[ The dissonance of the staff's respectful manner, too friendly smiles, insistence that they're honorable guests and should be obliged with the fact that they can't even come up with a lie that is remotely convincable is -

Affecting Lan Xichen in a way that he is trying very, very hard not to allow to rise to the surface. If Wangji wasn't with him, he would be tempted to assume that this was a personal mockery, another aspect of the punishment he briefly assumed this might be when he first found himself here.

But Wangji is with him, and he's done nothing to deserve being treated in this manner. Even if this is a form of retribution, he refuses to allow his brother to be caught up in the fallout of his own mistakes even more than he already has. ]

Wangji.

[ It's quiet, but firm, and when his gaze catches his brother's he pointedly lets it drop to his unsheathed sword and back up again, giving the tiniest of head shakes. They may not be truly helpless, but they are powerless, and can't discount the possibility that even the staff of the one capable of doing something like this may have tricks up their sleeves. ]

May we request the same type of juice that he was given, and the one that is its opposite? They must have contrasting flavors.