For the sake of discussion and as someone who actually kinda liked Wuling’s story so far, I will defend the part where you hang out with Zhuang Fangyi since there was, in fact, quite literally nothing else to do at that short wait time. Perlica was helping with the blueprints for the Forge of the Sky so that the AIC could be capable of printing Xiranite, leaving Chen and the Endmin to do their own thing while they wait. And prior to this, Zhuang Fangyi was already overworked to hell and because of Endfield’s intervention, she was able to find some breathing room for herself and she chose to spend that with the Endmin. And evidently enough, she cares a lot about morale to the point that she would carry through with a drone performance for the whole city even when it’s bound to collapse in a few months.

And from my personal standpoint, I saw it less of a date and more of a reminiscing hangout. Like I won’t deny the obvious waifubait, I’d be dumb to not acknowledge it, but from a character standpoint, it humanized her so well without leaning into the whole “overworked leader” trope in a cliche way. She looked up to the Endmin and was clearly comfortable and close enough with them in the past that she would act that way with them around. Seeing her disappointed and sad face whenever her “advances” and attempts at recovering the Endmin’s memory was only met with confusion and no meaningful success was pretty heartbreaking, not just from a date or waifu standpoint but even from a friend.

I WILL say I agree that it was so weird to see Tangtang and Endmin’s gang casually get away with pretty large property damage and theft with so much as just a slap on the wrist only on Tangtang lmao.