Lan Wanyin jerks away at those words and he narrows his eyes at Jiang Xichen.

"What do you want? I'm not going to help you cover up anything. If you break a rule, you should be duly pun—"

"It's not that, not that." Jiang Xichen chuckles. "I'm inviting you to Lotus Pier."

Lan Wanyin glances at him. Then, after a short pause, he finally replies. "Why?"

"Why, you say? Well, Yunmeng is really fun. Yunmeng’s food is good, better than everything I cooked for you. I can take you to pick lotus seed pods and water chestnuts."

Lan Wanyin remains silent.

"Your archery is getting better too, maybe we can even go hunt pheasants. Did you know that Wei Wuxian is the best at hunting pheasants in Yunmeng? He can easily find all the hiding sp—"

"No."

Jiang Xichen blinks.

"Don’t answer everything with negative words. You sound so uncaring; girls won’t like it."

Lan Wanyin scoffs. "I don't need them to like me."

"There's one woman you need in the whole world to like you though," Jiang Xichen chuckles, bumping his shoulder against Lan Wanyin's.

"My sister, the best sister in the world, Jiang Yanli. The lotus pork rib soup she makes is the best."

Lan Wanyin's lower lip trembles and he stays silent for another long moment before answering hesitantly.

"No..."

"Oh? Is that still not tempting enough?"

"There's nothing in Yunmeng that I can't find in Gusu."

"Really?"

"..."

Jiang Xichen smirks, eyes narrowing into crescents as he bends forward and peers up at Lan Wanyin. "But there's definitely something there you can't find here in Gusu—there's 𝘮𝘦."