Find your tribe in a Sea of Creativity
zhongli has a moss bed for his pet rocks ...
Amazing, also consider: he has a moss bed but like in the fanciest jewelry box you have ever seen (that he absolutely didn't purchase himself) and he puts them to sleep every night too :)
His definition of keeping pet rocks might be synonymous with like, collecting gems. So everybody mistakes them for jewelry but you open it up and there lies a pebble tucked gently in its moss bed. Zhongli claims it has magical properties that defines it as living and that's why he keeps it. People thought he was insane but since he is the rock expert or whatever they eventually believed him and some plotted to steal it. Obviously that didn't work out and you know what happens when one crosses the (ex-) Geo Archon.