[ jiang cheng shakes his head, trying not to sour the mood here by growing too bitter but it's a tough subject for him. ]

...no, years before that too. In the years leading up to— ...his death. After the war. He picked a path I couldn't walk with him and never looked back.

[ the comment about the depth of wangji's grief draws his shoulders taut, however, and he adds— ]

Some of us could not afford to fall apart even after losing all the family we had left.