Xue Yang has watched Xiao Xingchen's face far too long to be easily fooled. He doesn't always understand what he sees there, frequently doesn't, but he figures he understands enough that the rest is superficial.

Maybe he's wrong.

Maybe he understands nothing that truly matters, and this is his punishment. And yet, after a while, Xingchen agrees to go back to that set of rooms where they'd been briefly happy. Justifies it. Not good enough.

But then the smile returns and he finds he can't breathe but it doesn't matter because he's missed it and it's back!

"Tomorrow," he agrees, not able to mask his joy.

But something else occurs to him, and after a moment of checking on dinner, he shifts the topic a little.

"Daozhang...Thank you for protecting Wen Qing."