"Eh?! You met Ningguang?!" Lumine looked at Aether with excitement; she knew deeply what this meant.
That was Ningguang! Aside from her identity as Tianquan Star, she was also the person in charge of this Please Immortal Ceremony, which was enough to make Lumine excited.
Hu Tao, however, tilted her head in confusion, silently listening to their conversation while eating the shrimp dumplings Aether had brought back for her.
"Yes, she said she wanted to give me a commission…" Aether nodded and recounted his conversation with Ningguang today to the two of them in full.
"Go! Why not go? This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, Aether." Lumine's answer, as expected, did not surprise Aether.
"But I am still an employee of Wangsheng Funeral Parlor, after all." Aether turned his head to look at Hu Tao, who was silently eating shrimp dumplings.
"I don't really mind that; after all, it's a commission from the Tianquan Star, and that Reward seems quite important to you, doesn't it?" Hu Tao swallowed the shrimp dumpling whole, then looked at the two of them and said.
"Yes, actually, our purpose in coming to Liyue this time is to meet Rex Lapis, hoping to inquire about Lumine's brother from him," Aether then explained.
He didn't seem to have told Hu Tao about these things before.
"In that case, Aether, you don't need to worry about me; anyway, I probably won't have anything to do on my end recently." Hu Tao shrugged her shoulders.
After the female corpse from the Hua Chu case was buried last time, Hu Tao's side became idle again; normally, she only had some promotional work to do.
"Hmm…" Aether nodded, but judging by the expression on his face, he still seemed to be hesitating.
"Aether, do you have any other concerns?" Lumine asked in confusion.
"Sigh, after all, I've never done work like a secretary before, so I'm a bit worried." Aether slowly sighed; he didn't know why Ningguang would fancy him to be a secretary.
"Moreover, Ningguang is one of Liyue's powerful figures; there must be many things there that are confidential. What if I accidentally hear or see something I shouldn't…"
This was what Aether was most worried about, because he occasionally had uncontrollable curiosity.
Someone once commented on Ningguang, saying that Ningguang, who held all of Liyue's secrets, was the biggest secret of Liyue itself.
"Oh, these are all minor matters! Anyway, since you're going to be Ningguang's secretary, you and Ningguang will definitely be spending a long time together… You know what I mean, right? At that point, secrets or not, it won't matter anymore." Lumine wasn't worried about this at all.
If Aether could take down Ningguang, what would it matter if he saw some secrets? Ningguang might even be happy to share those secrets.
"And Stelle, Ningguang will definitely know how to handle it, okay? If there's something you shouldn't see, she'll definitely hide it tightly; you absolutely won't be able to see it," Hu Tao also said.
As a local of Liyue, and having had several brief encounters with Ningguang, she certainly knew more about Ningguang than the two of them.
"Furthermore, if you have any work-related concerns, I think you could go ask Yelan."
"Yelan?" Aether was slightly stunned.
"Yes, Yelan is also from the General Affairs Department, after all, though she's mysterious and not quite like typical General Affairs Department members…"
"Hmm… you're right." Aether pondered for a moment, then nodded.
Upon closer thought, it had indeed been a long time since he had seen Yelan; such an important matter certainly warranted asking Yelan about it.
-
Night, Yanshang Teahouse.
In a private room on the second floor, Aether and Yelan sat face to face at a small square table.
On the table, there was still a small bowl and two twelve-sided dice.
"So that's it, Ningguang has already approached you…" Yelan reached out, picked up the dice, and tossed them into the air.
The dice traced a graceful arc in the air, then fell into the small bowl and began to spin.
"Yes, she said she wanted me to be a secretary, but I've never done similar work, so I'm a bit worried." Aether nodded, but his gaze remained fixed on the two spinning dice.
Finally, the dice stopped spinning: one showed seven dots, the other one dot.
Aether's breath hitched at the sight, then he let out a deep sigh, and reluctantly began to unbutton the last piece of clothing on his upper body.
"What's there to worry about? Do you think Ningguang truly wants you to be a secretary?" Yelan rested her hand on her head, a faint smile on her face, and reached out to take the clothes Aether handed over.
She placed the cute white garment in front of her and examined it carefully.
"Next time, I can bring you some more interesting clothes to wear." Yelan tucked the garment into her embrace.
"Cough, you said Ningguang doesn't really want me to be a secretary, what do you mean?" Aether's cheeks were flushed, and he covered his chest with one hand.
Aether probably knew what Yelan meant by 'interesting clothes'; although Liyue's openness wasn't on par with Mondstadt's, that was only on the surface.
Behind the scenes, some wealthy people played quite big.
Aether quickly changed the subject, hoping Yelan would forget about it soon.
He didn't want to wear any 'interesting clothes'; he'd rather see Yelan wear them.
Unfortunately, when it came to gambling, he was far too inferior to Yelan; he simply couldn't win…
"Ningguang has known about you for a long time, and she even had me track and investigate you very early on," Yelan slowly said. Although this matter was confidential and shouldn't, in principle, be told to outsiders.
But Yelan had already lost all her assets to Aether, plus Ningguang had already personally made a move, so there was no longer any need to keep this small matter a secret.
"Huh?!" Aether's eyes widened; he had no idea that Yelan had been secretly tracking them all along.
"Wait, so the faint, elusive gaze I always felt back then… was that you?"
"Yes, you're really vigilant; I almost got discovered several times." Yelan shrugged, completely unconcerned by this.
"So, you understand what I mean, right? Ningguang is just more interested in you, especially you, and doesn't genuinely want you to work as a secretary."
"In my opinion, you might even end up in Ningguang's bed directly within those two days."
"Cough, cough, wh-what are you saying? I'm not…" Aether was a bit embarrassed by Yelan's bluntness, even though he did have that intention.
"Alright, before you get into Ningguang's bed, let me satisfy myself first." Yelan smiled slightly and pushed the small square table in front of them aside.
Once the table was moved, Aether realized that Yelan had already prepared herself; she was only wearing her upper clothing.
He hadn't even noticed all this time…
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