"...Hm. I wonder if you could do Empathy at a distance." 

"I don't have the technique. Kinda don't want it, to be honest."

"That's fair. It's not the safest thing ever." 

"Also just sounds really uncomfortable. I can spot you if you want to plan to see if it works on the arm."

"Well, I can't do Empathy at a distance, so that would involve touching it, which seems like maybe not a great idea considering what happened at Mo Village. Oh, but you can just warn me not to if it's a terrible idea. Might as well give it a shot." 

"Exactly. All you have to do is be theoretically up for it."

"I'm theoretically up for it!" 

The arm doesn't kill him as long as he touches it somewhere there's skin as opposed to the place where its muscle and bone ought to join up with the shoulder, but neither does Empathy work. 

She reports this result.

Something tense in Lan Wangji relaxes fractionally when it is confirmed that Wei Ying does not even counterfactually die again. 

"Ah, it was a long shot anyway. It's an arm. You could try talking to the head but I don't know if that would work either." 

"It shouldn't be dangerous to try, at any rate, though I'll precog it just to be sure..." [Excuse me,] she hypothetically attempts, headward.

Nope. 

"Doesn't work."

"Oh well." 

"Should I plan on coming along on the hunt for the rest of it - or whatever it's pointing at, could be whoever it considers responsible for its death or something -"

"If you wished to stay behind that would be reasonable but we would appreciate having you along." 

"I don't mind joining you. I'll get packed for a trip of indeterminate length."

Nod. 

"It's probably for the best that we're leaving; there's really only so long I can be in the vicinity of Lan Qiren before pissing him off so badly he can't help but notice that it's me." 

"He can be prickly. I never talk to him without checking it'll go smoothly first."

"Smart. He is the fuddy-duddiest of all fuddy-duddies." 

"I'm sure there's worse somewhere. I mean, my planet has seven and a half billion people, probably somebody outdoes him."

"Okay, with that many people you might be right. But he is definitely the fuddy-duddiest in the world, even if not in all the worlds." 

"Perhaps."

"My uncle's standards are very strict."