"Yes. I'm Meng Yao, Lan Xichen's sworn brother."

Tintin absolutely will not let any trace of shock show on his face. He bows instead, slightly belatedly. "I am very pleased to make your acquaintance. As I was granted my slot by Shanghai's testing system, I thought I should come and pay my respects to the enclave that is responsible for my good fortune."

So he's either aware enough to know that Meng Yao is Lan Xichen's second-in-command or... he chose to pay his respects to the maintenance track kid. Interesting, either way.

Also, he's white, which is odd.

"Pleased to meet you. The tests are awful, aren't they? Especially if you didn't grow up in an enclave."

"They are... rigorous. It is fortunate that my parents were able to instill in me a love for poetry." At the expense, probably, of other skills, not that he's going to say that out loud. "I forget my manners. My name is Tintin - Corentin Saint-Martin, in the western style. I am from Singapore. It remains a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"What track are you planning to go for? I'm languages." Maintenance.

"Alchemy." He gestures to his gun. "Milu requires a great deal of care, if he is to stay by my side for four years. I am sure I would not do well with languages - even growing up in Singapore, I barely speak English and Tamil. My respects to you."

"It's unusual to have a gun in the Scholomance."

"Most students of the Scholomance do not have an affinity for firearms. They may be glad of it. - I, of course, am very happy to have my faithful Milu. But I must admit that were I any heavier than I am, he would not be a convenient ally."

"One of the Shanghai freshmen, Lan Wangji, has a sword. It's named Bichen."

"Exciting. He is the brother of your sworn brother? Bichen is an auspicious name for a sword." (It's weird, actually, but it's not like he's going to say that. But really, who wants their sword to avoid worldly matters? A sword should be entrenched in worldly matters. Frankly, it's what a sword does.)

"He is. We're all looking forward to having someone with a combat affinity, Shanghai enclave has been low on those."

Subtext obvious.

Subtext very obvious. Meng Yao is clearly not someone who drops bombs like that lightly. Tintin very nearly raises his eyebrows.

"Shanghai enclave is strong in many ways. Force of arms is but one facet of a successful polity."

"We're very lucky to have a person with a healing affinity and a person with a warding affinity, and I'm lucky that Lan Xichen has been gracious enough to allow me to take advantage."

"It is fortunate indeed to have such magic at your disposal. And I am sure it is not his abundant grace but his good sense that causes him to keep you so close to his side."

Does he think he will butter him up. Meng Yao ducks his head. "Lan Xichen is very gracious."

He inclines his in turn, and lowers his voice. "If I may be so unkind as to ask - your sworn brother's young friend. Is he going to be alright?"

"Lan Xichen considers it his duty to make sure everyone in Shanghai enclave gets out alive," Meng Yao says, which is not an answer.

Signed, sealed, and delivered.

"He is a very good man, then. I hope to have the privilege to be able to provide Lan Xichen and the Shanghai enclave with any small service I may offer."

That boy has a gun. 

"Hello," he says, sniffly but brave, "I'm Nie Huaisang."

Oh shit.

"Hello. I am Tintin, from Singapore; it is a pleasure to meet you, Nie Huaisang."

Sniff sniff. "A pleasure to meet you too."

(And part of him is thinking, because part of him is always thinking, he needs to be pathetic enough to see if this Tintin has a thing for saving people, or wants to take advantage of him, but not so pathetic that he's unappealing right away--)

"I just. I don't know what to do."

A flash of unhappy sympathy.

"I am sorry. I know that Lan Xichen will help you to the best of his ability - I have heard he is a great man. And the first thing to do is to learn what to do."

"I've tried," he says, "but my affinity is art-- you want birds that really fly, I can do that for you--"

An affinity for art. Tintin has heard of worse affinities. He's sure he could name one, given some time.

"My affinity is for firearms, and some people said that this would get me killed. I have turned it to my advantage. Does your affinity extend to, um, engravings on artifacts?"

"My affinity is very opinionated. It wants things to be pretty."

(He could probably do a ward if he wanted to drain half the power of the Shanghai enclave to do it. This he's not going to mention. Some kinds of useless are safer than others.)

Tintin nods, a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. "Then - perhaps what you should do is attend to your studies with the fervor of one who has no other choice. And, in the meantime, perhaps you should apply yourself to the task of diplomacy? You have a talent that may endear you to those with the resources to appreciate it."

"I can brew pretty good moonshine out of the fruits available in the cafeteria."

This startles a laugh out of Tintin. "That is also a talent that may endear you to some! I imagine if you can refine the alcohol sufficiently then it might be alchemically useful - and even if not, well, temperance is not the best loved of virtues."

Huaisang's survival chances tick up in Tintin's head. Not by much, but any.

"I was-- planning to take advantage of da-ge's connections to set myself up trading."

"- you can still do that, I think? The people who knew your brother surely still exist - at least, most of them. Could you ask other enclavers for references, or at least a general idea of who he knew?"

He shakes his head. "I could-- that's a good idea-- oh, I'm just not sure at all what to do."

He's helpful, which is a good sign.

"Oh, you mustn't give up now - what if I come with you to ask Lan Xichen? He was very kind to you before, and I am sure he would help you now."

Score!

What the fuck does this kid want from him. He's way too prepubescent to want sex.

"Oh, probably he would help!"

The absolute headrush of helping someone materially with their problems without making any actual sacrifices is powerful enough to wipe away all thoughts of compensation from Tintin's head!

"Come on -" Tintin does not run over because that would be disrespectful to Lan Xichen but he does walk more quickly than he has been. "Um. Lan-gongzi?"

"I'm afraid I don't have the pleasure of your acquaintance."

"Oh, my apologies - I am Tintin, Corentin Saint-Martin is my full name in Western style, I am from Singapore, I spoke with your sworn brother Meng-gongzi earlier but of course he cannot give you the acquaintance of every stranger who comes to his attention, or at least not inside of a few minutes. But - I have been speaking with Nie Huaisang and he desired to request an intra-enclave favor, since his plans have been so disrupted, and I, um, decided to come with him." Why did he decide that again. It was objectively a very strange decision.

"Oh, er-ge, I was going to trade things and now da-ge is dead and I don't have any contacts to start trading with!"

"What were you going to trade, a-Sang?"

"Moonshine and pornography."

"I... am not sure that we want that associated with the dignity of the Shanghai enclave."

Putain de Dieu. He must intervene.

"I was not informed of the pornography, but - moonshine can be distilled further into aqua vitae, a perfectly respectable alchemical reagent if not an uncommon one. Additional sources of anything useful for alchemy surely cannot go amiss."

"And are you planning on selling it as aqua vitae, a-Sang?"

"Yes! No! I don't know! Oh, oh, oh, don't ask me things!"

"I cannot imagine that he would go against the expressed wishes of the leader of his enclave on this matter?"

How has this boy survived fourteen years. Experts everywhere are dumbfounded.

"Perhaps we can set you up in trading alchemical ingredients, a-Sang."

Yay!

- or - um. The thought of Nie Huaisang at a negotiating table is giving Tintin dire visions.

What do you want for the aqua vitae, Huaisang? We won't go above five crystals.

Don't ask me, don't ask me, don't ask me! Five is fine!

"...It pains me to question your decision," he forces himself to say, "but if he has been concocting moonshine then - I must wonder if his talents would be better served in the production of reagents than in their distribution? I am an alchemist, and I know I would be lost at the negotiating table."

"That's an excellent point, Tintin-gongzi. Perhaps a-Sang can make reagants and someone else can sell them."

"Oh! That would be good, er-ge!"

Thank God.

"I am happy to have contributed. And - perhaps we will be in similar classes and we will be able to assist each other sometimes."

The obvious pleasantry. They don't know their schedules yet, and Tintin suspects that he would be assisting Huaisang more than the other way around, unless - 

"Huaisang, do you know English very well? It is a terrible weakness of mine."

"Luckily, I'm very good with languages," Nie Huaisang says in unaccented English.

"Amazing!" Tintin says in quite accented English. He switches back to Mandarin. "Then perhaps we can arrange to help each other more formally! It would be nice to have such an arrangement so early."

"Oh, yes, it would be lovely to have an arrangement!"

Does this kid want English tutoring. Nie Huaisang guesses that's one of his limited skills.

This kid absolutely wants English tutoring. He wants English tutoring badly enough that he is willing to take on a dangerously open-ended deal with an obvious flake who at least speaks the damn language.

"I will assist you with the parts of alchemy assignments that you are having trouble with if you will agree to spend at least an equal amount of time helping me learn English to a satisfactory level, subject to renegotiation once my level of English fluency is mutually agreed to be satisfactory, if we have three or more lab accidents which could cause serious bodily injury, or by Christmas."

"We have ourselves a deal."

Kid does not take pity on useless people. Dammit.

(That was a substantial amount of pity, actually. If pity were not involved Tintin would not be making this deal at all.)

Tintin smiles. "I look forward to a mutually beneficial arrangement." Then he bows and - consciously does not scamper off, because that would still be rude. He walks away. At a reasonable pace.