Genshin Impact: A Guide to the Unofficial History of Teyvat — Chapter 104

Chapter 104: You Seem Very Afraid of Me?

The coastline just outside Liyue Harbor shimmered with a fine golden haze under the afternoon sun, the gentle waves rolling in to lap rhythmically against the scattered reefs.

Lovia squatted low on the damp beach, her oversized hood pulled down so far it almost completely swallowed her head. She poked intently at the wet sand with a small piece of driftwood, digging around for beautiful, intact conches washed up by the turning tide.

This quiet, mindless beachcombing was one of the few genuine pastimes that brought her a sense of peace and joy since transmigrating into this world.

Having just finished drafting a rather sweet, highly fictionalized love story about a certain elusive Liyue intelligence officer, Lovia felt incredibly lighthearted. She had come out here to enjoy the picturesque coastal scenery—or rather, to splash around in the shallows and clear her head.

She plucked a small, vibrant blue conch with delicate spiral patterns from the foam and dropped it into her cloth pouch, letting out a long breath of absolute relaxation. However, just as she straightened her knees to continue her grand treasure hunt further down the shoreline, a sudden flash of movement caught the corner of her eye.

A figure stood perfectly still atop a jagged reef not far away.

The woman was tall, her snow-white hair and elegant garments fluttering wildly in the salty sea breeze. She exuded a distinct, chilling Adeptus aura that felt entirely out of place against the mundane, bustling backdrop of the harbor’s outer coast.

Lovia’s movements froze. Her entire body locked up like a rusty gear.

‘Shen… Shenhe?!’Her mind let out a deafening buzz.’How could I run into her out here?! Didn’t I just publish “For Whom the Love Trap is Set”?!”No, no, calm down,’ Lovia frantically coached herself, her heart hammering against her ribs.’No one in Teyvat knows I wrote it. Why am I panicking?’

That particular story—featuring Shenhe and Yelan as the romantic leads, heavily spiced with her own personal, highly skewed understanding of their characters and a generous dash of selfish creative liberty—was actually a masterpiece of modern fanfiction.

But that masterpiece was penned by the mysterious author Hanabi. What did that have to do with an innocent, conch-collecting girl named Lovia?

The words “guilty conscience” might as well have been glowing in neon letters across her forehead, but the sheer force of her internal mental gymnastics slowly began to suppress the panic.

‘I have nothing to be guilty about. Nothing at all,’she rationalized.’I’m a writer of unofficial histories. Liyue’s cast of famous figures is only so big. I was bound to write about everyone sooner or later.’

Lovia reached up and yanked her hood down even further, desperately trying to disguise herself as the most inconspicuous, boring beach scavenger in existence. She forced her stiff, trembling legs to carry her forward, pretending to inspect a clump of seaweed with intense fascination.

Forget it. She couldn’t focus at all. Every instinct in her body was screaming at her to run.

Unfortunately, reality refused to cooperate with her escape plan. Perhaps Lovia’s hunched, creeping figure was simply too conspicuous on the empty stretch of sand, or perhaps Shenhe was naturally hyper-sensitive to the shifting auras of those around her.

That piercing, icy gaze swept across the beach and landed precisely on Lovia’s back.

The stubborn tuft of hair sticking up beneath Lovia’s hood twitched violently. She ducked her head so low her chin practically touched her collarbone.

Yet Shenhe did not move. She merely watched the strange girl quietly. Her pale eyes held absolutely no inquiry, no judgment, and no curiosity—only a deep, chilling calm that felt heavier than a physical weight.

Unable to bear the suspense, Lovia peeked upward through her bangs, accidentally meeting those rippleless, crystalline eyes.

The coastal air instantly turned to ice.

In the span of a single second, Lovia’s overactive inner theater simulated a thousand different catastrophic scenarios. She imagined everything from dropping to her knees and begging the white-haired woman for mercy, to throwing sand in her face and making a mad dash for the city gates. She clutched her cloth pouch so tightly her knuckles turned white, the sharp edges of the freshly collected conches digging painfully into her palm.

Just as Lovia was about to completely buckle under the crushing, silent pressure—a unique, terrifying energy field only perceptible to those suffering from severe social anxiety—Shenhe slowly blinked.

The white-haired woman withdrew her gaze, turning her attention back out toward the vast, endless expanse of the ocean. It was as if Lovia were nothing more than a stray seagull or a piece of driftwood that had accidentally drifted into her field of vision.

Lovia stood paralyzed for one more second. Then, abandoning all thoughts of beautiful shells, she spun on her heel, hugged her little cloth pouch to her chest, and prepared to sprint for her life.

To her absolute horror, before her short legs could carry her more than two steps, the distinct crunch of boots on sand sounded directly behind her.

Lovia squeezed her eyes shut and kept power-walking blindly forward, only to be frozen in place by a voice.

The tone was cold, ethereal, and exceptionally clear even over the roaring sea breeze. It made Lovia shudder from head to toe.

There was no running away now. The person standing behind her possessed a very specific, highly documented method for solving interpersonal problems—a method that usually involved grabbing the offender by the head and violently slamming their face into the pavement three times.

Swallowing hard, Lovia forced her fleeing feet to a halt. She turned her head by agonizing inches and saw that Shenhe had leaped down from the high reef with weightless grace, and was now walking slowly, purposefully toward her.

Lovia’s eyes widened into massive saucers.

Shenhe came to a smooth stop just a few paces away. Her pale eyes calmly observed the trembling girl. “I noticed you were watching me just now. Is something the matter?”

Being stared down at point-blank range by those eyes made Lovia’s heart threaten to leap straight out of her throat.

“N-no!” Her voice cracked, involuntarily pitching up an entire octave. “I was just… picking up conches…”

Shenhe’s gaze drifted downward, landing on the tightly strangled cloth pouch. “Your hands are shaking.”

“The s-sea breeze is too cold!” Lovia squeaked, hurriedly shoving both hands behind her back.

The white-haired woman tilted her head a fraction of an inch, her red tassel earrings swaying gently in the wind. “You have a peculiar aura about you.”

Lovia stopped breathing entirely.

‘Does she have some kind of Adeptus lie-detector radar?!’

While Lovia’s brain was practically smoking as it desperately tried to invent a plausible excuse, Shenhe simply blinked and changed the subject. “You seem very afraid of me?”

“No!” Lovia denied it instantly, though she immediately shrank back under the taller woman’s clear, unwavering gaze. “It’s just that… your presence is too strong…”

Shenhe leaned forward slightly. As she moved, Lovia caught the faint, crisp scent of frost and Qingxin flowers clinging to her clothes.

A trace of very faint, genuine confusion flickered in Shenhe’s eyes.

“There is no need to be afraid,” her voice remained perfectly flat, devoid of malice. “I do not harm people without cause.”

Lovia nodded her head so fast it nearly snapped off her neck, desperately signaling her understanding.

Shenhe watched her frantic nodding with a thoughtful expression. “Master told me to enter the mortal world to cultivate, and to learn how to interact with people. If my presence has made you uncomfortable, I apologize.”

This unexpectedly polite, almost humble attitude hit Lovia like a physical blow, leaving her completely at a loss for words. She stole a cautious glance upward and found Shenhe quietly waiting for a response, her eyes as clear and unblemished as the sky over Jueyun Karst.

“This is for you.” Shenhe suddenly raised her hand, producing a flawless, translucent ice crystal from thin air. She held it out toward Lovia. “Consider it a thank-you gift.”

Lovia stared at it. She had absolutely never expected Shenhe to give her anything, let alone a gift. Before her panicked brain could process the situation, her hands moved on their own, blankly accepting the offering.

The crystal felt pleasantly cool against her sweaty palms, its perfectly faceted surface refracting the afternoon sunlight into tiny, brilliant rainbows.

‘Does it look… delicious?’The stray thought crossed Lovia’s mind, but her overwhelming survival instinct violently suppressed it. She had once mistaken raw soapberries for a refreshing local drink when she first arrived in Liyue, and she wasn’t about to repeat that mistake by shoving a magical Adeptus ice rock into her mouth. Besides, her deep, terrifying impression of Shenhe’s physical strength pulled her itching hand back from her lips at the very last second.’Wait, why is she suddenly giving me something? And… why did I actually take it?!’

Lovia looked up, thoroughly dazed. “A thank-you gift? But I… I haven’t done anything to help you?”

“For your fright,” Shenhe stated calmly, as if it were the most logical conclusion in the world. “I frightened you, did I not? Therefore, I give you a thank-you gift.”

Hearing Shenhe’s deadpan explanation, a sudden realization dawned on Lovia. Had Shenhe completely mixed up the concepts of a “thank-you gift” and an “apology gift”? It made a strange sort of sense. An Adeptus disciple who had spent her entire life isolated in the mountains, far away from the mortal world, would naturally be unfamiliar with the basic terminology of worldly social graces.

“Um…” After a long moment of hesitation, Lovia finally mustered up the courage to correct the terrifying woman standing in front of her. “If you’re giving it to me because you feel bad for frightening me, it should be called an ‘apology gift,’not a’thank-you gift.'”

A hint of very faint, genuine confusion flashed across Shenhe’s pale features. “What is the difference?”

[Gift extra chapter progress bar: 55%]