"Daddy...?"
"Mommy...?"
A little girl found herself at the foot of Tianheng Mountain without realizing it.
The place looked nothing like the Liyue she remembered. It wasn't lively, there was no bustling crowd, no voices or carriages passing by.
She suddenly realized she was lost.
"Daddy... Mommy... where are you!?" Panic rose in her voice.
The silence around her was uncanny. Everywhere she looked, there were only trees.
Growing more anxious, she began running aimlessly into the forest.
"Daddy! Mommy!! Where are you!!"
She cried out as she dashed deeper into the woods.
"Don't scare me like this! Please come out..."
Her panic swelled until tears spilled from her eyes. In her frantic rush, she tripped and fell.
The pain broke her resolve completely. Sitting on the ground, she burst into uncontrollable sobs.
"Waaah... Daddy... Mommy... Waaah... did you leave me behind...?"
As the sun sank below the horizon, the world grew darker.
...
Meanwhile, in Liyue's city, a man and a woman rushed anxiously through the streets, voices ringing out as they shouted again and again, "Xin'er! Xin'er!"
Their frantic stumbling brought a discordant note to Liyue's usually joyful atmosphere, drawing curious and uneasy glances from passersby.
As lantern light gradually brightened the streets, the city fully entered night.
Everyone had lit the candles within their lanterns and prepared themselves, yet no one dared to release theirs first.
Morax, who had already anticipated this moment, had kept a lantern for himself. Though he was Liyue's god, that didn't stop him from making a wish.
"May every person of Liyue forever remember Brother Elliot, and may Liyue always know happiness and peace."
He wrote the wish on the paper and became the first to release a lantern in Liyue.
At that moment, beneath the full moon sky, a fiery red lantern rose into the heavens.
Seeing someone take the lead, the people of Liyue released the lanterns in their hands one after another.
Each person gazed with joy at their lantern drifting upward, glowing like luminous jellyfish in the sea, swimming freely across the endless sky.
"How beautiful..."
"So this is the Lantern Rite..."
"These are all our wishes, rising toward the Geo Emperor..."
"So beautiful... this is our Liyue festival..."
Every face shone with happiness as they watched the lanterns floating beneath the night sky.
...
Liyue, at the foot of Tianheng Mountain.
With sunset gone, darkness ruled. Though the moon's gentle light fell upon the lost girl, fear still gripped her heart.
"Daddy... Mommy... where are you..."
"It's so dark here... I'm so scared..."
Helplessness overwhelmed her. She was tense, trembling, frightened...
Then, as she looked around, she noticed a flickering glow near a tree not far away.
Without hesitation, she walked toward it.
"Is that... a lantern...?"
Tied to the tree was a Lantern Rite—its flame still burning.
"The Geo Emperor will grant the wishes written in the lanterns."
That was something everyone knew during the Lantern Rite, and the girl remembered it too.
She hurriedly took the paper and pen from beneath the lantern and, by its light, wrote her wish:
"I wish to see my mommy and daddy right away."
After checking it once more, she carefully returned the paper to its place.
Clutching the lantern with one hand, she untied the string with the other.
To make sure the Geo Emperor would see it, she had to release the lantern herself—not one left tied to a tree.
Once the string was loose, she gently let go.
Her eyes followed it upward. Across the night sky, countless lanterns floated together.
The breathtaking sight widened her eyes, sweeping away all fear and dread.
Meanwhile, her parents—still searching desperately in Liyue—suddenly noticed a lone lantern rising from the mountains.
Their hearts leapt, and without a word, they raced toward its source.
"Xin'er! Xin'er!"
They called her name as they ran, closing in on the foot of Tianheng Mountain.
"Daddy! Mommy! I'm here!!!"
The little girl, still in the forest, heard them and immediately ran toward the voices.
Before long, the family was reunited.
High above, a masked man standing in the treetops suddenly vanished.
"Xin'er, Xin'er, why did you come all the way out here? You nearly scared me to death..." Her mother held her tightly, crying tears of joy.
"Daddy... Mommy... I thought you didn't want me anymore..." The girl sobbed in reply, words broken by tears.
They stayed together for a long time before finally holding hands and walking back toward Liyue.
"Daddy, Mommy, guess what—the Geo Emperor really heard my wish!"
"Is that so?"
"Yes! When I got lost, I found a lit lantern on a tree. I wrote down that I wanted to see you right away, and then you came!"
"I see... Perhaps that lantern was placed there by the Geo Emperor himself. He hears all our wishes."