Hu Tao -: ✧ :-
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The 77th Director of the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor, a young lady managing the parlor's operations. Despite her position, she's an amiable person who puts on no airs.
Her antics are as plentiful as the sand on Yaoguang Shoal. She never ceases to shock people with her countless bizarre ideas.
Hu Tao may seem like all play and no work, spending every free moment on leisure and being widely considered a laissez-faire business owner.
It is only during funeral ceremonies, when she personally leads her undertakers through lamp-lit alleys, that she shows her dignified and solemn side.
Funeral ceremonies allow mortals to leave this world with dignity.
And Liyue's Wangsheng Funeral Parlor is said to be painting the last strokes on the scrolls of people's lives in the most respectful way.
Traditional funerals include multiple steps such as holding a wake, burial, putting up a memorial plaque... All of which are subject to strict rules.
Regardless of their social standing and level of wealth, all who depart deserve a ceremony that would do them honor. This is the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor's client service philosophy.
One would think that such a reputable organization ought to be led only by an individual of utmost learning and sagacity.
Yet the heavy mantle of the 77th Director has fallen on the shoulders of a young lady like Hu Tao.
She has got quite a reputation in Liyue. Whenever someone mentions Hu Tao, their neighbors find it extremely hard to navigate the conversation.
Although she is widely praised for her wit and shrewdness, her eccentric notions are not as welcome, as she often lets her imagination run wild.
As a three-year-old, she would read through volumes of classic texts while doing handstands. At six, she would cut classes and fall asleep in coffins. When she was eight, she started living in the parlor and learning the etiquette of funeral ceremonies...
One would never use the word "measured" to describe her behavior.
During her teenage years, Hu Tao was tasked with conducting a funeral ceremony for the first time.
The parlor's undertakers and consultants were anticipating her debut with their stomachs in knots as if they were suspended over the peaks of Jueyun Karst.
Fortunately, Hu Tao treats the parlor's operations with the utmost importance and is always looking to grow her business.
"At the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor, the living give us Mora to see the dead on their way. We have a responsibility to both parties, so we gotta make sure both sides are happy."
When it comes to the parlor's rules, Hu Tao knows them all like the back of her hand.
Each day when the parlor closes its doors, Hu Tao invites consultants from different walks of life to pass their teachings on to the undertakers.
"The funeral tradition is like science. It cannot be performed based on impressions and personal habits."
Of all the lecturers, Zhongli is the most revered one. As such, his lessons have proven to be the most effective in cultivating the competence of Wangsheng Funeral Parlor's undertakers.
Despite often being teased by Hu Tao due to his old-fashioned style, he is also the person that she trusts the most.
Apart from that, Hu Tao always instructs her undertakers to respect their clients' wishes and not insist on any particular form of funeral.
"Some clients want nothing more than a peaceful ceremony, some opt for a more lively style of event. There are also wealthier clients who would request a funeral arrangement of the most pompous kind. The services we provide have to be tailor-made according to the clients' needs."
Ever since Hu Tao took over, the parlor's operations have been solid and reliable, with ceremonies conducted so tactfully that quite a few superstitious people in Liyue have changed their attitudes towards funerals.
Even so, Hu Tao still has a tendency to wander off, disappearing as soon as her undertakers are busy listening to lectures.
The hobbies and interests of this young director are just as eccentric as her personality, and yet it is difficult to say with certainty if those activities are of a purely leisurely nature.
Hu Tao's shadow can be seen in the moonlit docks or at the highest, most precarious viewpoints in the mountains, where she's likely to take in the scenery and shape her thoughts into beautiful poetry.
She loves to roam freely at night, looking for inspiration. When it strikes her, no matter where she is, she cannot help but compose a poem on the spot.
If they are particularly lucky, the traveling merchants taking respite around the Huaguang Stone Forest can spot a mysterious girl keeping herself amused in solitude.
Hu Tao can play a four-player card game accompanied by no one for hours on end.
That said, the joys of engaging in such activities remain a mystery to all but Hu Tao herself.