Jin Guangyao does not intend to overhear this exchange, but having done so, un-hearing it isn't an option.
With the congee and tea prepared and parcelled off to Lan Xichen for delivery to Shen Yuan, he had slipped out of the parlour and into the small side building set aside to house Meng Shi and Jin Rusong's shrines, where he kneels in prayer and lights incense each morning. And there he had been, attending to his filial obligations, until the rest of his morning chores called him back to the main house, because eager as Lan Xichen may be to aid with the housekeeping, there is just a certain way that one must sort the laundry before adding it to the washing machine, and Jin Guangyao has discovered that this is something he must see to himself, at least for now.
And so he has just stepped back into the parlour and is reaching behind him to close the sliding doors to keep out the chill when he hears Shen Yuan's words, and Lan Xichen's response, and he goes still, considering them. And when he smiles to himself, there is an edge of bitterness to the expression; because Lan Xichen had spoken such words to him once, too, and Jin Guangyao had received them in the spirit with in they had been intended, with grace and gratitude and no shortage of affection. But even then, the lowly Meng Yao had known that those words would never be true in any way that the cultivation world would allow it to matter. There was a reason that Zewu-jun was the First Jade of Lan. Peerless.
He closes his eyes and takes a breath, composing his expression into something gentler, coaxing his self-loathing back into a shadowed corner of his heart. Then he turns and quietly crosses the room to stand beside the partition. He taps once to announce himself. "Er-ge, Shen-di. May I come in?"
no subject
With the congee and tea prepared and parcelled off to Lan Xichen for delivery to Shen Yuan, he had slipped out of the parlour and into the small side building set aside to house Meng Shi and Jin Rusong's shrines, where he kneels in prayer and lights incense each morning. And there he had been, attending to his filial obligations, until the rest of his morning chores called him back to the main house, because eager as Lan Xichen may be to aid with the housekeeping, there is just a certain way that one must sort the laundry before adding it to the washing machine, and Jin Guangyao has discovered that this is something he must see to himself, at least for now.
And so he has just stepped back into the parlour and is reaching behind him to close the sliding doors to keep out the chill when he hears Shen Yuan's words, and Lan Xichen's response, and he goes still, considering them. And when he smiles to himself, there is an edge of bitterness to the expression; because Lan Xichen had spoken such words to him once, too, and Jin Guangyao had received them in the spirit with in they had been intended, with grace and gratitude and no shortage of affection. But even then, the lowly Meng Yao had known that those words would never be true in any way that the cultivation world would allow it to matter. There was a reason that Zewu-jun was the First Jade of Lan. Peerless.
He closes his eyes and takes a breath, composing his expression into something gentler, coaxing his self-loathing back into a shadowed corner of his heart. Then he turns and quietly crosses the room to stand beside the partition. He taps once to announce himself. "Er-ge, Shen-di. May I come in?"