Yuelan didn’t bother putting the accessories on as she snatched them from the box they were stored in. She held them in her hand and walked back out to rejoin Long He and Xiong Guangfeng. “Alright, let’s go. Do I have to touch him or anything?”

Long He chuckled. “I don’t know, but it will probably make it easier to make sure he comes along. This is more along the lines of an experiment. My sister never had an opportunity to actually test the theory.”

Yuelan grimaced, then frowned at Guangfeng’s clothes. “I don’t suppose you have anything that will fit him he can put on, do you? He’s going to look like he’s an actor for a drama who forgot to remove his costume before leaving the set like that.”

The third prince frowned. “What’s wrong with my clothes?” he asked, looking down at them.

“Nothing if you’re going to stay here,” Yuelan answered. “But you’ll draw a lot of attention if you wear it in Kilin and that will draw a lot of attention to me, which I would prefer to avoid.”

“She’s right,” Long He agreed. “Come with me, Your Highness, and I’ll help you change.” The dragon looked over at Yuelan. “You may as well change at the same time. Even if it’s not as odd as a man wearing robes, wearing your gown will still draw attention.”

Yuelan waved a hand to brush the words off. “I know, I know. I’m going to go change now.” She turned and headed back to her room to change while Long He took Guangfeng to do the same. When she came back out of her room she was wearing a long, white qipao with pink peonies embroidered into the silk. The slits on the sides went halfway up her thighs. Instead of embroidered slippers, she had on a pair of white, two-inch heels.

Guangfeng stared at Yuelan’s bare arms and visible legs and swallowed hard. He was now dressed in a dark blue dress shirt and black slacks that looked like they had been custom tailored to fit him; he even had a pair of black leather dress shoes on his feet.

Yuelan eyed Guangfeng and nodded. “It’ll do.” No way was she going to admit that he looked really good in what he was wearing. The fit of the clothes was perfect and Guangfeng more muscular than she’d thought. 

She put her hand on Guangfeng’s arm, took a deep breath to center herself, and concentrated on taking herself and Guangfeng to Kilin’s library. Nothing visibly changed around them, but Yuelan could still tell that she had succeeded. “Wait here,” she instructed Guangfeng before heading back to her room. This time she returned holding her cell phone up to her ear as she waited for her father to answer his phone.

“Hey Daddy. I came back to visit. Can you send a car to pick me up from the library? And I brought someone back with me to meet you this time,” Yuelan said into the phone. She ignored Guangfeng’s look of confusion as he looked around to see who she was talking to and saw no one.

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Holding up the cell phone, Yuelan looked at her fiance and explained: “This is a cell phone. It allows me to communicate with anyone as long as they have a phone with them and are in an area that will allow them to use it. My dad is having someone come to pick us up, but he won’t be available until dinner.”

Guangfeng looked at the thin, rectangular object in Yuelan’s hand and nodded, pretending he understood what she just said.

Yuelan smirked at him and headed out to the main part of the library. “Come on. Just stay close and don’t ask a lot of questions until we’re in the car.”

“What’s a ‘car’?” Guangfeng asked, frowning.

“A carriage that doesn’t get pulled by horses,” Yuelan answered. “It doesn’t get pulled by anything. You’ll see.”

“How does it move, then?”

Yuelan rolled her eyes. “The driver pushes a pedal inside that makes it go on its own,” she answered. “Now no more questions or you’ll draw attention to yourself.”

“And attention is bad? You rode a tiger though mph!” Guangfeng’s words were cut off by Yuelan putting her hand over his mouth.

“Hush! I’ll explain when we get in the car. For now just be quiet and don’t ask questions or there will be a lot of troublesome people asking troublesome questions!” Yuelan kept her hand on Guangfeng’s mouth until the prince nodded acceptance. She led the way over to her usual table and sat down in a chair. She crossed her legs and pulled her phone out to play a match three game until a notification popped up alerting her to a text from Ban Li, her personal driver, that he was just outside in the black, high end sedan.

Guangfeng watched Yuelan fiddling with the object called a ‘cell phone’ until she put it away and stood up. He still didn’t understand what it did, but she was already angry with him and he didn’t want to continue to upset her. He stood with her and followed her out of the library. The sight before him made him stop in his tracks as he stared around at everything with wide eyes. “What--?”

“Come on. The car is over here.” Yuelan grabbed Guangfeng’s sleeve and pulled him after her as she headed for the car where Ban Li was waiting, the back passenger door already open. Yuelan slid in first and Guangfeng mimicked her to slide in after. He followed the instructions she gave him on how to buckle the seatbelt and then turned his attention to look all around, both inside and outside of the car.

“Ban Li, this is Xiong Guangfeng. He’ll seem a little odd, but just answer his questions patiently and don’t worry that he might cause trouble,” Yuelan said to the driver. “For now, take us home to the manor.”

“Of course, Miss Long.” Ban Li spoke in a respectful voice and smiled as he put the car in gear and drove down the crowded streets of the capital to the prime minister’s manor.

Guangfeng spent the entire trip asking questions about everything he saw and having them answered either by Yuelan or Ban Li. He asked about traffic lights, cars, buildings, street signs, clothing, and everything else he spotted that was new or strange to him. Seeing couples walking down the street hand in hand confused him.