Dinnertime.
Every seat around the round table was filled.
On the table sat eight dishes and one soup, all looking, smelling, and tasting excellent.
Just like that, Mona's divination was officially proven wrong.
"Hmm? You two aren't eating.
Do you not like the food?"
At the table, Huoliya looked at Ganyu and Shenhe, who had barely touched their chopsticks, and suddenly began doubting her own cooking.
She subconsciously picked up a piece of tofu and tasted it.
"…No, that's not it. This really does taste great."
"It's not that~"
Ganyu waved her hands quickly. "I'm already full, that's all.
It tastes really good, honestly!"
"Full?"
Huoliya froze, then glanced at Ganyu's bowl.
"Seriously?"
"Really~"
Ganyu nodded again and again.
That was a lie.
She was just holding herself back.
She was absolutely not full.
The reason… was that she was afraid of gaining weight.
Ganyu was the type who put on pounds the moment she dared to eat freely.
Back in the day, because she'd been too plump and her half-adeptus body too sturdy, she had once been swallowed whole by a giant beast during a battle.
All the Adepti had assumed that Ganyu had been gulped down into the beast's stomach. Faced with such a scene, they weren't even particularly worried—after all, a monster like that could never truly harm a qilin body like Ganyu's.
When the battle was over, Cloud Retainer cut open the beast's belly, only to find… no Ganyu inside.
After rummaging around for a while, they finally fished Ganyu out of the beast's throat.
That beast hadn't died to adeptal arts at all.
It had been choked to death by Ganyu.
Literally.
The story had spread far and wide among the Adepti ever since.
From that point on, Ganyu embarked on the road of dieting and became very conscious of her figure.
She watched her food intake extremely carefully.
"Liar."
Fanan covered her mouth as she exposed Ganyu's fib.
Vanan also struggled to keep a straight face.
With a chatty master like Cloud Retainer,
there was hardly an Adeptus who didn't know Ganyu's childhood exploits.
Parents showing off their kids, after all.
"…"
Ganyu's face flushed scarlet. She lowered her head halfway and glared at the two of them three times over.
The look in her eyes clearly said: "You're not allowed to talk about that!"
"All right, all right, she's full."
Fanan forced herself to speak solemnly, though the curve at the corner of her mouth never once disappeared.
She was not a professional at holding in laughter.
Nothing she could do about it.
"I see~"
Huoliya could tell there was gossip here, but it wasn't a good time to pry.
Instead, she turned her gaze to Shenhe.
"Shenhe, are you full too?"
"No~"
Shenhe shook her head. "Master said once that the mortal world is full of temptations, and food is one of them.
To keep it from harming my cultivation, I usually just eat things like qingxin and glazed lilies to fill my stomach."
Qingxin was bitter and glazed lilies were astringent.
But that was cultivation.
"…"
Huoliya's eyelid twitched.
Vanan and Fanan were also stunned on the spot.
Hold on… why did that sound so wrong?
In a broad sense, what Shenhe said wasn't incorrect.
But you couldn't examine it too carefully.
Food was indeed one of the temptations of the human world.
But the key part of that saying was "greed."
As long as you could keep your greed in check, how could eating a normal amount possibly ruin your cultivation?
"Ganyu?"
Huoliya instinctively shifted her gaze back to Ganyu.
"Uh…"
Ganyu's cheeks reddened even more.
Her master had probably just made something up in front of Shenhe.
Most likely, at some point Ganyu and the other disciples hadn't been paying attention and let the junior sister go hungry. Then, when Shenhe asked about it, the master panicked and scrambled for an excuse.
How was she supposed to explain that now…
"Ahem."
Noticing things were going off track, Vanan gave a light cough.
Only then did everyone drag their eyes away from Ganyu.
This really wasn't something Ganyu could be expected to talk about.
It would put her in a completely impossible position.
On one side was her junior sister; on the other, her master and elders. Whether she told the truth or kept up the lie, it wouldn't sit right.
"It does sound kind of reasonable,"
Mona said after thinking it over for a bit,
"but it still feels off somehow."
After a moment of internal debate, she chalked it up to some special cultivation taboo unique to the Liyue Adepti.
Different fields were like different mountains—she decided it was normal that she didn't understand.
"Here, eat~"
Taro smoothly took over the conversation, picking up a shrimp and placing it into Shenhe's bowl.
"Cultivating in the mountains is different from cultivating among mortals.
In the mountains, doing things that way is naturally fine.
But down here in the mortal world, the key is to integrate yourself into it while still holding fast to your heart, and to temper your Dao with the breath of the red dust.
The very first step of cultivation in the mortal world is to blend into that world.
Why not give it a try, Shenhe?"
He was absolutely making that up.
But who couldn't?
As long as it sounded reasonable and wasn't technically wrong, the little details didn't matter.
If there was some grand principle in the words, then the words were "correct."
Call him out? Who was going to do that?
You didn't have his insights or his understanding. The world you saw was completely different from his.
How could a sparrow know the ambition of a swan?
Ants at the foot of the mountain wanting to debate with someone who lived upon it?
Even if you talked, it would just be a chicken and a duck squabbling.
Besides, was the Adepti's great Dao something to be passed around lightly?
Most people weren't even qualified to hear it—so what was there to argue about?
As for friends… friends were all "their own people." They very much wanted Shenhe to change for the better.
Why would they be the ones to break the spell?
If anything, they would join in with Taro and help persuade her.
"I see~"
Shenhe blinked, then nodded in strong agreement.
"Master sent me down the mountain into the mortal world for this very reason, then.
It was this disciple's dullness that failed to grasp Master's deeper intent."
Sure enough, her cultivation still wasn't enough.
The man before her was someone that neither her master nor the Geo Lord could fully see through.
Of course his words contained profound truth.
With both the Emperor and her master as his guarantors, Shenhe believed him instantly.
In that same instant, she also felt she had suddenly understood the true meaning behind her master sending her down the mountain.
She was filled with shame.
"Pff—
Cough, cough—"
Vanan almost couldn't hold it in, nearly laughing her drink out through her nose and hastily turning it into a cough.
This child was just too easy to fool.
"Mhm, exactly."
Huoliya nodded approvingly.
"Since you're already down here, there's no need to be so restrained. Just treat this place as your own home.
Everyone here likes you a lot, Shenhe."
Home?
Liked?
Shenhe's pupils contracted.
A strange feeling welled up in her heart all at once.
Could she… really still have a home?
Could someone branded as a cursed lone star still be needed and loved by others?
So unfamiliar, yet so familiar.
In a daze, a familiar figure surfaced before her eyes, sitting among everyone else and looking at her with a smile.
"Mother…"
Shenhe raised a hand to her chest.
Warmth.
It felt like a blessing from her mother.
"Mhm!"
She nodded hard, speaking with utmost seriousness.
"I will."
Everyone exchanged a glance and broke into smiles.
This child was already beginning to blend into this big family.
Still, tricking a girl who had just come down from the mountain like this did bring a bit of guilt.
They would just have to make it up to her by taking her to see more of the great mountains and rivers when they had the time.
"Ganyu, you should eat too."
Taro nodded slightly, then turned his gaze to Ganyu.
"People are iron, food is steel—if you don't eat your fill, you won't have the strength to do anything well.
Everything else is secondary.
There's nothing you need to worry about."
"Eh?"
Ganyu froze, then looked up to meet Taro's eyes.
Her face went bright red and she ducked her head again at once.
It was over. Even Mister Taro knew…
She really should have seen that coming.
She never should have held out hope.
"…All right."
Ganyu answered softly and, mustering her courage, finally picked up her bowl and chopsticks.
Since Mister Taro had said so, he definitely wouldn't lie to her.
Just for today, she wouldn't hold herself back.
Worst case… she would just double her training routine afterward.
(End of Chapter)
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