After Uncle Tian left, nothing else happened.
Amid the shock of the surrounding people, the master and disciple finished their lunch. Then, with Ganyu troubled about having eaten too much, they left Wanmin Restaurant.
Next, Junze suggested going back, but this workaholic Ganyu actually refused.
Instead, she took Junze straight into Liyue's marketplace to stroll around.
Rather than strolling, it would be more accurate to say she was selecting clothes for Junze.
However, Ganyu clearly did not come here often.
Compared with the surrounding bustle, Ganyu appeared very out of place and uncomfortable.
A trace of loneliness appeared on her face.
This seemed to be a worry she had always carried.
Likewise, Junze also felt a headache coming on in such a setting.
In a commercial metropolis like Liyue, the merchants here were each more shrewd than the last.
Junze found this kind of environment, where one careless moment could get you ripped off, extremely troublesome.
Moreover, Ganyu did not seem like the type who could slash prices in half in one go.
Fortunately, Ganyu was not short on money.
As long as she was happy, buying things above market price did not matter.
In the end, Ganyu bought several sets of clothes for Junze.
In addition, she bought many sheets of high-quality drawing paper, paintbrushes, and tools for planting flowers.
These items cost Ganyu quite a lot of money.
Looking at them, Junze asked Ganyu in confusion, "Master, why buy these?"
Hearing Junze's puzzlement, Ganyu hesitated for a moment and said, "Because it seems like you're very interested in these, Ze."
Junze had talent in painting, so Ganyu bought him brushes and paper.
And this morning, he seemed very enthusiastic about fiddling with those flowers and plants.
Although in Ganyu's eyes Junze had simply been playing in the dirt, since her disciple liked it, she simply bought the corresponding items.
"Mm…"
Looking at these tools, Junze murmured in a voice only he could hear, "If it were other kids, they'd probably cry to death."
In modern times, behavior like Ganyu's was basically no different from preparing to drag a child to extra classes.
Casually doodling and actually buying tools to make the child draw were two completely different concepts.
Of course, Ganyu herself had no intention of forcing him. She simply believed Junze liked these things.
Fortunately, Junze was not an ordinary child. Toys and such were unnecessary for him.
These things that could train skills were what he truly needed.
"Ze, don't you like them?"
Seeing Junze not react, Ganyu grew a little uneasy, worried she had misunderstood.
Seeing this, Junze immediately jumped up, holding a paintbrush in one hand and a small shovel in the other, and said excitedly, "Hehe, not at all! Ze likes them a lot!"
"I'll paint the prettiest pictures and grow the most beautiful flowers and give them to Master."
With his body turned into a child, Junze had also become completely natural at acting cute.
Seeing Junze like this, Ganyu's heart nearly melted.
"Mm!"
After that, the master and disciple slowly headed back like this.
Although for Ganyu this already exceeded the time she had planned to return to work, she was not very anxious.
What this leisurely pair did not know was that their intimate outing had been fully observed by a white-haired woman in the distance.
"Grrr—"
Shenhe's stomach also made a sound.
"Hungry."
Shenhe muttered to herself in a calm, emotionless tone.
— Wangyue Pavilion
After returning, the master and disciple settled down and began their respective tasks.
Ganyu immersed herself in work again.
As for Junze, after practicing his skills for a while, he casually picked up one of Ganyu's books.
"Uh… although I can roughly understand it, this script was modified from Small Seal Script, right."
Junze felt a bit of a headache.
He still needed some time to adapt before he could fully read these characters.
But fortunately, the daily tasks could be considered complete.
And what about Ganyu on the other side?
After handling some documents, she suddenly stopped, her expression turning somewhat strange.
She felt a bit swollen, not very comfortable.
Her clothes seemed slightly tight.
"Did I eat too much?"
But that was not right.
If it were from overeating, her stomach should feel bloated.
But now, her stomach felt fine.
Ganyu touched her lower abdomen. It felt as though the food had already been digested, no different from before.
Besides!
She would not suddenly gain enough weight in one go to make her clothes tight, right?
Ganyu lowered her head and looked, then froze.
"???"
A huge question mark appeared on Ganyu's well-behaved face, and her ahoge began to sway.
"Is it an illusion?"
Ganyu put down her pen, rubbed her eyes, and looked again.
"Not an illusion."
It really was different from before.
'Why would this happen?!'
Ganyu could not understand.
She murmured, "Clearly the stage of growth passed thousands of years ago."
"Could it be because I still have human bloodline?"
Ganyu's mind began rapidly searching for knowledge related to this.
But she found nothing relevant.
Yet now, it truly resembled the state when her body first matured in childhood.
For this question, no one could answer Ganyu for the time being.
There were already very few of her qilin kin.
After the Archon War and these thousands of years, in Liyue Harbor there was likely only Ganyu, a single qilin.
Ganyu had no one to seek answers from.
In fact, if she had even one elder, they would have given her a brief explanation.
On the continent of Teyvat, when a qilin has a younger one they wish to care for, regardless of whether that junior is biological or not,
qilin, whether male or female, will naturally use their surplus power to condense some essence to help the junior grow.
Of course, these essences manifest in many forms.
Some are saliva, some tears, some blood.
Only unhealthy qilin need to actively condense excess power into pills.
Ganyu's body was naturally healthy, so it was already naturally condensing essence.
It was just that the specific form remained unknown.