10.

On the night of the Liyue, it was raining lightly.

The remaining lanterns of the Sea Lantern Festival were drenched in rainwater and had lost their red color. The air was filled with the choking smell of unburned saltpeter, and the crowds were moving about, laughing and talking, their footsteps sounding on the gurgling water on the ground. From meeting to forgetting each other, a colorful oil-paper umbrella with the street lights beeping, not many people still remember.

Gan Yu, holding a green umbrella, walks alone through the red walls and green tiles of the streets of Liyue, not feeling the same melancholy as in the past. The Liuyun Jiefeng Immortal, the Master, the traveler, and the new secretaries of the Yujing Terrace all made the loneliness that had been watching Liyue for a thousand years bear a refreshing fragrance in its bitterness, just like the qingxin flower picked by the wind on the mountains.

Master, are you still gazing at the Liyue from the Lone Cloud Pavilion?

Where is the traveler now? Does she still remember the promise to stay with me and work overtime?

Gan Yu blushed. The humid air of the port city and the salty sea breeze gently rubbed the antelope's horns, and the road that stretched out before her was no longer a jungle of the passers-by but a direction of hope to be followed.

"Ah..."

It was like hitting something.

Gan Yu looked down under her umbrella, and there was a girl, wet from the rain, with a shattered talisman on her forehead, a broken cord around the neck, muddy marks on her body and her bandaged right leg, and many cuts on her hands, but strangely enough, no blood on it.

"You're Qiqi, right?"

Gan Yu squatted down and gently stroked the person's little face in front of her with a gentle smile.

"Well..."

The little girl in front of her, who was called "Qiqi", hesitated for a moment. She looked up into the beautiful eyes of Gan Yu for a long time and finally dropped her guard.

"Why is Qi Qi in the street, not going back to the Bubu house?"

The sound of the rain falling on the green paper umbrella that shelters Gan Yu and Qiqi reminded Gan Yu of the sound of the paddle beating against the water when she was playing with someone in the Hua Guang Forest.

"Well...Bu Bu House…where is it?"

Gan Yu was amazed, looking at the little zombie girl who used to snooze on her knees, slowly feeling a sense of loss.

"Qiqi," Gan Yu put down her umbrella and slowly hugged Qi Qi to her chest, "Let's go home together, okay?"

"...home?"

Qiqi gently questioned, evoking the days when Gan Yu had been raised by Liuyun Jiefeng Immortal and Emperor rock-king when she was still fat and fascinated by the way Lishui Dieshan Immortal was making ambers.

"Well ... well! Let's go home first, Qi Qi!"

Qi Qi turned her head and saw a child on the side of the road tugging at the sleeve of an adult, yelling that he wanted to go home if not to buy a kite.

"Qi Qi …can Qi QI go home? Is that true… true?"

"Yes! Let's go!"

Gan Yu wanted to pick up Qiqi, just as she had wanted to pick up the little girl who was sealed in amber a thousand years ago.

Qiqi's cold hand pressed against Gan Yu's slightly warm cheek, where the drizzle and teardrops had flowed.

"It's bitter...like the taste of Qingxin flower…"

Qi Qi flicked a small drop with her fingertips and dipped it in her mouth.

"But… I like it."

Gan Yu held back her sadness and put on a smile as she stood up and stroked Qiqi's little head, wanting to take her back to the Bu Bu House first.

"Qiqi's home..."

But Qi Qi stopped and looked towards the noisy and busy harbor where the rain was falling heavily, in the direction of the Sea of Clouds.

"Eh?"

Gan Yu looked back, following the direction of Qiqi's gaze; even with the Qilin's divine vision, she could not see through the outer sea, which was covered with rain at the moment, where any direction leads home.

"Qiqi, let's go..."

But when she looked down, Qiqi's not here.

The rain was falling heavier and heavier in the night of the Liyue, blowing away the paper umbrellas and the thoughts.