"So are you planning to actually try to break the engagement, or just have the world's most awkward marriage ever?" 

"Leave me alone!!! I don't care!!!"

He DOES care, but he hates this conversation so much and he hates having it in front of all these people even more and he hates tripping over his own tongue in front of Jiang-guniang like this and he wants it to be OVER. Zixuan turns on his heel and runs away from the group as fast as he can.

"Gongzi -- wait, gongzi --!!" A decent portion of the group promptly dashes after him.

"...I hope I didn't make that worse," she sighs. "I'm sorry you're engaged to an emotional dunce," she pats Yanli's shoulder.

"Thank you for trying to stand up for me, anyway." 

"You're welcome. If we all meet up again sometime when I'm not constrained to follow a promise to follow rules that prohibit fighting and he's still being an idiot then I'll beat him up for you," she offers. 

Tiny chuckle. "Please don't." 

"I won't hold you to that if you change your mind, but I also won't beat him up without your permission." 

"He deserves it." 

"If you want him beaten up without your sister's permission you can do it yourself." 

Scowl. Headshake. "We're both sect heirs, it'd be a bad idea." 

"Yeah, politics sucks," she says sympathetically. She turns to Lan Zhan and pats her shoulder. "I hope your brother has loads of kids and nobody cares what you get up to," she says sincerely. 

Yeah, of course Wen Ying doesn't care whether or whom Lan Zhan marries. Lan Zhan jerks her shoulder out of reach and doesn't say anything.

Wen Qing approaches her sister.

"I suppose I should be thankful you waited until the end of term to pick a fight like that with the heir of our strongest ally," she says dryly.

"He was being mean! I was just calling him on it! I never get to call anybody on their terrible behavior at home!"

"Yes, because of consequences. Do you think Qishan is the only place that contains consequences?" Her tone is exasperated but fond, not very serious.

"There's consequences and there's consequences! Not calling people on things is bad too, jiejie." 

"And it's so necessary to call people on being clumsy at romance now? My little sister is such a hypocrite."

Her face turns bright red. "I have no idea what you're talking about," she says through her teeth, her eyes darting at Lan Zhan. 

"Uh huh."

"Da-jie, I am not refraining from making overtures out of incompetence," she hisses under her breath. "Or at least not only incompetence. I'm not going to put anyone in a position of having to say yes or no to me until Wen Ruohan isn't making everything weird!"

She pats her shoulder. "I am not criticizing your decision-making on the matter, A-Ying. I'm only teasing. You're just adorably flustered about her, it's unusual!"

"She's incredibly good and also the prettiest person on the planet, it's not fair," she pouts. 

"She is quite pretty," Wen Qing concedes, patting her sister on the shoulder. "You've been very strong. Have you ever liked someone this much before?"