"It... was the very end. Meng Yao had - confessed all that we asked of him, and I had long seen that - he had forsworn the right to call me er ge." Xichen doesn't hesitate or flinch. This is not being harsh, he doesn't feel, Nie Mingjue has the right to know how badly his sworn brothers had messed up.

How badly Xichen had messed up by insisting on this in the first place. He had hoped, oh how he had hoped, that all the way the three of them cared for and completed each other would be their salvation.

And it had been their downfall.

Nor does Xichen stumble upon the name. Sometimes he still does in his thoughts, but never out loud.

"His arm was cut off, and even so, I told him if he were to move, I would kill him. It was a matter of time, I knew, that he would have to meet that fate, but it - had to be done right. A proper trial. Justice, not murder. Then I turned away - to get medicine for his arm. A cry that he did move, and half my blade was through him. It - his blood roused your fierce corpse again.

"He pulled me towards you and then - yo-- the fierce corpse's hands almost around my neck, he pushed me out of the way. Then his neck was snapped."

Xichen's lips twist in something that is not even remotely a smile, his eyes glassy.

"Sealed away in the same coffin, both of you. No way to go on. That... that is what I brought upon you."