On the way to the Ministry lockup, one of the Millelith said, "Why does Ryou-sama want this woman arrested? She's from Inazuma, isn't she? What did she do?"
The man beside him shook his head and glanced over at the others. "How should I know? Just lock them up first. There are still people outside waiting to claim the reward."
"Lucky bastards."
"Seriously. Catching this woman gets you a million Mora. That's enough to live well for a long, long time."
By the time they finished talking, they had already reached the cells.
"Get in!"
The guard shoved them inside.
"Hey! This is too much! We didn't do anything!" Arataki Itto shouted. "I used to admire that Ryou guy for saving Liyue Harbor. Who knew he'd turn out to be this kind of petty scumbag!"
Smack!
A Millelith guard brought his stick down hard on Itto's hand.
"Watch your mouth, brat. Say one more bad word about Ryou-sama and see what happens."
"I'm warning you, calm down. Next time, I won't be so nice."
"You—" Itto glared at him furiously, not even caring about the pain in his wrist.
"Boss!" Shinobu called out sharply.
Itto finally pulled his hand back and kept staring at the two guards until they were completely gone.
Then he exploded.
"This is bullshit! That Ryou guy is definitely not a good person!"
"It might just be a misunderstanding," Kazuha said, still speaking up for Ryou.
"What a disaster. I got dragged into this because of you two," Venti said as he pulled a bottle of Dandelion Wine from his coat and took a sip.
"Venti, you could've left earlier, couldn't you?" Kazuha looked at him in confusion. "When we were surrounded, you definitely had a way out."
Venti drank leisurely and said, "I'm from Mondstadt. Since I'm in Liyue, I should follow Liyue's rules. Otherwise... the old man will definitely nag me again."
He gave them a grin.
"Besides, if I'd run off on my own, wouldn't that have been abandoning you? We're in this together. If there's fortune, we share it. If there's trouble, we share that too."
"What do you mean, 'in this together'? We haven't even done anything in Liyue!" Itto said angrily.
"Boss, can you keep it down for once?" Shinobu glanced outside the cell. "I'll see if there's any way to get word to Yanfei. Otherwise, there's no way we're getting out of here."
"Shinobu, the way those guys were looking at us was weird. Someone must've recognized us."
Itto was still furious. He swung around and punched the wall.
Bang!
A loud crash echoed through the prison.
The surrounding prisoners all turned to stare. Itto glared right back at them.
"What are you looking at?!"
Crack!
Then, in the next instant, the wall gave way.
Chunks of stone tumbled outward, and beyond the broken wall was another thick outer wall—except Itto's punch had smashed right through that one too. Through the opening, they could see the woods outside, the night sky above, and a full moon hanging overhead.
Even Itto was stunned.
The other prisoners were all staring at him like he was some kind of monster.
"I... I wasn't trying to break out," he said awkwardly. "I was just mad..."
"Not good. The Millelith definitely heard that," Venti said, putting away the bottle of Dandelion Wine.
He let out a sigh.
"I was planning to wait until tomorrow. But now... we're going to have to break out after all."
He started moving first.
"If they catch us now, the charges will only get worse. Come on!"
"This..."
Shinobu stared at the collapsed wall, completely speechless.
Was that wall really that fragile?
Kazuha followed behind them with a helpless sigh. "This really escalated fast. Now the three of us are probably going on wanted notices too. I only hope this doesn't cause trouble for Captain Beidou."
Once they were gone, the prisoners in the neighboring cells were left dumbstruck.
They had spent ages secretly digging little gaps into the wall, waiting for the perfect chance to escape.
And then this giant idiot had shown up and punched the whole thing wide open.
One of them turned to the man beside him. "Boss... what do we do?"
"We run!"
"You want to stay here and die after a chance like this?"
"Move!"
Several of them immediately started scrambling through the opening.
By the time the Millelith arrived, there was no one left.
"Captain, witnesses say the horned man punched straight through the wall," one Millelith soldier reported as he hurried over.
"No wonder Ryou-sama wanted those people arrested," the officer said grimly. "Send men outside the city. We cannot let them threaten the people of Liyue."
He thought for a moment, then added, "And organize a search nearby. We're short-handed right now, so everyone will have to work harder. Do everything you can to bring them back in."
"Yes, sir!"
The Millelith saluted and left.
The officer looked out through the hole in the wall, then glanced back at the prison.
"One punch through a wall like that... there are too many freaks in this world these days."
Shaking his head, he turned and left.
Meanwhile, Venti and the others stopped atop Mt. Tianheng.
"Hah... I feel better now," Itto said, finally catching his breath.
"We're definitely on wanted notices now. So if we go find Ryou, doesn't that count as walking straight into the trap?" He turned and looked at Venti.
"That's the only option left," Venti said. "And honestly, you were too impulsive back there. If you hadn't hit that wall, waiting until tomorrow would've been fine."
When he put it like that, Itto instantly went quiet.
The more he thought about it, the more ridiculous it sounded.
He really had just thrown a punch in anger.
Who knew the wall would actually break?
"Alright, let's head to Ryou's place," Venti said. "At this hour, they're probably still eating. If we're lucky, we might even get to mooch a meal."
With that, he led the others toward Ryou's house.
...
Back at Ryou's residence, Ningguang and Keqing were both starting to question reality.
Ningguang had come fully expecting Ryou to get drunk.
Instead, she had watched Ryou and Beidou go bottle for bottle, each one finishing off three full bottles without the slightest problem. Neither of them looked drunk. If anything, they seemed even more energetic than before.
She was beginning to wonder whether the wine she brought was fake.
How could they drink that much and not feel a thing?
She could not make sense of it.
Keqing was just as confused.
She had planned to use this chance to get Ganyu drunk. After all, she had seen Ganyu drink before. Ganyu's tolerance was awful. Forget a whole bottle—even half a bottle of Dandelion Wine should have been enough to knock her over.
But now Ganyu wasn't drunk at all.
She looked completely clear-headed.
That sudden twist caught Keqing completely off guard.
What was going on?
And her husband was even stranger.
Last time, he'd gotten drunk after three bowls.
This time, he had gone bottle for bottle with Beidou and still looked like he hadn't had a drop.
She had basically picked up a rock only to smash her own foot with it.
The thought of what Ryou might do to her later made Keqing's scalp tingle.
If she had known it would turn out like this, she never would have tried to get him drunk in the first place.
Ryou took in every expression around the table and smiled to himself.
With a ninety-five percent reduction to his chances of getting drunk, even if he sold his liver to Inazuman laborers, he still wouldn't go down.
Keqing had really thought she could get him drunk and dodge tonight?
Dream on.
Just then, Venti arrived with Kazuha and the others.
"Oh? I'm late." The moment Venti walked in, he saw Ryou happily drinking away.
He pulled out a chair and sat down right beside him, only to wrinkle his nose at the strong smell of alcohol. "How much have you had? The smell is intense."
"Not much. Three bottles." Ryou gave him a thumbs-up. "I've got to admit, your Dandelion Wine really is good stuff."
Because he couldn't get drunk, he had finally been able to savor it properly.
And yes—it was genuinely excellent.
"Of course it is." Venti poured himself a bowl.
Beidou looked over and snorted. "What kind of drinking is that? If you're going to drink, drink properly. Come on, I'll toast you with a whole bottle!"
She snatched up a bottle of Dandelion Wine.
"Come on, let's go!"
"W-Wait, I..." Venti stared at her in disbelief.
Wasn't wine supposed to be drunk cup by cup?
This was premium Dandelion Wine, and it had been infused with spiritual energy too. Not only did it taste even better than usual, it hit harder too.
If you drank it bottle by bottle, you'd hit the floor fast.
And yet this woman had started with a direct bottle challenge?
That was brutal.
"Beidou's right." Ryou grabbed another bottle himself. "I'm in too."
"Hey, hey... you two are treating Dandelion Wine like water!" Venti looked genuinely pained.
Even he only drank it a little at a time.
These two were insane.
Yanfei, meanwhile, had already moved over to Shinobu.
"Shinobu, are you alright?"
"Yanfei?" Shinobu looked surprised to see her.
Then Itto suddenly stepped forward, stared at Ryou, and shouted, "So you're Ryou?"
He slapped a hand down loudly.
"Explain yourself! Why did you have Shinobu arrested? We've never even met before, and you slapped a wanted notice on us for no reason. Isn't that too much?!"
"Boss!" Shinobu called out helplessly from the side.
"Wanted notice?" Yanfei turned to look at Shinobu, and her own anger rose again. Ryou had promised her he'd help find Shinobu. Instead of actually searching, he had gone and issued a wanted notice. "Did you run into trouble?"
"Trouble?" Itto got even angrier the moment he heard that. "It was way worse than trouble! We got chased all over the place. Then we got thrown straight into the Ministry jail, and I—"
"Oh?" Ningguang raised her eyes over the rim of her drink. "So you escaped from prison?"
"I didn't have a choice!" Itto snapped. "Your Millelith handle things like thugs. They don't treat people like human beings at all!"
"Boss, stop talking," Shinobu said quickly. "You're in front of the Liyue Qixing."
"The Liyue Qixing? So what?" Itto said hotly. "Even if your Geo Archon were sitting right here, I'd point at his nose and curse him out!"
Yanfei froze.
Then, almost by instinct, she turned to look at Zhongli.
Zhongli was speechless.
What did any of this have to do with him?
[End of chapter]
[200 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
[Check out my Patreon to read 20+ chapters ahead]
[[email protected]/BellAshelia]
[Thanks for your support!]