Nie Huaisang doesn't know what possessed him to come out in the snow again. He'd been quite comfortable in his free room at the inn, bundled up in warm blankets with mulled wine. Perhaps it was the claims that the lights in the north were really rather beautiful that successfully managed to lure him back into the great outdoors. Regardless, he's out in the snow clad in selecting a long, fur-trimmed coat and matching boots, cheeks ruddy with cold.

Much of this place has been unfamiliar so it's quite startling to look to the sky and see a familiar face in it, although younger than he's been accustomed to seeing it. Huaisang finds himself scanning his surroundings, freezing when he recognizes Jin Guangyao. The words of warning the Ferryman had spoken drift through his mind. Speaking of the past to others is taboo, interfering with one another's journeys is forbidden. He twists a long strand of his hair nervously around a gloved finger. He doesn't know what the consequences of speaking out against Jin Guangyao would be but he's not in any hurry to find out either.

So he approaches cautiously, feet crunching on the snow to make noise but doesn't speak at all. Not until he has more of a sense of who he's dealing with.