"Rich lady. Hungry. Want food," Xu Zheng looked up at Ganyu with bright eyes, speaking in his signature baby-talk.
"???"
Ganyu didn't quite follow his strange phrasing—but she caught one key word: "food."
And in this house, when Xu Zheng said "food," he usually meant one thing.
Coconut milk.
Ganyu's cheeks immediately flushed pink. Her voice trembled a little as she said, "Okay… I'll go get it. Wait right here."
"I want it warm. Can you heat it up this time?" Xu Zheng added sweetly.
"Ugh—! O-Okay," Ganyu stammered, nodding.
In her mind: It's still warm! Just made it! Shouldn't be able to tell… right?
The Next Day.
While Ganyu was once again buried in Mooncarver Pavilion's paperwork, Xu Zheng was fully immersed in his own grind—daily quests and flute practice.
Today's task list from the system popped up as usual:
[Daily Quest 1: Perform 3 songs with the Purple Bamboo Flute]
[Daily Quest 2: Cook 3 dishes]
[Daily Quest 3: Help Al clear roadblocks]
[Daily Quest 4: Assist Xiangling in cooking]
[Note: Each task rewards 10 Primogems. Bonus 20 Primogems for full completion.]
The first two were easy. But Task 3?
Xu Zheng squinted at it. That one felt weirdly familiar.
Then it hit him: he'd done this exact thing back when he was playing Genshin. Clear roadblocks. Except back then, at least there was dialogue. Here? Nobody was waiting at the damn roadblock.
Screw it, Xu Zheng thought. Let's just go check it out.
He glanced toward Ganyu's office to confirm she was still working.
All clear.
He teleported.
Xu Zheng materialized on a mountain path. The target location was still a ways off.
"…Seriously?" he muttered. "Even in another world I have to walk everywhere?!"
It took him a full half hour of hiking before he reached a canyon, where a group of bandits had set up a roadblock on a narrow trade route below.
Xu Zheng peered over the edge.
Definitely not Hilichurls. Full-on human bandits.
Let's keep this clean.
He summoned a bow made of pure ice and nocked an arrow.
Whoosh—
The ice arrow whistled through the air and slammed into the roadblock.
BOOM!
Shards of ice exploded everywhere. The bandits panicked.
"Someone's up there!"
"The hell—?!"
They looked up just in time to catch another arrow coming down.
The roadblock shattered into frozen splinters.
Dust and elemental particles scattered through the air as the bandits scrambled for cover.
"WHO'S THERE?!" their leader, a rough-looking guy named Livian, shouted.
They hadn't expected trouble—not when they had intel saying a Mondstadt merchant caravan would pass through today.
Had someone leaked their plan?
He ordered his men to sweep the cliffs. Find whoever shot that arrow.
Meanwhile, Xu Zheng checked his quest log.
[Daily Quest 3: Complete]
No need to stick around.
He casually teleported back to Liyue, leaving behind a canyon full of angry, confused bandits guarding nothing.
Back at Ganyu's little courtyard, Xu Zheng tiptoed to her office window and peeked in.
She was still there. Head down. Working hard.
Xu Zheng let out a small breath of relief.
If she knew he'd snuck off to complete system tasks, she'd definitely get worried—and that meant more "No leaving the house without Mama's permission" rules.
Just as he was about to head back to his room—
Two soft hands suddenly covered his eyes.
"Guess who~?" a teasing voice whispered behind him.
Reflexively, Xu Zheng touched the hands. "Big Sis Baiwen."
"Wha—how'd you guess that so fast?" Baiwen huffed.
She released him and stepped forward.
Xu Zheng blinked. "Baiwen-jie, you look kinda… tired?"
"Do I?" Baiwen replied, yawning wide enough to show her molars.
The dark circles under her eyes were impossible to miss.
"You okay? Didn't sleep well?" Xu Zheng asked.
"I'm fine. Just stayed up working until 2 AM."
"Wow! You're amazing! So hardworking!"
"Mm… not really," Baiwen said with a tired smile. Her gaze drifted toward the office window.
Inside, Ganyu was still buried in paperwork, utterly focused.
Baiwen felt a pang of awe.
To think three of us had to stay up all night just to help handle one day of Ganyu's workload…
She really does do so much for Liyue.
"Little Xu Zheng," Baiwen said suddenly, voice soft. "When you grow up… make sure to treat your master well, okay?"
Xu Zheng blinked. Huh? What kind of emotional plot twist is that?!
Before he could respond, she waved and walked away.
"Anyway, gotta go deliver these files."
Just as he turned to sneak off, Ganyu's voice called from inside:
"Xu Zheng? Come in for a moment."
still need someone to celebrate it with. Urgent.
Some people died, but not completely...