HUG. 

"I'll write you dozens more love letters, if you want," she says fiercely. "That's not--compared to everything else--love letters are replaceable. People aren't. Fuck Wen Xu."

Hug. So much hug.

"How long can you stay?"

"I...guess if I stay much longer than would be plausible for, uh, the kind of thing Wen Chao thinks I want you for, then questions might be asked..."

Cuddlecuddle.

"Once you leave. Will Wen Xu return?"

"I can't...guarantee that he won't. But I can try to keep him distracted." 

Squeeze. "Unnecessary."

"Is it still unnecessary if I clarify that attempting to distract him doesn't involve me specifically interacting with him more than would otherwise be necessary." 

"...no. I love you."

"I love you. Don't worry, you have a strong ally in dajie in terms of making sure Wen Ying doesn't take unnecessary risks with her own safety." 

Kisskiss. Lan Zhan is very grateful for Wen Qing.

Maybe they can spend the rest of the time they have kissing?

Sounds good. Wen Ying is in favor of waiting for better conditions than this horrible dingy cell to consummate their marriage but they can do so much kissing right now. 

In addition to the rest of the medicines and the weapons, Wen Ying also leaves Lan Zhan with the manacle key and a hickey she can hide under her hair. 

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

(It is also probably a good idea to wait until Lan Zhan is More Healed from various injuries than she is presently before marriage consummation, but Lan Zhan still finds this pretty disappointing. Alas.)

Wen Ying's siblings are together near her rooms, anxiously awaiting her return.

Wen Ying arrives and shuts the door behind her and leans against it with a sigh. 

"Okay. So. There's good news. They managed to hold off Wen Xu long enough to get all the children to safety. And there were definitely at least several non-children survivors. Zewu-jun may or may not be one of them. The situation is still not good but there was no way it was going to be good. Uh, there's other good news but it's both way more complicated and way less objectively important than that." 

Noises of relief at the news about children survivors!

And then:

"What does that mean?"

"So it turns out...Lan Zhan and I are...married?"

"What."

"So, apparently, some combination of things that happened in the cave with Lan Yi, at least one of which was when she wrapped her headband around my wrist so the cave magic wouldn't register me as a non-Lan and keep attacking me, technically resulted in us being married, and she didn't say anything because she didn't think I liked her that way, and Wen Chao decided to tell her about when I threatened him if he touched her, but in, like, the most Wen Chao way possible, so she was confused and hurt when I showed up and when that got cleared up some other things also cleared up and uh we kissed a lot." 

Wen Ning bounces in his seat. "Woww. Congratulations on your marriage, Er-jie! Sh- should we be getting Lan-er guniang presents?"

"It's not a great time for that right now, A-Ning. Fucking Wen Chao. Of course he would find a way to -- 

Ugh, anyway. I'm happy for you, A-Ying. Who else knows?"

"If she told anyone else in the Lan sect she didn't say. And...they might not still be alive anyway. I guess Lan Yi must, if she's still around." 

Nod. “It’s for the best that no one know, for now. Were you able to treat all her wounds? I can make time to see her.”

"I got everything. There's nothing that's going to get worse at this point unless someone makes it worse, which is plausible, or we're really unlucky with infection." 

And then she lists off the injuries and what medicine was applied to each, her voice entering a dangerous growl when she mentions the broken leg. 

She nods along approvingly to Wen Ying's medical account. That all sounds correct, yes.

She hugs her sister. "You did very well. I'm happy for you."