"Stelle, we're back!" Paimon was the first to fly into the house, but her loud shouts didn't receive any response.
"Huh? Could it be that they're still sleeping at this hour?"
Paimon rubbed his head in confusion.
It wasn't that early, after all. They had eaten out before coming back, and normally Stelle should have been up by now.
Even if Stelle wasn't up, Shenhe should have been. Paimon had roughly understood Shenhe's habits during their interactions over the past two days.
He was a light sleeper, and his sleep duration wasn't long.
By rights, his voice just now should have easily woken Shenhe.
But no one had appeared to greet them yet.
"Perhaps Stelle is too tired..." Lumine looked at the empty living room, then sniffed, and suddenly seemed to understand something.
She slowly turned her head and glanced at her room.
The door was tightly shut, but a faint, elusive fragrance drifted out from inside.
The scent was complex, feeling like three different aromas mixed together, two of which she was very familiar with.
Lumine's eyes shifted; she had probably already guessed something.
"Let them sleep a little longer, Paimon. We'll wait in the living room first." Lumine smiled. She placed the breakfast she had bought on a nearby table, then walked over to the sofa and sat down.
"Alright, if you say so." Paimon shrugged and agreed with Lumine's suggestion.
Inside the room, Stelle, who had been paying attention to the sounds outside, finally breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this.
"Alright, let's hurry up." Stelle turned to look at the two and said.
The room needed to be tidied up quickly, and Hu Tao also had to sneak out.
Everything else was manageable, but there was a very serious problem.
That was Shenhe's clothes.
He had come over wrapped in a bath towel last night, and now he couldn't possibly go out wearing just a bath towel; that would be completely unexplainable.
He couldn't possibly say that Shenhe liked to sleep naked... Speaking of which, he wondered if Shenhe's clothes were dry yet.
"Shenhe, you wait inside the room for a moment. I'll go distract them later, and then you can sneak back to your room." Stelle thought for a moment and said to Shenhe.
He felt this was a slightly safer method. With Shenhe's skill, as long as he could keep Lumine and Paimon's attention, sneaking out shouldn't be a big problem.
"Why? Isn't Lumine the same as me?" Shenhe looked at Stelle with some confusion.
Stelle had already told her a lot about this, and Shenhe also knew that Lumine was someone who had helped Stelle "detoxify."
If that was the case, why hide it from Lumine?
"Lumine is fine, but Paimon is still here; he's still young…" Stelle didn't actually know Paimon's exact age, but based on Paimon's usual behavior, he couldn't be said to be very mature.
In short, she and Lumine often treated Paimon like a child, and it was best not to let him know about this kind of thing.
And for some reason, Stelle even felt a strange thrill from secretly doing something behind someone's back…
"Understood." Shenhe nodded, not saying anything more.
"Since that's the case, I'll be leaving, Stelle. I probably won't come tonight." Hu Tao was already fully dressed; she stretched, then opened the window, preparing to leave.
Last night was truly too wild; Hu Tao needed to rest properly.
Besides, Lumine had just returned, and Shenhe was also there; three people would be a bit crowded.
Should I get a bigger bed later…
Hu Tao silently pondered the feasibility of this matter.
As far as she knew, there were more and more people; if they wanted to sleep together under one big blanket, they would probably need a very large bed.
---
After some fuss, Stelle and Shenhe finally appeared fully dressed before Lumine and Paimon.
Lumine looked at Shenhe, then at Stelle, and a smile unconsciously appeared on her face.
Stelle had indeed not disappointed her; he had taken down Shenhe in just one night.
"Come, come, this is the breakfast I brought for you two. Eat quickly, it's going to get cold soon." Lumine said with a smile to the two of them.
"Mhm, thank you…" Stelle rubbed his head; Lumine's meaningful smile just now made him feel a bit awkward.
"Thank you." Shenhe also nodded in thanks, then picked up her chopsticks and began to eat.
"Eh? Shenhe isn't eating Qingxin anymore?" Paimon asked curiously at this.
Just when they were buying food earlier, he had told Lumine that Shenhe would most likely eat Qingxin and Violetgrass, so they should buy less.
"No need. With Stelle by my side, a little bit of food is no longer a temptation." Shenhe shook his head.
He worried that if he couldn't integrate into human society, his desire for delicious food would affect his cultivation when he returned to the mountains.
But now he had already tasted Stelle, the only "delicacy" in this world.
Compared to Stelle, these foods were so bland.
He might not be able to stay by Stelle's side in the future. If that was the case, whether he remained in human society or not, his cultivation would definitely be affected in the future.
"Uh, Stelle?" Paimon couldn't quite understand the meaning of Shenhe's words.
"Cough, he probably means that I took him to eat a lot of Liyue's delicious food yesterday, so this breakfast is nothing…" Stelle coughed lightly and explained casually.
"By the way, let me tell you about the Please Immortal Ceremony."
To avoid Paimon's further questions, Stelle immediately changed the subject.
Of course, this matter also needed to be discussed with them properly.
And upon hearing the words Please Immortal Ceremony, Lumine and Paimon immediately became focused.
"Ningguang has agreed to let us participate in the Please Immortal Ceremony. Your identity will be that of a foreign dignitary." Stelle said to Lumine.
To allow Lumine to approach Rex Lapis and speak at the appropriate time, Ningguang had put in a lot of effort.
This matter involved many aspects; Liyue was not Ningguang's sole domain after all, so if Lumine wanted to question Rex Lapis through normal procedures, there probably wasn't a particularly good way.
Therefore, by using the identity of a foreign dignitary, Lumine could first participate in the Please Immortal Ceremony. Then, when Rex Lapis descended, Lumine could suddenly speak at the right moment, and by then, it would be too late for the people of Liyue to say anything.
And given Rex Lapis's character, he probably wouldn't care about such trivial matters and likely wouldn't make things difficult for Lumine.
After everything was over, at most, Ningguang would be charged with dereliction of duty, which wasn't a big deal.
"I see, I understand." Lumine nodded seriously.
"There isn't much time left until the Please Immortal Ceremony; you must be prepared." Stelle said, slowly exhaling.
For some reason, he always felt uneasy about this matter.
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