One day, Bennett and Hu Tao were talking for the remainder of the afternoon. "You know, Hu Tao, I always wondered, how did you, Klee, and Xiangling meet, and how did you guys became friends?" Bennett asked. "Well my friend, it's a rather long story, and has many twists and turns, so are you ready?" Hu Tao asked confidently. "I think so, yeah" responded Bennett. "It was a while back, two or three years, I was with my gang back in 'nam, we've been cool for a while until one day we got in an altercation, at first it was verbal but it quickly turned physical, and I was boastful back then, so said I wasn't scared, and they start shooting, I went running, and I said, "God damn, they for real", and then I kept running until I left Vietnam and I was camping out in Liyue, but next morning I woke with a gun pointed at my head, so I booked it and went to Mondstadt and came into a restaurant, and this is where Xiangling comes in". Then she drunk a bottle of water to cool off. "Sorry, this story always gets me riled up, and in a good way too" she quickly said before going back to tell the story. "Where was I, oh yes, Xiangling, I came into her restaurant and I said, "I need somewhere to stay, they're these people who tried to shoot me, and I'm trying to avoid them, so can I camp here for a few days?" "I don't know you, how can I trust you, where are you even from?" "Born and raised in Vietnam, but I left because of them, so I headed down to Liyue when next morning they pointed the gun at me and so now I'm here" "Listen, this week's been very busy, but I'll guess we'll make a compromise" "Oh yeah, sure no problem, so what are you suggesting?" "You stay in the back room and don't come out until after hours, I'll bring you the leftovers from the day, and we'll doing this until you're safe, so we got a deal?" "Yes and thank you so much, uh?" "The name's Xiangling, yours?" "Hu Tao, it's nice to finally meet you, but all this running got me hungry, so can you whip me a good meal?" "Oh sure, and trust me, my food's the best in this town, it has several Asian roots which I'll think you will like" "Well hurry up so I can try" "I tried her food for the first time and I said, "Oh my god, this is the greatest meal I ever tasted, what did you put in this, my girl?" "Oh that's just I cook, I don't think it's all that, but that's just my opinion" "So me and Xiangling became friends overtime, I help with her with figuring out what to put on the menu, and return I get shelter, water, food, it was like this until one day someone knocked at the door, it was my old gang, they finally found me, Xiangling told me to go to the back room, and she grabbed her spear that she had since she was a little girl, and one by one, knocked all of them out" "If you even think about trying to hurt me or my homegirl Hu Tao, I will serve you a dish for free, and it's called an ass whooping, do I make myself clear?!" "And so they left without leaving a single trace, so me and Xiangling agreed to stay here for a while, until one day, she told me that she wanted to become a true Pyro, so she asked me if I wanted to come join this squad, and the rest is history" "My god, Hu Tao, that's one hell of an origin story, so are you still living with Xiangling or are you staying in your place?" asked Bennett. "Nine times out of ten I just stay at the hideout, sometimes I go to her restaurant and say hi, but yeah basically I was a runaway who ended up here and made a new friend" Hu Tao said. "Well that's really cool, but what about Klee?" Hu Tao pretended not to hear Bennett, and just took a long rest.