It has the ring of Li Lianhua-typical patter, it's so painfully glib and hollow, but if he thinks too hard about Li Lianhua lying to make a fool out of him again he'll crawl into the ocean himself without even a ripple. There's no way out of the dread and acceptance that settle over him palpably with a too-long blink and a sigh. Like leaden armor, like the cold of blood loss. Something, anything he did should have mattered, and it well and truly didn't at all. Start over, ground up.

And if that's loss enough to take the light out of his eyes, the alternative is enough to make them bright with fear. Not Li Lianhua lying to him just to escape...a question or two, a judgment, a demand, whatever he would have brought to bear in this instance to feel whole--but rather real, tangible decline, the approaching ache of a grip on nothing. Something Di Feisheng can't even feel, evaluate, or fight anymore, in his own empty condition. Something Li Lianhua ultimately should have been spared, not in the karmic sense, but the very literal and achievable one. Even if he's lying this time, the next time he misses the mark may well be sickeningly real. That isn't changed, whatever Li Lianhua is or isn't trying to accomplish here.

He really won't relive it. "Forget it. I just owe you a favor, is all."