"Please don't apologize," Jin Guangyao says and reaches partway across the table to rest his hand on the wood between them. (A bit like trying to stop a bow mid-way.) Whatever unpleasant reaction he had been bracing himself for, it is clear that Shen Yuan has not provided it. "It is this one who should apologize to Shen-gonzi for presenting him with such a test when he has been so kind, and we have only just met."

There follows a brief pause while he considers his words, tracing a fingertip around the rim of his teacup. "There is no one in the cultivation world who does not know of this one's lowly birth, and who does not have some opinion on it. In this place, this one knows that he could have kept it a secret from Shen-gongzi indefinitely. But," a vague little gesture with one hand, a subtle shift in pronouns, and he looks up to meet Shen Yuan's gaze with a shrewd glint in his eyes. "I confess that I wanted to see how you would react."

It softens almost immediately afterwards when he says, "And now I have," takes another sip from his tea, and then raises his eyebrows appreciatively. "Mm. This blend is very good." tl;dr he has decided that he likes you.