By the time you figure out the rules I broke

Yes. That. Exactly.

[And Mingjue breathes out a little, because Huaisang has given him words to explain more of why the only times he'd really, truly interacted with him while on the island had been in moments of distress. Why trying to do anything else had been, to his frustration, weird.

It makes his next words easier:]

When I first arrived. Your words and tears about the saber. They stuck with me.

Since then, I have thought a lot about the scars my future self left behind. Making the same mistakes all over again would be stupid if I know how poorly it turns out.