Rewind | Genshin Impact

Chapter 29

28th April 2020:

It had been three days since they finished questioning Venti, they ended it off by 'letting him know' (threatening him) that if he did anything somewhat suspicious during the days leading up to the trail, they won't hesitate bringing him back in.

Ever since the questioning, Venti kept mostly to himself. Everything was just too sad, too different. The usual joy and optimism that would usually radiate off Bennett wasn't there, and Chongyun's love for exorcism and horror movies also seemed to go on halt, the light blue haired boy opting to spend most of his time alone in his room. 

However, despite everything Venti didn't fully put aside trying to figure out who it could be. He contemplated reaching out to Xiao a few times, however decided that Xiao would probably want some space after everything, especially from Venti. Venti wouldn't be surprised if Xiao suspected the murderer was him, considering how suspicious his whole story had been. 

Venti sighed as he flopped onto his bed, holding the list of names over his head and examining it for what felt like the thousandth time, before grabbing his pen and writing neatly underneath-

Albedo

What Kaeya said that night about his relationship with the blonde definitely caused suspicion to rise in relation to what Albedo could have planned/be planning behind the scenes.  

Three loud knocks on the front door startled Venti out of his thoughts, the green haired boy nearly falling off his bed due to the surprise it caused him.

Who would be visiting at this time? Bennett and Chongyun didn't say anything about inviting anyone over.

Venti sat up on his bed, underlying suspicion in relation to who it might be. Luckily, he didn't have to think about it for too long since Bennett's voice soon echoed down the hallway. "Venti! It's for you!"

Venti felt confusion consume him, but he still put the piece of paper and pen aside. He hastily stood up and made his way to the front door, feeling surprise but also a pang of happiness when he saw Xiao leaning against the door frame.

Bennett looked at Xiao, then Venti, then Xiao again before he cleared his throat. "O-okay then I'm going to just-" He pointed behind him as he started to take a few steps backwards, nearly tripping over a chair as he did so. "Go..." Then Bennett clumsily walked down the hallway and into his room. Venti diverted his attention back to Xiao.

"Uh, ehe, hi." Venti chuckled nervously, being met with Xiao's unimpressed gaze. "What are you doing here? And, uh, how did you find out where I live?"

Xiao sighed as he pushed himself off the wall, walking into the house after some hesitation. "Xingqiu told me where you lived, as I'm sure he told you where I live before the dinner party. The answer to what I am doing here, well it should be rather obvious considering the conversations we had the night of the party. You know a lot more then you let on, and it's evident something  vile and evil happened that night. I also found it a bit interesting, though, that you were the one who took Kaeya home, and you were the one who claimed to know Kaeya's death was going to happen before it happened. Is it wrong for me to be suspicious?"

Venti nearly choked. Gosh, he really was getting Bennett's luck recently. Of course Xiao would come to his house just to accuse him of murder, and if he was being honest with himself Xiao had some good points. Still, it hurt that Xiao thought it was him, more then it would hurt if anyone else suspected him. However, he didn't allow himself to try and figure out why. He really had to think up a good excuse to get out of this one. "Oh, uh, ehe. You see I know how it seems. But it wasn't me, I promise."

"And you want me to just take your word for it?" Xiao deadpanned, seemingly unimpressed with the whole situation. 

"Well, uh, yeah?" He said, titling his head a bit. "But uh, yeah it couldn't have been me anyway. I mean why would I offer to take Kaeya home and make it known that he was going to be murdered if I was just going to murder him anyway? And if I was the murderer the last thing I would do is talk about it before it happened. I mean that's just me asking to get caught."