Rewind | Genshin Impact

Chapter 8

As the night progressed, Venti kept predicting what was going to happen before it happened correctly, deeply shocking Xiao. 

Xiao, understandably, was still a bit skeptical about the whole situation. However, he seemed to be slowly coming around.

"So- how did he die again?" He whispered into Venti's ear as Xingqiu was bringing out the food. They were all sitting around the table getting ready for dinner, Kaeya was in a conversation with, well, everyone except these two.

"Oh - food poisoning." Venti shrugged. 

"Food poisoning?!!" Xiao repeated, suddenly alert and scanning Xingqiu who was walking towards the table carry a bunch of different dishes.

"Yeah...?" Venti questioned, unsure what Xiao was getting at.

"Did you happen to forget that we're just about to eat what killed him?" Xiao snapped at him, Venti gasped as the realisation hit him. 

"WAIT!" Venti screamed as soon as Xingqiu put the food down, he stood up from where he was sitting and his eyes scanned everyone at the table. Xiao audibly sighed. "Why don't we get takeout instead?" 

"Um... What?" Lumine questioned from where she was sitting, a look of hurt spread across Xingqiu's face. 

"Yeah because-" He was just about to continue speaking when he realised that he can't actually tell them that someone's trying to poison Kaeya. They probably wouldn't believe him, along with the fact that the actual murderer will probably then try to kill Venti after Venti confesses this. 

"Because-" Venti heard Xiao's voice, as the other boy stood up from his seat next to Venti. "Because it's bad luck to eat dinner before nine pm when someone arrives back from an outing."

"What?" Everyone questioned simultaneously. 

"It's a legend from my home town, but if you eat now it brings bad luck." Xiao had a serious expression on his face which told everyone not to question it.

"Well then why would Venti suggest take out?" Amber piped in curiosity.

"He didn't know about the legend." Xiao answered simply. 

"Yeah but-" Amber pressed on, however Venti quickly cut her off, clapping his hands together.

"Okay so it's settled, we'll eat after nine."

Everyone still looked unsure and confused, but they agreed to it. There was no harm in waiting longer, right?

***

After their episode at dinner, everyone scattered around and started participating in their own conversations. Meanwhile, Xiao and Venti were standing to the side observing everyone carefully, formulating a plan of what they were going to try and do next.

"So - we destroy the food?" Venti turned to check with Xiao.

"Right, and how are we going to do that without seeming suspicious or seeming like complete jerks?" Xiao questioned Venti, which Venti just shrugged at.

"Well... We could be quiet-" Venti thought out loud, to which Xiao just sighed at and grabbed Venti's wrist.

"Come on-" He said, dragging the other boy into the kitchen where the food was and closing the door behind them. "Bin." Xiao said, letting go of Venti's wrist and pointing at the trashcan.

"What?" Venti inquired, not entirely sure what the other boy was getting at.

"Put the food in the trash - Take the trash outside. It's not like we can burn it."

"And when Xingqiu asks where the food went?" Venti questioned, to which Xiao shrugged at.

"I don't know - I'll probably just make up a legend about my 'home town' along the lines of how food disappears sometimes. Considering them they'll probably buy it." Xiao shrugged, to which Venti laughed at.

"They're not all that dumb." 

Xiao chuckled now. "The ones who would actually care about the food are that dumb." 

Venti giggled and sighed, he knew Xiao was right and he was feeling extremely grateful that he asked Xiao to help him with this.

"Alright - let's do this then." Then they got to work.