All three little secretaries had been inside the main hall the entire time — they hadn't seen a thing outside the windows.
Now, catching sight of the two additional Jade Chambers floating outside, they froze on the spot.
Each of them rubbed her eyes, convinced she must be seeing things.
But no matter how many times they looked, those two Jade Chambers just hung there in the air, perfectly still, perfectly real.
"Baixiao, quick — bring a Floating Stone over!"
"Yes, my lady!"
Baixiao immediately guided a Floating Stone forward. Standing atop it, Ningguang and Ye Xi, along with the three little secretaries, crossed over to one of the new Jade Chambers.
The moment they stepped aboard, the girls let out a collective gasp.
"Good heavens, Lady Ningguang — this is absolutely identical to ours!"
It wasn't just the layout and design of the main hall — even the patterns carved into the stone tiles beneath their feet were cast from the same mold.
If they hadn't already braced themselves, they might have convinced themselves that this was the original Jade Chamber all along.
Ningguang's heart was brimming with astonishment.
A Jade Chamber was like a leaf on a tree — even if you brought back the very craftsmen who had built the original and asked them to try again, it would be impossible to produce a perfect replica.
And yet here was the proof, right before her eyes.
Seeing how wide-eyed everyone was, Ye Xi offered a brief explanation. "This is a copying ability I have."
"Using the original Jade Chamber as a template, I can reproduce it in perfect one-to-one detail."
"The only things I can't copy are living creatures with consciousness. Everything else comes out exactly the same."
"Wha—!?"
The girls stared at him, mouths hanging open.
"W-wait, hold on!"
"Master Ye Xi, when you say everything — does that include the antiques Lady Ningguang keeps in her collection...?"
The moment those words were out, Ningguang's curiosity surged. She quickened her steps and pushed open the doors to the main hall.
A little secretary rushed to light the lamps, and everything inside sprang into view.
The precious porcelain vases. The gemstones arrayed on their display stands.
Even the stacks of official documents sitting on the desk.
"Oh my — this is incredible!"
"That porcelain vase — I remember Lady Ningguang paid ten million Mora for it! If we could copy a few more of those, we'd be rich!"
"It even copied Lady Ningguang's handwriting?! That's terrifying!"
"Baixiao, everyone — look over here."
Baiwen pointed to a planter on the floor. "He really can't copy plants — there's only soil in this pot, the seedling is completely gone!"
"And the fish pond over there is empty too — how strange!"
The little secretaries chattered on, lost in fantasies about how much money they could make.
What they didn't know was that if Ye Xi ever actually wanted money, he wouldn't need to go to nearly that much trouble — he could just conjure it directly in the Golden House.
Ningguang took a long, slow look around the Jade Chamber, her heart full of quiet wonder.
She had heard Keqing and Yelan sing Ye Xi's praises before, telling her how remarkable he was.
But seeing it with her own eyes was something else entirely. The shock went bone-deep.
This was no mere Adeptus. He surpassed the Adepti. He surpassed the gods themselves.
If you asked Rex Lapis to come and build an exact replica of the Jade Chamber, could he do it?
Ye Xi was, quite simply, a treasure beyond measure.
"It seems I've won again. I bet on the right person."
Ningguang laughed softly and took Ye Xi's hand, leading him inside.
The interior was utterly indistinguishable from the Jade Chamber she knew.
Her vanity table. Her bed. Her clothes.
Seeing all of it, she let out a quiet breath of relief.
"Baiwen, you three keep watch for the night."
"Yes, my lady!"
The three little secretaries withdrew from the room and pulled the door closed behind them.
Ningguang slowly undid her outer robe, baring the soft blush of her shoulders and the pristine white of her collarbone.
She moved close, her pretty face faintly flushed, and murmured softly, "Let's rest."
"You're not going back?"
"Mm. This is the place I know best — and it's the place you made for me. It suits us just fine."
Hearing her answer, Ye Xi reached out and drew that slender, delicate waist into his arms.
....
Inside the little courtyard of the Serenitea Pot.
Mist drifted through the air, soft and dreamy.
Laughter and voices floated through it without end.
In the clear, warm spring water, flashes of ivory white moved here and there.
Some lounged against the edge of the pool. Some sat quietly in the middle. And one floated on her back in the water with an expression of supreme contentment, drifting like a piece of flotsam.
"Dehya, yours are amazing!"
"Eula! Yours are great too~"
"Ah-Qing, yours are... uh..."
Lumine had been swimming around making a general nuisance of herself, but when she paddled over to Keqing and suddenly went quiet, Keqing felt a hot flush of indignation.
"Traveler——! You're awful!"
What was that supposed to mean?
Going around complimenting Dehya, then Eula, and then coming to a dead stop the moment she arrived — wasn't that just saying hers were too small?!
The nerve!
Lumine looked mortified and waved her hands frantically. "Let me explain, Ah-Qing! I'm sorry! Just wait!"
"Aahhhh — ow, ow, ow, ow!"
A crackle of violet lightning, and Lumine was flat on her back floating face-up on the water's surface, looking every bit like a drowned body.
Every girl in the pool burst out laughing at the sight.
Paimon put her hands on her hips and heaved a sigh. "Traveler, if you actually end up electrocuted into an idiot, you'll have no one to blame but yourself!"
Just then, a little cat came sprinting across the stone tiles, launched itself off the edge, and landed squarely on top of the floating Lumine.
Arlecchino had grown quite comfortable in her cat's body by now.
She stood on Lumine's torso, soaking in the warm spring water, and let out an involuntary purr of contentment.
[Mmm~]
This was absolutely divine.
What kind of paradise was this?!
A warm evening breeze, a courtyard, moonlight, beautiful women, and a natural hot spring...
This night was almost criminally perfect.
She finally understood why all these girls were so willing to follow Ye Xi.
A life like this, an atmosphere like this, this kind of ease — who wouldn't want it?
The only thing she could wish for right now was to get her real body back.
This place was practically a luxury resort.
Paddling through the warm water, she felt every last trace of exhaustion melt away from her body.
Even the worries weighing on her mind seemed to lighten considerably.
When she really thought about it — if she followed Ye Xi and got to live like this for the rest of her life, wouldn't that basically be heaven?
A far cry better than trailing after the Tsaritsa, that was for certain.
Gnawing on stale bread in a frozen wasteland — how could that ever compare to this?
Dehya raised her cup and sighed with satisfaction. "A genuine natural hot spring really is something else. I swear my skin's already gotten smoother."
"Of course it has — Master dug this himself, apparently!"
Hearing that from Alusha, Dehya looked genuinely stunned. "He dug it?! Master went to all that trouble for us?!"
"So when my turn comes, I am absolutely going to make sure Master has a good time!"
"Dream on! Ye Xi is mine — I'm not sharing a single bit of him!"
Watching Dehya and Alusha banter so shamelessly, Dunyarzad turned crimson with embarrassment.
"By the way — what do you think Master is doing right now?"
Keqing replied, "He's probably with Ningguang..."
"I'm so jealous of her."
"Me too! I really miss Master tonight!"
Ayexia hugged herself, her expression dreamy and faraway — a look that made Collei and Eula go red in the face.
"What kind of person is Lady Ningguang?"
"Right, Keqing — tell us about her!"
"I heard she's the richest woman in all of Liyue Harbor!?"
Seeing everyone so curious, Keqing started sharing her impressions of Ningguang, one thought at a time.
.....
Deep in the night.
The three little secretaries outside the room were stifling their yawns.
By now they understood — Ye Xi was flawless, in every single way imaginable.
Keeping the night watch was tiring enough on its own. The sounds drifting to their ears from inside made it considerably more so.
Inside the room.
Ningguang lay listening to Ye Xi's heartbeat, her face soft and utterly at peace.
In that quiet moment, her mind drifted back to the very first time she had sold fruit as a child — the first hard-earned bucket of gold she had ever made for herself.
Back then, she had felt exhausted, but happy. Fulfilled.
And safe. A deep, bone-settled sense of security.
She still remembered tucking all those Mora coins into her little money pouch and keeping it under her pillow even while she slept.
That feeling of: this is my treasure, and I'm going to hide it away and keep it safe.
Time flows on, and in the blink of an eye, all those years had passed.
She had become the wealthiest person in Liyue Harbor without even noticing, and had long since forgotten those grueling early days.
Yet for some reason, here in this moment, that old memory had come back to find her.
...
Perhaps the feeling of having found Ye Xi now was not so different from the feeling of holding that first bit of Mora all those years ago.
The thought made her curious. She wanted to know what was passing through Ye Xi's mind right now.
She asked softly, "So — how does it feel to have won over Liyue's richest woman?"
Ye Xi blinked, mildly caught off guard. The idea of a woman being rich or not rich held absolutely no appeal for him whatsoever.
Mora was just a number to him.
Still, if she was asking how it felt...
"Ningguang, you were just telling me earlier that you were quite old — and yet..."
"You're actually remarkably... inexperienced."
"Wha—!?"
Ningguang's face turned instantly red. She cleared her throat and said stiffly, "That is not what I asked!"
She hadn't expected him to bring that up of all things.
This was mortifying.
Ye Xi shook his head, affecting a tone of genuine reflection. "I thought you'd be so much more... mature. But honestly? You're not that far off from Keqing."
"In fact, you might even be a little less—— mmph——"
Ningguang couldn't take any more. She clapped her hand firmly over his mouth.
All these years, she had poured herself entirely into the affairs of Liyue Harbor — its commerce, its dealings, its every twist and turn.
When had she ever had time to think about anything else?
Of course she was inexperienced in certain things!
Seeing the look on her face, Ye Xi decided to stop teasing and said in all seriousness, "I think you're wonderful."
As he said it, he reached out and pinched her soft little cheek.
This was the face of Liyue's richest woman — not many people in this world would dare to pinch it so casually.
Ningguang batted his hand away, but the delight in her heart was undeniable. She replied with deliberate calm, "Don't flatter yourself — I come with quite a long list of high-maintenance habits."
"Day-to-day living — I need people to look after me."
"When we go back home, people may have... other opinions about me."
"So I have a proposal."
Ye Xi nodded, intrigued. "Let's hear it."
Ningguang was, after all, a woman of refined tastes — she had secretaries handle most of the practical matters in her daily life, not out of laziness, but because every minute and every second of hers was genuinely precious and packed full.
Putting too much mental energy into the small details of everyday life would simply be a waste of her time.
Over the years, that had calcified into a rather impressive set of high-maintenance tendencies.
He was genuinely curious how she planned to solve it.
Ningguang spoke up. "My suggestion: let my little secretaries come back home with us."
Ye Xi: ???
Well, now.
Marry one, and three bridesmaids come included?
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