More Qi Ye quotes that inspire feelings:
Jing Qi looked away, smiling. “I heard that the longest one could sleep without waking was sixty-three years.”
Upon seeing him arrive, he called for people to get fox fur and have him wear it in the night. Jing Qi had once been reborn as a fox and suffered the pain of getting skinned, so this thing was real mentally discomfiting to him. It’d be bad to damage the old steward’s dignity, though. He could only frown slightly as he obediently remained where he stood, allowing the steward’s two trembling hands to drape it over his shoulders. Afterwards, his tiny hand reached out and stealthily scratched its surface a few times. You’ve suffered, brother, he thought. I’ll burn more paper money for you tonight as an offering, and I ask that you take it, as there’s bribery in the netherworld office. Don’t be subjected to living in a skin-sack like this in your next life.
Just thinking about Jing Qi having to carry so much with him from one life to the next, and how that's both a burden and something of a joy because later it gives him a larger apprecaition of the contrast between his ties to Helian Yi and the loving fate with Wu Xi.
I might get into TYK later because I seem to remember Chengling's thoughts on JQ being pretty insightful and poignant in the moment, but I have to say that JQ remains one of my favorite characters because he lives on a triple knife's edge between tragedy and comedy, despair and joy at living.
Aside: I just set up a new mini pc because I want to play Black Myth Wukong and named it Qi Ye. :)