One Night of Cold Rain Buries the Famous Flower, Part 2

The palanquin carried Princess Changyong to the Dragon Emperor Hall.
Instead of entering the main hall, it circled past the lotus ponds and the twin-sided corridors.
It wound through several pavilions and towers, finally stopping before a garden with flower-lined fences and stacked stone hills.

The palace attendants carrying the palanquin seemed reluctant to enter.
They set Yun Yao down before a small path veiled by grass and trees leading into the garden.

The guards by the rugged stone piles bowed respectfully to Yun Yao, this impostor “Princess Changyong.”
They relayed, “His Majesty the Dragon Lord is within the garden,” then stood silent as puppets.

Yun Yao had no choice but to follow the greenstone path carved with pine and crane patterns, walking alone into the garden.

The garden was built against a mountain.
A mountain spring, drawn from somewhere unknown, trickled through the clusters of flowers and trees.

As Yun Yao walked deeper, she heard the gentle murmur of water drawing closer.
Then, a child’s giggle reached her ears.

Emerging from the final stretch of the path, Yun Yao glimpsed a pavilion with a pointed roof.
Before she could make out the figures beneath it, a burst of laughter accompanied a small child, barely waist-high, who collided with her legs.

Thud.
The child clung to her legs.

Two tiny dragon horns poked up as the child tilted their head.
“Hey, you bumped into me!”

Yun Yao: “?”

She crouched down, ready to teach this little demon not to play the victim first.

“Ready to hide?”
From the pavilion steps, a young man in a dark robe descended.

Yun Yao’s gaze lifted from his embroidered boots, tracing up his long robe to his face.
Her hand, reaching to pinch the child’s cheek, froze in midair.

His dark hair flowed like clouds, tied with a snow-white silk ribbon covering his eyes.

The mountain breeze stirred, his dark hair swaying.
For a moment, Yun Yao felt as if she saw Mu Hanyuan again, before she left Qianmen, his eyes veiled in white silk, refined and solitary.

And she… was supposed to kill this man?

As Yun Yao stood stunned, the Dragon Lord Yuyan scooped up the little demon before her.
He laughed, “Caught one.”

“Your Majesty, call for help! You’re cheating!”
The little demon, dragon horns raised, kicked their short legs in the air.

Yuyan brushed a hand beneath his forehead, and the white silk ribbon melted away like snow.
“I sealed my five senses—how am I cheating… Changyong?”

Meeting his ice-blue eyes, Yun Yao snapped back to reality.

He wasn’t Mu Hanyuan.
This was an illusion, and this man was the last ancient true dragon, dead for tens of thousands of years—Yuyan.

“Your Majesty.”
Yun Yao lowered her eyes, adopting the gentle demeanor Princess Changyong typically showed him.

“Can’t you just call me Yan Liang?”
Yuyan sounded slightly displeased but quickly recalled something.
“I told them to bring you to the main hall to wait for me. Why did they send you here?
This place is full of bugs, fish, and beasts—don’t you hate those the most?”

As he spoke, Yuyan stepped forward, but his leg wouldn’t move.
Both looked down.

Unnoticed, another child with tiny horns, dressed in a pink robe, had appeared from nowhere.
One arm hugged Yuyan’s leg tightly while their dark eyes gazed longingly at Yun Yao.

The first child, in blue, who’d bumped into Yun Yao, mimicked the act, grabbing Yuyan’s other leg.

Yun Yao was still mulling over Yuyan’s comment about her “hating those things” when the blue-clad child tilted their head and beckoned to Yuyan.

The Dragon Lord, ruler of the world, obediently bent down, lending an ear.
“Hm? What do you want to say?”

“Your Majesty,” the pink-clad dragon whispered behind their hand, voice soft and childish, “is this the future empress our clan grandfather mentioned?”

“…”

Yun Yao caught every word of this “whisper.”

Yuyan smiled.
“Yes.”

The blue dragon: “She bumped me.”
The pink dragon: “She’s so pretty.”
The blue dragon: “…”

The blue dragon stole a quick glance, then lowered their head, nodding to the pink dragon while still clutching Yuyan’s leg.
“Mm.”
After nodding, they put on a stern face.
“But she bumped me.”

Yun Yao couldn’t help but laugh.
“Your Majesty, who are these two?”

‘Surely not his illegitimate children?’

It wasn’t that Yun Yao doubted the purity of a dragon labeled “lustful by nature.”
But if Yuyan had illegitimate children, the ancient true dragon lineage wouldn’t have ended with his death.

“They’re from the sea demon clan, descendants of the sea dragon lineage,” Yuyan explained with a smile.

“You’re wrong, Your Majesty! We’re Dragon-Serving Guards!”
The blue dragon let go, standing tall with pride.
“We’ll protect Your Majesty for generations!”

The pink dragon hesitated, reluctantly releasing Yuyan, then shyly glanced back at Yun Yao.
“Brother’s right. We’re Dragon-Serving Guards.”

Yun Yao: “?”

Perhaps reading in her eyes the thought, “You’d use such tiny demon cubs?”, Yuyan gave a wry smile.
“They were indeed chosen by the sea demon clan.
Though they bear the Dragon-Serving Seal and are part of the guard, they’re reserves at best, living in Dragon City.”

The blue dragon crossed their arms.
“If anything happens, we’ll stand in front of His Majesty!”

Yun Yao crouched down, pinching the blue dragon’s cheek.
“Then protect yourself first.”

“Let go, let go!”
The blue dragon squirmed.

The pink dragon started to approach but, seeing their brother’s plight, hesitated, too shy to come closer.

—

But the little demons’ shyness wore off in less than the time it takes an incense stick to burn.
Soon, both were chasing Yun Yao around the pavilion, running in and out.
After a lively morning, the energetic little dragons were finally whisked away.

Before leaving, the blue dragon, tucked under a sea demon clan guard’s arm, flailed their short legs toward Yuyan and Changyong in the pavilion.
“Your Majesty, clan grandfather said there’ll be a litter of dragon cubs in the palace soon, and they’ll play hide-and-seek with me—is that true?!”

“Pfft—”
“Princess Changyong” choked on her water, coughing violently.

Yuyan, momentarily stunned, chuckled and waved his sleeve.
“Take them away.”

The sea demon guard, stifling a laugh, carried the restless cubs out of Yun Yao and Yuyan’s sight.

Yun Yao’s gaze shifted from them to Yuyan’s forehead.

As his lake-blue eyes turned back, they met the thoughtful expression of the woman leaning against the carved railing across the stone table.

Yuyan touched his forehead hesitantly.
“What’s wrong? Did I get flower mud on me?”

“I was just thinking, since the sea dragon clan has horns, why don’t you, as a true dragon?”
Yun Yao leaned slightly forward, still unable to spot anything on his forehead.

Yuyan coughed lightly, shifting uncomfortably.
“Well, I do have them.”

“You do?”
Yun Yao’s interest piqued.
Neither in the immortal realm nor Qianyuan had she ever seen a living ancient true dragon, let alone their horns.

Yuyan, unsettled by her fervent gaze, raised a brow after a moment.
“You really want to see?”

“Yes.”
Yun Yao was honest.

“…”

After a long silence, under Yun Yao’s unblinking stare, faint golden dragon horns gradually emerged on Yuyan’s pale forehead.
Fine blue-gold scales glimmered in the light, neatly layered like waves of sunlit gold.

Yun Yao’s eyes sparkled, and she instinctively reached out, lightly tapping one.

“!”

Yuyan’s body shuddered, his face lifting in shock to meet her gaze.

Yun Yao blinked innocently, then watched as Yuyan’s pale skin flushed red, the color spreading even to the corners of his eyes, vivid and striking.

Yun Yao: “?”

What happened to “dragons are lustful by nature”?
A single touch to his horns, and his face was nearly red to his neck.
Was there a pure-hearted dragon hidden in his soul?

Before Yun Yao could muse further—

“Your Majesty!”

A sharp cry rang out.
The pale blue-gold horns vanished from her sight in a flash.

She followed Yuyan’s gaze toward the pavilion’s edge with regret—

A palace attendant hurried up the path, rushing toward them.

Entering the pavilion, the attendant whispered urgently to Yuyan.
Yun Yao caught only fragments—“Sky Demon King,” “Earth Demon King,” “fighting at the hall again,” “an irreconcilable clash.”

Yuyan’s expression cooled, his long lashes lowering with a trace of weariness.
Still, he stood.
“Changyong, I’ll step to the hall for a moment.
If you like it here, wait in the pavilion.
If not, I’ll have them take you to the main hall to rest.”

Yun Yao made a show of bowing.
“No need, I’ll wait here for Your Majesty.”

“Hm?”
Yuyan turned back.

Yun Yao paused, then sighed and corrected herself.
“Yan Liang.”

“That’s more like it.”
With his horns retracted, Yuyan resumed his air of divine ease and laziness.
He followed the attendant out of the garden.

The once-lively garden fell silent, save for the sound of the spring.

Yun Yao leaned against the stone table, idling for a while before boredom drove her to her feet.
She left the pavilion, wandering through the garden’s stacked stones and hills.
As she drew closer, voices of passing attendants drifted in.

“…What are the Sky Demon King and Earth Demon King fighting over this time?”
“What else? Probably territory.”
“Small quarrels every three days, big fights every five—they’re like fire and water.
Whoever’s caught between them suffers.
No wonder His Majesty hides out here, fed up.”
“Exactly. If those two clans go to war, it’ll be a catastrophe.”
“Afraid of what? As long as His Majesty is here, those old demons wouldn’t dare make a real move.
Look at today—they’re fighting fiercely, but all they’ve done is scratch each other’s faces.”
“Haha, true…”

Yun Yao’s eyelid twitched.

Could Changyong’s reason for killing the Dragon Lord be—

“Master.”

A low voice stirred the flower branches beside her.
Yun Yao turned.

The demon clan young lord stood behind her, clad in dark armor.
A silver-patterned mask covered the upper half of his face, leaving pale skin and red lips visible, his jawline sharp.
The thin armor gleamed with cold, dark iron, cinching his lean waist, exuding a menacing aura.

Yun Yao could hardly imagine that such a vessel housed Mu Hanyuan’s pristine, ethereal soul.

She lowered her smiling eyes.
“How did you get in?”

“I’m your shadow guard, attending your side—nothing could be more natural.”
Mu Hanyuan spoke, raising a hand.
From beneath his cold iron sleeve, his slender fingers revealed a small, exquisite dagger before Yun Yao.

“What’s this?”
Yun Yao took it.
The moment she touched the hilt, a chill seeped into her, as if burrowing into her soul, sending shivers down her spine.

“The dragon scale dagger, one of the rare weapons capable of piercing a true dragon’s body.”

“Dragon scale…”
Yun Yao’s fingers grazed the blade.
It bore a strange, dark hue—deep gray or black—shifting with the light, as if hiding a turbid, flowing energy.
Faint specks of dark gold glimmered within, indistinct.

Yun Yao looked up.
“What kind of metal is this?”

With the mask obscuring his expression, only the slight curve of his thin lips was visible.
“That’s not important, Master.
I’ve confirmed the Dragon Heart Scale is within Yuyan’s chest.
In nine days, you need only plunge this dagger into his heart to retrieve it, and we can all leave this secret realm together.”

“…”

Though expected, Yun Yao still frowned.

Without reason, her mind flashed to Yuyan earlier, his eyes veiled in white silk, playing hide-and-seek with the little demon cubs.
So unlike Mu Hanyuan, yet so similar.

“Master, are you still reluctant?”
Mu Hanyuan asked.

“You’re right. Yuyan died tens of thousands of years ago—what use is my reluctance?”
Yun Yao’s expression faded as she flicked her wrist, concealing the dagger in the folds of her wide robe.
“Let’s go.”

Yun Yao walked ahead.
After a few steps, hearing footsteps behind her, she glanced back with mild irritation.
“…Why are you following me?”

“I’m lost.”
Beneath the silver mask, his long eyes held an innocent look.
“Master, can you lead me out first?”

Yun Yao: “…”

How had she never noticed her obedient disciple was so directionally challenged?

Before she could question him, Mu Hanyuan lowered his head with slight chagrin.
“It must be this body’s influence.”

“Fine, hurry up,” Yun Yao said, turning.
“Don’t let the Dragon Lord catch you.”

“Mm.”

—

Moments later.
Stepping out from the garden path, Yun Yao looked up and understood the meaning of “speak of calamity and it arrives.”

Before the pavilion, a few paces away, Yuyan turned.
His lake-blue eyes gleamed at her, but as he opened his mouth, they flickered.
His gaze cooled, shifting past her.

From the flower thicket behind Yun Yao, a figure in thin armor stepped out.

The air grew heavy.

Caught between their stares, Yun Yao felt a chill down her spine.
She forced a smile.
“Yan Liang, this is my personal shadow guard.”

“…”

Yuyan’s gaze slowly returned, the lazy air settling back into his expression.
He stepped to Yun Yao’s side, his arm loosely encircling the girl in her vibrant gown.
“I know.”

Yun Yao’s eyelid twitched.

‘…You might not know as much as you think.’

“Ask him to leave, alright?” Yuyan murmured.
“I want to be alone with you for a while.”

“…Alright.”
Yun Yao turned her head, signaling Mu Hanyuan with her eyes where Yuyan couldn’t see.

Mu Hanyuan lowered his gaze, his eyes lingering on her waist, where Yuyan’s slender hand rested.

“…”

With the mask hiding his expression, Yun Yao couldn’t read him.
But she had a sinking feeling it wasn’t something she’d want to see.

The garden fell into a tense, eerie silence.

The hand at her waist tightened slightly.
Yun Yao couldn’t hold back anymore, lowering her voice with a hint of sternness.

“Hanyuan, behave.”

“—”

“…!”

Before the pavilion, both men stiffened—one glancing sideways, the other looking up, their eyes meeting hers in unison.