Is it -- could it be -- surely there's no way. "Was the disagreement in your former world?" Magnus asks. It could just be, like, a creative difference in training. Maybe he's getting ahead of himself. But also, he feels like he's getting measure of Shen Qingqiu -- inquisitive, but full of self-doubt at really weird times, reluctant to go all-in on certain things, but passionate about his interests and abilities -- and he can picture the kind of, well.

The kind of demigod who, if confronted with his dad in an unfamiliar place, might demand to know why he'd been ignored. Maybe even after being yanked into an unfamiliar world of... cultivation-pantheon. Magnus still isn't fully clear on that last part.

"Or, um. Did he meet you for the first time here?"