The next day, Furina and Navia had already returned to Fontaine.
Still staying at Lin Qiu's home were Lumine and Shenhe.
Shenhe had left before dawn, going with her senior to drink dew.
Lumine also woke up very early today, because yesterday, when she was drinking tea with the adeptus, they had agreed to prepare for the Rite of Parting with Zhongli today.
Hu Tao was also very busy, because of the Rock God's passing, many people flocked to Wangsheng Funeral Parlor, hoping to bring peace to the Rock God.
Hu Tao was currently dealing with these Liyue people with a headache.
At this moment, it could be said that Lin Qiu was, for a rare time, the only one left at home.
Having nothing to do, Lin Qiu decided to write his new book at home; this time it wasn't teyvat travelogue or love and teyvat.
It was a brand new series, teyvat story collection. Lin Qiu planned to write some interesting stories in this book that were not part of the main quest or legend quests.
Lin Qiu was writing at home when he received a letter.
The sender was Tartaglia, and the content of the letter was an invitation for Lin Qiu to meet him.
Ningguang had relaxed her surveillance of the Fatui, and Tartaglia thought it was because the Rock God's demise forced the Qixing to reallocate personnel for the investigation.
Tartaglia was happy; he finally had room to maneuver.
He was simultaneously funding Lumine and Zhongli's Rite of Parting preparations and inviting Lin Qiu to meet.
Tartaglia began to act!
Lin Qiu arrived at Xinyue Kiosk. Lin Qiu never refused an invitation to a meal.
"Buddy, you're finally here."
"You should have been at the Rite of Descension that day, right?" Tartaglia asked.
Lin Qiu nodded, indicating that he was indeed there.
"Regarding the Rock God's Exuvia, you should know where it is, right?"
Lin Qiu's story only went up to the second act, and the second act did not reveal information about the Exuvia, so Tartaglia still didn't know.
"Actually, I regret not having seen the Rock God, and I also want to pay my respects to the Rock God's Exuvia."
Lin Qiu rolled his eyes at Tartaglia. You can fool yourself with that excuse, but don't fool me, buddy.
"Alright, alright, I won't hide anything from you anymore. The Prophet must know what I want to do." Tartaglia spread his hands.
"Mr. Lin Qiu, how can you tell me the information I want?"
"Oh right, you're also a Liyue person, so you definitely don't want me to achieve my goal…"
"Then how about this, we fight. If I win, you tell me."
Tartaglia was eager to try.
"And if I win?" Lin Qiu asked.
That stumped Tartaglia; he hadn't considered that he might lose.
What if he lost? There's no way he could abandon the Empress's mission.
"If you win, I'll give you my life." Tartaglia said.
In his opinion, this was fair. If he won, Lin Qiu's life would be in his hands, exchanging information for a life.
But if he lost, there didn't seem to be any information that would interest the Prophet, so he couldn't exchange a life.
Lin Qiu thought, isn't this a huge profit?
He had already planned to reveal the information to Tartaglia, and now he was getting a free bet.
He didn't know that Tartaglia had made another equally unprofitable bet.
There was just one thing that made Lin Qiu feel awkward: he had asked Ningguang to reveal the information to Tartaglia about the Golden House.
Because that place was more secluded, fighting wouldn't affect ordinary people.
But Ningguang's way of revealing the information was to use him?
Lin Qiu didn't believe that Ningguang didn't know about Tartaglia sending him a letter, nor did he believe that Ningguang couldn't guess Tartaglia's purpose in inviting Lin Qiu.
However, Lin Qiu could understand that to 'casually' and quickly reveal information that Tartaglia would believe, it seemed only the 'Prophet' could do it.
"Alright, in a few days I'll tell you where the Exuvia is." Lin Qiu said with a smile.
"Hmm? You're giving up?" Tartaglia was very disappointed.
He did want to know where the Exuvia was, but fighting Lin Qiu was also what he desired.
"Of course not. I'm just telling you the location. If you want to take what you want, you still have to fight me."
Tartaglia nodded, understanding.
To him, it didn't matter, as long as he could fight.
The only difference was that Lin Qiu's life-staking method changed from information to the Gnosis.
"Alright, it's good as long as we can fight." Tartaglia was very happy.
"Mm-hmm, since you're happy, now let me be happy too."
"Mr. Yun has a show today." Lin Qiu smiled.
"..."
Do you really consider me a buddy? Why do you always try to fleece me whenever you meet me?
And Liyue's opera, I'm still not quite used to it…
While Lin Qiu was enjoying his meal, Shenhe and Ganyu were also eating 'delicious' things.
They didn't disperse immediately after drinking dew; they were currently chewing Glaze Lilies and chatting.
As for Glaze Lilies, Granny Ping actually raised some near Yujing Terrace, but they specifically went out to find wild Glaze Lilies.
"Junior sister, do you think it's delicious?" Ganyu asked, chewing on a glaze lily.
This was her proud discovery of a delicious food; she hoped her junior sister would like it.
Shenhe nodded without speaking. Wild Glaze Lilies were not numerous, and she hadn't eaten them much, but they did taste good.
"Perhaps it could be eaten with Violetgrass." Shenhe thought of a new way to eat it.
As the two were eating, they suddenly heard music. Who was singing?
"Memories are the prologue to dreams~!" Ying, the mute Lumine, was actually singing.
She was singing cross-world music, which Lumine had heard from Lin Qiu.
Lin Qiu would hum songs when he was bored writing, mostly songs from his previous life.
Lumine had stayed at Lin Qiu's home for many days. She hadn't seen Lin Qiu many times, but she had heard him hum songs while writing quite a bit.
"Hmm? Such… unique music…" Ganyu didn't know how to comment.
The music was good, but it didn't seem to fit the popular style of this world.
Shenhe, however, recognized it. It was a song her junior brother occasionally hummed.
Shenhe hadn't heard many songs to begin with, so she didn't find this song strange at all, and even thought it was quite pleasant.
The reason Lumine appeared here was because Lin Qiu had already revealed the items needed for the Rite of Parting.
But the content about Glaze Lilies was in the third act, so Lumine didn't know.
So Zhongli simply brought Lumine here to find Glaze Lilies first.
This was how Ganyu and Lumine met here.
After hearing Lumine's singing, the Whopperflower couldn't stand it anymore and burst out of the ground, vowing to perish with the 'noise'.
Although Lumine quickly dealt with the Whopperflower, she couldn't help but feel a little sad.
Is my singing really that bad? I feel like I'm still better than Lin Qiu…
Actually, it wasn't that Lumine's singing was bad; it was just that the Whopperflower, as a monster, simply couldn't understand it.
"I told you we should have sung another song." Paimon's little hands swayed.
Lumine, however, had a different opinion, "How can you sing 'My broken wooden box, filled with withered flowers' to a flower?"
Singing 'My broken wooden box, filled with withered flowers' in front of a flower, is that appropriate?
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Character Voice Line · Shenhe: About Lin Qiu's singing.
"Hmm? Mm, it's very pleasant. Do you want to hear it? I'll sing it for you."