-- okay, well.

This is actually the most ideal place for her to be right now. Wen Chao may have inadvertently improved a situation for the first time in his life.

Less fortunately, that fall was extremely unfriendly to Lan Zhan's barely-healing leg. Her whole body has seized up with the pain of it. She needs to meditate and concentrate on repairing the damage before she does anything else, such as wriggling up off the floor.

Wen Ying has just finished returning the swords to the Jiang sect disciples; Jiang Cheng was quite reasonably pissed off but grudgingly thankful for the return of the swords and tentatively not blaming her for Wen Chao. 

Since the houses are all guarded, she's having to sneak in through windows. She drops lightly to the floor through a window of the Nie house and loudly whispers "Nobody kill me!" 

There are multiple yelps.

"Aah -- ! ? ?!

W- Wen-guniang? What is this, are you breaking us out? Do we have to climb through the window, that sounds very tiring..."

"No, not yet, I'm just here to smuggle everyone's swords back to them. Or sabers, in your case." 

"...oh."

Oh good........... his saber........... yay............

"Gosh, thank you, Wen-er guniang! When are we supposed to do something with these, will you tell us in advance?"

She smacks his arm lightly. "Don't be so sad, better to have it than not. It's not like you can meaningfully train with it! You'd get caught. So you don't need to be sad and you'll have it if you need to fly away in a hurry." 

"Ahaha, of course, I wasn't sad at all!" He pats her on the arm. "Really, Wen-er guniang, thank you for your help."

She props her hands on her hips. "Nie-gongxi, I have met you. You acted like I had promised to bring you moon cakes and brought bitter greens instead. I'm not reporting to your big brother on whether you practice your saber or not but if you're going to make being beautifully useless a lifestyle, you'd better be prepared to get out of the way so the people who do fight don't trip over you. Especially in Qishan."

"Trust me, Wen Ying, I'm going to get out of the way jjust the very second there's somewhere else to be," he whines. "I don't belong in any sort of way at all, I really -- really apologize for being anywhere near it! It wasn't my idea to come here and you knoww that."

"...Yeah, I know." She pats his shoulder. "Sorry, I'm really stressed out right now. Anyway, if I have any brilliant ideas I'll let you know." 

"I believe in you!! Do you, uh, need any help getting back out the window?"

"Nah, I'm good!" 

Suiting action to word, she pulls herself up and through the window, tumbling neatly to her feet on the ground outside. Okay, Jin house next. 

This time, she heralds her entrance with, "Mianmian!" 

"Wen-er guniang!!!" Mianmian hugs her enthusiastically.

Zixuan splutters. "Mianmian! What are you doing, you're hugging one of our captors? Was that among my father's orders? Wen Ying! Explain yourself at once."

"Jin-gongzi c'mon, can't you see that she's bringing us all our swords? Look!"

She hands him his sword. "Sorry for being related to people who suck. I'm working on it. Don't let on you have these, I didn't ask before taking them." 

"Hmph." He takes his sword.

She rolls her eyes and nudges him with her shoulder. "Thank you, Wen-er guniang. We are all very grateful."

"Please learn at least one social grace before you marry Yanli, she's a sweet girl who doesn't deserve this," Wen Ying says as she finishes handing out swords, then backflips out of the window before Jin Zixuan has a chance to reply. 

She heads back in to the palace. Okay, she should probably stop in at her room before she brings Lan Zhan Bichen, different outfits are optimal for sneaking around places you probably shouldn't be and for walking around like you own the place. 

She slides the door open thinking dreamy thoughts about her ~wife~

Wife: dressed in concubine silks and chained up on the floor, surprise!

Lan Zhan has been laying very still with her eyes closed, trying to persuade her leg to heal once again where it has lost progress. She is not too deep into meditation as to be unaware of her surroundings; when the door opens, her eyes widen and she looks up.

"--Lan Zhan??? Are you okay?" She bends down and hurriedly begins picking the locks on the manacles, too hurried to even try to figure out which key goes with them, instead just plucking a pair of thin sticks from her hair and working them open that way. "Did Wen Chao do this--do I need to go physically break him as soon as I've gotten you out of these and jiejie here--"

"Wen Ying, it is alright," she whispers, leaning towards her. "Wen Chao did not touch me."

"Okay but is this his fault." She gets the wrist manacles off and immediately shifts down to work on the ankle ones. 

"He said 'you're welcome.'" Lan Zhan sits up and rubs at her sore wrists, watching Wen Ying's nimble fingers work.

"I'm going to kill him. Not specifically over this, but this does bring to mind how much I'm going to kill him." She gets the ankle cuffs off. "I'm personally offended that he saw you in that. What the hell, when did he get good taste in clothes, his mistresses all look so lurid and crass."