"Hey—what do you mean by 'someone like me, you could still accept if you pinched your nose'?"
"What's wrong with me, exactly?!"
Seeing that Bai Ge was already walking farther and farther away, the bristling Keqing hurried after him.
Sure enough, as a young, beautiful少女, Keqing's first point of fixation was still—
her looks.
And in truth, she had every right to be proud.
Talent, strength, intelligence, beauty—she had it all.
Add to that twin ponytails, black stockings, tsundere elegance, cat ears, an off-shoulder outfit—every imaginable XP trigger neatly packed together.
Young and already occupying a high position, Keqing was like a perfect girl crafted by the heavens themselves.
But—
Not being Bai Ge's type simply meant… not being his type.
Tsundere twin-tailed girls needed constant coaxing.
Young girls were just too much trouble.
By comparison, Bai Ge preferred women who were gentler, more alluring, more… well-endowed.
For example: Yae Miko, Raiden Ei, Acting Grand Master Jean, Shenhe, Cocogoat Ganyu—those types.
Second best would be gentle, refined girls like Kamisato Ayaka.
After that, someone like Xiangling, who didn't cause trouble and focused on cooking—high quality of life.
And of course, if Ningguang were willing, Bai Ge certainly wouldn't refuse.
A rich woman, after all.
No shame in that.
So in response to Keqing's questioning, Bai Ge merely cast her a淡淡一眼 and delivered a three-word verdict:
"Not lewd enough."
"You—!"
Hearing this, Keqing almost failed to catch her breath and nearly drew her sword to fight him on the spot.
To be fair, women in Teyvat were all highly distinctive—very considerate of the XP system.
Keqing, as she was now, already perfectly showcased her charm. Any more exposure would simply ruin the taste.
So—
She wanted to ask:
"And someone like me still isn't lewd enough?!"
But out of her last shred of maidenly restraint, she swallowed the words.
Instead, being made to suffer defeat again and again by Bai Ge ignited a fierce competitive fire within her.
Ever since becoming one of the Liyue Qixing, she had been greeted with smiles wherever she went.
When had she ever been treated with such grievance?
With her emotions surging, Keqing grew more serious.
Very quickly, she found a flaw in Bai Ge's argument.
"Fine—then I won't talk about power. I'll talk about position and responsibility!"
"You don't need to do more, because you're just a clerk—but even the clerk's work, you didn't finish!"
"You broke the contract!"
Keqing accused him sharply.
Liyue was the nation of contracts.
Here, breaking a contract was the most severe accusation of all.
She thought that after saying this, Bai Ge would be left speechless—panic-stricken and immediately admitting fault.
But instead, Bai Ge only looked at her with disdain.
"I didn't break the contract. On the contrary, I'm upholding it."
"The contract states I get off work at five. So at five, I get off work."
"But the contract also states you must complete your assigned work!" Keqing shot back.
"Failing to do so is also breaking the contract!"
At that, Bai Ge stopped walking.
Keqing's words pulled memories from his past life to the surface, and his expression turned serious.
"Then tell me, Lady Keqing—are the workloads you assign actually something a normal person can finish in one day?"
"The contract says we must complete our assigned duties.
Assigned duties should mean what a normal person can complete in eight focused hours!"
"Not work meant for two or three days, forced into a single day!"
"Overtime every day, no overtime pay, no basic welfare protections—just a few tens of thousands of Mora a month. And you expect people to give their lives?"
"There is only one Keqing in all of Liyue. Everyone else is not Keqing."
"You cannot demand that everyone be like you!"
"The one breaking the contract isn't us—
it's you, Lady Keqing, Yuheng Star of the Qixing!"
Bai Ge's words rang out with force.
Hearing them, Keqing—who had been following step by step—suddenly froze in place, as if struck by lightning.
"The one who broke the contract… is me?" she murmured.
Hearing this perspective for the first time, her pink-violet diamond-shaped pupils trembled violently.
Clearly—
After only a moment's thought, Keqing wavered.
Strangely, she felt that Bai Ge was right.
Some truths became obvious the moment the paper window was pierced.
She had lofty ambitions, but in her pursuit of ideals, she had indeed failed to look back at the people beside her.
Bai Ge's reasoning was simple and direct.
As a workaholic who took no more than three minutes to nap and slept only four hours a day, she truly could not impose her own standards on others.
Put another way—
Even she, with her extreme efficiency, needed that much time.
How could others possibly keep up?
At that moment, Keqing's answer became clear.
"…Indeed. The one who broke the contract… was me."
Realizing this, Keqing suddenly felt incomparably dejected.
She had wanted to make Liyue strong, to usher in an era where humans ruled themselves—
Yet without realizing it, she had already violated Liyue's most fundamental law.