He may not always be the most patient man, but Sui Zhou has come to be good at waiting. He has taken well to the lessons Tang Fan has taught him.
Just as it is apt for Sui Zhou to invite him, he has grown adept at telling what it is that he is inviting. This Tang Fan is real, tonight, and so Sui Zhou goes with him all the way into waking.
His house has been so quiet without the volume of Tang Fan's life filling it, these last days.
"Tang da-ge," she presses, trying to reel him back for a final snatch of constructive conversation before he sets off into the wilderness of his own head again, "who was that handsome gentleman?"
"So familiar." Tang Fan's preening at her address persists as far as them both toeing over the threshold before the smug smile falls flat from his face. Then, "Wait," he starts, craning so far to toss a look over his shoulder that he ends up twisting himself around in a circle. "What— what han…
"Tang da-ge," she presses, trying to reel him back for a final snatch of constructive conversation before he sets off into the wilderness of his own head again, "who was that handsome gentleman?"
"So familiar." Tang Fan's preening at her address persists as far as them both toeing over the threshold before the smug smile falls flat from his face. Then, "Wait," he starts, craning so far to toss a look over his shoulder that he ends up twisting himself around in a circle. "What— what handsome gentleman?"
Tang Fan is stuck on a scene for one of his spring books. He enlists Sui Zhou to help him with some of the logistics.
He is not in his body. He is not of his body at all.
Tang Fan is not yet particularly panicked about his present predicament.
Ding Rong should have suspected scheming the moment he saw Wang Zhi in red.
He has never taken a disciple before this one, that is true, but Yin Chen has long been enlightened as to what such an arrangement entails.
Kiyotaka dies, and that's that.