Chapter One: The Maid Who Is A Blessing
The sun was just rising and the birds began their daily song as eyes, the color of cor lapis, opened up and took a look around. Groaning, the man sat up and pushed his dark brown, amber tipped fringe away from his eyes, looking around the room again. Outfit neatly folded on the dresser, coat hanging on hanger from the door, shoes by the door...all was as it should be. Sighing, the man got off the bed and began his daily ritual of getting himself freshened up and ready.
About fifteen minutes later, the man was walking down the stairs into the foyer of the mansion he lived in. The man was Zhongli, well known as the consultant of the Wansheng Funeral Parlor...at least, that's what everyone believed. His real job was behind closed doors as an informant of some sort. Able to obtain information from everywhere through contacts and friends he's made.
Those he gave information to: Tartaglia the Eleventh Fatui Harbinger, Favonius Knights of Mondstadt, Qixing of Liyue and few trusted others who desperately needed it.
"Bye Zhongli!" A woman with blue colored hair and purple eyes called out as she left. "Careful Ganyu!" Zhongli shouted to the woman, seeing her wave as she closed the door. He had adopted her a few years ago when he was still young, her and a boy called Xiao who had already left since his shoes were missing. Zhongli smiled to himself as he remembered a nineteen year old him and his deceased wife adopting the two children.
At the orphanage he and his deceased wife, Guizhong, went to, they had seen the two by themselves, yet stayed close to one another. At the time, they hadn't planned on adopting anyone right then and there, adoption was the only option considering Guizhong couldn't have children. However, Guizhong's soft heart had her begging Zhongli to take them in and he had caved and began a sort of small family. After his wife was murdered, Zhongli went into the business of being a contact and gathering information. His goal was to find out who murdered his wife. His job as a consultant of the Wansheng Funeral parlor made things easier.
"Morning Mr. Zhongli." A sweet voice said, causing him to look over his shoulder, cor lapis meeting beautiful gold and he relaxed with a soft smile once more. Lumine, Archon bless her; she had been a blessing in disguise...despite the circumstances in which she came to be living with him. "Morning Lumine." He greeted in turn, tilting his head toward her in acknowledgement. "Do you have time for breakfast this morning?" She asked with a bow, before standing back to her full height.
Zhongli nodded, he wouldn't be leaving the mansion today, he had a few guests coming over today for some information. His boss, Hu Tao was aware of what he did and needed to do and thus gave him time off when needed. The Director, herself, often looked up information for him as she had been close friends with Guizhong. Lumine nodded and turned to go back into the kitchen and Zhongli twitched to follow her before stopping himself, shaking his head. He didn't need to hover over her like he did in the beginning but he still had that instinct to observe her.
When he first met Lumine, it was in a dirty alley with her bleeding out on the ground and unconscious. Remembering his deceased wife for a split second as the scene was so similar, as what happened to Guizhong was the reason she couldn't have children, Zhongli had sprung into action to quickly get her to safety. He had gone back to the mansion and called a doctor who came over every day to make sure her recovery was going smoothly. He didn't know why he took her to the mansion and not a hospital but he figured it had been safer that way anyways. It took about two weeks before she actually awoke and the first person she had seen was him.
Lumine didn't remember anything except her name and faint memories of dark, cramped space. The doctor said she took a significant hit to the head. It was a shock her brain damage wasn't worse considering she could recognize certain things, colors and could speak. Just enough of a knock in the head for her to have amnesia of important things about her though. It took time for her to regain enough strength to move around but his daughter Ganyu, bless her heart, stayed with Lumine to help her to walk and his son Xiao kept a constant vigil over her at night when she slept.
His children adored her and, in time, so did he.
Lumine hardly spoke much unless she HAD to or when he asked her a question that she knew she needed to give a verbal response to. He wondered if it was possible she just merely disliked speaking, had some damage to her vocal chords or if, by some twisted fate, she had been conditioned to not speak. He always pushed those thoughts away however, despite her circumstances, she was still precious to him. Zhongli had tried to gather information on her and had even put her name and blood in the system to gain a familia match…
Nothing had popped up.
It was like she had never existed until then.
Zhongli then contacted his friends and those who he considered close. Tartaglia of the Fatui was looking into potential family links. Jean the Acting Grand Master of Mondstadt was seeing if anyone knew who she was by showing some trusted people Lumine's picture. Ganyu had given Lumine's picture to Ningguang for when Ningguang had meetings, she could inquire if anyone knew her. Zhongli was taking precautions to keep Lumine secret but try to gain some form of information on the woman, something in his gut churned about too many people knowing her.
He knew he should have been suspicious, people don't just disappear or appear like that but in the past year, she had proven trustful and worthy of his time. Zhongli took care of her, fed her and gave her an education, yet he kept her near. He didn't like having her out of his sight and, sometimes, he even got anxious being away from her for long periods of time. This tended to happen when he had a contract job, yet when he'd return, Lumine would be there waiting for him.
As the smell of food came toward him, Zhongli smiled and made his way to the dining room where he knew Lumine would take the food. She came to learn Zhongli liked eating in the dining room, even if there was no one there to converse...well...that wasn't entirely true. She was there to converse with but she never really ate with him. He had only seen her eat a handful of times and only during her breaks, which she rarely took. He had to drill it into her head that she needed to take breaks. He even stuck Ganyu on her to get Lumine to take breaks in the beginning.
As he entered, he saw Lumine finished setting his food down and gave a soft smile to her, walking over. "Have Ganyu and Xiao had anything to eat?" Zhongli asked Lumine as he sat down, seeing her nod. "Yes, I had awoken before them and began breakfast. Since I knew Xiao and Ganyu had to leave early, I handed them a packed lunch and breakfast and bid them goodbye." Lumine stated, making Zhongli hum in approval. He knew Xiao wouldn't miss a chance to have Lumine's cooking, nor would Ganyu really.
Heck, Lumine came to learn everyone's preferred food rather quickly and made sure to keep everything in the kitchen and fridge stored in a way so that she knew where everything was placed. He still remembers the day she completely reorganized the kitchen. The pantry had been sorted so that he, Xiao and Ganyu had their own shelf of foods they liked. The fridge had been the same, the freezer hadn't been any different. Utensils were more organized than he had remembered and everything had sparkled.
He believed he gave her the day after off but she didn't take it.
"Good. I'd hate to find out they went hungry. You don't have to go out of your way however." Zhongli commented, making Lumine nod. "I'm aware. However I care about them, just as I care about you." She said softly and Zhongli gave a gentle smile, turning to his food to eat. Lumine…she had no idea the effect her words had on him. He was grateful he didn't have any guests until afternoon.
XXX
Zhongli was in the foyer where the doors were, reading over some notes when a loud knock came to the doors that lead into the mansion. Lumine opened the door to see who it was, before bowing, then turned to Zhongli. "Mr. Zhongli, it is Lady Ningguang of the Qixing." Lumine stated, making Zhongli nod. "Escort her to my study, then prepare tea." Lumine nodded as Zhongli turned to head to his study, still looking over the notes he had. Ningguang was his first meeting today, then it was an ambassador from Mondstadt, then Tartaglia.
As the footsteps of Ningguang and Lumine neared, Zhongli picked up their conversation. "I'm glad Zhongli could meet with me on such short notice." Ningguang said softly and he merely heard Lumine hum in agreement. "How have you been?" Ningguang asked to be polite to Lumine, making Zhongli smirk. If there was one thing he liked about Lumine, it was the fact she was always short and to the point with others. It was never like that with him or his children though, despite her preferred silence around them, she was always warm with her words to them.
"I've been well. You, Lady Ningguang?" Lumine asked in turn, seeing it as the polite thing to do. "I've been well, thank you for asking." Ningguang said softly, before Lumine knocked on the doors to the study. Taking a breath to compose himself, he called for them to enter and the door opened. "Thank you Lumine." Lumine bowed, before standing straight. "I shall go prepare the tea now." She said and turned to leave, knowing what would be preferred.
Ningguang raised a brow as Lumine departed, before turning curious eyes to Zhongli. "She already knows what tea we prefer?" She asked, sitting down in the seat before Zhongli's desk. "She's intelligent like that." Zhongli said, before grabbing the notes he was reading over earlier. "Now, unto business." Zhongli said as he handed the file to Ningguang. "I suggest checking in with the Yuheng to make sure the calculations are correct but it would seem large amounts of money have been deposited from the Northland Bank into locked accounts overseas." Ningguang opened the file to look it over.
Oh my gosh, a new story! AAAAHHH!
Yes, yes, I know i has been a REALLY long time since I wrote a story BUT that's because I've been working on this story for a little over a year, maybe two. I began working on this story before Sumeru was released but writer's block is...well...yeah...it's bad. This story was, actually, inspired by a audio-asmr I listened to on a whim to try and fall asleep and the thoughts took over from there. The part inspired will show up in the next chapter but I can not, for the life of me, remember who did the asmr or what it was called. T^T So credit to the guy who did the asmr that inspired this story, I applaud you!
Well, this is chapter 1 but don't worry, this story won't go on Hiatus like my SPN: Online Love did. So stayed tuned...and no, I don't know how many chapters there will be. XD We'll see.