Teyvat Side
In the following days, Lumine and Paimon stayed in Liyue Harbor with Mu Yang.
The two newly minted little rich girls had grown too lazy to take on commissions and simply lazed around, spending their days eating, drinking, and wandering aimlessly.
That was until Katherine found them and handed Lumine a letter from Amber.
Paimon was curious. "A letter from Amber? What could it be about?"
"Not sure. Maybe something dangerous is happening in Mondstadt again?"
Lumine opened the envelope and read aloud:
"Recently, a blond man with a very unique sense of fashion arrived in the city. His movements are erratic and unpredictable."
"He's been asking the locals a lot of strange questions. I think you might be interested."
"If you want to meet him, head to the Angel's Share—he goes there every day to drink."
"P.S.: It's probably not your brother. He doesn't match your previous description. This guy is taller and wears an eyepatch."
Paimon felt a little disappointed after hearing this. "From the initial description, I thought we were finally going to meet your brother."
Lumine put the letter away. Truthfully, she had been incredibly excited when she first started reading it.
But upon realizing it wasn't about her brother, disappointment was inevitable.
Still, she quickly adjusted her mood and joked,
"Tall and wears an eyepatch… Definitely not my brother, but maybe Kaeya's distant relative..."
Even Paimon couldn't resist teasing her back.
"Hey, what does this have to do with that guy Kaeya? Since when is an eyepatch proof of familial relations?!"
Mu Yang, who knew the future plot, thought to himself:
You actually guessed right. Dainsleif really does have some connection to Kaeya.
Both of them are from Khaenri'ah.
However, he couldn't reveal too much ahead of time—that would spoil the fun.
Mu Yang said, "Then we'll part ways here. Until we meet again."
Paimon grinned. "No worries! The Lantern Rite is coming up soon in Liyue—we definitely won't miss it."
Lumine nodded. "Yeah, we promised that kid Changchang we'd finish our business before the Lantern Rite. We'll see you then."
The two bid farewell to Mu Yang and set off for Mondstadt.
Mu Yang, meanwhile, returned to Yilong Wharf, planning to wait until he had gathered enough popularity points to simulate his background.
The system told him that all he needed was for the people on parallel Earth to get emotionally wrecked one more time—then it would be enough.
——————
Parallel Earth Timeline
The night after the event story concluded.
As usual, Guinaifen browsed through the miHoYo forums after ending her stream.
"Let's see what kind of fun posts about my husband are trending today. Gotta end the night on a high note..."
Sure enough, the hottest threads were all tagged with Mu Yang, Daddy, Charity, and similar keywords.
After all, this was the most generous event miHoYo had ever run.
A million Mora and the Treasure-Seeking sword were already great in-game rewards to improve the player experience.
But they even gave away a 5-star character—that was practically free money!
Account resellers were completely devastated. Back at launch, Keqing alone had gone for 400 yuan.
But now? Mu Yang had set up this event, inviting Keqing and Qiqi—plus Hydro Xingqiu.
As long as players earned enough points and cleared the challenge difficulty once, they could exchange for all three characters.
These three could even form a team—a DPS, a healer, and the Hydro applicator. New players' experience instantly skyrocketed.
Streamers and content creators unanimously declared that now was the best time to join the game.
Mu Yang is the GOAT. Just trust him.
But the most discussed topic wasn't even the event—it was an official pinned post.
Guinaifen clicked in to see what was going on.
Turns out, miHoYo had updated Mu Yang's splash art information.
His constellation had changed from ??? to Lone Guardian.
"Something about this feels ominous..."
Guinaifen scrolled through the comments to see what others thought.
Probably similar to her own reaction.
Comments:
[Vape Fake, Nicotine Real]: Holy crap, miHoYo's finally starting to cook, huh? I knew from the story that Mu Yang's condition wasn't simple.
[Easy to Simp, Hard to Quit]: Just the name alone screams pain (crossed out) sweetness. My diabetes might not survive this.
[Kaneki Ken Loves +7, You Caught Me]: This is the power of miHoYo's slow drip-feeding. Just three words updated, and I'm already wounded. (Crying cat meme)
[A Single Willow]: Is that you, Akira?
[Southern Dynasties, Northern Dynasties, None Compare to My Dynasty]: Good thing I stacked DEF%. I'm unfazed. (Sunglasses emoji)
[Purest Pyro Main]: Damn, this is straight-up foreshadowing. I'm scared. He has to be playable, right?
Indeed, the constellation's implications were pretty obvious.
Guinaifen felt the same way, but miHoYo was really good at keeping secrets.
What if they were planning to make Mu Yang a slow-burn character? Every time the story updates, a little more is revealed.
That'd be torture! She just wanted to enjoy him to the fullest right away!
Just as Guinaifen was about to log off and sleep, she stumbled upon another rapidly rising analysis post.
The title read:
"Analyzing Mu Yang's Constellation and Cryo Vision Traits—What Has He Been Through?"
Author: Universe-Level Gaming Genius · Silver Wolf76
Today, the official update revealed Mu Yang's constellation. I'm sure everyone's seen it.
But to analyze Mu Yang's past, we need to start with the traits of a Cryo Vision.
From the material "Frost-Worn Fang" description:
"The gods all bear the duty of loving their people."
And in the Teyvat Chapter Storyline Preview, the line about the Cryo Archon states:
"She is a god who no longer loves her people."
This brings me to my point—a Cryo Vision may represent "contradiction."
Below, I'll analyze this using already released characters.
First, Kaeya.
Judging by how Mondstadt's people see him,
Kaeya is absolutely not just some carefree, easygoing guy.
Rosaria says this is just his facade.
Mona is even more blunt:
"His 'Pavo Ocellus' symbolizes nobility, but also 'ornate concealment.'"
"He thinks he's severed ties with his past, but when the fated day comes, he'll still have to make his choice."
This "nobility" likely refers to his Khaenri'ahn heritage.
On one hand, he carries the bloodline of a fallen nation.
On the other, he must integrate into Mondstadt's life.
This is the essence of contradiction.
There's too little information about Khaenri'ah right now, so this might be a stretch.
But the next three examples are much clearer.
Rosaria is a sister of the Favonius Church, yet she never speaks Barbatos' name.
She never attends prayers, instead patrolling Mondstadt at night with her spear.
Diona wants to destroy Mondstadt's wine industry, yet she's blessed by the Spring Fairy.
No matter how she mixes drinks, they always turn out delicious.
Chongyun is the most obvious. Born into an exorcist family,
he wants to become a great Tianheng exorcist.
But due to his Pure Yang Spirit, he's never even seen an evil spirit, let alone used exorcism arts.
From this, I believe the Cryo Vision's trait is "contradiction."
With this theory in mind, let's revisit Mu Yang's role in Liyue's story.
(We'll skip Mondstadt—he didn't know anyone there anyway.)
In Liyue's story,
judging by the reactions of the adepti,
every single one of them adores Mu Yang.
They all see him as a friend.
Even Rex Lapis, Morax, is no exception.
(The old man even admitted to knowing Mu Yang through his Zhongli persona. I ship it.)
This shows Mu Yang was extremely sociable—the type who loved making friends.
But as we've established, Cryo is all about contradiction.
Mu Yang may have loved making friends, but in the end, it was all for nothing.
Just like his constellation—Lone Guardian.
Mu Yang's current state reflects this. He's forgotten everything.
Even Changsheng, who got her own dedicated line in his splash art, has been forgotten.
So here's my analysis:
Mu Yang once had a close group of friends—Liyue's adepti.
But for some reason, he's forgotten them all.
This is what he's going through. This is the "contradiction" of Cryo.
The full story will probably only be revealed when he gets a banner and his own story quest.
But personally, I think the tone is already set—it's gonna be painful.
Tears are guaranteed.
Though they probably won't kill him off, since banners don't run just once.
——————
Guinaifen was stunned.
Her playstyle was more about memes and fun—she wasn't this deep into lore analysis.
Right now, all she could say was, "Damn, that's impressive."
"This Silver Wolf is really something. Could she be the same Silver Wolf from our platform?"
A quick glance at the comments confirmed it.
[COCO Hushang Auntie Mixue]: Solid analysis. As expected of my girl Silver Wolf. Way better than that "Honest Truthseeker" guy.
[A Single Willow]: This is too tragic. Poor Mu Yang.
[Born a Beast, Can I Dream of Rome?]: miHoYo, why must you create such characters just to hurt me? Waaah...
[Last Tube Empty]: I get it now. miHoYo's letting Mu Yang spoil us with rewards, only to hit us later—"You are... I can't remember..."
[Quitting Porn Tomorrow]: Ugh, breaking my defenses in the middle of the night? Screw it, no quitting today!