Taoyuan Vale, wish-making tree, Moontree Lodge.
Noah indeed met Xiangli Yao, with his neatly parted hair and extraordinarily handsome appearance.
On his original Blue Star, Xiangli Yao had earned the nickname "Chicken Bro" because of this face and hairstyle that extremely resembled a certain deceased person.
In the game, he already looked very similar to that person; in reality, it was as if he was carved from the same mold.
"The assistant robot Patty is a device created to collect everyone's wishes, but... it seems to have been interfered with by some abnormal data now."
Xiangli Yao lowered his head in thought, his left hand tapping a few times on the virtual keyboard in the air. A bunch of symbols that Noah couldn't understand appeared on the electronic screen.
"Ah, sorry for keeping you waiting. Thank you for bringing Patty back."
Xiangli Yao, suddenly coming back to his senses, performed Jinzhou's etiquette toward Noah and said:
"My name is Xiangli Yao. Very pleased to meet you, hero of Jinzhou. I've long heard of your great name, but only today do we formally meet."
"No need to be so polite; just call me by my name. I'm Noah."
Noah shook hands with Xiangli Yao and pointed at the stuttering assistant robot Patty in mid-air:
"You're the behind-the-scenes hero in the Moontree Lodge who fulfills wishes for everyone?"
"Yes, but in front of you, I actually can't be called a hero. In any case, please keep this matter confidential for me."
Xiangli Yao nodded, not hiding it, and continued:
"I just want to do my best to let everyone enjoy this festival without any burdens. If everyone knew there was someone behind the scenes helping them fulfill wishes, it would instead ruin the purity of the festival."
"No problem, but there's a condition." Noah smiled: "I want to join you too."
"That's a special request. Though I don't know your motives—I'm very honored. The Moontree Lodge welcomes you. Please wait a moment."
Xiangli Yao extended his left hand, quickly tapping on the virtual keyboard again. Four messy files appeared on the electronic screen.
"The abnormal data in Patty mainly appears in these four wishes. I plan to find the owners of these wishes, help them fulfill them, and resolve the anomalies."
After some complex processing of the information, Xiangli Yao successfully parsed the content of the first wish.
The first wish came from a client named Xiaosheng. Because he once did something wrong but chose to evade it entirely, the resulting guilt gradually became extreme, to the point where he hoped to disappear from the world silently and without a trace.
A very twisted guy.
Xiangli Yao rubbed his brow:
"A bit troublesome. This person named Xiaosheng used anonymity—hard to find."
"No problem, I know him. Leave this wish to me. You continue parsing the other wishes."
Noah waved his hand, indicating no need for more words. Xiangli Yao didn't doubt him, his face lighting up with joy as he summoned another gray-black assistant robot:
"This assistant robot is called Xiang-LEE. It's specifically for fulfilling wishes. It should be able to help you a bit."
"Alright, wait for my good news."
Taking the Xiang-LEE assistant robot, Noah set off immediately.
The night grew deeper, but the lights in Taoyuan Vale were bright as day, with clear visibility everywhere he passed.
Crossing a long wooden bridge, a petite figure painting with a brush came into view in the distance.
The woman's fair skin was like delicate rice paper, her profile exquisite as a painting, with a small and straight nose bridge and long hair as black as ink.
Looking further down, under the refined cyan-white attire were pure white pantyhose, very eye-catching.
It was none other than the top sub-DPS in Wuthering Waves, Zhezhi.
"Based on analysis of 'Xiaosheng's' wish, it can be inferred that the person has an introverted personality, easily nervous in public, not good at communication, and prefers traveling alone."
The Xiang-LEE assistant robot beside him spoke:
"The characteristics match the lady in front relatively well. Suggestion: Inquire about Xiaosheng's information from this lady."
"Assistant robot, shut up. Don't ruin my good thing."
Noah gently pushed away the Xiang-LEE assistant robot and stepped closer to Zhezhi.
[Limited Banner "Painted in Long Chant," "Jade Branches in Icy Silk" has opened.]
Noticing someone approaching, Zhezhi's gaze trembled. She hurriedly waved to roll up the painting, casually hiding the brush and her hands behind her back.
She lowered her head to stare at her shoe tips, like a guilty quail, inwardly praying that the stranger in front would leave quickly and not talk to her.
But the person in front actually stopped before her, saying nothing, doing nothing.
As for Noah, at this moment, he glanced at the 20 Radiant Tides and 53800 Astrite on the [Draw] panel, and with a thought—
He'd saved up Astrite for so long precisely for this moment!
Draw!
First, get her to 0+1.
Waves surged on the panel.
Ten pulls—purple.
Twenty pulls—gold! Skewed to Rover (Spectro)—no big deal, keep pulling; not short on Astrite.
Another 60 pulls down—sub-DPS Zhezhi obtained.
Another 40 pulls down—Zhezhi's signature weapon obtained.
Noah was fully satisfied and finally looked at the introverted young woman in front of him, just in time to meet her timid gaze as she cautiously lifted her eyes.
"H-Hello, J-Jinzhou hero, um, the weather is really nice today..."
Her voice was too soft to hear, but it was still captured by the assistant robot, which gave a standard response:
"Analyzing weather: Detected rapid rise in humidity, significant drop in air pressure. Predicted: 60% of areas in Jinzhou City will experience rainfall in the future."
As soon as these words came out, Zhezhi's expression became greatly embarrassed, her face instantly flushing red, utterly awkward:
"...S-Sorry, the weather isn't good actually. Didn't notice, haha..."
She could only laugh to cover her embarrassment.
"Don't be nervous, Zhezhi. We mean no harm."
Noah had just opened his mouth to explain when the young woman hurriedly apologized as if she had hurt someone:
"Ah ah, sorry sorry, I didn't mean you have ill intent... I just I'm not good at talking to strangers yet."
"Woo—"
Zhezhi suddenly froze, incredulously pointing at herself:
"Jinzhou hero, y-you... you know me?"
"A great artist, of course I know."
"N-No no, not a great artist—just a small painter, ah no no, I'm just someone who paints."
Watching the young woman's flustered appearance, Noah found it amusing. It was his first time seeing someone with social anxiety to this degree.
Fun!
"Do you take commissions, great artist?"
"This... lately a bit... n-no, since it's the Jinzhou hero's request, y-yes, I accept."
Zhezhi nodded stutteringly, her face growing redder from nervousness.
Since he had important matters, Noah didn't plan to tease Zhezhi further and spoke seriously:
"Then, write down your work address and terminal contact for me. Later, I'll come to your door for a commission, okay?"
"Y-Yes... yes!"
Zhezhi hurriedly took out paper and pen, quickly writing a row of elegant small characters, lowering her head to hand it over with both hands. Noah accepted it:
"Thank you. Looking forward to your masterpiece."
"Not a masterpiece—it's crude work, crude work. It's nothing nothing nothing... then I'll go first, goodbye."
Zhezhi lowered her head to bid farewell, her steps chaotic and out of rhythm. Turning around, her forehead unpreparedly bumped into a hard wall, the crisp sound particularly abrupt.
She teared up from the pain in her eyes, subconsciously raising her hand to rub the sore spot on her forehead. Slowly turning back, her eyes full of helplessness met Noah's gaze exactly.
"Ah!"
Zhezhi uncontrollably covered her burning face, inwardly only wanting to quickly leave this embarrassing place. She stumbled and ran away as if fleeing.
In place, Noah and the Xiang-LEE assistant robot looked at each other. Noah innocently shrugged:
"You saw it—I didn't do anything. She bumped into it herself."