The doctor is in

“What do you intend to do afterwards?”

Song Lan wrote, “Roam this world with Shuanghua. Exorcise evil beings alongside XingChen.”

How strange. He thinks that, had he been still alive, he would have felt his gut actually twist painfully, his breathing become more labored with grief. As it stands, only the phantom sensation remains, an intellectual sort of pain that can't find any release. How good are his eyes - Xiao XingChen’s eyes - when he can't even weep for his best friend?

After a pause, he continued, “When he wakes, say I’m sorry, it wasn’t your fault.”

This was what he couldn’t tell Xiao XingChen before he died. This was the only thing that counted.

When he wakes. Was that even possible? But then, what else remained in his hands if not hope?

Surprisingly, it was Hanghuang-jun who broke the silence. “We will care for the body”

A faint shadow of surprise passed within Song Lan’s eyes. Even the Yiling Patriarch seemed startled by the sudden words, even if not as much as the disciples still huddled together in a corner. There was a not-so-faint whispering coming from them, but Song Lan’s attention was far more captured by the exchange taking place before him. Lan Wangji’s gaze shifted to Wei Wuxian as if attracted by a magnet, somehow sensing his unvoiced question.

Ah, thought Song Lan, recognizing the same way his own gaze would naturally follow Xiao XingChen’s gentle features back in way happier times. So that's how it is. How curious.