Chapter 375: The Understanding Hu Tao
Zhongli and Venti exchanged a fleeting glance. Within that silent exchange lay a flicker of genuine surprise, a flash of self-reproach, and a rapid, silent assessment of a situation that had just veered wildly off their mental scripts.
Here they were—an Anemo Archon perpetually dodging his responsibilities and the retired Geo Archon of Liyue—teaming up to track down a seemingly ordinary woman bereft of any extraordinary combat prowess. Yet, against all odds, they had been entirely outmaneuvered by her highly unconventional escape at the very last second. While the oppressive Hollow environment and unexpected outside interference had certainly played a part, it was, undeniably, an unforeseen blunder on their part.
Hu Tao, who had been abruptly halted by Venti, watched her parlor's consultant and the bard freeze in their tracks. They stood facing one another in complete silence, transmitting complex volumes of information through their eyes that she couldn't even begin to decipher. Her patience, never her strongest virtue, immediately began to fray.
She stomped her boot against the grated floor, keeping her voice low but lacing it with urgent energy. "Hey! You two! What's the holdup? Why did you suddenly hit the brakes? And why are you just staring at each other like statues? Did you find a clue? Sarah is in there, right? Let's hurry up and breach the place! If we keep dawdling around, she's going to slip right through our fingers again!"
Zhongli slowly withdrew his gloved hand from the corroded wall. He was the first to break the silent staring contest with Venti, turning his attention back to his energetic boss. His handsome, statuesque features betrayed absolutely nothing. His posture remained perfectly upright, his tone smooth and unruffled.
"Director Hu, please calm yourself. The situation ahead has shifted somewhat. I must proceed alone to investigate and confirm the perimeter, lest we walk blindly into a trap. Venti..." He shifted his amber gaze back to the bard. "Please explain the finer details of our current predicament to Director Hu."
Zhongli completely ignored the desperate, almost physical weight of Venti's pleading stare. Before the bard could even formulate a protest, the former Geo Archon was already moving, his long coat swishing as he swiftly darted forward into the gloom.
He gave a curt nod, his amber eyes already locked onto the path ahead. There, lurking indistinctly within the heavy shadows of the scattered shipping containers, several Ethereal figures twitched and prowled. Drawn by the dangerously high concentrations of ambient Aether and erratic energy anomalies, the monsters were already beginning to swarm.
He didn't utter another syllable. Gripping his hard-lined tactical shotgun with practiced ease, Zhongli strode directly toward the encroaching threat. His intent was crystal clear: he would carve a path through the corruption, or at the very least, violently curb the momentum of the gathering Ethereal horde.
Venti stood frozen, watching Zhongli's retreating back as the man unhesitatingly threw his teammates under the bus and marched off toward the 'peace' of a monster-infested warzone. The bard opened his mouth to complain, but the words died in his throat, dissolving into a long, tragic, and entirely inaudible sigh.
Slowly, he pivoted on his heel to face Hu Tao. The young funeral director had both eyebrows raised to her hairline, fixing him with a piercing glare that practically screamed, You had better give me a spectacular explanation. Instantly, Venti plastered his signature, blindingly bright smile across his face, layering it with a thick coat of shameless flattery.
"Ahem, well... my dearest Director Hu," Venti cleared his throat, adjusting his beret while trying to inject a light, playfully mysterious lilt into his voice.
"I happen to have a piece of absolutely excellent news, and... a slightly less-than-stellar piece of news. Which one would the wise, mighty, and ever-gracious Director Hu care to hear first?"
Hu Tao merely crossed her arms over her chest. Her tactical submachine gun hung loosely at her hip on its sling, and she tilted her chin up in challenge. Her vibrant plum-blossom pupils locked onto Venti, her lips curling into a knowing half-smile. She saw right through his flimsy attempt to sugarcoat the situation.
Factoring in the intense, silent staring contest the two "gods" had engaged in right before her consultant conveniently slipped away into the shadows, she had already pieced together about eighty percent of the puzzle.
"Don't give me that roundabout nonsense." Hu Tao puffed out her cheeks in a slight pout, mercilessly popping Venti's balloon of pretense. "Are you trying to tell me that after we ran around chasing her for so long, the cooked duck—that slippery woman named Sarah—still managed to fly away?"
Venti's confident smile instantly cracked into something incredibly sheepish. However, he nodded his head so fast he resembled a chick frantically pecking at scattered rice.
"Director Hu is truly brilliant and boundlessly insightful! To deduce the truth so quickly, you are without a doubt the legendary 77th Director of the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor! Your perception is simply extraordinary!"
He fired off the rapid string of exaggerated compliments, desperately hoping the flattery would act as a buffer against the incredibly awkward reality of their failure.
"Oh, put a cork in the glib talk!" Hu Tao wasn't buying a single mora of it. She rolled her eyes, letting out a sharp huff of annoyance.
"You two are really something else. Usually, you both act so high, mighty, and reliable, but the second we hit a crucial bottleneck, you drop the ball. It's a real pity we burned all that energy chasing her down, only for the whole operation to end up as a wild goose chase."
Despite her scolding tone, her features lacked any real heat. Instead of genuine fury, her expression settled into a helpless, exasperated look that clearly read, I should have known this would happen.
Shaking her head, she smoothly pivoted the conversation, a spark of genuine curiosity lighting up her gaze. "But what was that 'excellent news' you were bragging about a second ago? Don't tell me your grand silver lining is just that we have to shoot our way through more monsters ahead."
Seeing that Hu Tao wasn't actually gearing up to bury him alive, Venti secretly exhaled a massive sigh of relief. He quickly latched onto the lifeline she threw him.
"Director Hu is as discerning as ever! The good news is that the path ahead is indeed getting exceptionally 'lively'! Not only are there hordes of ordinary Ethereal swarming the area, but far more, right smack in the center of the plaza, there seems to be a..."
"Hmm, how should I put it? In the local vernacular of this world's Proxies and adventurers, it appears to be a genuine 'BOSS' level big guy!" He wiggled his fingers, trying his absolute hardest to make the prospect sound thrilling and enticing.
"Just think about it! Perhaps, after we engage in a 'simple'and'exhilarating' boss battle and smash it to pieces, the mission rewards from the Chat Group might end up being vastly more generous than what we'd get for simply bagging Sarah! High risk equals high reward, right?"
Hu Tao remained entirely silent. She merely tilted her head a fraction of an inch to the side. Her usually lively plum-blossom eyes locked onto Venti in an unblinking, deadpan stare. Her face was completely wiped clean of emotion—neither excited by the prospect of loot nor questioning his logic. She was so unnervingly calm that Venti felt a distinct, icy chill slide all the way down his spine.
Time seemed to grind to a complete halt between the two of them for several agonizing seconds. The only sounds filling the heavy silence were the faint, guttural growls of the distant Ethereal and the rhythmic, booming CRACK of Zhongli's shotgun echoing from the depths of the container yard.
Venti felt his scalp prickle under the sheer weight of Hu Tao's silent scrutiny. It felt as though every single one of his desperate little mental gymnastics was being laid bare and dissected under her gaze. A cold bead of sweat began to form at his temple.
His nerves finally snapped. Clasping his hands together in a dramatic gesture of absolute, sincere apology, he bowed his head. "Alright, alright, Director Hu! I was wrong, I admit defeat!"
"We were undeniably careless this time. Neither of us expected Sarah to pull off such a desperate 'stroke of genius'to seize that tiny window of escape. I severely underestimated the lingering power of her so-called'Primordial One', and I wasn't nearly cautious enough during the final stretch of the pursuit. I am deeply reflecting on my mistakes!"
Much to Venti's shock, Hu Tao didn't immediately seize the opportunity to press her advantage and grind him into the dirt with further scolding.
She merely waved her hand dismissively, her tone surprisingly relaxed and breezy. "Hey, if you made a mistake, just own up to it. Your attitude is proper enough. It's not like this is some world-ending catastrophe. Who doesn't make a mistake or misjudge a target every now and then? Why, when this Hall Master travels the world..."
She coughed lightly into her fist. "Uh, I mean, when traveling across Teyvat, even I don't always accurately pinpoint my potential clients... ahem, targets."
A massive weight instantly lifted from Venti's chest. The Director is truly a magnanimous and understanding soul, he thought to himself. But right before his relieved, grateful smile could fully bloom, the pitch of Hu Tao's voice took a very subtle, very dangerous shift.
"However—" She drew the syllable out, a sharp flicker of pure, unadulterated cunning flashing in her plum-blossom eyes. "What you just said about there being 'many Ethereal and a BOSS ahead' isn't necessarily good news."
"Fighting requires physical effort, ammunition consumption, and bodily risk. And whether the Chat Group's rewards will actually be worth a damn after we break our backs fighting is still entirely up in the air."
She took a deliberate half-step forward, her demeanor shifting into the ruthless, business-like mode of Liyue's premier funeral director. "If we expend all that effort, get ourselves all sweaty, and burn through our precious bullets, only for the system to hand us a few meager scraps after we take down that 'big guy'..."
"Wouldn't that be a catastrophic loss on our investment? So, as a fitting punishment for your blunder, shouldn't you bring out a few bottles of those precious vintage wines you've been secretly hoarding? You know, share them with everyone to properly soothe our 'wounded' spirits and exhausted bodies?"
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