Beauty was never so bored  in his whole life.

There was no trace of the Peony's king, not even weeks after his arrival. Seems that King Wang Yibo was still very sick. He even heard some gossip going around that the nobility of the kingdom would prepare for a grand meeting where to declare King Wang Yibo ineligible for ruling the country given that his health is not getting better.

Xiao Zhan wanted so much to visit him, to comfort him, to take care of him.
He even asked lord Liu HaiKuan to let him go with him to the palace from the top of the mountain:
"Please, I promise that I will not get his sickness, I learned to prepare all kinds of traditional ancient medicines from my father's old Lǎoshī (A/n: teacher in Chinese) doctor. I will go in the forest today and pick the necessary plants, then tomorrow morning I will go with you, only if you allow me of course. I will prepare the  medicines after I see with my own eyes what his sickness is about.
And you shouldn't worry about me, I  know what herbs are good for protecting me from getting infected with his disease.
It would make me so happy to take care of him, instead of spending days here, feeling completely useless.
And I also would  very much like to see Snowflake, I simply fell in love with your beloved dog, especially with his  bewitching eyes."

But sadly, his proposal was politely rejected.

He had nothing else to do but go back to the daily routine of doing nothing except to take long walks in the forest or on the sea shore, especially to avoid the annoying  princess Yang Zi's presence.
Time for eating, time for bed, the days went by, one after another.

Even  ChiangCheng seemed like he deserted him, it's like he was more interested in lord Liu HaiKuan's company than in spending time with  comforting his best friend's misery.
Wang ZhuoCheng was suspiciously excited whenever lord HaiKuan was coming to the palace with the new orders from the Peony's king.
Hmm...Beauty had never seen his friend spending so much time in front of the mirror, worried about his hair style and whatnot.

At least the reassuring news coming from home was giving him the necessary strength to carry on.
Half from the traitors gang were already in the prison, but there still remained a few to be caught,  who managed to hide or to run abroad.
In the letter he received from The Rose, his father promised that he will be safe to come back soon, but not before the secret service would finally find Wen Ciao and the rest of the anarchists.

It was snowing heavily even though November has just started...but maybe it's something usual for The Peony's climate.
The weather  ruined Beauty's plans for that day, as he intended to go in the forest to look for herbs, fruits or roots that he might make use of.

"Oh, good morning  prince Xiao Zhan, I mean good afternoon! I am so excited that we are finally having lunch together, after so many days that we have rarely met each other.
So great, because I have so much  to talk about with you! I hope that nothing's wrong with lord Wang ZhuoCheng,", princess Yang Zi clapped her hands and grinned in satisfaction when the prince of Rose showed up in the royal dining room , alone.
That ChiangCheng guy is getting on Andy's nerves so badly with his endless questions and suspicious eyes, like he was  in constant  doubt with everything the princess was saying or acting.
 

"Good afternoon, Your Royal Highness.
I am sorry but I just can't change my habits to wake up early in the morning. That's why we never meet at the breakfast time, because I need my coffee right after waking up, so I take the breakfast, when your highness is still sleeping, I apologize.", Beauty bowed before the princess and smiled politely, before taking a seat on the opposite edge of the long table.
It was his duty to follow his father's instructions to act as nice as he could with his hosts.

"Oh, don't worry my beloved prince Xiao Zhan! It's not your fault, but only mine. I can't wake up early...just because I think of you the whole night and fall asleep only at dawn, ha, ha.  But please call me Andy, as my friends are calling me. Your Royal Highness sounds too cold, and I don't want you to be cold to me.", Andy meowed, while fluttering her eyelashes.

She fluttered her eyelashes so exaggeratedly that Beauty asked her  worriedly:
"Something has gotten into your eye, Your Highness? I mean, Andy..."

"Oh, my , you are so adorably innocent. Nothing is in my eye, except the beautiful you, of course!
I am  flirting with you...Just because I like you! A lot!
I told you that I have so much to talk with you.
But we can do that after eating, let's not let the meal get cold.", the princess blinked more, almost rolling her eyelashes over the crown of her head.

"Oh!", was all that Beauty uttered before stuffing his mouth with food.

When he noticed that the princess was intending to start talking again, he hurried to speak ahead of her:
"Also,  allow me to apologize on behalf of my friend for not joining us today.
As you probably know lord Liu HaiKuan came to the palace today to bring some documents.  An unhappy accident occurred on his way. His horse slipped in a  pit  camouflaged with branches and leaves and the documents got spread all over. Luckily it didn't start snowing yet at that time.
Anyways, during the morning meeting with the main members of The Peony's Royal Court, he noticed that one document was missing. 
ChiangCheng  offered to help lord HaiKuan to look for the document  at the accident place.
That's why he is missing lunch...I hope they are alright, I'm starting to get worried, as it has already been a few hours since they are gone.
Anyway I think that I ate enough, I already feel stuffed.
Allow me to excuse myself for the rest of the day. I want to go look for them, right now!" 

But Andy jumped up from the chair and blocked the door with her spread out arms:
"Alright, I understand, but please give me just three seconds. I just want you to think about my proposal and you can tell me your decision later in the evening or tomorrow.
As you know, our beloved kingdom is headless, the king is not capable of ruling...not as he has ever been, ha, ha!
Wait, just three more seconds please!
I want you to become the king of Peony!
I want you to be Andy's king!
I want princess Yang Zi to be prince Xiao Zhan's queen!
I want us together to be The Peony's missing head!"

"Yeah, I want something, too!
I want to leave right away!
I apologize, Your Royal highness, for my rudeness,  but I really need to go!", Beauty  mumbled, while skillfully sliding out the room under Andy's spread arm.

Beauty was riding for a few hours already, through the dense forest. The horse was tired, the snow was getting thicker, the sun was about to set and there was still no trace of ChiangCheng and lord HaiKuan!
"Maybe they have returned to the palace on another route, and  it's just that my path didn't cross with theirs.",he sighed, encouraging himself, while turning his horse around, ready to ride back to the palace.

But the horse  refused to move and  started to neigh and sniff into the air like sensing a threat.
It's true that Beauty heard too,  a  wolf howling, but it sounded muffled, probably coming from afar.

"What, what's wrong?
Shh, it's nothing but another scared animal, same as you.
Let's go home, it's getting dark!", Beauty tried to calm down the frightened horse.

But out of the blue, the wolf popped up right in front of them, causing the horse to jump in horror and  to slam the rider down to the ground.

Beauty tried in  vain to order the horse to stop. The animal was too scared to listen to his master, he just ran away like crazy, abandoning the man fallen in the thick drifts of snow.

"Snowflake? Is it really you?",  Beauty shouted in surprise when the white wolf approached and stared at him with 'those eyes'.

"Snowflake, oh my god, I missed you, I wanted so much to see you again.", Beauty snuggled his  frozen face into the warm white fur of the animal.
"Why are you here  alone? Is your master still here somewhere in the forest?"

Like Snowflake had understood the question, he started to tug at  Beauty's  sleeve, like asking him to stand up and follow him.

After just a few minutes Beauty was brought by the dog to a spot where a shocking scene was unfolding!
Snowflake's master was climbed  up in a tree, struggling to reach out  to the net trap hanging from a branch.
In the trap was not an animal, but his best friend.

"ChiangCheng! Oh my god!", Beauty shouted in horror, not knowing  how  he could help, as  the quiver containing any  useful tools was gone along with his horse. 

Luckily Snowflake came to the rescue.
He  jumped repeatedly, really high, ing each time his long, sharp  fangs into the bottom of the net bag.
Firstly ChiangCheng got scared and screamed, thinking that the animal was trying to rip off his bum.

"No, your highness, don't force yourself, your injury is not entirely healed! I can do this!", lord HaiKuan shouted at his dog, not making any sense...But maybe the distressful state he was in and the coldness affected his ability of thinking straight..

Finally the net trap got ripped and  the trapped man fell off from the hanging trap.

Liu HaiKuan jumped down the tree and hurried to check out Wang ZhuoCheng of any possible injuries, even before Beauty was able to reach out to his best friend.

"Oh, my god, I'm so happy that you two are well, I was so worried!
But what in the world had happened?
And where are your horses?", Beauty asked while trying to walk towards the two men.
He was tripping into Snowflakes's  form who seemed like he didn't want to  detach himself from Beauty's legs, for some unknown reason.

But the two men didn't get to answer his question, as  an earthquake seemed to start, or something like that. 
Snowflake started to howl and run away, even though Beauty tried his best to calm him down and stop him.
The forest got red like burning in fire, the ground was shaking and a sinister howling  consisting from all the  frightened animals of the forest  scared the sh!t out of all the three men.

After a few moments when the dog disappeared from his sight, a huge shadow covered the moon...

Beauty crouched behind a thick log, calling his friends to hide, too.

"Not this sh!t again!
And we have no horses, no guns, no arches, nothing!
The beast will eat us alive!
We are gonna die, it was nice to meet you both, goodbye, I really liked you...", ChiangCheng shouted, watching in horror, along with Beauty,  the wild creature baring its fangs at them and  looking at them with creepy bloody eyes.

"I like you, too!'
But no, we are not gonna die!
Please, A-Cheng just  trust me with what I am going to do! I will explain to you everything. later.", lord HaiKuan spoke, before doing something completely unexpected and incomprehensible.

He  grabbed  Beauty by his neck, just like that,  and pressed two fingers onto a certain spot, causing him to instantly lose his consciousness.

"Oh, ChiangCheng, is it you?
Am I dead?
Are  you alive?", Beauty whispered, rubbing his forehead and pinching his  own cheek to check out if he felt anything other than an explosive headache.

"Oh, Your Royal Highness, my beloved ZhanZhan! I am so happy that you are finally conscious!
No, we are not dead, nobody died thanks heaven!
Everything will be just alright!"

"But where are we?
And what happened?
Why were you trapped in that net?
Oh my god, Snowflake! Is  he alright? Did he come back? 
What happened to us, did the beast attack us, but how did we escape?
I remember that we met before the same wild creature! But  how? Why? What? ", Beauty started to get agitated.

"Please, ZhanZhan, you are still recovering, calmness and peace of mind is important for your full recovery speed.
I know that you have a lot of questions, and I will answer all of them, but now you must eat something, take these pills, then take some more rest. 
After you wake up, I promise to tell you anything you want to know.
For now I will only tell you that we are completely safe here, in the palace where  King Wang Yibo and lord Liu HaiKuan live. Any possible enemy would be afraid to come here, because of the king's  contagious illness.
But you shouldn't worry, this is an external building  linked with the palace with a secret corridor. This building was  used by the palace's employees, and the sick king  never came here since he moved to live in this palace, so we are not in any danger to take the virus of his illness.", Wang ZhuoCheng explained while fixing the prince's pillow and taking the plate of food from the nightstand.

"But...but...I remember clearly that I saw Wang Y