"A rather complicated relationship," Claudius surmises. Claudius rarely spoke to anyone from his service in Normandy, but he knows what bonds form on the battlefield. And for one man to defend the other from all detractors, until there's one step taken too far ... He thinks back to what he recalls of Qishan Wen and the Sunshot Campaign, their brutal methods, their shows of force. All the same, Claudius's instinct is to wonder what the Lanling Jin commander did, particularly to a bastard son of the Jin family. Unwanted sons aren't treated kindly. "Thy brother is a sympathetic man, to still trust in Meng Yao. Was his intelligence reliable?" There's a complicated feeling there -- it would be very easy for this man to take advantage of Lan Xichen's trust, and pass on faulty information to hurt Nie Mingjue. It's the sort of thing Claudius used to do, which he only occasionally feels a pang of guilt for.