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“She eats... flowers?”
“Yes, Lady Yuheng. The General Secretary is strictly vegetarian, and it appears that includes eating flowers.”
“Does she... have a preference? I can’t say I’ve ever eaten flowers or known anyone who does so, I can’t exactly be a good judge of taste.”
“I’d assume she would, but I unfortunately don’t know the answer myself.
“Thank you Huixin, I appreciate your information as always.”
“Of course, Lady Keqing. Such is my duty.”
How can I proceed with this?
Ganyu noticed the scent before she even made it to the hallway that housed her office. Glaze lilies on her desk, no more than a few hours since they’d been picked. When she opened the door, she was met with a bouquet of silk flowers just as she expected. Sniffing the bouquet, the flowers didn’t seem to be poisoned, so she plucked off a petal and popped it into her mouth. These flowers were clearly picked from the terrace, the taste was the same as usual; a bit sweet for her tastes but a lovely snack. Pulling three of the stems from the bouquet, she took a vase from the cupboard and placed it on her desk. After partially filling it with water, she placed the flowers gently inside, making sure to rotate them to have their “pretty side” forward.
‘She only ate three of the flowers? I guess I don’t know if that’s a lot for her...’ Keqing thought to herself as she placed another bouquet on Ganyu’s desk. ’Maybe she’ll like these?’
Her nose was once again met with the scent of a fresh bouquet long before she reached her office. This time, silk flowers. After entering, she pulled another three stems and placed them in the vase. ‘These pretty but not very fun to eat,’ she thought, shuddering as she remembered the first time she tried one. They pop in your mouth and get sticky like dandelion seeds. These ones are going to be decorations.
’None of the silk flowers? I guess that makes sense. She ate a few more of the glaze lilies too, they’re decent, I guess. Maybe these will be better.’
Her office was turning into a melting pot of floral scents, it took her until the door for her to figure out today’s addition. Violetgrass, a potent but pleasant smell. She grabbed three more stems and added them to the vase, then began chewing away at one of the flowers in the bouquet. They don’t taste quite as good as they smell, but they’re not as overly sweet as the glaze lilies and have a more palatable flavor to them. As the scents of the flowers started melding together as more were added, she smiled and realized she forgot how much she loved having flora occupying her office alongside her. Maybe soon she’d need to rearrange some of her office to accommodate some plants and flowers.
‘Four of the violetgrass and another glaze lily, I’m getting closer. One last option’
Today, Ganyu couldn’t help but recognize the new scent immediately, even mixed with the other flowers. With haste she opened her office door, and as she thought, there was a bouquet of Qingxin atop her desk. She smiled, muttering to herself something about humans and their curious gestures. Plucking a flower from the bunch, she inhaled the flower’s strong scent, but to her it was one that smelled like home and memories that made her heart flutter. The scents that now filled her office took her back to the times even before the Qixing, and as she tasted the flower, it was bitter but sweet on her tongue, it’d been too long since she had gone and picked some qingxin for herself.
As her day was winding down, Keqing was surprised by a knock on her door that was unmistakably the General Secretary’s. “Come in,” she chimed, curious as to what report or other news Ganyu could have for her this late at night.
She let herself in, holding something behind her back as she closed the door behind her. “Good evening, Lady Keqing. How is business treating you?”
“Business as usual, a few hiccups here and there but nothing I can’t manage. To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?”
A soft pink spread across Ganyu’s cheeks. “I’ve received your gifts, and while I still don’t fully understand human courting gestures, I do appreciate them and I wanted to repay the gesture.”
“Oh, how did you know they were from- wait, court-?!”
Before she could finish her sentence, Ganyu pulled a bouquet from behind her back. in it was an arrangement of glaze lilies, silk flowers, and violetgrass surrounding one singular qingxin. “Your scent was all over them, you are the only person who has ever come into work earlier than me. Consider this a reciprocation. Would you like to get dinner with me tonight? We could walk down to the harbor on our way out of here.”
Keqing was frozen, her face quickly turning redder than the silk flowers in Ganyu’s hands. She had never stopped to think about the implications of leaving flowers on another person’s desk, but it would be a lie to say that the thought of asking out the other woman had never crossed her mind, so she wasn’t about to complain. “I- of course, I would love to.” She took the gift from Ganyu, a rearrangement of the same flowers she had received over the past few days, and she couldn’t help but notice its near-evenness that had one exception. “Ganyu, if you don’t mind me asking, why is there only one Qingxin in this bouquet?”
Ganyu gave an embarrassed chuckle. “Well, I guess I got carried away and ate the rest of them before I put this together. They’re really tasty and I guess you could say they’re-”
“Your favorite.”