Why does this place have food that hurts??? 

Merrin is known to be stubborn about enduring painful experiences, and once she's had time to consider it, she decide that she actually likes it? Although if this is the normal level of spiciness, she shudders to think what Wei Wuxian's congee must have tasted like. Also, it - says something about the people here, that food that hurts to eat is apparently considered totally normal and the standard thing to serve a foreign guest. Does everyone here have her weird quirk about pain? 

...Honestly, she feels like that hypothesis might explain some things about Wei Wuxian as a person. 

After she's eaten, and thanked Lan Xichen warmly again for everything he's doing to make her welcome, she asks where she should get water and firewood; she wants to start another batch of oral rehydration fluid, and she might as well start the water boiling before she checks on Wei Wuxian again in his tent. 

He asks a servant to show her where it is. 

"Please don't hesitate to ask for me whenever you need help," he says.

"Of course." 

Merrin is still unsure how to appropriately interact with the servants here. The social etiquette seems very different! She has very little idea how to be polite and it's awkward and she hates it! Probably she can't go too badly wrong by saying please and thank you a lot? 

While they're showing her around, she keeps an eye out, trying to gauge if the absurdly young ages of everyone she's officially met so far are representative of this whole camp. 

The ones in yellow robes with a red forehead dot seem to be a range of ages from their mid-teens to their early forties. The ones what she now recognizes as Lan robes tend younger: most of them seem to be in their twenties.

So Wei Wuxian is probably among the youngest people here, despite being apparently best-in-the-world level at demonic cultivation. Merrin is not really sure what to make of this. 

She starts some more water boiling, with the help of a servant who she asks to show her how one is supposed to boil water over an open campfire, and then she approaches the mouth of the tent and clears her throat. "Wen Ning? Are you in there and may I come in? I want to see how he's doing." 

Wen Ning gets out of bed. "I've been holding him, Mistress Dath. He's sleeping."

"Oh, good." She slips in, trying to move quietly. The amount of mess still on the floor does not make this challenge any easier. She lowers her voice. "I'll try not to wake him right now - though we should in an hour or two, once I've made more of the special water for him. We're going to need to bother him at regular intervals for a while, until he's properly rehydrated. ...Um, you're fine, you don't need to leave or anything. You're not in my way." 

Merrin kneels by the pile of blankets and eyes the sleeping teenage boy. How does his breathing look now compared to before? Skin color? She tries to check his pulse very gently so as not to disturb him. 

He is a little bit warmer and better at breathing, but still quite pale. His pulse is stronger. The blood has dried around his mouth.

Merrin tries to smile reassuringly at Wen Ning. "He's improving. You're doing a good job, keeping him warm. I do want to wake him up once I've made more oral rehydration solution, he's still looking pretty dehydrated and he needs the calories in it too. He's got to be really protein-deficient too, but I can't do much about it until he can cope with solid food." She looks thoughtful. "Do you think he'd go for congee that was sweetened instead of spicy? I really don't think the spicy kind can be good for his stomach right now." 

"Sweet is better than bland, but zhuren loves spice more than anything. It's the easiest way to get him to eat."

"Does he have a systematic problem with eating? That - would also explain how it got this bad, I guess. Anyway. I'll let him rest some more, I'll be back in a bit." 

Merrin takes the scale and the spoon and the little folded-paper baskets she was using, and ducks out of the tent to check on her water. Incidentally, does she actually have her own tent yet? 

Wen Ning has put up a tent for her. 

"He doesn't like eating. It distracts him from his work."

"Have you pointed out to him that collapsing because he's starving to death is also pretty distracting from his work?" Merrin says, more snappishly than she really meant to. "- Sorry. I know it's not your fault and you're doing your best for him. He's going to be all right, it just - might take longer than he would prefer. Thank you for your help with the tent. I'll be back in, um, maybe an hour?" 

She paces around by the fire until the water is boiled, and then carries it into her own tent along with the sugar and salt and scale and measuring receptacles, and gets to work mixing. 

...She appears to kind of experiencing a very belated adrenaline crash. It's the first time she's been alone in private since the plane she was in fell out of the sky, and now her hands are very shaky and she feels very cold and her stomach is churning. On reflection maybe that's the fault of the ouch food. 

She is, pointlessly, intensely annoyed at the possibility that the Keepers know this can happen and didn't warn her. It's not as though anyone would reasonably have expected it to come up. 

It takes her a bit longer than an hour, in the end, to calm down enough that she feels capable of being around people again. At which point she heads over to the adjacent tent with the container of lukewarm salt-sugar-water and, again, pauses at the entrance to check if she can come in.  

There are two adorably cuddling sleeping teenage boys.

Awwwwwwwww. They're so adorable! 

Merrin hates to wake them but she really does need to. She lets herself into the tent and sits down. "Wei Wuxian. Hey. Wake up. It's Merrin. I have more of the medicine you liked." 

Half-conscious whistle! Merrin is probably prepared for the zombie now.

Not prepared exactly but she’s expecting it, and dodges out of the way. “Hey. It’s just me. I need you to wake up more than that.” She is speaking very calmly. 

"Yanli?" he says softly.

"....No, sorry."

Who is Yanli. It sounds like they're someone he expects - or wants - to be here, when he's not feeling well. And presumably female, since he's making the guess in response to her voice. She would venture 'girlfriend' except that she has a considerable pileup of evidence that he likes boys? And he hasn't looked at her that way, not that she's necessarily that good at picking up when people are. Maybe Yanli is his sister. She hasn't seen any other women in the camp, so far, so probably Yanli isn't nearby and fetchable. 

"It's Merrin," she repeats. "The doctor. I have more of the medicine for you. It's the one you liked." 

"Oh. Okay." He tries to sit up a little bit, unsuccessfully.

Merrin watches for fifteen seconds to gauge if he seems any stronger now, and then sidles in and helps him. "Here. How are you feeling? Still dizzy?"

"I think sleeping made it worse."

"That makes sense. Or it could be the sleeping draught that Wen Ning gave you. But I think it's mostly that you're still very dehydrated and probably your blood sugar is low. Drink some of this, it'll help." 

She helps him hold it, since he seems groggy enough to be in serious danger of spilling it all over himself. Wishes vaguely that this world had invented straws. 

"It should be sweeter," Wei Wuxian reviews.

Wen Ning makes a noise and snuggles closer to Wei Wuxian.