[ Wuwang Hill is foggy and damp on any given day of the year, no matter how much sunshine graces the rest of the Liyue countryside. But today, it feels especially heavy. Wisps dance between the shadows of the pine trees, brave in their approach as they must know that both of these strange individuals that have wandered here in the dead of the night can see them. Even though Zhongli ignores their presence (appearances have to be kept after all), he keeps close to Hu Tao's right side, never letting her get more than two arm's lengths away from him as they go deeper and deeper into the trees.

He also talks incessantly on the way there. By now, Hu Tao has probably suffered through such thrilling topics as the history of Stone Gate, differences in meteorological patterns of northern and southern Liyue, and the multiple uses of pine cones in fragrances and incense. Whether it is to distract her or because Zhongli himself can not sit in silence, who can say?

As he is carefully examining one such pine cone that he made a slight detour to pick up along the way: ]

Being so close to Mondstadt, whose forests are much more rich with pine than our own, its also does invoke a sense of connection between our two nations. Though the trees in the northern Land of Freedom as much taller and thinner, their bark—