Stuck in Teyvat! (Genshin Impact x Reader)

Chapter 24 - Liyue's Cuisine

2nd POV

"What do you mean with no?" Paimon frowned at you, crossing her arms.
You shrugged your shoulders, turning your head away. "Just no.", I sigh with a stern expression, "I won't tag along this time."

Hearing your reply, Paimon kicked her legs angrily, "You can't just leave now! We need to help Mr. Zhongli. You've promised Aether to help him look for his sister."
You crossed your arm, furrowing your brows. "I'm still keeping that promise, but I doubt that preparations for the Rite of Parting require my help." You explained. "Like, seriously, why would we need three and a half people to obtain some objects?"

You noticed Paimon getting angry at your comment; though you couldn't tell if it was because of calling her 1/2 person or because you refused to join them.

"Paimon." Aether spoke up with a calm voice, "(Y/N) doesn't need to join us if they don't want to. We can't force them to stay at our side all the time. Besides, I'm confident that they won't do anything stupid when they are on their own." 

Paimon let out a defeated sigh as she crossed her arms. "Ugh. Fine. But Paimon is still angry at them, and they are also leaving an awful impression on Mr. Zhongli."

I glanced at the tall man and let out a quiet sigh. You didn't hate Zhongli or anything, but you couldn't deny, that spending time with him was boring and exhausting.

As you met him back at Liuli Pavilion, you could tell by the way he looked at you that he knew you, but for the sake of having to play dead, he couldn't engage in a proper conversation with you; which didn't bother you at all. In fact, you quite enjoyed his dilemma of being unable to talk to you properly.

"I don't really care if I leave a bad impression on others." You hummed with an amused smile and stuck out your tongue at her, before turning to Aether with a calm smile. "Let's meet at the inn, we've stayed at last night, once you are done."

"Alright.", the blonde nodded with a faint smile, "I trust that you won't get yourself in trouble while we are gone."

"I can't make any promises." You chuckled before turning away. "It's not like I'm running into trouble on purpose."

Aether let out a quiet sigh at your response. "Just take care, alright?"

"Yeah. Yeah. Don't worry." You waved his worries off and turned your back, walking off.

"So... How am I gonna waste my time today?" You mused to yourself as you walked down Liyue's streets.

You could do some window shopping, but what's the point in doing so if you couldn't buy anything? Until you obtain the Serenitea Pot, you had no space to put up some ugly decorations and souvenirs.

If you could muster up enough motivation, you could explore the town outskirt and study some plants. Yet, the motivation was clearly lacking.

Walking down the streets some longer, you were considering to just return to the inn and laze, for the rest of the day. This thought was actually quite tempting.

"Yes. That's exactly what I am going to do." You hummed, satisfied with your decision. "But first, I'll get something to eat."
You turned around and walked back from where you came, and stopped at the Wanmin Restaurant to buy yourself something to eat. 

As you pondered on what to order, you noticed a familiar looking girl.

You couldn't deny that you were quite surprised to see Xiangling helping out at the restaurant. She was currently preparing a meal for one of the guests, clearly enjoying the activity. Seeing her like this, you did wonder if you knew anyone else, who's so passionate about something, as she was with cooking. 

Looking back at the menu, you had trouble choosing on what to order. Liyue was known for having a lot of spicy food and that was the biggest trouble you had to deal with when ordering food. Even if someone from Liyue were to tell you that a certain dish isn't that spicy, you were confident, that you might still perceive it as too spicy.