Jin Guangyao can't hesitate any longer either. He's the one who called Lan Xichen here. For all the moments of discomfort, too, there was still something of their brotherhood there that he missed. If he feared showing his own feelings, at least half as much as that he wanted to know Lan Xichen's, to follow the trail of this unsolvable uncertainty. If he just tamped it down and focussed on his brother, perhaps he could manage himself enough.

Stepping into the circle calmly but decisively, Jin Guangyao holds out his hand... and arm, even if he has to stop and pull back the end of the sleeve that fell over the stump there, slightly marring the ceremonial feeling of the moment.

"I doubt that, even unprepared, you would say anything poorly. Come, and tell me what's on your mind," he says gently, waiting.