Originally, the two of them planned to go to Yuehai Pavilion to ask Ganyu and Guizhong about it.
However, when they arrived at Yuehai Pavilion, they discovered that neither Guizhong nor Ganyu was there.
According to the secretaries on the second floor, both Ganyu and Guizhong were on leave today and hadn't come to work.
This made Raiden Makoto and Greater Lord Rukkhadevata even more startled.
Guizhong taking leave wasn't strange—after all, with Ganyu, the model worker, around, Guizhong was relatively idle at Yuehai Pavilion.
But the key issue was—
Why was Ganyu also on leave?!
Something was wrong.
Very wrong.
Raiden Makoto and Greater Lord Rukkhadevata increasingly felt that the people of Liyue were hiding something from them.
And that something revolved around Jiang Yan—who hadn't appeared for over five hundred years.
After a great deal of indirect probing—just short of cornering Morax and interrogating him—Morax finally couldn't hold out anymore and told them everything about Jiang Yan.
He also instructed them firmly not to tell anyone else.
When they heard that Jiang Yan had fallen into a deep slumber, both Greater Lord Rukkhadevata and Raiden Makoto froze.
Hadn't Jiang Yan been perfectly fine before?
Why had he suddenly fallen asleep?
To this, Morax could only say that he didn't know either.
For five hundred years, Guizhong and Cloud Retainer had never given up researching his condition.
Yet Jiang Yan simply never woke up.
In truth, it wasn't just them.
Even the system itself hadn't expected Jiang Yan to end up like this.
Within Jiang Yan's Sea of Consciousness.
Jiang Yan's consciousness floated quietly at the very center of the sea.
If one looked closely, they would see that inside the golden sphere formed by his consciousness, a tiny figure was sleeping soundly.
Two thousand years of nonstop battle had pushed Jiang Yan's spirit to the brink of collapse.
Once he finally relaxed, under the system's protection, he automatically entered a state of deep mental sleep.
Once in this state, Jiang Yan's consciousness sank completely into his dream world.
Unless Jiang Yan himself woke up, no external force could rouse him.
The system could forcibly wake him—but doing so would cause irreversible damage to his spirit.
At this moment, within Jiang Yan's dream.
…
"Ah Yan! Get up, you're going to be late for school!"
A beam of sunlight shone through the window, illuminating the previously dim room.
Outside the room, a gentle female voice rang out.
Half-awake, Jiang Yan struggled, abruptly sat up—and then flopped back down again.
Boot failed.
"Ah Yan?"
When there was no response, the gentle voice immediately stopped being gentle.
"Jiang Yan!!!"
Bang!
The door was kicked open.
The blanket was yanked away, and a middle-aged woman who looked about sixty percent similar to Jiang Yan glared at him, then smacked his butt hard.
"Get up! You're about to be late for school!"
Jiang Yan's eyes flew open.
But when he saw the somewhat familiar woman in front of him, his brain froze.
"Uh… Mom?"
He stared at her in shock.
"Why did you transmigrate to Teyvat too?!"
"What Teyvat? Have you slept your brains out?"
Jiang's mom shot him a glare and turned to walk out.
"Hurry up, wash up and eat breakfast. Your dad's waiting for you downstairs."
"Huh?"
Jiang Yan looked at his own body, then at his surroundings.
Confusion filled his eyes.
He walked to the mirror.
When he saw his black-haired, youthful face reflected there, he froze.
This place is…?
Jiang Yan's pupils shrank as he rushed to the window.
The bustling city traffic below made him feel as though a lifetime had passed.
This…
Me… no, that's not right…
Jiang Yan couldn't quite believe it.
Had everything he'd experienced all this time… just been a dream?
No—what exactly had he experienced?
He felt like he'd forgotten a great many things.
He tried hard to recall them, but the more he tried, the blurrier they became.
"Jiang Yan! Still not done?!"
His mother's voice rang out again from outside the door.
"Oh, coming!"
Since the harder he thought, the blurrier it got, Jiang Yan decided to stop thinking about it.
He picked up his backpack from the desk, put on his school uniform with practiced ease, and walked out.
The day passed.
Familiar classmates.
Familiar teachers.
Familiar parents.
A familiar world.
Everything felt so normal.
Yet from beginning to end, Jiang Yan felt that something was subtly wrong.
But he couldn't put his finger on it.
As each day passed, that sense of dissonance only grew stronger.
Time went by, day after day.
Jiang Yan never once recalled anything about Teyvat.
Until the day he graduated from high school—
Everything changed.
"Hey, Ah Yan, did you hear? A game announced its open beta today!"
His best friend, Li Chen, walked up with a grin and spoke to him.
"What game?"
Jiang Yan smiled and put down the book in his hands.
"I heard it's an open-world anime-style game. I think it's called… Genshin Impact?"
Jiang Yan froze.
A powerful sense of dissonance surged up from his heart.
Genshin Impact?
Genshin Impact?!
Such a familiar name!
A sharp pain flared in Jiang Yan's head—this feeling was far too familiar.
"What're you spacing out for? Let's go. We're on holiday starting tomorrow!"
Li Chen laughed and patted Jiang Yan's shoulder, pulling him out of his thoughts.
"Ah… let's go."
Jiang Yan came back to his senses and walked off with Li Chen.
At the school gate, he saw his parents standing by their family car, waving at him.
Just as he was about to reach them—
A car suddenly lost control and burst out from the side of the street.
Charging straight toward the school gate.
"Watch out!"
"Ah Yan!"
"Run!!!"
Jiang Yan stared at the oncoming truck, his eyes wide.
In that instant of life and death, his mind became crystal clear.
He remembered.
He remembered everything.
Yes.
This day.
The day he would never forget for the rest of his life.
The summer of his second year of high school.
His parents.
His best friend.
All of them—taken away by a drunk driver.
And it was also that year that Genshin Impact announced its open beta.
When his spirit was on the verge of collapse, he encountered Genshin Impact.
Genshin…
It was what pulled him back from the edge of depression.
"Heh… hehehhehe…"
Jiang Yan suddenly laughed.
Seven-colored radiance surged around him as all his power returned to his body at once.
"This isn't a dream."
Jiang Yan looked at the dual-star state returning to his body and smiled.
He turned to the oncoming car, clenched his right fist—
And threw a punch.
The car was smashed to pieces by Jiang Yan's blow.
At that moment, Jiang Yan's parents and Li Chen stood up, smiling at him.
"Ah Yan, looks like you've been living pretty well in that world."
His mother smiled gently as she looked at Jiang Yan, now restored to his true self.
"Yeah. It's been… alright."
Jiang Yan nodded with a smile.
Li Chen and Jiang Yan's parents stepped forward and hugged him.
No one spoke.
They simply held each other—
Until they gradually faded away.
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