"Saying goodbye to the dead...?" Ronava murmured, a little lost.
She had once been the Ruler of Death. To her, death was only work. She merely had to ensure that death occurred as it should when Heimarmene required it to descend.
So she could not imagine humans saying goodbye to the dead.
"Ah, it's all right, Consultant Ronava." Seeing how bewildered she seemed, Hu Tao spoke up to reassure her once more. "You still have a long, long time."
"Now that we've taken care of our business..." After they had gone some distance, a bright smile appeared on her face again. "It's time to do some advertising!"
"Advertising...?" Ronava repeated the word in confusion.
"Ah, it's a way of promoting your business to other people so they'll come to you as customers!" Her tone was as lively as ever.
But even Ronava, who did not understand the weight of life, instinctively felt that something was wrong with what she said.
"If I remember correctly," she ventured timidly, "most humans are supposed to be afraid of death, right...?"
"Come on, come on!" Completely ignoring Ronava's question, Hu Tao handed her a great stack of flyers.
She looked down and saw that they advertised things like buy one, get one free, golden prices, excellent locations, and the best feng shui...
"...Never mind. Maybe the humans of Liyue don't shy away from this sort of thing." Seeing that Hu Tao had already gone a long way ahead, she hurried after her.
To be honest, she had usually flown before. She still wasn't quite used to walking on the ground with her own two legs like this.
The biggest problem was that she would occasionally think of doing a spin in the air, but human legs wouldn't let her make such a graceful movement.
"Hello!" Hu Tao greeted the person who answered the first door with a radiant smile. "Potential customer, I wonder if you're interested in the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor-"
The moment those words left her mouth, the door was slammed shut.
"Director Hu?" Ronava hurried up to her. "These humans seem a little impolite."
"It's fine, it's fine." Having been rebuffed, she waved it off without concern. "Aren't there plenty more houses?"
"Hello! The Wangsheng Funeral Parlor is offering a buy-one-get-one-free service..."
"No worries in life, no cares after death. The Wangsheng Funeral Parlor! Your one and only choi-"
"Are you sure you won't consider buying one? Make all your preparations in advance, and you can rest assured..."
After having doors slammed in their faces who knew how many times in a row, they finally came to a household that didn't slam the door shut.
The man of the house looked to be in his thirties or forties. Time had etched its marks at the corners of his eyes, while the wear and creases on his fingertips spoke of his daily toil.
After taking a brief look at him, Hu Tao, who had been about to speak, froze in place. Ronava, however, had no idea what was going on and still stepped forward to recite the advertising lines.
"Wait, wait..." Hu Tao reached out to stop her, but it was already too late.
"Preparations? What preparations?" His expression was calm, but his voice was trembling.
"Uh, these...?" Ronava instinctively held out a flyer, and this time Hu Tao finally had a chance to stop her.
Even so, the man had already seen the words on the flyer...
Just as Ronava thought they were finally going to make at least one sale that day, he opened his mouth:
"You two... please leave!" He seemed to be doing his utmost to contain his anger, but a hint of its intensity still showed in his tone.
Then the door closed with a muffled thud.
"Director... shouldn't we leave?" With things as they were, Ronava gently tugged at Hu Tao's sleeve.
"No." Hu Tao shook her head slightly. "Before long, this man will very likely need our help."
"But he doesn't seem to welcome us at all..."
Just as Ronava was about to continue trying to dissuade her, the door in front of them flew open again. The man reappeared, gripping a pickaxe that looked heavy and sharp.
Without a word, he hurled the pickaxe between the two of them.
On instinct, Ronava controlled the Pyro Elemental Power within her and commanded it to form a gigantic hand.
Under her control, the hand precisely intercepted the flying pickaxe, keeping it well away from either of them.
"Ah..." By the time she came back to her senses, the pickaxe had been lifted by the Pyro Elemental Power and placed in her hands.
As if realizing how extreme his actions had been, the middle-aged man's fierce expression vanished in an instant. Looking at the pickaxe cradled in Ronava's hands, he couldn't help but force a bitter smile.
"Sorry, sorry. This was my fault." Before he had finished speaking, tears were already streaming from his eyes.
The door was shut tight, and this time there was no sign of it opening again.
"There should be a critically ill patient in his family," Hu Tao spoke up again while Ronava was still staring at the pickaxe in a daze. "And that gentleman was probably a miner in the Chasm once, wasn't he?"
"The complete closure of the Chasm deprived him of his income all at once. Once his savings ran out..." Hu Tao's voice trailed off abruptly.
"Oh, I see." Ronava nodded. "Director, your judgment was right. We really will have new business very soon."
"Business?" Hu Tao seemed shocked by her words. "Uh, how should I put this? I believe life and death are both predestined, but dying so prematurely obviously shouldn't happen."
"Then what should we do?" she asked again. "If you're right, Director, he shouldn't have the money to get that critically ill patient treated now. Are we going to give him money?"
"No, no, no, you've completely misunderstood me." Hu Tao shook her head with a touch of mystery. "For something like this, we have a much better solution!"
"First, we have to find out exactly what illness the person in his family has, and whether it's treatable or incurable."
"Only then can we decide what to do next."
"Oh." She nodded obediently.
"If it's treatable, I don't mind lending him the money and having him sign an IOU."
"If it's incurable..." She paused. "Then we'll help him overcome that hurdle in his heart so he can accept the truth."
"Death is the end that awaits every life, so there's no need to avoid or fear it. Just treat it as a normal part of life. But if we can, we should still do our best to prevent it."
"Then did Tang Wang buy any services from you?" Ronava seemed to have suddenly remembered something.
"Ah, yes, he did. He reserved a VIP luxury burial plot with excellent feng shui." At the memory, Hu Tao's expression brightened considerably. "Honestly, I really haven't met many people as open-minded as him!"
"All right, now..." She pointed at the "potential customer's" door. "Let's use this pickaxe as an opportunity to find out what's going on first."