2. Chapter 2

He’s grounded. Not literally, because he’s a grown-ass man, but for all intents and purposes he’s stuck in his apartment and he’s slowly going stir crazy. He might as well be thirteen all over again. A guy can only masturbate so much.

He can barely watch tv or get online, though, becuase the shocking news of his being rejected by the Black Cloak Envoy is fucking everywhere, in large type, and often accompanied with dramatic music. News programs do not need dramatic soundtracks, in his opinion.

Unfortunately, Zhao Yunlan can’t stop watching the footage of the Black Cloak Envoy dumping his sorry ass. It’s right there and he’s seen the clip now about a thousand times. It still hurts far more than he thinks it should. Something about it guts him, as if a very important piece of his life walked out of that room with the Envoy. It’s weird and he hopes it has something to do with his role as Guardian and isn’t just some kind of leftover residue of being the insecure son of a neglectful father.

There it is, though, clear as day: the Envoy rejecting the current nominee for Lord Guardian of Haixing without so much as a by-your-leave. People are just short of rioting in the streets out of fear that the treaty has been broken, or has broken down, and without a strong military presence and a strict curfew Dragon City would probably be on fire.

No one knows who leaked the footage that should not even exist, though, and that’s a different problem. Zhao Xinci had Minister Gao’s office torn apart to find the cameras, but they were bog standard spy-cam stuff anyone with a dark-net account and a hefty budget could buy online.

“His” tech specialist, Lin Jing, whom Zhao Yunlan has not actually met except over webcam in his father’s (new) office, says the leaks are untraceable. He said a lot more than that, but most of it was technical gibberish and that was the bottom line.

Meanwhile, Dixing is on lockdown. The portals are closed, although a more accurate description is that they have been turned off. There is just nothing there.

In short, nobody knows what the fuck is going on.

They have twenty-six days from the date of the Black Cloak Envoy’s refusal to fix this, but the treaty itself has no guidelines for this most unexpected twist and the Guardian lineage has critically dwindled over the generations (another separate problem that he’s not thinking about). The only two cousins he has who might qualify to serve are not only already married but also refusing to take Zhao Xinci’s calls. Zhao Yunlan doesn’t blame them. He is, in fact, jealous.

He’s sprawled over his couch, staring at the ceiling, when the lock on his door rattles and his father walks in.

“I never gave you a key,” Zhao Yunlan says, sounding like a ghostly echo of his mother at her most waspish.

“Sit up and act like a professional, for pity’s sake.”

Zhao Yunlan rolls up off the couch. “Dad, this is my home . I get to be unprofessional in my home . You may not understand the theory behind such a concept, but — who is that ?”

That is possibly the most beautiful man Zhao Yunlan has ever been lucky enough to see with his very own two eyes. His elegant features are just shy of chiseled, the curve of his jawline graceful, his cheekbones sharp. He wears delicate eye glasses and is decked out in a three piece suit, of all things, but there is nothing there that suggests he’s a bland government official. It’s perfectly, expensively tailored and of too eccentric material and cut to be acceptable for a worker drone. His skin is flawless. Zhao Yunlan wonders if he can see auras all of a sudden, because this man seems to glow.

Zhao Yunlan’s actual future husband steps delicately into the apartment, straight backed and unsmiling, looking around with a frown and wrinkled nose.

Fair enough, because his home is what Daqing refers to as “comfortable” and his father calls “a pig sty.” If Zhao Yunlan could redo this meet-cute, though, he would definitely have made sure his dirty laundry was not strewn across the floor.

His father must catch the stunned look on Zhao Yunlan’s face, because he sighs and rolls his eyes. “This is Dr. Shen Wei, professor of biotechnology at Dragon City University.”

“Okay?” Zhao Yunlan says, still feeling like he’s been tased by great beauty.

“Professor Shen, this is—” His father pauses, recalibrates, then waves a hand dismissively his way, “My son.”

The professor plasters a smile on his face that someone, somewhere, probably told him looks polite and friendly. It actually looks forced and grim, but he gamely holds out his hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Lord Guard—”

“Ah ah! No!” Zhao Yunlan holds up a finger to stop him. “Nope! I cannot hold that title officially until I am married to the Black Cloak Envoy of Dixing. Until then the Guardian duties still fall on someone else’s shoulders.”

“I’m retired, Yunlan.”

“You’re divorced , Dad,” Zhao Yunlan parries. “I, on the other hand, am illegitimately holding the badge you refuse to take back. I’m in this liminal space of being and not being the Guardian.” He turns to His Great Beauty and holds his arms out at his sides. “To recap: I cannot be sworn in without the wedding happening first. The Black Cloak Envoy said ‘no’. And here we are.”

“Anyway!” His father talks over him while Professor Dreamboat’s head bobs back and forth like he’s watching a tennis match. “Professor Shen is one of the foremost experts on Dixing biology and physiology, so we thought that he might—”

“Did you sign me up as a science experiment?” Zhao Yunlan shrieks, which he’s not proud of, but it’s his go-to reaction when dealing with his father who is already yelling back at him anyway. Business as usual.

“There will be no experimenting!” Professor Shen states loudly and firmly, which miraculously shuts up both Zhao men in a way that no one has been able to do in years. What a wife! Zhao Yunlan thinks hysterically, already planning how he can get married to Shen Wei and the Black Cloak Envoy without causing more of diplomatic crisis than he already has.