She blushes. "Oh, no need to be so polite! I'm just glad I could help. Madam Duan, do you need anything?"

"I'm fine. All that happened to me was worrying about Ran'er."

"I'll just get you both some water."

She steps outside to fetch some.

And the sect leader and Chu Wanning arrive. 

The sect leader bows. "Duan Yihan. Mo Ran. I am horribly ashamed of what my nephew did to you." 

Duan Yihan looks at him for a long moment, then says, "You had no part in your nephew's upbringing. You could not be said to be blamed." 

"It is still my responsibility." To Mo Ran: "How are you recovering?" 

She glances at her mother, then beams at Chu Wanning. "Better than if xianjun hadn't come along! She got me a doctor back there and then asked Shi Mei-guniang to look at me, I've never met a cultivator doctor, and she made sure Mo Nian didn't wriggle out of what he had done." 

Xue Zhengyong smiles. "Shisheng Peak is somewhat redeemed by Yuheng Elder's actions, then. What are your plans going forward?" 

"There hasn't been nearly enough time to make any kind of plan besides making sure Mo Ran gets better." 

"They could stay here for now. They don't have another home."

"Of course," he says. 

He hesitates, giving Mo Ran a searching look. 

"I haven't exactly made a secret of my search for my brother's lover and child," he says slowly. "People will ask questions, when Mo Nian isn't brought to Shisheng Peak. And I don't really want the sect to be associated with that kind of crime, even indirectly. But people don't know the name Mo Nian, don't even know that my brother's child was a son." 

It takes a moment for the implications to sink in. 

When they do, Duan Yihan drops to the floor in a kowtow. 

"If you were to offer such an opportunity to my daughter, I would be in your debt for all of time," she whispers. 

"Get up, get up!" he says hastily. "It's not like Shisheng Peak doesn't take in orphans and such sometime; we don't even know what Shi Mei's birth name is. She's named that because people didn't have anything to call her but shimei, at first." 

"Are--are you serious?" Mo Ran asks, her voice wobbling. When Xue Zhengyong nods, she lurches to her one good foot and hugs him. He startles, briefly, but then hugs her back. 

Aw.

Shi Mei reappears in the doorway with water canteens.

"...did I miss some good news?"

"Apparently I'm his long lost niece now."

Hhuh. "C..ongratulations, then!"

Xue Zhengyong quietly takes Shi Mei aside and explains The Situation since she knows enough at this point to be worth filling in. 

Mo Ran hugs her mother tightly and--is restrained enough to not just jump on Xianjun and hug her. Even if her expression suggests that she is very tempted. 

Chu Wanning does not perceive this. She is not a huggable person.

Mo Ran is mostly a good patient, mostly because her mother insists on hovering over her and guilting her into not doing anything that would make her a bad patient. Word is spread over the mountain that Xue Zhengyong's older brother's lover and child have been brought to the mountain. Mo Ran gets lots of visitors, and gets along swimmingly with most of them; she's a vivacious and gregarious girl, despite all her experiences so far. 

Chu Wanning visits once, after a week, just to see how she's recovering.

Mo Ran lights up like a firework when she sees her. 

"Xianjun, Xianjun! How have you been doing!"

"Fine. I wanted to make sure you've been healing well."