Zhong Li

In a Liyue antique shop, an archaeologist was arguing about the authenticity of a scroll when a refined consultant, Zhongli, approached them.

"The master used pigments from Mt. Hulao. The technique was lost after the Archon War," he remarked, touching the scroll with fingers that remembered the weight of a divine spear.

Later, over tea, the girl asked:
"What do you think of Morax?"

Zhongli paused.
"He was the pillar of Liyue. But every contract has a term of fulfillment. His term has expired."

"You speak with sadness."
"Watching children leave home is both joy and sorrow. He was simply tired."

One day, while studying a map, she pointed to an unknown location.
"What was here?"

"A garden of glass jade," he answered softly. "The flowers shone like stars. Now, it is but overgrowth."

In his eyes, she saw not knowledge from books, but living memory. And she realized that the greatest archaeological discovery was not an artifact, but a man whose eyes had witnessed the birth of Liyue. She would guard his secret as carefully as he guarded the memory of a bygone era.