes on Fang Qiu, the woman had been fast asleep against Hu Tao's shoulder.
The other sailors knew it too. With their work finished, they kept their eyes fixed on the harbor entrance, waiting right along with her.
But time kept slipping away.
Fang Qiu couldn't in good conscience keep so many people waiting. She was on the point of saying her goodbyes to Ganyu and the others when the sailors on deck straightened as one. "She's here!"
Fang Qiu turned around to find Hu Tao come charging up to her.
Before she could get a word out, Hu Tao pulled her into a hug.
The heat pouring off Hu Tao's body, the scent of plum blossoms mingled with fresh sweat — Fang Qiu laughed quietly and put her arms around her in return.
"Sorry, I'm late. It's all Meng's fault," Hu Tao said, realizing she was soaked with sweat and letting go in a hurry. "Last night he told me Chang the Ninth had gone up to Wuwang Hill looking for his childhood sweetheart, and with that whole area being unsettled lately, he wouldn't stop pestering me to go check on him in case something happened. What could I do? I had to go."
"Chang the Ninth?" The familiar name brought Paimon and the Traveler up short. "And then what?"
"And then… well, I went, and sure enough, he really was in danger. He nearly died."
Hu Tao sighed. "I have to hurry back and deal with it in a bit. All Meng's fault, dropping a mess this big in my lap."
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