The gentler Sagramore is with him, the more difficult it is to manage his emotions. He draws his sleeve across his face and attempts to breathe more evenly. "I usually have more control over myself than this—it's this place, I hardly know myself these days—" It's not only Shen Qingqiu, although Shen Qingqiu is driving him out of his mind. It's how things work differently here, how he is somehow permitted to do things he would never have done before. The ways that Nina is changing him have nothing to do with Shen Qingqiu, but equally make him feel as though the ground beneath him is crumbling to sand.