The nights at the Sea Gazers Pavilion were always quiet yet busy.
It was brightly lit, with only the rustling of turning pages and the scratching of pen tips against rice paper remaining.
Ganyu rubbed his throbbing temples and gently set aside the documents he had finished reviewing.
As the secretary to the Qixing, his work was complex and meticulous, requiring immense patience and focus.
However, in his occasional moments of rest, he would allow himself to read some casual texts as a way to relax his mind.
Sometimes it was poetry and prose, other times it was the strange tales circulating among the common folk.
Recently, the name "Lovia" seemed to be appearing too frequently.
He had heard a little about the bizarre "secret tales of feiyun" that had caused such a stir in the city, but he had dismissed it as idle gossip and laughed it off.
Yet, he hadn't expected that this author, with his sharp writing style and astonishing imagination, had already set his sights on an even higher and more untouchable existence long before this.
When he saw a young secretary under his command looking flustered and trying to hide a thin booklet among a pile of waste paper, he didn't think much of it, just habitually asking: "What is that?"
"N-nothing! Lord Ganyu! Just some... low-brow street literature!" The young secretary's face turned red instantly, and he explained stammeringly.
Ganyu was gentle by nature and did not want to make things difficult for his subordinate, but a spark of curiosity about the name "Lovia" prompted him to say softly: "Is it a new work by that 'Lovia'? Let me see it."
The secretary's face instantly went pale, and he handed over the booklet, trembling.
"...N-no, it's not a new work, it's a... work from a long time ago," the secretary stammered.
When Ganyu's gaze landed on the sensational book title, his gentle eyes, which had remained unchanged for a thousand years, trembled violently, a rare occurrence.
"regarding the matter of the geo archon being a synthesized god who caused his wifes death"?!
Caused his wifes... death?
synthesizing deities?
How could these two terms be associated with the Geo Archon?
...So absurd.
Ganyu's fingertips, which always held the pen steadily, trembled imperceptibly.
The rough cover of the booklet rubbed against his fingertips, bringing an extremely surreal sensation.
The young secretary was almost fainting, his voice laced with tears: "Lord Ganyu... t-this is all nonsense! P-please, do not be angry..."
He took a deep breath, but the familiar scent of ink in the air seemed unable to calm him down immediately. Then, he dismissed the young secretary who was on the verge of tears and sat alone under the lamp, opening the pages of the book.
At first, he read it with a feeling of absurdity and faint displeasure.
How could the name of the Geo Archon be blasphemed in such a way? To fabricate such a bizarre and absurd story, his heart must be...
However, as he read deeper, the warmth in his fingertips gradually faded.
Kexi? Mora?
Fusion? Sacrifice?
The loss of the clearance to create currency? Counterfeit stone coins?
Every setting in the book left him dumbfounded, making him unable to resist reading it over and over, carefully pondering it.
This was not because he believed the story, but because... the core of the story, that core about "loss," "fusion," and "remembrance," had unexpectedly pierced into his understanding of that god!
The Geo Archon... indeed never carried money.
The Geo Archon... indeed had an indescribable detachment towards Mora, which he had once thought was the transcendence of a god.
The Geo Archon... indeed often gazed at Liyue Harbor, his eyes so distant that they seemed to pierce through thousands of years of time. What was contained within them was by no means just the gratification of a protector, but also a deeper, more complex, and unspeakable emotion, which he had always understood as the benevolence of a god towards the mortal world and the weight of the responsibilities he bore.
Could it be...
No! Impossible!
Ganyu slammed the book shut, his heart beating violently in his chest, making him feel a slight wave of dizziness.
This was blasphemy! It was sacrilege! It was a wanton smearing and distortion of the Geo Archon's magnificent image!
The Geo Archon is the Geo Archon, the supreme Rex Lapis, the one and only great god of Liyue.
How could he be... how could he be some product of fusion? And what is this "caused his wifes death"... such terms are simply the greatest insult to the Geo Archon and that noble existence who might have once existed!
Ganyu's reason was screaming, refuting it, and his loyalty to the Geo Archon made him feel immense anger and panic.
But the shadow of that story was like the most stubborn fog, lingering in his heart, unable to be dispelled.
Because he knew better than anyone that the Geo Archon... Morax, had indeed experienced countless losses, even if it was not what the article called a "wife."
That war was unimaginably cruel; the friends and comrades by the Geo Archon's side had indeed left one by one.
If a presence as important as "Mora" had truly passed away... what would the Geo Archon do?
He would bury the pain deep down, continue moving forward with a will like stone, turn that longing into the power to protect Liyue, and even... commemorate it in a way no one could understand.
The framework of this story was so absurd, but the emotional logic filled within it was so real that it startled him.
Could it be...
Ganyu shook his head vigorously, trying to shake off those dangerous thoughts.
He was the secretary of Liyue, one of the most loyal followers of the Geo Archon.
He could not, and should not, be swayed by such an obviously fabricated, sensationalist story.
But who exactly was the author of this article, "Lovia"?
How could someone capable of writing a jesting work like "secret tales of feiyun" also write such... such a heavy, even tragic story?
This was definitely not just to attract attention.
Moreover, this text carried speculation and understanding of the god, even deserving of being called somewhat true and accurate.
What exactly did this person know? Or was it purely by relying on a terrifying imagination that they had stumbled upon the edge of some truth?
Ganyu picked up the booklet, feeling it weigh more than a thousand catties, his fingertips slightly cold.
How should he handle it?
According to protocol, such reading material that openly blasphemed the god should be immediately confiscated, destroyed, and the author investigated.
But... what if?
What if behind this absurd story, there was a truth hidden that even he did not know? A true record of the Geo Archon's past... although this possibility was extremely slim, but...
Moreover, the Geo Archon had already passed away (in the eyes of the world), so what was the point of investigating these things now? It would only cause unnecessary trouble and might even tarnish the Geo Archon's peace and reputation.
He remained silent for a very, very long time.
Finally, Ganyu sighed softly, the sigh filled with complex emotions. He did not throw the booklet into the waste paper pile, nor did he order an investigation; he simply stood up with the thin booklet in his hand.
Ganyu walked back to the window and looked towards the direction of the Guyun Stone Forest. In the night, the outlines of the mountains there seemed like giant stone spears left behind by the Geo Archon.
His mind could not calm down for a long time.
The Geo Archon...
Who exactly was that person called "Lovia"...?
The moonlight shone on his serene yet slightly bewildered face. Tonight, the myriad lights of Liyue Harbor seemed to be covered in an unspeakable layer of sorrow in his eyes.
How could the true weight of those stories buried by time be even remotely carried by such flimsy words?
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