Her sister is standing in the bloody courtyard with Sect Leader Nie. The moment the commotion started, Wen Qing started running to find either Nie Mingjue, to demonstrate how much she and A-Ying were not betraying him, or Wen Chao, to demonstrate how much she and A-Ying were not betraying him. 

She found Nie Mingjue first. So here she is, amongst battered, regrouping Nie warriors.

When she lays eyes on Wen Ying she cries out in relief and runs towards her. "A-Ying, there you are, are you hurt?"

"I'm fine! Sadly Wen Chao is already outside the walls and there is absolutely no way I can stab him and get away with it unless I kill every Wen sect member here except you and me." 

"Yes, definitely don't do that." She turns and bows to Nie Mingjue. "Sect Leader Nie, thank you for your hospitality. I apologize for the actions of the Qishan Wen. We will leave now."

He nods tightly. 

The two of them leave to cross over to The Moron. 

"There you are, A-Ying," Wen Chao says. 

"Don't fucking call me that," she snaps. "First you fuck over our entire village, then you assault a fortress we are currently inside? You're lucky Sect Leader Nie didn't decide to take us hostage!" 

"You wouldn't have made very good hostages," he says coolly. "I'm sure you could have fought your way out." 

"That's because you're a moron," she says flatly, "who doesn't understand that actions have consequences! That is a fortress with many choke points and the entire Nie sect inside. Do you think I could fight my way through all of them while also protecting Jiejie, who is a doctor and not a fighter?" 

He shrugs. "You're very creative." 

"Almost as creative you are stupid!" 

"I'm stupid, A-Ying? I'm not the one kissing up to a lowly Lan." 

"Kissing up? You--you realize this was like the entire point of my mission was convincing her I could be trusted in pursuit of the Yin Iron! Which, incidentally, I was forced to leave the Unclean Realm without, so thanks for utterly ruining months of work--although to be fair to you, you've been ruining it since we left Cloud Recesses--" 

"That didn't look like undercover work, A-Ying--" 

"Don't FUCKING call me that," she roars, and takes a menacing step forwards. Wen Chao pales and takes a step back. 

"It didn't look like undercover work, Wen Ying," he says, voice shaking slightly. "You looked pretty convincingly cozy with her." 

Wen Ying closes her eyes and visibly restrains herself from further violence. 

"So what," she says. "So what if I want her? Do you think I can't have her? His Excellency knows how useful I am, he won't begrudge me one pretty Lan. She's mine. And if you lay one finger on what's mine, I will break a finger of yours for every infraction. And if I run out of fingers? Don't. Forget. How creative I AM."

"A-Ying," she says softly, touching her shoulder. Squeezing it, ready to restrain her.

"Wen Chao, you've fucked up enough for one day. The details of the mission that you ruined are not any of your concern. You're lucky A-Ying didn't kill you on Dafan Mountain, and you're lucky A-Ying isn't killing you now. Drop it."

He drops it. 

He doesn't say much of anything on the way back to Qishan (with a stop to let the girls detour to Dafan to pick up their brother, on their own because they flatly refused to let Wen Chao show his face to any of the villagers he traumatized) which is good because it lets Wen Ying regain her cool enough to not fly into another externally visible rage when she finds out what happened to Cloud Recesses. 

"A-Ying, I'm sorry."

"Dajie please make some excuse for us to leave so I can go back to our rooms and cry," she whispers.

She immediately goes off to do that. Wen Ning hugs Ying-jie's arm, which is not very conspicuous because he hugs his sisters really a lot.

Wen Qing returns seemingly in seconds. "A-Ying, A-Ning, we're leaving," she announces, and quickly whisks them out into the hall.

She hugs her brother and does not cry in public. 

And then they are not in public and she weeps into her siblings' shoulders.

Maybe it would be better to just destroy the entire sect save for the three of them. No, there are innocent people in it, like her family, like her entire village--but apparently their entire army is made up of not that--no, they could just be scared, she's done plenty of terrible things out of fear of Wen Ruohan and what he'll do to those she loves if she doesn't--none of those things were burning Cloud Recesses though--none of those people had been there before, they wouldn't understand...

"If Wen Xu survives the coup," she breathes, "and anyone survived the fires, I'm going to let them kill him." 

Her heart is breaking. Lan Zhan was--maybe still on the road--maybe she got away--but even if so, the odds that she would ever even be able to look Wen Ying in the eye ever again--which isn't the point, she can only pray that Lan Zhan's brother and uncle survived somehow, but even if so, how many must have died? Wen Ying's futile romantic fantasies shattering isn't the point, how many died, how much of all that knowledge and learning was destroyed--

She doesn't stop crying for a long time. 

Many, many people have died.

When Lan Zhan arrived at Cloud Recesses, there were already bodies piled at the gates and smoke visible in the sky beyond. She ran, knowing she was too late to save countless lives, knowing she still wasn't fast enough --

She dropped in from the sky between Wen Xu and the last survivors (so few, so few) of her Sect. Her wounded Uncle. Her -- not her brother. (Brother was gone, Brother was missing, Brother was not there for her to protect. Had she passed his body by? Was it burning?) She fended off the Wen army singlehandedly, diverting them, creating enough time for her Uncle and the other survivors to flee into the Cold Cave --

More survived than she thought. Two dozen Lans were huddled inside the cavern already, and -- children. The improved wards had held Wen Xu off just long enough to get all the children to safety. But even as the sight of more survivors fills her with relief -- behind her, not everyone made it to the cave. She heard wet, brutal slicing and cries of death; didn't know how many were dying, how many she failed.

She was able to see their bodies, of course, once Su She betrayed her brother and all of their people and Wen Xu drew her out. She saw their bodies as the Wen Soldiers restrained her, broke her leg. She saw their bodies as Wen Xu dragged her away. Corpses of those she had known and cared for and failed irredeemably. Too late.

Wen Xu wanted to know where the Yin Iron was, of course. Lan Zhan said nothing.

The whole road to Qishan, Wen Xu and his guard have beaten her and hurt her and humiliated her, and still she has said nothing. (They like to step on her broken leg, which is lazy of them. They like to cut her with Bichen, the few who are capable of lifting it. Once they hold her still and force alcohol down her throat, ostensibly to loosen her tongue for the interrogation; this tactic is upsetting but astronomically unsuccessful.) It has been a miserable trip, but the worst part is by far not knowing whether her Uncle or Brother remain alive.

Lan Zhan is not expecting her arrival at Qishan to make life any more pleasant, but at least she gets this time to be alone.

She is alone right now, in this lower floor of Nightless City's dungeon. The cell is cold and the chains are colder, scratching and burning her with the resentful energy they bear. She cannot stop shivering.

At least she is alone.

The most unpleasant pile of shit in the world continues to live up to it's horrid potential. 

"Hello, Lan-guniang," he drawls. 

Lan Zhan stares pointedly past him and says nothing.

"You're pretty enough, I'll admit," he says, in a tone that would be thoughtful in someone who ever thought. "But I cannot imagine what my cousin sees in you." 

That catches her off guard enough that she actually looks at him.

"Not that you don't look like you would be a pleasant diversion," he says, raking his eyes up and down her body, "but really." 

She looks away, eyes tight and furious. Discomfort turns her stomach. "Revolting."

He's a disgusting clown. She doesn't know why she almost took him seriously, thinking he meant something by what she sees in you. Wen Chao is only trying to offend her.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to touch a hair on your pretty little head," he says patronizingly. "Wen Ying is still a Wen, after all, and she's laid claim to you. I don't touch my cousins' toys without permission." 

"Explain yourself or leave."

"Oh, I noticed how snuggly the two of you were on your little walkabout, and when I asked her about it Wen Ying said she was sure His Excellency would give you to her," he says airily, waving a hand. 

"Liar."

"You can think what you like, for now," he says, voice dripping with condescension. "Goodbye, Lan-guniang." And he saunters away. 

She does not think that he's lying.

She sees no other reason why he would not assault her, with the way he behaves. And Wen Chao doesn't strike her as creative or subtle enough to invent this as a way of getting under her skin.

And that means --

Lan Zhan has spent the past miserable week working very, very hard to think about Wen Ying as little as possible. It was hard not to wonder if she'd known -- if asking Lan Zhan to stay in Qinghe until morning had been her way of keeping Lan Zhan from an attack Wen Ying knew was coming. But the Wen Ying she knew -- thought she knew -- was honest and sweet righteous, in her way. Would never.

Lan Zhan tried to stop loving her. Loving her was more foolish and dangerous than ever, and her sect needed her too badly, and Wen Ying had let Cloud Recesses burn --

Lan Zhan didn't succeed. And so now she's stuck with a stab of incredulous joy -- she wants me, she wanted to have me -- clashing with all the disgust and hurt and confusion and fear.

Wen Ying had been lying to her. Had wanted her from the beginning (awe-joy-gratitude) and said nothing? Had instead planned to get what she wanted after Wen Ruohan murdered Lan Zhan's family. Had -- had wanted this to happen to her, had been indifferent to all the death --

(But the children survived. The children survived because Wen Ying had helped them fix the wards, that had to mean something --)

The problem is that Lan Zhan wants Wen Ying. She wants Wen Ying to have her. To take her. If Wen Ying had asked Lan Zhan to be hers, her toy, could Lan Zhan have refused her?

That isn't important. What's important is the bodies burning in Cloud Recesses. What's important is Wen Ying not actually being the girl she loves, if everything has been a lie. What's important is the Yin Iron, which Wen Ying convinced Lan Zhan to leave behind in Qinghe -- she's so stupid --

Brother told her not to trust Wen Ying too much. And Lan Zhan did, and now Brother is probably dead.

But she thinks of Wen Ying laying claim to her, there's still arousal and wonder mixed into her horror. She can't get it out. Even now she can't stop being so, so stupid for this girl, and she feels helpless and she hates it and --

(At least she is still alone, on this floor of the cold, dark dungeon. No one can hear even the uneven breath of her crying.)

Some time later, there are footsteps in the corridor again. Less even, and faster. 

The door of her cell swings open, and Wen Ying is standing in the doorway, looking distraught. 

"Lan Zhan?"