Lan Wangji is busy. He and his brother make plans; fireproofing of the Cloud Recesses goes quietly underway. After a week of combing through details of the past-future, comparing the memory accounts... Brother clears Wangji to go retrieve the Yin Iron shard from Lady Florist, alone.

Of course, Wangji was alone when he set out on this mission the last time. Wei Ying had caught up to him, somehow, and that needs to be circumvented.

He visits Nie Huaisang.

He is in his room, alone and not getting into any trouble at the moment.

Nie Huaisang is less busy, as he only has Lan Wangji to speak to on future matters.  Well, him and possibly Wen Ning, if he finds more evidence and decides it's worthwhile.

"Lan-er gongzi!  What brings you here?"

"Nie gongzi." He steps inside. "I am leaving for the Lady Florist tomorrow. Wei Ying should stay here."

"Ah.  I'll do my best, Lan-er gongzi.  Maybe he'd like to go fishing?"

He is not sure if that will be enough, but he doesn't have any better ideas for things that will keep Wei Ying contained.

"Mn."

"Make sure you aren't spotted leaving or doing anything suspicious when in sight of him before you go."  That might be too obvious to be advice, but then again he's pretty sure Lan Wangji never had fun as a real teenager and might not know the basics.

Nie Huaisang is an expert on distracting people and getting in the way of things.  And it's not like Wei Wuxian had run off after Lan Wangji every day the first time around.  That's only his first of several possible plans he's come up with for distracting Wei Wuxian.  Huaisang had also spent much of his spare time this week sneaking in Emperor's Smile and other illicit contraband.  That would almost certainly work, but would be a hassle to keep restocking the jars every time.  Huaisang supposes he could always ask Wei Wuxian to help get more.

"Though, regarding suspicious things I've noticed - Wen Ning is also one of us, isn't he?"

Lan Wangji never had fun as a real teenager, but he has spent time around Wei Ying. He's not planning to even think about anything suspicious in sight of him.

"Mn. Him and Jiang Wanyin."

"That's surprising."

Jiang Cheng was more subtle than Nie Huaisang expected.  Nie Huaisang would have predicted him immediately giving himself away.  That, or a serious attempt to harm Wei Wuxian. 

"I do not trust him."

That's not surprising.  

The situation makes him think of his own brother.  Even at the very end, in the midst of his madness, Nie Huaisang was certain his own brother would not harm him.  To think that Jiang Cheng would...  Even if da-ge had attacked him first (and even if the fight would not have been hopelessly one-sided) he wouldn't have had the will to strike back. 

"It's understandable that you don't," he says.  "I don't know if I can do anything about them being near each other, but I already wasn't intending to involve him in any plans for keeping Wei-xiong busy."

"Good.

I should return quickly. Tell Wei Ying not to worry."

"That sounds like something that'll make him immediately run off to go look for you," he points out.

He frowns Loudly. That's... probably true, which is terrible. Why is Wei Ying like this. "What will you say if he asks?"

He considers this, taking his time.  "As far as Wei Wuxian knows, there's no reason you'd tell me where you were going.  If he doesn't have a direction, it would be smart for him to just sit here and wait for you to get back.  ...and I can try to lead him in a harmless direction when he wants to go out anyway."

That's probably as good as he's going to get.

He thanks Nie Huaisang and departs, returning to the Jingshi to pack.

The next morning, he slips out in the early morning. Waking early is really the only advantage he has over Wei Ying, and he intends to use it. He walks quickly and quietly through the Cloud Recesses. The air is dim and cool and quite refreshing; he lets it soothe him.

Even the birds are not awake. Wei Ying should be sleeping like a rock right now, so Wangji has nothing to worry about.

Wei Wuxian indeed fails to materialize.

Good. 

Lan Wangji is relieved and not disappointed at all. If he were disappointed, that would be extremely selfish of him, and he would need to stop feeling that way immediately.

But luckily that isn't a problem.

He sets off for Tanzhou, alone.

The next morning Wei Wuxian wakes up just in time for classes, and upon arriving at them is disturbed and disappointed to see that Lan Zhan isn't there! He leans over towards Nie Huaisang. "Eh, Nie-xiong, where do you think our Lan-er gongzi has gone?"

His first thought is that Lan Zhan has disappeared back to the Cold Pond Cave (without him!!!!!!) to do something secret, but that doesn't make sense. What on earth could he have to do in that cave? The Yin Iron was no longer there. The Yin Iron was -- with Lan Zhan, hmmMMmmm.

He inwardly sighs.  He should have suggested Lan Wangji wait for a day that they didn't have classes.  Of course Wei Wuxian would notice him missing from a lecture.  

Time to change his plan. 

"Ooh, should we try and find out, Wei-xiong?"

He is going to stick like a burr to Wei Wuxian, and make sure he doesn't find anything.  (Hopefully Lan Wangji didn't leave a giant clue saying 'Went To See The Lady Florist' anywhere).

"For sure, for sure! Mm, first we must -"

First he must get a scroll chucked at his head. No Talking During Class.

Ahahaa right yes that. First he must be Studious And Respectable, that's absolutely what he was going to say.

The moment class ends he bounces over to Huaisang. "Okay, let's go! We need to get to work immediately, he already has such a terrible head start..." He huffs. "So unfair of him. Nie-xiong, where do you think our Lan Zhan has gone?"

"There are so many places, aren't there?  His room, the library, any of the places he could have gone off to meditate... He might even be in Caiyi Town.  Master Lan didn't seem concerned at his absence this time, so wherever he is it's somewhere that Zewu-jun and Master Lan know about and approved of him getting out of the lecture for.  Right, Wei-xiong?"