Chapter Text
Keqing is a woman of many talents, but understanding her own feelings is not one of them, she has never really bothered to care about her feelings. To her, only work and responsibility matter, other things are just distractions. Especially after becoming the Liyue Qixing's Yuheng, it was all about work, either sitting in her quarters doing paperwork or traveling to investigate stuff. The Yuheng dedicates herself to the future of Liyue, barely having time for herself. After Rex Lapis's departure, Keqing has been trying even harder than before as she has a point to prove. Liyue will keep moving forward, with or without the Archon, and humans will take their own fate into their own hands.
Even with all that passion and wisdom, Keqing finds herself at a loss many times, looking up at the sky wondering what Rex Lapis would do in such situations. It makes her realize the limit of a human being compared to the great Archon. Even so, she will try her best to overcome it, she will keep on fighting until her last breath. Besides, Keqing's not alone on this journey, the Qixing's also striving hard for Liyue's future.
Talking about the Qixing, there's a particular white-haired woman who has been on her mind too much lately. Keqing fails to understand why her head keeps going back to that woman even when she tries to clear her mind and focus on her work. She also doesn't know when this weird sensation of wanting to be close to that woman has developed inside her. Ningguang, the wealthy and powerful Tianquan of Liyue Qixing, the embodiment of law and order, would be that woman. The Yuheng has always considered her as one of her colleagues, all working hard for the good of Liyue. Although the both of them don't usually see eye to eye, Keqing has a lot of respect for the white-haired woman, not that she will ever admit it. Looking back, their dynamic has been quite a roller coaster ride, or at least for her part.
When Keqing first joined the Qixing, Ningguang had already reigned over Liyue, which sparked her curiosity. She had never heard of that name among the higher-classes of Liyue society. Secretly, Keqing did some research on the current Tianquan and was surprised at what she found. Ningguang was a nobody, just some poor girl picking up starconchs along the beach to make a living. And yet, that poor girl had miraculously climbed up to become the most powerful woman in Liyue. Keqing had always admired and respected people who changed their own fate instead of praying and waiting for the Archon to save them. After learning about Ningguang's stories, she had innocently thought that the both of them would work well together. Well, at least that was true until the Tianquan introduced the young Yuheng to her principles of Mora. Keqing would never agree to something like "Mora is life", if anything it sounded blasphemous to her. The wealthiest business woman in all Teyvat or not, shouldn't someone with such an important role as the Tianquan have better principles? With that, all the newfound respect and admiration got swept away and replaced by doubt.
To add fuel to the fire, Keqing was furious when she found out that the Lucent Crescent she had ordered three months ago along with the last few months worth of it, had all been bought by Ningguang by paying double the market price. Unfortunately for her, the young Yuheng found herself in that same scenario several times with other things she had ordered months prior just for them to be snatched away by the Tianquan. Then on the following day, Ningguang would act like nothing had ever happened and she would smile and greet her gracefully. Keqing swore that she had been so close to punching the insufferable woman in the face more than once. She decided that Ningguang must be her arch enemy from her past life or some sort of punishment that Celestia or Rex Lapis himself had created to punish her for her blasphemous mind.
Ever the prideful and independent person, Keqing was eager to prove herself in her early days as the Yuheng of Liyue. However, due to her inexperience, mistakes were made and a few of them would have damaged her reputation severely if one had used it against her. And Keqing wasn’t the most likable person around thanks to her blunt personality and righteousness, it wouldn’t be a surprise if someone had wanted to bring her down. In the end, nothing had really happened as if those mistakes had never been made. Those precious lessons she learnt from her miscalculations were the only proof of her shortcoming. Sometimes, Keqing wondered who had been helping her clean up her mess without asking for anything in return. As she kept on working hard and gaining more experience, no more mistakes were made and her mysterious savior faded into oblivion. Around a year later, Ganyu accidentally revealed the identity of her long forgotten savior in a conversation about some issues of the previous years. The poor secretary was then interrogated by the young Yuheng for the rest of the day. If one asked Keqing who she thought might be her mysterious helper, a few names would come to her mind. Ningguang wasn't on that list, that woman would more likely be on the list to expose Keqing's shortcomings if anything. Still, the truth was that the Tianquan had always been helping her silently behind the scenes.
The sudden revelation gave her mixed feelings about Ningguang. They weren't close or anything, all their conversations were work-related, mostly war of words and some discussion to be exact. Having different views on various matters, the two of them frequently turned the Qixing meeting into their one-on-one argument. Occasionally, Ningguang would tease her or invite her to accompany her, but Keqing simply ignored her or politely turned down the invitation. Ever since she knew about Ningguang's principles, she limited their interaction to just be about work and nothing else. Actually, Keqing had always been cautious around the Tianquan in order to not fall into any possible scheme. Would this helping thing be a part of a scheme by any chance? If that was true then why had she been silent about it all this time and even asked Ganyu to keep it a secret? Keqing didn't understand what was going on, and the best solution was to get the answer from the one who caused all of this confusion.
With that, Keqing found herself standing in front of the Tianquan’s office the next day, waiting for Nigguang’s secretary to let her in. When Baishi finally came back and asked her to enter, she made a beeline for Ningguang’s lavish desk and got straight to the point.
“Why did you help me clean up the mess I created?” The Yuheng asked firmly, looking skeptically at the owner of the glorious Jade Chamber.
“Hello to you too, dear Yuheng!” Tilting her head slightly, the corner of the Tianquan’s lip curled up. “I’m afraid I don’t quite understand what you are asking.”
"Stop pretending! Ganyu told me everything!" Keqing frowned,crossing her arms. "What is your motive behind all of this? If you think you can make me comply then you wasted your effort!"
"Nothing so dramatic as that!" Ningguang chuckled, taking a deep inhale from her pipe. "I simply wanted to help my colleagues on her first few steps!"
"And you expect me to believe that?" Magenta eyes narrowed with doubt.
"Had I wanted to use you, I would have used those mistakes of yours to my advantage. Besides, I didn't want to see my cute and talented junior get into trouble! " Ningguang winked at her.
"I- I still don't believe that completely!" The sudden praise caught her off guard, she hoped she wasn't blushing and made a fool out of herself. "Regardless, you have my gratitude. I shall find a way to repay you under the right circumstance."
"There is no need for that, dear Yuheng! But if you insist, how about accompanying me for dinner later?" Ningguang’s smile became wider as her crimson eyes seemed to light up, never once leaving the young Yuheng ever since she stepped into her office.
"...I suppose I can do that." Keqing wasn't sure why, but the way Ningguang was looking at her seemed somewhat strange.
"Wonderful! As much as I would love to talk with you more, I should continue with my work. I will see you later, dear Yuheng!" Ningguang sent her one last smile before getting back to her documents.
"...Ok" Keqing nodded, still not quite catching up with everything, she silently left.
Honestly, Keqing had suspicions that the Tianquan was scheming something. Why would Ningguang want her company for dinner anyway? It might be a trap for all she knew, better be extra careful. With that in mind, she was surprised to find Ningguang already waiting for her in front of her office. She had thought she would have to travel all the way to the Jade Chamber again to meet her. She was even more surprised to hear her saying they would be eating at Wanmin restaurant, Keqing was expecting some fancy places since it was Ningguang after all. They walked side by side in silence, simply taking in the sunset view of the harbor. When they arrived at Wanmin, Xiangling greeted them cheerfully as they took their seats.
“Are you a regular here?” Keqing couldn’t help asking after she saw how Xiangling chatted with Ningguang as if they were old friends.
“You can say so.” Ningguang nodded, taking a sip from her cup of tea. “I visit Wanmin pretty often as I don’t really have time to cook for myself most of the time. Besides, their dishes are delicious.”
“That is rather unexpected. I thought you would dine at some fancy restaurants instead, and also the fact that you cook for yourself.” Keqing said bluntly, earning a chuckle from the Tianquan.
“Ever the straightforward one, dear Yuheng! Believe it or not, I prefer simple dishes instead of the fancy ones, and I actually enjoy cooking quite a bit.” Ningguang leaned back, watching Xiangling running out from the kitchen to their table.
“Are we ready to order?” Xiangling asked with a bright smile.
Before Keqing could even open her mouth to speak, Ningguang beat her to it. “Golden shrimp balls for our dear Yuheng and Qiankun mora meat for me.”
“Ok! Coming right up!” Xiangling saluted and ran back into her kitchen.
“How did you know what I was going to order?” Keqing asked, looking at the Tianquan skeptically.
“A little bird told me about your love for golden shrimp balls. Isn’t that true?” Ningguang smiled teasingly.
“Of course! Leave it to you to have eyes and ears everywhere!” Keqing rolled her eyes. “But what if I don’t feel like eating golden shrimp balls today?”
“Oh please! You order the dish nine out of ten times, and the only time you don’t order it, simply because they don’t serve it!” Ningguang gave her that look that said ‘you think I don’t know?’.
“You are insufferable!” Keqing groaned and looked away, her cheeks flushed from embarrassment.
Xiangling came back with their orders and a little extra something on the side, saying it was a thank you for their diligent work before running off to serve other customers. Keqing’s mouth watered at the sight of the golden shrimp balls but she waited for Ningguang to take the first bite of her Qiankun mora meat before taking her first own bite. Delicious as always, Xiangling never disappointed her as she happily enjoyed every bit of her dish. She almost didn’t notice that Ningguang had stopped eating and was staring at her. When she caught her, the Tianquan simply smirked at her which made Keqing blushed again, slowing herself down from devouring all the shrimp balls.
They shared their meals mostly in silence but it wasn’t uncomfortable. Actually, it felt kind of nice to eat with someone. Keqing almost forgot the feeling of sharing a meal with another person. She always ate alone ever since she moved out to live on her own. It was just a simple dinner between two colleagues, nothing fancy or tricky. Maybe she was thinking too much about the scheming, and maybe Ningguang was not as cunning as she had thought.
“How was your dinner?” Xiangling asked excitedly.
“Wonderful! I expect nothing less from you, Xiangling.” Ningguang praised as she patted a very jolly Guoba on his head. “The future of Wanmin seems pretty promising with such a talented chef.”
“You are praising me too much! I know I still have a long way to go.” The young chef smiled sheepishly then looked thoughtfully for a moment. “I need to create more dishes with new ingredients like slime condensation.
“Ah…I’m not so sure about that part.” Ningguang said nervously and they all laughed.
“How much was it, Xiangling?” Keqing asked, taking out her pouch.
“Oh, it’s already paid, miss Keqing!” Xiangling told her as if it was a fact.
“What? Since when? By who?” She stood up abruptly then turned around to see a smirking Tianquan looking back at her, the same infuriating smirk she wore every time she won an argument against Keqing in a meeting.
“Is there a problem?” Ningguang asked innocently, balancing her pipe on the tip of her finger.
“Yes there is! I’m supposed to be the one paying the bill here! I don’t want to be indebted to you!” Keqing scowled, crossing her arms and staring down at the Tianquan.
“I only invited you to join me for dinner. I don’t recall mentioning anything about you paying for it. Did you make a contract for it or something, dear Yuheng?” Ningguang leaned forward, resting her face on her hands.
“You…!!!” she raised her voice indignantly, clenching her fist.
“Besides, I have never said you had to repay a debt. However, if you are so determined to be indebted to me then how about you pay next time?” the familiar shit-eating grin appeared on Ningguang’s face. Archon knew how badly Keqing wanted to punch her in the face right there and then.
Thus, at the end of the day, Keqing found herself fallen into Ningguang's trap. As she walked back to her place, Keqing wanted to slap herself because of how innocent she had been to even think that Ningguang was actually a nice person and there was no scheming. But then again, it wasn't like the Tianquan had tricked her into something depraved or illegal. Actually, she did kind of enjoy their shared meal, it was somewhat nice. Keqing learned something new about Ningguang, a different side, but not a bad one. Maybe she should give the Tianquan more credit, maybe Ninguang wasn't that cunning woman she had painted her to be. With that thought in mind, the idea of sharing another meal with Ningguang suddenly became quite appealing. She could use this opportunity to learn more about the Tianquan, and maybe from there they could find common ground in their work. She went to bed that night thinking about her schedule for the next few days, if she could spare some time to have a meal with the Tianquan again. Even so, she would rather say she worshiped Rex Lapis than admitting she was kind of looking forward to the next shared meal with that infuriating woman.