Nie Huaisang follows him to retrieve the supplies and then sets to work drawing. 

Ears full of Nie Huaisang's fulsome gratitude, Tomonori might fail to notice that he's winding up doing rather more of Nie Huaisang's work than he actually intended to.

Tomonori completely fails to notice that. Trying to avoid letting flattery pump up your ego is very hard when the thing you want most is to live in a wizard tower where people beseech you for help with their petty, irrelevant problems.

He might need Ego Booster/Crying Boy to hold beakers and stir things?

Ego Booster/Crying Boy will definitely do that. Does Tomonori want to tell him about alchemical theory? Nie Huaisang thinks that alchemical theory is fascinating, especially when Tomonori is explaining it. 

Tomonori will explain so much theory! In doing so he will finish two assignments, with quite a bit of time to spare. The first day isn't so bad.

Hopefully Ego B-

oh no he said his name! He said his name and Tomonori completely forgot his name. How can he ask without being rude?

"What was your name? I forgot."

"I'm Nie Huaisang." He looks so sad, like he really wanted Tomonori to care about him and remember his name, and now all his hopes are being crushed.

"Thank you."

Well that was probably terribly rude but now it's done, and so are the assignments.

"Can I see what you drew?"

"Yeah." He spreads them out. They're really good drawings, and there's a sketch of Tomonori that Nie Huaisang is sure to let him see and then embarrassedly hides under a picture of a chemical reaction.

"They look nice."

Probably? They seem like they're precise in the right way, but he's not sure if they're beautiful or whatever else art is supposed to be.

"Maybe next time you can do the condensing steps on your own."

"Maybe," he says, eager and curious and absolutely zero percent intending to do any steps that involve any (a) expenditure of mana or (b) risk of explosions. "Say, you wanted to see Lan Zhan's sword, right?"

!

"It's beautiful," he says instantly.

"I wish I could, but he told me Lan Xichen makes all of Shanghai's decisions and that Lan Xichen wouldn't want me."

"Oh, he just hates talking to people. I can get him to show you the sword."

"Really?"

Tomonori bounces.

Oh no he's so incredibly cute.* Nie Huaisang squeaks about it. 

"Of course. I'll do all the talking and he'll just sit there and say 'Mn.' Maybe do some sword forms."

*Whether Nie Huaisang would have had this emotion if it weren't useful to do so is left as an exercise for the reader.

"Okay. Thank you!"

Tomonori thinks that means Nie Huaisang wants to be friends? Or maybe he just wants a smarter study partner.

"We should study together, that way you can learn more quickly."

Maybe Tomonori can actually pick up on subtext!

"I'd love to."

The next question is a difficult question of strategy. Tomonori obviously would want to look at Nie Huaisang's fans, and it'd be a good excuse to get him alone, especially if Nie Huaisang can't come up with a reason that they should study in his room instead of the library. But if he shows Tomonori the fans right now, he's giving up a major thing he has that Tomonori wants, for not very much reward. And sometimes you can get in a better position by playing hard-to-get. 

Nie Huaisang eventually decides that Tomonori probably has too low self-esteem to figure out that Nie Huaisang is into him unless it's really obvious, so he says, "I have four enchanted fans, too. They fit in my weight allotment. Do you want to come up to my room tonight and see them?"

"That sounds really cool! Does Lan Xichen not make decisions for the enclave, or just not about the fans?"

Was Lan Zhan lying. Why do humans even have that feature.

"I'm pretty sure I'm allowed to let anyone I want" significant pause "look at my fans."

"Okay. After dinner?"

"I can't, I've got to tailor Masozi's clothing so his clothes actually fit. Tomorrow afternoon?"

"Okay, that makes sense."

Fans! Magic fans! He wonders if there are four different enchantments- or if one fan has multiple enchantments...Shanghai must have so many enchanted objects...oh right.

"Thank you."

"I have my shield fan with me." 

He takes it out. It is beautifully decorated with pictures of birds defending their nests. More relevantly for Tomonori's purposes, if he opens it and flutters it in a certain way it will shield him from any mals that happen to be about.

That's so cool!

Tomonori will spend the remaining time staring at Nie Huaisang's fan and speaking out loud as he untangles what the enchantment does.

And Nie Huaisang will continue to touch him on the shoulder and talk admiringly about how Nie Huaisang has no idea how this fan works and Tomonori is so smart.