As Dr Iason was unable to do anything for Ruo Han apart from changing ice packs, Shen Long decided to take matters into his own hands. They skipped lessons and the dragon god tended to Shen Long’s needs for the rest of the day.

“Oh? You’re here again. Where’s your handsome friend?” the cafeteria lady asked. It was near closing hours again and she’d grown used to seeing the odd pair come for special requests after dinner hours.

“He’s sick,” he told the household ghost who was concerned.

“I see… perhaps I should make him some broth and porridge. How did he get sick?”

Shen Long paused. “He ate something bad and is running a high fever now with no signs of lowering. Do you have spare ice packs?”

The motherly household ghost whipped up something simple for the dragon god spirit to eat while she made the broth for his sick roommate. Shen Long was too overcome by worries that he didn’t really taste the food. His mind was on the seal and Ruo Han who had deliberately taken in his chaotic qi into his golden core to make him feel better. Why would he go so far for someone he was meant to watch over? Shen Long couldn’t understand it.

Then again, there was something that Shen Long couldn’t understand. The more time he spent with Ruo Han, he couldn’t help but feel as if he was forgetting something important from his past. There was something about the cultivator that intrigued him. He couldn’t let him die just yet, there were so many things he wanted to ask Ruo Han. Had they met in the past? Was that why Ruo Han risked his cultivation progress to help him? How foolish.

“Here you go,” the cafeteria lady smiled and handed Shen Long a bag of food that he can take back for Ruo Han. “I hope that your friend will get better soon!”

He thanked the lady and carried it back to their room. The more he thought about it, the stranger it was. Ruo Han was definitely someone who knew him even if he couldn’t remember. That much, he was sure of now. He didn’t think too much about it initially when Ruo Han volunteered to be his roommate and keep an eye on him. In fact, it didn’t occur to him that Ruo Han’s actions were more than just coincidence. He seemed to know the kind of food that suited his taste buds and was an excellent cook. Ruo Han also seemed to know his habits and hiding places. Sometimes, Shen Long thought that he could read minds and the fact that the cultivator looked exactly like the kind of mate he liked was uncanny until the pieces fell together.

Soaked in sweat and shivering, the cultivator looked worse than he did before Ruo Han left him. The dragon god spirit quickly put the food down and checked his temperature. It burned. This wasn’t good.

A quick check told Shen Long that the chaotic energy was disrupting and blocking some of the more important meridians. Ruo Han was very weak now without his natural ability to recover and the negative energy was going to consume his weakened golden core if nothing was done.

“I need to undo the seal,” Shen Long thought to himself. At this rate, Ruo Han wasn’t going to make it. He couldn’t help to regulate the energy in Ruo Han’s body and he certainly couldn’t take it back because Ruo Han stubbornly locked it within his golden core.

Amanda was very vague about the method to break the seal but Shen Long snorted when a strange thought crossed his mind. The method to wake a princess who had fallen into a deep sleeping spell was to kiss her. Looking at the suffering cultivator on the bed, Shen Long wondered if such a dumb thing would work. They’d kissed plenty of times and even indulged in more adult activities but the seal never disappeared. Besides, he didn’t want to take advantage of someone who was vulnerable.

With a sigh, Shen Long decided that the best thing to do now was to feed Ruo Han so that at the very least, his body had the energy to deal with the fever while he figured something out. The one thing that would prove that he was able to trust and care for someone else required to remove that seal and in return form a soulbond… 

“Doesn’t that sound like a marriage vow?” Shen Long asked as he wiped the side of Ruo Han’s mouth after some of the broth trickled front he side. This wouldn’t do, it was too difficult to make sure Ruo Han drinks without choking. The broth was also getting all over the place, more out than in and Shen Long sighed.

He eyed the bowl in one hand and Ruo Han in his arms. It was awkward trying to feed him like this. Then, he had a great idea.

Placing the spoon down, Ruo Han decided that it would be more efficient to feed him from mouth to mouth.

Slowly but surely, Shen Long ensured that Ruo Han finished the broth and the soup. He looked at the flushed face and noticed that there was at least some colour returning to the cultivator’s face. The ice pack had long melted and the dragon god spirit decided that they should take a cold bath together to cool Ruo Han down.

As he undressed the cultivator, Shen Long frowned. He couldn’t help but feel as if he knew this body. Sure, they fooled around a lot recently but this was the first time he saw the birthmark behind Ruo Han’s right ear. This was a spot normally covered by his long flowy white hair and it was only after bunning the locks up that Shen Long found it.

The headache bothering him became more intense and Shen Long groaned. For some reason, the three-petal flower birthmark shape looked vaguely familiar. It took him a good while to return to normal and Shen Long decided to not think too much about it. For now, it was more important to lower Ruo Han’s temperature while he gave the cultivator his dragon’s vow.

The dragon’s vow was a bond of a lifetime and almost like a marriage vow but more serious. It shares a dragon’s lifespan to their mates and makes the saying ‘till death do us part’ literal. It was the ultimate proof of trust and loyalty that Shen Long knew he still hasn’t given to anyone else.

The bathroom wasn’t the most romantic place to say the vows but due to circumstances, it couldn’t be helped. The vow would take its toll on Ruo Han’s body. The fire of a dragon’s magic will cause the proposed mate tremendous pain. If the fever was bad enough, the pain from the vow was going to be at least ten times more excruciating.

“Forgive me,” he whispered apologetically as he lowered them both into the small tub filled with icy water. 

Ruo Han unconsciously clung onto Shen Long for heat and the dragon god spirit propped them both up with Ruo Han in his lap. The cultivator really would have made a beautiful omega with his slender build.

Once they were in the water, Shen Long meditated to find himself. The seal was locked over his feelings and memories in his inner world but this time, Shen Long was determined to know what’s beyond those doors. He was going to stop running away from himself. This was it.