With nothing better to do, Koji went fishing by the river.
He sat on a broken bridge, quietly waiting for a bite.
There was no way he'd come back empty-handed.
[Blessing of Fishing: Every time, you can fish something up. Absolutely never comes back empty-handed.]
"...A message bottle. Forget it—toss it back."
He hadn't caught a fish. Instead, he'd hooked a drifting bottle with letter paper stuffed inside. It was probably some brat's prank.
"Koji, do you know about a half-adeptus beast called a coconut goat?"
Hu Tao suddenly popped up behind him and patted his shoulder.
Koji turned around and saw a combination that genuinely surprised him: Hu Tao plus Qiqi. That was downright unbelievable.
"What kind of look is that? This Boss Lady isn't planning to bury Qiqi anymore."
Koji's shocked expression made Hu Tao a little annoyed. What, was she not allowed to get along peacefully with Qiqi?
"Peach, why are you looking for a half-adeptus beast?" Koji glanced at Qiqi and asked thoughtfully.
"Nothing special. Qiqi wants coconut milk. Liyue sells it, sure, but she means coconut milk from the half-adeptus beast 'coconut goat.'"
"I've never even heard of a creature called a coconut goat, so I've been taking Qiqi around asking everywhere. Maybe we'll run into someone who knows."
Hu Tao sounded frustrated. She'd been roaming the world for years, and this was the first time she'd ever heard the name "coconut goat."
"Old Zhong and the others aren't around right now, and the Yaksha have no idea where they ran off to. Good thing we ran into you. Otherwise, I was planning to go pay a visit to an adeptus."
Koji stood up, put away his fishing rod, and said with a smile, "I'll take you to Mt. Aocang."
"Really? That's great!" Hu Tao said delightedly. "No need to run all over the place and exhaust myself!"
…
Koji and the others arrived at Mt. Aocang. Cloud Retainer sat beneath a tree by a pool, leisurely savoring her tea.
"What rare guests," Cloud Retainer said in surprise. "I didn't expect the few of you to come all the way here."
"We're here to keep a lonely old bird company," Koji said with a grin.
"How rude. With your relationship to Shenhe, shouldn't you show some respect to your elders?" Cloud Retainer shot back, rolling her eyes.
Shenhe smiled. Her master was still exactly the same.
"Qiqi, do you remember this adeptus?"
Cloud Retainer looked at Qiqi, her gaze filled with emotion. Of course she recognized her—back then, the few adepti who had saved Qiqi…
"I don't remember," Qiqi shook her head. "But you feel familiar."
Cloud Retainer sighed softly. Qiqi had survived in this form, but her memories and clarity of mind had been greatly affected.
"Cloud Retainer, do you know about a half-adeptus beast called a coconut goat?" Hu Tao asked.
"A coconut goat?"
Cloud Retainer froze at the unfamiliar name. There was such a half-adeptus beast?
She had truly never heard of it.
"Director Hu Tao, where did you hear that? There shouldn't be any half-adeptus beast like that."
Half-adeptus beasts were rare to begin with. An adeptus and a mortal getting together was already difficult enough—let alone producing offspring.
"Qiqi said she wants coconut milk from a coconut goat. I don't know what a coconut goat is either, so I came looking for you."
Cloud Retainer fell into thought, but in the end she still shook her head. She really had never seen a coconut goat, and historically speaking, there shouldn't have been one either.
"Sorry. I don't know."
Maybe Qiqi had misremembered. Cloud Retainer mentally rummaged through her memories several times.
"Qiqi doesn't know," Qiqi said, shaking her head. "Qiqi only vaguely remembers there's a coconut goat."
With no results from questioning, the group left Mt. Aocang.
…
Yuehai Pavilion.
Although Zhongli had sent a dream to Ganyu, telling her she could choose a retired life, Ganyu was already used to her work. If she didn't have this job, she wouldn't even know what to do with herself.
Besides, finding someone who could take over her work wasn't easy.
"A coconut goat?"
Ganyu stared at Koji and the others in a daze. She was the coconut goat?
"Of course not. I'm the child of a qilin and a human," Ganyu snapped back to herself and said speechlessly.
"Coconut milk…"
"Yah!"
Before she could react, Ganyu got tightly hugged by Qiqi—black slime vs. little zombie.
Her face turned red at a visible speed, and her brain practically stopped functioning.
"This is really…" Hu Tao didn't even know what to say. Qiqi was genuinely direct—she pounced on Ganyu like that…
Shenhe parted her lips, not quite understanding the situation in front of her. It was simply too outrageous.
"Stop that!"
Ganyu blushed furiously and yanked Qiqi off.
Honestly… she knew Qiqi didn't understand these things, so she couldn't even get mad.
Yet some lingering sensation still remained. Qiqi hadn't gotten any coconut milk—she'd even started grinding her teeth.
"No… coconut milk…"
Qiqi seemed disappointed. Ganyu's forehead twitched. Sorry for not having milk, then?
She covered herself with a handkerchief. With Koji—an unrelated man—still here, the fact she hadn't fainted was already impressive self-control.
"So what's the deal with this coconut goat and coconut milk?" Ganyu asked Koji and the others suspiciously.
"It's like this…"
Hu Tao explained the whole story from beginning to end.
"…"
Ganyu was both annoyed and amused. "I can tell you very clearly—there is no such creature as a coconut goat."
So it was this kind of ridiculous misunderstanding. Her slime had gotten attacked for nothing. Truly speechless.
"Just buy Qiqi the coconut milk that's sold normally," Ganyu said helplessly.
Among half-adeptus beasts, there simply wasn't anything called a coconut goat.
She had no idea who had misled Qiqi into believing it existed. A normal person might doubt it, but as a half-adeptus beast herself, she was very familiar with the adeptus beasts around Liyue—there was no coconut goat.
"Alright. Sorry to bother you," Hu Tao said, realizing there was nothing more to discuss.
Qiqi "attacking" Ganyu was only possible because Ganyu had a good temper. If it were someone else, they would've already exploded with rage.
"Ganyu, your master is pretty bored at home too. When you have time, don't forget to go back and take care of that lonely old bird," Koji reminded her.
"Uh… okay. I know," Ganyu said awkwardly, scratching her nose.
It really had been a while since she'd gone back to see her master. Once she finished handling things, she'd go back and take care of her master.
(End of Chapter)
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