Mondstadt City.
South District Fountain Plaza.
The West Wind Church personnel and the Knights of Favonius were methodically setting up the venue.
However, as the main vocalist for this concert, Barbara sat backstage with a melancholic expression, staring blankly at a photograph in her hand.
In the photo were her older sister Jean, and a man she referred to as her brother-in-law.
"Why... why did you have to become my brother-in-law?"
The young girl mournfully caressed the man's face in the photo, a drop of bitter tear squeezing from the corner of her eye.
"Excuse me..."
A passing nun saw this scene and gently tapped on the stage frame as a reminder.
"The performance is about to start, Miss Barbara, your state..."
"Ah!"
Barbara quickly put away the photo, wiped away her tears, and then showed an idol's smile: "N-no problem! Haven't everyone been calling me the 'Melancholy Princess' lately? I was just getting into character!"
The nun wanted to say more, but with the performance time imminent and Mondstadt unable to find a second beautiful and sweet-voiced singer, she could only go along with Barbara's wishes.
In a little while, the performance would officially begin.
...
Buzz!
In a small alley, a hidden MC anchor point flickered, and Jack's figure appeared with it.
As soon as he landed, the noisy sounds from all around entered his ears.
"Go, Barbara!"
"Go, Barbara! You're the best!"
"I'm Miss Barbara's dog!"
"Melancholy Princess, forever our god!"
Thus, all sorts of crazy ramblings emerged endlessly.
Jack dug at his ears, selectively blocking out some of his senses.
Sometimes, being too sensitive wasn't a good thing.
Whoosh!
With a flash, Jack leaped directly from the ground onto the roof of a residential building, seeing the stage set up in the Fountain Plaza from afar.
"Speakers and standing mics, they've really put on a proper show."
After several more consecutive leaps, playing the role of a 'gentleman on the beam' (a term for a burglar), until he found a VIP seat that offered a direct view of the stage and was uncontested, Jack then used vines to construct a chair and slowly sat down.
"Ehe, you came to the concert too? What a coincidence."
A breeze blew past, and the green bard appeared beside Jack.
Jack disdainfully fanned his nose.
"Did you just come out of a wine vat, you reek of alcohol."
"Ehehe, well, I have to thank the Traveler for his generosity, don't I? You know, I don't have many great hobbies in my life, I just love a few cups of clear spring water."
Venti displayed his special small wine cup for the Anemo Archon.
It looked small, but it actually contained the adepti arts of Liyue, and he had no idea how much fine wine he had stored inside.
As for where this guy got the money to buy wine.
Naturally, Jack felt sorry for him and didn't want to give special treatment only to his wives, so he also paid the male apostles a salary based on a certain amount of world coin.
For this, Diluc provided an equivalent, or even excessive, amount of Teyvat material feedback.
Venti, on the other hand, worked even harder for the diamond production factory.
As for Zhongli? It would be a miracle if that guy didn't directly send his bills to Qunyu Pavilion.
While the two chatted, on the concert stage, a young woman dressed appropriately walked out with a microphone.
"Thank you all for waiting! Our West Wind Church charity concert event is about to begin. Let's welcome Mondstadt's national idol, Miss Barbara!"
"┗|｀O′|┛ Awoo~~ Barbara! Barbara!"
The audience, more than seventy percent male, immediately let out a chorus of wails, everyone craning their necks to look towards the backstage entrance.
Under everyone's eager gaze, Barbara, dressed in a sacred white dress and white tights, made a dazzling appearance.
"Hello everyone! Today, let's also live every moment full of energy!"
Barbara jogged to the center of the stage, revealing a youthful and radiant smile, instantly captivating a large portion of the audience below.
Jack, watching from the distant rooftop, was also touched by her gentleness, a slight smile gracing his lips.
"What, taking the older sister wasn't enough, now you want to take the younger sister into your embrace too?"
"What are you saying? I just can't bear to see the sad scene of them sisters being separated, 'taking into my embrace' sounds so unseemly."
The implication was that he approved of the matter of having both sisters.
...
"Are you ready? The concert is about to... begin!"
Barbara made a gun shape with her hand and 'shot' everyone in the heart.
Bang!
A sweet wink was cast, once again overwhelming a large portion of the audience.
Then, lively and dynamic background music began, and Barbara swayed with the rhythm. The concert officially started.
On the rooftop.
Jack closed his eyes, enjoying Barbara's singing.
The language she used was not the common Teyvat language.
Instead, it leaned more towards a language from a country on Jack's previous life's Blue Star, a country whose name also contained 'De'.
The words were long, and some even had trilled 'r' sounds.
But these renditions, when performed by her, all became a plus.
However, as he listened, the emotions conveyed by the song began to change.
At first, the girl was cheerful and lively, as if she was living various sweet little days with her sweet first love.
Gradually, the tone became melancholic.
What was conveyed was a feeling as if her partner had fallen for someone else, and the girl was left heartbroken alone.
In the end, it was as if she recalled the past beauty, and the girl, now alone, walked towards despair, helplessly facing a bleak reality, a form of self-exile.
"Venti, what's the general meaning of the lyrics?"
The Teyvat common language was, to put it plainly, Chinese characters. Jack had only occasionally heard Jean and the others speak a few words of Mondstadtian in bed, but he hadn't reached the stage where he could speak or read it.
So he directly asked the Mondstadt deity to be his translator.
"Oh, oh, this one, it's a very poignant story."
Venti revealed a schadenfreude smile and narrated the story within Barbara's song from beginning to end.
...Lyrical gist:
The girl and the boy fell in love, confessing to each other under the blessing of the wind.
Flowers blessed them, and birds accompanied them on their journey.
They walked through lakes, crossed forests, and swore oaths of mountains and seas by the edge of Stormterror's Lair.
Their eyes only saw each other.
...
The boy returned from the army, having created legends and miracles no one had ever achieved.
But because of this, he was surrounded by a sea of admirers, gradually losing sight of the girl hiding in the crowd.
She called out, she chased.
The boy, drowned in glory, ignored her.
...
The girl shed tears, alone with the wind.
She waded through rivers, climbed high mountains, and with a desperate leap, fell from a precipice.
Amidst the howling wind, she recalled the beauty of the past.
Together with vows and memories, she was buried in the boundless sea.
-------------------------------
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