Nolan took a seat beside Lumine, with Shenhe and Hu Tao following right after.
Soon, the event officially began. Ningguang stepped onto the stage and gave a brief speech. The core message was about how difficult it had been to resist the ancient god Osial, and she thanked all the people of Liyue for their contributions. She concluded by offering her blessings to the newly restored Jade Chamber, then officially declared the banquet open.
After that, food and drink began to be served. Everyone ate and drank as they pleased, and the first performance on stage began.
The storyteller Iron Tongue Tian from Third-Round Knockout stepped onto the stage and retold the tale of the battle against the ancient god Osial in his signature storytelling style.
Nolan found it pretty entertaining, but the one who was most absorbed in it was none other than Zhongli at the next table.
After all, he often had free time and frequently visited Third-Round Knockout to listen to stories.
When the storytelling ended, the second performance was a rock concert—performed by none other than Xinyan, Liyue Harbor's most famous rock musician!
She's a fairly prominent character in the game and is friends with Yun Jin, Hu Tao, Xiangling, and the others.
Yun Jin, in particular, really enjoys listening to her rock music.
This time, Ningguang had also invited her to perform. The rock concert ended quickly, followed by a variety of acts.
There were comedic dialogues, singing and dancing performances, magic shows—and the grand finale was Yun Jin's Liyue Opera!
Yun Jin performed a newly composed opera piece she had written herself. It praised the people of Liyue for their courage and resilience in the face of the ancient god Osial.
Perhaps due to the effect of her "Opera Master" title, Nolan found her performance deeply immersive.
It felt as if everyone present was captivated by the opera.
Even the old man Zhongli next to them praised Yun Jin for already showing the bearing of a true grandmaster.
One song followed another, and before they knew it, the banquet was coming to a close. Ningguang took the stage once again to offer closing thanks and organized everyone's orderly departure.
Nolan, Shenhe, and Hu Tao returned to the array control center to stand by in case anything unexpected happened.
Roughly ten minutes later, all the guests had safely left the Jade Chamber without incident.
With everything wrapped up, night had fully fallen. It was about time to return to the Wonderland for rest.
But before that, Nolan gathered Ningguang, Shenhe, and Hu Tao—mainly because the Wonderland had expanded so much, it now needed to be re-planned.
With more people joining, the original number of rooms had started to fall short. It was time for some expansion.
As for how the new layout should be arranged, that could be left to the girls.
Nolan himself didn't really mind—he hardly slept in his own room anyway, and was usually found in the girls' rooms, sleeping with them.
So for him, the important part was that the girls had their own rooms. He could sleep with any of them. That still counted as having a room—actually, more than one.
Even though Ningguang had the Jade Chamber, she still wanted to live in the Wonderland.
After all, in that space there was no aging, no illness, no decay, and a number of other beneficial properties. Who wouldn't want to live there?
Especially when the master of that realm was also her lover. It made moving in feel entirely natural.
Hu Tao was the same. They'd already kissed—what was the big deal about living together?
Shenhe had already moved into the Wonderland earlier when she helped Ningguang set up the formation.
As for Yun Jin, she returned first with the Yun-Han Opera Troupe. She still had some matters to settle. Once everything was in order, she'd teleport over.
A space gate, shimmering like the night sky, opened, and Nolan led the group back into the Wonderland.
Lumine and Paimon had returned earlier and were already asking how everyone wanted to arrange the now much larger Wonderland and if anyone had specific requests.
Since Lumine wielded Geo powers, most of the renovation work would be handled by her.
However, since Ningguang and Yun Jin also used Geo, having them help out would greatly speed up construction.
The next part of the day…
Everyone gathered in the living room to discuss how to use the newly expanded 420 square meter space, which could be loosely divided into four floors.
First, the top floor would be designated as a storage area for valuables and miscellaneous items—no argument there. Everyone agreed.
Havria preferred to stay within her remains—those pristine "Divine Salts"—so she could just reside there. After all, she was only a small, spherical soul entity. A room wouldn't be much use to her anyway.
Next was the third floor (counting down from the top), which would be designated as the research area. Since research materials were stored in the top-floor warehouse, it was convenient to place labs nearby.
This floor would include Mona and Sucrose's laboratories, Raiden Ei and her sister's meditation room, and a library for books and information.
The Greater Dendro Archon, being the God of Wisdom, had a special fondness for knowledge and planned to reside within the library.
Although her soul form wasn't as weakened as Raiden Makoto's or Havria's—limited to maintaining only a spherical shape—
she hadn't yet recovered to the point of Raiden Ei, who could manifest a full spiritual body.
So whether she had a room or not didn't really matter. In fact, a library full of scholarly atmosphere suited her perfectly as a living space.
Even if her soul returned to its peak state one day and she could manifest a physical soul again, she would still choose to live there.
As for the third-floor research zone, though the functional rooms took up a portion of the area according to the group's floor plan calculations, there was still a bit of space left.
After some discussion, everyone thought it would be a great idea to turn it into farmland.
Sucrose could use it for her botanical research, and if they ever discovered any rare plants, they could be grown and preserved there.
Next was the second floor of the Wonderland. After some discussion, they decided it would be used for scenery and leisure.
With several hundred square meters to work with, they could set up beaches, swimming pools, and other recreational areas!
Finally, the first floor—the largest space—would naturally be used for living quarters. At 420 square meters,
using the standard of 15 square meters per room with its own private bath, they could plan for 28 rooms.
Two of those room-sized spaces—30 square meters—would be used for the living room, and 15 square meters would be enough for the kitchen.
That still left room for 25 more rooms. Even accounting for hallways and other structural space, building over 20 rooms was absolutely feasible.
As for how many rooms they actually needed right now:
One for himself, one for Lumine and Paimon, and then rooms for Fischl, Sucrose, Mona, Eula, Amber, Jean, Lisa, Shenhe, Hu Tao, Ningguang, and soon-to-arrive Yun Jin.
That made 13 rooms in total for now—leaving 7 extra for any future female residents.
By the time they reached full capacity, the Wonderland would likely expand again. So no matter how many more people moved in, there'd always be enough space.
There was absolutely no need to worry about running out of room!
With the basic plans laid out, next came construction—but since it was already late, they decided to start work the next day.
Conveniently, the three "master builders"—Ningguang, Yun Jin, and Lumine—were all free.
With their combined strength, they could probably finish the structural framework in half a day.
There was no need to haul bricks or pour cement—everything could be built with Geo energy. It was incredibly convenient!
It made him think—once elemental tech advanced further, and research on elemental steam locomotives succeeded, they'd need to build matching road systems too.
At that time, it might be worth suggesting to Ningguang that Geo Vision holders be commissioned to assist with infrastructure.
That way, Liyue's construction speed would skyrocket.
With all cities connected by solid roads, the economy would surge forward like a runaway carriage!
The only downside was that monsters still roamed the wilds.
Maybe frequent Millelith patrols would help mitigate that risk.
Late at night.
With the family meeting concluded, everyone got ready for bed. Just as Nolan was about to head to Shenhe's room to sleep with her—
Jean, fresh out of the bath with golden hair still damp and glistening with droplets, wrapped in a fluffy white towel, stopped him.
"Come to my room tonight," she said. "I've got something I'd like your help with."
"Oh? Sure!"
Faced with such a direct invitation from Captain Jean, Nolan had no reason to refuse.
Jean gave a soft nod, a gentle smile on her pale, elegant face.
With her left hand holding the towel wrapped around her body, she raised her right to brush aside her damp hair,
revealing a patch of snow-white skin beneath her arm.
Then she turned and headed toward her room.
From behind, Nolan could see the smooth, graceful lines of her shoulder blades, accentuated by the tight towel.
The soft curves of her waist and hips were clearly outlined.
The white bath towel draped down, covering her snow-white thighs, leaving only her well-defined knees and calves exposed.
Jean walked into the room in her flat slippers, and Nolan followed closely behind, casually closing the door behind him.
Click — the door was gently locked.
The walls of Jean's room were painted with white lime, giving off a clean, tidy, and minimalist feel.
A wooden wardrobe stood against the wall near the door, and the desk she usually used for reading was to the right.
Directly across from the desk—on the left as one entered—was the large bed.
The bed was neatly covered with white bedding. Jean, still wrapped in her towel, sat on the edge without saying anything, and Nolan immediately leaned in to kiss her soft, pink lips.
"Wait," Jean said, pressing her index finger against his lips. With a faint sigh and a touch of helplessness in her eyes, she added,
"Let me finish what I want to say first. Otherwise, I'll forget later."
"Uh… alright, fair enough."
Nolan thought it over and agreed. After all, once he got intimate with a girl, anything else usually vanished from his mind.
It really was easy to forget things.
But before hearing what Jean wanted to say, he sat beside her at the edge of the bed, wrapped his arms around her waist, and pulled her into his embrace.
His left hand slid through the gap in her towel, caressing her soft belly, while his right hand rested on her smooth thigh, gently kneading it.
Only then did he signal that she could go ahead and talk.
Feeling the warmth against her stomach and the tenderness on her thigh, Jean's pale face flushed with a faint blush.
She clutched her towel tightly to keep it from slipping and placed her right hand over his wandering one, intertwining their fingers to keep it still.
Only then did she finally relax enough to slowly explain what she needed from him:
"In about half a month, it'll be time for this year's Knight of Favonius recruitment selection.
"My two secretaries—Noelle and Ellin—will be participating this year."
Jean paused and glanced at her knees, her thumb unconsciously rubbing against Nolan's hand as she continued:
"From what I've observed, Ellin shouldn't have any problems passing. She trains regularly, has a solid foundation, and a fairly stable mindset.
"But Noelle… While her strength exceeds that of many full-fledged knights, she's too kindhearted.
"She sees the good in everyone, and her way of judging good from evil is far too surface-level. I'm afraid she won't be able to pass the exam like that.
"I'm worried that if Ellin passes and becomes a full knight, but Noelle fails and remains a trainee, she'll take it hard and lose confidence.
"So I'd like to ask you to help teach her how to judge a person's character—especially how to recognize those who hide their true intentions and have malicious hearts.
"If things go well, she might be able to pass. If not, then there's nothing more I can do. She'll just have to try again next year."
"I see… so you want me to teach Noelle how to tell who's truly good or bad?" Nolan nodded in understanding.
Of course, he wouldn't refuse to help Noelle. Back when he first arrived in Mondstadt and began his adventures, it was thanks to her company that things had gone so smoothly.
Without her, it would've been a much tougher start.
Still, he found it a little odd. Smiling, he traced gentle circles around Jean's belly button with his finger and asked:
"You're the Acting Grand Master, after all. Aren't you more qualified to teach her how to judge people? Noelle's always by your side—couldn't you just give her a few tips?"
Jean pressed her snow-white thighs together, her toes curling slightly as she rubbed her knees, trying to contain her growing tension. She gave him a helpless side-eye.
Exhaling softly, she took a moment before explaining:
"First of all, I am the Acting Grand Master. If word got out that I was privately training Noelle for the selection, people might say it's unfair or question the integrity of the process.
"It's not exactly a big issue, but I still can't allow the citizens to doubt the fairness of the selection.
"Besides, I don't always have the time with all my duties.
"And when it comes to deeply manipulative, two-faced bad guys—honestly, no one understands them better than you.
"It's clear you are exactly that type. So who better to teach her than someone like you?"
Jean blushed as she said this, her cheeks turning redder as she felt his hand begin to slide lower. Instinctively, she pulled back her right hand to stop him through the towel.
Then she glared at him in a mix of embarrassment and frustration.
This jerk—she hadn't even finished speaking yet!
He really was the perfect example of a devious, dangerous man!
(End of Chapter)
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