[ Zhongli does not give form to the weary sigh that seeps deep into his core. Young as she was, he thought that surrounded by death from such a young age, Hu Tao would understand why the departed should not linger.

But that is a difficult pill to swallow when it's your most precious person wrested from your grasp through death's jaws. Even more so since Hu Tao had more affinity for communion with the dead even among the other parlor directors past. Naturally, she would be curious. Naturally, she would harbor the hope for a final parting. It would be a cruelty to dissuade her and a cruelty to let her go.

But sometimes the only way to learn the nature of the world was to experience it firsthand.

Zhongli folds his hands together, placing them neatly in his lap as he watches the fading light filter in above them through the dusty windows. ]

If his spirit still lingers, yes, it would be at the border. But that is only if he held any regrets and work unfinished in this life.