"How about this crate?"
Beidou casually picked out a crate of sunsettias that looked fairly good and opened it to show Bai Luo.
Sunsettias were common in the wild, but some with better appearance and sweeter tastes were often harvested by adventurers hired specifically for the task, who would then sell them.
Compared to Mora, adventurers cared more about experience and their adventure rank, so they were more than willing to take on tasks that seemed to only benefit the employer, like picking sunsettias.
After all, harvesting sunsettias wasn't dangerous, and they could even sneak a few treasure chests from Hilichurls along the way. It was a win-win situation.
"How do they taste?"
Bai Luo glanced at the sunsettias and asked uncertainly.
He knew that one of the crates had been touched by him, and what if... what if something had gone wrong?
Like, what if they were a little sour?
Beidou, unsuspecting, pulled out a sunsettia and took a bite.
The sweet juice immediately filled her mouth, some of it even dripping down the corner of her lips, making it look mouthwateringly delicious.
"You don't even need to add sugar when juicing these—they're super sweet!"
She gave a thumbs-up, clearly satisfied.
After all, these were carefully selected by her. How could the quality be anything less than excellent?
"Thank you, Captain Beidou. How much Mora for this crate?"
Bai Luo felt his wallet and asked.
This time, he had learned his lesson. Before meeting Kazuha, he had gone to the Northland Bank and withdrawn a considerable amount of Mora.
However, when traveling, it was always more comfortable to spend a friend's money.
"It's just a crate of sunsettias, no big deal. Consider it a gift from me."
After finishing the sunsettia in her hand, Beidou had someone seal the crate and handed it to Bai Luo.
As for the Mora Bai Luo offered, she didn't take a single coin.
These things weren't rare. Sometimes, the tip she left at Wanmin Restaurant after a meal could almost buy half a crate.
It wasn't worth charging for something so trivial.
After thanking her, Bai Luo hoisted the crate of sunsettias onto his back and left Beidou's Crux Fleet ship, heading toward Liyue Harbor.
He wasn't worried about Beidou leaving him behind in Liyue. Based on the information he had, both Beidou and Ningguang seemed eager for him to leave Liyue as soon as possible.
Even if something urgent came up and they had to leave immediately, if he didn't return, Beidou would definitely not set sail.
After disembarking, as he walked through the bustling docks, Bai Luo noticed something off about the people following him.
They appeared to be shopping, haggling with vendors, but after walking for a while, they were still empty-handed, having bought nothing.
It seemed... they were probably tasked with tailing him.
Even though Bai Luo had already managed to extricate himself from the whirlpool of Liyue, surveillance was still to be expected.
After all, no one would want a soldier from a free nation wandering around their streets, especially when Bai Luo's presence was akin to a soldier carrying a nuclear weapon.
He could understand this level of tracking.
Understanding was one thing, but he wasn't about to let them follow him.
So, after turning a corner, his figure completely disappeared. The trackers, seeing this, exchanged glances before leaving only a small group to continue searching for Bai Luo, while the rest went back to report.
In the next street over, a young man in a black coat was crouching in front of a local dog, a smile on his face.
The crate of sunsettias had been replaced with a basket, which now held some herbs.
"Good dog."
Bai Luo looked at the dog and tentatively extended his right hand.
"Woof!"
The dog was quite clever. Seeing Bai Luo's hand, it immediately understood what he wanted.
Then it lifted its hind leg, wagged its tail, and sat on his hand.
"???"
What the... whose dog is this? So... proactive.
Without showing any reaction, Bai Luo withdrew his hand and casually rinsed it in someone's water bucket nearby. Then he pulled out a sunsettia from the basket.
"Handsome dog!"
Seeing the sunsettia in Bai Luo's hand, the dog actually showed a human-like smile, wagging its tail even harder, as if it had a mini motor attached.
Clearly, it recognized what this was and had probably been fed these before.
"Woof!"
It opened its mouth and bit into the sunsettia in Bai Luo's hand without hesitation.
For the first three seconds, it ate happily, even smacking its lips.
But after three seconds, its tail, which had been wagging like a motor, suddenly stopped and tucked between its legs.
"Whimper..."
The dog stopped chewing and began frantically pawing at its mouth, as if it had eaten something terrible.
But no matter how much it pawed, drool kept dripping to the ground.
"Whimper... woof!"
After a while, the dog finally realized its efforts were futile. Whimpering, it dashed to the side and plunged into a nearby river.
A few minutes later, the mournful howls of the dog could still be heard downstream.
It sounded as pitiful as that Hilichurl who had been tormented by a Sumeru scholar all night.
Bai Luo: "..."
It can't be that bad, right? Beidou seemed to enjoy it just fine... How could...
Looking at the sunsettia in his hand with a bite taken out of it, Bai Luo turned his gaze to an orange cat nearby that had been licking its paws and watching the scene.
The cat, noticing Bai Luo's gaze, didn't realize what was coming and let out a cute, confused meow.
"Meow?"
A few minutes later, the mournful howls downstream were joined by a few cat cries.
"This doesn't make sense..."
Looking at the two sunsettias with bite marks, Bai Luo began to question his life.
Before Bai Luo touched the crate of sunsettias, we would never know whether they were sweet or sour. They existed in a superposition of both states.
Only when someone tasted them would the superposition collapse, stabilizing into either sweet or sour.
Originally, Bai Luo thought that after Beidou ate the sunsettia, it would be fixed as sweet and wouldn't change.
But it turned out his situation went beyond Schrödinger's cat. Even after the taste was determined, it could still change.
In other words, no matter how sweet the sunsettia was before, once he touched it, it would only have one taste left.
Sour.
Yikes... Bai Luo's sunsettias are terrifying.