( He looks at his brother, and he looks, and he looks, and he sees this, with inevitability: a man dwarfed by duty, for all he stands young — not so much more aged than Lan Wangji himself, but armored in every responsibility of his ancestral land.
And now this bent back wishes to take on more. )
Your shoulders come too narrow to bear also this burden. ( He wonders what it must have been like, to grieve as the First Jade of Lan, unseen and unheard, the heir who cannot scream. Lan Wangji's tantrums of mourning were accepted, because his brother walked the halls to take every temple offering from strangers, to inform elders of their mother's regrettable passing. )
This Is Fine
( He looks at his brother, and he looks, and he looks, and he sees this, with inevitability: a man dwarfed by duty, for all he stands young — not so much more aged than Lan Wangji himself, but armored in every responsibility of his ancestral land.
And now this bent back wishes to take on more. )
Your shoulders come too narrow to bear also this burden. ( He wonders what it must have been like, to grieve as the First Jade of Lan, unseen and unheard, the heir who cannot scream. Lan Wangji's tantrums of mourning were accepted, because his brother walked the halls to take every temple offering from strangers, to inform elders of their mother's regrettable passing. )
No apologies required.