The problem with history in Mandarin is that there's nobody she knows, even more than she already doesn't know people from it being the first week of school.  There's Quiet Shanghai Boy, at least?  Connie picks a seat three down from him, hopefully close enough to talk if he wants but far enough it doesn't look too much like she's trying to cozy up, and checks for mals under the seat and in the pocket of the desk.

Lan Wangji refuses to talk to Connie. Wei Wuxian asked her out and then they are going to go on dates and kiss and get married and have six kids, or alternately Wei Wuxian is going to die tragically rescuing her from a mal and then she's going to carry on, grieving but brave, always remembering her first love. He hates her.

He glares icily in her direction so she doesn't get any ideas.

Jiang Cheng flops down next to Connie. "Connie, right?"

Traitor.

That's fine, she left enough space that it won't be awkward if he doesn't want to talk to her.  He probably met a ton of people wanting his attention and doesn't remember her.  Unless he's annoyed at her for tailgating into the Shanghai reading room?  But she can't do anything about that except not do it again, if he even is annoyed, they can just not talk.

Or the other Shanghai kid can talk to her instead, hi Other Shanghai Kid. 

"Right.  I did not hear your name?"

He's sure he told her!

"Jiang Cheng."

"Thank you.  It's good to make your acquaintance."  

Connie hasn't broken into the notebook Wei Wuxian gave her yet- she's not sure whether using it in public is a signal of 'yes, we're definitely dating', and she still has some paper from the Thursday supply run.  She digs out a couple of sheets and her remaining pen while they wait for textbooks to turn up.

He gives her a notebook and now she's not even using it! Why is she spurning his brother in this way!

Excellent. Maybe she's not interested in him (Lan Wangji finds this difficult to believe but presumably some people are not interested in dating). 

Lan Xichen's empathy ringing in his ears, Jiang Cheng decides against yelling at Connie about this. "Do you know much about magical military history?"

"Not very much.  I went to mundane school before when I was twelve."

"That's cool. I was homeschooled."

She nods.  "Did you there learn about military history?"

"We were mostly focused on passing the admissions tests. And, for some reason, the guqin."

Goddammit what is guqin.  She knows that word, is it- an instrument?  A kind of poetry?  Probably not a martial art or he wouldn't be talking about it like it's obviously not helpful in the scholomance...

"I've heard the tests are very difficult.  Did you enjoy the guqin, or just another thing taking time?"

"I'm crap at music. It's stupid."

"Song-spells."

Oh good thank you.

"At least any song-spell, there likely is a not song spell similar?  But better to be able if you need it?"

"Although you're going to have to make your own guqin if you need one in here, they're too heavy to carry in unless you specialize in song-spells."

:(

"And if you specialize in song-spells, probably you are incantations track and not artificing anyway..."  Wait no that's backwards.  Small talk is even worse in Mandarin.  "Do you think one gets musical instruments for shop homework, then?  Dangerous to get wrong, but so are many things."

"I mean, you have to, right? I guess you can sell them if you don't do song-spells yourself."

"Mm.  And someone who specializes in song-spells could rather have a thing made by an artificer who didn't, instead of spending their own time on it and not on practice."

"Gains from trade."

"Are you in intro economics?"

"Mn."

What does 'Mn' mean.  She can attempt small talk with a yes or a no but she does not have a script in any language for Schrodinger's Syllable.  If she thinks about this too much longer she is going to get herself stuck again and then Shanghai will definitely notice just in case Friday wasn't bad enough- nope nope focus distract herself.  Textbook?  Textbook!

...she starts a column on the other side of her paper for 'words to look up later'.

His Mandarin is entirely conversational but that still leaves the question of what to have conversations ABOUT. Which is hard enough in English. Maybe he can find something interesting to talk about in the course material. He skims the table of contents for anything he could potentially sustain intelligent conversation with a normal person about.