Persistence (Genshin Impact- Ningguang x fem reader)

Chapter 22- Lantern Rite

You woke up at 12 in the night to go and check on Ningguang. She was still working relentlessly, not showing any signs of stopping.

"This is what Granny meant, huh?" you sighed.

You went to the kitchen to make some tea for her, after 15 minutes you entered her office with the tea tray in hand. She looked at you and smiled then put her pen down.

"Thank you very much, my dear."

"Don't mention it." you smiled and sat on one of the chairs.

She sipped on the tea and closed her eyes, enjoying the tea.

"I'm always pleased by your tea no matter how many times I have it~"

"How are the preparations going for the Lantern Rite? I looked around the city today and it all seemed to be going well."

"Well, on the surface it looks all good but behind the scenes, there are still many things to do. This year's Lantern Rite will be special for two reasons, one being honouring Rex Lapis...." she sipped on some more.

"...And the other?" you questioned.

"You'll see on that day." she chuckled.

"What?? Don't keep me hanging like this, now I'm curious!" you pouted.

"Mhm be patient, my dear~" she said with a smirk.

"Fine..." you looked away.

She finished the tea after 10 minutes, you kept the tray away and then came back and stood beside her.

"What is it, my dear? I'm afraid I sti-"

You picked her up in your arms before she could finish, she got flustered when you did that.

"No more work for today, you need to rest now." you said firmly.

"B-But I.."

"Nope! We are going to sleep. You can wake up early tomorrow if you want but you need to get six hours of sleep at least."

You proceeded to walk towards the room, she wrapped her arms around your neck and hugged you. You reached the room and gently laid her down, you stroked her face and kissed her then laid down beside her. She held you close then closed her eyes and slept. The next morning, you woke up at 8 am and saw that she had already woken up and started working. You dressed up and went to do your commissions for the day.

The number of commissions gradually kept increasing as the Lantern Rite came closer, you traveled all across Liyue, meeting many different kinds of people and hearing their Lantern Rite stories. You discovered the importance of Lantern Rite in each and every person of Liyue, everyone had their own wishes and dreams attached to it. This made you ponder on your own wishes as well, two months back your wish would have been to reunite with your brother but now it had changed, now all you wanted was Ningguang to be happy and for you to stay by her side forever.

The rest of the month passed in a similar manner, you kept doing commissions and helping Ningguang with her work as much as possible, though for some reason she wasn't allowing you to help much. You were suspicious about her behaviour but didn't want to pester her during this time as she was already very stressed out. And then finally, the day of the Lantern Rite arrived. 

Though we say day, it is actually a week-long festival with the main ceremony taking place on the last day. You asked people around about what the main ceremony entails but nobody was telling you the exact details. In fact, their reaction to you asking something was quite.....odd. It felt as if they were trying to hide things from you, even the Adventurer's Guild stopped giving you commissions saying that all have been taken care of when in reality many remained.