His nerves still scraped raw and aching from the period of isolation and the thing he had to do to escape it, it's hard for Shen Yuan not to interpret Jin Guangyao's sudden withdrawal as a rejection. He's struggling with it, his eyes smarting with unshed tears -- but then Lan Xichen is there, his presense as strong and heady as stone but his voice...His voice is soft and warm, as gentle as the hand he places on Shen Yuan's back after wrapping a blanket around his shoulders. The tears escape Shen Yuan's eyes without his permission, but he manages to smile through, and gently pat on Lan Xichen on his other arm.

"Lan-gongzi is very kind," he says sweetly, himself unaware of exactly what kind of trust and affection is shining out of his watering eyes when he looks up at Lan Xichen's face. (Hint: it's certainly not the platonic kind.) (In fact it might be compared to the look that Shen Yuan, in the guise of Shen Qingqiu, once gave his sect leader when Yue Qingyuan stepped forward to take up the burden of an outrageous bet on his behalf -- a look that says, 'I know I can always count on you to protect me' -- but where that look was a shy whisper, this one is nearly a shout.) "This one can think of no safer place than under Lan-gongzi and Jin-shige's care."