Twisted Justice

3. Bad memories

"Useless"

"Pathetic"

"A disgrace to the family name"

"Why do you even exist?"

"You're a coward"

"Get lost and don't come back, you disgusting freak"

"Yuru! Are you listening to Dr.Baizhu?" A voice inquired

Yuru opened his eyes wide and looked at the face of the person -or rather, the snake- that called him. She was looking at him back, together with Baizhu, Qiqi and Herbalist Gui, the only paid worker Bubu Pharmacy had (seems Baizhu couldn't force everyone to work freely). He could feel his cheeks lightly reddening, which only further added to his initial embarrassment. He couldn't even remember spacing out, or when was the last time something like this had happened to him before. Did Teyvat have some effects on him?

"Apologies. I just remembered something" He excused himself while looking to the floor, trying to cope with this unusual feeling together with another one he knew very well. The others looked at him for a few seconds before Baizhu coughed and resumed his speech, which forced the others to look at him:

"Anyways, so as I was saying: today I'll have to go to Liyue to attend some important business, so while I'm gone I want you all to cover me" Yuru rolled his eyes "Mr.Gui, you won't have to do anything special, so you can return to what you were doing " the herbalist nodded and left for his position after saying his goodbyes to all of them. As for you two, my dear Qiqi and Baizhu, I'll need you to go and gather some Violetgrass. Qiqi, I trust you remember where they are?" Baizhu asked the little girl, who nodded affirmatively "Great! You can guide Yuru then, so he knows where to find them for future times. Alright, I think that's all. Good luck, my precious assistants! See you at night!" He smiled and waved while walking off, leaving Yuru rather annoyed because of his carefree attitude sending a kid to place that was probably filled with monsters (although said kid had a Vision and would probably be used to fight them judging by the pharmacist's words, he couldn't do anything but worry about her). He sighed mentally and started following Qiqi, who had slowly but surely started walking towards their destination.

After a while, they arrived at the place. It wasn't really anything special, just some small rocky cliffs in the middle of some grassy fields with some trees here and there. They quickly found the purple flower, which reminded Yuru of bellflowers, and decided to split up in order to gather the greatest amount possible: Qiqi went to the cliffs and rocks on the right and Yuru to the left ones. While he collected them, he started to think about the memories he had remembered earlier that day: it's not like they were good memories, but they came to him so often he had given up trying to make them disappear. However, that didn't mean they didn't anger him anymore, just that he was capable of hiding his anger better in front of other people. But now that he was all alone, the emotions started to overflow him, making him lose track of his surroundings and unable to see the attack coming his way, which knocked him out.

Some time later

Yuru slowly woke up in what looked like the interior of a cave. Although he couldn't properly see due to the absence of light, he decided to try and inspect his surroundings, only to find out some boxes or chests alongside a variety of different goods. He deduced he must've been kidnappped by some kind of thieves, theory that was proven right when he heard a voice calling him:

"Well, well, well... Looks like the sleepy prince is finally awake"

Yuru turned his head towards the voice, and his gaze was matched by seven more. Judging by their disheveled appearance, all of his captors seemed to have just came back from doing their criminal shenanigans. His anger quickly rose, and he tried to yell at them, but he was stopped by something he hadn't realized before because of his situation: his mouth was covered by a thick piece of cloth, which made him unable to speak and yell for help (something he probably wouldn't have done regardless of his state, as he didn't want an innocent bystander to get attacked by the bandits) and his hands were tied behind his back with a rope in a rather strong knot.