The Lost People of Teyvat

Chapter 242 Testing
"I'm back... Uh, Ying, what's that in your hand?"

Chen Tianfeng was stunned for a moment. Seeing Ying sitting upright with a few black and unclear things in his hands, he suddenly had a bad feeling.

This black thing seems a little familiar... Chen Tianfeng put down the cloth bag of berries, and with a flash of inspiration, he looked at the barbecue grill beside him - sure enough, a few skewers of wild mushroom and chicken were missing.

The corner of Chen Tianfeng's eye twitched.

Ying's face was frozen. He met Chen Tianfeng's gaze, then quickly looked away, saying with a somewhat weak tone, "It's wild mushroom chicken skewers."

Chen Tianfeng: “…”

What do you say this thing is?
What kind of skewers?
"……how did you do it?"

Chen Tianfeng suppressed his smile and took the skewers of "wild mushroom chicken skewers" that no one could recognize in their original appearance. He looked at them carefully and even saw a hint of deep blue hidden in the darkness. He was immediately amazed.

Is this soaked in nuclear waste water from the narrow space of Wuxiang Blade before grilling?

Ying didn't want to answer, so he changed the subject very abruptly: "How about berries? Are they suitable for dessert?"

“Not bad, good quality, and the sweetness is just right.”

Chen Tianfeng put the strings of "General Thunder's Special Dishes" aside, came to Ying's side, and stretched out his hand to her: "Give it to me."

"what?"

Shadow is puzzled.

"Silk thread, you didn't let it go."

"..."

Ying was silent for a few seconds, then stretched out her hand and opened her palm. A purple silk thread was revealed, one end of which was tied to her smooth white wrist, and the other end lay quietly in her palm.

She looked at Chen Tianfeng, who took the silk thread and wrapped it around his wrist a few times without any hesitation. He tied a secure knot with one hand while dancing his fingers, and opened his lips: "Actually..."

"This way I feel more at ease. If you feel at ease, I will feel at ease too."

Chen Tianfeng shook his wrist and said with a smile: "But this won't last long. Give me a gift when you have time. Something practical, not too fancy."

After he said that, without waiting for Ying to answer, he started to busy himself with his campfire wild fruit pie.

After processing the wild fruits one by one, he took flour, fresh water and butter and made it bit by bit in an orderly manner.

Ying watched quietly at the side, watching him sometimes summon a gust of wind, sometimes use his fingertips to treat the ingredients with frost, and sometimes reach out to the flame to shape the fireworks into the shape he wanted.

If others were to see this, they would think this method was very cool. The four elements of wind, fire, ice and water followed Chen Tianfeng's guidance, making the dessert gradually take shape and emit a sweet aroma.

Yingze frowned, looked at Chen Tianfeng, then looked down at the lightning thread tied around his wrist, and finally realized something. He said firmly, "You are testing me."

"Why do you say that suddenly?"

Chen Tianfeng kept moving his hands, speaking with a smile on his face, not showing any surprise at all.

"This dessert is not suitable for a simple environment as you said before."

Although Ying can't cook, he knows that a dessert made with four elements is not an easy dish to make. If you are really limited by the simple conditions, why not make the simplest bird egg roast?
So, he deliberately proposed to make this dessert, deliberately proposed to go to a farther place to pick wild fruits, and also deliberately asked her if the silk thread was long enough... just to see if she was willing to untie the silk thread on her own initiative.

Ying looked at him, but surprisingly, she had no dissatisfaction or resentment in her heart. Instead, she was very calm, and even had a hint of smile: "Am I right?"

There is nothing wrong with testing. Aren’t you testing him too?
The corners of Ying's lips curled up slightly, and with a thought, the mark secretly attached to the corner of Chen Tianfeng's clothes quietly dissipated. "It's surprisingly correct. It seems that I have to rebuild my impression of you."

Chen Tianfeng added some firewood and put the formed wild fruit pie into the fire. The flames rose and coiled, holding up the wild fruit pie and baking it like an oven. He clapped his hands, and sat down beside the campfire as if he didn't notice anything. He looked at Ying and smiled, "Just wait another twenty minutes."

"Well, I'm looking forward to it."

Ying nodded, and then became curious: "What image do you have of me in your mind?"

"Paranoia, stupidity, and dullness. Rather than being a god, you'd be better off being a general who knows how to wield a sword and lead troops into battle." Chen Tianfeng said bluntly, "Especially the National Closure Order, the Eye Hunting Order, the thunderstorm outside Inazuma, and your view on eternity, it feels like you're throwing the baby out with the bathwater."

"...So direct?" Ying seemed a little surprised.

"It's too tactful. I'm worried you won't understand."

"You guy..."

Ying shook his head and laughed. He looked at the wild fruit pie being licked by the flames with a stunned look. After a long silence, he said softly, "You are right. My view on eternity and the laws I promoted were actually all out of fear."

“Fear of moving forward, fear of change, fear of… losing.”

"I think those two ancient gods told you that I am not Inazuma's original God of Thunder. The first General of Thunder, whose name is Shin, is my sister."

Ying took a deep breath and continued to speak when he saw Chen Tianfeng nod and listen carefully, "Wherever lightning flashes, it will cast a shadow... I am the shadow."

"Using [Muxiang], I cleared all obstacles for Inazuma. However... every step forward, I would lose something. In the end, I even lost my sister."

"These deeds are still told under the shade of every thunder cherry tree, but the mark left on this country by those losses still burns."

"Just pursue it, even if it's just a moment of light, at least we have this moment. My sister once said this, but I witnessed a country running at full speed, losing everything in the face of justice."

"Perhaps only by freezing time, the lightning will not disappear."

Ying paused for a moment, looked at Chen Tianfeng seriously, and found his own figure in his black eyes: "So I refuse to move forward, and use [eternity] to promise my subjects the beautiful dream of floating in the world, so that at least Inazuma will not have to experience loss again."

"The beautiful dream of the world...you mean war, heavy taxes and famine?"

Chen Tianfeng stroked his chin and said, "Excuse me, but not many people like this kind of beautiful dream."

"…This is because my assumptions have been distorted."

Ying tried to be tough, then sighed: "Well, it's because I'm too naive, paranoid, stupid, and dull."

She never thought that one day she would become the Thunder General of Inazuma, nor did she know how to govern the country. When she took over Inazuma, she lost almost all her relatives and friends except Yae Shinko.

So she locked herself up, built a thick barrier, and tried to stop Inazuma's progress, thinking that this way she would not experience loss again.

But now it seems that she was dead wrong.

"You are right. I am not a qualified god. I still lack a lot and am far inferior to my sister. But..."

Ying looked at him, his expression serious: "I want to try to learn."

Inazuma is her sister's Inazuma, and she doesn't want to disappoint her sister no matter what.

(End of this chapter)