( Wen Kexing bares his teeth, insurmountably angry for a moment. But it fades, in the empty hallway. Lan Wangji is not his enemy, he probably never has been. They don't see eye to eye but that does not mean anything in the grand scheme of things. He has not left him to suffer his ghost alone, nor has he used it.

There is a certain gratefulness to that. )

He was a coward.

( A breath, exhale puffed out. )

He was a tool used. Someone else's weapon. He wasn't clever, Master Lan. Brutish strength and fear, that's all. A usurper to another throne and a bad one at that. ( He was just frightening to the boy Wen Kexing might have been, the one he's never quite managed to bury even now. ) And he's long gone.

( This shade, whatever it is, it is of Wen Kexing's own making. ) Let's get out of here.