"Hi!"

She's getting very fond of Jiang Yanli.

"My latest makes everything taste strongly of pumpernickel," she says.

"Congratulations. Unless that wasn't what you were going for, in which case, I have every confidence that you'll get it working." 

"Well, it was the assignment, but I doubt I'm going to make it again. Do you want some?"

"Sure, I'll try anything once." 

Jiang Yanli passes it over.

And Jin Zixuan sits down next to them. "Hello, Yanli, um--" He visibly blanks on Ayako's name.

"Ayako. Hello, Jin Zixuan." She sounds perfectly pleasant and understanding and not the least bit bothered by this, which is like 95% of the way to being true.

"How are you?" he says. A promising start.

"Pretty good! I got my math homework done in class so that's one less thing to worry about over the weekend and my shop project is coming along well so far. You?"

"I was talking to Yanli."

"My shop project is a little behind, unfortunately."

He'd been looking right at Ayako but if he's talking to Yanli she won't say anything, then. 

He should be helpful! He's pretty sure he remembered that from Jing Yi's advice.

"Do you need my help with it?"

SCORE!

"Maybe?" she says. "It's hard with the pain I get in my hands, these days. They can be so fiddly."

That's...... 

Out of character feels mean but also it's not wrong. 

"Well! I can help you with that!"

He is pretty sure he already said that. Whoops.

"That would be very nice, thank you," Yanli says, far too nice to show her level of confusion on her face.

"Because if your hands hurt you won't be able to finish your projects and then you're going to die," he adds, to explain to her how much benefit there is to her from his actions.

.....

............

Who just says that??????????????????

Sunnily: "I appreciate your help!"

Compliments! He is definitely supposed to provide compliments. But not ones about her appearance. Yanli is so pretty that she probably gets lots of compliments about her appearance. He's supposed to compliment her about something she doesn't get a lot of compliments about.

"You're a very fast runner," he says.

"Thank you!" Yanli says, because she believes in accepting compliments no matter how incomprehensible.

She is not going to make Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng aware of this conversation but she sort of wishes she had someone to exchange what the fuck-flavored Meaningful Eye Contact with right now.

"Hello! What are we talking about?"

"Zixuan is helping me with my homework."

"Can he help me with my homework?"

"No."

Fan flutter.

"Well, there's no need to be rude."

What an excellent piece of advice! Unfortunate how Zixuan seems to be literally incapable of taking it!