Back in Mondstadt, at the Odd Jobs Agency
Lumine and Paimon were left behind to mind the shop.
"I'm so mad! That scumbag Cao Zhong went off to have fun again and left us here to work! This is outrageous! I'm drawing a circle to curse him!"
Paimon stood on the table, fuming—clearly not in a mood that could be soothed.
Lumine watched her and couldn't help but laugh.
Ever since Cao Zhong didn't buy her flowers last time, she had been holding a grudge.
"Paimon, you're starting to sound like Eula. Should I start calling you 'Her Grudgefulness'?"
"Ah! No way! I don't want to be like Eula—her grudges are scary!"
Paimon panicked immediately.
Meanwhile, Lumine was sorting through documents.
These were the agency's records and financial reports from the past year.
Cao Zhong, the hands-off boss, did absolutely nothing all day—just slacked off.
How he even managed to keep the business running was beyond her.
Ever since helping Lisa resolve the library issue, he had been going to the Knights of Favonius Library almost every day.
At first, Lumine suspected some kind of… forbidden romance between him and Lisa.
As Amber's loyal ally, she even considered reporting it.
But after overhearing one of their conversations—
She gave up on that idea.
Because…
They were actually discussing knowledge.
Things like:
"Even function unchanged, determine signs by quadrant…"
And—
"Find the minimum real number MMM such that for all real numbers a,b,ca, b, ca,b,c:"
∣ab(a2−b2)+bc(b2−c2)+ca(c2−a2)∣≤M(a2+b2+c2)|ab(a^2-b^2)+bc(b^2-c^2)+ca(c^2-a^2)| \le M(a^2+b^2+c^2)∣ab(a2−b2)+bc(b2−c2)+ca(c2−a2)∣≤M(a2+b2+c2)
Just listening to it made her sleepy.
How were these two discussing such nonsense so seriously?!
Lumine shook her head.
Better to just finish organizing the accounts.
But Paimon had no intention of letting Cao Zhong off the hook.
"You made me mad and didn't take me out to play? You're finished, Cao Zhong!"
Looking at the pile of notebooks, she grinned mischievously.
Then quietly opened the group chat.
[Paimon]: Shocking! A certain man has hundreds of "special books" hidden in his home!!!
[Paimon]: Shocking! A certain shop owner engages in questionable activities with Raiden Shogun-themed books late at night!!!
The chat exploded instantly.
[Jean]: ?
[Amber]: ??
[Barbara]: ???
[Kaeya]: @Paimon Just say his name already.
[Venti]: @Cao Zhong Do you have no morals? No shame?
[Hu Tao]: Well said!
[Venti]: Got something good and hiding it from your brothers? Disgraceful!
[Hu Tao]: Ah… I misunderstood. That sounds about right for you, Venti.
[Barbara]: Venti, how are you still alive? You're disgracing Mondstadt!
Inside the Favonius Cathedral—
Barbara muttered angrily:
"How could Mondstadt have people like this… Lord Barbatos, they've disgraced your blessings! Especially that bard Venti—drunk all the time, no shame at all! Please, just strike him down!"
The chaos continued—
[Kujou Sara]: @Cao Zhong How dare you insult the Raiden Shogun's honor—you're finished!
[Yae Miko]: Oh my, I didn't expect Boss Cao to have such tastes~ My dear friend who lives alone might be quite pleased to know she's still so popular among the youth.
[Venti]: ?
[Zhongli]: …
[Kujou Sara]: @Yae Miko Guuji-sama… what are you implying?
[Kamisato Ayato]: @Yae Miko Guuji-sama, isn't this somewhat disrespectful?
[Yae Miko]: Oh, don't worry. She won't see it anyway~
Meanwhile—
Cao Zhong had just stepped out of the Knights of Favonius headquarters, feeling exhausted.
He originally thought he could spend some pleasant time with Lisa.
Instead—
Because of a few random bits of knowledge he mentioned, Lisa became completely engrossed.
Which meant—
He'd been dragged into nonstop academic discussions lately.
This isn't what I wanted…
What a disaster…
Out of habit, he opened the group chat—
…and immediately felt his scalp tingle.
[Cao Zhong]: Wait! You all know me—I'm not that kind of person!
[Kaeya]: Classic.
[Venti]: Go on, perform.
[Jean]: (angry)(angry)(angry)
[Kamisato Ayato]: Mondstadt has lost points.
[Cao Zhong]: Comrades! You can't wrong a good man like this! Do you think I don't know those are forbidden books? I bought them to protect others! If I buy one more, that's one less person being corrupted!
[Cao Zhong]: And do you think I even enjoy them? Absolutely not! I was merely testing my own weaknesses—to see if they could break my will. And they couldn't!
[Venti]: Enough talk. Where are the books? I also want to test my weakness.
[Jean]: @Venti You want to die?
Then—
[Yae Miko]: @Cao Zhong I just want to ask… in those books, are the Raiden Shogun's "assets" impressive?
[Cao Zhong]: Big!!!
Silence.
Then—
[Jean]: ?
[Kujou Sara]: ??
[Amber]: ???
[Eula]: ????