Flattery? "No!" It bursts out with clear surprise. "I wouldn't have dreamed of any of the things you did without you!" He doesn't see himself as better than Wei Wuxian - he knows he isn't. But now, now he's actually trying to just be the best version of himself that he can be. For his husband. For Xiao Xingchen.

He takes a sip of tea, rolling his eyes again though there's amusement in the gesture. "Daozhang Zichen isn't a Fierce Corpse yet, he still has his tongue. And Daozhang Xingchen is still alive, too, and he's come and gone once already. Why is it so much a stretch to accept I'm from before I lose an arm and my life? Time doesn't matter here."

Maybe it should bother him to know that he loses an arm before even dying. But it doesn't. He accepts he should die. He'd rather it be at Zichen's hand than Lan Wangji, but that's just how he thinks these days.

No. That wouldn't be kind or fair to his husband. It's better, he decides then, that Lan Wangji be the one to do it.