Just as Levi was wondering why his chat level in a group called "Beautiful Fox Fairy" was already at the maximum level of 100...
Someone named "Fury" spoke up in the group.
[Fury: Mr. Yang? Is that really you, Mr. Yang?]
[Fury: It really is Mr. Yang! Where have you been all this time? You haven't shown your face in the group at all.]
Seeing the messages, Levi blinked, and sealed-away memories began to resurface.
He picked up his jade communicator and started typing.
[Yang Sit Ups: Ahem, ahem. I've been busy with work offline. My short boss keeps ordering me around with all kinds of excuses every day.]
[Fury: Sigh, who isn't? I'm getting ordered around all day too.]
"Yeah, my ass you are."
Levi immediately cursed at him.
'As if I don't know where you work.'
'If you're going to make up an excuse, at least come up with a better one. You spend so much time online chasing celebrities every day. Anyone with eyes can tell how much free time you really have.'
Now he completely remembered why he was in this group in the first place, and why his chat level was so high.
He also knew who the "Beautiful Fox Fairy" Asta had mentioned really was.
Remembering what had happened back then, the corner of Levi's mouth twitched.
Back then, he'd believed some random person's claim about there being a cute fox fairy and joined this chat group.
When he found out that the fox fairy's name was Daiqing...
He immediately felt that something was off.
'Why does that name sound so familiar...'
Then, one quiet night, inspiration struck, and Levi finally remembered exactly who Daiqing was.
He instantly fell into despair.
He'd been promised a cute fox fairy, but it turned out to be a man...
The most important part was that the man wasn't even a Foxian.
He was a Vidyadhara!
At that moment, Levi felt completely deceived.
Where was the big fluffy tail?
Where was the fluffy tail he'd wanted so badly?
Why was a Vidyadhara sticking on a tail and pretending to be a fox?
As for the fact that he was a man, that actually wasn't the biggest issue.
After realizing he'd been tricked, Levi decisively muted the chat group.
Then he buried that painful memory in a forgotten corner of his mind.
"Daiqing?"
The sun was already high in the sky. Qingque had gotten out of bed and pulled her slipping shoulder strap back into place. Still half asleep, she looked toward Levi, who was holding his jade communicator while his fingers flew across it.
She recalled, "That's the online crush you failed to get together with, right?"
She still remembered the first time Levi had tried to drown his sorrows in alcohol.
The sight of him passing out after one cup was still vivid in her mind.
The more she thought about it, the more she couldn't help laughing.
Back then she'd even wondered whether the restaurant owner had put the Luofu's deadliest poison into the liquor.
He collapsed the moment it hit his stomach.
She got up, walked behind Levi, rested her chin on his shoulder, and watched with interest as he kept greeting people in the group.
"So? Thinking about picking up this failed romance again?"
Qingque teased beside his ear.
"My sexual orientation is perfectly normal."
No matter what, he wasn't going to like a man. He wasn't into that.
Likewise, his taste was perfectly normal.
If he remembered correctly, that cross-dressing guy Daiqing just looked like an ordinary Vidyadhara and didn't even have a fluffy tail behind him.
He wasn't remotely Levi's type.
Levi turned to glance at Qingque. His gaze paused briefly on her chest and hips.
"Well... maybe not completely normal."
He turned back and continued what he was doing.
Flat in the front and flat in the back. Her future kid's going to have it rough.
Noticing where Levi's eyes had lingered, Qingque suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of malice wash over her.
"You..."
"No."
He answered instantly.
Without even taking time to think.
"..."
Nobody answers that fast unless there's something to hide.
Qingque yawned and lost any interest in pressing the matter.
She scratched her cheek twice, took two steps toward the washstand, suddenly stopped, turned around, went back to bed, pulled the blanket over herself, closed her eyes, and went back to sleep.
You got out of bed because you had something to do.
Today the Divination Commission was on holiday, so there was nothing for her to do after getting up.
If she asked Levi to play cards, he definitely wouldn't go now anyway. She might as well lie down and sleep a little longer.
Ding!
[Fury: I heard you're really on the Xianzhou Luofu. Is that true?]
[Yang Sit Ups: Yeah, I'm on the Luofu. Why?]
[Fury: That's great!]
[Fury: I recently prepared a gift that I'm planning to send to Miss Daiqing through my company, but I'm a little worried.]
[Fury: Since you're on the Xianzhou Luofu, brother, could you... hehe... keep an eye on things for me?]
[Yang Sit Ups: No.]
[Fury: Don't be so heartless.]
[Yang Sit Ups: Okay.]
Those two words completely fried Fury's CPU. He didn't appear in the group again for quite a while.
'So is that a yes or a no?'
'Were people from the Xianzhou always this hard to understand?'
Just as he was about to ask for clarification, Levi had already left the chat group.
He also completely deleted all records of the group's conversations from his jade communicator.
Putting the jade communicator down, Levi interlocked his fingers and stared blankly at the patterns on the tabletop.
Originally, he'd wanted to use this chat group as a lead to see if he could directly find the account that supposedly belonged to that cross-dressing guy.
But after searching through everyone, he couldn't find it.
Either the other person wasn't in the group at all, or they were in it but lurked from the moment they joined.
Never speaking in the group for their entire life.
If that was really the case, then finding them would be incredibly difficult.
No, it would be impossible.
If they created an alternate account, joined the group, and never spoke, there was no way to identify them.
"There are so many people on the Xianzhou Luofu... Where am I even supposed to start looking..."
As a scammer, they definitely had to communicate with people.
Otherwise, how could they scam anyone out of Credits?
Levi stood up, preparing to head outside for a walk.
Suddenly, he spread open his palm. A flash of white light appeared, and a dull-edged sword materialized in his hand.
Levi gave the dull-edged sword a deadpan look.
Then casually put it away.
And walked outside.
———
[Teyvat]
After Cloud Retainer brought Lumine back to her abode, Lumine trembled under the gazes of two birds and one deer as she used a tree branch to draw a "formation" on the ground that even she herself couldn't understand.
Looking at the formation, which had no room left to add anything else, Lumine gently put down the branch.
Seeing that Lumine's "formation" was complete, the three Adepti began quietly discussing it among themselves.
Because they were some distance away, Lumine couldn't hear them clearly and could only continue making up random motions.
She pressed her palms together and silently repeated Levi's name in her heart.
Praying that he had no idea what she was doing.
If he noticed something strange and decided not to come to her, she would probably be in serious trouble.
Seeing the movements of her hands, the three Adepti quietly exchanged another round of discussion.
Even so, Lumine still couldn't make out what they were saying.
She kept muttering under her breath while constantly changing her hand seals, hoping to confuse Cloud Retainer and the other two.
Meanwhile, she took the opportunity to open the chat group.
[Lumine: @Levi!]
[Lumine: Something's up! Get here now!]