#...uhh

"I thought-- He said he was looking for them--"

"You did very well," Lady Yanli assures him. "My brothers are very relieved to have Wen Ning and Wen Qing back safely."

Jin Zixuan hears a particularly shrill shriek that might actually have been from Sect Leader Jiang, and has doubts.

But Lady Yanli leads him a short distance away to a table by the water, graciously motioning for him to sit, and despite still being able to hear shouting Jin Zixuan is very abruptly reminded of the fact that he has feelings for this woman, and his mind does an immediate, appropriate about-face.

"Um," he says.

Lady Yanli smiles and sends a servant to fetch some refreshments, because she is polite and kind and a wonderful host.

Jin Zixuan very seriously considers the merits of falling on his own sword.

"Was finding them difficult?" Lady Yanli asks once the tea and cups have been placed on the table, one delicate hand holding back her sleeve as she pours for him. "I know Wuxian sent out missives to the other Sects, but he didn't mean to put undue pressure on you."

That is, in fact, exactly what Wei Wuxian meant to do, but Jin Zixuan enjoys Lady Yanli's company and his own neck far too much to say so.

"It was no trouble," he reassures her, taking a sip of the tea. It's a little oversteeped and he says absolutely nothing about it, because he made the mistake of asking Mianmian to give him courting pointers, and after she laughed herself breathless--she really has no regard for decorum when it comes to him anymore--she made a list of things that he did in the past that he should not do again.

It was...a very long list.

"I'm glad to have Wen Qing here," Lady Yanli admits, glancing at the Sword Hall, where something crashes noisily against one of the walls. "I love my brothers, but they're very busy getting the Sect back together, and it will be nice to have company of my own."

Jin Zixuan thinks about volunteering Mianmian as a companion, mentally slaps himself because he cannot just offer someone like that, no matter how viciously he wants to erase Lady Yanli's loneliness, and manages to summon a weak smile.

"That's good to hear," he says, and it's not even untrue. "You don't--you shouldn't have to be alone, that is. On your own. With just...yourself."

Lady Yanli watches him flail with wide eyes. Her mouth presses into a thin line, fingers curling around her teacup. Her shoulders start to tremble. She's--

"Are you laughing at me?"

Lady Yanli lets out the most indelicate, unladylike snort of laughter that Jin Zixuan has ever heard. She covers her mouth with her sleeve immediately after but he can still see the way her eyes crinkle at the corners, the tears of mirth shining bright and stubbornly unshed as she shakes her head in completely ineffective denial.

And, well. That's just it for his heart, really.