Once they were arranged in their little booth and tea was steeping, Cheng considered the question. There was little sense in worrying about old feelings arising as it would only be one-sided. This Huaisang didn't remember being here. And after how things were left, if Huaisang remembered, they wouldn't be having this conversation, anyway.

"I was on my way back home from Guanyin Temple," he started, watching Huaisang. "After the reveal that Gaungyao was your brother's killer. I was caught up there, circling about, never being able to get home--not that there was much to go home to outside of my sect. And then I found myself here. You were here, and Wuxian was here...I think Mingjue and the rest of the Brotherhood was here, too. But in the end, it felt too much like home--not in a good way. Everything I had cultivated and protected was gone, I was the outsider, I didn't have much in the way of a foothold here."