I'm in Genshin Impact, and I started by teaming up with Luna.

Wu Qiu is in this situation now. However, this seemingly clueless guy is acting like he's using a cheat code, moving around wildly and showing off his skills.

Wu Qiu struggled for half an hour, but couldn't poke it even once. Not only that, every time Wu Qiu got tired and stopped, the thing would wag its tail or open its mouth at him.

That infuriated Wu Qiu. But there was nothing he could do; after all, his aim was just that bad.

"Fuck you, you immortal! I'm done playing!"

Wu Qiu raised his hand without looking and casually tossed it aside. But immediately afterward, a spurt of blood gushed out, staining a small patch of lake water red.

The stick successfully pierced the fish's body, pinning it to the ground. Wu Qiu was stunned, then after a moment, exclaimed, "Holy crap! Aha, ahahahahahaha! It hit! It hit!!!"

Wu Qiu was overjoyed and reached for it, but someone was faster. Ying arrived at the stick first, pulled it out, and said, "The fifteenth."

As she spoke, she turned back to look at Wu Qiu with a sweet smile, gesturing with the wooden stick in her hand and the fish on it.

"Xiao Qiuzi, how many have you caught?"

She was asking a question she already knew the answer to. Wu Qiu jumped up and down, "Sister Ying! You can't play like this! You're stealing my hard work!"

Ying tilted her head. "Really?"

Then she pointed in another direction with her thumb. Wu Qiu looked in that direction and saw his own stick floating on the lake.

"Holy shit! Holy crap!!!!"

……

At night, illuminated by the campfire, the delicious aroma of fish seemed to materialize, as if enticing Wu Qiu's body and soul.

Ying ate the grilled fish in small bites. Wu Qiu, on the other hand, took a deep breath of the fish aroma and ate a bite of the dry, hard flatbread.

Take a sip of the fish-fragrant sauce, then a bite of the flatbread.

Take a sip of the fish-fragrant sauce, then a bite of the flatbread~

Take a sip of the fish-fragrant sauce and eat...

Wu Qiu's expression was utterly pathetic. Ying glanced at him sideways, but finally couldn't bear Wu Qiu's expression, which looked like he had just lost his father.

He picked up a grilled fish and said, "Here you go. Don't act like I'm mistreating you. I didn't say you couldn't eat it."

For the first time, Wu Qiu turned his head away with great pride and said, "I won't eat! As a man, I must keep my word! I'll accept the consequences of my bet!"

Even so, looking at the sizzling, oily grilled fish, Wu Qiu couldn't help but swallow hard.

Ying found it a bit funny. "Hey, you finally know about male dignity. Keep it up, or you might have a bottom line in the future."

"Are you insulting me?" Wu Qiu resisted the urge to eat the fish. Ying waved her hand. "How could I? I'm just stating the facts."

"You're insulting me," Wu Qiu said, looking at her. Ying shoved the grilled fish into Wu Qiu's mouth. "Hey, stop joking around, eat up."

Wu Qiu's eyes widened, and he was about to back away. Ying stopped him, saying, "Eat quickly, or I'll beat you up."

Wu Qiu struggled frantically, finally managing to utter a single, indistinct word: "Hot! Hot!!!!"

Mealtime always seems to pass by so quickly and painfully. In the end, Wu Qiu abandoned his male pride and began to eat the fish in large mouthfuls.

It can't be said that I abandoned them, after all, it was someone who forced me to, and the burn on my lips is the best proof of that.

Seriously, I have a lot of pride. If Ying hadn't forced me, I absolutely wouldn't have eaten it. It's definitely not because the fish was so delicious, absolutely not.

After eating and drinking his fill, Wu Qiu was still very sleepy, even though he had slept all day. So we agreed that Ying would keep watch for the first half of the night, and I would take over for him in the second half. Then Wu Qiu fell into a deep sleep.

When he woke up, it was already quite late. He roughly estimated the time and realized he hadn't overslept.

Beside her, Ying was sitting on the ground with her eyes closed, resting. Noticing Wu Qiu was awake, she opened her eyes and said, "You're awake."

I nodded. "Sister Ying, you go to sleep. I'll keep watch from now on."

Ying didn't refuse. To be honest, she was really tired. She had walked all day and carried Wu Qiu on her back. It would be a lie to say she wasn't tired.

The night seemed long, but it wasn't too bad. After all, Wu Qiu came from another world, and everything in this world fascinated him.

The night sky is always filled with countless stars, and shooting stars are everywhere. If he could, Wu Qiu felt he could gaze at the starry sky all night long.

Soon, the night passed. When the first ray of sunlight shone on Wu Qiu, he stood up and stretched.

"Hmm—I sat all night, and my back and waist are aching."

Wu Qiu sighed softly. He turned his head; Ying was still asleep, and Wu Qiu made no move to wake her.

After putting Paimon's matter aside, Wu Qiu was no longer in a hurry. A journey shouldn't be rushed; there's plenty of time, so let Ying get some rest.

"Ah! Help! Help me!!"

Suddenly, Wu Qiu seemed to hear cries for help.

"Hey! That voice sounds so familiar," Wu Qiu thought. The voice really did sound familiar, but it wasn't loud enough for Wu Qiu to hear clearly.

"Stop chasing him! Stop chasing Paimon! Paimon knows he was wrong! Someone, please save Paimon!"

Wu Qiu's eyes suddenly lit up. "That voice... Paimon!"

Chapter 18: Rescuing Paimon

Paimon's voice grew closer, and Wu Qiu could hear it clearly. At the same time, Ying was also awakened by Paimon and Wu Qiu's screams.

Sitting up, Ying looked at Wu Qiu and asked, "What's wrong? What's wrong? Are you in danger?"

Wu Qiu shook her head and pulled her up. "Sister Ying, we're here! We're here!"

"What's here?" Ying was confused. Wu Qiu raised his hand, as if to point at something, but suddenly realized he didn't know where to point, so he could only spin around and jump around. "Well, anyway, it's here, our guide."

As soon as Wu Qiu finished speaking, there was a high cliff nearby. It wasn't very high, only about five or six meters high.

Below the cliff was the center of the lake. At that moment, Wu Qiu and Ying could clearly see a figure about one meter tall flying through the air towards the lake.

Behind her, something seemed to be chasing her, but due to the distance and angle, they couldn't see what it was. However, judging from the occasional arrows flying out, Wu Qiu guessed it might be a Hilichurl.

The figure was not flying fast and was clearly in a panic. Several times it was almost hit by arrows, but it narrowly escaped each time.

"Ah!! Help! Someone save Paimon!"

The sound reached their ears clearly. However, she had already run beyond the cliff and arrived above the lake.

Behind her, Wu Qiu finally saw what was chasing her. There were three Hilichurls: two regular Hilichurls and one Archer Hilichurl.

But they stopped at this point. There was a cliff in front of them. Hilichurls may not be very intelligent, but they're not stupid either. They can't fly, and if they jumped off, they would definitely fall into the lake and drown.

"Hmph! You lot, all I did was steal a few apples, why did you chase me for so long?"

Paimon stood with his hands on his hips, looking somewhat annoyed. But he quickly crossed his arms and said, "Hmph~ How about that, can't reach it now?"

However, she seemed to have forgotten that her opponent had a Hilichurl archer. Just as Paimon's smug expression began to rise, an arrow was already aimed at her.

Seeing this, Wu Qiu hurriedly shouted, "Paimon! You idiot! The other side has crossbows!"

Wu Qiu's shout served as a reminder to Paimon. But even if Wu Qiu hadn't shouted, Paimon would have quickly realized that he wasn't safe at all.

"Ah~!!"

Paimon turned to run, but the Hilichurl archer had already pulled the trigger. With a whooshing sound, Paimon had to dodge the attack with a spinning slash in mid-air.

"Phew~ That scared me to death, I thought I was going to die."

Paimon dodged the arrow and patted his chest, letting out a sigh of relief.

"careful!"

Wu Qiu shouted again. But this time it was too late; one of the Hilichurls picked up a rock and threw it at Paimon.

As Paimon turned around, the rock struck her squarely on the head. It wasn't a serious blow, but it stunned Paimon; her body went limp and she fell straight down into the water with a splash.

Wu Qiu covered her face. Immediately afterward, Paimon's cries for help came from the center of the lake: "Hey! Help! Paimon, Paimon can't swim!"

"Oh no! Help!" Ying saw this and was about to jump down. Wu Qiu quickly stopped her, "Hey, hey, Sister Ying, you're injured and shouldn't get wet."

"But..." Ying was about to speak when Wu Qiu patted himself and said, "Leave it to me, Sister Ying, I'll go save her."

Then, pointing to the Hilichurls over there, she said, "Look, they seem to be coming down. I'll trouble you, Sister Ying, to deal with them."

This was the main reason Wu Qiu stopped Ying. Wu Qiu was cunning; if he let Ying go to rescue people, and then the Qiuqiu people came down, he would be fired.

So Wu Qiu sent Ying to deal with the Hilichurls while he went to rescue the people. Hehe, that was absolutely brilliant.

She glanced at Paimon, who was struggling in the water, and then at the Hilichurls that were about to come down. Ying nodded. "Alright, I'll deal with the Hilichurls."

As she spoke, Ying ran towards the path that the Hilichurls would inevitably take down. With a flick of her wrist, Ice Mark appeared in her hand.

That move was incredibly cool! Looking at Ying's back, Wu Qiu wondered when he could do that...

"Help!!!!"

Paimon's cry for help snapped Wu Qiu out of his daze. "Damn it, if we don't save Paimon now, she's doomed."

"Don't be afraid, little Paimon! Your brother is here to save you!"

As Wu Qiu ran, he took off his clothes until he was only wearing a pair of shorts. When he reached the lake, he plunged in without hesitation.

Wu Qiu's idea was to come to Paimon when she was in despair, pull her up from the water, and thus establish a heroic image.

However, after splashing around a couple of times and getting to a deeper part of the lake, I realized something was wrong.

"Hey, didn't I say I can't swim...?"

"Yeah! I can't swim! Hey! Ying, glug glug... Sister Ying, don't go, glug glug... I can't swim, glug glug... Swimming, glug glug..."

She choked on several mouthfuls of water, but Ying clearly couldn't hear anymore. Now, she was nowhere to be seen on the shore.

Wu Qiu could only struggle with all his might. It is said that people can unleash their potential under extreme danger, so as long as his will to survive was strong enough, he might be able to learn to swim before drowning.

But it turned out I was overthinking it. Wu Qiu struggled for a long time, swallowing a lot of water, but still couldn't make a single move to swim.

However, there is good news: despite the struggle, I am making steady progress and am getting closer to Paimon.

But this is also bad news. Why? Because if I learn to swim now, I can swim back with Paimon, which is good news.

But if I don't learn it, we'll both drown here, which is bad news.

The worse news is that after all that struggling, I haven't learned anything except how to drink water, which confirms that I have no chance of learning it.

So we're doomed. Of course, there's another possibility: Paimon might unleash his potential, learn to swim, and then swim out on his own.

As for why she didn't take me with her, how could she possibly carry me with her small frame?

So, in conclusion, the meaning is simple: I'm doomed.

"Help!!!! Glug glug..."