At first, Huaisang thinks he's hallucinating but he hadn't drunk that much. Unless the puppets have started lacing the food with more than just aphrodisiacs? Though he had moments in the early days after his brother's death where he could've sworn he heard his brother, only to bitterly discover it was only a phantom conjured. For a moment, he stares at his meal, wondering if he'd been careless or was slipping into grief-stricken madness again before turning to look in the direction of that voice.

It was him. It was really him!

And then Huaisang is diving out of his booth with inhuman speed, flinging both arms around Nie Mingjue in a way he hadn't since the first day he'd been dropped off at the Cloud Recesses as a nervous twelve year old. Much like that same child he'd been then, he bursts into tears, ugly crying as he buries his face against his big brother's chest and clings as he might vanish like a dream.

"Da ge," he sobs brokenly. "Da ge..."