Chapter Text
It was nice to relax for a while, looking out of the window where several pots of Glaze Lilies sat on its sill, growing towards the sun.
Zhongli trimmed them with a steady hand, carefully watering them before bringing the biggest pot towards the bed, in which lay the white-haired woman whose shut eyes and peaceful slumber was almost marred by the beeping of the heart monitor next to her, working to display her vitals. He put it on the bedside table, gently lifting her pale hand towards his cheek and leaning into it.
"Are you still mad at me?" he asked softly, feeling her ebbing warmth against his face, "I promise I wouldn't be that reckless again. Whatever you want me to do, I'd fulfill it to the best of my abilities. Wait...let me just..." He reached over to the pot before him, gently brushing her fingers against the petals: she remained unresponsive, and Zhongli once again placed her hand down gently onto the bed. "Did you feel that? The Glaze Lilies. I found a way to bring them inside. This one is the biggest one yet...it wouldn't be long before Liyue will be filled with Glaze Lilies again."
He rested his head onto her arm, blinking slowly up towards the inert form of his wife. In the rays of the morning sun, her wedding band gleamed, a mirror to the one on his own left hand. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'd trade anything to have you back. I won't leave you. The moment I turn my back, they'd be sure to kill you," he muttered, a pledge he made everyday to himself, "Please come back."
The soft flutter of wings interrupted his thoughts, and Zhongli lifted his head to see the crane's head peer through the window. If Cloud Retainer could smile, it was apparent from her eyes as she dropped the newspaper into Zhongli's waiting lap when he'd approached her, offering a small smile at her arrival.
"Good morning to you as well, Dijun, Guizhong," came the melodious voice from one of Zhongli's faithful ex-subordinates, "This one brings exciting news. While flying towards here, this one had seen our Ganyu driving here. She brings another woman with her- interestingly enough. This one would think that she is here to visit yourself and our Guizhong."
"A new person?" Zhongli rubbed his brows, looking somewhat surprised at matters, "I...am in no position to entertain guests. Not in this state, and certainly not with Guizhong..." He glanced behind him, almost concerned that he might miss even the most minute of movements from her, before staring down at his own form: his once-powerful physique now relegated to a lightweight wheelchair he propelled easily. Zhongli still remained conscious of his new state, and if not for Ganyu's parents, he didn't think he'd see her or anyone else considering his secret.
Cloud Retainer fluffed herself up, looking unbothered. "This one is certain our Ganyu knows how to handle matters, if she's bringing another person with her," she scoffed, before peering under her wing and picking out a package, "Gifts from Madam Ping. She insisted I send this alongside a message--"
Zhongli reached up to clamp Cloud Retainer's long beak shut. "As I've mentioned countless time, I have retired due to medical reasons. I'm sure it's the same tired message again about letting Guizhong go," he snapped, and Cloud Retainer pulled away quickly before reaching over to Guizhong to gently pull the blanket over the sleeping woman, "My duties as Dijun is no more. Please, just call me Zhongli now. You and the other Xianren are far too formal, I'm a civilian."
"You led us into the war, and it was because of you that we were able to succeed, Dijun. Your status as Dijun cannot be replaced," Cloud Retainer sighed when she'd been finally freed, "We'll always wait for you to lead us once more, even after you'd ceded power to the Qixing citing your status. We understand why...this one, alongside the Xianren, will patiently await Guizhong's return as well."
"Dijun, Dijun..." Zhongli rolled the title off his tongue with an acidity that seemed to linger in the air around them, "What's the point of having a title like 'Dijun', and being so lauded by the masses when I can't even protect those I cared for most?"
"Untrue," Cloud Retainer sighed, before stepping back from the window and retracting her head, "This one must take her leave. This one will be certain to convey your will to the other Xianren...we will meet tomorrow, as per our usual arrangement."
Zhongli shook his head. "Short of clipping your wings, you'd always arrive like clockwork," he joked, before the giant crane took off into the sunrise. He sighed, replacing the Glaze Lily pot on its perch before heading towards the table. Ganyu was coming...he'd had to seem in slightly better spirits to avoid her worrying about him.
The drive towards the Yuehai rehabilitation center had been quiet, and Keqing could tell that there was something weighing heavily on Ganyu's mind during it, hence her silence as well. She'd reached over and rested her hand onto Ganyu's over the steering stick in an act of solidarity.
"We're visiting a special family friend of yours, right? Does this count as introducing me to your parents?" she teased, trying to lighten the mood before feeling herself being violently thrown forward at Ganyu pumping the brakes abruptly, "Ow! I'm just saying...don't have to have that type of reaction..."
"It's not..." Ganyu's face was beet-red, though her bespectacled gaze remained fixed on the road, "Yes, Zhongli-xiansheng did watch me grow up, and he knew my parents. He was also the person who'd recommended me to the Jade Chamber for secretarial work. I'm not doing it like asking for your...your hand in...m-m-ma--" Her voice cracked, and she quickly turned back to continue driving, a pout on her face at the teasing and obviously now more preoccupied with that.
As they strode into the rehabilitation center, Keqing was struck by how dreary everything seemed to be. Everyone all seemed to be minding their own business, and as the Yuheng of the Liyue Qixing, this seemed to be the most relevant of her concerns while they strode through the corridors. Eventually, Ganyu stopped at one of the doors, knocking politely before taking a step back, waiting patiently. Keqing opened her mouth to ask why Ganyu was so reverent all of a sudden, and the door slid open before she could get a word in.
The strange wheelchair-using man made Keqing balk in surprise: his two-toned black hair tied in a messily-maintained ponytail, he was dressed in a simple, black polo T-shirt alongside dark slacks that covered most of his legs. He wore a pair of black gloves, matching with his sneakers, and as the man seemed to stumble backwards at their motions before staring up at them with amber eyes, Keqing sensed that he too was studying her the way she'd analysed him.
"Zhongli-xiansheng, this is my girlfriend Keqing," Ganyu broke the silence, steering Keqing by the shoulders towards him, "Keqing, this is my mentor and friend, Zhongli-xiansheng. The lady in the bed is Zhongli-xiansheng's wife, Guizhong-jiejie. She can probably hear you if you said hi to her."
Keqing gave a hasty nod to the man, awkwardly glancing towards the asleep woman before returning to him and placing a box on the table. "Ganyu mentioned you watched her grow up, and since she's an orphan, I treated it like it was meeting the parents," she explained, pushing the package towards him while keeping her head bowed, "A small token...I would've bought more if I knew there were two of you, I'm sorry about that."
Zhongli accepted this with a small, stiff smile, and Keqing studied him intently. He looked kind of similar to the statues of the famous general Yanwang-dijun that was erected all around Liyue, the man who'd singlehandedly led a strike force known as the Xianren into a long war and won handily. As far as she'd been aware, studying the texts and documents left behind extensively, the Dijun hadn't been seen in Liyue for quite some time now, so the next best option to Keqing was that this man was obviously too a fan of Dijun's teachings to look just like him.
They'd strolled out of the room towards the great outdoors, and Keqing had flopped onto the grass while Ganyu pushed her mentor out for some fresh air. Zhongli and Ganyu were chatting, exchanging pleasantries, and Keqing noted how happy Ganyu seemed to be in his presence. Even though she'd mentally filed him away as an important person in Ganyu's life, her thoughts were filled with how much this man must've known about Yanwang-Dijun to model himself so much like him, and she couldn't help but blurt out a challenge.
"Zhongli-xiansheng. How much do you know about Dijun's teachings?" she began, intending to strike up conversation with someone her girlfriend cared about, "Did you think that his policies in Liyue are due for reform and improvement, considering it's been some time since he'd ceded power and surrendered the Xianren's power to the Qixing?"
Ganyu looked to Zhongli with a grimace and stiffly shook her head, the bell around her neck clinking quietly in worried concern. Zhongli however leant forward from his seat, eyes twinkling with curiosity at the old laws he'd left behind being so directly challenged like this. "Oh? Why fix what isn't broken?" he asked, seemingly amused at this direct challenge to him (how long has it been?), "Do you have some ideas about how we can change things, then? You seem to have quite a bit to say about Dijun."
Keqing waggled a finger, looking smug. "I knew it, you're just as backwards as he is. Ganyu said you were a military man, of course you'd subscribe to Dijun's outdated ideals," she sneered, now convinced that she'd finally found a good debate subject, "I have plenty of ideas about how we should go about this, but the rest of the Qixing are too afraid of this change: we're past the age of following such rigid judgment from an absent general who'd already ceded power. We need to look forward."
"Spoken like a true member of the Liyue Qixing," Zhongli offered a polite smile, unfettered despite Ganyu's bell furiously clinking from her headshakes, "Very well. I'd like to see how the Yuheng feels about the policies and how she'd improve on them. I have plenty of time to take it all in, after all."
Ganyu laid facedown into the grass and let out a muffled scream.