He Xuan watches him unblinkingly, and it's hard to say whether he finds this erotic or baffling. Maybe he couldn't even say himself. He tries to give the man some face and not watch the ice melting beads of water to drip down his neck to his collarbones but it's difficult. At least he won't mind if Shen Yuan ends up smelling like fish?

"Is that so," he says fairly unenthusistically. "Well, at least the fish will breed. Maybe my cave won't flood so much." Or maybe it will start flooding more, with the storms. He finally tears his eyes away, looks out across the water—

Ah, the fishing rod! Is it moving with another fish? It would be nice to land another catch before the day starts to end, so he can send Shen Yuan home with something to eat for supper. "Here," he says quietly, reaching for the rod, "Let me."