He dips his chin just a little in acknowledgment as he considers her words and her so very familiar situation.

"Back home I am Hei Pao Shi. I am responsible for my peoples' safety and well being, and have been since I was perhaps younger than you." He's not sure, of course, if he'd ever had any idea how old he and his didi actually were he'd lost track of it, of the passage of time entirely, in the chaos after the meteor fell and the war that followed. "I will always be Hei Pao Shi, I will always bear that duty and responsibility, and the choices I make in that capacity affect the lives of all my people, as well as many Haixingren as well. But I am not only Hei Pao Shi, no more than you are only Skitter. It... took me a great deal of time and-" He tucks his chin down a little, eyelashes sweeping down to shadow his eyes as he gazes into his cup- "And Zhao Yunlan's help to realize that.

"He looks back up at her, expression solemn. "We might never be able to relinquish our burdens, but I think it is important that we not let ourselves become only our duty, only our burdens."