And a few weeks later, Wen Ning has leveled up to level 6, and he has five stat points to allocate.
He also is at 19 WIZ.
"My sister mentioned you were sick. Meng Yao looked shifty. So I hacked into her computer."
...all is revealed. "You can hack?" Lan Wangji was a software engineer, sure, but he seemed too straight-laced to even consider putting on a black hat? Especially because someone he doesn't know knows Wen Ning looked shifty? "--We should probably make sure my sister knows I'm alive." For now.
"That would be good. -- How long was I gone?" How many people think he's dead? Have we changed presidents? Have South Korea and Australia gone to war over Cosmo's editorial policy?
"So hopefully no one's filed a death certificate for me."
He is so good at walking long distances. He has Wizard's Body and everything. He is definitely not stumbling!
He is now being carried into the woods after being-- unkidnapped? Kidnapped twice? Also apparently he hasn't eaten for ten days and he's pretty sure something has gone screwy with his sleep cycle.
Lan Wangji is very warm and solid, and it is surprisingly hard for him to keep his eyes open.
Some time later he will be half-woken-up by being placed in a bed. Maybe someone is kissing his forehead, but probably that's just a dream.
This is... probably a bad idea, but not one he feels like fighting the good fight about? He swallows it.
Lan Wangji follows the pill with a glass of water.
Then he says "I'm sorry" and starts doing horrible things to Wen Ning's hands.
... the Ordeal isn't over. He should have expected Lan Wangji to be an agent of it.
And now he's being tortured again and he really wishes he was the sort of wizard who could cast fireball instead of the kind who could fit his entire fist in his mouth.
His struggles are pretty ineffective.
"It will be over more quickly if you're still."
More horrible things are happening.
Finally the horribleness stops. When Wen Ning looks down, his hands are in a brace.
"You should sleep."
... that doesn't make more or less sense than torture, but it makes a certain sort of sense? "...Thank you?" He is not going to mention his hands would have healed anyway.
Unfortunately, right now he is that mix of exhausted and wired you get from being in pain, that makes it difficult to sleep. Mysterious how that happened.