Meanwhile, Ayako gets through the lunch line as quickly as she possibly can, drops Wen Ning off at the Shanghai table and promises to come back in a few minutes, and finds Haruto.

First the Masozi situation, which she lays out in hushed Japanese-- "and apparently he made it to the Scholomance even though he'd never learned a spell he hadn't personally written--" then catches him up on Mei's plans to do alchemy work along with one of the Shanghai upperclassmen in a work period sometime in casual, conversation-volume Mandarin, and she's about to cap all of this off with a pitch for why she should sit at the Shanghai table going forward when Haruto cuts her off.

"Suzume-chan, you don't need to give me an essay on why you should make friends in Shanghai," Haruto tells her, and reaches over to ruffle what little still exists of her hair. "Go ahead."

And she does.

Wen Qing approves of Ayako. She seems very competent. Why couldn't she be an indie?

She nods at Ayako as she sits down. "First morning of classes go well?"

It went as well as could reasonably be expected, she thinks.

"Yeah! Wen Ning and I are planning on quizzing each other on Maleficaria Studies, and we and those two--" she nods in the general direction of Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng-- "have a study group for History of Artificing which we'll work out scheduling for at some point today."

"My brother does take very good notes."

"He does! Or, I haven't really looked at the flashcards he made yet, I was making my own, but from what I could tell." 

"He likes getting to be useful," she says, talking about Wen Ning like he's not really there.

She did that yesterday too, part of Ayako notes, and it doesn't seem like it's part of whatever Ayako's being tested on.

(She's just assuming she's being tested. It wouldn't make any sense for her not to be.)

"Don't we all," she says, and-- how does Wen Ning feel about this, actually?

Wen Ning is eating his food very quietly. It has never occurred to him that people talking about him like he's not there might be the sort of thing that he's allowed to object to. 

"Which reminds me, how'd language lab go, I didn't get the chance to ask when we were walking here?"

"I did all my homework. It's teaching me English."

...yeah okay she's not going to get an answer that isn't along those lines probably and pressing definitely isn't a risk she wants to take.

"Oh, cool, English is one of mine so I can help if you need it." 

"I like the classroom," he says. "No one is watching me."

(That's sort of like a preference if you squint but he's pretty sure it's okay because it's just having a positive opinion of something.)

"That does seem good for you, a-Ning. I wonder if there's a way we can get more privacy in your other classes."

Lily steps up by the table, and nods to the assembled persons. She waits to be acknowledged. 

"One could probably arrange something with studying alone even if the classrooms aren't really set up for it?"

Except either she or Julian needs to be in the room to keep an eye on him... ugh, nevermind, this is a logistics problem and she's not going to try and solve it while she's also doing social juggling, that's a recipe for fucking up at two things at once. 

A new indie-- a white one? She wishes Meng Yao were here. It's always so much better to appear omniscient.

"Hello," she says to Lily. "I'm Wen Qing." 

She responds in mildly accented Mandarin. "I'm Lily." The name of the flower is conveniently a perfectly serviceable girl's name even in China. "I have two matters of business concerning Nie Huaisang, when it is convenient."

Already??

"Go ahead."

"Firstly, I have acquired a set of alchemy equipment that I believe would be suitable for use as a still. Should Shanghai's equipment be tied up on more important matters, I would like to offer use of my tools in exchange for a small cut of the product.

"Secondly, Nie Huaisang owes me three sketch commissions; I would like to use one to commission a shop sign in both Mandarin and English."

"Both of those are matters I believe you should arrange with Nie Huaisang."

She looks at Nie Huaisang across the table where he's macking on Tomonori. "Excuse me."

Seeing Tomonori safely absorbed in Zidian, Nie Huaisang says in English, "oh! Oh! Oh! Lily, I'm so sorry about your bracelet."

"Why, what happened to it?", Lily replies in English.

"I was going to keep it for my enclave but then this senior from Beijing wanted it and I got so confused and I sold it for a month of mana."

Actually five weeks but Nie Huaisang skimmed a little off the top.

"Congratulations and condolences."

"So I have to buy something else from you!"

"What would you like?"

"What will the Beijing enclave seniors definitely not want?"

"Mana storage bracelets. They've already got an enclave powersink that's higher efficiency."

"How many of those does a month of mana buy? A freshman month not a senior month."

"Let's say two."

"Oh! So I should buy that so no one gets mad at me."

His investment is paying off but Lily doesn't seem to want to work with him. Dammit. Together they could own this school's luxury trade.

"Perhaps! Did you hear my earlier comment about the glassware?"

"No, I was busy with Tomonori."

"I'd like to offer you use of my glassware for your still, for a small cut of the product. Even if you don't happen to need it, I wanted to give you first refusal before I started asking other likely alchemists."

On one hand, a potential offer of allyship. On the other hand, he doesn't in fact need a still, he can make his own.

"I can make my own still but thank you!"

She nods. "I had suspected as much, given you have Shanghai's resources at your back. Nonetheless..." She shrugs and smiles. "I would also like to use one of my three commissions on a calligraphied sign for my business. I can give you a list of items to mention. - oh, and do please sign it."

"I will!" he says. "It's a pleasure doing business with you, and I hope to do more of it soon."

"Likewise."