The camp has had a fair few duties for me to perform lately, and I cannot say none of them were riveting. You could call this my break.

[then zhongli notes what the man was looking at, what he may be referring to, rather than anything else. sometimes he's slow on the uptake, but he does try his best to keep up with the subtleties of conversation.]

Ah, you mean this? I was studying the earth, to see if any of these were suitable to be put to use. [what will happen to their fires when their supplies run out? zhongli knows how to find coal.

... well, perhaps not here.]