"Nope! He was zero percent involved. He wasn't even at risk of being hit by a piece of wall like I guess A-Cheng slightly was." 

"Ah. I am glad to hear so, thank you. And... is Lan-guniang alright?"

She tries to put herself together and respond affirmatively, but when she moves to stand she nearly blacks out.

That's fine, actually, she'll just. Let Wei Ying handle the talking. Wei Ying usually handles the talking. Lan Zhan will instead handle: leaning semi-conscious on Wei Ying's shoulder and incidentally smelling her hair.

"...Uhhh, I'm not sure. She was, uh, a prisoner, I didn't see any overt injuries but it's not like I watched her change into that guard uniform or anything. She should have a bath? And then a healer? Probably? And then like sleep for a week maybe." 
 

"That can be arranged." 

He summons some guards to come retrieve Wen Chao from the dirt and drag him off to the dungeons. Someone else is sent to fetch servants who can look after Lan Zhan. Meng Yao leads them inside the compound while they wait for the servants to show up.

"Are you injured yourself, Wei-guniang? If it is no hardship, it would be wise to update Sect Leader Nie as soon as possible."

Sheeee does not love abandoning Lan Zhan to random servants but probably it will be okay and she can't think of how to object without revealing things she isn't willing to reveal without Lan Zhan's consent. 

"I'm fine, let's go." 

They head in that direction. The servants catch up to them before they reach the throne room and survey Lan-guniang a little nervously. Can she walk? Should they carry her?

--Uh she's very very tired and doesn't love strangers touching her maybe Wei Ying should just hold onto her for now. 

Okay, they'll just. Hang around being available for now, then.

Meng Yao smiles and continues leading them to his sect leader.

Nie Mingjue raises an eyebrow when they come in. 

Wei Ying launches into her explanation. See, she and A-Cheng and the rest of the Jiang disciples showed up at Nightless City, and she noticed there weren't any Lan disciples, and combined with what Wen Chao said about Wen Xu that was worrying, and then it only got more worrying when Wen Chao had Lan Zhan marched in by armed guards, and then Wen Chao said they had to turn in their swords, and Jin Zixuan tried to object but it was really clear Wen Chao wasn't going to be remotely reasonable, so Mianmian, this one Jin disciple who's pretty cool, Wei Ying knows her from their Cloud Recesses days, they weren't close friends but anyway Mianmian has a sensible head on her shoulders, she talked Jin Zixuan into handing over his sword by reminding him that Jin Guangshan was a boot-licking little toady who was fine with the peacock getting humiliated if it made his life easier--

"Wait, sorry, is that rude, he's sorta technically your father too even if he literally the exact opposite of ever did anything to earn the title," she says to Meng Yao. 

He has extremely mixed and strong feelings about this, but at least one of them is positive. That's very unusual.`

A very small smile and a duck of his head. "I appreciate the sentiment, Wei-guniang."

"Anyway, so after he was done taking everybody's swords, he told us we had to memorize the Wen sect's rules and history, and then he babbled at us for a while longer and then he dismissed us. I took enough of a look at the rules to notice that, uh, they're breaking them all the time and strictly speaking if someone walked right into the palace and killed Wen Ruohan they'd just be enforcing his own sect rules against him ANYWAY I still had this really strong feeling like something was wrong, so I tried to leave, but they had guards on the houses and weren't letting anyone out, so I snuck out a window. Then I mugged a random Wen soldier for his uniform and walked around until I found Lan Zhan in a dungeon, and she told me they were going to wipe out the rest of the Lan sect if she escaped, and I pointed out that they have passed up zero opportunities to be dishonorable fuckers, and suggested that taking Wen Chao and leaving would be a better deterrent, and then we set things up so it'd look like she kidnapped me against my will so the rest of the Jiang disciples wouldn't get in trouble, and we bolted." 

"I see." 

Nie Mingjue quizzes her on details which she either provides or elides depending on how sensitive they are until he finally dismisses them. 

The servants can lead Wei-guniang and Lan-guniang to a bath, now, if they would like?

Sure, yes, good, excellent.

"Lan Zhan, there's a bath," she murmurs. "Can you handle that by yourself or should I help?"

“Stay.”

"Okay." 

Slowly, cautiously, telegraphing every move far in advance, she starts helping Lan Zhan out of the Wen soldier's uniform. 

The slow movements are appreciated. Lan Zhan still starts shivering uncontrollably the moment air touches her bare skin, but she doesn't want to stop.

It's not a pretty sight, with her clothes off. There are bruises approximately everywhere. Some blood. Her right leg in particular boasts a nasty explosion of bruises, dark green and discolored and ugly. She looks... well, like someone who has been incompetently tortured for the past week. 

Lan Zhan would like to be submerged in the bath as quickly as possible, now, please.

She hisses at the bruises and gets Lan Zhan in the hot water as fast as possible without doing anything she judges as probably-alarming. 

She...hesitates...and picks up the washcloth and starts gently washing places that seem likely to have the least traumatic connections to someone else touching Lan Zhan's bare skin, quietly praying that the water will wake Lan Zhan up enough to wash herself before she has to go anywhere too delicate. 

She's in luck; Lan Zhan rouses and blinks up at her.

"Wei Ying."

"Lan Zhan." 

She is NOT going to attempt to snuggle her friend while the latter is naked in the bath. That would be a bad idea for so many reasons, but a few of those reasons actually matter so she will forbear. 

"Can you, um, wash yourself? I, uh, I think there are, probably, places, you don't want anyone else touching," she says, cheeks heating up. 

"Mn." She takes the washcloth. She doesn't look at where she moves the washcloth.

"Thank you. You came."

"I'm sorry it took me so long. I--I should have come with you when you left the Unclean Realm the first time."

"No. Wei Ying should not have been there."