Jean and Chen Mo were both stunned.
The two of them stared at each other, motionless, as if time itself had stopped.
The entire second floor was so quiet that only the drip, drip of water droplets hitting the floor could be heard.
Mist filled the air, settling on Jean’s burning skin, only to evaporate completely within a single breath.
Her ears, half-hidden beneath her blond hair, faintly turned rosy.
Jean snapped back to her senses in a daze and hurriedly averted her gaze, pushing the clothes in her hands toward Chen Mo.
“The… the clothes are here…” In her carelessness, she used a little too much force.
Her slender fingertips struck against his firm body with a delicate touch.
The water on Chen Mo’s body had not been wiped dry.
The droplets still carried a trace of warmth as they slid across Jean’s fingers.
That brief instant of contact was like an electro-charged reaction.
Jean’s entire body tensed in nervousness, and all the clothes in her hands slipped to the floor.
“S-sorry…!” She quickly bent down to pick up the clothes from the floor.
Like a kitten testing water, she carefully handed them to Chen Mo again.
“Please make do with these for now…” That fleeting touch had allowed Chen Mo to clearly feel that she was trembling.
He knew that it was not appropriate to remain by her side any longer.
He had to give Jean some time to calm down and relax on her own.
If this ambiguous atmosphere continued, the emotional threads in Jean’s mind would surely snap at some point.
“Alright…” Chen Mo took the clothes and thanked Jean once more.
The moment he closed the door and returned to the bathroom, the Dandelion Knight fled from the place as if she were a new recruit escaping from the battlefield.
Jean almost ran downstairs.
Her hurried footsteps caught little Klee’s attention.
With two small braids tied in her hair and a loose nightgown on, Klee suddenly popped into Jean’s field of vision.
“Acting Grand Master Jean, has Big Brother Chen Mo finished his bath?” “He should be… almost done…” Jean seemed as if she had been stimulated by something and shook her head repeatedly.
“I’m going to the study to handle some matters…” “After you play with Mr.
Envoy for a while, remember to go to bed early.” “Mm!
Okay!” After reminding Klee, Jean hid herself in the study.
She sat at the desk, staring at the black words on the white paper in front of her, completely unable to concentrate.
The threads in her mind had tangled into a chaotic mess.
“Perhaps when Mother and Father fell in love, similar stories happened between them as well…?” After drinking a full glass of dandelion wine, Jean gradually became tipsy.
She opened Vera’s Melancholy once again, and an inexplicable premonition rose in her heart.
The mutual love she had longed for during her maiden years now seemed to be not far in front of her… “Big Brother Chen Mo!
Are you done yet?” “Coming, coming.” Pushing open the bathroom door, Chen Mo lowered his head and met Klee’s sparkling eyes.
The little girl was hugging Dodoco and seemed to have been waiting outside for him for quite some time.
“Why is it just you and Dodoco?
Where is Acting Grand Master Jean?” “Acting Grand Master Jean has to work in the study, so Klee and Dodoco can only come find Big Brother to play!” Klee’s affection level had risen remarkably quickly.
From the time they had met until now, Chen Mo had only played with her for a few hours, yet the little girl’s affection toward him had already reached 35 points.
With Jean in her current state, it was clearly not suitable to go looking for her.
For now, the only strategy option left was to “play with Klee.” “Sure.
But it’s already getting late, so after playing for a little while, Klee has to remember to go to bed early.” “I know.” Her chubby little face scrunched up into a disappointed expression.
“Why does Big Brother Chen Mo say the same thing as Acting Grand Master Jean?” He crouched down and patted Klee’s little head.
“If Klee behaves and listens properly, then goes to bed early and wakes up early, Big Brother will take you out to blast fish tomorrow.
How does that sound?” “Blast fish!?” Her lively eyes shone like two rubies.
“Really?
Big Brother will really take Klee to blast fish?” “Of course!” “But Klee has to go to bed early tonight, and you can’t let Acting Grand Master Jean know about this.” Klee nodded vigorously and promised, “Mm!
Klee will go to bed early tonight!” “While Acting Grand Master Jean is working, how about we go study some new bomb formulas?” “Yay!” The little girl bounced downstairs, and Chen Mo followed steadily behind her.
Beside the table in the living room, Chen Mo accompanied Klee as she drew and scribbled, while also keeping an eye on the clock.
Only when the hour hand stopped between ten and eleven did he finally manage to coax the little girl back into bed.
“Big Brother Chen Mo, tell Klee a bedtime story.” Chen Mo’s expression stiffened.
He did not have many stories stored in his head right now.
He could not exactly tell the little girl something like Lin Daiyu Uproots Lu Zhishen, could he?
“Does Acting Grand Master Jean usually tell Klee stories too?” “Mm-hmm.
Acting Grand Master Jean tells really good stories.” He did not want to refuse those watery, pleading eyes, but unfortunately, he really was not good at this.
“How about this?
Klee, wait here for a little while.
Big Brother will go bring Acting Grand Master Jean over, alright?” “Mmm—” The little girl puffed up her cheeks and pouted, looking extremely unwilling no matter how one looked at it.
“Alright.” He patted the little girl on the forehead, then left the room.
Outside the study.
Chen Mo knocked on the door several times, but he never received a response from Jean.
“Could she have already gone back to her room to rest?” he wondered.
But through the crack beneath the door, he could clearly see that the light inside was still on.
Gently pressing down on the door handle, Chen Mo carefully pushed open the wooden door.
Warm light brushed across his cheek, followed by a refreshing fragrance that seeped into his nose.
When the door opened to about sixty or seventy degrees, he saw the blond knight beside the desk, asleep with her head resting on the tabletop.
Chen Mo moved even more carefully, not daring to make the slightest creak.
Like a burglar sneaking into someone’s home, he tiptoed over to Jean’s side.
The closer he got, the more clearly he could smell the scent of wine on her.
The elegant and dignified Dandelion Knight still looked beautiful even when drunk.
Her head rested on her arm, her golden hair delicate yet slightly disheveled.
A romance novel lay open beneath her arm.
In front of her fingertips sat an empty wine bottle and a glass, with one final sip of wine still remaining inside.
Chen Mo did not know what Jean had dreamed of, but seeing the curve of her lips beneath that rosy blush, he guessed it must have been a rare and pleasant dream.
“The little one’s bedtime story… I’ll just have to force myself through it…” He draped a blanket over Jean, then slowly walked toward the door.
At that moment, her long eyelashes trembled slightly.
Jean opened her eyes in a haze, heard a broken creak from the door, and then once again drifted into another dream.
At dawn the next day, at a Fatui stronghold near the foot of Dragonspine.
Tartaglia stood on high ground, gazing into the distance toward Liyue Harbor.
Snowflakes fell onto his hair.
Even the freezing wind, dozens of degrees below zero, could not extinguish the blazing excitement in his heart.
That Liyue man who called himself “Chen Tailang” had remained calm and unshaken even after witnessing his Foul Legacy Transformation.
It was as if he had already known that Tartaglia still had such a trump card hidden away.
“Deputy Director of Wangsheng Funeral Parlor… Wangsheng Funeral Parlor…” Tartaglia repeated the words again and again, occasionally letting out a soft laugh.
“This mission is definitely going to be very interesting!”
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