—Teyvat
Liyue, Fengdeng Lou.
After the New Year's Eve concluded, all the Adepti and gods rested at Fengdeng Lou at Jun Bai's invitation.
If they returned home now, they'd have to rush around visiting relatives and friends during the day again.
After bidding good night to everyone, Jun Bai carried the yawning Yiya back to his room.
He placed Yiya on the small bed prepared especially for her, tucked her in, and then planned to rest himself.
[Host, do you want to go back?]
The system, silent for a long time, suddenly asked.
"Why ask such an obvious question out of nowhere? Of course I don't want to go back." Jun Bai replied while lying on the bed.
In the world before transmigration, though Jun Bai sometimes missed his friends there, if you really asked him to return—he definitely wouldn't want to.
No parents, average education, 996 work life every day—Jun Bai didn't feel he had any reason to go back.
[I originally also defaulted to the host not returning to that world, but today you said...]
[You cannot choose the fact that you were born alone, but you can choose your own family.]
[With such optimism from you—considering I sent you here just based on your family background and momentary unhappiness—don't you feel this is unfair to you?]
Jun Bai shook his head: "No. Honestly, people like me are everywhere among college graduates entering society."
"Optimism alone doesn't help much. The pressure of life will smooth out everyone's edges. It was only after coming to this Teyvat that I remembered who I used to be."
"Back when I was still in that world, I also chose friends as family."
"So until I graduated college, I wasn't alone—but after graduation, those guys suddenly had no news at all."
"As if they vanished from the world."
"So when you sensed despair and numbness in me back then—it was real. From that perspective, I should actually thank you."
[Suddenly vanishing from the world means...]
Jun Bai gave a bitter smile: "The only one I could find was my high school roommate—he had already passed away from cancer a long time ago."
"Sigh—ask whatever else you want later. It's New Year—I don't really want to bring up these old matters."
[Mm, good night, host.]
"Good night to you too."
—Real World
The Lantern Rite story thus drew to a close. All players were happy—except Jun Bai fans.
That single line "of course, you're not" dealt critical damage to Little Gui—she went traveling again to recover.
On the first day of Lunar New Year, all players who completed the version grand event received a mail in their inbox.
Inside was the special character Jun Mo Li and his exclusive 5-star weapon Soaring Firmament Sword, plus Ganyu and the protagonist's Lantern Rite exclusive skins.
(Male and female protagonist each get one set—not sold in the shop, but will return during future Lantern Rite version grand events.)
This directly sparked a wave of excitement in the real-world Genshin community. Jun Bai's popularity continued to rise, dragging Jun Mo Li's popularity along with it.
Jun Bai sighed—this real-world executive status really came in handy.
Under this continuously climbing popularity, the Version 1.4 preview livestream arrived as scheduled. Venti and Childe reruns, Venti's Story Quest went live, and after Liyue finished Lantern Rite, Mondstadt began Windblume Festival.
But with Lantern Rite's brilliance as precedent, Windblume Festival's hype clearly declined.
Fortunately, Venti's Story Quest itself had sufficient quality. That line "If you are trapped in a windless land, I shall play for you a song of the high heavens" made Venti's popularity become the second after Zhongli to threaten Jun Bai's No.1 spot.
(Venti's Story Quest—to put it bluntly—is top-tier among all Genshin stories, at least top 5 with potential for top 3 or even No.1. It maintains high praise even amid mixed opinions.)
(And then Zhongli's PV—everyone who knows, knows. Still the most-viewed Genshin PV on Bilibili to this day.)
(Jun Bai's Story Quest and PV ultimately fall slightly short—his position being shaken is normal. If it weren't shaken even like this, it would feel fake.)
Just when everyone thought Version 1.4 would end like this—
The day after Windblume Festival event story concluded, a 20-Primogem mini-egg story appeared—triggered at Angel's Share.
[Switching to Venti's perspective...]
The camera moved inside Angel's Share, then froze on Venti holding a bottle of fine wine.
"Windblume-limited apple cider—finally get to drink it." Venti's eyes sparkled as he poured himself a full glass.
[This drunkard—is he really the same benevolent god from the Story Quest?]
[Among gods who have appeared, only Jun Bai seems reliable even in everyday life.]
(System: That's because you haven't seen how lazy he gets on holiday.)
[Venti is a drunkard, Zhongli is a social failure—I can't refute those two, but my dear Zhong'er is different! My dear Zhong'er is reliable in daily life too!]
[She's a shut-in—she admitted it in her voice lines. Normally she stays home researching mechanism techniques.]
The camera shifted to Diluc behind the bar.
Diluc looked at Venti and silently sighed.
No voice line—purely cinematic language.
While Venti maintained his sunny, cheerful smile and drank freely, someone walked into Angel's Share—a pair of rounded long legs in heeled short boots appeared in frame.
"One cup of apple brew."
A cold voice sounded.
Diluc nodded toward the person, and the camera followed his gaze toward the woman in front.
Then the shot very considerately panned upward to showcase this new character.
A pair of straight, rounded yet powerful legs emerged from a slit black over-knee skirt—a cyan leg ring wrapped around one.
A wide black trench coat hung open, revealing a white inner shirt. Fair wrists extended from the sleeves.
Slender, delicate hands wore half-finger gloves. On her right wrist was a simple silver bracelet with an Anemo Vision attached.
Her features were refined, expression cold.
Gray long hair reached her waist. A pair of cyan-gray eyes were unusually strange—no pupils, the eyes swirling like a storm.
(Prototype Star initial art—just the eyes changed to cyan-gray, with swirling wind effects added inside.)
[Hi! Beauty, alone?]
[Anemo adult female +1—this type I love too much!]
[Sister's legs—so long and white. The feeling of being stepped on would be amazing. (drooling.jpg)]
[I've never liked overly covered female characters, but this temperament is too elegant, face model too refined—I think I can make an exception!]
"Your drink."
After Diluc spoke his only line in this segment, he placed the requested apple brew on the counter and turned back into an NPC.
"..."
The gray-haired woman nodded silently, then took her drink and walked to Venti's table.
At this point Venti had already downed more than half the bottle—his face flushed red, smile never leaving.
"Good?"
"Good~ Worthy of Windblume..."
Venti was about to praise the bottle properly when he suddenly felt the voice seemed familiar.
He looked up—the woman's face was shrouded in shadow, only her eyes shining with bright cyan light.
Thud—
Venti instantly sobered. He tossed the bottle upward, then collapsed to the ground and rolled into a dark corner before speaking to the woman: "Haha, Miss Rin—what a coincidence. You came back to Mondstadt for Windblume."
His expression was extremely ugly, his smile more forced than ever.
Rin ignored Venti. She reached upward—the bottle Venti threw landed perfectly in her hand on the table.
She downed her ordered apple brew in one go, then slowly walked toward Venti in the corner.
Each step she took increased the pressure on Venti.
Finally, Rin reached Venti.
She bent down, grasped Venti's face, and said coldly: "Is this how you protect Mondstadt? Barbatos!"
Diluc: (/"≡ _ ≡)?
Diluc: (ⓛ–ⓛ)!
Players: (ー_ー)?
Players: (╯°Д°)╯︵ ┻━┻!
And with that—the segment ended...