He laughs at the compliment, "A handsome pair of pillars." But his amusement is short lived as he considers what Xingchen had said to him so that he can respond to the question that was posed to him.

"He said he wasn't sure he could trust me to change..that I would have to prove it somehow."

Which he can't exactly find fault in that. He had done much to make Xingchen lose trust in him. he can't expect that it would come back just from a confession. He isn't really even sure he deserves to get that trust back but he wants to.