[ he does indeed still have her hand. which is not conduscive to taking his boots off when he enters, but he's not going to pay it much mind at the moment. the priority is the fact that -

well, he's alive. chang geng is alive, and the curl of delicate and familiar fingers in his hand is very much real. the rush of racing to the finish line has faded, but the warmth of that hasn't.

it's not as if he'd been isolated. but it's different, now, actually being reunited with the living, all of them together again. especially after they got to watch them put so much work into these houses, into putting their personalities into them, giving them a taste of home, happiness, belonging - even if they didn't know it was going to be a belonging. and jiuqing took what she knew of great liang, what her heart knew of daxing, and put it here. ]

... I know we're not meant to get attached to the places made in the Prism, really, considering what we've learned up to this point. But it feels like a home away from home.

[ when he turns to her, he brings their hands up - and adjusts his grip on hers, so that he might kiss her knuckles. ]

Thank you, Jiuqing.