Hydrophobic ¦ Xingqiu x Reader [Genshin Impact]

A Proposal [29]

The apple pie's scent gently enters your nose as you take a bite of the said slice with Jiayin sitting in front of you, doing the same thing.

"This is delicious." You place a hand over your lips in awe.

Jiayin playfully rolls her eyes. "I'm not even the slightest surprised. We both made it, of course."

For the second time of the week, you found yourself back inside Jiayin's home. Your friends were nowhere to be found as Xiangling was busy with the restaurant, Xingqiu was still missing in action, and you wanted to spend some time with someone today.

It was as if ever since those meteors came down, everything was starting to go out of place again.

Just a while ago, while you were on your way to Jiayin's, the millelith were patrolling around and warning people to quickly seek shelter within the village, due to finding out about the side effects the meteorites caused when someone comes into contact with it.

You didn't immerse too much in the information since you only really wanted to see your friend today. Maybe when the traveler reveals herself to you, you'd ask more about it. She's a well-known traveler, and after all, she should know about this.

"This reminds me of the time I cooked with someone just a few days ago." You say with your fork rested on the bottom of your lip.

"Oh? With who?"

"Some random guy's mother." You give Jiayin an innocent smile, which made her chortle.

Unlike the other day, when you had the chance to spend time with her, you weren't packed with anything to do today except when Katheryne from the Adventurer's Guild informed you about the traveler's commission specifically left for you to complete.

But before that, you decided that a nice visit wouldn't hurt anyone and it turned out that you were just on time seeing that she was already getting ready to try and bake something the moment you knocked on her door.

In the middle of your light-hearted conversation with Jiayin, she suddenly sits up straight, remembering an encounter that had to do something with you.

She then stands up and tells you to stay put before scurrying inside a room and then appearing back just as quickly as she left. "I almost forgot to tell you! Someone put a box on my front door addressed to you."

You raise a brow from curiosity. "What?"

"Yeah, it was bizarre. I tried asking around if anyone saw the person who placed this but they didn't see a thing." She pushes the box towards you on the table and you hesitate.

There was a small tag attached outside the box which only contained the letter "G" written on it.

"Is it from Gui?" Jiayin hastily finishes her pie, wanting to find out more about this mysterious package.

Your brows furrow. "Possibly."

It would make sense in a logical stance since you and Gui were the only people who knew where Jiayin currently resides—unless a third party was hiding behind the shadows. But that would be too much of a reach.

Something didn't feel right and the pit of your stomach knew that as you reach for the lid of the box to open it.

As soon as the lid was removed, a putrid smell—of something you couldn't put your finger on, made its way out of the container—leaving you and your friend to turn your heads away from it in disgust.

"What the?!" You push the now opened box away from you in horror, screaming together with Jiayin.

It was a dove's corpse.