Outside the window.
Guizhong was crouched there sneakily, peeking through the not-so-transparent window with wide, eager eyes.
The Authority of Dust in her hand emitted a faint earthy-yellow glow. Her delicate face was tense, barely suppressing her excitement as she muttered to herself under her breath.
"Let's see if I don't scare you to death!"
"You actually dared to make me massage your legs in front of that many people, damn it!"
"I'm a youthful, beautiful girl, you know! Don't I have dignity?! Who's your brother, huh?!"
"You never play with me, just busy doing bad things with Ganyu and the others!"
"And you make me work overtime researching your redstone tech every day!"
"Unforgivable! Absolutely unforgivable!"
"Once you start, I'll scare you senseless! I'll make sure you don't dare touch little Ganyu for an entire month!"
Just as she finished speaking, a low voice whispered softly behind her ear.
"And how exactly do you plan to do that?"
"That's obvious, of course I'll use the Authority of Dust and smear him with sand, "
Guizhong spoke excitedly, but before she could finish, her expression froze.
She stiffly turned her head, gave a silly smile,
, and in the next instant, her eyes widened as she raised her hand, ready to fling sand straight into Ryen's face.
But before she could act, Ryen grabbed her wrist and slammed her against the wall.
The freshly condensed dust scattered instantly, falling right back onto Guizhong's own head.
"Pfft! Pfft! Pfft! Damn it!"
Guizhong spat out sand furiously, glaring at Ryen.
"You jerk! You're bullying me again!"
Ryen rolled his eyes.
"Hey, I swear on heaven and earth, if you weren't plotting something, would I even come out here?"
"That's because you embarrassed me first this afternoon!"
Guizhong snorted angrily.
"You made me massage your legs in front of four nations! Don't I have any dignity at all?!"
As she spoke, her gaze drifted downward, only then noticing that Ryen had come out bare-chested.
Under the moonlight, she was pinned against the wall, her arm still held by him.
Her heart skipped a beat.
An inexplicable heat rose to her cheeks.
Her eyes darted away as she muttered nervously,
"What are you doing?! Shameless! Let go of me! I'll scream, I'll tell Ganyu and the others!"
Ryen clicked his tongue.
"Even if you told Zhongli, I'd still be in the right. You were the one who tried to ambush me while I was handling important business."
Guizhong pouted pitifully.
"But I'm still a girl! If you do this… I won't be able to get married!"
"Oh, stop it."
Ryen glared at her and lowered his voice.
"Behave yourself and scram, or I'll deal with you."
Guizhong immediately bared her little tiger teeth in anger.
"Can't you just give in to me a little?! You're always like this!"
"You were about to ambush me. I already gave you face by not challenging you to a fair warrior's duel."
Ryen raised an eyebrow.
"Or what, do you want an Imperial Duel too?"
At that, Guizhong immediately shut up.
Because she knew,
Ryen truly did not see her as a woman.
He treated her completely like a like-minded brother-in-arms.
After a brief, awkward silence, Ryen sighed helplessly.
"It's late. Go back and sleep. There's a lot to do tomorrow."
"Tch…"
Guizhong muttered resentfully.
"You just hate that I interrupted your important business."
"What else would it be?"
Ryen replied matter-of-factly.
"I've already been extremely tolerant with you. If it were anyone else daring to interrupt me at a moment like that, I'd have punched first and asked questions later."
As he spoke, he released her wrist, rubbed her head gently, and brushed the sand off her hair with a smile.
"Alright. Go back."
Guizhong stared at him gloomily, dissatisfaction written all over her face.
"Scumbag! You said before you'd play with me every day! You even promised to help me design skills!"
"Didn't I help you design them?"
"Tch… that's not the point!"
Guizhong muttered.
"I've been revived for so long now, and all you do is make me research redstone tech!"
"Every time we enter that world, you rush me to work and never play with me!"
Her head slowly lowered, her voice growing quieter.
"Honestly… if you didn't want to play with me, why did you revive me at all?"
"Morax avoids me. Ping'er and Cloud Retainer are busy building things every day."
"And you only care about dating Ganyu and the others…"
"Did you revive me just to make me work?"
"If I didn't have talent in machinery, would you even have wanted to revive me at all?"
Hearing this, Ryen let out a helpless sigh.
At the core of it,
Guizhong was feeling lost.
She was naturally lively and energetic. And truth be told, even though she had lived for thousands of years,
When Guizhong was first born, she was filled with curiosity about the world.
But before she could see much of it, she became the god of the Guili Assembly's people.
She ruled over countless lives during the Archon War.
Every day was lived on the brink of disaster.
Worried about monster attacks.
Worried about failing her people.
Worried she wouldn't be a worthy god.
Her youthful nature was suppressed to its limit.
In short,
At an age when she should have been carefree, she was forced to grow up and shoulder the fate of countless lives.
And then…
She fell during a divine conflict.
Even in her final moments, Guizhong only worried about what would happen to her people without her.
Morax was a god of battle.
But when it came to governance,
Guizhong wasn't boasting when she said ten Moraxes couldn't compare to her.
That had been the foundation of their original pact.
Morax and the adepti would protect the people of Guili.
Guizhong would govern them.
Yet after thousands of years, upon being revived,
She expected to still be needed.
To still lead her people forward.
Instead, she learned she had been dead for millennia.
The Guili Assembly was gone.
Only Liyue remained.
And the people of Liyue barely remembered her.
Rex Lapis had stepped down.
Liyue had entered an era of human governance.
After her revival, Guizhong had quietly traveled across Liyue.
A thousand years of change.
The world had moved on.
She could not find even the faintest trace of her own existence, or any reason why she was still needed.
The people of Liyue were well-fed, well-clothed, living peaceful and prosperous lives.
They no longer needed gods, yet they had built a civilization others could only look up to.
Guizhong was lost.
To put it simply, she had run into life's most fundamental philosophical question:
"What meaning does my existence have in this world?"
Freed from the burdens and shackles she once carried, Guizhong regained her girlish nature, but at the same time, she became more emotionally sensitive.
To Guizhong, the meaning of a god was not merely love.
It was guidance, leading one's people forward.
And now, that role no longer seemed necessary.
Letting her research redstone technology had two reasons.
First, Guizhong truly had the talent for it, among everyone Ryen had ever met, she was the most gifted.
She would become a genuine master of redstone.
Second, it gave her something to do.
So far, two gods had been revived.
Makoto did not suffer this confusion at all, because Ei had left behind such a mess that Makoto barely had time to think about herself.
Besides, Inazuma still needed her governance.
But Liyue?
Its politics were transparent, its prosperity unquestionable.
It truly no longer needed a god.
Her love for playfulness was not mere frivolity, it was Guizhong reclaiming her true nature.
A way to rediscover her sense of presence.
Unfortunately…
Just as Guizhong herself said,
Zhongli really was heartless.
Reviving Guizhong seemed to resolve his greatest emotional knot.
After she returned, he barely involved himself in her life.
Ping'er and Cloud Retainer were close friends, but they spent most of their time tinkering with bizarre constructions in the MC world.
The only one left who could truly play with Guizhong… was Ryen.
Ryen had promised to spend time with her, but in the end, he still sent her off to work first.
Sighing softly, Ryen looked at the visibly dejected Guizhong and gently rubbed her head.
"Don't overthink it," he said softly.
"Your revival means a great deal to everyone."
Guizhong froze, slowly lifting her head to look at him.
"Everyone needs you," Ryen continued warmly.
"And I need you too."
Her heartbeat instantly accelerated.
She opened her mouth, about to say something,
But Ryen added casually,
"If you hadn't revived, how would I have found a like-minded comrade?"
"Those guys like Zhongli don't understand our pursuit of art at all. Only you are my true confidant!"
Guizhong fell silent.
After a long pause, she pouted slightly and muttered,
"…Got it."
Ryen didn't press further. Stretching lazily, he smiled.
"Anyway, stop letting your thoughts run wild. I really have neglected you lately, always having you research redstone for me."
"But I've said it before: only you can truly master redstone technology. Many of my future plans depend on it."
"I can only ask this of you. You're extremely important to my world. Understand?"
"As for playing, there'll always be time. But we can't just play every single day, right?"
He pinched her cheek lightly.
"Alright. Go back and sleep. Tomorrow we're heading into the Twilight Forest."
"There's a Firefly Forest there with beautiful scenery, and all kinds of magical things."
"I'll let you play to your heart's content. And once we finish exploring it, I'll set aside three full days to help you design some truly gorgeous attack effects."
Seeing the confusion and gloom finally fade from Guizhong's face, Ryen decided not to linger outside any longer, he wasn't about to leave his qilin waiting alone.
He stepped past Guizhong and headed toward the door.
Suddenly, she grabbed his hand.
After hesitating, she asked softly,
"Ryen… I have a question I want to ask you…"
"Loved before. Not dating."
"???"
The blunt response left Guizhong frozen in place.
Ryen didn't explain further. Laughing lightly, he shook her off and went back inside.
It took Guizhong a long moment to process what just happened.
Her face flushed with anger and embarrassment.
"You idiot! What kind of answer is that?!"
"What do you mean 'loved before'?! Who loves you?! Who wants to date you?! You're so full of yourself!"
She stomped the ground angrily several times.
But before long, faint, ambiguous sounds began drifting from inside the room,
intermixed with Ganyu's cheerful voice.
Guizhong might lack experience, but she hadn't lived for thousands of years for nothing.
What was happening inside was obvious even without thinking.
"Scumbag…"
She snorted softly, staring at the window for a while.
After an unknown amount of time, the sound of dispersing sand echoed quietly.
Guizhong vanished without a trace.
Only a faint, wistful sigh remained in the still night.
Liyue sank into deep nocturnal silence.
Meanwhile, Ping'er, burning the midnight oil over Guili Assembly reconstruction blueprints in the MC world, suddenly turned her head toward the door.
She could feel that Guizhong had returned.
Opening the door, she was about to ask something,
, but saw Guizhong walking straight back into her room with a stiff expression, slamming the door shut with a thunderous bang.
Ping'er froze.
"…Did Ryen scold her again?"
After a moment, she shook her head helplessly, sighed, and returned to her late-night design work.