As enjoyable as it would otherwise be to cause such startlement simply by being the way he is, in current circumstances it just makes the nightmarish apparition put on a contrite expression, after a moment of alarmed concern himself. This shift from low-eared, crouched staring and stewing is a subtle one, but at least the lamplight eyes are averted. Like that makes any real kind of difference, like there's any meaningful way to give some distance to Li Lianhua's various sufferings that isn't just kind of a token, but that's just how it is again. Tokens, like many things, are not what Di Feisheng is for. He does have to keep thinking about it in case it's changed.

Fighting a broom-wielding Fang Xiaobao would be preferable to any of these lines of thought, honestly, not least because it would be a better distraction than he knows how to be on his own. Flower petals, of all things. It's one thing to live in a world determined to borrow from storybooks, but couldn't it have been from the kind with more investment in balance and morality than in inevitability? Maybe if he sits here long enough Li Lianhua will say he also thinks it's stupid. That might not be beneficial from a medical standpoint, but it would still be nice. Given this annoyance, the sweeping is taking care of itself actually.