Lan Wangji gives an unhappy hum around Wei Ying before pulling off, hand continuing to move around him but leaving him free to speak. "Wei Ying is good for me. Gives me happiness and pleasure every day," he argues, unable to stand anyone speaking ill of Wei Ying, including Wei Ying.

"Took me days to find any information in the library. Could not ask," he admits, remembering combing the stacks until a mix of sexual therapy books (he cannot fathom speaking to a stranger of such a thing), lurid novels and anatomy textbooks had offered the information he sought. "Such things are not taught. Wei Ying has had no reason to know them, no way to know them."