Zhao Yunlan sounded exhausted, in a way Kunlun hadn't been even returning from open battle to a lack of every modern comfort he'd ever known (a way Shen Wei hadn't even begun to understand until thousands of years later). "I'm not some kind of duty for you to see through to the grim end, Xiao Wei."

"I know," Shen Wei said, and meant it because it was true; he could never be done with Zhao Yunlan entirely, even if it would be kinder to nearly everyone concerned.