After leaving the Knights of Favonius headquarters, Ye Xi was at a loss for what to do.
In the end, he decided to first go to the Angel's Share and buy some wine from Diluc.
Although Eula had said she would treat everyone to Dandelion Wine, at most she would only buy a single barrel, just enough for everyone to have a taste.
Ye Xi planned to buy seventy or eighty barrels and store them in the wine cellar, so that whenever anyone wanted a drink, they could have one.
And so, he arrived at the Angel's Share.
The moment he stepped in, the bartender Charles offered a greeting.
"A new face, I see. Would the young fellow like to sit at the bar?"
Ye Xi glanced around, and suddenly spotted a familiar figure at the bar. His eyes lit up, and he said, "A glass of Dandelion Wine, please. I'll sit over here."
As he spoke, he sat down beside Venti.
That's right.
At this very moment, Venti was sitting at the bar drinking, looking a little tipsy.
He hadn't originally intended to drink, but he'd happened to run into the Anemo Archon Barbatos, so naturally they had to chat a bit.
Seeing Ye Xi arrive, Venti gave a flippant little smile. "Well, if it isn't Master Ye Xi. Sit, sit."
As he spoke, he patted the dust off the stool, clearing a spot for Ye Xi.
This reaction made Ye Xi feel like this fellow somehow already knew he was coming.
Just as he was thinking this, Charles had already slid the drink in front of him.
This was Mondstadt's most famous wine—Dandelion Wine!
It looked rather close to transparent in color.
Yet somewhere between colorless and transparent, it faintly gave off a touch of pale green, as if the elemental power of the Anemo element were drifting within it.
Crystal clear and sparkling, it looked very delicious.
He took a small sip, and found the flavor in his mouth to be quite novel.
As a wine, its alcohol content wasn't high—there was no harsh burning of the throat. Instead, it was cool and refreshing.
The taste was clear and sweet, without any bitter alcoholic edge, and there was even a crisp, refreshing sensation!
Truly worthy of the Dandelion Wine that Mondstadt took such pride in!
This wine really was delicious!
"How is it? Master Ye Xi."
"Does our Mondstadt's fine wine suit your taste?"
Venti raised his cup, wearing a look of showing off.
Ye Xi nodded repeatedly. "To be honest, the purpose of this trip was precisely to buy a good deal of it and bring it back home."
"Oh?"
At these words Venti's eyes immediately lit up. He hurriedly rubbed his hands together and leaned in close to Ye Xi. "Master Ye Xi, how much are you planning to buy?"
"Could you, perhaps, gift me a barrel?"
"The money I earn from singing for tips can only buy the loose, bulk stuff—it's really never enough to satisfy my craving!"
Overhearing this exchange, the bartender Charles couldn't help but feel exasperated. "Venti, don't go pestering people to foot your bill!"
"You already owe so much for your wine tab here—Master Diluc may resign himself to taking the loss, but don't you go scaring off the other customers too!"
"At this rate, we won't be able to do any business at all."
Though Charles didn't know the relationship between Venti and Ye Xi, hearing that Ye Xi wanted to buy wine, this was, by any measure, a customer of the Dawn Winery!
If Venti latched onto him begging for wine and money, it would inevitably leave a bad impression.
Locals who knew about Venti's antics might not mind so much.
But Ye Xi clearly wasn't a local—perhaps it was his first time in Mondstadt. If he ran into something like this, he might never come back again!
This would affect not only the tavern's business, but Mondstadt's reputation as well!
The moment he thought of this, Charles hurriedly moved to hold Venti back.
Watching Venti put on such a beggarly display, Ye Xi couldn't help but find it a little amusing.
Being a God, yet without even a single Mora to his name—truly speechless.
But it wasn't just Venti. Even that money-minting idler over in Liyue had empty pockets!
Venti, Zhongli, Raiden Ei, and Nahida—four Gods together, and they couldn't scrape up a single Mora between them!
These days Raiden Ei stayed shut indoors all day, with food and drink aplenty in the Serenitea Pot, with no need for Mora.
Nahida was just like Raiden Ei—she had nowhere she needed to spend Mora.
As for Zhongli.
Ever since Ningguang and Keqing learned his identity, they had been secretly subsidizing him a tiny bit, so lately he was at least presentable.
That left only Venti, this fellow companion in misfortune, still here singing for tips!
Naturally Ye Xi was willing to lend a helping hand, but he was in no hurry. Instead he joked, "Venti, my Mora doesn't blow in on the wind, you know. A barrel of Dandelion Wine is worth quite a lot of Mora, isn't it?"
"At most I'll treat you to a single glass. How about that?"
"One glass!?"
Venti immediately let out a sigh, putting on a crestfallen expression. "And to think I deliberately told Grand Master Jean about the fencing matter, leading her to misunderstand, so she'd send Eula and Amber to get close to you."
"Who'd have thought it would only be worth a single glass of Dandelion Wine..."
"Ah~ well, even a single glass will do."
"Charles, hurry and pour me a glass of Dandelion Wine~"
Although Charles didn't understand why Ye Xi wanted to treat Venti to a drink, he went to prepare it anyway.
Ye Xi's face was full of question marks, and inwardly he was quite shocked. "You mean to say, that whole affair wasn't you deliberately playing a trick on Grand Master Jean—it was for my sake?"
This left him quite astonished.
He had originally assumed that Venti was just a slacker who never did any real work, deliberately causing Grand Master Jean to misunderstand and thereby delaying his cooperation with Mondstadt.
Who would have thought Venti had actually been scheming this all along!
It had been to make Grand Master Jean send Eula and Amber to meet him—to give him the chance to get close to the girls!
Venti nodded, spreading his hands as he explained, "That's right. I saw how much you love pretty girls, so I figured I'd help bring a good thing to fruition."
"That child Eula has always been unwelcome in Mondstadt. I thought she could go live abroad and start over fresh."
"Seeing her persist like that—even a God couldn't bear to watch."
"...As for Amber, she misses her good friend dearly, and also wants to go to Liyue to investigate the matter of her grandfather."
"In any case, I can hear all the wishes of Mondstadt's people, so helping them is my responsibility too."
Hearing these words come out of Venti's mouth, Ye Xi couldn't help but feel they were rather unreal.
He seriously suspected that Venti had long since thought to use such matters to curry favor with him, and in exchange wheedle some wine out of him here.
But it was also true that Venti did genuinely care about his people.
Though he never did any proper work, he loved his people in his own way.
Honestly, Ye Xi could no longer tell what Venti's true aim was.
Still, he was quite satisfied in his heart.
After all, thanks to Venti's doing this, his relationships with Eula and Amber were both quite good.
This was all to be credited to Venti's deliberate maneuvering back then; otherwise he wouldn't have met Amber and Eula so early.
Thinking of this, he turned to Charles, who was pouring the wine, and said, "Is your Master Diluc around?"
"Eh? Young fellow, Master Diluc is rather busy. How much wine are you planning to buy?"
The implication behind these words was simple: if it wasn't much, it wouldn't be worth Diluc receiving him in person.
Only if the quantity was large would Diluc come.
Ye Xi held up a single finger and said, "I want to buy one hundred barrels."
"What!? One hundred barrels!?"
Charles jumped in fright. He'd never imagined Ye Xi would want so much, and hurriedly said, "Young fellow... uh, no, this Master—please wait a moment! I'll go fetch Master Diluc!"
With that, Charles hurried upstairs.
Venti, off to the side, hadn't expected Ye Xi to order so much in one go either.
Ye Xi smiled. "I have a lot of wives at home. With something this delicious, of course everyone has to taste it together!"
A barrel of wine wasn't large—it was probably only about twenty-some glasses' worth.
The likes of Dehya and Beidou back home all had rather bold, free-spirited dispositions. If everyone had a glass each, they'd go through a whole barrel in a single night.
Buying a hundred barrels to store in the wine cellar would save the trouble of running back and forth when supplies ran low.
Hearing this, Venti's face filled with envy. "Heavens, doesn't that mean you can drink to your heart's content every day?"
"Master Ye Xi, if I turned into a girl right now, would it still be too late?"
Ye Xi: ....
.....
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