Hello I'm back, thy leg is healed but I don't have molars anymore.
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Suddenly, as if sensing something through an unseen connection, Eula sharply turned her body and cast her gaze behind her.
Sure enough, Shao Yun had arrived.
Eula patted the tree trunk she was sitting on and said, "You're here. Sit down."
Hearing this, Shao Yun first turned his head and quickly glanced toward Lumine and Paimon, who were hiding in the nearby bushes. Only then did he slowly walk over to Eula and sit down on the tree trunk.
Although the two of them were sitting on the same log, they deliberately kept a certain distance between each other.
Shao Yun quietly stared at the blazing campfire in front of him and asked, somewhat awkwardly, "Wow, a campfire party?"
Eula replied, "Mm… you could say that."
After speaking, Eula reached out to a nearby crate filled with Mist Flower corollas and took out a bottle of beer.
A layer of frost clung to the bottle's surface, reflecting an enticing chill under the firelight.
She handed the ice-cold brew to Shao Yun, then picked out another equally chilled bottle for herself.
With practiced ease, Eula pinched the bottle cap and gave it a slight twist. Bang! The cap popped off and fell to the ground.
Eula raised her bottle and clinked it against Shao Yun's with a ding.
"Come on, let's have a drink first—wet our throats."
Looking at the bottle of ice beer still giving off wisps of cold air, Shao Yun couldn't help but sigh.
"Wow, it's actually ice-cold beer… The last time I had one like this was probably at Angel's Share…"
While Shao Yun was reminiscing, Eula had already tilted her head back and downed half a bottle.
She wiped her lips with the back of her hand and, seeing that Shao Yun hadn't even opened his bottle yet, deliberately teased him. "Hurry up and drink! What's wrong? Are you afraid I'll start getting handsy once you're drunk?"
As she spoke, she tilted her chin at him, looking exactly like a brazen delinquent.
Shao Yun shook his head helplessly and replied with a wry smile, "Why does that sound so strange coming out of your mouth…"
Even so, his hands didn't slow down at all.
He reached out, gave the cap a light twist, and opened the bottle, then drank it down in big gulps as if it were water.
...
Without realizing it, Shao Yun had already drunk two bottles of ice beer.
Compared to Shao Yun, who seemed completely unaffected, Eula's cheeks were already flushed—whether from the alcohol or the campfire was unclear.
After finishing her third bottle, she let out a satisfied ah~.
"Ah~ ice-cold beer really hits the spot! It's been so long since I drank this freely!"
Next, Eula began demonstrating what could only be described as a beer-vanishing trick.
Shao Yun stared wide-eyed as Eula downed six bottles in one go, then glanced at the third bottle in his own hand—only half finished—and felt an intense sense of dissonance.
Is she really that fierce when it comes to drinking? No wonder she's someone who can drink her way from the Cat's Tail all the way to Angel's Share!
Absentmindedly, Shao Yun took a bite of the mushroom chicken skewer in his hand and sighed.
"A crate of ice beer, some mushroom chicken skewers, and even Mondstadt grilled fish?"
At that moment, the half-drunk Eula heard Shao Yun muttering to himself and thought he was complaining.
She freed up one hand and shoved Shao Yun hard, then said bluntly, "Huh? What, did you really expect me to grandly book out the 'Goethe Grand Hotel' and treat you to a lavish feast or something?"
"Don't daydream! Even if I had money, I wouldn't spend it on an enemy like you!"
Hearing Eula drunkenly mix up the Goethe Grand Hotel with Hotel Debord, Shao Yun helplessly corrected her. "It's called Hotel Debord. You're drunk."
In her intoxicated state, Eula had no intention of listening to his explanation.
"Hmph! So, what if I said it wrong? Anyway… anyway, there's no way I'm wasting my hard-earned money on you! Not a chance!"
With that, she tilted her head back and finished yet another bottle.
Watching Eula start to slur her words, Shao Yun muttered softly, "A total booze fiend… you should've been the Anemo Archon…"
...
Eula drank as if she had a personal vendetta against alcohol, one bottle after another. Shao Yun even started to wonder if she was going to drink herself to death.
As time passed, the alcohol gradually began to assert its power.
Eula suddenly started singing mid-drink, then stood up and danced some strange moves.
It looked like a drunken version of a ceremonial dance—though really, it was more like wild flailing, a frenzy meant only to release emotions long pent up inside her.
After that, she laughed one moment and cried the next; one moment she wanted to die, the next she swore she'd live well—giving off an unmistakably unhinged impression.
Eula continued to wreak drunken havoc around the campfire.
However, the frenzy didn't last long.
She suddenly stopped moving, her body swaying slightly—clearly exhausted.
Then she plopped down onto the grass without caring in the slightest about appearances.
After that, she leaned back and stretched out, completely surrendering herself to the vast, warm embrace of nature.
She closed her eyes, took a deep breath of the cool, fresh night air, and savored the tranquility that belonged to the darkness.
A moment later, Eula reopened her eyes and gazed up at the Fontaine night sky.
Stars glittered like jewels embedded in a black canopy, shimmering with captivating light.
After staring for a while, Eula suddenly asked, "Shao Yun, tell me… do you think there's any difference between Mondstadt's night and Fontaine's night?"
Hearing her question, Shao Yun first looked up at the starry sky, then smiled with a hint of self-mockery.
"I wouldn't know. I'm not the kind of astrologer who likes gazing at the stars."
Lying on the ground, Eula didn't really care about Shao Yun's answer. She stretched her right hand toward the stars, trying to grasp them—but like a monkey trying to scoop up the moon, she caught nothing.
"I feel like… there's no difference. We all live under the same sky of stars…"
Sitting on the tree trunk, Shao Yun raised his bottle of ice beer and took a big swig, then replied somewhat perfunctorily, "Yeah. As long as you're happy, that's what matters."
Eula sat up from the ground. Having drunk quite a lot by now, her face was completely flushed, her eyes hazy as she stared at Shao Yun.
While constantly hiccupping, she asked, "The money Lady Furina gave me—hic!—I got it. So tell me, hic! how should I spend it?"
Seeing Eula ask how to spend money was like asking a shoeshiner how to perform surgery.
So, Shao Yun gave a rather strange suggestion. "I don't know. How about treating Mora like pebbles and skipping them across the water?"
The moment Shao Yun finished speaking, the already tipsy Eula froze for a second, then burst out laughing with a pfft.
Laughing, she said in a teasing tone, "W-What? Would anyone really think of using Mora to skip stones? Hahaha!"
Watching Eula laugh so hard she nearly doubled over, Shao Yun thought to himself that maybe back when Zhongli could still create Mora, he might actually have done something like that.
"I don't know. Maybe. Some people might really think Mora isn't much different from rocks."
Under the influence of alcohol, Eula looked completely dazed.
She swayed unsteadily as she stood up, her beautiful eyes now clouded and unfocused.
That thick wave of drunkenness was driving her to do things she would never normally do.
Step by step, wobbling all the way, Eula walked toward Shao Yun.
When she finally reached him, she didn't hesitate at all and plopped down right next to him.
Not only that—she leaned her body against his, completely unaware of any sense of boundaries or distance.
Eula tilted her head slightly upward, looked at Shao Yun, and spoke in a voice so soft it could melt hearts. "You know, Shao Yun… there was a time when I had to sell my weapon just for a little bit of Mora."
"Back then, life felt so hard. And now, I've suddenly become rich… it all feels so unreal."
Drunk as she was, Eula's body went limp as she pressed tightly against Shao Yun, a strong, pungent smell of alcohol washing over him.
Annoyed, Shao Yun reached out and pushed Eula away a little.
Then he shifted his body slightly, deliberately widening the distance between them.
"No matter what, being rich is better than being poor, right?"
Eula, already drunk out of her mind, nodded drowsily after hearing his words, showing vague agreement.
But soon, she muttered her true confusion.
"But I don't know how to spend it. I mean… why did Furina give me so much money? I don't understand…"
Hearing Eula ask again why Furina gave her so much money, Shao Yun replied evasively, "I don't know either. You're asking the wrong person. But having money is a good thing."
This time, however, Eula didn't quite agree with Shao Yun's statement that "having money is a good thing."
She shook her head and started rambling drunkenly.
"Actually, I plan to split this money into two parts. One part—I want to donate it to the Spina di Rosula that helped me. And the other part, I'll donate to Mondstadt."
"As for myself… keeping a few tens of millions of Mora is enough."
Hearing that Eula planned to donate 14.9 billion Mora, Shao Yun thought she was talking nonsense.
"What? Are you just spouting drunk nonsense now? That's such an enormous sum, and you're only keeping a tiny fraction for yourself?"
"I thought you'd put it in a bank, or at least bury it somewhere hidden…"
Even though Eula was clearly quite out of it, from a certain perspective, her mind still retained a measure of clarity.
"I'm afraid I won't be able to protect that money. Do you know how many people had their eyes on Master Diluc's winery back then?"
Hearing Eula suddenly bring up Diluc out of nowhere, Shao Yun looked confused and asked, "Why are you suddenly talking about Diluc? What does this mean?"
Eula paused slightly, realizing that Shao Yun seemed completely unaware of Diluc's past.
"You probably don't know that Master Diluc once disappeared for a while. Back then, lots of Treasure Hoarders and rivals in the wine business were eyeing his winery."
"But those bastards never succeeded! I don't think I could be as lucky as Mr. Diluc…"
After hearing Eula's story about Diluc, Shao Yun nodded thoughtfully and replied with genuine feeling, "Mm… that story really does give me something to think about."
Seeing Shao Yun's enlightened, inspired expression, Eula joked, "What are you afraid of? Who would dare rob you? You not going around harming people is already something to be grateful for!"
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