𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝 ➤ 𝐱𝐢𝐚𝐨

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟒.

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𝐈 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐎𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐏𝐋𝐄𝐓𝐄𝐋𝐘 𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐋𝐋, putting all my effort into keeping my mouth shut. what the actual hell. my fiancé's assistant is the dude from the library? I was extremely surprised to say the least. xiao was also staring at me, he had a reasonably stoic expression on his face, but i could tell he was shocked aswell.

i directed my gaze to the taller man as he reached his hand out to me. "you must be y/n. please call me zhongli. i guess i'm your fiancé." i brought my shaky hand up to meet his and gently shook his hand. i shot my gaze down at the floor, avoiding eye contact. this, zhongli person, seemed to notice my reluctance and quickly retracted his hand from my own.

the awkward silence returned as the four of us stood still, no one saying anything. i felt my fathers stern gaze from the side of me, almost as if he was trying to burn through my body with his eyes. i fiddled with my hands, trying to control the overwhelming wave of anxiousness that was taking over me. this night has to go well. i dont want to imagine how mad my father will get if anything goes wrong.

i closed my eyes and took a fee deep breaths before shaking away the feeling of anxiety that had welled up inside of me. i cleared my throat, attracting the attention of the three people around me. "should we all sit down to eat?" i questioned, my voice shaking slightly. 

after everyone agreed, one of our butlers began leading zhongli and xiao to the dining room. i was about to follow them but my father aggressively dragged me back, causing me flinch massively. still clutching onto my clothing, he sharply whispered into my ear. "no funny business okay? as i said before this night is extremely important." he released his grip on me, causing me to stumble slightly. he hurriedly rushed away to the dining room, glaring back at me to do the same. i reluctantly dragged my way through the main hall to the join my father.

as we entered the dining room i looked around to see my father already sitting at the head of the table, my mother on the side next to him. opposite my mother sat zhongli, leaving an empty seat opposite xiao. i gingerly edged my way to my chair, silently taking a seat. i looked back up at xiao to see him already staring back at me.

he had a strange expression on his face as his eyes travelled all over my face. i started feeling extremely embarrassed so i stared down at my lap, trying to ignore what everyone was doing. after a few minutes, our food arrived at everyone, other than me, dug in to their meals. the entire dinner consisted of my father and zhongli chatting about random things, me and xiao exchanging looks and my mother silently observing everything around her.

"now." my fathers loud voice boomed, "since everyone is done eating, how about we talk about these wedding plans." he said, more as a demand than a request. i shifted uncomfortably in my seat, the word 'wedding' circling through my mind, giving me a headache. i didn't want to get married just yet, there were so many other things i wanted to do with my life.

i had never told anyone about my dreams, not even my mother or noelle, i was too scared i would be punished for not doing what my father wanted me to do when i grew up. in all honesty, i wants to travel the world. i wanted to visit all the places i had read about in my books.
sure, i love the city i currently live in: Liyue. but i want to visit other places, like Mondstadt. 

Verr once told me it was the city of freedom. sounds ideal regarding the situation i'm in. i love the idea of freedom, not being forced to marry someone i don't love, not having to put up the facade of being the perfect daughter of the l/n family.

"-n. y/n!!"i snapped out of my thoughts to see my mother staring at me with a concerned look. she grabbed my hand and squeezed it under the table. "are you alright, dear? you've been zoning out for a few minutes now."

"i'm fine!" i quickly responded. it didn't sound at all convincing but my mother let it go anyway. i stood up trying to attract as least attention to myself as possible. "i'm going to get some fresh air." i quietly whispered to my mother. she nodded.

i quickly rushed out of the dining room into the main hall. i stood still for a second to gather my thoughts, trying to think of where to go. i can't just sneak out again, father would definitely notice. i let my gaze shift around the hall until it landed on a small staircase that had been closed off. i slowly approached it. i had always noticed it there but never had the curiosity to investigate it. until now, that is.

taking one last look to make sure no one was around, i slid under the barrier and slowly sauntered up the stairs, being as quiet as possible.

-

wow. that's all i could say when i pushed open the door at the end of the stairs. it had opened up to an old observatory i had never knew existed. to my right, there was a large wooden bookshelf with rows upon rows of books, almost like a mini library. nothing could compare to the wangshu library though.  scattered around the room, there were a few dead plants sitting on a table, on the floor, and hanging from the ceiling. after taking everything in, my mind drifted to how it would have looked like when it was in use.

"i wonder if i could bring this place back to life.." i whispered to myself. at least, i thought it was to myself.

"you'll need experience with plants if you want to fix this place." a deep voice said from behind me.