Lan Zhan manages to fall asleep surrounded by the warmth of loving hands and the familiar scent of lavender and incense soothing him into slumber.

Therefore, it is a rude awakening to jolt upright at the raised voices in the room.

He sits up blinking fast and rubbing his eyes, looking for Wei Ying first, before glancing around the room. Wei Ying has just woken up too, and the sudden loud noises are jarring him into whining a protest as he seeks comfort in his mother's side.

"A-Ren, first of all, calm down. You're upsetting the children," Cangse Sanren tells Lan Qiren sharply, enough to make her own husband wince.

Wei Changze springs into action as he forces Lan Qiren and Lan Huan onto the bamboo mats, pouring them tea.

"Now, here's what we're going to do." Cangse Sanren commands. "We are going to have our dinner, and because you Lans insist on doing so in silence, this will give you ample time to collect your thoughts. Then, and only then, you will start at the beginning of whatever is bothering you, and explain. Do I make myself clear?"

Lan Qiren is grateful to her for stopping the tumultuous waterfall of conflicting thoughts that are crashing into each other in his head - he needed to be chastised and his friend has done the job perfectly. He's in a state of such confusion and disbelief that his head is beginning to hurt, protesting against actions it didn't wish to participate in; after all, he was looking forward to resting after dinner.

But while his exhaustion remains, he knows that sleep is the furthest thing on his mind right now. The only person who shares his feelings is a nine year old child who is not much better off in the emotional department himself. Silently, Lan Qiren pulls Lan Huan into a side hug, a nonverbal promise that he wishes to make him feel better.

If Lan Qiren could, he would turn back time and stop Lan Huan from going back to unpack their things in the Hanshi. But alas, such a thing is not possible. Judging from the pile of dirty clothes in the centre of the room, Lan Huan was probably sorting through the robes that needed to be washed when he'd found the parchment papers burning a hole in his pocket now.

Lan Huan has a wealth of questions in his beautiful, sorrowful honey-coloured eyes, and he can't seem to look away from Lan WangJi. The younger Jade is oblivious to this attention though, his gaze firmly on his young friend, Wei Ying. Even now, they're holding hands and both are trying to comfort each other.

Lan Qiren feels a flicker of remorse for the way he burst into the room. In fact, he's ashamed of himself for further upsetting a lady who is supposed to be on bedrest for the remainder of her pregnancy, and of course, waking up the children.

He will not allow himself to think about the immediate problem of the two pieces of parchment that are put out of sight for now. That way, madness lies.

Instead, he hopes for his friends' understanding, after he is allowed to explain his behaviour to them.

Cangse Sanren is correct; the dinner is comforting as much as it can be, bringing with it the fragrance of home, of safety, and of things being just as they should. It is an illusion, and Lan Qiren knows this, but it still comforts him.

It gives him the chance to organise his thoughts properly, and he begins to plan what he will say when they finish eating and no one will be able to avoid the coming conversation. He looks up just in time to see WangJi passing a bottle of chilli oil to Wei Ying, and for the child to happily dump a generous amount of the red gloopy liquid onto his rice and then put a mouthful of it on his tongue, sighing with pleasure.

Cangse Sanren pretends not to see, watching Qiren back with an uncomfortable intensity.

There's a fearlessness about her, a promise to exact vengeance if Lan Qiren even thinks about harming one hair on the heads of her babies; that fierce protective shield covering Lan WangJi and Lan Huan alongside her son is an unspoken vow.

The only sound in the room is that of wooden chopsticks hitting ceramic bowls with a military consistency, everyone eager and impatient to learn what is bothering the Acting Sect Leader.

Cangse Sanren smiles up at her husband when he comes to divest her of her utensils, and she pointedly waits until he returns from putting all their vessels and cutlery outside the door before addressing Lan Qiren.

"Now, are you ready to speak?" Again, she fixes him with a steadying gaze, one that brings him back to surefooted moorings.

"Mn. I must thank you for your intervention." Lan Qiren bows to her solemnly.

"So serious, A-Ren! I've told you before, you shouldn't sit on ceremony with us. We're good friends and as such, there's no need for apologies or thanks between us. Now I'm dying to know what could have riled up the unflappable Lan Qiren of the Cloud Recesses so badly! Go on, spill the tea! What's up?" She suddenly grins at him, and it's like the sun bursting through dark clouds to chase them away.

Lan Qiren takes a deep breath and begins. He tells her what it felt like to walk all the way to Nightless City, and how unwelcome Wen Ruohan made him feel. He talks about Wen Ruohan's sister and their past connections, about their history and he runs through the days of the conference as fast as he can, especially at the beginning when he felt the stirrings of unease first make themselves known.

Then the conversation takes a nosedive from the narrative:

"A woman walked into the meeting hall saying she was the mother of Jin GuangShan's son. Her name is Meng Shi and her child's name is Meng Yao. The Jin Sect Leader tried to deny it."

"He did not! What a shameless harlot! Him, not her!"

"And then for proof, she claimed Jin GuangShan had given her a rare pearl from part of a precious family heirloom."

"No way!"

"To which twenty other women also showed theirs."

"Oh my fucking God! Qiren! Where's the bloody popcorn?"

"Language! Xingan, there are children present!" Wei Changze interjects mildly, glancing at them.

Lan Qiren takes a good look at the two angelic babies on the bed next to her and seriously wonders if that's true. But he's a long way from being done with this.

"Then, while Jin GuangShan tried to defend himself by stating that it wasn't his fault if the countless women were not immune to his charms-" both he and Cangse Sanren share disgusted looks, "and then he collapsed. When the healers examined him, he was dead."

"WHAT?" Cangse Sanren shouts, absolutely floored by that, forgetting herself.

"Xingan, please calm down. Remember our children," Wei Changze reminds her cautiously. He makes a point of glancing at her round stomach.

"They're just as invested!" she exclaims, waving a hand towards Lan Qiren to continue. "How did he die? Did one of his side-pieces poison that no-good lying piece of shit?"

Wei Changze sighs into his cup of tea, abandoning all hope of watering this down.

"The healers had to undress him-"

"In front of everyone? How humiliating! Poor Jin-Furen, having to endure all that!"

"And they found that Jin-Zhongzhu had tied a sausage to his...um..." Lan Qiren tries desperately to think of another word to use, one that wouldn't be so crude-

"His DICK? Oh my God, that shameless bastard! Then what happened?"

Lan Qiren throws a long-suffering look towards his other friend, the quiet one. Wei Changze resolutely looks deep inside his teacup, refusing to engage. He's not here, if he wishes hard enough...

Lan Qiren sighs and continues. "The healers diagnosed his death as a result from a blood clot that formed because of him tying the sausage too tightly, resulting in a brain haemorrhage. His death was immediate."

"Damn. Listen, Qiren, have you got any other snacks then? This is too good!"

Lan Qiren remembers the packet of lotus seeds he'd picked up earlier in Caiyi Town when they were passing through and retrieves it from his sleeve. He tosses it to her and she catches it single handedly, squealing with glee. Then she shares it with the two children seated on both sides of her.

"I hope you got more, because this is nothing!" she adds shamelessly, beaming at him when he empties his qiankun pouch on the table in front of him. She's already making grabby hands at the contents.

"The next day, Wen Ruohan announced that both Jiang Fengmian and Madam Yu had passed away in the night-"

"WHAT? That's terrible!"

Lan Qiren has never heard these words spoken with such insincerity, but he valiantly continues despite the many interruptions.

"How?" Cangse Sanren prods him, with a wink.

"A rare breed of venomous spiders had gotten into their beds and bitten them. They died in their sleep."

"Wow! The Violet Spider killed by her namesake? I must admit, I wasn't expecting that! Do go on," she encourages him, peeling more lotus seeds for the boys. Noticing Lan Huan, she grabs his attention and tosses him a few, which the boy glances at his uncle and, gaining his permission, proceeds to eat them in a distracted manner.

Lan Huan has not uttered a single word since Lan Qiren found him, and although Lan Qiren is worried about him, there is something therapeutic about going through the events at Nightless City in this manner. He realises with a jolt that Cangse Sanren's reactions are what he needs, and that they were severely lacking from his talk with the Elders.

Well, one can't have everything.

"Also, that morning, Wen Xu, Wen Ruohan's eldest son and heir, died in his sleep-"

"No fucking way? Are they cursed or something? That's like, the fourth one!" An unexpected giggle leaves her mouth. "Sorry," she adds, blushing.

"For?" Lan Qiren asks, feigning confusion because not only has she been incessantly interrupting him, but the language! The shouting! The reactions! Which one is she apologising for, exactly?

"Doesn't matter! And I can't help myself! Qiren, I've been tied to a bed for nigh on two months! This is the most excitement I've had since that stupid Beast of Yiling took me out! You can't blame me for taking full advantage of it!" She defends herself adamantly. "Anyway, how did the kid die?"

"Bladder burst. Wen Ruohan seemed to think it was part of a silly dare that the kids must have come up with, something about not using a chamber pot for the longest time."

"Right, right," Cangse Sanren nods along sagely as if that makes the most sense. "But I'm guessing there's more?"

"Mn. On the morning of their funerals, Wen Ruohan tried to prevent me from playing Rest, and as he was coming over to talk to me, his son accidentally tripped him up. Along with the Head Priest, who was carrying Wen Xu's ashes at the time. It made him drop the urn, covering all three, Wen Ruohan and the priest and the child in fresh ashes. While we were waiting for him to return from an impromptu bathing session, there was a loud crashing sound. We found out later that Wen Ruohan was using dirty tricks to turn live humans into puppets. The force of the resentment this created blew a hole in the caves under the Nightless City palace, killing some but letting others escape." At this point, Lan Qiren remembers himself and throws out silencing talismans against the walls and the ceiling, making the other adults raise their brows at him.

"What I'm about to tell you is of an extremely sensitive nature. Wen Ruohan was using a piece of Yin Iron to forge a path of demonic cultivation. This piece was entrusted to his Sect to suppress, so that by keeping it separate from the other pieces, it could be forced into dormancy. But Wen Tang Changpu said Wen Ruohan must have dug it up from the layers of lava continually forming over it. She has given it to me to hide here. More on that in a moment." Lan Qiren pauses, seeking their affirmation to continue with the current thread.

Wei Changze is already nodding along with his wife.

"He must have heard the sound of the explosion from his bedroom where he was taking his bath. There's an escape tunnel hidden in his room that takes him straight down to the caves under the Palace and he must have been using it regularly. No one knows how but he slipped, and tumbled all the way down, fatally injuring himself.

"With him was the Core-Melting Hand, Wen Zhuliu."

"Wen Zhuliu? Who's that? A cousin? Distant relative? And when you say 'Core-Melting', I'm assuming you mean he could melt cores?" Cangse Sanren looks ill all of a sudden. She pushes away the snacks quickly, looking away from them.

"That's incredible," Wei Changze says out loud. "Having him in any Sect would raise them catastrophically higher than any other. The threat alone would kill off any opposition!"

Lan Qiren agrees, and explains the circumstances of his joining the Wen Sect and how he hadn't seemed happy about it. Also adding that his father had basically given Wen Ruohan the greatest bargaining chip by being taken as essentially a prisoner, just to keep Wen Zhuliu's loyalty to him.

"This Wen Zhuliu, he's dead, too? Did he also slip on a wet step? That's the sixth one! No wonder they wanted you to play Rest!"

"Drank poisoned wine." Lan Qiren corrects her. "We were busy suppressing the fierce corpses that had gotten out and it was only through repeated playing simultaneously of a known melody that seemed to work. Once we were done, I went to find the children again. Wen Tang Changpu came to find us and gave us the news."

"Wait, didn't Wen Ruohan have two sons?" Cangse Sanren furrows her brow trying to remember.

"Had," Lan Qiren admits.

"Had? Oh, no! What happened to him? Wasn't he just a baby?" At this, she looks genuinely distressed.

"His Nanny reported turning away for a moment and the boy drowned. He was covered in ashes, so she had taken him away to get him cleaned up. Accidental death."

Cangse Sanren counts on her fingers out loud. "That makes seven deaths."

"Wait, I forgot about Sect Leader Yao. He was seen chewing on Yew berries. Self-explanatory death."

Cangse Sanren snorts out loud, stares at him for about ten more seconds before clutching her sides and howling with laughter. She has tears in her eyes and can barely keep a straight face, and every time she thinks she has it under control, she makes the mistake of catching Qiren's eye and the mad laughter breaks free once more.

"My tummy hurts," she complains, still smiling and gasping, and wiping her own face.

"Now you're both up to speed," Lan Qiren finishes.

"But that doesn't explain why you were in such a state when you came back with A-Huan," Cangse Sanren has to ask this while staring at the wall, otherwise this conversation is going to take forever.

"Which brings me to this." Lan Qiren finally takes out the two pieces of parchment and hands them to her.

From where the children are seated next to her, Wei Ying and Lan Zhan see clearly what she's reading, and neither dares to look at anyone, much less Uncle Qiren.

Wei Ying grabs Lan Zhan's hand and signs on his palm: What are we going to do?

Lan Zhan flips their hands over and signs back: Tell them the truth.

But the real question is, will the adults in this room believe them?