Of Wind and Dreams

Those who work for the Devil

The moon would go missing this time of the month and leave the city in complete darkness. These new moon nights were Xiao's least favorite as sometimes he would feel his mood swings take over him completely.

Xiao opened the door to his apartment and found an envelope lying on the doormat. His room was small with scanty furniture, but he liked this abode much more than his embellished family home, which was far away from the main city.

Looking at the elegant cover, and blue flowers on the seal, he instantly understood that it was a handwritten letter from his sister, Ganyu.

He dropped his bag and letter on the bed, and went ahead to boil water for the instant noodles. He took off his waistcoat which had started to smell of alcohol and carefully placed it on the hanger. The problem with working at Angel's Share, was that he had to tolerate the smell of alcohol and he strongly detested Absinthe and Whisky.

Xiao finished his cup of noodles and flopped onto his bed, too tired to do anything productive. He looked at Ganyu's letter for a while, contemplating whether he should open it and finally decided to procrastinate some more.

"What did she say her name was? Some weird kind of cup..." He thought to himself placing the letter under his pillow.

He typed 'Venti' on his Instagram search bar and skimmed through a few results but found nothing.

"Oh but its not her real name..." He switched off the screen and rest his arm on his head.

"How does she know Professor Zhongli? Is she his relative or something?" He mumbled as he snuggled his pillow.

If only he had the courage to walk up to his professor and ask him anything at all.

-

https://youtu.be/FT2YxnW-bCk

The next day, he went to class with sunken spirits and purple dark circles. Luckily his second class was shifted to the library, or else his professor would chide him for resuming his 'bad habits'. He scoffed and walked into the room, only to find a curious person fumbling around with Chongyun's backpack.

"What are you doing?" He asked coldly.

Venti gasped and looked back in surprise.

"Oh its you!" She smiled. Her braids were tied with blue ribbons.

"That's Chongyun's bag... What are you doing with it? Are you stealing something?" He asked suspiciously.

"Stealing? No no! I'd never steal!" she dropped the bag hesitantly.

"Then why do you look so guilty?" Xiao asked with his arms crossed.

"Xiao what are you doing here?" Xingqui entered the room hissing softly.

"She was stealing something from..." He was cutoff by Xingqui's interruption.

"Venti isn't stealing anything." He clarified.

"Wait you both know each other?" Xiao looked confused.

"I was helping Xingqui with something." Venti smiled as she hopped beside him.

Xingqui sighed and massaged his head, he didn't want to involve Xiao in this.

"Look... I've spiced up a few muffins... And Venti was just helping me to..." He reasoned.

"You're pulling a prank on him? Again?" Xiao growled.

"See! See! This is why we don't include you." Xing expressed his irritation visibly.