Jiang Cheng doesn't know what 'unification convergence' means or why other Wei Wuxian is so surprised about it.  Given the context it sounds like what they call golden cores?  Whatever it is, it can wait for now.  He lets the purple light fade, takes a deep breath, and forces his own heartbeat to slow.

Listening to Wei Wuxian talk about electricity is the perfect distraction.  Without conscious thought his posture slowly shifts from defensive, to formal, to what it was the night before.  Being the wielder of Zidian has lead Jiang Cheng to take an interest in electricity even though such constructs don't behave the same way as normal electrical arcs.  ...Speaking of which, he belatedly wills Zidian back to his hand.

Aw, he doesn’t usually get to be this successful. It’s nice?, to make his brother feel better, sometimes, at least a little, rather than the opposite. Or his alternate universe brother.

Wei Wuxian looks down at himself when he feels Zidian move. On one hand he very supports this development; not being tied up with a horrible lightning whip, he is such a big fan of that. (Aw, is he getting acknowledged for helpful behavior/is other Jiang Cheng being nice to him.) On the other hand, he was just having that thought about the mutual exclusiveness of being tied up with Zidian, and the way more obvious uses of Zidian.

…Get yourself together Wei Ying. Other Jiang Cheng is… probably not going to hit him with Zidian while he’s interrogating him, right? (He’s being really cooperative!). Ah, other Jiang Cheng probably wants to be able to reprimand him when he runs his mouth without all the blankets in the way.

Ah, well, can’t keep lying in the bed when he’s not tied up there. He shouldn’t keep the blankets should he. But it’s cold! He does keep the robes but shakes off the blankets, climbs out of the bed to kneel down on the floor. Tries to get some not super obtrusive stretches in there as he goes. (He’d totally thought about just stopping and stretching - he’ll be even worse at kneeling still without that, it’s helpful, really! And the problem with asking for permission is that doing stuff after getting a no is definitely worse than doing stuff without asking. But right now is feeling like not the time actually.)

Kneeling!

Other Wei Wuxian is kneeling again. ...He is technically captured for impersonating Wei Wuxian so kneeling is not incorrect here.  Trying to figure out where this Wei Wuxian fits into Jiang Cheng's categories of people is even harder than local abandoned-him-to-go-live-in-a-graveyard Wei Wuxian, but if it had been other-universe A-jie who had landed in Lotus Pier she would be family for all that she also left the sect.

Jiang Cheng straightens his already straight robes.  A cultivation sect leader can't run away from conversations about magic, and he was genuinely curious about where the previous topic had been heading.  Time to bridge the gap between the two topics and get back on track.  "Are power uses and technology closely linked in your world?"

…He’s not sure he understood that question. But he has noticed that this Jiang Cheng hasn’t yet told him off for talking more and has told him off for talking less.

“I’m sorry, sir, I’m not sure I understand the question, sir.” But he’ll continue -

Modern technology was really good for power use research and increase and furthering and all that, right, so there’s way more stuff getting figured out per unit time than there ever used to be, and some of it does things with technology, like people who figure out why machinery’s not working or do chemical detection. …Does chemical detection count there he’s not sure. Because on one hand -

(No Wei Ying that is how you do get yourself told off for talking more!)

Sorry sir - but there was still thousands of years and then some before modern technology which is way longer, and everyone’s sure there are a lot of lost techniques but there are also a lot of not lost techniques, and obviously no one figuring them out had modern technology around. And some techniques turned out to have new applications actually, like detecting when water’s unsafe, and some things still just do whatever they always did.

Though there’s this really cool thing he read about, where you’d think a bunch of techniques would be less useful now because technology, but actually in the past mostly just rich people could have the stuff they made, so that wasn’t that much by numbers, and now by numbers mostly people use the technology produced version, but the power use version is still useful in specific niches and the niches are often not smaller, since also there’s more people now.

Like mostly only rich people had heating artifacts, and now almost no one uses heating artifacts for regular heating, but heating artifacts don’t need a power source and don’t malfunction for the same reasons, so they’re really useful for someone going off grid for a while or being backup in ‘without heat you’re going to freeze to death’ situations.

(…thaaat may have gone a bit too far on the talking. Ah well, what’s a conversation with doms without a reprimand or a few!)

Jiang Cheng didn't understand his question either.  He knows so little about the other world that he doesn't even know what would be useful to ask and is essentially throwing low-level light talismans into a vast darkness in the hopes that they'll somehow help give him the shape of it.  If nothing else, he is at least getting a lot of information for it even if he doesn't know which parts are potentially important and which are Wei Wuxian rambling.

The mention of heating does remind him that the room is cold and other Wei Wuxian is currently wearing far too many robes.  Also, that the Jiang Sect are rich and use their own form of magic for heating.  He goes to open the small trap door and twist the piece of stone that completes the built-in array.  It won't make an immediate difference, but the floor will slowly start warming over the next few minutes. 

"Is knowledge and practice of power use common among the population?  In the lands I'm familiar with, cultivators are around one in a thousand.  ...Less than that, after the war," he amends, though he doesn't have a number for it.

No reprimand seems to be forthcoming. Other Jiang Cheng doesn’t even look more annoyed. …Man other Jiang Cheng is being kind of weirdly patient with him. With him, he was not so kind of patient when he thought Wei Wuxian was other him. Is that more different what-befits-a-dom in this world? (It’s probably also the prison break.)

Or other Jiang Cheng is just saving it for later some more. (He is not going to be having a good later.) If it’s the second one he has to say he likes the way he’s used to better.

He follows other Jiang Cheng’s movements when he gets up, starts up a bit and cranes his head when other Jiang Cheng stops by the trap door and opens it. - Oh, other Jiang Cheng is turning the artifact lightswitch! what’sitdo what’sitdo was he right.

Wei Wuxian knows perfectly well what he’s supposed to do here, which is to stay kneeling where he is, and bite down on his ‘can I see, sir’ unless he’d really like to get other Jiang Cheng more fed up with him after all, and keep answering questions when he gets asked them until he’s told to do something else. There are some pretty good arguments in favor of doing that, like ‘not getting other Jiang Cheng really annoyed’ and ‘not getting himself into more trouble than he’s already in’ and ‘he can poke at the giant artifact again later, or in some other room some other time, or get other him to show him all the giant artifacts, at a time that is not ‘right now when he is in front of other Jiang Cheng getting interrogated’’.

There are some arguments against, like, ‘but later is all the way over then’ and ‘he doesn’t even know what’s going to happen later, maybe other Jiang Cheng will put him in a different room (for instance, with a door that locks) without any giant artifacts with artifact lightswitches under the floor, or chain him to the bed, and not want to let him see other him any time soon’.

But that’s not even the thing really. The thing is that other Jiang Cheng is kind of being weirdly patient with him, maybe, and he doesn’t know why and doesn’t have an alternate universe set of habit intuitions for where all the lines are. And other Jiang Cheng just still won’t say anything at all about what he’s got coming. And at some point it’s stressful on a submissive, okay. It’s not like he thinks he’s got a good chance of getting through this without getting himself in more trouble, so might as well do it for something he wants to do? (Fuck around and find out).

Which is all to say that while Jiang Cheng is turning the stone, Wei Wuxian bounces up to his feet (ow? - right, ankle) and dashes over to kneel back down by the trap door (he is careful to stay out of other Jiang Cheng’s personal space), hand pressed down against the floor. “Can I see, sir?” (He’s not expecting anything like a yes, to say the least, but that’s what the hand’s for).

…It occurs to to him kind of belatedly (on that topic of pretty good arguments) that the really obvious thing for other Jiang Cheng to do here is to tie him back up with Zidian again, and maybe not have Zidian be as nice this time. Maybe it would have been a better idea to provoke other Jiang Cheng in way that didn’t involve jumping across the room. - But he’s here now, so, he’ll just try to push that over to ‘why make it worse for himself by thinking about it first’.

"There's nothing to see."  He rolls his eyes as his body moves without conscious thought to make room for Wei Wuxian, though this might not be obvious as the amount it moves is what his Wei Wuxian would have taken by leaning on Jiang Cheng's shoulder without regards to personal space - focused more on securing his balance so that a sudden weight won't topple him into the wall than actually moving.

Jiang Cheng really should have seen that question coming.

"It's a heating array."  It is the simplest and most basic array known to the cultivation world.  This at least means that it isn't a Jiang Sect secret.  "Given how much like my Wei Wuxian you are you will no doubt start poking at it as soon as I leave.  Don't waste my time doing it while I'm still here.  We need to get back to discussing-" he pauses.  His own question that Wei Wuxian ignored was also not very practical, was it.

"-Anything important that needs to be handled this morning."

Yes there is! It’d be better if he could be all the way closer, but this is close enough, he can make do. He felt the what’s-under-the-floor before, and he can feel it now. It is different (it’s so cool!!) - he tries to get a better sense of the difference; he updates several interconnected theories in his head. - did other Jiang Cheng do anything with power or did he really just turn the stone? It’s so cool that they can do that. 

He wants to know all about how it works (connections to maybe-unification-convergence?(!)), he wants to see five more artifacts-with-lightswitches - and also at least five without to compare. He wants to get back to other-him’s notes, he bets this will help him understand something he didn’t quite…

It’s a heating array - ha, he was right! See he could have turned the switch himself just fine no Wei Ying that’s not how that works. Oh, what makes it an array rather than some other thing? Is the size important, is the size about power - can they make them small and stronger and run a stove? Could they run a generator? 

(Wei Wuxian does not notice anything in particular about Jiang Cheng slightly changing position.)

Well, he has successfully gotten other Jiang Cheng to tell him off again. (Hey, does sound like he’s not going to be chained to the bed!) Unfortunately, he was trying to get other Jiang Cheng to in any way indicate what he was going to do about it, and he has not successfully gotten that at all. This sucks. He doesn’t like this part of this world.

Did other him have to deal with this all the time? Nah if you’re used to it it’s probably not so bad, just like knowing he’s getting it when they get home. Knowing it’s noon or the evening before Cleansing Day or whatever it is (…it better not be something like the evening before Cleansing Day, that would actually genuinely suck). And other him would know what other Jiang Cheng tended to go for. His problem is not knowing. (There is probably not an existing expected punishment for impersonating people while from another universe. But still he could know more than he does!) 

Some part of him suggests that if he just stayed being stubborn and wouldn’t listen or get back to what other Jiang Cheng wanted, at some point other Jiang Cheng would have to do something about it right then. Whyyyyy does he think of things like that. Next he’ll think it’s a great idea to swim across the ocean because the next island looks not so far away. Some things have not become a better idea just because he’s in another world! 

He stalls a bit in picking his hand up, but he does it, straightens up back to proper kneeling. (Just stays where he is for the moment.) “Sorry sir, I apologize sir. Thank you sir. Yes, sir.” He casts his mind back to what other Jiang Cheng had asked (wages of a lifetime of getting lectured, he’s got great practice at ‘what did I just say’ memory!) 

(”Common across the population” - oh they’re probably doing the guild thing here, keep the power use and its knowledge in the sects.)

“Knowledge would be everyone, sir, it’s in the public education.” …He’s not sure what the numbers are for power use. Not any given thing and not all together. “…It has to be more than one in a thousand, though, sir.” And even in their part of the world where they’re rarer, Gifts are more than one in thousand. 

(“...Less than that, after the war” That sounds bad. (If most of what they do is fighting undead and monsters, not hard to see why any government would want ‘cultivators’ for their war.) But that wasn’t a question.)

It doesn't seem like Jiang Cheng did anything except turn the switch.  A small trickle of energy is diverted from wherever is powering the array and converted into heat within the stone.  A smaller version of the array concentrating the same energy into a smaller area would get much hotter but this one is far too spread out to risk burns.

Jiang Cheng notices the straightening and apologies and is confused.  Wei Wuxian isn't usually suddenly formal and apologetic for no reason.  The perceived nervousness is infectious.  He turns around to get a better look at Wei Wuxian, and makes an abortive gesture to poke him in the shoulder about it because he looks so much like Wei Wuxian but isn't really his Wei Wuxian and he doesn't know if poking him is appropriate.  He puts his hand down.

"Hey, what's wrong with you, Wei Wuxian.  Heating arrays are safe.  And you can turn it off if you'd rather sit covered in blankets all day.  It doesn't take a golden core to turn the switch - this is a room suitable for children and the Jiang sect expects them to manage their own heating early." 

"Should I call you something other than Wei Wuxian?"  Jiang Cheng probably should have asked earlier.  The repeated 'sir'-ing finally prompting him.  "A ...guest... would commonly refer to me as Sect Leader Jiang.  Or Sandu Shengshou."  He likes his title that he earned in the war.  That almost no one has called him since the war ended and he's become just the youngest and most inexperienced of the sect leaders, constrained by needing to not start any new conflicts.  He's not going to ask to be called it though.  That would feel pathetic. 

He also won't ask this Wei Wuxian to call him Jiang Cheng, even if anything except 'Jiang Cheng' with Wei Wuxian's voice is wrong.  Wei Wuxian seems intent on not using Jiang Cheng's name.  Possibly he doesn't want to call him the same thing he called his own other-universe brother.  But, no - Wei Wuxian had been calling him 'sir' when he'd first arrived.  Before he'd claimed to know he was elsewhere.  Who the hell calls their shidi by a formal address in private.

Wow, Wei Wuxian actually remembered what he asked earlier!  His first thought is that it makes sense that if someone doesn't have to go through the entire process of forming a golden core to learn a single talisman, that information might spread more easily.  He isn't willing to make sweeping guesses and possibly be wrong.  He nods and makes an agreeable sound at the information, and tucks it away into the back of his mind as another piece of information about the other world.

So cool!! (He does not currently have enough knowledge or experience of the system to know what effects size might actually have.)

Is he about to be dragged by the ear? Nope looks like he is not. 

Is he being told off for not doing dumb reckless things? …Ok, if he saw someone sitting in the dark in a room with a lightswitch, he’d probably think that was weird and pretty silly before it occurred to him that someone from another universe would have no way to know what the lightswitch was or did. But still!

He thinks you can call me whatever you want, sir? for a somewhat puzzled moment before it occurs to him that other Jiang Cheng is obviously not addressing that ‘should’ at him personally. 

Being told what address he’s supposed to use is great, but why is he being told two? Is he supposed to alternate? Having something so formal/distancing feels weird, even though he knows other Jiang Cheng is not really his own brother. Sandu Shengshou is a very cool title though. 

“I didn’t know it was a heating array, Sect Leader Jiang!
- I thought it might be!” Because of these things about what he could figure from his sense for power, see, and also this thing and this idea he had and this other idea and - “…Sorry, Sandu Shengshou. But we don’t have these at all. I’ll manage it myself from now on.”

“I’m called Wei Wuxian at home, Sect Leader Jiang.” Among other things and apparently other Jiang Cheng is doing more formalness, but if other Jiang Cheng wants to make things complicated with etiquette he can order that himself, Wei Wuxian is nooot doing that if he doesn’t have to. “Cool title, Sandu Shengshou!” …Other Jiang Cheng probably did not really want his opinion on that. Oh well, it’s true anyway.

Other Wei Wuxian is going to alternate between the two options he was given?  That is the most annoying possible choice, which means Jiang Cheng should have expected it.  Any annoyance is swiftly overwritten by how pleased he is about his title.  Which Wei Wuxian also likes!  Not that he needs anyone's approval much less Wei Wuxian's.  (He does his very best to keep control of his face, but he's no better at hiding when he's pleased than when he's angry.)

"Wei Wuxian, then."  That is at least easy to remember, even if it's going to have them both turning their heads to look if he tries to call out to him whenever he manages to find time to take him to the Burial Mounds.  But they don't have time for other Wei Wuxian to earn a title and Jiang Cheng is hardly going to start calling him Xianxian or anything of the sort.  "Does other me have a title?"

If Wei Wuxian isn't going to say anything about what might be bothering him, then Jiang Cheng isn't going to push.  Maybe it's nothing, anyway - something that is strange for his Wei Wuxian might just be normal in the other universe. 

Time to stop sitting on the floor.  He closes the trapdoor, rises, and takes the things out of his qiankun pouch that he brought and sets them down before he forgets.  The bowl of fruit from his room will be Wei Wuxian's breakfast.  He feels bad about not managing to bring hot cooked food to his secret guest for all meals and says something to the effect of 'be glad your eating at all, do you have any idea how difficult it is to do all of this' about it.  He made sure to bring extra paper, because an unoccupied Wei Wuxian is one that's going to make his own entertainment in potentially destructive ways.

Aw, other Jiang Cheng actually likes that he complimented his title.

Yep, that’s me. And also other him, here. Which might get confusing if they’re in the same place later? Maybe they can get numbered or something. 

“He’s Master Jiang, Sandu Shengshou. Or High or Eminent Master Jiang if someone’s got to distinguish or it’s” a really fancy dom event “important and formal.”

It isn’t obvious right away, but then - he blinks at the bag and the fruit for a moment. - !! They have a what they can do what!?! He wants one! How does that work? He wants one to poke about this and also because he wants one. If he had one it wouldn’t be a secret so it wouldn’t really be good for hiding anything - not that he has anything to hide right now. He wants one anyway! Could you fit a person in there nope nope not thinking about that.

That gets something almost like a flinch. He stops looking at the bag and its previously-contents, gets his eyes back down to the floor. (…He doesn’t actually know how difficult it is or anything about what’s going on outside his room, but that didn’t sound like an allowance for questions even a little bit.) “I’m sorry for causing difficulty, Sect Leader Jiang. I’m grateful, I’m glad to be eating, thank you, Sect Leader Jiang.” (He is gonna have such a not good noon or evening before Cleansing Day or whatever it is. Which he’s absolutely known this entire time, but somehow it’s different to be reminded like this in particular.) He still glimpses the paper; wonders if he’s going to be left with lines this time.

Jiang Cheng is winning at titles!  He will be sure to lord this over other Jiang Cheng if they ever meet.

At Wei Wuxian's flinch, a memory flashes through his mind of nine year old Wei Wuxian when he'd first arrived in Lotus Pier acting grateful with every meal.  Jiang Cheng looks away.  But this Wei Wuxian does have a Jiang Cheng back where he came from.  He surely has to know how Jiang Cheng just says things. 

There are a few other things around the room that needed his attention, and then he gets back to Wei Wuxian.  "I'm not going to be able to fly you to my Wei Wuxian until I can free up my schedule.  Probably two or three days from now.  I need you to stay out of sight and quiet until then."  He then goes into a fairly long lecture on staying put, and how important it is for him to stay put, and what will happen if he doesn't stay put where he once again forgets not to exaggerate.  Something about burying him up to his neck in a pit full of mud?  Jiang Cheng is used to warning Wei Wuxian about things and his mouth can do it almost on its own even after so long. 

"Keep yourself busy writing out what you know about your home world's power usage, or anything else you think might be useful.  My Wei Wuxian will want to collaborate."  And Jiang Cheng can read about whatever other Wei Wuxian had been talking about earlier (something about something called a 'unification convergence'?), because as curious as he is, it is not time sensitive.  His presence at the main hall is, and that means he needed to leave several minutes ago already.

For once Wei Wuxian keeps his eyes on the floor and doesn’t sneak glances at other Jiang Cheng as other Jiang Cheng moves around the room. 

The mention that he’s going to meet other him, and also maybe get to see or try out the flying on swords(!) (or some other kind of flying, do they have some other kind of flying?) will effectively perk him right back up though.

Aaand lecture. He stays properly kneeling and still mostly still for the lecture, says ‘yes, Sect Leader Jiang/Sandu Shengshou’ and everything else like that at the moments for it. Tries to sound sincere and like he means it when other Jiang Cheng goes into how important it is. He does mean it, he doesn’t know what’s happening but he got the point, he is not dragging other House Jiang into the kind of political problems that get people executed. 

He doesn’t usually go around wishing he was being more explicitly and specifically threatened while he’s getting lectured - not even for something he’s planning on doing so it’s not like there’s a cost benefit analysis - but he is wishing it on this one. But it’s not hard to guess this is one of those times when he’s not getting what he wants.

(…Is that a real threat? Unlike the break your legs, he mostly can’t figure out what the point of that would even be. Unless he has to dig the hole himself and then do his own laundry, but then it’s still very unclear what the point is of the part in the middle. Lan Zhan wouldn’t like it, but he personally is way more likely to be in trouble for jumping in mud. And maybe it’s kind of like standing at a wall, but standing at a wall is obviously worse, no one could see if he was  shifting around if he was buried in mud. And if he has to be in this room where would other Jiang Cheng find a pit of mud.

…Do they correspond to the real ones somehow, would other him hear ‘bury in a pit of mud’ and know it’s ‘caned nightly for three days’ or something. Or whatever they do instead of nightly. He can ask other him in a few days!)

Ah, well, he has full confidence in whatever Jiang Cheng’s ability to give him something he’ll really really wish he wasn’t getting when he gets it. And he’s not going to do this one and if it turns out this world has a heavenly law that alternate universe submissives may not be punished for leaving rooms he’s still not going to do it.

…Sigh, no he’s going to be left with essays. That’s probably better than lines? It’s not even on obedience or good submissive behavior. And he can think about meeting other him! He hates essays though. (He’d be all for writing out power use and tech notes for other him! but if other Jiang Cheng is assigning it he can’t just write whatever he wants, he’s gotta be Proper Report about it. Why are doms like this, other him probably doesn’t even like Proper Reports either. He’s going to put in a complaint about it in one of his own invented hidden message systems and see if other him notices.) “Yes, Sandu Shengshou.”

Good! 

Jiang Cheng nudges the door open slightly to check that the courtyard is clear.  It is.  Outside looks like a beautiful morning with a perfectly cloudless blue sky, though beneath it the plants are all dormant and it is still quite cold. 

The door is closed swiftly behind him as he exits.  Should he seal it?  But no, you just don't lock people in buildings - what if there's a fire?  No one would know other Wei Wuxian was there to get him out and telling anyone would defeat the whole point.  After a moment he presses his hand to the closed door and sets up a spell, pushing the glowing symbols into the wood until they're no longer visible.  It's something of a tripwire.  Attached to it is a messaging spell aimed at Jiang Cheng.  The tripwire part will break if the door or windows are opened, releasing the message.

He leaves, posture straightening even further as he prepares himself for the daily ordeal of going through his actual sect leader duties.

He’s close enough that he can tell something is happening there. Other Jiang Cheng is not in the room anymore, yes? yes. He jumps to his feet - remembers for once not to jump onto his one foot, go him - and dashes over to the door. Was this a done-and-gone kind of thing or can he feel something he can try to figure out?

There is in fact something still hanging around!

A thin filament now runs across the edges of the room at just below shoulder height, fragile and kept intact and completing the circuit only because the walls and closed windows and door are keeping it together.  It's nearly invisible.  The latch is easier to spot: a simple component holding back another spell, along with a reservoir of energy to feed the contraption so that it doesn't fail early.  Without a proper paper-and-ink talisman the spell is bleeding away energy at a steady rate like the white fog off of a chunk of dry ice.  To a cultivator's senses the movement of the spiritual energy out and away from the reservoir would be the most obvious part, though Wei Wuxian's form of magic sense may work differently.  If he wishes to calculate the remaining time by the rate of evaporation he will find that it will last into the mid-afternoon.

The message spell is much more complicated - a construction almost akin to the inner workings of a firework.  The initial component locates the assigned target.  Once aimed, the next layer accelerates towards him.  Upon reaching the target the message is activated.  There is nothing in the message beyond a default drawing of attention - distinctive as what it is but holding no words or further information - and Wei Wuxian will not be able to retrieve it out of the tangle.  The identifier of 'Jiang Cheng specifically' is an incomprehensible knot.  This spell has its own reservoir of energy.

It would be child's play for a cultivator to break the tripwire without sending the message.  Even a non-Wei Wuxian cultivator could do it.

He does find the ‘latch’ first but he’s searching around more broadly before he tries to figure out more details; he finds the filament. …oh, did other Jiang Cheng actually lock him in this time? It feels like the room is smaller around him. He wants to run away. That makes way more sense than the previous not that! (Why is that new? Can’t be any kind of local how-it-looks thing, since no one’s supposed to know any version of him is here. Maybe it’s just what he thought before, other Jiang Cheng expected other him to get though anything he put up, and doesn’t except the same thing of actual-him. Just wait, if other him can do it he will totally figure out a way sooner or later - and then not use it because he is staying right here in this room.)

He'll find the bleeding-away, but won't be able to be sure what it's doing. He's not going to be able to figure out the latent spell like this. He spends a while poking at the whole thing and its parts.

...Alright, so he thinks the part over here is powering(!) the local room bondage lock approach (haha), and also doing this other radiating thing which is maybe doing something he can't figure out and maybe just a side-effect. And then if - something with the room bondage - that'll trigger this other thing (can they really do that? It's so cool if they can do that!) Probably if he tries to get out of the room, then - can't be an alarm, that wouldn't be secret. Could be an alarm to other Jiang Cheng personally. Or maybe it'll shock him or stick him to the floor or tie him to the bed, who knows what they can do over here! 

He knows how he could find out what it does! He wouldn't have to actually leave. NO Wei Ying. That will not go well for you! He wants other Jiang Cheng to know he's taking this seriously, he really is. (He is.)

He does end up noticing the evaporation aspect of the bleed-away, as well as the steady rate. At which point he does want to time it and do the math. It'll get him the amount of hours, though since he doesn't actually know what time it is or if the time his watch is showing is the right time here, it won't give him a time of day.

Sadly for himself (in the general case, since he is not going to break out of this room), this Wei Wuxian is not a cultivator and has no more way to do anything to the tripwire than he would, upon identifying an instrument in a piece of music he hears, be able to decide he wants it to be a different one and have that happen.

But, speaking of things he can do - at some point he's gotten as far in figuring out this door construction as he's going to be getting. At which point he is going to go right ahead and fulfill other Jiang Cheng's prediction a bit belatedly, and head right over to the heating array. 

He'll spend a bit of time poking at it in its on form - after a bit of where-did-he-put-those-ones finds his notes from the night before, scribbles developments. (Right, he should get down notes on the door construction! He does that).

And then he'll try the turning it off himself!

The heating array is much simpler than the tripwire.  A person from a technologically advanced world might recognize the array's design as being similar to how electric stoves work, except with spiritual energy instead of electricity.  Some property of this particular kind of stone causes it to resist the power the array is sending into it in a way that converts it into heat.

Flipping the switch turns if off, and he can turn it back on again too!  Turning it off doesn't instantly re-cool the stone, which by now is comfortably warm like the sun has been shining on it.  Given the long heating process and low power (and the unusually cold weather this month) it is unlikely he'll need to touch it again until it's about time to leave.

He has a foundational study object in the floor of his room, it’s great! This world’s power use continues to be weird and a trip to get in his head and so cool. (It’s very convenient that he knows things like how electricity works or he would probably have a way harder time getting what’s even going on with some things here.)

He will absolutely turn the switch on and off a few times to observe the effects and the aftereffects . Also because he CAN. 

…Poking at the array reminds him of his investigation of the room yesterday. …Didn’t that one bag look a lot like the bag other Jiang Cheng pulled too many fruits out of? …He’s going to go re-find the bag.

It is not a teleporting bag so it's right where he left it.  It's nearly identical to the one Jiang Cheng had been carrying, even down to the pale cream color that stood out against the red and black of the robes in the same chest.  As a spiritual tool created in Lotus Pier, there's a bit of extra embroidery around the top done in purple thread and the little charms at the ends of the drawstring are amethysts carved into the simplified shape of lotus flowers.  Drained as it currently is, it behaves like a normal cloth bag.

He might have missed those details, but he’s examining the bag all over so he doesn’t. He checks that the Attestedly Other House (sect) Jiang bag is not currently bigger on the inside - it would be a surprise if it was, given what he got with his senses for power, but he needs to check. He’s still only figuring the beginnings out here! He could be wrong. Or there could be concealment.

Bag: not currently bigger on the inside. But he can still feel that there was something.

He didn’t think of this last night, but he’s had more examples now of this world’s power use having all this fuel analogy. …Maybe it’s rechargeable.

He hunts around the room, checking the walls (and floor and ceiling and furniture) for potential magic wall sockets.

Failing that, he is going to attempt a sequence of ideas to connect the bag up to the heating array. Starting by method ‘hold the bag up to it’ (it would be stupid not to check if that works, hey what if it did) and proceeding to ‘make the array lines match up at the edges’ ‘make the array lines match up at the edges across the light switch’, ‘use some strands of his hair as a connection’, ‘use a piece of paper with a line drawn across it as a connection’, ‘use a piece of paper with some shapes he has some maybe theories about’, and ‘search for what other him used to write, find the ink, perform operation: ink (nooot his favorite part but he knows the process), and repeat the previous attempts with local ink in case that part’s important’.

(The fact that if any of this was the kind of thing that could work, then he is currently doing the equivalent of sticking metal forks in an appliance while it’s running, has on this occasion failed its ‘occur to Wei Wuxian before he does the thing’ check.)

There's no wall socket equivalents.  Nor do any attempts to charge it with the array work.  Qiankun pouches aren't built to be plugged in to places of power, and even things that are take much longer than a day to set up.  On the bright side, he didn't cause any negative effects either.

He could try with the door contraption, if that wasn’t off limits which it definitely is. He could try with just that radiating part no, off limits.

Aww. He sticks his tongue out at the not recharging at all bag. Oh well. Other him will know how this really works. Maybe other Jiang Cheng will even tell him! 

Having exhausted the practical magic in the room again, it’s time to get back to the theoretical. (Unification convergence!?) He’s realized by now that he may have jumped the gun there. Other Jiang Cheng had said that someone with a strong enough golden core can learn any technique, not just do any technique. Maybe it’s the other way around and that’s a prerequisite here? (Also, didn’t other Jiang Cheng say something about creating and storing large amounts of spiritual energy? That might have to do with the fuel analogy here.)

Back to other him’s notes! This time he scans through them, looking for anything mentioning golden cores. Or learning techniques and stuff like that.