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It was just an ordinary evening in Liyue Harbor. The sun had already set, and the streets were lightened up by lanterns lit by the Millelith. As usual, the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor would close its doors, and then the undertakers would attend a tutoring class under lecturers hired by the Parlor. When the consultant of Wangsheng - Zhongli - was about to start lecturing, Hu Tao began to creep toward the entrance. She had an unusual habit of wandering Liyue alone at night to find inspirations for her most favorite hobby - poetry. But today Hu Tao was suddenly stopped dead in her track by an employee of her.
_ Director, I have something to tell you...
An undertaker suddenly stood up when Hu Tao was passing by, walked hurriedly to catch up with her, and then presented her with an envelope containing his resignation letter. Hu Tao signaled Zhongli and the other members of Wangsheng to continue on with their lesson when many of them looked toward her, then she took the resignation letter out. After having read it, she tilted her head while looking at the undertaker in front of her and spoke with the most trivial tone:
_ Something in your eyes tells me that this is not the true reason you want to quit the job.
Hu Tao had the annoying ability of often being able to acutely discern information from a person, no matter how hard they tried to conceal it from her. This time, too, she was right.
_ Alright, boss, you want to hear the true reason? Then I will be frank…
_ But ain’t your name Huang? When did you change it to “Frank”?
A mischievous grin appeared on Hu Tao’s face when she interrupted her employee’s dialogue, making fun of him even when he was dead serious. Huang stuttered, he was completely caught off guard because he didn’t expect that she could joke even in this situation. Then his mood turned from anxious to anger, he felt that he had had enough, to the point that a mental image of him punching straight at his Director’s face briefly flashed through his mind. The long-suffering Huang couldn’t hold back his rage any longer, since he thought that he would quit soon anyway, he raised his voice and began to vent his pent-up frustrations, pointing his index finger straight at Hu Tao:
_ Alright, listen up, boss lady! The first reason is that I simply can’t stand you anymore. You’re the most insufferable person which I have ever known! And secondly, I’m fed up with the stigmas which other people reserve for us. I don’t want anything to do with this thankless job anymore…
Hu Tao couldn’t hide her surprise, for some reason she was convinced that her ‘brilliant’ joke would have at least partly appeased Huang so that she could further talk him down regarding his resignation decision.
Yet all she managed to achieve was agitating her employee even further. Hu Tao’s eyes absentmindedly sought out Zhongli for help, as he did manage to pull her out of trouble several times previously after all. However, Zhongli didn’t even move a single step, instead elected to simply observe from afar. He found no reason to intervene, and even partly sympathized with Huang.
Hu Tao gradually pulled herself together and, for once, waited for Huang to complete his rant, took a deep break, then spoke:
_ Huang, I’m sorry for any trouble which I have caused you. But I think there are some misunderstandings here. What our Wangsheng Funeral Parlor provides is an essential service, which is not much less important than any other legitimate business in Liyue…
_ I know, but I don’t want to be associated with death or ill omens, I don’t want to be shunned by superstitious people who avoided me on the streets…
_ What makes you think being associated with death is a bad thing?
Hu Tao’s eyes widened because she was genuinely surprised. Huang was also astonished by Hu Tao’s reply and temporarily at a loss for words. No matter how many times he had learned of the Director’s bizarre antics or thoughts, he still couldn’t get used to it… Huang heaved a sigh, he felt so spent that he didn’t have any energy left to get mad at Hu Tao.
_ Care to elaborate?
Huang replied bluntly.
_ Since its foundation, Wangsheng Funeral Parlor has carried out funerals for 452974 persons in total. That’s three percent of the total number of Liyue people who have died since that time, according to conservative estimation from the Liyue Ministry of Civil Affairs. Imagine if none of the people who have ever lived would die from old age, then do you think that we would have enough land to till, enough water to irrigate the crops, and ultimately producing enough food to feed them all? Absolutely not! And that’s just one type of commodity which a human consumes in their lifespan. What about garments, what about housing, .et cetera? You got the idea.
Hu Tao spoke with an increasingly confident voice:
_ Death is indispensable for the continuous survival of human society. Let me tell you a story. When my grandfather was alive, he had prepared me for accepting his passing in the future. He kept telling me that he was so old, that he had become more and more useless after every day, that he was waiting for his time to run out so that he could be reborn into a brand new life and be a useful person for the society all over again…
Listening to Hu Tao’s long speech, Huang was shocked and confused. He had hardly ever thought about those things previously, and yet that ideology was what the young Director of Wangsheng took for granted.
Huang heaved another sigh, and said while not looking at Hu Tao:
_ I need more time to reconsider this. Bye.
Then he walked toward the Funeral Parlor’s entrance and heading home.
Hu Tao looked crestfallen. She had always known that other people found her pranks annoying, however she managed to convince herself every time that they wouldn’t hold a grudge against her and would soon forget about such “trivial” inconveniences.
Later on, the young Director was still deep in thoughts when she wandered Liyue at night. She tried to distract herself with the scenery and poetry verses, however her mind kept reminding her about the event in which she was hit with reality…
Meanwhile at the same time, Zhongli was sipping tea after having tutored the undertakers of Wangsheng Funeral Parlor. Lately he had slowly become more and more sentimental, and although he had tried to suppress it, at the back of his mind was a feeling of longing… When he was still the Archon of Liyue, he could easily distract himself with works. But now after having passed the torch to the Liyue citizens, Zhongli finally had free time, and it was not as exciting as he imagined. He tried to suppress the longing which was swelling inside his heart of bedrock, by forcing himself to think about the contemporary events, such as recounting what he had encountered in the day.
Zhongli distracted himself by thinking about the incident which happened at the Funeral Parlor mere hours ago. He had a brief moment of respite when he remembered the struggle of Hu Tao previously. Then he recalled her speech about the greater good which she believed in. Zhongli was suddenly hit with nostalgia. He had flashbacks about his battle against Azhdaha when the titanic geo dragon went rogue hundreds of years ago…
_ Morax! What makes you think that the lives of those humans are more valuable than mine? Do you think that sacrificing the Adepti in the Archon War to protect those whelps is justified? I, you, the Adepti, the illuminated beasts, the yakshas, and the gods you have killed are all higher forms of existence! Because of that, we deserve to exist more than them!
Zhongli still remembered his eloquent reply to Azhdaha:
_ You may have existed for thousands of years, but before I dug you up from deep underground, you weren’t capable of doing anything. One millennium of no progress more or less - what did it matter? Individually, an average human is nothing compared to the like of gods. However there are far more humans than entities such as gods, Adepti and yakshas combined. Thanks to their number, humans can establish and develop civilization. Given enough time, they may even be able to surpass the gods themselves... Meanwhile, the gods simply aren’t capable of the same thing, because only a very limited number of them exists. You want a reason, correct? Fine, then I will give you one: I love civilization, that’s all there is to it! And because of that, I will do everything in my capacity to protect it!
And with that, Rex Lapis and his Adepti renewed their assaults against Azhdaha, with extreme prejudice.
…Hu Tao found herself arriving at Wuwang Hill. She decided to pay a visit to the Border - a secret which the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor had jealously guarded for the entirely of its existence. As she was approaching it, Hu Tao’s intuition suddenly told her that something was wrong. She slowly crept closer, and finally was able to spot unusual movements. Someone or something was over there. Hu Tao could hear a high-pitched voice chanting a weird language. Crawling on all four, Hu Tao silently maneuvered through the foliage to find the source of the voice. And then she had finally seen it.
It turned out to be an Abyss Mage who was performing an occult magical ritual near the entrance of the Border which separated the realms of the living and the deceased. Hu Tao felt her blood boil, she gripped the handle of her Staff of Homa. She was this close to jumping out to put an end to that Abyss Mage, but by then the ritual performed by the Abyss Mage was completed. A dozen of magical circles appeared around it, and from each magical circle, an Abyss Mage materialized…
Hu Tao gasped. She had never witnessed an Abyss Order force of this scale. Whatever their plan was, it would result in grave consequences if they were allowed to succeed. When Hu Tao was still considering what course of action to carry out, the Abyss Mages began their invasion of the Border. All of them entered the Border, save for one Abyss Mage tasked with guarding the entrance.
Seizing this opportunity, Hu Tao began a mad dash toward the Abyss Mage. When it finally spotted Hu Tao, she was only a few meters from it. The Abyss Mage cast frozen icicles at her, but they all missed the target. Then when Hu Tao was at point-blank range with the mage, she suddenly vanished. The Abyss Mage was confused, but not for long because right after that, its shield was broken, and the Mage fell down to the ground. Hu Tao had phased through the Abyss Mage and attacked it from behind. Subsequently, the last thing which the Mage saw was the Staff of Homa’s head imbued with blazing hot flame impaling through its chest…
After having executed the Abyss Mage guarding the entrance, Hu Tao gave chase to the rest of the Abyss Order’s force. As Director of Wangsheng Funeral Parlor, she held responsibilities for the deceased souls, and she wouldn’t allow anymore or anything to disturb their final resting place. Since she was on her own, Hu Tao devised a plan which employed guerrilla tactics against the Abyss Order. She would stalk, ambush and kill them one by one.
And Hu Tao did just that. She stalked through the corridors, consulted the souls of dead people passing by for information regarding the whereabouts of the Abyss Mages. Every time she spotted an Abyss Mage, she crept as close as possible before attacking and slaying the unsuspecting Abyss Mage. That way, Hu Tao managed to kill 8 out of the 12 Abyss Mages who had entered the Border. However many hours had passed since her hunt begun, and Hu Tao felt increasingly exhausted. The rations and water supply which she brought with her since last night had nearly run out, and she hadn’t slept for more than 24 hours. To add insult to the injury, there was another issue - her Vision allowed her to deliver tremendously powerful Pyro elemental attacks, with a cost: it sapped her life force every time she activated it. On the other hand, the closer Hu Tao was to the brink of succumbing, the stronger her attacks would become.
Then Hu Tao caught sight of yet another Abyss Mage. She began to approach it, trying her best to remain unseen when traversing the terrain. After Hu Tao managed to get behind the Mage, she sprinted toward it, weapon in hands, ready to deliver a devastating thrust. But when she had finally approached melee range with the Mage, it teleported away. Then 3 other Abyss Mages appeared and surrounded her together with the Abyss Mage which Hu Tao targeted earlier.
Hu Tao was surprised for a moment, but soon it finally dawned upon her. She was trapped in an ambushed laid by her enemies. The Mages had finally come to the realization that they were under attack, being singled out for destruction one-by-one. Worse still, this time they also brought some Hilichurls together with them.
Hu Tao decided to flee. She phased through enemies blocking her way, running as fast as she could with the Abyss Order in hot pursuit. The enemies shot many projectiles at her, forcing Hu Tao to dash from cover to cover en route to shield herself from them. Unfortunately for Hu Tao, her left leg was hit by a rock thrown by a Hilichurl. The covers she used could block projectiles from the Abyss Mages because they flew in straight trajectories, however the rocks threw by Hilichurls flew in curved trajectories, and one of them simply flew over the cover which Hu Tao hid behind and hit her.
Hu Tao could only walk because one of her legs was hurt. It was only a matter of time before the Abyss Order caught up with her. She turned around a corner, and found that she was near the gate where dead people passing through to get to the afterlife…
She looked around, so many souls of dead people - many of whom were sent off by none other than the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor - were cheering for her. Hu Tao’s heart was swelled with pride as she thought that it was such a good day to sacrifice her life for something bigger than oneself. She calmly recited one of her favorite quotes with a smile on her lips:
_ May the fire never die, and may humanity endure.
To many people, whenever Hu Tao was around them she always disregarded their fear of mortality. They may be right, but that was because Hu Tao herself had no fear of death. Almost. It was not like Hu Tao sought her death prematurely, as she would try her best to survive like any other people. But when death claimed her, then she wouldn’t resist. Simple as that.
Hu Tao stood guard in front of the gate leading to the afterlife, waiting for the enemies to show up. And she didn’t have to wait for long. She could spot the Abyss Order’s force - or what was left of it - charging toward her from a distance. They began to surround her as if they feared that she would run away from them again. Hu Tao deduced it must mean that they hadn’t learned about the injury on her left leg. Yet.
When the enemies had come close enough, Hu Tao decided to seize the initiative by charging at the enemies first. She was hit by some projectiles from the Mages and Hilichurls, which made Hu Tao groan because of her injuries. When she had reached the Hilichurls, Hu Tao immediately phased through their rank and then quickly turned around to strike at their backs. It was yet another calculated course of action: she could use the Hilichurls as meat shields to resist the spells cast by the Abyss Mages, forcing the Mages to relocate behind her so that they could attack her. Hu Tao was surrounded by a tight ring of enemies, and that was exactly what she needed.
Using the last ounce of her stamina, Hu Tao quickly summoned a big ghost, grabbed it by the tail and swung it in a circle centered around herself. All of the enemies were hit by that attack of Hu Tao, the Hilichurls were burned to ash in mere seconds, while at the same time the shields of all Abyss Mages were broken, they fell down the burning ground below and never stood up. Save for one. The Abyss Mage tried its best to stand up and ran toward Hu Tao, intending to use its burning body as the weapon of last resort to kill her. Hu Tao was surprised, she tried to impale it with her staff but missed the target. The burning Mage’s hands managed to touch Hu Tao for a second, making her scream in pain as she was scorched by the very flame which was kindled by herself previously. That was the most it could do before finally succumbing…
Screeches filled the halls of the Border as Abyss Mages and Mitachurls alike were crushed by huge flying boulders. An Abyss Mage’s shield was crumbled immediately by a stone pillar growing from the ground, the sheer force sent the Mage’s body flying upward like a ragdoll. Some Mitachurls who managed to survive began forming a shield wall and charged at their assailant in a line formation. Hilichurls in general were very dumb, the only reason they could execute such tactic was thanks to direct commands from the Abyss Mages. The Mitachurls charged like a storm, only to find their shields deconstructed into several pieces when they were hit by a shockwave cast by their sole assailant. As their shields were already destroyed, there was nothing that stood between them and several boulders flying their way, crushing their skulls.
When the fight was over, 28 Abyss Mages and 49 Mitachurls in total were taken out of the equation. They were reinforcements called by the force which entered the Border earlier. Zhongli arrived in time to wipe them off the face of the earth before they could join forces with the other squad of Abyss Mages. The Consultant of Wangsheng moved deeper and deeper into the Border to find Hu Tao. She hadn’t shown up at Wangsheng that morning without any prior announcement about a day off, which was unprecedented. Zhongli was worried and immediately recalled the incident which happened last night. Hu Tao was truly shaken by that event, so her absence could mean something bad had happened.
Some Wangsheng employees offered to find Hu Tao together with Zhongli, but he came up with an excuse and told them to find her in other areas, while at the same time he would go to Wuwang Hill. The true reason though was that they would never be able to catch up with Zhongli’s movement speed, and would even question Zhongli’s true identity thanks to that.
…Zhongli ran as fast as he could toward the gateway to the afterlife, after he was informed by the ghosts of dead people. There, he finally found Hu Tao’s body among the charred corpses of her slain enemies.
_ Director! Hu Tao!
Zhongli called her multiple times when he lifted her up with a princess carry. Hu Tao opened her eyes and looked at Zhongli’s face. She said:
_ Zhongli, how do you find me here?
Zhongli didn’t answer, he only moved in a hurry. Hu Tao closed her eyes, but her mouth kept babbling:
_ Zhongli, I’m dying… I want my funeral to be organized this way: cremation with coal and Cuihua wood…, my body would be carried by you and 7 others…, and what… oh yeah, I want special incense sticks sold by the Feiyun Commerce Guild…
Before that Zhongli thought he could forgive whatever Hu Tao had ever done to him, but her prattling about her own death made him both depressed and mad at the same time. He shouted:
_ Shut up! I assure you that I won’t let you die!
But Hu Tao’s mouth kept running:
_ We can’t let the story go public… because we have to keep the very existence of the Border a secret… My heart is filled with happiness… because at least you’re here to witness my sacrifice and last moments…
_ Don’t worry Hu Tao, I will bear witness!
Hu Tao’s tears rolled down her cheeks when Zhongli tried to assure her. She realized that the story about her secret contributions would be archived and kept alive by the most durable means of recording, even more robust than carving a message to the bedrock itself, because she knew that Zhongli was not an ordinary human at all, but a…
_ There is one more thing… this is a secret so I can’t speak it out loud… can you lower your head so that I can whisper it to your ear?
Zhongli lowered his head as he was told, and Hu Tao suddenly wrapped her hands around the back of his head to lift herself up and kissed him... Zhongli was stopped in his track because he was shocked and totally surprised, all he could do was using his hands to support Hu Tao’s new position instead of letting her dangle from his neck like that…
After 5 minutes, Hu Tao finally let go of Zhongli’s lips. Her face was as reddened as color of the irises of her eyes. She caressed Zhongli’s face with her right hand and said with a satisfied smile and glittering eyes:
_ Only by now do I truly have no regret in life any further.
...Ginkgo leaves were lifted by the strong wind and scattered throughout Liyue Harbor’s streets in the afternoon’s fading light. For many, Liyue's scenery never failed to bring them the nostalgia and longings for the people and events that had already passed through their lives… But in contrast with the grand old theme of this land, the business activities of this thriving settlement could also have an equally invigorating effect on the weary souls, spurring them to carry on working and fighting for the sake of the living, and the ones who had yet to be born.
As Zhongli walked down the docks, he observed the people and activities around him. He could remember every ship which had ever been built by Liyue Harbor, thanks to his long life and photographic memory. Even though he no longer carried the burden of Liyue’s Archon, he was still worried for the economy of the nation because they no longer had a god who gave them plans for economic activities every single year for the past thousands years anymore... Suddenly Zhongli’s train of thought was disrupted because of a voice:
_ Zhongli, move faster, I want to catch this…
Zhongli heaved a sigh while walking at a more rapid pace. He looked up to see Hu Tao - who was sitting on his shoulders the whole time - catching a flying ginkgo leaf with her hands. For some reason, that tiny achievement managed to put a smile on her face.
_ Director Hu, Doctor Baizhu told me that your wounds have healed, you can walk by yourself already…
_ Nah, my body still aches, please be my horse at least until the end of this week.
_ That’s what you said last week!
It was not like carrying her was tiresome for Zhongli, just that he felt embarrassed when doing that in public. Zhongli had a feeling that Hu Tao did that because she wanted every single person in Liyue to know about the new relationship between him and her…
Zhongli finally stopped walking per Hu Tao’s order. They watched the ships sailed from Liyue Harbor to brave the high sea in the dying light of the day…