For a long time, Wei Wuxian observes from a respectful distance. He hasn't been here long enough to know any of the dead personally - he grieves their loss, but it isn't personal in the way it might be had he known their names, their faces, their hearts. It isn't until a little native boy presses a boat into his hands and explains that he might send his sorrows away with it that Wei Wuxian understands that the ceremony is for all of them.

And with this realization comes hesitation. Wei Wuxian has lost so many. His father, his mother. His adopted father, his adopted mother. His own life. Shijie..

He hasn't thought long on her since arriving here. Wei Wuxian never thinks of his sister for long, for when he does, emotions he wants to believe he doesn't have time for claw at his chest. Looking down at the little boat, now, Wei Wuxian can't bring himself to let her go, but he could acknowledge the loss. He looks at the boat and thinks of gentle hands and sweeter smiles, of the bundles of food she'd always overburdened him with, of lotus root soup and the dear son she'd been forced to leave behind.

It's with tears in his eyes tha Wei Wuxian sets the boat to the water, dropping to his knees in the muddied shore to bow before it as it drifts away. "Shijie," he whispers. "It's you that deserved a second life, not me. Forgive me."