He backhands him. "Oh, Wei-gongzi! Have things been so hard on you so far? Have you endured such hardship already? For the Wen clan of Qishan, this is hardly torture! But if you object so strongly to a confession, I'd accept the location of the Yin Iron."

"I've already told your brother that I don't know where it is.  You can't drag information I don't have out of me any more than you can make me confess to something I didn't do."

That Sounds Like Something A Bitch Would Say.

Wen Xu is growing very tired of Wei Wuxian. It has been less than half an hour and he's already tempted to stomp out and let Wen Chao deal with this after all.

He huffs and kicks Lan Wangji impatiently in the broken leg. "Lan Wangji! Wake up."

owfuck

He raises his head, reluctantly more conscious than he was a moment ago. He sees Wen Xu, of course, and - oh fuck, Wei Ying was here, he was trying to keep an eye on him - 

He looks around a little frantically until his eyes lock onto Wei Ying and fuck that's so much blood already - (already? Wangji is actually unsure how much time has passed since he last drifted out of consciousness, for all he knows Wen Xu has been hurting Wei Ying for hours.) He meets Wei Ying's eyes, intensely distressed.

"Lan Wangji, Wei Wuxian over there was just telling me he has no idea where his Yin Iron could be, or who could've possibly killed Wen Zhuliu last night. He's not being very helpful. What do you think of that?"

Wangji does not look away from Wei Ying or acknowledge Wen Xu's existence in any way.

How dare he hurt Lan Zhan.  He is going to regret this.

"Why would I tell Lan Zhan if I did know those things?"  He's going for dismissive but mostly hits protective.

He scoffs. "Well you're friends, aren't you? You were looking for the Yin Iron together, and you had time alone in the cells to conspire together. Why wouldn't you tell him?"

Wei Wuxian seems very upset, which is good. So far Wei Wuxian being upset has not actually led to any information being shared, but it's at least very gratifying. 

Wen Xu puts his hand on Lan Wangji's chest, where at least one rib is broken, and bares his teeth at Wei Wuxian as he presses down.

He fails to not visibly or audibly react to this.

He has failed to get Wen Xu to stop hurting Lan Zhan.  Let's see how gratified Wen Xu feels about being spit on.

Wen Xu feels like slapping Wei Wuxian again about it. “Well?”

Wen Xu can't hurt Lan Zhan while he's slapping Wei Wuxian, so this is fine. 

"Because I don't know anything about either of those things."

This has been the most infuriating interrogation session ever and Wen Xu is fed up.

Luckily, he has several convenient targets for his frustration. If none of them feel like talking, fine, Wen Xu has other ways to spend their time.

When he finally storms out, a lot of fresh blood has been added to the walls and everyone is in considerable amounts of pain. Lan Wangji is unconscious again.

Wei Wuxian is going to stare at Lan Zhan in concern.  And also glance over to see how Jiang Cheng is doing, before resuming staring at Lan Zhan.

Jiang Cheng isn't as badly hurt as Wei Wuxian, though it does still look pretty bad.  He's gotten back onto his feet - it hurts, but it's probably better in the long run than letting his wrists hold him up.  He is looking worriedly at his brother.  

He gives Jiang Cheng his best reassuring smile.  It's not very reassuring.  Wei Wuxian is also managing to stay on his feet, but it's clearly he's mostly held up by his recently regained pride.  It's good that Jiang Cheng seems not to hate him.  With everything that happened he had rather forgotten what it was like to have his brother look at him with concern and not anger.

Those can be hard to tell apart on Jiang Cheng in most cases.  Right now he is very clearly scared though.  How badly must Wei Wuxian be hurt to not be talking and making jokes about this?

"I'm sorry.  My plan for keeping us unharmed by doing what the Wen wanted didn't work."

"This is hardly your fault.  They would have found some excuse to hurt us no matter what we did.  I'm sorry too." Not quite like this, sure, but clearly they expected the giant dog to kill him, the first time, so it's not untrue.

That Wei Wuxian seems to be taking this seriously should be reassuring him.  Instead, it's just highlighting how bad everything has gone.

They are left alone for several hours.

Eventually Wen Chao enters.  He is accompanied by extra guards.  Two of them are ordered to stay in the room and keep watch, despite the prisoners being thoroughly bound.

He immediately heads towards Wei Wuxian.  Gripping his collar in both hands and shaking, he starts yelling. "How dare you!  You worthless little shit!" 

"How dare I what? Take up space in your dungeon? I'd be happy to leave." 

"How dare you disrespect the Wen sect!  How dare you bring in disorder and chaos and - and a complete reversal of what the natural order should be!"

He lets go in a final shove which slams Wei Wuxian against the wall.  

"Before you started acting out and disrespecting us, no one went around murdering people."

"A bold claim from a man who's brother destroyed the Cloud Recesses.  Or perhaps you mean no one dared resist the tyranny of the Wens?"

Wei Wuxian has had time to forget that he was being co-operative, an easy thing to forget in the face of Wen Chao's arrogance.

"The Lan sect was defying rightful authority and holding onto things that were claimed by the Qishan Wen sect.  There's a difference between executing rebels and people being assassinated in their sleep."