[ did jiang cheng come to try his own hand at besting a fish? perhaps. was he following lan wangji like a lost child who never rightly knows what he's meant to do with himself? he would deny this under pain of death. did he think that perhaps wangji's general conduct in life and abject inability to problem solve in ways that don't involve active dismemberment would make him feel moderately better about his own personal shortcomings which have been increasingly haunting him as of late? actually no, surprisingly enough, but it's a nice bonus.

the point is, he's here, and he's grimacing at lan wangji's words, and he gives the situation approximately a split second's thought before injecting himself to try to minimize the bloodshed. ]

He can't hold his liquor. It's definitely embarrassing for him, just not to him because being embarrassed by it would require not being too drunk to remember the night, and I'm pretty sure the amount of drink it takes him to get that drunk is less than it would take to wet his lips.

[ he's not sure if it counts if the secret is aired by another, but he can't be faulted for trying. he's sure wangji will find fault in him anyway, but one pain in his ass at a time. ]