Nod. "I can do that. ...Why are people mad about me?" He's looking kind of scared again as he says this. 

"I am being very generous with you because you have few resources to start out with and I don't want you to die or bring shame onto Shanghai enclave before I can get benefits from you. Most people know I don't work with maleficers but some people don't know me well, especially the freshmen indies. Wen Qing, Meng Yao, and I talk about that tonight."

"Oh." 

Masozi does not actually look as reassured by this as one would expect. He's holding his shoulders very tense. 

"Can I -" He stops. Swallows. "I...want to say something but I don't want you to be mad." 

"I very rarely get mad."

Then it's all going to come out in a fumbling rush before Masozi has a chance to lose his nerve. 

"The boy who did my wards said he wished you would actually have a pet maleficer to - help protect the enclave - and I, I - think this probably isn't true - but I thought...that maybe what if you wanted that - not for me to use malia now but because I can do it, I could later - I thought maybe you'd want me to use it to get Wen Qing's brother and Nie Huaisang out since they're not good at fighting - and I, I just -" 

This is INCREDIBLY HARD to say but he pushes through. 

"I just want to say that if you're helping me because of that, I - I won't do it. Because if it really makes you go crazy then that's not worth it." 

"I don't ever ask you to use malia. Not because you don't want to, because... there are rules and norms. If enclaves use maleficers then everyone has to use maleficers to keep up, and lots of people are murdered and all the enclaves are just as powerful as they were before anyone used maleficer. And it is important to be reliable and predictable. Everyone knows I don't break this rule, so they don't worry about me breaking it. So I ally with you and people say 'oh, there must be special circumstance,' not 'we have to get our own maleficer or Shanghai will kill us.'"

He so badly wants that to be true. The world where it's true is better. 

...He also wants Lan Xichen to think he believes it even if he doesn't, so he nods seriously. "That makes sense. I'm glad." 

"I let people die to protect Shanghai enclave but only in the ways it is customary to do so."

"What...are the ways it's customary to let people die?" 

"Jin Zixun could ward dozens more than he actually wards. But if he does, Shanghai enclave has less mana in storage and we're more likely to die."

"...Yeah. Should I - be giving Shanghai extra mana I have at the end of the day? So I don't cost as much resources?" It turns out that learning the Mandarin writing system is one of the most mana-building activities he's done EVER; he doesn't hate it but Masozi hates very few things, hating things isn't a luxury he's ever felt that he had, and it's an incredible amount of effort.  

"For now, yes, but when you have mana storage you put it in your own mana storage."

(He hates this so much.)

"I don't want someone from Shanghai to die because I was taking more resources than I'm giving you!" 

He's so sincere. No other indie in the Scholomance would have that much loyalty bought for the price of clothes and wards.

"Do you know what 'investment' is?"

He's seen the word in English library books. Like, twice. Both times surrounded by enough other unfamiliar words that it was pretty hard to back it out from context.

"It's...something rich people do with money?" 

"'Investment' is-- I have a farm and grow food on it? But the crops grow better if I fertilize the soil. So I spend resources on fertilizer now and have many more resources later."

"Oh." Masozi has never in his life had enough surplus resources for that to make any sense. "Is...that sort of like what I'm doing by learning Mandarin? It's going to take a lot of work now but then I can learn spells from people in Shanghai?" 

"Yes. That is investment. I invest in you. You have potential but no resources, and I have many resources. So I give you things you need so you become stronger. And then when you're stronger you're grateful to and loyal to Shanghai, and you make us stronger too."

"...Yeah. I guess that makes sense." 

Masozi feels kind of self-conscious about it, though, and so he busies himself looking for spellbooks on making mana storage. 

"It's okay if investment doesn't pay off. Some investments don't. Sometimes field floods and you don't get crops after all." This analogy feels uncomfortably like one of the Nie parents talking about an idol drama in order to relate to the kids.

If the investment is in him specifically, then Masozi thinks it's actually NOT okay if it fails to pay off. Though...not really because of anything about Lan Xichen's resources. Just - that the only way he can ever do what matters, here, the only way he's going to be able to make the world better and less broken, if if he survives and grows up and becomes strong enough. 

He's learned not to talk about that kind of thing too much. It makes people give him weird looks. 

"Mmm," he says. 

"But if I fertilize soil I don't want seedling to say, 'Lan Xichen spends so much fertilizer on me, I pull myself out of the ground right now,' you see? I want it to take fertilizer and grow strong and then I get much more food. So I want you to watch for mals and produce mana, but more than that if you decide to ally with Shanghai I want you to focus on learning math and Mandarin and magic so you keep everyone alive at graduation. Wen Ning and Nie Huaisang can't keep themselves alive."

"...Okay. That makes sense." 

Is it up to him to decide if he wants to ally with Shanghai? This is also very confusing. It feels like it should really be up to Lan Xichen. 

This is a question that Lan Xichen can't answer.

"Come to the Shanghai reading room and I teach you more Mandarin if you want."

"Okay!" Bouncebouncebounce.