Lan Wangji is keenly aware of all those tribulations, of just how impossibly lucky he has been when, once, he had come to accept that he would never leave his mourning and that he would walk through the remainder of his days alone. His luck came at a price -- but Claudius will learn of that during the story he's agreed to tell. "Every day."

A glance at the jacket Claudius has chosen reveals that his sleeves are not going to fit without intervention, and so Lan Wangji reaches into the wardrobe one final time to produce two long strips of silk, like the ones he uses himself but in a dark grey. He catches Claudius by one wrist, then the other, to brace him as he binds up his sleeves for him. Once that is finished, he retrieves the jacket for Claudius and gives him a mutedly expectant look: What do you think?