The way to the throne room was indeed rather long, so Banyue did manage to teach him a little bit. Xie Lian guessed he'd just have to keep practicing. After all, he knew very well that skill could only be gained through constant training.

When they arrived at the throne room, the guards spared Banyue only a short glance, but didn't attempt to stop her from walking into the room at all. Xie Lian was really starting to wonder what exactly the relationship between the king and Banyue was. Had he really only found her on the streets? Did he ever even walk through the streets himself? Why was she allowed in without anyone sending someone ahead first, to let the king know of their arrival? Was she maybe an illegitimate daughter of the king?

Xie Lian came to a screeching halt when the king entered his vision again.

It had been months since the last time he'd laid eyes on him, true, but he didn't remember the king looking this handsome. Well, he hadn't exactly been in the best state to appreciate beauty in that moment either, he figured.

The king's features were overall sharp, straight and angular. The look in his eye was especially sharp and cunning, penetrating and clear. Xie Lian could see from where he was standing that the king was obviously intelligent, smart and quick witted, just by looking at that eye. Though he should be; anyone slow on the uptake couldn't possibly lead a country as huge as WuYong all by himself.

His hair was rather wild, loose strands hanging over his back and shoulders, with some single thin braids here and there. He also had bangs, which almost covered his black eyepatch on the right side of his face. Added to it was his whole countainance, which not only screamed 'alpha' at Xie Lian, but the way he held himself gave off a lazy confidence, a surety that the highest power in the country belonged to him, and only him, and the self assurance that nobody would, or could, take it away from him rolled off of him as well. He gave off the feeling as if he'd seen it all already, as if nothing could ever really surprise him, even though his face looked still young.

On top of that, the king was wearing black clothes, black pants and a black top, with red drapings over his shoulders and around his was something akin to silver armor around his shoulders and across his chest as well, but it served little protection, so it must've been some sort of fashionable accessory, Xie Lian figured. The thing was just… those clothes couldn't be exactly called robes, because they left his midriff exposed.

Xie Lian figured it was the culture of WuYong to wear clothes in this style during summer, though to Xie Lian it had felt pretty hot since they'd first set foot in the desert. During practice earlier he'd already had half a mind to ask for lighter clothing, but he was a little scared of what they'd throw at him. With his luck, it was probably something like the clothes he'd found in his room yesterday. He didn't think he was at the point where he was willing to wear those yet, no matter how suffocating his own robes felt.

Either way, the king's stomach was toned and all muscles and Xie Lian wondered if the king could actually win against him in a fight. Xie Lian knew he had a good bunch of muscles himself, even if they weren't as visibly defined as the king's. He didn't know if the king had done any sort of training in the army before he ascended to the throne, but Xie Lian was nevertheless interested in having a spar with the king. Just for fun, of course. However, given the look on the king's face, Xie Lian doubted very much that he was up for anything fun. It was true that the king's face was handsome, but Xie Lian thought that, if he got rid of his grumpy expression and replaced it with a smile, it would be much more dazzling. And much less intimidating.

Since Xie Lian wasn't sure about etiquette in WuYong, he lowered his head and stopped himself from staring at the king for now. If he still had access to his library, he would've prepared for a meeting like this far in advance, going through all the etiquette rules and customs and memorising every single one of them in order to be at ease when facing someone like the king of WuYong. The fact that he hadn't been able to do any sort of preparation left him feeling incredibly wrong footed and even somewhat insecure.

Banyue was definitely at ease however, and ran straight up to the king, who was still lounging on his throne as if it was a daybed. Xie Lian stood back though, not sure what to do with himself. Was he supposed to walk further into the room? Was he supposed to stand back? He didn't want to leave after just entering either, that would be very awkward.

"King Hua! I brought a friend!", Banyue told the king excitedly, pulling on the fabric of his wide pants. It made the king sit up somewhat properly, if nothing else.

"Oh? Since when do you have friends?", he asked, and although his words sounded cruel to Xie Lian at first, he soon realised that it was a genuine question, and not meant to scorn her.

"Since yesterday! Xie-gege moved in yesterday, and he-... where is he?", Banyue asked, when she couldn't see Xie Lian immediately behind her.

So he stepped forward.

"I'm here", he called, and made his way closer towards the throne as well, hoping the king would give him an indication on when to stop walking. Nothing of the sort was happening though, even when Xie Lian was already right at the bottom of the steps that led up to the throne. He stopped there anyway.

"So this is your new gege?", the king asked Banyue, who nodded. His full attention was on Xie Lian however, and he didn't quite dare to meet the king's gaze. He needed to learn more about this king and his general behaviour towards lower ranked people. Xie Lian had assumed he was going to be enslaved here, but since Shi QingXuan had mentioned that he was going to get paid, as well as the telling fact that he was walking through the palace unsupervised and at his own leisure, he knew that wasn't exactly accurate.

Xie Lian wasn't under the false impression that he could just nicely ask the king to leave and live in freedom outside the palace walls, but he was still inclined to think this king rather generous. Which was exactly why he didn't want to push his frankly bad luck with him too soon, nor too far. He needed to find out more about him, he decided, and resolved to pay Shi QingXuan a visit one of these days.

Banyue chose that moment to pull him out of his musings.

"He's not very good at dancing yet, but he's trying really hard and I'm also helping him! I'm sure he'll learn very fast!"

"With your help, how could he dare not to learn as fast as possible", the king said, and Xie Lian wasn't quite sure if that was supposed to be a threat directed at him or not. Knowing his aptitude in dancing was actually quite bad, he didn't know whether to laugh or cry, and forced himself to do neither.

"I can only try my best", he said.

The king gave him another scrutinising look, before he nodded, and put his full attention on Banyue, not paying him any mind anymore. He chatted with Banyue for a little bit, before he attempted to send her off again, claiming she didn't have the time for him anymore, now that she had a friend anyway. It resulted with Banyue close to tears, swearing that she'd never, ever forget that her very first friend ever had been King Hua. The king's face had been rather hilarious, and it was obvious that he didn't know how to deal with her emotional outburst very well. Xie Lian had tried very hard, and succeeded, not to laugh.

Though it was really pretty entertaining to Xie Lian to see such a high and mighty person, who never sugarcoated anything he said, trying desperately to keep the dam from breaking and to make the little girl smile again instead. At one point, Xie Lian almost lost his poise and almost broke out laughing at the king getting positively flustered because a tiny girl was just one word away from spilling tears, and he thanked the heavens for his good self control, which had still prevailed.

However, no matter how funny it was to him, he still felt like he was intruding on a very private moment, and he didn't feel adequate to share it. Although witnessing such a scene did make him wonder if maybe there was some substance to his theory of Banyue being the king's illegitimate daughter. The only thing that spoke against it, was that there was not a single similarity shared by the two, except for the hair colour, but that really didn't have any weight at all. Still, it was definitely something worth keeping an eye on.

After Banyue had gotten past the verge of crying, and accusing His Majesty The King of WuYong of being a big meanie, as well as pouting through the duration of a whole incense stick, the king sent her off for real, telling her to come back the next day if she grew tired of her new gege. Banyue stuck her tongue out at him upon hearing that, to which the king made to actually stand up from his throne with a somewhat threatening expression on his face. Needless to say, Banyue yelped, and was out of the throne room faster than Xie Lian could comprehend the situation, and was left to scramble after her, almost forgetting to bow to the king on his way out. He was sure he hadn't imagined the amused smirk on the king's face though.

On the way back to the dancer's quarters, Xie Lian noticed a bunch of kids playing in the corridors, a good distance away from the throne room. He also saw them looking their way curiously. Xie Lian wondered if, maybe, if Banyue was lacking friends, he could try to set her up to play with those kids one of these days. In fact, he would've done so right this instant if they hadn't been pressed for time to make it back to practice.

After dinner, Xie Lian fell into his bed, feeling absolutely exhausted. He used to be in great condition, but lying in bed for months on end had really done a number on him. He really hoped he could build his stamina up again quickly.

The next few days passed in much the same manner; the only difference was that Xie Lian didn't accompany Banyue to her daily visits to the king anymore. Unlike Banyue, he didn't share any friendship with the man after all, and there really wasn't any reason for him to go.

Dancing continued to be hard for him as well, and even Miss Fang was starting to become frustrated with him. He'd even caught the girls suppressing their laughter at him on a few occasions. It was rather depressing.

A few weeks later, after dinner, Xie Lian was sitting in the pavillon after lunch, still trying very hard to figure out just what in the world he was doing wrong.

He got very distracted, however, when Banyue came running back into the courtyard, even though she hadn't left long enough to even have arrived at the throne room in the meantime.

She was crying.

Startled, Xie Lian jumped up, and caught her in his arms, even though she was trying to escape, and probably hide somewhere. Well, not on his watch.

He tried to talk to her, and when he realised that wasn't working, he tried to get any sort of reaction from her, but the little girl was in hysterics, and didn't react to anything he was saying. So in the end, he picked her up, and carried her back to their home. Once there, he patted her back and head until she finally managed to get a grip on herself. He was beyond worried at this point, and not just because of her crying. While he'd tried to calm her down, he'd noticed several new wounds and bruises on her.

There were several cuts on her arms and legs, some of which were rather deep, but the most worrying one was the cut on her neck. It wasn't deep, it wasn't even bleeding anymore, but Xie Lian knew an intentional injury created by a blade when he saw one. And this one had definitely been an attempt at a very grave injury, if not worse.

"Banyue, can you please talk to me?", he asked, almost pleadingly. He came to really like this little girl during the past few weeks, and couldn't bear to see her hurt like this.

"Gege", she gasped through a sob. "It hurts! E-everything hurts!"

Xie Lian was about to cry himself.

"Alright, I'll take you to Shi QingXuan right now!", he decided.

He also didn't waste any time on trying to find Miss Fang, to tell her they'd probably miss afternoon practice, but he really couldn't be bothered by those technicalities.

Even though Xie Lian was already kind of exhausted from morning practice, he ran through all the courtyards and corridors and open spaces and gardens as fast as he could, until he eventually arrived at the infirmary, heavily panting. Banyue was still whimpering in his arms.

"Is QingXuan here?", he asked loudly, before even taking a proper look around.

Luckily, the man really was present, and jumped up to his feet immediately.

"Here! I'm here! What's going on? What happened? Why is that little princess crying?!", he asked, already coming over to them.

"I don't know what happened, but she has a lot of injuries. Please take care of them", Xie Lian replied, and pushed Banyue into Shi QingXuan's arms. The doctor's face darkened as soon as he got a proper look of the state she was in.

"Follow me", he said to Xie Lian, and directed him to sit down in the corner once they had entered another room.

Banyue was trying to fight Shi QingXuan at first, not wanting anyone to see the full extent of her injuries from what it seemed like, but in the end she was weak, and QingXuan a practiced doctor, so she really didn't stand a chance.

"Who cut you up like this?", Shi QingXuan's voice thundered through the room, but even that wasn't enough to make Banyue talk. "Alright, don't tell me then. But I will treat those wounds!", he said, and somehow made it sound much more threatening than it should.

"Why are there so many old injuries anyway?! Banyue! If His Majesty-"

"No! King Hua can't know about this!", the usually well behaved girl yelled.

Well, at least that eased one of his worries, Xie Lian thought. He'd already thought of all sorts of people who could be the culprits, and naturally the king had been one of them. But if Banyue was worried about the king finding out about her injuries, it must obviously mean that he didn't know about them, and couldn't possibly have caused them himself.

Xie Lian kept pondering who it could've been, when Shi QingXuan finally declared that he was done cleaning and wrapping up all the wounds.

"If anything starts hurting again, or you get new wounds, you move your tiny little bum over to my infirmary to get yourself treated, do you hear me?", Shi QingXuan lectured Banyue, whose head already couldn't hang any lower.

She was properly calmed down, and nothing of her previous hysterica was showing anymore. So she just nodded obediently, eyes still downcast.

"Will she have to stay here?", Xie Lian asked then.

"No, her injuries aren't serious from a medical standpoint. She can go back to her quarters as soon as she wants to. But maybe don't let her dance for a day or two, just so her wounds won't get aggravated. I'd prefer it if she took 5 days off dancing, but even I know that's too much to ask, isn't that right?", She QingXuan directed his last question at Banyue herself, to which she just nodded glumly again.

Xie Lian smiled in exasperation, and then walked over to pat Banyue's head.

"You really gave me quite the scare earlier", he told her. "It's fine if you don't want to say what happened. I won't ask anymore, but you have to promise to tell me if you get new injuries."

Banyue gave him a sideways glance, but eventually nodded.

"Good", Xie Lian smiled. "Now, how about I give you a piggyback ride back home, hm?"