Ten days slipped by in the blink of an eye.
The land stirred awake, and a thread of dawn light broke the stillness of the night.
Early morning.
As the sun climbed over the horizon, all of Liyue Harbor came slowly to life.
Fang Qiu was up early. She washed and dressed, then prepared a full day's worth of cat food for Tingyu in advance.
Today was the day she delivered her manuscript to the publishing house.
Over the past several days, anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day had been finished. The main storyline had come together beautifully, and the effect of her revisions and cuts satisfied her completely.
The pacing flowed far better now, the story had a fresher, gentler air to it, and it carried far more emotional weight.
After checking the page count of the manuscript one last time, she bound it up inside a paper document envelope, then walked over to the full-length mirror by the wardrobe and slipped out of her sleepwear.
But when Fang Qiu, bare-skinned, pulled open the wardrobe to pick out something to wear outside, her eyes landed on the nightdress Hu Tao had worn that night.
And just like that, the memory of what she had woken up to a few mornings ago came rushing back.
She and Hu Tao, wound tightly around each other. Their bodies pressed flush together.
Thank goodness Hu Tao slept like a stone.
Otherwise the consequences didn't bear thinking about.
Watching herself in the mirror, cheeks flushed pink as peach blossoms at the memory, Fang Qiu felt the heat in her face climb higher still, and a faint weakness creep into her legs.
Sinful.
Utterly sinful!
May the great Rex Lapis forgive her wickedness…
May the wind guide you. May Narukami be eternal.
"Whew."
Fang Qiu let out a long breath and shook every last one of those unruly images out of her head.
She picked a moon-white long dress at random and pulled it on, then took up the envelope with her manuscript and walked out through the main hall to open the front door.
With a soft click, the morning sun spilled into the hall.
Outside, the light was perfect.
A breeze passed through, and the evergreens in the courtyard swayed gently with it.
Before, whenever she opened a window, what waited outside was the blue ocean and a sky without a single cloud.
Now, when she opened the door, what greeted her was an exquisite courtyard.
Each had its own charm.
Then again, whether it was because the weather was finally warming, she couldn't say, but Liyue Harbor had been under clear skies for days on end.
"I haven't been out in ages. Might as well wander the streets a bit while I'm at it," Fang Qiu said, stretching, and set off toward the main road.
The calls of street vendors tangled with the voices of storytellers in the teahouses, and the whole street hummed with life.
By now, the tavern beneath the Wanwen Bookhouse had opened for the day too.
The Tavern Proprietress wore a pale lilac cheongsam, her figure as graceful as ever, her bearing as elegant as ever. Today, however, she was in a poor mood.
She was still fretting over the business with Fang Qiu. These past few days Fang Qiu had passed by her door any number of times, and every single time she had been ice-cold. The Proprietress had tried again and again to strike up a conversation, and every time Fang Qiu had walked right past her.
She hadn't even been given a chance to apologize.
"Haah."
She sighed, heavy with melancholy. Just as she was about to go back inside for a bottle to nurse, she saw Fang Qiu strolling toward her, perfectly at ease, a paper envelope hugged to her chest.
She looked to be in an excellent mood.
"Is that a new book?"
The Tavern Proprietress brightened for a moment, then dimmed just as fast.
Fang Qiu would surely do what she'd done every other day, and ignore her entirely.
But right as the ache settled in, she found Fang Qiu glancing over at her with a smile.
Their eyes met.
And Fang Qiu's gaze was nothing but warm.
?
The Tavern Proprietress's pulse gave a small skip. She squeezed her hands into fists and decided she would say hello the moment Fang Qiu came near. She had only just raised a hand and parted her lips to speak when Fang Qiu abruptly veered off to the side and walked into the dessert shop next door.
Her raised hand hung there, with nowhere to go.
Her silhouette looked rather forlorn.
Inside the dessert shop.
"There you are, dear. Feeling any better?" the shop owner asked, eyes crinkling with a smile.
"Huh? Better about what?" Fang Qiu blinked, lost.
"Never mind, never mind. Oh — that orange molten pastry from last time, did you eat it? How was it?" Seeing that Fang Qiu had no intention of bringing up what had happened, she dropped the subject and changed tack outright.
"It was wonderful. I finished every last one," Fang Qiu said with a smile and a nod.
"Glad you liked it." The shop owner smiled, then leaned in close to Fang Qiu's ear and lowered her voice. "These past few days I've been developing a new pastry. It combines the best of all three nations — Liyue, Inazuma, and Mondstadt. It won't go on sale for a while yet. But seeing as we're such good friends, call me Big Sister and I'll give you some for free. How about it?"
"The best of Liyue, Inazuma, and Mondstadt all in one?"
Fang Qiu swallowed.
It wasn't that she was greedy.
She was simply, desperately curious about what it tasted like.
"That's right. And it tastes divine," the shop owner murmured, tempting her lower and lower.
Like a devil whispering.
"Big Sister, please, give me some," Fang Qiu cooed, sweet as syrup, without a moment's hesitation.
Sweets, above all else, must never be turned down.
"What a good girl. Wait right here, I'll go fetch them." The shop owner laughed.
Fang Qiu really was cuter when she was in a good mood.
"Thank you, Big Sister. Although — could you hold on to them for me? I want to buy some pastries for a few other people first. Can I pick them up when I come back?" Fang Qiu asked.
It wasn't that she begrudged sharing pastries with anyone.
It was that these hadn't gone on sale yet. They were a trade secret. And though nobody she knew would leak anything, passing along a gift she'd been given to someone else felt more than a little improper.
"Not a problem, I'll set them aside for you. So, what would you like?" The shop owner had already guessed at Fang Qiu's reservations, so she nodded and smiled.
"Molten pastries, then. A bit of every flavor, and extra of the orange ones." Fang Qiu thought it over. "Three catties. Split into three bundles."
In no time at all the shop owner had them packed up for her.
"Hee hee. Big Sister, could you knock the price down a little?" Fang Qiu took the parcels, gave a sugary smile, and batted her eyes.
"I could. Thirty percent off." The shop owner didn't hesitate for so much as an instant.
"Thank you, Big Sister."
Fang Qiu laughed softly, paid her Mora, and walked out of the dessert shop with the three paper-wrapped bundles in her arms.
But when she looked toward the tavern, she found the Tavern Proprietress no longer standing in the doorway.
"? Where'd she go?"
Fang Qiu stopped short.
Had something urgent come up?
She walked to the tavern entrance and poked her head inside — and there was the Tavern Proprietress, sitting at the counter drinking, her usually composed profile clouded with worry.
"Proprietress, has something happened? Why are you drinking in the middle of the day?" Fang Qiu asked, puzzled.
"?"
At the sound of Fang Qiu's voice, the Proprietress turned toward the door on reflex. And when she saw Fang Qiu standing there, pretty as a picture with her arms full of pastry bags, she froze.
Fang Qiu was thoroughly confused. She was about to ask again when she saw a line of tears slide down the Proprietress's cheek.
"? What on earth is wrong?"
Fang Qiu hurried over, set everything down on the bar, then looked at her with real concern. "Are you all right?"
"I'm fine." The Proprietress wiped her eyes and shook her head.
"If you're fine, why are you drinking and crying in broad daylight?" Fang Qiu asked, baffled.
At that, the Proprietress shot her a look brimming with quiet resentment.
The nerve of this girl, asking that…
But she could hardly say so out loud, so she reached for the first excuse at hand: this was a shipment that had just come in, she'd been tasting it, and it had gone down the wrong way.
"Ah, I see. You should be careful when you're tasting. Choking like that is miserable." Fang Qiu nodded in understanding, then produced one of the pastry bags and held it out. "Here. This is for you."
"For me?" The Tavern Proprietress blinked. "You went to the dessert shop just now — you were buying pastries for me?"
"Not only for you. I got some for everyone at the editorial department too," Fang Qiu said, smiling.
"Is that so."
The Tavern Proprietress accepted the bag, and a smile tugged at the corners of her mouth before she could stop it.
Every trace of her earlier gloom vanished on the spot.
"Care for a drink?" the Proprietress asked, then added, "The kind that won't get you drunk."
"I have to stop by the editorial department first. Let me come back once I've finished my business," Fang Qiu said after a moment's thought.
"That's fine." The Tavern Proprietress nodded.
She had meant to ask Fang Qiu about what had happened those days ago, but if Fang Qiu had somewhere to be, it could wait until later.
After saying goodbye to the Tavern Proprietress, Fang Qiu gathered up the remaining two bags of pastries along with her manuscript and set off for the editorial department.
Bathed in the mild late-morning sun, she made her way there without hurry.
The moment she opened the door, the office was in its usual uproar.
"Where is your manuscript! I told you to come to the editorial department today, not to show up empty-handed — I told you to bring the manuscript for your new book! Where is it! How much have you written!"
The female editor's face was scarlet with rage.
"Actually, I did bring the manuscript today. It's just that something happened on the way, and the manuscript got lost…" said the young man standing across from her, mortification written all over his face.
"Go on! I'd love to hear exactly what happened that could make your manuscript disappear!" The editor faltered for half a second, then snapped.
"You probably won't believe me when I say it… On my way to the editorial department, my manuscript got snatched by a dog." The young man's face twisted with loathing. "That damnable stray! It and I cannot exist under the same sky!"
"Have I wronged you somehow?" the editor asked, after a very long silence.
"No? You've been really good to me, editor," the young man said, shaking his head.
"So there's no grudge, no bad blood, and I've been good to you… then why are you treating me like an idiot…" The editor sighed.
"It's true! A stray really did run off with it! You have to believe me!" the young man protested.
"When my nephew doesn't do the homework his teacher assigns, that's exactly what he tells the teacher too." The editor's face was blank, her voice stripped of any feeling at all.
"I swear! It's absolutely true!" The young man looked thoroughly wronged.
"Fine. I'll extend you my trust one more time. Kindly rewrite the manuscript you lost within five days." The editor pressed a hand to her forehead.
"Er, isn't five days a bit tight? Could you give me a little more room?" the young man ventured.
"Six days. Not one more." The editor's voice went cold.
"Consider it done."
Seeing the editor's expression turn frostier by the second, the young man didn't dare haggle any further. He agreed at once and scurried out of the editorial department office at a jog.
Once he was gone, the several female editors who knew Fang Qiu well spotted her stepping into the office and immediately crowded around. Fang Qiu greeted them with a smile and handed over one of the bags of pastries.
They divided the contents among themselves on the spot.
After exchanging a few pleasantries with them, Fang Qiu made her way over to Bai Qing, who was reading.
"Good morning, Sister Bai," Fang Qiu said brightly.
"Mm. Good morning." Bai Qing smiled and nodded.
"This one's yours, Sister Bai." Fang Qiu handed over the last bag of pastries. "I picked them up when I passed by the dessert shop."
"Thank you." Bai Qing didn't stand on ceremony. She thanked her and took them.
Once the pastries were set aside, Bai Qing's gaze shifted to the paper envelope in Fang Qiu's arms. She paused. "New book?"
"Mm." Fang Qiu nodded and passed the manuscript across.
"What sort of story is it this time?" Bai Qing asked.
"A story about healing and redemption," Fang Qiu said after a moment's thought.
"Really?" The question left Bai Qing before she could weigh it.
"Really." Fang Qiu sounded utterly certain.
"All right, then." Seeing how sure she was, Bai Qing nodded.
As they spoke, Fang Qiu's eyes strayed to a manuscript lying on Bai Qing's desk.
[The next morning, Lulu picked up the knife and went out to hunt. Lulu ran into a great big wild boar, and Lulu's blade came down…]
Fang Qiu glanced at the author's name, then quietly looked away.
It was the same author whose book she had seen the last time she'd come to deliver a manuscript, after finishing Weathering With You.
As she recalled, the passage back then had gone something like: [In the morning, the red red sun rose up in the east, and Lulu stretched out a white white hand and picked up a red red apple…]
By any reasonable standard —
The style seemed to have changed, and yet nothing seemed to have changed at all.
The author himself hadn't improved in the slightest, but the protagonist Lulu seemed to have made considerable progress, going from eating apples with white white hands to slaughtering a wild boar single-handedly with a blade.
One could only wonder what Lulu had been through these past few days…
After a few more pleasantries, Fang Qiu rose and took her leave.
First, so as not to hold up Bai Qing's work.
Second, because she was rather impatient to find out exactly what a pastry combining the best of three nations tasted like.
Once Fang Qiu was gone, several of the female editors drifted over, still munching on pastries.
"Ah Qing, you don't need to say a word — I heard it all just now. Fang Qiu said this book is a story about healing and redemption. Count me in on the review."
"Me too, me too."
"Don't the rest of you have your own manuscripts to look at?"
"As you just witnessed, my author's manuscript got eaten by a dog…"
"Er. Right, fair enough. Then again, Fang Qiu really is unbelievably diligent. She's practically on par with Secretary Ganyu and the Yuheng."
"No kidding. Better than that author of mine whose manuscript got eaten by a dog by several orders of magnitude."
"Enough talk. Let's have a look at Fang Qiu's new book."
The editors chattered on, turning eager, expectant eyes on her.
"Mm."
Bai Qing nodded, tore open the paper envelope Fang Qiu had used for the manuscript, and drew the pages out.
At the top of the clean, neatly stacked manuscript, four elegantly written characters were arrayed in a tidy row.
anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day.
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