If Shen Yuan had met Aleksander in his first life, he would have agreed with this one hundred percent. Of course the power and strength was worth it!! Of course Aleksander had to go through a terrible backstory to become the badass, sexy, morally grey antihero he was!! But--that was before the Abyss. Before he'd seen and known the lovely, bright-faced youth Luo Binghe could have been, without the abuse at Shen Qingqiu's hands, before he'd been forced to destroy that youth for Luo Binghe's Plot Necessary Character Development. Now he doesn't know what he thinks, except his mind is full of the bright youth Aleksander might have been, and he tries to see him in the man before him, tries to capture some ghost of him in the features he's painting.

But it won't do to tell Aleksander he's wrong that his trauma was worth it. He nods, instead. "It gave you a necessary armor."