“We can discuss it, with them, at Jinlintai,” Jiang Cheng said, making his voice even and hoping Wei Wuxian didn’t insist on hearing it all here and now. “But for now, you need to not do anything to make it worse.”

Wei Wuxian looked at him silently for awhile, frowning slightly. Eventually he let out a sigh and some of the tension drained from his shoulders.

“Okay, but if I send Wen Ning back—“

“Gongzi, no!” Wen Ning exclaimed, the first words he’d uttered.

Wei Wuxian held up his hand. Wen Ning frowned but didn’t say more.

“If I do send him back and some enterprising fellow decides to come at me with enough people to make it a problem, then what? I won’t just not defend myself.”

Jiang Cheng schooled his features. Wei Wuxian was hardly helpless. But of course, these days if someone did attack him, he was most likely to use resentful energy and raise whatever corpses were nearby, he had stopped caring Suibian long ago. Since their duel, Jiang Cheng had done a lot of thinking and he’d come to believe that Wei Wuxian’s use (or perhaps abuse was a better word) was damaging his meridians, potentially good golden core as well. It all just fit.

But that was not the most immediate concern.

“That’s why I brought my men, out of uniform,” he told Wei Wuxian. “They can travel with you, or close enough to assist if necessary. They have signal flares. I’ll give you signal flares too. I’ll have more people watching. I’ll be watching for them too. Just please don’t do anything to ruin this.”

Wei Wuxian took another long moment to think about it. Then, “Fine, I’ll do it your way. I hope you don’t get me killed, Jiang Cheng.”

Jiang Cheng let out a sigh of relief.