"I did. As Wens, you are spies and thieves and a threat to my sect. As defectors, you would be valuable to ensuring the safety of countless innocent lives. We find the latter preferable to executing or imprisoning you."

Not that they would execute children anyway, they aren't monsters. But they will suffer more as pawns of Wen Ruohan whether or not the Lan punish them.

"I can't accept that, for obvious reasons, but...I was thinking maybe A-Ning could." 

"We're not leaving A-Ning alone here."

"I don't think they'd hurt him! People who don't have Wen Ruohan at the top live really differently, Nie-gongzi was really surprised when I talked about the lava pits and other kinds of murder." 

what

"We're not leaving him. A-Ying, we will discuss this later."

"Why can you not accept?" she addresses Wen Ying softly.

"Because if I accept Wen Ruohan will know I'm not loyal to him and I'll never get close enough to kill him and then he'll keep on being Wen Ruohan at everybody else! It's no good for me to be safe if it means everyone else isn't! Even if he weren't being really aggressive at all the other sects, I won't leave the rest of the Wen sect to deal with him. Not everyone is Wen Chao or Wen Xu, there are plenty of people just trying to keep their heads down and survive and they don't deserve to have to deal with him!" 

"Sect Leader Lan," she says tightly. "Would you allow us some time to discuss these terms privately."

"--Yes, alright." 

"S-sorry for lying to you, Sect Leader Lan, we really didn't want to. I don't think we're going to do it again?"

"Let's go, A-Ning."

Time to drag the siblings back to their guest/prison house and NOT yell until they get there.

They get there. A-Ying immediately hugs A-Ning. 

"Er-jie, are you really okay?"

"Uh, I'm wet and I'm a little freaked out and da-jie is definitely about to yell at me, but aside from that I'm okay." 

"What were you thinking!!!"

"--See, there's the yelling. Da-jie, Lan-guniang was there in the cave with me, I couldn't lie to her brother and uncle when she knew the truth, it wouldn't work." 

"There is a difference between not lying and telling them everything! Why did you tell Lan-guniang anything about the Yin Iron, why did -- is our safety here a joke to you? How can you go confessing to everything while we're still in the dark, A-Ying!"

"I. I'm not used to--people here aren't afraid all the time, jiejie. But they're afraid of us. And I hate it so much, and I--I can't let Wen Ruohan get his hands on another one of those, I kept seeing what happened back then and imagining it worse--"

She covers her face with her hands. "A-Ying, I know you're sensitive about other people like this, but you can't -- this family's safety has to come first, A-Ning's safety has to come first, you can't make these decisions by yourself.  What can we do to stop him? If he tell him we failed, he will send someone else -- if he doesn't attack Cloud Recesses right away!"

"They know now. They can prepare, now. They can--jie, I won't let what happened on the mountain happen again, A-Ning could have died then, do you think toeing the line is safe? It's not, you and I both know that, and when you're up against the wall with fire in front of you pressing against the wall isn't the right choice, you have to go through the fire to the other side. I know I need to prepare more before I can take Wen Ruohan on but if he just gets stronger in the meantime that won't help, and letting him go on forever isn't an option, it's not safe for any of us!"

"You need to tell me first. A-Ying, how can I be responsible for both of you when you do whatever you feel is right the moment you feel it's right? I -- I. You have a point, but -- I can't do what's best for all three of us if I don't know what the hell you're doing, do you understand? Just because countering Uncle might be the best thing to doesn't mean that the first opportunity that appears is the best one to take." 

"I couldn't tell you first! I was just looking for it like we'd agreed on and then I stumbled across Lan-guniang and we both got dragged into a cave where there was loads of water and bunnies in Lan headbands and a guqin that attacked me and, also, previous Sect Leader Lan Yi guarding the Yin Iron! That's not the kind of thing I can anticipate to discuss with you first!" 

"You didn't have to tell any of them anything!!! You could have watched and waited, the way we were sent here to do, and - why were there bunnies in the water cave?"