He opens his scroll, looks down at it for a minute, and then looks up at Wen Chao.

"I don't know how to read"

"Don't make trouble!" Jiang Cheng hisses under his breath.  

Jiang Cheng needs to keep the Lotus Pier disciples from getting hurt.  Especially Wei Wuxian.  Who is being an idiot and loudly announcing his insubordination.  

There's no way Wen Chao is going to buy that, no matter how high-and-mighty the Wen clan thinks they are compared to the rest of the clans.

"Then for your sake, you'd better memorize it quickly.  We'll be going over it aloud once."

It is hard to tell whether Wen Chao believes it or is merely humoring the idea.

They go over it aloud once. The disciples are instructed to follow along and read it out loud as they go. The guards are uncertain about whether they should be enforcing this for Wei Wuxian. They settle on just glaring at him a lot.

Lan Wangji does not follow along or read out loud. He does not open his book; the scroll remains clenched in his fist for the duration of his lesson. He does not give any indication that he is even paying attention.

There are fewer Wen rules than there are Lan; the recitation still takes an obnoxiously long time. Eventually, the lesson ends and they will be sent back to their houses. Lan Wangji is led away by the same two guards who brought him.

He is not happy about Lan Zhan probably being taken back to the cell, but there isn't anything he can do about it without upsetting Lan Zhan and endangering his clan.  He will stare concernedly at Lan Zhans back instead, and then head to the Jiang house to think of more ways to make the Wens lives difficult.

"The prison riot was you, wasn't it," Jiang Cheng whispers once he's sure the guards are all far enough away not to hear.

"Jiang Cheng! How could you think such a thing of me!" He tries to both exclaim and keep his voice down, and fortunately mostly succeeds at the latter.

"Are you trying to get yourself hurt?  If you keep doing things like this, you're going to get caught eventually.  Do you think the Wen clan are just going to assign you lines to copy when that happens?"

"I know they will not.  Perhaps I will get caught, but it will be worth it, and I am being cautious.  Trust me."

"What about this is worth you getting hurt over?"

"Do you think they will stop with taking us hostage? Do you think the cloud recesses are the only place they mean to burn?  I am doing what I can to strike first.  And I am doing what I can to not get caught."

"Cloud Recesses burned?"

Oh shit, they hadn't learned that yet.

"I talked to Lan Zhan when I snuck into the prison.  They burned the Cloud Recesses and took him prisoner.  And" and here he lowers his voice even more, "The took the piece of the Yin Iron"

"So you didn't learn this until after you were already in the prison," he glares.  

Other than that... Jiang Cheng agrees that the Wen clan isn't going to stop at hostage-taking and burning only a single one of their rival sects.  Lotus Pier is the next most likely target, even if they all keep their heads down.  It isn't a question of whether they'll attack or not, but a few months change in Wen Ruohan's plans.  Father would already be preparing, probably, but so would the Wen clan.  As hostages, they probably won't be killed or permanently maimed, but that only lasts as long as the Wen clan thinks hostages are useful.

"That's going to take more than a prison riot to fix."

"I know it will.  I have more plans."  He's just not gonna say anything about that first part, Jiang Cheng is judging him incorrectly but would he believe him about the truth? No.

He hadn't intended that as encouragement to do more illegal things. 

"Whatever.  Lets go back and study their stupid rules.  Aloud, since you supposedly forgot how to read this morning.  Getting them wrong is definitely not going to stop the Wen clan, and at least pretending to be obedient might keep suspicion off of you for whatever reckless plan you come up with next."

He goes along with the reading through the rules, and heads to bed cooperatively when the time comes.

In the morning, the guards knock on the doors to make sure everyone is awake again. Today meager breakfast rations are provided, and are to be eaten within their quarters.

Once they are done with breakfast, the Jiangs can be led to their lesson. The guards wait for them outside.

Jiang Cheng once again ensures that everyone in his group gets their food and are as prepared for the day as he can get them.

Disciples are stood in the plaza in their same configurations as yesterday; this time the Jins are the last to arrive. Lan Wangji is already there, looking no visibly worse for wear. There are guards in front of the fortress, watching all the junior disciples carefully.

The Jins do arrive before they can be counted as late. Jin Zixuan looks visibly grumpy, but most of the others are meek in front of the guards.

He waves at Lan Zhan again, trying to get his attention.  He makes a slight effort at being subtle, but not much.  He doesn't expect it to get any response but it's worth trying.

He indeed receives no response.