After hearing Tang Wang out, Eula fell silent for a moment.
After a while, she slowly lowered her fist and slumped over the table like a deflated ball.
"Tang Wang, are you really a heartless monster?" Her voice was a little slurred from drinking. "Are those lovely, beautiful young women nothing more than tools whose value you've weighed?"
"No, there are two kinds." He denied it. "Miss Eula, my views are arrogant, even a little extreme."
"As I see it, some people are bricks, and some are jade. For the former, I require them to show me enough value. If a brick can't be used to build a wall, it's worthless."
"But for the latter, I only ask that I do my best. Jade is meant to be cherished and cared for."
"Linaya, Ronava, Danika, Albedo... they're jade, sparkling jade. So when it comes to them, I don't really care whether they have value or not."
"I see." She straightened up from the table. "Then I'm a defective brick?"
"That's a bit much." Tang Wang shook his head slightly. "You have a personality as brilliant and beautiful as jade, but unfortunately, that brilliance isn't something I can appreciate."
"So even if you're jade, I can only treat you like a brick."
Hearing him say all that, Eula suddenly became interested instead:
"In that case, if a piece of jade could be far more useful than all the bricks put together... would it be jade or a brick to you?"
Unfortunately, before she could get an answer, the figure Tang Wang had once saved staggered into view.
When she turned to continue the conversation, Tang Wang had already walked over to the man named Dulaj.
"Yo, long time no see..." After Dulaj bought his drink and was about to sit down, Tang Wang looked straight up and met his eyes.
"Is it really you?" Dulaj, who had looked listless, seemed to be startled awake by his appearance.
"In the flesh!" Tang Wang flashed a somewhat exaggerated smile. "Um, let me think... oh, ice to meet you!"
"What does that even mean?" Dulaj took several more steps back.
"Nothing. I just wanted to fool around." Tang Wang coughed. "I have something to ask you, Dulaj."
"How do you know my name?"
"That's not important." He shook his head. "I have a very important question for you."
"It's about that batch of smuggled weapons, right?" He leaned back and sat down on a tavern chair. "Ha, I've got nothing to hide from you."
"The weapons came from the Lawrence Clan, from the head who took over a few years ago."
"Honestly, he's the Lawrence I've seen who loves Mondstadt the most. He put a lot of effort into negotiating with the Fatui."
"That's right." Eula walked over from her table across the room. "His name is Kangjie Lawrence. When he first took over, I really thought everything would get better..."
"But now the Knights of Favonius have started their investigation..." After saying that, Dulaj immediately took a hefty swig of his drink. "So the Lawrence Clan's mess has been brought out into the open again."
"A lot of people got caught up in it, myself included. I haven't known what to do lately, so all I can do is drink myself into a stupor every day."
"By the way, miss." Dulaj turned to Eula beside him. "Judging by your clothes, you're with the Knights of Favonius, right?"
"I've been agonizing over this for a while now... but I think if I keep dragging my feet, Mondstadt might be done for."
"So once I finish this drink, please take me into custody and bring me to the Knights of Favonius."
"In that case," Tang Wang said, weighing his words after hearing him out, "why did you do it in the first place?"
"I mean, if you knew you were bound to face retribution for what you did, why commit those evil acts?"
"No particular reason." He shook his head. "I have a child studying in Snezhnaya."
"To support him, I could work an honest job until I dropped dead and still might not earn enough to cover it. So I turned to evil."
"But I've finally thought it through. If Mondstadt ceases to exist, what's the point of everything I've done?"
"Isn't it a little late to realize that?" The drunkenness vanished from Eula's voice in an instant, replaced by a frustrated seriousness and gravity.
"Sorry, miss knight, but we're just ordinary people. We don't have Visions or strong desires of our own." Dulaj gave a self-deprecating smile.
"Most ordinary people hesitate, because we really don't know whether tomorrow or disaster will come first. When all's said and done, isn't it rare for a person to live without any regrets?"
"You have a point."
After Dulaj finished his drink, he slowly got to his feet, while Eula went to settle the bill at the counter.
"Is the clue to Epitome Invocation in the hands of the Lawrence Clan head?" Tang Wang began brainstorming as he followed the two of them. "That makes sense. Who besides a local Mondstadt noble could put together a supply chain like that?"
"The only question is, since even Linaya managed to get one, where exactly are they selling the weapons?"
"Forget it. I can just ask Lili later."
Only then did Tang Wang realize that he seemed to have some "intellectual limitations" of his own-he could have asked Linaya for more information right from the start, so did he really need the Anemo Archon to guide him?
"Gods have their limitations, and humans have theirs. Isn't that just another case of every family having its troubles?"
And so, using Shrinking the Ground to an Inch, they brought Dulaj into the Knights of Favonius' custody as quickly as possible.
"By the way..." After leaving the Knights of Favonius, Eula suddenly glanced at Tang Wang. "Tang Wang, are you free right now?"
"If you are, I'd like to commission you to come with me and confront Kangjie Lawrence face-to-face!"
"Right now, I..." His head turned unconsciously, and his gaze swept over the street before him. "I'm free. Very free."
"Looks like Lili is much better with children than I imagined... so I'd better not disturb them for now."
In his line of sight, Ronava was carefully taking a small bite of the mushroom and chicken skewer in her hand. Beside her, Linaya smiled and wiped the grease from the corner of her mouth.