"Hey Lan Zhan when this is all over can we show A-Ning the bunnies???"

"Yes."

"Oh, th- thank you, Lan-guniang! Qishan doesn't have any bunnies."

Nod.

"Next time I won't promise to follow all the rules and then I won't have to worry about the bunnies counting as pets. Jiang Cheng couldn't bring his dogs, he was sad about it." 

It is pretty sad that the bunnies aren't supposed to be kept as pets.

Although. Lan Zhan doesn't thing there was anything wrong with moving the bunnies to a nice warm forrest. That isn't keeping them as pets, necessarily, when there are no rules against animals living in Cloud Recesses by themselves. 

And maybe she feeds them sometimes but they aren't dependent on her for food, which a real pet might be.

And they are really really cute and good.

"Please don't go causing trouble even when you haven't expressly promised not too, A-Ying."

"I won't! But I can follow the important rules like not lying without worrying about whether or not I'm technically breaking the rules by doing something innocuous like playing with bunnies or working off energy by running around in the forest or something." 

"Can you not concentrate energy into meditation?"

"Meditation reliably increases the amount of energy I need to work off, not lowers it." 

"Hm."

An hour into their boat ride a dark bird swoops overhead, trailing wisps of black smoke.

She scowls at the bird. 

Questioning look.

"Uh, Wen Chao broke into Cloud Recesses last night to creep on me and your older brother about the Yin Iron, and I'm pretty sure that thing is his." She shifts uncomfortably, having hoped to leave her siblings in the dark about why she hadn't slept well the night before.

"What? A-Ying, why didn't you tell me! You need to tell me these things! What did he say? What did you tell him?"

"We were busy getting ready to leave in the morning! Uh, he said he'd warned Zewu-jun that he'd better hand over the Yin Iron or...something unpleasant might happen to Lan Zhan. And, uh, that I had better be willing to do what he said if he decided to follow through on that threat. I said I had the situation in hand and what was the point of having undercover agents if you were just going to blow their covers when you felt like it and that if my mission failed because he was clumsy at it I was going to put the whole thing at his feet in front of his father." 

"With this bird, he is following us?"

"Apparently yeah."

"He does not trust you to bring him the Yin Iron. Will he try to interfere before we find it?"

"Well, if he does, I can definitely blame him for the fact that I 'failed.'"

"Mm."

The bird appears several more times over a period of hours, but never causes them any trouble directly. 

It gets dark before the Yin Iron is satisfied with their progress. After the first dozen stars become visible, Lan Zhan steers over to the riverbank to set up camp.

Wen Ning very earnestly volunteers to set up the tents while they get out food!

Everyone helps set up camp. 

When everything is set up and they're all seated around a merrily crackling fire, Wen Ying draws a jar of alcohol and a set of cups out of her sleeves and starts pouring, handing a cup to each of her siblings. 

She hesitates over a fourth cup. 

"Do you want some, Lan Zhan? We're not in Cloud Recesses right now, and it seems like a shame to grow up your whole life so close to such a famous specialty without ever trying it." 

Wen Ying in the flickering golden firelight is something terrifying. Her eyes sparkle too beautifully to look at directly.

"Drinking alcohol is forbidden."