[ It slowly reaches him, drip by drip. "We talked about you every night", it makes him wonder what about. Why they would need him. Not to keep them together, not when they drew strength from one another in that other world where he was not present. His heart is so heavy, he can hardly feel genuinely optimistic about anything ...

"... There are people here who are younger than your nephew and afraid, unsure, and in danger." ]

Of course I will help.

[ If he was a beacon once he can be a torch now, lessened but capable of a job. He would have helped people anyway, but to see Jin Guangyao so insistent about it has Xichen softly smiling, brushing back his not-zhiji's hair to tuck it behind an ear. Jin Guangyao has such capacity for good, it always brightly shone like sunshine through his skin whenever he got like this about issues Xichen used to care about. He glowed on Xichen's behalf.

I wish you had loved a thousand people like that, not me. Maybe then you would have had someone to rely on in your deepest despair.

He decides that wallowing is dangerous in front of people, pulling himself somewhat back together as he pets that long, soft hair around a sad face. ]

I hear you. Calm down, a-Yao. I'm alright. Please don't cry, hm? You'll ruin your fashionable new clothes.