Lan Wangji will never tell Wei Wuxian what he did after the massacre at Nightless City—what his brother would call the only mistake he ever made. Nor will he forget it himself.

“We raised a child together,” Jiang Wanyin says, voice thick with pain. “You two were sworn brothers.” He swallows hard and oh. Oh, no. Lan Xichen is not ready for this conversation. He is never going to be ready for this conversation. “And because of what he did, there is nowhere outside this room that either of us can mourn him.”

Lan Xichen has been in seclusion for half a year, healing, he thinks, from the way his world was upended that night in a temple in Yunping City. Then, Jiang Wanyin comes to visit—breaking the fragile peace he has been building, but offering, perhaps, a better healing.

Meng Yao goes to a party at Jin Zixun's apartment hoping to get close to Lan Xichen and gets more than he bargined for when he ends up stuck in a room with Nie Mingjue.

Wen Ning recognizes what is happening. He is being confessed to. This happens to him, sometimes. There is something about him that makes people tell him secrets, although he doesn't think he does anything to encourage this. His sister used to say he had trust-worthy proportions, which people could naturally see. Since she had never read his fate in his face, this doesn't seem too reliable.

Wen Ning encounters Lan Xichen, and they discuss trees. A secret is shared.

The hot springs were deep enough here that the water lapped at Lan Jingyi's thighs. He couldn't see much of the man in front of him except that his hair was tied up and he'd been taller than Lan Jingyi before he got on his knees. To suck Lan Jingyi's dick. Because Lan Jingyi was having anonymous sex in the gay hot springs in Qinghe and getting his dick sucked by a stranger.