Midnight, the Stars and You [ G. Impact ]

four | IV

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     The next day, Zhang got your phone, just as promised. Shogun Electronics was a much larger facility than you initially expected. You certainly did not think it would be skyscraper status when you came into the city.

     "How many phones are they selling to be one-hundred floors tall?" you said with a mystified tone. Your estimate may have been an over-exaggeration, but it seemed reasonable in retrospect.

     "Quite a few, I imagine. They're the leading brand throughout Teyvat—have you been living under a rock?" Zhang joked.

     "Under a boulder, it seems."

     "What kind of phone did you have before?"

     "Definitely not Shogun," you affirmed.

     You have had the same phone since middle school. In all honesty, you never bothered to replace it because it had always worked just fine. After the first two years, your mother finally took the hint and stopped asking if you wanted a new one. Your dad was the one to gift it to you after all.

     "Hey, they can still access the data inside it, right?" you asked. A thought popped into your head that made you a little anxious.

     "They should be able to. Unless the SD card got messed up, I think it can be transferred manually into the new phone."

     "I hope so," you silently prayed, keeping your eyes ahead as Zhang parked the car.

     Shogun Electronics lived up to its name. When you first walked through the door, you were met with a blast of air conditioning. The contrast from the outside made goosebumps rise on your arms. Past the entryway was a spacious room filled with tables and display cases. Phones and tablets lay connected to chargers, adjacent to stools for customers to sit while they tried out the devices.

     TVs hung on the wall displaying the Shogun logo. The design was one you had seen in Inazuma—a circle with three jagged lines swirling through the center. Many of the employees had the same symbol displayed on the breast area of their shirts.

     Zhang began to browse the rows, stopping to stare at phones way over a reasonable price range. You hoped he wasn't planning on wasting that much money on you. A small, simple phone would be ideal for you.

     "What about this one?" Zhang pointed to a huge phone locked behind the tempered glass. The gigabytes of storage it held was at least three times the amount in your current phone. You didn't think you could fill it up even if you kept that phone for years.

     "That's a little too big for my tastes," you said politely. "I don't need anything extreme. Just something to get me through the day."

     "Oh, come on, go a little crazy! You're such a modest kid, let yourself be a little selfish for once," he scolded you fondly.

     "I'm already being selfish by letting you do this for me."

     He groaned. "Nonsense! I already told you it's my responsibility as your temporary primary guardian. Now, pick something out or I'm going to choose the most expensive thing here."

     That got you moving. You didn't stop to look at anything that was over four digits. After scouring the initial displays, you made your way towards the back of the first floor, a small sign catching your eye.

     Aha. "Discounted. Perfect."

     Zhang steered you away from the clearance section. "Nope, you're not taking the easy way out."