[What Jin Guangyao describes is, well, the Nie Mingjue Lan Xichen was more familiar with. A brash and brusque man, certainly, but not one beyond reason.

But he also knows that by the the point and time this memory occurs, their eldest sworn brother was... no longer the man Xichen had grown to love and respect. He was in his dying months, Baxia tearing at his mind long before Jin Guangyao's fingers so much as touched the first notes of turmoil.

It's still a shock how doggedly he pursues Jin Guangyao, but one Xichen is coming to terms with. One he will never forgive himself for not seeing sooner.

It's a pleasant, idyllic picture, a sharp contrast to what had actually transpired that day, and instead seems to be what Nie Huaisang and Jin Guangyao would have liked to have happen.

It's such a marvel at how little they all really asked out of life, and yet. And yet. Things still ended the way they did.

He watches the oriole perch on A-Yao's hand. His own Little Jewel is perched in her tree and Xichen tries to wave her over. But she is as obedient as ever, and instead flits away in a streak of blue and white to perch on the roof.]

...Indeed. Huaisang asked me once if da-ge ever really saw him.

[He exhales, fingers folding in his lap.]

I didn't know how to answer, because I don't think any of us ever truly did.