Why does he always do this?  

"Fine," he repeats, clearly not buying it.  Jiang Cheng has a small cloth bundle hidden in the crook of his arm next to the scroll for class.  He hands it to Wei Wuxian before turning to face forward.  It contains some bread.

He eats the bread way too fast.

This lets him finish by the time Wen Chao makes it down from the top of the pyramid.

"Before we begin, I have a few announcements.  The Cloud Recesses are now under Qishan Wen control.  The Unclean Realm, given their disobedience in refusing to return an ally of ours who had been taken hostage, is currently under a crackdown for their insubordination and lack of discipline.  The Lanling Jin sect has been cooperative thus far - provided that there are no disciplinary issues, Carp Tower will continue to remain safe.  As for Lotus Pier... Jiang Fengmian has so far proven to be a coward and refuse to speak with our representatives."

"Filthy Wen dog" He says it quietly, under his breath, but loud enough for Jiang Cheng and Lan Zhan, on either side of him, to hear.

Jiang Cheng is physically shaking with suppressed rage.  He glances over at Wei Wuxian, but that only makes him angrier.  Instead, he focuses on the ground, thinking about the disciples from Lotus Pier who are standing behind him.  Wei Wuxian is clearly not going to look after them if he gets dragged away to a dungeon.

Wei Wuxian is very obviously pissed, but he's not actually doing anything other than glaring at Wen Chao.

Wen Chao does not care about their emotions.  It is now time for their lessons!  

They will all be reading and reciting their assigned memorization aloud.  It was clearly too much to ask for them to memorize the book so quickly, apparently.  No worries, though!  The benevolent Qishan Wen sect will have them stand up and repeat it all day, so that even the un-scholarly among them will be able to learn about their glory.

He co-operates as best he can while still pretending he doesn't know how to read.

He does not open his book. He does not read or recite anything. He stares straight ahead and ignores Wen Chao.

The guards do not actually want to get in another fight with these violent angry teenagers, so they do not take initiative to punish anyone for lack of participation or reading ability.

The lesson lasts almost the entire day, which no one enjoys, but the ordeal comparatively uneventful. 

Wei Wuxian gets to go back to the Jiang house afterward.

Wei Wuxian did not sleep last night, and the lesson was not structured in a way that allowed him to sleep through it.  He goes to sleep immediately and does not wake up in the morning until Jiang Cheng shakes him awake to make him eat something before the next days lesson.

Next day's lesson is much of the same. Lan Wangji gets brought an hour late after the lecture starts, but none of the presiding Wens seem to find this remarkable. He looks as angry and visibly uninjured as he did yesterday. It's possible that the guards just forgot to pick him up on time.

Today the Wen doctrine they are reciting covers some governing principles for smaller branches of the Sect, a long list of things that constitute treason, and some helpful elaboration on the proper construction and maintenance of severed heads on sticks.

They are fed, as sparsely as they always are, and sent back to their quarters for the night.

Wei Wuxian spends the time until the others go to bed writing ideas for new talismans on whatever paper he has available.  If the Wens have not provided them with paper other than their study material then the Wens will have to deal with him writing over the study material. 

Its not like any of them can go out.

"What are those?" Jiang Cheng asks, curious, well away from the other Lotus Pier disciples.

"Ideas! For talismans.  It's better than any other way I can come up with to spend my time." He reshuffles them to ensure that the ones that look the least like demonic cultivation are near the top.

Jiang Cheng is still not sure about Wei Wuxian's plan to start trouble.  It is true that war is inevitable.  It's also true that Wei Wuxian is going to leap straight at danger and there's nothing he can do about it.

"Tell me that you at least have a plan.  How do you intend to not get caught?  Remember that this whole cabin are also going to get punished if you're so much as identified as the culprit.  Not to mention Lotus Pier."  Can Wei Wuxian have a sense of responsibility to others, if not self-preservation?

"I have put a lot of thought into preventing anyone else from being harmed.  I do not intend to do anything else that will draw attention to me or incriminate our sect.  You don't have to worry about me!" Why does he keep having to have conversations with people that he can't deflect with a joke.  He does not want to end up having to explain why what he's about to do minimizes harm to Lotus Pier or how he knows.

Jiang Cheng is going to keep worrying about Wei Wuxian.

"You'd better."

Jiang Cheng supplements Wei Wuxian's portion of the food with part of his own, to help make up for the portion size.  He can practice inedia - Wei Wuxian is going to need to conserve his spiritual energy more than Jiang Cheng is.

"Thanks." He says it as he takes the extra food, but mostly he's just grateful for how Jiang Cheng doesn't want to murder him yet.  Maybe he can even avoid that altogether. 

He scribbles something on his paper about finding a way to make one end of a rope fly.

Night falls; it gets dark quickly. The Jiang disciples all go to bed. If anyone checks, two guards are posted outside the doors the same as always.

He promised he would be careful, and so he will.  Time to make another paperman, and send it out.  Where is Wen Zhuliu? He'll start by heading towards the castle.

The palace is massive and grand, with quite a lot of rooms in quite a lot of places.

After an hour and a half of searching, he will find Wen Zhuliu’s room right beside Wen Chao’s. Wen Zhuliu’s room is small and dark and has almost nothing in it beside Wen Zhuliu himself.

Time to locate the guards.  Is there any way to get to Wen Zhuliu's room without passing any guards?

No. The best route involves passing only two, in their current positions.