Chapter 405: Ch 405 : The real Aether, the fake Zhongli
"Su Yuan, what exactly is going on?"
Seeing the hesitant expression on Su Yuan’s face, Aether seemed confused and asked:
"Why do you look like... you don’t believe me either?"
"I admit it was wrong of Paimon and me to leave without saying anything back on Watatsumi Island in Inazuma, but we didn’t have a choice!"
"Dainsleif knocked us out... and when we woke up, we had already been taken out of Inazuma..."
"We wanted to break away from Dainsleif and regroup with you, but he just wouldn’t let us go..."
"We kept heading west and eventually ended up in Natlan..."
"Dain said I had to witness everything happening in Natlan—that it was part of fulfilling my mission..."
Listening to Aether speak so earnestly, Su Yuan began to feel like this really was the real Aether.
He didn’t seem to be lying. Still, Su Yuan asked:
"Natlan is so far from Liyue—how did you manage to return in such a short amount of time?"
"And more importantly, didn’t Dainsleif refuse to let you leave? How did you get away from him and make it back from Natlan to Liyue?"
Aether replied, "The reason we made it back so quickly is simple: teleport waypoints."
"The waypoints in Natlan didn’t seem to be affected or corrupted by the eerie power..."
"As for how we escaped Dain—it wasn’t because he let us go. We took the opportunity to flee during a moment of chaos..."
"We happened to pass by a teleport waypoint, and out of nowhere, a hooded figure in black robes appeared..."
"When Dain saw that person, he charged at them like a lion spotting a rabbit—like Keqing spotting golden shrimp balls—gone in a flash, completely ignoring me and Paimon..."
"And that’s when we seized the chance to use the teleport waypoint and return to Liyue."
After listening to Aether’s explanation, Su Yuan couldn’t help but wonder—who exactly was that hooded figure in black, and why would they cause Dainsleif to completely ignore Aether and immediately give chase?
And wasn’t it just a little too convenient for that person to appear right next to a teleport waypoint?
All in all, Aether and Paimon didn’t seem suspicious... They were probably the real ones.
But then, a thought suddenly struck Su Yuan—
If he wanted to confirm whether this "Aether" really was the true Traveler, wouldn’t it be easiest to bring Shenhe here to meet him?
Shenhe seemed to have a special kind of intuition when it came to the Traveler—almost like she could sense whether he was genuine or not...
"Alright then," Su Yuan looked at Aether and said,
"Since you’re so certain that you’re the real Traveler..."
"I’ll go bring Shenhe here to meet you. You don’t have any objections, right?"
Su Yuan thought to himself: if this Aether was actually Lumine in disguise, she would definitely try to come up with all kinds of excuses to avoid the meeting...
But Aether replied without hesitation:
"Sure! If that’ll ease your doubts, I don’t mind being tested however you like."
"It’s been a while since I last saw Shenhe anyway—it’ll be nice to greet her again."
Before long, with the help of the Millelith and the Liyue Qixing, Shenhe arrived at Bubu Pharmacy.
And the moment she saw Aether, a clear ripple of emotion passed across her usually calm and icy expression.
A faint smile appeared on her face as she greeted him:
"Traveler... long time no see."
"Mhm. Shenhe, long time no see," Aether replied with a smile of his own.
Everyone around witnessed this exchange—Shenhe’s reaction was completely natural and genuine.
It was clear that she recognized him as the real Aether.
Aether let out a soft sigh and spoke to the others:
"Everyone, you believe me now, right? That I’m truly the Traveler, Aether?"
"So... what exactly happened during the time I was gone that made you all treat me like this?"
Su Yuan nodded and replied, "Then let me give you a quick summary..."
Over the next stretch of time, Su Yuan told Aether everything that had recently happened in Liyue.
After listening to the whole account, Aether’s brows furrowed slightly.
He wore a somewhat sorrowful expression as he spoke heavily:
"What... I need to kneel and kowtow to Madame Ping to make her recover from her eerie corruption?"
"And the reason she was corrupted in the first place... was because I accidentally destroyed the teapot she gave me?"
"Sigh... what a terrible shame..."
Su Yuan sighed as well and spoke with some regret:
"If we had known you’d return to Liyue today... Looking at the time now, we’d still be within the three-day window Madame Ping mentioned..."
"It’s unfortunate... fate played a cruel joke on us. We had no idea you were coming back—there was no warning or message at all..."
"If we had known, we wouldn’t have resorted to such measures last night... sacrificing Madame Ping..."
At the mention of Madame Ping’s sacrifice, the atmosphere suddenly grew heavy.
But then Su Yuan seemed to remember something and turned to Zhongli:
"Zhongli, what happened to you last night?"
"I told you well in advance not to go to the location where Furina and Madame Ping were going to fight—to prevent Furina from accidentally harming you..."
"So why didn’t you listen? Why did you insist on going there anyway, and even show up to collect Madame Ping’s body?"
"I know you shared a deep bond with her, but you’re also someone calm and composed. How could you take such a dangerous risk?"
"Hm? Su Yuan, what are you talking about?"
Zhongli’s face showed deep confusion as he replied:
"I didn’t go anywhere last night... let alone meet with you."
At this moment, Su Yuan was completely bewildered.
If Zhongli was telling the truth, then... who exactly was the "Zhongli" who appeared before him last night?
Could it have been someone in disguise?
But the problem was—who had the ability to disguise themselves as Zhongli so flawlessly, and why were they so well-informed about everything, to the point that Su Yuan didn’t suspect a thing?
Even more importantly—what was the purpose of taking away Madame Ping’s remains?
"Su Yuan, I just had a thought..."
At that moment, Baizhu suddenly spoke up:
"I think the ’Zhongli’ you met last night might’ve actually been Yelan in disguise..."
"Yelan already has multiple identities and is highly skilled at disguises. Given the situation last night, you probably didn’t have time to observe too carefully..."
"But there’s something I still don’t get—if it really was Yelan, what would she want with Madame Ping’s body?"
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