su minshan has done nothing wrong, ever,

Zewu-jun's smile was no longer polite. "Please, Jin gongzi, allow me to remedy my error now. Su Minshan?" She gestured for Minshan to join her and turned to indicate she was leaving. This was like being in a burning house and bandits waiting outside. On the one hand, maybe if Minshan insulted Zewu-jun in front of Zixun, helped him put her in her place as he so clearly wanted to, maybe it would earn her points with the Jin. On the other hand she would have to deal with Jin fucking Zixun.

Minshan gave the most cursory of bows to Jin Zixun and followed Zewu-jun across the plaza, scowling to herself. Probably she was going to be sternly told all the reasons she shouldn't dare ever raise her head in public again, and she might even have been willing to take it from some other headbanded lout, but she genuinely was not sure she had the patience to pretend that the sect leader who had abandoned them all to die had a leg to stand on when it came to righteousness.

"Please don't mistake me," said Zewu-jun, softly, no longer smiling, "I have no desire, now or ever, for your company. Nor have I forgotten what you did. But nobody deserves the attention of Jin Zixun."

Minshan stopped in her tracks. "What?" She was about to ask where Zewu-jun got off, or if she was drunk from that one cup of wine she'd been made to drink earlier, but Zewu-jun cut her off.

"He's still standing there. We should at least pretend to polite conversation until he's gone. Unless, of course you want to--"

"Oh, please!" she scoffed. "He's the worst."

"Mn." said Zewu-jun. "It is a belief off mine that no one is born evil. I must say I am deeply indebted to Jin gongzi in this matter. It is important that, when adhering to a universal principle, one make sure it is truly universal, and not make exceptions. And on the question of whether or not someone can be born evil, Jin gongzi has sorely tested my convictions every time we have met. Really, I should thank him."

"That," said Minshan, reluctantly impressed, "might be the meanest thing I have ever heard." Zewu-jun cut an annoyed face, and any messy hint of camaraderie she had started to grudgingly feel vanished. "Who would guess that the great sect leader Lan is so ready to insult anyone. Not even the Jin sect is safe."

The irritated glint in Zewu-jun's eyes hardened. "Oh, Su She can rest assured that sect leader Lan would never insult an innocent party, and, should she do so accidentally, she would be quick to apologize."

Bullshit. "I bet he hasn't even done anything to you," she said, knowing she was being unfair and not caring in the slightest. "The first jade of the Lan. It’s not like he would dare offend you."

"One thing about Jin Zixun is that he will always dare, provided of course that he is certain he will bear no consequences for his daring. As I think Su She knows quite well."

Zewu-jun's tone was curt, and there was a note of distaste in her voice like she'd stepped in manure. Minshan had never seen this woman be so outrageously and obviously rude before. Hanguang-jun, yes, but everyone knew she thought herself above manners. She felt like she was watching Lan Xichen transform into someone entirely different. Someone more like her than Lan Xichen would like. Someone she would probably be disgusted to learn she was capable of being if she ever had to face it unequivocally. It was fascinating. Minshan wanted, suddenly, to see how far she could push it.

"What if there were consequences?" she mused, glancing at where Jin Zixun stood on the opposite side of the plaza, berating a trembling servant. Lianfang-zun had had that same subdued and frightened look in her eyes earlier, when he'd given her the same treatment.

Smiling wistfully, Lan Xichen said "That would be nice to think about."

"We can do better than think," said Minshan. What better way to get back at this high-and-mighty, holier-than-thou hypocrite who threw her birth name around and looked at her like she was dirt for not doing anything she hadn't done herself than to drag her down off her pedestal, rub her face in the fact that she wasn't any better. "What he did to you at the banquet, such an insult to your sect. You can't let that stand."

Lan Xichen sighed. She considered a moment, opened her mouth to speak, thought better, and closed it again.

"He was bragging, before you got there, about how Hanguang-jun is so weak she had to get someone else to drink for her, and that if she'd drunk even one cup of wine, she'd have turned into a wanton sing-song girl." None of that was true, but who needed truth when she could make Lan Xichen’s nostrils flare in rage, make her lip curl, make her do all these subtle things that made her perfect face look so fucking ugly?

"Do you want to know the worst part?" Lan Xichen muttered, full of venom. "If I wanted to, I could drink him under the table."

"Bullshit," Minshan snorted. "You Lan don't drink, and even strong cultivation can't--"

"There's a trick I invented for handling that. It effects me no more than water unless I want it to. Why do you think I was willing to drink at the banquet?"

Either way, she realized, this would work out for her. Either Jin Zixun would be humiliated in an elegant turnabout, or Lan Xichen would fall victim to her own arrogance. "So then why don't you?" Lan Xichen was about to explain in some patronizing way why she of course could never, so Minshan pressed on. "It would be easy. He'd jump at the chance to get you alone and drunk. He'd never see it coming. And even if he told someone, he'd be the asshole who couldn't keep up with a Lan, and a woman. Besides, nobody would believe him."