<blockquote>It came back to him in fits and starts. The glow of the array. The strange heat in-between his eyes. The fan that had snapped in two in Shen Qingqiu's hand.
“Move away from him,” someone had told Shen Qingqiu, but Shen Qingqiu hadn’t. Luo Binghe had tried to tell him it was alright. He'd had trouble talking through the pain in his head, but he'd tried. Shizun had already suffered so much because of Luo Binghe. Because he had tried to protect him.
He remembered, distinctly, the sharp, clear sound of Xiu Ya being drawn.</blockquote>
