The forest is dark, and calm, and quiet. Birds chirp in the trees, and herbivores snuffle around in the underbrush or bolt at the scent of a predator, but nothing more aggressive than nature itself can dwell long here without being discovered and dealt with, one way or another.
In a clearing, a brook winds its way through shallow curves in the hillside. Anything remotely supernatural that happened here would definitely be noticed within less than an hour.
OH LOOK, A WINE SHOP. Wei Ying said he wanted alcohol, right, or words to that effect, that sounds like a great way to make this exchange stop happening. He drags Wei Ying into the wine shop, presumably to the confusion of the rest of their party.
[...I realize we aren't at the Cloud Recesses yet but this hardly seems like the time?]
Having to explain things to Isabella is the worst, most people he can just do things and everybody will be too intimidated by his reputation as Hanguang-jun to object or he doesn't owe them an explanation like Jiang Wanyin or they're his brother and he doesn't need to use his words but he actually likes her and she takes bullshit from literally nobody and has known him for less than three years.
[The conversation was making me uncomfortable.]
[Wei Ying does not return my feelings. I am used to feeling jealous. I am not used to feeling jealous of people I care about.]
[OH okay I will stop making vaguely flirty-shaped jokes in his direction.]
[You did not know. There is nothing to be sorry for. But I am grateful.]
He still isn't feeling up to walking back outside yet. Wei Ying is pestering him that it's ridiculous to drag him into a wine shop and then refuse to join him for even a single cup of wine.
His ability to resist Wei Ying is considerably eroded right now.
He raises the cup to his lips.
His head hits the table with a clunk.
Uhhhhhhhh...
Wei Wuxian is, alas, not on the list of people who are allowed to initiate telepathic conversations with Isabella, which means he can't request grown-up assistance from in here, and he super doesn't want to freak out about something being wrong with Lan Zhan in front of A-Yuan.
Which means he gets to handle it on his own.
He waves off the proprietor of the wine shop who wants to know if everything is okay; he doesn't, actually, know that everything is okay, but he is having a very difficult time imagining that that guy would be able to help if it's not.
It takes a few minutes, but Lan Wangji does lever himself up off the table on his own.
"Eh, Lan Zhan, where is this coming from?" he asks, beginning to stand up.
Lan Zhan grabs his wrist and forces him to sit back down.
"I never have anything more important than you."
And then he begins listing the Lan sect rules that were added since Wei Ying's death.
What.
"Lan Zhan, are you...drunk?"
It should be impossible to get drunk on just one cup of wine, and usually drunkenness precedes unconsciousness, but, well. He's certainly not seeing any other possible explanation for this.
He is so incredibly not convinced.
He's not...entirely...sure what to do about it though??? If this were the evening he could try to put Lan Zhan to bed, he goes to sleep ridiculously early anyway, but that is so extremely not an option right now.
...He's going to just. Sit here. And hope nobody else notices that he apparently managed to get Hanguang-jun drunk from literally one cup of wine, until the proprietor kicks them out or someone comes looking for them or Suan Yisabeila does her telepathy thing.
At first she just keeps escorting the juniors and Wen Ning through Shan Village, but after determining that they will not encounter any problems if they just keep going without her and check in when they arrive, she circles back to the wine shop and ducks in.
"...having fun?"
"One cup of wine! And then he passed out, and when he woke up he was like this!"
Okay is he going to have a medical emergency in the next six hours if she makes up her mind to just hover around him that whole time.
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