Frozen pages (Chongqiu/Xingyun) ||REWRITING||

Chapter 1: Just the "usual"

A young man was walking trough the crowded streets of Liyue heading towards the bookhouse, his heeled boots clanking across the stone paths next to Wanmin Restaurant.

The Restaurant chef's daughter wandered around between customers asking for their orders and bringing the food. It was a fairly busy day for them.

A familiar light blue haired exorcist caught the attention of the wandering allogene, bringing an amused smile to his lips. The poor soul was probably dragged there by the server to test new recipies.

"Xingqiu over here!" -The cheery lady yelled, breaking the illusion of a peaceful day for the Feiyun Commerce Guild's son.

"Do you need help Xiangling?"

"Well Chongyun is testing out my new meals but he can't try out the spicy ones so could you help me with that?"

She replied as she walked over with sparkling eyes. Usually, the more excited she looks the more dangerous she is, the archons seemed to have other plans for Xingqiu than reading in solitude.

"Alright fine but don't take too long I'm planning to go to the bookhouse after this."

"Right, where else you'd be." The woman rolled her eyes and ushered him over to the kitchen where now he was face to face with his best friend.

"Did you just drag Xingqiu here now too?" Chongyun asked in disbelief but he also seemed rather glad to not have to force down any Jueyun Chilies today.

"Well since you can't eat spicy and hot foods I had to take matters into my own hands!" Xiangling said with a dismissive hand gesture as she got the new dishes ready.

"Sorry for being born with a rare condition I can do nothing about."
The exorcist said with an eye-roll.

Sometimes Xingqiu felt almost bad for teasing him a lot but at the end of the day they both took it as good fun, and he can always tone it down if the other shows signs of discomfort.

"Less moping and more eating! Plus tell me your opinion about the new salad!" She answered, every single word soaked in impatience.

"It has a nice texture I guess- And the flavors are interesting." Chongyun responded with a shrug. Xiangling seemed to be pleased with that answer and wrote up the salad to her 'add to the menu' list.

Xingqiu was greeted with a plate of pork practically drenched in hot sause with some brown rice on the side along with a seasoning combination he's sure he'd never seen in his life. The flavor palette ended up being quite nice however, so he wasn't going to complain for being brought into this.

And it did not escape him how an icy pair of eyes were practically staring at him like they were trying to pry into his soul.

"Alright thank you for helping you two! That's all I have" Xiangling exclaimed, full of joy as most of her dishes were a success that day.

The exorcist's eyes once again found his navy haired friend now, his charming and confident presence always just as striking as ever. His easy-going style and sense of morality were an interesting yet well balanced combination that he couldn't help but admire.

His confidence and composure lures everyone in. Chongyun never understood how some people were capable of having such an effect on their audience. He was glad to be Xingqiu's friend even if he does have a mischievous and teasing side to him.

"Yun!" Xingqiu said snapping his fingers together infront of the man.

"Ah!- Uhm, sorry. I zoned out. What is it?"

"Do you want to come with me to the bookhouse or are you busy?" The navy haired repeated his question, glancing down at the other.

"I was planning to head home after this actually," The exorcist replied, quickly continuing when he saw the other's expression falter, "but I'm not in a hurry. I'll go with you."

"Great!" Xingqiu clapped his hands together, before pulling the man out of the kitchen by his arm, waving goodbye to Xiangling.

By the archons, how was Conghyun ever supposed to say no to that smile?..

Thank you for reading my first chapter of this series. These are pretty short, sorry for that.

I have decided to start rewriting this story as I see that many people are still reading it for some reason. It reminded me of how much I actually enjoyed seeing people's reactions to my work and gave me a newfound motivation to return.

I hope you enjoyed after so long, and I'll be continuing to rework the chapters and refine the -currently rather wack- plotline before posting new chapters.