The meal was served. Xiao sat folding the hem of his garment, hesitating for a long time before daring to touch his chopsticks. There was something about him that felt both adorable and heartbreaking. As a member of the Yaksha race, Xiao was born for slaughter; his life was destined to be consumed by karmic debt and an eventual, tragic demise. Being the last of his kind, he had been forced to bear these harrowing memories alone, which had forged his current reclusive and solitary nature.
Had she not happened to descend into this world, Xiao might eventually have succumbed to an outburst of karmic debt, forcing him to end his own life before losing control—or worse, necessitating that Morax personally deliver the final blow to his own protector. Truth be told, it was unfair. They say that good people should be rewarded, and a good man like Xiao, who had guarded Liyue Harbor for thousands of years, deserved a better ending than that.
"There is a poem that goes: 'With five-flower horses and thousand-gold furs, call the boy to trade for fine wine, that we may melt away the sorrow of ten thousand ages,'" Fu Li said, pouring a drink for Xiao. "They say a good drunk can dissolve a thousand worries. You have been exhausted for so long—why not allow yourself the luxury of getting drunk and forgetting it all?"
Chapter 262