Night had grown deep.
Ganyu finished annotating the last document, stretched lazily, and stood up.
"Ha~"
Even with the bloodline of a qilin adeptal beast, she now felt exhausted and wanted nothing more than sleep.
"Today's work is finally done."
As she loosened her stiff shoulders, she walked over to Junze's desk.
He had already fallen asleep, face-down on the table.
At first he truly had intended to accompany Ganyu until she finished working, but his young body simply could not hold out.
Combined with the intense concentration of drawing, he had ended up dozing off right there.
Seeing him asleep, Ganyu immediately felt nervous and regretful.
While working earlier, she had completely failed to notice that it was so late the child had fallen asleep at the desk.
That was very bad for a child's health.
Ganyu hurriedly and gently lifted Junze into her arms, looking at him with deep apology.
"I'm really a negligent master…"
she murmured softly.
As for Junze,
As if sensing something, he instinctively nuzzled deeper into her arms.
It seemed softer and warmer there.
Ganyu let him nestle closer, occasionally stroking his head. "I'm sorry, Ze"
Resting against her chest, Junze smiled faintly and shook his head in his sleep, as if he bore her no blame at all.
Ganyu hugged him tighter. Just as she was about to carry him to the bedroom, she noticed the sheets of paper that had been under him.
Curious, she glanced at the spread drawings.
Seeing the messy lines on the top sheet, she showed a helpless smile. "It really is a child's drawing."
But thinking of it, Junze was far more well-behaved than she had been.
She remembered that when she was little, Cloud Retainer had made her practice talisman drawing. She doodled for a bit, then ran off into Cloud Retainer's room to play with strange mechanisms.
It was remarkable this child could sit drawing for so long.
"What a good child."
Freeing one hand, Ganyu continued flipping through the pages.
Her expression at first remained that of someone viewing kindergarten scribbles.
But as each sheet turned, astonishment slowly spread across her face.
So many pages all depicting her.
Ganyu watched the progression: from unrecognizable shapes to a lifelike portrait of herself on paper.
She felt both disbelief and a trace of defeat.
"This child is so talented!"
"He's so young, yet he can draw like this!"
By comparison, when she had been his age, she had probably still been crawling everywhere.
"Are all taotie this intelligent?"
Ganyu, bearer of the auspicious qilin bloodline, felt thoroughly outclassed.
Yet after that came pride for her disciple's gift.
And after pride, worry: "But I can't draw. At most I can draw talismans. How am I supposed to teach you? Ze could teach me instead."
A talented disciple was wonderful but it made the master seem useless.
Thinking this, Ganyu gazed at the drawings again.
Her free hand gently traced the paper, and she looked at Junze with warmth. "Am I really this pretty?"
If Junze were awake, he would surely say she was even prettier than the drawing.
After carefully admiring the pictures, Ganyu carried Junze to her bedroom.
The drawings, of course, she preserved with utmost care.
And in the future, she would always sneak them out to look at when Junze was not around.
Though Junze would keep drawing her over the years, these earliest sketches remained her favorites.
To the future Junze, that would likely be mortifying.
After all, who wants others to see works from their beginner phase?
It was basically black history.
In the bedroom, Ganyu laid Junze on her bed.
In her eyes, he was just a child. Sleeping together meant nothing.
When she herself had followed Cloud Retainer, she had always slept beside her too.
After all, Cloud Retainer was covered in warm, fluffy feathers.
And from how Junze kept clinging to her, he seemed to like it as well.
Half-embracing him, Ganyu whispered, "Good night, Ze."
Thus master and disciple spent their first night together.
At that very moment, Junze's system [Quest] function changed.
[Legendary Quest · Disciple of the Immortal Qilin triggered]
[Description: Become a disciple who makes Master proud. Long-term quest including daily and self-directed tasks.]
[Daily Tasks: Four refreshed daily, each rewarding 40 Primogems.]
[Self-Directed Tasks: Determined by Master's weekly pride in the host. Pride accumulates. Weekly settlement, max 1600 Primogems (small chance of crit).]
The instant the quest appeared, the system automatically performed a settlement.
It seemed… today was the end of the week.
[Self-Directed Task complete]
[Reward: 200 Primogems]
When Junze woke the next day and saw his gain, who knew what expression he would show.
After all, he had simply found Ganyu beautiful and drawn her.
How could he know that alone would earn Primogems?
And judging by this system, as long as each week he did something that made Ganyu proud, he could farm large amounts of Primogems.
Of course, he would need to be careful.
If he produced not pride but shock or horror instead, that would be disastrous.