The path Xingchen wants him to take is so unknown to him that he is blind to what he should do - where he should place his next step. He has to depend on the other man and that's...a lot to ask from someone who has been betrayed more times than he can count.

But those hands around his hand are warm and soft. He can feel the calluses caused by Shuanghua too and eventually he sighs, leaning in closer.

"Do you get lonely?"

It's not phrased as a taunt; he wonders if that is one of Xingchen's weaknesses. Loneliness plagues him too. It always has.