"You don't have to sound so surprised. Obviously a-jie is all right, she's a Jiang."

"Yeah! Attempt the impossible."

"A-jie surviving is not impossible."

"It kind of is, a-Cheng! I had a lot of close calls. I'm very lucky I had such good friends to take care of me."

"Some friends," he grumbles, "haven't even come up with a treatment for your fibro--"

Nie Huaisang is the last of the enclave to arrive, because surviving involves going very very slowly, and there are enough kids that he won't be alone no matter how slow he goes. 

He looks around for da-ge*. He's more than six feet tall, he'll be easy to spot--

*Translator's note: older brother.

There's no da-ge.

Nie Huaisang moves towards the Shanghai enclave. Da-ge's late-- but he'd never be late, not to see Nie Huaisang. He's hiding. He was delayed. There's-- he's not-- he can't be-- 

Da-ge was the best fighter in the entire Shanghai enclave, he was tall and strong and fast, he knew sixteen languages and had mastered dozens of spells before he even got to the Scholomance, he was part of the enclave, he couldn't be, not when Jiang Yanli is still--

Nie Huaisang bursts into tears. 

(--and part of him is calculating, because part of him is always calculating, behind every one of his feelings there's a part of him trying to figure out how to use it to survive because if he's going to stay alive then absolutely nothing else has to matter, part of him is going how do I use this to find a new protector, part of him is going family reunion family reunion family reunion Jin Zixun is an asshole Jin Zixuan isn't a great option but it's better than turning off one of the others by interrupting their special moment--)

He throws himself into Jin Zixuan's arms.

"Uh. What."

"Da-ge is DEAD!"

"It happened three months ago. It was kind of gristly."

Nie Huaisang sobs harder.

"I give him three days."

"Shut the fuck up, asshole," Wei Ying says from his position enfolded in Jiang Yanli's arms. "He's grieving."

"Well, he's not going to be grieving for very long, because he's going to be mal food."

"Fuck you."

Da-ge is dead.

He doesn't know if he's crying for himself or for da-ge, who was always there, da-ge who kissed his scrapes when he was small and taught him to hold his first sword and was so proud of him when he got his first spell right, da-ge who let him follow him around everywhere and who smiled at his art and who always loved him even if he didn't understand him. 

"He kept this," Lan Xichen says. "I'm sure he would have wanted you to have it."

He hands Nie Huaisang a picture of a bird. Nie Huaisang had drawn it when he was twelve, a month before Nie Mingjue had left. It is crumpled, but like someone had very carefully smoothed it out afterward, had tried to save it. 

As he cries, the only thing Nie Huaisang can think is I'm so much better at perspective now and da-ge is never going to get to know. 

Dunya walks up to Jian and Lao and , interrupting, says "Hello, I'm Avdotya Kuzmina." in formal Mandarin in a strange accent.

"How do you do?"

His sister confirmed definitely alive (!!!) and not dead, Wei Wuxian starts to look around for something else interesting going on.

There's this white girl who looks like she is considering wading into the Chinese half of the room!

Julian hesitates for a moment between the English and Mandarin sides of the room. One the one hand, most of his mail is for Shanghai and Beijing – on the other, David Lau Tak-wah knows his face, and he's about to realize that his little brother isn't there and start thinking about who might be instead. 

Ah, might as well get it over with. He wades in. 

Most of Shanghai enclave seems to be absorbed in a freshman sobbing into the arms of an upperclassman who looks extremely discombobulated by this state of affairs.

Wow, that's.... a thing that is happening. What.

Ayako finds the Kyoto enclave first; she and Mei have a few letters to hand out and news to deliver-- who made it out of graduation, accomplishments of older and younger siblings and cousins, a few people have gotten married or had children since last year's induction. Haruto calls her Suzume-chan* just like he did when she was little and she hadn't quite realized how much she'd missed it.

And then she sets her attention on the Shanghai enclave, because seriously, what?

*little sparrow

There is clearly drama or fatality Huang has not been party to in Shanghai. She stays a polite distance back with the other rubberneckers in case information filters outward.