Pat pat hug. "It's less trouble than finding a dead body and not walking in on a scene of clear self-defense," she points out. 

She shudders. "Sect Leader Nie... would you not have believed me?"

"I would. But he was popular with his men. They'll believe me when I say what I saw with my own eyes." The "or else" is left unsaid except by the narrowing of her eyes.

"Thank you, Sect Leader."

Pat pat hug. 

Sect Leader Nie probably wants to go back to the celebration... Meng Yao should stop imposing on her sect leader and clean up here, shouldn't she?

Sect Leader Nie rolls her eyes. "Meng Yao. You really think I could just ignore one of my subordinates doing something like that?"

"Meng Yao apologizes for making assumptions. It is only... this captain has often demeaned and mistreated me, always insulting my mother.

I imagined Sect Leader Nie must know something I did not about his merit, otherwise such behavior would never be borne. It did not occur to me that his actions had been so discreet all along. Forgive me."

She steps back in order to bow deeply, face painted with guilty sorrow.

She rubs her face with both hands. 

"Well. Now you know. Next time you assume I must know more than you about a situation, please bring it to my attention anyway before it comes to a head."

She doesn't sound recriminatory, or very guilty. Mostly just...tired. 

"Yes, Sect Leader.

Do you want me to leave?"

"I don't want you to feel obliged to be anywhere near his corpse if you don't want to, but I'm not going to chase you out."

She ducks her head and speaks quietly. "I would not like to be alone."

HUG. 

"I know that...coming from a background like yours, it would be hard to let your guard down around a politically powerful cultivator," she says after a little while. "But we aren't all the same. I'm not your father, and I'm not the person he was hiding from me." She nods at the corpse. "I won't ever penalize you for being careful around me. But I hope someday to earn your full trust."

It wouldn't be very ~in character~ in her current predicament to try to fuck Nie Mingjue tonight, but Meng Yao really wants to.

There will be time for that eventually, though. It is among her Plans. 

"I have never feared your intent," she murmurs.

Snort. "If intent was the only way to do harm," 

She shakes her head. 

Indeed. Meng Yao's plans to fuck Nie Mingjue do not actually involve trusting her.

-- they should call someone to clean up this mess and then retire for the evening. Sect Leader Nie had too much on her plate even before this happened, and should get some rest.

Nie Mingjue will take care of that. It will be...less awkward that way. But Meng Yao can bully her into promising to go to bed immediately afterwards if she tries hard and believes in herself.

Meng Yao is pretty good at believing in herself.

She does not sneak into Nie Mingjue's bed. She curls up alone under her own covers and thinks of the noise the captain made when her knife entered his gut, and smiles.

In the morning, she wakes to something of a Situation on their hands.

Such a situation. 

Meng Yao had not, previously, had any opportunity to interact with Wen Chao, but he is really not defying any negative impressions she might have of male cultivators, at all. 

This is unsurprising and unremarkable. As long as Wen Chao is not actively being a male cultivator in her direction, Meng Yao has no complaints.

She runs around coordinating soldiers and being as useful as possible, as directly in Nie Mingjue's line of sight as possible. Her mind flashes to Xue Yang - perhaps he's worth setting loose, honestly, if this is the kind of trouble his imprisonment will bring the Unclean Realm - but that isn't a sensible priority in the chaos of battle.

Making sure that their other guests are awake and being useful, however, is. Meng Yao sends a guard running to check.

The guests are, as it transpires:

A) Super awake

B) Super useful

B1) Super kickass

B2) Super diverting Wen Chao and his objectionable male cultivator behavior. 

The wonders of what being raised as the heir and first disciple of a major sect can do for you.

Great. In that case, Meng Yao can keep her attention focused on Huaisang and Mingjue from the sidelines.

Oh look, Nie Mingjue appears to have gotten into a duel with the Core-Melting Hand. 

Oh shit. Since she still doesn't have a cultivator sword, Meng Yao can't do much more than Hover Supportively. Her stomach clenches whenever the Core-Melting Hand lunges forward.

Nie Mingjue ultimately manages to drive him off with some significant but not Definitely Permanently Debilitating injuries, at which point he regroups with Wen Chao outside the walls and Wen Chao leers at the guests some more and yells some very concerning stuff about Cloud Recesses before fleeing with his tail between his legs.