After some rest, Yuelan and her father took Guangfeng out for dinner and shopping. Their first stop was a pizza parlor. Yuelan hadn’t had pizza in ages and she knew Guangfeng had never had it, so she took him to a buffet-style where they could pick their own and he could try whatever appealed to him. As they took a seat at their table with plates of pizza and Yuelan smiled and showed him how to eat it.

“This is very strange, Yuelan,” Guangfeng told her after eating a slice.

Yuelan smiled. “It tastes good, right? It’s not common here, but it’s a normal food in another country.”

Guangfeng smiled. “It doesn’t taste bad. What is the red sauce made from?”

“Tomatoes. They don’t grow in your country.” Yuelan took a bite of her ham and pineapple pizza.

“What do they look like?”

Yuelan looked around then pointed at one of the pictures on the wall that had tomatoes and other garden goodies. “The round, red fruit. Though some argue that tomatoes are a vegetable instead.”

“That seems like a strange thing to argue about. Aren’t there better things?” Guangfeng looked amused.

She shrugged. “I don’t much care about which one they are. I’m not a chef or a nutritionist or a botanist.”

Guangfeng frowned. “I only understood one of those words.”

“A nutritionist is someone who manages diets and makes sure you’re getting everything you need so you can eat healthy and well. A botanist is someone who works with plants, studying them and learning more about them,” Yuelan explains.

“I see. So a nutritionist is a special kind of chef? And a botanist a scholar who focuses on just plants?”

“Something like that. Though not all nutritionists are good at cooking.” She smiled and finished her pizza.

Guangfeng finished his own pizza and went with Yuelan to pay for their meal. He watched as Yuelan handed a card over and the person slid it then gave Yuelan a slip of paper and her card. He waited until they were back in the car to ask her about the transaction and listen to her explanation.

Finding clothes that suited Guangfeng took some time. Yuelan took him to a shop that sold clothes a bit more on the traditional side and helped him select appropriate colors and fabrics. She wasn’t sure how much he’d be using them, but only bought him two outfits for the time being. They’d be going back to Longuo in a couple of days, after all. With their shopping done, Yuelan and Guangfeng returned to her home and Yuelan went to bed.

Guangfeng wasn’t quite ready to sleep, so he started wandering the house, curious to know more about her. He hadn’t been exploring for long when her father approached him and bowed a bit.

“Guangfeng. I’d like to have a talk with you, if you have a moment,” the prime minister said calmly.

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“Of course. I have some questions for you, actually.” Guangfeng returned the bow and smiled.

“This way, then.” Long Ansheng led the way through the halls to his private study and the two men sat down. The butler poured tea for them and then discreetly left the room.

“Let’s start with your questions first, Guangfeng. Your questions may answer some of my own.” The prime minister took a sip of his tea.

The third prince of Longuo nodded. “Does Yuelan have friends here she’d like to spend time with? I get the feeling she hasn’t seen anyone but you and the servants here whenever she comes back.”

Ansheng sighed. “I am sure my daughter would love to see her friends, but I think she’s trying to distance herself from them. They believe she is dying and she doesn’t like lying to others. Spending time with them would make her feel guilty.”

“And they can’t be told the truth about what is happening with her?” Guangfeng sipped his own tea and frowned.

“The issue is whether or not they would believe her. Here in Kilin, magic and dragons and other such things are only myth. Legends passed down that are believed to be only stories. If you went home and told your closest friends about the things that you have seen here what would they think of you?”

Guangfeng sighed. “They would think I had gone mad.”

“Yuelan’s friends would think the same of her. One or two might believe, but even they would have doubts. And we can’t ask Yuelan to be taking people back and forth between here and your home too much. It will wear her out.” Ansheng’s expression was solemn and he set down his tea cup. “I don’t think that’s what you really want to know, though.”

The prince stayed quiet to organize his thoughts then spoke after a minute had passed. “What was her mother like?”

The prime minister’s expression turned gentle and sad. “Feng Ruzhen was an amazing woman. She was kind and generous and rarely spoke ill of others. Her body was weak, but her eyes sparkled with a light that drew me to her. She was very intelligent and gave good advice. Yuelan is a lot like her. My Ruzhen disliked politics and scheming, but she knew how to play the game. She was soft until she was forced to be otherwise.” Ansheng chuckled. “I once saw her scold someone without them realizing that’s what she was doing. She was very skilled with words.”

Guangfeng smiled. “She sounds like a remarkable woman.”

Ansheng nodded. “She was, even for our country. Yuelan has always done her best to follow in her mother’s footsteps.” He looked over at a picture hanging from a wall: a young woman holding a small girl in her lap and both of them smiling. The picture drew Guangfeng’s attention.

“Who is in the picture? And what is it made of? It doesn’t look like a painting.”

“It’s a photograph. I’m not quite sure how to explain it, so I won’t try right now. The people are Yuelan and her mother.”

Guangfeng stood and walked over to study the picture better. “Your wife was beautiful. Yuelan looks a bit like her.”

The prime minister smiled and nodded. “She does.”

“Yuelan was quite cute as a child, too.” The prince looked over at the prime minister. “I hope that in the next couple of days I will be able to understand Yuelan better. I asked her to bring me here so that I could. I don’t want the argument we had to happen again.”

Ansheng nodded. “Learning about where she is from like this will help you to remember that she is from a place very different from where you come from. I hope that it helps you.” He stood and smiled at Guangfeng. “And I believe you have answered the questions I had for you. At least for the time being. You should rest, and I should as well. I have a meeting with an ambassador tomorrow that I was unable to get out of.”

Guangfeng stood up and nodded at Yuelan’s father. “Thank you for speaking with me. I will see you tomorrow.”

“Of course. Rest well, Guangfeng.” Ansheng left the study, leaving Guangfeng on his own to try and absorb what he had learned.