Jin Ling's stomach clenches painfully the brief second after Yuan drinks the tea and before he can rationally push away that fear. He has to fight his thoughts away from slipping toward the realization that Yuan could've been killed earlier had he not moved faster. He just can't deal with those thoughts yet.

His cheeks color at Wuxian's rather blunt question. He has about a hundred different reasons but of course the majority of them sound really stupid now that he's being asked to say them aloud. He swallows nervously and wishes Yuan hadn't let go of his hand. "It's complicated. I did tell someone. I told my guard and I've been working with them. Jin Xiaowen has made some arrests." He doesn't have an answer on why this has happened again. He is suspicious of some things but he's can't just say those to people who aren't of his clan, can he? "But this is my problem. What kind of sect leader would I be if I went crawling to my uncles every time I had a problem?"