Chapter Text
Don’t Have a Leg to Stand on
Wei Wuxian starts off asking Lan Wangji to let him help, citing, not for the first time, "all we've been through together" as a reason they should share their troubles. Later, all they go through apart will make it even harder for them to share their troubles.
Using paperman, Wei Wuxian asks Wen Qing for help, and she calls for a rest stop. Lan Wangji sits down and Wei Wuxian goes to get him some water.
Wei Wuxian stupidly bows to Wen Qing to thank her, causing her to contemplate what a terrible spy he would be. She avoids talking to him while he looks at her with deep friend-yearning, in a moment of blatant het baiting.
Overly-dramatic backache guy is my hero. His back and shoulders are trashed after a stroll on a smooth path. Same, backache guy, same.
Jiang Cheng comes along to tell Wei Wuxian not to pay attention to Wen Qing.
Also, don't pay attention to Lan Wangji. Do you sense the theme here, bro?
Wei Wuxian actually takes the hint and cuddle-walks with Jiang Cheng for a bit, gossiping about Wen Chao and his girlfriend.
Jiang Cheng drops a seemingly-insignificant bit of information about swords requiring spiritual power.
He will not think of this later when his brother starts wielding a flute.
Talisman Magic
After looking around a wide open beach area, the cultivators are unable to find the hidden cave, and are ready to give up. Wei Wuxian decides that's a good time for him to start looking.
Jiang Cheng continues his hopeless quest to get Wei Wuxian to stop doing stuff. Wei Wuxian decides to help Wen Chao find his "murder all the clan heirs" cave, locating it with hardly any effort.
Is Wei Wuxian the only cultivator who uses talismans at this point? Seeing all the baby Lans using them in Episode 1 makes it seem like they're not unusual, but he seems to be the only one in this generation.
This makes a strong impression on a lot of people. Jiang Chang isn't happy about it, and walks away from his brother.
Side note: these two are the literal worst, and yet they have...kind of great chemistry? I want to see these actors as the secondary, comic-relief couple in a modern light-hearted romance.
It's hard to tell from this look exactly what Lan Wangji thinks about Wei Wuxian's cave-finding, but from this point on, they are walking together, and Lan Wangji is letting Wei Wuxian hold his arm to help him.
Wanting to fight monsters is kind of high on their list of shared interests, and every time they go questing, they get closer to each other.
Spelunking
The cave filming location is freaking awesome, with apparently real bats.
Sure, give torches to the two most dangerous prisoners, great thinking, Wen Chao.
MianMian, who has been a perfectly sensible and competent cultivator up until this point, suddenly becomes clumsy and helpless, which is probably just as annoying for her as it is for the people who are used to relying on her. Everyone's entitled to a bad day, but jeez, writers.
Lan Wangji has stopped worrying about his busted leg and is super eager to find the monster.
Wei Wuxian unwisely points out that they can’t see what’s at the bottom of the cave, which inspires Wen Chao to play a quick round of Fuck/Marry/Cliff with him.
Reactions to seeing Wei Wuxian yeeted off a cliff are varied.
Down at the bottom of the cave, the cultivators stand around helplessly until Wei Wuxian uses a talisman to light up the back of the cave. Seriously, what do these wankers do on their night hunts? They’re hopeless at hunting.
None of them remarks on the strangely turtle-shaped rock in front of them. To be fair, I don't think Wen Chao told them what sort of monster they're looking for.
Picking on Mian Mian Some More
Wen Chao wants to bleed someone in order to draw out the monster. Instead of just asking everyone to cough up some blood, which any c-drama character can do on command, he wants to cut someone up.
His girlfriend is a nasty jealous person, so she wants to use MianMian as bait. Wei Wuxian starts to move to protect her and Lan Wangji beats him to it.
HEY HEY HEY now! I never noticed before, but Wei Wuxian isn’t actually an idiot for thinking Lan Wangji likes MianMian!
Lan Wangji might have leaped to protect her because he’s chivalrous--protecting the weak and so forth--or he might have done it to keep Wei Wuxian safe.
*We* know he definitely didn’t do it because of a crush on her. When Lan Wangji has a crush on someone, he shows it by trying to stab them to death. But it’s not unreasonable for Wei Wuxian to interpret this as “man protects pretty girl he likes.”
Wei Wuxian breaks the terrible news to Jiang Cheng that they might have to actually help their friends to, like, not die.
Fight Fight Fight
Sure enough, fighting breaks out, and the three heirs and Wei Wuxian immediately grab swords away from their opponents and start kicking their asses. Feudalism really does bring the best quality people to the top!
After casually cutting a Wen dude’s throat, probably with that dude’s own sword, Wei Wuxian brings out his most lethal weapon, going verbal on Wen Chao. Initially this comes off like WWX being obnoxious and hassling an enemy when he should be focusing on sword fighting. But he's actually making a strategic move here to win the fight.
Through the power of talking, and having actually done his homework, Wei Wuxian gets Wen Chao to insult his own ancestor. This is rude and hugely unlucky, and is also specifically against the Wen clan rules. In fact, it carries the death penalty, which Wei Wuxian gleefully taunts Wen Chao about.
Wen Zhuliu, who is a better Wen than Wen Chao, is super embarrassed by his junior boss's dumbfuckery...which distracts him.
As this goes on, Wei Wuxian’s companions become more and more aware that he’s about to make a move. Jin Zixuan has been on the receiving end of this play himself.
Wen Chao is a really weak fighter, and always relies on Wen Zhuliu, carefully keeping himself out of danger whenever fighting happens. But Wei Wuxian's goading gets to him and he rushes forward.
Wei Wuxian instantly disarms him and takes him hostage, while Jiang Cheng leaps into battle with the only really dangerous opponent in the room.
Jiang Cheng takes a scary but not core-crushing hand strike to the chest, but the battle stops when Wei Wuxian threatens Wen Chao's life.
He talks directly to Wen Zhuliu, who knows a killer when he sees one. Long before visiting the burial mounds, Wei Wuxian is entirely ruthless when necessary. Here he goes from whimsical to deadly in a heartbeat.
This is a part of him that Lan Wangji doesn't really acknowledge...yet.
Everyone drops their weapons. Unfortunately Wei Wuxian decided to stand on the turtle shaped rock, so this advantage won’t last.