Chapter 132

The next morning, the three sat in the shop eating dumplings.

Zhu Zi whispered: "Boss, there seemed to be an earthquake last night, did you feel it?"

Xia Zhi nodded calmly: "Mm, felt something."

Shenhe also nodded: "Just a small tremor."

Zhu Zi thought for a moment and said: "Since Liyue is Rex Lapis's domain, occasional earthquakes seem normal."

"Is that so?"

"That's how it is in Inazuma. Since it's the Raiden Shogun's domain, there are lots of thunderstorms and frequent rain! I heard Mondstadt often has windy weather too."

"When you put it that way, it makes sense, but Rex Lapis has already passed away."

"Hmm... that's true... so last night must have just been a normal earthquake..."

After breakfast, Shenhe went to wash dishes in the kitchen, Zhu Zi diligently took up a cloth to wipe all the tables in the shop, while Xia Zhi sat alone thinking.

Actually, last night's earthquake was accidentally caused by him testing the power of combined talismans and spell scrolls.

He hadn't expected the nine-element chain reaction would be so intense that even with Mount Tianheng between Dunyu Ruins and Liyue Harbor, people could still feel the explosion's aftershocks.

Fortunately, he had cautiously activated time-stop, otherwise that [Revival Coin] would probably have been used up.

But this was also good news - the more powerful their combined explosion, the more formidable this trump card would be.

The morning passed quietly with no visitors, so the three played mahjong for a while.

Zhu Zi wasn't skilled but had good luck, often drawing good tiles.

Shenhe had average luck but good skill, rarely giving others winning tiles.

As for Xia Zhi, with his god's eye view, he could clearly see what tiles both girls had and what they needed, occasionally feeding tiles to whoever was losing more to control the balance.

At noon.

At noon.

Xia Zhi made a large serving of twice-cooked pork and scrambled eggs with tomatoes, plus a pot of seaweed and pork rib soup.

Simple home-style dishes, but so delicious that both girls couldn't help having two extra bowls of rice.

In the afternoon, it was too hot outside, so they stayed in the shop to rest.

Xia Zhi took out his carving tools and jade, carved a jade pendant and a jade qilin.

"Boss, is this safety pendant for Qiqi?"

"Mm."

"This jade qilin must be for Miss Ganyu, right?"

"Yes."

"What about Miss Xiangling?"

"She'll get one too, I'm still thinking what to carve."

"How about carving Guoba?"

"Guoba..."

"Oh right, Boss can't see, so you don't know what Guoba looks like..."

"I've seen red pandas before though."

"Oh! Then carve a red panda, it's pretty similar to Guoba."

So Xia Zhi carved a cute red panda, then went to the kitchen to make mung bean dessert, having Shenhe freeze it afterward.

The light green color was pleasing to the eye, smooth and sweet on the tongue, refreshingly cool.

"Is it good?"

"Delicious!"

"Next time I'll make red bean ice for you. It's sweeter and has blood-nourishing effects, good for girls."

Blood-nourishing? Zhu Zi thought of something and blushed, nodding: "Okay."

Shenhe wasn't as shy, or perhaps hadn't thought of the embarrassing thing Zhu Zi was thinking about, and just nodded lightly: "Mm."

After finishing the mung bean ice dessert, the three played more mahjong until around 4 PM.

[Skill Steal]'s cooldown was ready, usable again.

Xia Zhi "looked" at Shenhe who was drawing tiles and selected her.

"Use [Skill Steal] on target?"

"Yes."

"[Skill Steal] successful, learned skill [Lone Star] from target."

"[Skill Steal] has entered cooldown, usable again in 24 hours."

"[Lone Star]: Passive, reduces luck of surrounding people by 75%."

Xia Zhi looked at the skill description on the system panel and fell silent.

Wait, how does Shenhe have such a terrifyingly strange ability?

But since Shenhe arrived, he hadn't felt particularly unlucky...

While playing mahjong, Xia Zhi opened his personal attributes interface to check.

He saw that his luck value hadn't been reduced by 75%.

This meant Shenhe's [Lone Star] wasn't currently active.

Perhaps this ability had been sealed by her master?

Xia Zhi quietly observed the girls' tiles.

Indeed, since he learned the [Lone Star] passive skill, the tiles both girls drew became increasingly worse. Forget about winning, they could barely even get close.

Xia Zhi understood the terrifying nature of this ability. Fortunately, the system allowed passive skills to be turned on and off at will. After he turned off [Lone Star], the girls' luck immediately returned to normal, and they started drawing better tiles again.

Zhu Zi and Shenhe just thought they had a couple of unlucky rounds and didn't notice anything unusual.

Xia Zhi pondered.

This passive skill's negative effect was too powerful; he couldn't possibly use it in daily life, or Zhu Zi and Shenhe would have terrible luck, and customers coming for drinks would surely be affected too.

But if activated during combat, greatly reducing surrounding enemies' luck, it might have remarkable effects.

Xia Zhi "looked" at the cool-faced Shenhe again. He didn't know about her original family background - she had never mentioned her parents. He only knew she was adopted by Cloud Retainer from a young age and was a distant relative of Chongyun's family.

But seeing [Lone Star]'s negative effects, he could easily guess that Shenhe's family must have gone through some bad times when she was young.

A person who brings misfortune to others...

Perhaps this was why she was adopted by Cloud Retainer.

Xia Zhi couldn't help but feel sympathy for her.

Through their interactions these days, he had basically understood Shenhe's character, knowing she was actually a kind-hearted girl despite her cold exterior.

Such a girl deserved to be treated gently.

However, looking at it from another angle, Xia Zhi was curious.

If Shenhe's seal were removed and both their [Lone Star] effects activated simultaneously, would Zhu Zi's luck be -150% (additive) or -93.75% (multiplicative)?

What would happen when luck became negative?

Would everything fail? 100% bad luck?

After playing mahjong for a while longer, around 5 PM, Ganyu arrived.

"Mr. Xia, Junior Sister Shenhe, Miss Zhu Zi..."

"Miss Ganyu, have you finally finished your work?"

"Yes, I've mostly handled the backlog of work from the Lantern Rite period. Things will be easier from now on. What are you playing?"

"Mahjong! Miss Ganyu, come join us! Four people is perfect! It's really fun! We'll teach you!"

"Oh?"

Ganyu showed some interest, sat down at the table, and quickly learned the rules.

"I see, I basically understand now. Let's begin."

"This... I think I won?"

"Ah, I seem to have won again."

"Rob the kong, I win."

"Oh, is this what they call a heavenly hand?"

...

Xia Zhi, Zhu Zi, and Shenhe looked at the smiling Ganyu in silence.

Was this the terrifying luck of a qilin as an auspicious symbol of prosperity?

Frightening.

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