#zhongli: well thats not true 1500 years ago...wait nevermind tehe i wont tell you

[cometrose]

Say, what do you think Zhongli struggled with the most after he started full-time cosplaying a mortal?

it’s kind of weird cause i feel like he struggled with everything and nothing at all

Obviously the first is not having unlimited money at his disposal to buy whatever he wanted. Zhongli lives a very elegant lifestyle. He wears outfits created by the adepti, he only takes the finest birds on walks he eats at the finest restaurants and he buys whatever he lays eyes on.

Then there is the fact that “Zhongli” is a permanent human and not a body Morax uses whenever he wants before transforming into another one. It would be funny if he woke up one morning wanting to shapeshift and having to stop himself mid transformation because humans don't normally grow floor length hair or swap genders overnight.

I always imagined Zhongli struggled keeping his Morax knowledge separate from his Zhongli knowledge. Morax knows the day everyone was born in Liyue, Zhongli does not. Morax knows the day each building was built, the day they built a pond in the harbor, he knows every business owner that has ever worked on his land but Zhongli should not.

But the thing about Zhongli I feel like he just learned to work around these problems without changing too much of himself lol. Like he cant buy everything he wants? Just get a wallet or get someone else to buy his things.

Too much knowledge? Great all of Liyue knows him as the all knowledgeable consultant who knows everything but nobody knows where he came from.

he’s too adored by the population for anyone to bother him about it.

Hu Tao mentions that Zhongli knows so much but has no worries so I think he just doesnt care? I think Zhongli just gets to stay the same cause everyone accepts his weirdness.

But seriously I think he struggles with contracts. He doesn't have the same authority to enforce contracts as before but he is still the god of contracts. So I think he has some dissonance in that regard, like he sees someone break a contract and if he were still Rex Lapis he would punish them but Zhongli has no such control. Considering how he worked around those fake archeologists in his first story quest, I think he if still wants to "punish" someone he has to approach the situation very differently.

Its funny to imagine Zhongli sees someone break and contract and chills run down his spine he feels faint but he can't do anything about. But then again Liyuens is pretty particular about contracts, so even if he cannot enforce them there are countless others (the qixing, the millelith, hell even yanfei) who will maintain order in his stead. i think it will work out