That evening, Mu Qingge finally awoke.
The first thing she saw upon opening her eyes was Paimon.
If Paimon's here, then...
Shifting her gaze to the right, Mu Qingge spotted Lumine dozing off beside the bed.
"Qingge, you're finally awake! Great! I'll go get Baizhu right away!" Paimon exclaimed excitedly, fluttering out of the room.
Hearing Paimon's voice, Lumine stirred awake and rushed to the bedside. "Qingge, how are you feeling?"
Mu Qingge took a moment to assess herself before smiling at Lumine. "I feel much better. Dr. Baizhu saved me, didn't he? He must have worked so hard."
"Oh, and I should thank you and Paimon too. Thank you for taking care of me."
Paimon returned, hovering beside Lumine. "Hehe, Qingge's our friend! No need to be so polite!"
Lumine nodded in agreement. "Paimon's right! We're friends!"
Baizhu arrived to check Mu Qingge's pulse, nodding in satisfaction.
"You're recovering even faster than I anticipated. Your constitution is remarkably robust."
Seeing Baizhu's pale complexion, Mu Qingge sighed inwardly.
It seems it's best to avoid coming here too often in the future.
"Thank you for your trouble, Mr. Baizhu."
Baizhu smiled faintly. "Don't mention it. Healing the sick and saving lives is a doctor's duty, especially when Lady Mu was injured protecting the people of Liyue. Please, no more formalities."
After chatting with the trio for a while, Lumine suddenly asked:
"Qingge, who exactly injured you?"
Paimon chimed in, "Yeah, yeah! We thought it was Childe at first, but that guy here said Childe wouldn't stand a chance against you. Plus, he'd just fought Lumine, so he definitely wouldn't have been able to beat you!"
"But... if it wasn't Childe, then who could it be?"
Before Mu Qingge could answer, a voice suddenly called from outside the door:
"Is it that girl?"
Paimon turned toward the sound and exclaimed in surprise, "Oh, Yelan! And Zhongli, Ningguang, Keqing, Ganyu, Hu Tao... You all came together!"
Six more people arrived at once, instantly enlivening the atmosphere in the room.
"This Director came with my Consultant. On the way, we first encountered Lady Ningguang and the others, then we ran into Yelan. Since everyone was here to see Qingge, we decided to come together," Hu Tao explained.
Zhongli nodded slightly. "Indeed, that is how it happened."
"Z-Zhongli... Mr. Zhongli..."
Mu Qingge tried to force herself to sit up, but Lumine, seeing her intention, suddenly remembered Zhongli's words—that among the Qixing, only Mu Qingge knew his true identity. She instantly understood what Mu Qingge was trying to do.
But Lumine wouldn't let her have her way.
"Rest properly and don't move around," Zhongli said firmly.
Hearing this, Mu Qingge obediently lay back down.
No one seemed to find anything odd about this exchange, except for Ningguang, who cast Zhongli a particularly surprised glance, her thoughts unreadable.
After resting for a while, Mu Qingge finally answered Yelan's earlier question:
"Yes, the masked woman... She's incredibly strong. And... she seems to be Tartaglia's younger sister."
"I wanted to recapture Tartaglia, the one who released Osial, but she appeared just as I was about to succeed..."
Yelan remained silent for a long moment, then suddenly apologized:
"I'm sorry. If I had been the one investigating her movements back then, and if I had told you about it..."
"How can you say that? This wasn't your responsibility alone. As one of the Liyue Qixing, this falls under my duties," Ningguang said. "Rest well these next few days and focus on recuperating. Feng Yan will temporarily handle all affairs related to Kaiyang."
"I'll help out in my spare time too," Keqing added.
"And me too," Ganyu chimed in. "I'll assist as well."
Mu Qingge was deeply moved. "Th-thank you! Thank you all so much!"
Everyone around me is so kind...
After chatting for a while, Baizhu urged them to leave, citing Mu Qingge's need to rest.
Before departing, Mu Qingge made a request: "Everyone, if possible, please keep this secret from my parents and sister. I don't want them to worry."
Everyone nodded in agreement.
"Some people already know about this," Keqing said, "but I'll do my best to contain the information."
"Thank you!"
"You're welcome."
-
Player's Perspective
After leaving the Northland Bank, there had been no news of Mu Qingge in the main quest.
Guojia was anxious, but there was nothing she could do. She and her live stream viewers were all eager to learn about Mu Qingge's current situation.
But the damn game company wouldn't release any information!
Even after completing the final main quest storyline, there was still no word about Mu Qingge. Guojia was beside herself with worry.
The Liyue storyline had been exhilarating, the main quest was phenomenal, and the animations were superb, but...
She desperately wanted to know how Qingge was doing.
After finishing the storyline, Guojia didn't end her stream or start any other quests. Instead, she opened the Mihoyo official website to see what other players were saying.
[Personal Opinion: The Liyue storyline was absolutely amazing! The animation was incredible! Mihoyo is truly top-tier!]
[I'm hooked, brothers! Even after finishing the quest, I couldn't snap out of it for a long time.]
[The character models are so detailed! I especially love Mu Qingge's model, but Mihoyo gave her way too little screen time. It would be perfect if they added an update on her current situation!]
[There's still too little of her? My wife's already getting plenty of screen time! But I wholeheartedly agree with your suggestion!]
Guojia was browsing the page when it suddenly refreshed. The game's official account had just released a new video.
"Brothers, the official account just dropped a video! Let me check it out for you first."
The video opened with the familiar logo, followed by stunningly high-definition visuals.
Yes, you read that right—ultra-high-definition!
It was the kind of 3D masterpiece where every frame could be extracted and used as wallpaper.
"Holy shit! Mihoyo's burning money, brothers! They're really burning money!"
The video showcased the epic battle between Mu Qingge and Angie!
[What the hell? Is this really that high-definition?!]
[If you've got this kind of tech, why even make a game? The effects and animation are better than any anime or movie out there!]
[ Holy shit holy shit holy shit...]
[This is insane!]
[Saved! This is mind-blowing, brothers! Just based on the game developers' attitude alone, this game is going to be a massive hit!]
[Can Elemental Power be used like this?!]
[Aaaah, so cool, so cool! My wife is so cool!]
Everyone had seen the combat scenes in the game before—after all, it had quite a few cutscenes.
But a breathtaking battle sequence like this, lasting over ten minutes, was extremely rare!
Forget about the game; you'd be hard-pressed to find animation of this quality even in movies!
So they were holding back this scene to unleash something even greater?!
Excellent! Absolutely excellent! More, please!
Both Guojia and the viewers in the live stream were completely engrossed.
In the end, both sides were battered and bruised. Angie led Tartaglia away, while Mu Qingge retreated alone in another direction.
Thump!
Guojia slammed her fist on the table.
"No way! I'm not satisfied! Play it again!"
The hype for today's update had skyrocketed. Little did they know that in a few months, this game would explode in popularity beyond their wildest expectations.