While Lovia was immersed in creating "guoba the god of cookery," she had no idea that her iconic oversized hooded cloak and her petite, mysterious, and slightly sneaky figure had long since fallen into another pair of sharp eyes.
The owner of these eyes was a woman standing in the shadows of Liyue.
Yelan.
As an expert in intelligence and secret affairs for Liyue Harbor, Yelan's duty was to keep an eye on any unusual ripples in the city.
This suddenly appearing and uniquely behaving little thing, Lovia, might be insignificant to ordinary people, but it was enough to trigger his alarm.
Shortly after Lovia rented that small shack near the Dock Area, Yelan noticed her.
A "child" who always kept her head and face tightly covered with a hood, yet acted independently, regularly purchased large amounts of paper and food, and lived in seclusion.
She did not play with other children, did not interact deeply with neighbors, and was extremely reclusive; there was no record of such a person in Liyue Harbor's household registration, as if she had appeared out of thin air.
This in itself was suspicious enough.
Yelan habitually began a secret observation.
He watched the small figure carefully purchasing supplies in the market and witnessed that interesting accidental encounter with Chongyun and Xingqiu in the Stationery Store.
He was also nearby at the time, witnessing the entire process, and found the reactions of Xingqiu and Chongyun—especially the true face revealed by the panicked little thing—to be quite amusing.
Yelan also roughly figured out the little thing's usual range of activity and time patterns.
However, what caused Yelan a bit of surprise and frustration was that whenever he tried to go a step further—such as trying to confirm the little thing's final destination (currently he only knew it was near the Dock Area)—he would always lose her exact position at the last moment.
Whenever he tried to approach for observation while she was alone or track her activity route, some unexpected "coincidences" would always occur.
Sometimes a patrolling Millelith would suddenly block his line of sight, sometimes a dock worker pushing a handcart full of goods would happen to cut off the path, and sometimes even a few stray cats would knock over some clutter to make a noise, causing the little thing to instantly shrink back and become alert like a startled rabbit, making him lose the tracking opportunity.
In the most ridiculous instance, Yelan had almost determined the direction of her little nest and was preparing to approach quietly under the cover of night to investigate.
As a result, a drunken Sailor happened to come out to vomit, right next to the wooden crate where he was hiding; the strong smell of alcohol and the commotion forced Yelan to temporarily retreat.
Once or twice might be a coincidence, but after many times, a deeper curiosity and desire to investigate couldn't help but emerge in those eyes that always carried a hint of laziness and sharpness.
"Interesting..." He toyed with the dice at his fingertips, leaning in the shadows, watching from afar as that little blue thing "slipped away" from the edge of his vision once again. "Is it incredibly good luck? Or... some kind of instinct to evade tracking?"
This situation of "repeatedly losing the trail" did not make Yelan give up; instead, it completely piqued his interest.
He began to feel that this mysterious little thing might be even more complex than he initially expected. It wasn't just that her identity was a mystery; she herself might possess some kind of peculiar trait.
Melusine? The concept was not entirely absent from Yelan's database; they were intelligent creatures unique to Fontaine, kind and cute, and lived in harmony with the people of Fontaine.
In any case, this little thing named "Lovia" had already become a special existence on Yelan's list of key targets.
He was no longer in a hurry to track her, but instead adopted a more patient "captive-style" observation. He was like an experienced Hunter, laying out an invisible intelligence network, quietly waiting to see where this peculiar little fish would eventually swim and what secrets it would lead to.
Therefore, regarding the accidental encounter between Lovia and Xingqiu by the bay, although Yelan did not witness the entire process personally (he was at a more distant vantage point at the time), Xingqiu's lack of special actions in the following days, and the change in Lovia's behavior pattern—hiding in her nest like a startled bird for the next few days—were all meticulously recorded by him.
"The Second Young Master of the Feiyun Commerce Guild... it seems that meeting caused quite an impact on this little thing," Yelan thought thoughtfully. "That kid Xingqiu has a strong curiosity, but a good sense of propriety. He obviously discovered something unusual yet chose to stay put... interesting."
He originally thought Lovia was a writer (because she would go to buy paper and pens), but he never saw Lovia go to submit a manuscript (because he would "coincidentally" lose the trail).
Was she just writing a diary? Or practicing calligraphy? Yelan wondered.
As day after day of observation was recorded, Yelan's assessment of Lovia gradually became clear.
Aside from her mysterious movements and seemingly ridiculously good luck, this little thing's behavior pattern was quite simple.
Going out meant purchasing daily necessities, occasionally visiting an Old Woman's stall to improve her meals (in Yelan's view, it was to improve her diet, and he had investigated to ensure the Old Woman was not a problem), and for the vast majority of the time, she was either huddled at home or swimming in the sea to catch fish to eat.
There were no suspicious contacts, no actions harmful to Liyue, and not even any petty theft. The biggest "abnormality" was her non-human identity and that overly cautious, even somewhat neurotic hiding posture.
As for why this little thing had Mora to buy things without a job, Yelan concluded after observation: Melusines come from Fontaine, and the Mora might have been brought from Fontaine. (Every time Lovia went to collect her manuscript fees, Yelan would "coincidentally" lose the trail.) (The hand of the author is at work.)
Combining the information he had learned about Melusines from Fontaine channels—a type of intelligent creature with a generally gentle personality, mainly engaged in clerical or service work—Yelan basically ruled out the possibility of Lovia being a potential threat.
"It seems she is likely just a timid little thing who ended up here for some reason," Yelan closed the observation log on Lovia and filed it under the "low risk" archives.
Continuing to invest a large amount of energy into observing a Foreigner who seemed to just want to live a quiet life was not cost-effective for Yelan, who managed many of Liyue's intelligence networks.
Just then, several Commercial Espionage Cases involving foreign powers and abnormal movements around The Chasm diverted his main energy.
Thus, the regular close monitoring of that little blue thing in the Dock Area naturally came to an end.
Yelan withdrew the specialized eyes and kept only the minimum conventional intelligence network coverage, no longer prioritizing Lovia as a focus.
Not long after Yelan's attention shifted away from Lovia, a new "literary" trend began to quietly surge in the streets and alleys of Liyue Harbor, quickly entering Yelan's field of vision.
Recently, the works of an author with the pen name "Lovia" began to circulate widely.
These works had bold themes and a bizarre style, especially excelling at re-creating well-known figures and events in Liyue Harbor in a wildly imaginative yet inexplicably "grounded" way.
Initially, these materials, categorized by subordinates as "Folk Anecdotes" or "unofficial history novels," did not attract much of his attention. Liyue Harbor has a prosperous culture with various Storybooks and Novels emerging one after another; he couldn't possibly review them all.
Until one day, a booklet titled "record of shi pos wanderings · Part One: Lord Jueyun Chili Didn't Bring Mora Today" was sent up mixed with a pile of intelligence about Snezhnaya merchant ships.
Yelan was just flipping through it casually, intending to relax his tense nerves, but after reading just a few lines, his lazy expression instantly vanished, replaced by focus.
Childe Jueyun Chili? Sending the bill to Sea Gazers Pavilion, specifically naming "a girl named Ningguang" to reimburse it?
This article used a playful writing style to depict the imagination of the Rex Lapis's mortal wanderings.
The depiction of "Childe Jueyun Chili's" demeanor and aura in the article, those details that seemed casual but actually contained majesty, were definitely not something an ordinary author could imagine out of thin air.
What shocked him even more was the familiarity with Liyue's high-level officials and the "matter-of-fact" sense of Rex Lapis's behavior patterns faintly revealed in the text.
Yelan suddenly remembered that he had recently heard neighbors talking about Childe Jueyun Chili; he hadn't taken it to heart, but looking at it this way... Childe Jueyun Chili is Rex Lapis?!
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