Hug. "I'm so glad she's alive. I'm so glad she doesn't hate me, let alone--I feel happy and I feel kind of bad for being happy because objectively my love life--our love life--is so much less important than all the people who died, it would make sense if I was this happy about the children surviving..." 

"There have been many tragedies. Take joy where you can, A-Ying, it's alright."

Hug. 

"You're so much smarter than me where it matters, Jiejie."

He would like to join the hug!!! Hug.

He's so relieved that his sister gets to be happy again, even a little, and Lan-guniang seems like a pretty reliable sister-in-law to acquire. Wen Ning is having a good day.

It's a really great day when you grade it against the curve of adjacent days. 

One such adjacent day comes a few days later when the Indoctrination starts. She stands a little behind Wen Chao and to his right, as he drones on to the other sects' disciples who have been strong-armed here. She makes vague apologetic faces and "no I can't believe he's this dumb either" gestures behind his back but where it is extremely obvious to the hostages. 

Fortunately Jiang Yanli is not here. Unfortunately, her little brother and Mianmian are. 

Mianmian gives Wen Ying a little wave when she first files into the Indoctrination plaza! And hides giggles behind her hand during the comedic gestures.

They bring Lan Zhan in after all the other disciples. She cuts an impressive figure, for a prisoner. Freshly dressed in five layers of her pristine white, which billow as she glides in long, deliberate strides across the plaza. Wen guards march her at a quick pace, with no consideration for her broken leg, all the way to the front of the group. They leave her there, all on her own between the Nie and Jiang delegations.

Lan Zhan stares straight ahead. Drowns out Wen Chao and focuses on managing the pain of her leg, her most recent injuries. She very carefully does not look at Wen Ying (her wife who is glad to be her wife) even a little bit.

Sure is dumb of Wen Chao to super upstage himself by giving Lan Zhan (her wife~<3) such a cool dramatic entrance (also, separately, she wants to gut him for the lack of consideration of Lan Zhan's broken leg) but it's not like the fact that Wen Chao is a massive idiot is news. 

The sword confiscation thing is--well, she wasn't expecting it, but, again, super in character for Wen Chao's particular line of dumbness. The way Mianmian talks Jin Zixuan down from resisting doesn't say great things about Jin Guangshan but one horrible sect leader at a time, and he's definitely less horrible than Wen Ruohan. 

Then Wen Chao drones about the self-importance of the Wen Sect in general and himself in particular for a few hours while Wen Ying mocks him, literally behind his back, using things like the "talky talky blah blah blah" hand gesture. 

Heh. Huaisang is extremely stressed out right now, but at least Wen Ying is funny enough to lighten the mood!

She really is! Wen Chao is terrible and Jin Guangshan kind of sucks and Mianmian is really glad that Wen Ying is here, even if her having to be a part of the Wen Clan is still pretty unfortunate.

Lan Zhan still can't acknowledge her.

But she loves her, very much.

Wen Ying would LIKE to go check on Lan Zhan immediately, but actually the sword confiscation thing was really bad and dumb and also Lan Zhan hadn't had Bichen before that, either, which is not good, but anyway now all the swords are in one spot and she can go get them and give them back to their owners with quiet warnings to keep them hidden. 

MEANWHILE, somebody ELSE is visiting Lan Zhan! 

"Lan-guniang," he says archly, one eyebrow raised, flanked by armed guards carrying bundles. 

-- well, at least it isn't Wen Xu. (He has visited her cell, every so often, and it has not been fun.) That probably means she is not about to be tortured.

However: what the fuck is this.

She glances once over Wen Chao and the armed guards, their mysterious bundles, before pointedly looking away in disinterest.

He nods to the guards (both of whom are female) and turns and walks out of the cell, letting the door shut behind him. 

One of the guards sets their bundle down very close to Lan Zhan and then backs up slightly. "You're to change into that," she says brusquely. 

...

What happens if she just. Keeps ignoring them.

The guard who lowered the bundle prods at Lan Zhan's broken leg with her foot, is what. 

"The Young Master doesn't like to be kept waiting," she says coolly. 

Owfuck.

Lan Zhan is inclined to not cooperate with them in any way, no matter how long and painfully that drags this out. That has been her typical protocol, during this imprisonment.

But she actually... really really does not want Wen Chao to storm back in here while she is changing or being changed, and she does not want these guards to splinter her leg into further fragments if it can be avoided.

She strips as efficiently as she can, with one leg broken and one hand still shackled to the wall. It is an exquisitely painful process, and she is cold and humiliated and she hates this. Lan Zhan struggles to don the bundle-contents quickly. 

The guard unchains her hand from the wall when it becomes evident that there really is a limit to one's ability to don sleeves this way. 

The resulting outfit is...not quite immodest. There are enough layers to be functionally opaque, at least in the right areas, although each one is incredibly light and airy and translucent. 

Once she's dressed her hands are bound behind her back and her ankles are shackled together just far enough apart that she can take tiny steps on her own. 

She feels immodest. She feels exposed and vulnerable, even knowing how little normal robes managed to protect her from pain or humiliation. (These silks are beautiful: something she might enjoy wearing in private. Somewhere other than a fucking dungeon. Right now she only resents them.)

She pulls her wrists apart, testing the strength of the new shackles, and waits for the guards to proceed.

Each of the guards takes her by one elbow, and they lead her out of the cell. Wen Chao's eyes rake over her when he sees her, and he smirks. He starts leading the guards down the corridors and through the palace. 

Ew ew ew ew she hates this.

He has not touched her and he is not going to touch her (probably) but her stomach still clenches, she still feels cold and prickly and numb all over with disgust. How is it possible for one person to be so foul.

Walking through the palace with her bad leg shackled so closely to her good one is a grueling nightmare. She stumbles often. The pain, while excruciating, is at least a distraction from the embarrassment of her state of dress.

Eventually, at no specific signal she can see, they stop in front of a particular door. 

"Tell my cousin I said, 'you're welcome,'" he sneers, as the guards open the door, shove her inside, and slam the door shut. 

OW OW OW FUCK -- 

-- what -- where is she --  

There is a bed, with slightly messy bedding. There is a desk, with a handful of papers scattered on the top. There is a wardrobe, closed so the contents aren't visible. There are a handful of chests. 

The notes on the desk are on no topic of particular consequence, but they're in Wen Ying's handwriting.