"Okay," he says.

Lan Xichen is saying: "--Song Lan really should be here by now, did he die in the past two years?"

"No," Wen Ning says quietly, "he was at the induction."

"...he was a strong wizard and it's unusual for anyone to die the first day."

.........ahahaha what. 

"We got the first death of the year!" Nie Huaisang wails into Lan Xichen's thigh.

(Looks like they're back to local drama. He's going to get something to eat). 

"It's strange because something happened to the Americans, there are a bunch of mundanes walking around in pajamas and without shoes. They'd be easier food."

"That's...... really weird, yeah." 

What the fuck what the fuck how does someone from the Shanghai enclave die on the first day —

"And we don't have the supplies he carried in either. --Wen Ning, Nie Huaisang, you know what his things looked like, if you see someone with them kindly"-- he reconsiders the end of his sentence-- "come to me and I will tell them that those supplies belong to Shanghai and we would like them back."

He doesn't like losing a sixth of what they were supposed to come in with, and he doesn't like losing Song Lan, a strong reliable alchemist who could have been trusted to keep the others safe. Part of him wishes Wen Ning or Nie Huaisang had been the ones to die, but he shakes his head. The Shanghai enclave is his responsibility. Everyone in it is someone he must keep safe.

Meng Yao puts a hand on his shoulder. "Er-ge, there's nothing you could have done."

He rests his head affectionately against Meng Yao's arm. "I know. It's just. A bad omen."

And if you can't keep your freshmen safe what the hell kind of chances do I have of doing it, she thinks, and doesn't say it because that's rude, and are literally all of the Shanghai kids as useless as Wen Ning and Nie Huaisang, she thinks, and doesn't say it because that's both egregious and cruel.

She's not sure what on earth she's supposed to do here. She makes her excuses, and gets back to the Kyoto kids.