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It wasn't unusual for the Adventurer's Guild in Liyue to try and brave the sacred mountain of Mt. Hulao, as it was often seen as an achievement only the best adventurers could conquer, but this time they found a strange occurrence. A small, frail body of a girl trapped in amber. The leader of the expedition team that discovered her could only make guesses as to how long the girl has been there, but from the looks of it, her body has been preserved nicely.
"The Adepti must have had mercy on her, otherwise we wouldn't have happened to find her."
Lang Fu nodded. "We'll have to cut our expedition short- it's our duty to bring her back to the Wangsheng Funeral Parlour." His gaze upon the frame of the girl softened, as if reminiscing on something. "She deserves to be laid to rest properly."
"Yes, leader Fu."
This is how the party ended up in the main hall of the Funeral Parlour, waiting for the director to come and speak to them. The people around them were few and far between, a thick silence hanging around. This place was not to be disturbed, for the dead lay here to rest and no one on the team wanted to disturb their (hopefully) peaceful spirits.
From afar, they could hear the silence being disrupted by some faint humming, and the sound of small footsteps running up to them. Turning, they saw a small girl, no older than 10 at most, grinning at them the very moment she made eye contact with them. Behind her was an older man, walking at a much slower pace, seemingly having all the time in the world. As the pair came closer, the adventurers felt the pits of their stomachs drop silently.
There was no way they would traumatise such an innocent child with the body they held. The girl in their arms was most likely around the same age as the one running up to them when she met her demise. So, shuffling around to shield the body from the girl's view, they held their breaths, waiting for their leader to speak up.
"Ah, Director Hu." Lang Fu answered the unspoken pleas of his teammates. "It's been a long time since we last met."
"It sure has, Lang Fu!" The man in question chuckled heartily. Grabbing the girl next to him by her shoulders, he forced her to stand still. "This is my granddaughter, Hu Tao. She's here to learn how we handle found bodies brought by the adventurer's guild, aren't you sweetheart?"
The girl nodded with a huge smile resting on her face. "Yup!"
After the expert way Lang Fu danced around the bush, and much to the dread of the team, the body was handed over, them leaving in a high tempo. Hu Tao, on the other hand, was very curiously peering over her grandfather's arms, trying to see the dead girl that lied within them. As curious as she was, she knew that asking any unnecessary questions would give her a scolding, as well as disrespect the peaceful slumber of the spirit in question. Thus, they walked away, back into the Funeral Home's many special rooms for preparations for funerals. It was quiet, save for the silent whispers and tears of the other visitors and the sounds of their footsteps against the floor.
Days passed, and almost everything was ready for the funeral of the unknown girl. They couldn’t find any records of her anywhere, even thinking to look through all sorts of missing reports throughout the years. Hu Tao herself spent hours scouring through documents, simply because she believed this child needed to be laid to rest just like everyone else whose fortune wasn’t as kind did. Especially since this girl looked no older than her, did she feel the need to make her funeral absolutely perfect. It wasn’t Hu Tao’s first job, so she was sure she’d do well enough even if she didn’t put in the extra effort, but her sheer determination won over any rational reasoning that this was a mystery that perhaps not even she could solve.
So, after some coaxing from her grandfather, was she finally able to lay it to rest, and prepared to give peace to the girl that has been waiting for it for perhaps centuries. In the small room where they kept the bodies of the dead, there was little light. Only very specific and few candles illuminated the area, as they worked through a part of the ritual to bury this body. They were halfway through the procedure, when a faint glow emitted from the talisman stuck to the girl’s hat. Hu Tao wasn’t scared like the other workers were, but simply curious as she stepped closer as they stepped back.
The silence hung on a thread, like it was waiting to be dropped by something big, something amazing yet sinister. Thankfully, it didn’t disappoint. It was nothing short of a miracle, as everyone in the room could hear the short gasps for air, a tiny groan and saw the opening of the eyes of the presumed dead girl.
Nobody uttered a word, as it seemed disrupting somehow. Not until there was slight panic to be seen from the child’s eyes, asking them silent questions as to where they were. Only then did Hu Tao speak up.
“Oh, you’re in the Wangsheng Funeral Parlour! You’re supposed to be dead though, whatever-your-name is.” She indignantly turned to her grandfather, who was also in the room, observing the entire ordeal. “D’you reckon it would be alright to just bury her like this? Surely the rituals still apply if someone was-”
She was interrupted by the fast pitter-patter of feet running away. The door was open, for a multitude of reasons, not because they simply didn’t expect to have a dead body on the loose. Well, that too. So they could only watch in astonishment as she ran away. Hu Tao jumped in order to chase after her, but was stopped by her grandfather.
“Let’s see what the Gods walking upon this land think of this, first.”
Despite the aching in all of her limbs, Qiqi did not stop running. It was so scary, one moment remembering being on Mt. Hulao and the next moment being surrounded by strange and unfamiliar people. Everything looked different, even as she ran out of the parlour, the people not even looking up to a child running frantically down the streets. All of the houses bigger than she ever remembered them being, and certain signs contained characters she never learnt or even recognised, all words so widely different from what she was used to.
She kept running until the houses dispersed, and she was in a big field. She did not remember this field, but she felt somewhat safe here regardless. She did spend most of her life picking herbs anyway. As she fell down onto the ground, exhausted from both running and the shock, tears welled up in her eyes. She couldn’t remember anything, why couldn’t she remember anything? Not even these tears were loaded with any emotion behind them, it was simply a reflex of the hurt that she felt. Why was she scared she was gonna get buried? Why was she even being buried?
Was she dead? What of her parents? Her entire family? Where were they?
Again and again, the little girl questioned her tears, the meaning of it all, and the severity of the situation. Only being pulled back to reality when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Though her tears blurred her sight, she still was greeted by green hair, a white snake and a face she didn’t recognize.
“My my, are you lost little girl?” She could only nod as a response. She didn’t remember what she was doing here anymore.
The man merely smiled. He asked her questions to which she only nodded or shook her head to. She couldn’t remember what he exactly said anymore, it was a lot to take in at once. She could only remember petting the snake around his neck a bit, as well as his deep sigh while he took her hand in his and helped her up.
“What do you think of staying at the pharmacy for a bit? Perhaps you could help around a bit.”
She nodded, for the last time that day, and walked slowly out of the field, leaving behind her old feelings, into the new.