He won't patronize Jin Guangyao and tell him to go hide rather than defend himself in his own home, but his friend is still recovering from a qi deviation.

Normally, they would fight side by side or back to back, but right now, Lan Xichen plants himself firmly between Jin Guangyao and where he had seen the strange girl. He knows his friends talismans - nobody that wasn't thoroughly welcome would have a time getting through that door, and yet that child had slipped in so casually...

Of course it was no ordinary child, but it remained to be seen just what it was and what it intended.

He inclines his head toward outside the walls surrounding the courtyard; he can still hear her faint giggles circling the perimeter. Perhaps she could breach the door but go no further.

Jin Guangyao had been thorough.

"Stay close," he says, approaching the open gate.