“My Lord, the son of one of the previous Azure Dragons brought this here for you yesterday while you were away.” One of the elders said to Yue in the morning and passed him a box.

“It’s a shame I didn’t meet him…” Yue mumbled, staring at the box.

“He probably did it on purpose,” The oldest of all of the elders said, “His father meant a lot to him so seeing this incarnation of him that doesn’t remember him or his mother is probably painful for him. This is his way of wishing you well, My lord.”

The elder smiled at Yue and motioned for him to open the box. Yue felt a bit sad somehow as he heard the elder’s explanation but he opened the box.

Inside the box, there was a fan much like the fans Yue usually had with him. It was a gradient of white and turquoise and one side has some flowers while the other side has a golden dragon painted on it, it could be used on either side. A gold tassel hung from it with a jade-colored gem tied to it. Yue carefully picked up the fan and opened and closed it a few times.

“I like i— This is a storage gem.” Yue cut himself off as he noticed an odd glimmer from the gem he originally thought was a jade.

“Oh, how rare.” One of the elders said and looked closely at the gem.

Yue tried not to show how happy he was to get a storage item. It was one of the few items he didn’t find in the treasury so he was ready to go on a search for a dungeon just to get one. He was glad he didn’t have to though. It would make his future expeditions easier and would help him with his trip to Russia for Viktor’s birthday.

—

Yue was glad that the follower that was painting him said that he had finished painting his face because he was honestly about to fall asleep. He had told all of his followers that they should tell him everything they need him to do before he leaves because he wouldn’t be back until spring and while they didn’t have any immediate requests at first, now as it was the day before he left for Russia they had a lot for him to do.

He was already tired and it was only midday. He had met with the new students from the western temple briefly and had welcomed the students who were now entering the main temple before it was even 10 am and had gotten dressed for this painting immediately afterward and he was trying not to move but he would flinch almost violently as he found himself falling asleep.

“My Lord. The painting is finished.” Jinghua said and nudged Yue awake when the painting was finished.

“Oh...It looks good.” Yue murmured and rubbed his eyes a bit as he woke up.

He then moved on to the next task, other than removing the heavy clothes he wore for the painting.

“What’s next?” Yue asked as he changed behind a partition in his bedroom.

“This is a bit of a personal request…” Jinghua mumbled.

“What is it?” Yue asked and walked out from behind the partition.

“Uh...My daughter is ill… and the doctors out in town don’t know what is going on with her…There are no other requests so…” Jinghua murmured, she felt bad for asking Yue for something when he was so tired.

Yue was surprised but it made sense. Jinghua had mentioned that she had a son and a daughter who were twins and he had only met her son during his stay at the temple so he was a bit confused that he hadn’t seen her daughter.

“I’ll go see her with you,” Yue said and watched Jinghua who bowed deeply.

“Thank you so much, My lord,” Jinghua said but then she looked up at the windows in Yue’s room and looked crestfallen.

“Oh...The rain is pretty bad right now though…” Jinghua murmured.

Yue looked out the window for a second, “I am a dragon...I should be able to…” Yue whispered under his breath and held his hand out of the window, letting the rain touch his hand.

The rain almost immediately stopped when the rain touched his hand. It was still a little misty still but it was definitely more manageable.

“...I will bring you some other clothes,” Jinghua said and after staring in awe for a second.

Yue looked at his hand for a bit after Jinghua left to get him some other clothes.

‘If I blend these powers in with normal wind, water, and nature spells...No one would notice that I’m Azure Dragon…’ Yue thought and tried to keep that in mind so he could focus on that when he trained.

Jinghua quickly came back with some clothes that were lighter than the clothes he had been wearing for the painting but definitely more formal than what he was currently wearing. Yue quickly changed into the clothes and took his new fan so he could hide his face when he went to town.

They made their way to town where people were surprised by how the rain suddenly stopped. They noticed Yue and Jinghua and were all a bit confused. The followers of Azure Dragon didn’t wear such extravagant clothing and Jinghua’s husband was teaching in the western temple so who is this man with Jinghua?

Yue ignored their looks and stepped into Jinghua’s home. Jian, Jinghua’s son was confused and came up to the door to see which one of his parents came home so early.

“M-My lord! W-Why are you-?!!”

“I’m here to see your sister.” Yue quickly answered and motioned for Jian to lead him to her. Jian quickly started leading the way to where his sister was after he saw Jinghua and figured that she probably told him to come.

Inside the room a girl lay on a bed with a pale face, clearly having trouble breathing. Yue walked over to her and kneeled down near her bed as he noticed that she seemed to be awake. The girl, Jia, and Jian were both 15 years old and while Jian was clearly very healthy, Jia was rather sickly despite being a very pretty girl.

“Mom…?Who…?”

“This is lord QingLong, Honey,” Jinghua said and smiled, wiping some sweat from Jia’s forehead.

“Really? I’m sorry for not being able to properly...greet you…” Jia apologized and moved her head as if to bow whilst lying down.

“It’s fine,” Yue said and smiled, he looked at her closely for a bit.

‘I can help her.’ Yue said to Jinghua with telepathy, Jinghua couldn’t respond with telepathy because she didn’t know the spell, but she was clearly shocked.

“H-How?”

‘She’s being affected by a ghoul’s negative energy, it probably came from the water. A lot of ghouls near this area stay in the water and contaminate it with negative energy or their rotting fluids or mana. If she hasn’t come to the temple in a while it makes sense that it hasn’t gone away. I can fix it pretty easily.’ Yue explained through telepathy and closed his fan and pulled his sword from the storage gem.

Jian and Jinghua were super confused and a bit terrified by Yue pulling out his sword but Yue didn’t draw it and simply removed the sword tassel from it and held it near Jia. Suddenly black energy was sucked out from Jia’s body and into the tassel which promptly turned black.

Yue put the sword tassel back on his sword and put his sword back into the fan. It would be a good test to see if time passed in the storage gem. Jia was confused as she suddenly felt much better.

“Woah…” Jia murmured as she was suddenly able to breathe and move how she wanted.

“It’s nothing too amazing really. It probably would’ve been fixed if you spent some time in the temple since the mana there is pure.” Yue murmured, embarrassed by how Jian and Jinghua were thanking him profusely.

“Ah...I get sick often so I don’t usually go into the temple…” Jia murmured.

Yue looked at her for a second. He, unfortunately, didn’t know of any spells that could help with health over long periods of time but he kept it in mind as he and Jinghua were escorted to the door by Jia and Jian. The curious townspeople stared as they watched Yue and Jinghua leave the house. They were surprised to see Jia, whom they all knew had been very sick sending him off and they all immediately came to their conclusions.

“QingLong!” Someone yelled and Yue took that as his sign to pick Jinghua up and use wind magic to speed out of the town.

“Well, I guess it’s a good thing most people don’t really know about the main temple.” Yue sighed and put Jinghua down as they quickly ended up in the pavilion in front of the temple.

“I’m sorry...It must be uncomfortable…” Jinghua mumbled.

“No, it’s fine,” Yue said and smiled a little.

—

Yue left early in the morning the next day and changed into women’s clothes that he put in his fan using the same method he did for when he arrived in China, just with a different inn. He wore a blue-green hanfu and styled his hair in a cuter style than he usually did. He felt embarrassed by how nervous and excited he was as he walked into the teleport hub.

Something about getting to see Viktor now that they were ‘together’ gave him butterflies. He was glad he had his fan to hide his smile, he felt he probably looked childish with a bright smile and cutesy hairstyle but his fan hid it so he didn’t care.

The Russian teleport hub was full of people despite how early it was so Yue just used mana to search for where Viktor might be. He realized that Viktor wasn’t there after a second and then noticed Anya waiting for him near a door with a fur coat.

“Good morning, Miss Xia. It’s been a while.” Anya said and smiled and helped Yue put on the coat. Yue knew it would be cold so he wore some pretty thick clothes so he felt that maybe the coat was a bit overkill. That is until he got out of the teleport hub and felt the cold cold wind on his face and started shivering even with all his layers.

Anya quickly ushered him into the carriage waiting right in front of the teleport hub and got inside with him. Yue immediately noticed Viktor smiling at him and greeting him with open arms and practically threw himself onto him, mostly for warmth but also just because.

“It’s cold.” Yue’s voice was muffled in the crook of Viktor's neck.

Viktor just chuckled a bit and pulled Yue so he was sitting on his lap.

“Happy birthday…” Yue murmured and kissed Viktor’s cheek chastely.

“Thank you…” Viktor murmured and was going to kiss Yue on the lips but Anya wasn’t even trying to hide the fact that she was sketching them being lovey-dovey. He decided to save Yue from more embarrassment and just kissed Yue’s forehead.

They arrived at the Ivanov manor after a while and Yue was dreading having to leave the carriage and be in the cold even if it was only for a couple of minutes. He almost shrieked when Viktor lifted him up and carried him out of the carriage.

“W-What are you doing?” Yue asked and held on to Viktor tightly.

“We’ll get inside faster this way,” Viktor said and smiled, walking through to the main entrance where a bunch of servants greeted him.

Viktor put Yue down when they got inside and Yue wanted to cover his face as he noted the stares of the servants around him. Anya didn’t follow them and just went straight back to preparing for the party later that day. She knew they’d probably want some privacy anyway.

Viktor held Yue’s hand and led him through the halls of the giant manor. Yue was trying to understand the layout but every time they made a turn he would just see another identical hallway.

“Don’t worry about getting lost, I can find you,” Viktor said and finally opened one of the doors and pulled Yue inside.

“Oka—!” Yue didn’t even get the chance to look at the room he’d entered when he was cut off by Viktor kissing him.

Yue kissed back after a second but before he could fully close his eyes Viktor’s cold hands touched his neck as he led the kiss. Yue flinched a bit from the cold and only felt more embarrassed as he looked at Viktor’s face while they kissed.

He shut his eyes quickly as he noticed that Viktor opened his eyes a little and looked amused.

“I’m so happy you’re here.” Viktor chuckled and kissed Yue’s neck.

“...Y-Your father might...not be happy…when he finds out about us...” Yue murmured, catching his breath.

“Well, I don’t really care what he thinks. My mother is happy for me and you are finally mine and that’s all I need.” Viktor grinned and kissed Yue’s cheeks.

“Plus I doubt he’d say that Azure Dragon wasn’t fit to be my partner.”

Yue looked around the room as Viktor brought him to sit at a little lounge area in the room. There were a lot of books in the room and Yue could see their Russian titles written on the spines and silently wished he could read Russian. Viktor titled Yue’s head so he looked at him and the small box he had in his hands.

“I would love to see you in a suit but these would suit a dress better,” Viktor said and opened the box.

Yue looked at the sapphire earrings and felt a bit embarrassed, Viktor really seemed to like giving him gifts. The earrings were very pretty and conveniently enough, one of the two earrings was moon-shaped while the other was sun-shaped.

“ You give me a lot of gifts…” Yue murmured and picked up the earrings with a slight smile.

“These are actually more of a gift from my mother than from me. She sent them to me while we were in Paris when Natasha told her about you.” Viktor chuckled. He avoided mentioning that the earrings were family heirlooms, he didn’t want Yue to panic or feel burdened by the earrings.

Yue and Viktor cuddled together for a while. Viktor was translating the titles of a bunch of the books in the room since Yue was curious about them.

“Are these all magic books? You don’t read fiction?” Yue asked as he looked at the pictures of what was probably the 50th magic theory book Viktor had translated the title for.

“...I do have a couple...novels…” Viktor murmured, looking away with a bit of a blush on his cheeks.

Yue tilted his head, a bit confused by Viktor’s look.

‘I probably shouldn’t tell hi–’

“What? Do you read really sappy romance books?” Yue said and smirked a little.

Yue’s amused look and teasing tone completely derailed Viktor’s original intention to keep the content of the novels he reads secret.

‘I’m going to tell him.’

“No, I actually read—“, Viktor leaned over and whispered in Yue’s ear about the venereal contents of the novels he read.

Yue’s cheeks turned bright red and he held his ear once Viktor pulled away. Embarrassed was an understatement. Yue rarely had enough time to read a normal book so there was no way he had ever read an erotic novel. Viktor’s detailed description was definitely more erotic than anything he’d ever heard or read.

“I can go find them and translate them for you,” Viktor said and smirked, wrapping his arm around Yue’s waist.

“I’m fine!” Yue exclaimed.

He was super embarrassed by his own imagination but he was even more embarrassed by Viktor’s description of the novels.

‘—men like us doing—’ Yue almost hit himself in the head with the book in his hands as he remembered Viktor’s words.

“You two should start getting ready, Young master,” Anya said as she entered the bedroom with their clothes and saved Yue from his turmoil.