In the end Marinette just decided to wear a plain light blue blouse and denim capris with a pair of white flats, earning an approving nod from Jiānhùrén and a thumbs up from Lucas. Marinette grinned in reply and hurriedly closed her bedroom door.

"Wait, wear this face mask. We can't let any of the citizens see you and possibly connect the dots from the news report yesterday." Marinette took the plain white face mask out of Jiānhùrén's hand and put it over her mouth.

"There was a news report about her?" Lucas questioned. Jiānhùrén nodded in assurance.

"Huh. The presses are total stalkers." The bespectacled boy concluded as an afterthought and the other two silently agreed. Marinette got a slight shiver down her spine at the thought of reporters and paparazzi trying to get into her personal space in the future when she officially gets revealed to the public as the princess. She grimaced for a second before falling into a straight face.

"Ready to go?" Lucas asked and Marinette nodded, prompting the three of them to start walking along the corridor.

While Marinette and Lucas were chatting their heads off with frivolous conversation topics, Jiānhùrén remained silent throughout and calmly ignored the excitable teens. He didn't exactly care about what they were talking about and was only tolerating the bespectacled boy's presence. Honestly you'd think that Jiānhùrén didn't have to put up with Lucas on a daily basis but it seemed that Lucas's favourite pastime, other than tending to the royal botanical garden, was annoying the absolute hell out of the stoic adult. But as much as Jiānhùrén hated to admit it Lucas did grow on him to the point where Jiānhùrén could compare him to an annoying younger brother or nephew. Like the relationship between Scar and Simba only Jiānhùrén didn't have any bloodthirsty emotions towards Lucas.

... Most of the time.

"-ere are we going to go anyway?" Lucas asked Jiānhùrén directly and the older male simply gave the slightest of shrugs, maintaining an indifferent expression.

"Wherever you two want to go, I'm simply your tour guide and chaperone for today." Marinette frowned a little bit at his statement.

"I'd feel bad if I was to end up dragging you to areas and places you don't enjoy." She confessed quietly but Lucas snorted.

"Really? I would be taking advantage of this moment. Who knows when he'll be this generous and tolerant again."

"This is why I try to ignore you the best I can." The bodyguard plainly stated, further ignoring Lucas clutching his chest with faux pained expression. Marinette let out a small giggle but stared at Jiānhùrén again with furrowed eyebrows.

"Do you have anywhere you want to go though?" She meekly inquired and Jiānhùrén gave her a side glance with a bemused expression fleeting across his face.

"Not at all miss, I've lived in Beijing for half of my life and I don't think there's any place I really want to visit."

Marinette opened her mouth but quickly closed it with a thoughtful expression and a pout to her lips. At this point the trio reached a sleek black car. Jiānhùrén took out a car key and unlocked it, getting the teenagers into the back seat and settled himself in the front seat.  Marinette finally let out a defeated sigh. She shook her head and scrunched her nose with reluctance to reply.

"Okay then... If you're sure that is." Marinette concluded by giving her bodyguard a small smile which he returned.

"Quite sure."

"Alright enough of you and Mari being all polite and formal, I want to introduce her deep fried scorpions." Lucas directed the conversation into a more easy going atmosphere but plastered an evil looking smirk on his face the moment he said 'deep fried scorpions'. Poor Marinette, not knowing everything about Chinese cultures and native street food, giggled and gave Lucas a challenging smile.

"Sure, they'll probably have deep fried spiders as well."

_________________________________________

"Wait you were serious?!" Marinette looked at Lucas in pure horror as he paid the vendor, eyeing the offensive sticks of deep fried scorpions and spiders. Lucas looked away as to not let Marinette see his struggle to not break out laughing with hilarity. Quite a fail as Marinette was so close to slapping that stupid smirk off his face. She didn't notice Jiānhùrén stifling his chuckle but recomposed himself with the clear of his throat and gingerly took one of the offered fried arachnids from Lucas. Again to Marinette's horror, Lucas wiggled his eyebrows at Marinette and took a whole spider into his mouth, looking at Marinette with the most nonchalant expression as if this was a day to day occurrence. He then leaned closer to Marinette with the spider's legs hanging out of his mouth causing her to squeal and back away next to Jiānhùrén.

Before she realised her bodyguard also had a stick of skewered arachnids at hand to which she skirted away from the both of them.

"Merde Lucas! Don't do that!"

"Watch your profanity missy and don't do what? This?" He stepped closer towards Marinette while waving one of the sticks in front of him. She paled instantly.

"Haha! Wow look at that, my parents and friends would love those souvenirs!" She weakly made an excuse and started power walking away from Lucas and Jiānhùrén, leaving Lucas to cackle after her and followed her pace.

"Come on! If you try you'll love them!"

"Lucas go away!" She squealed as she started to run from him but Lucas wasn't deterred and also started running while laughing. Jiānhùrén stood alone amongst the queue and shook his head. He eyed the deep fried scorpions and shrugged, taking a bite of one of the scorpions and started to follow the sounds of terrified screams and obnoxious laughter.

These children are going to give me grey hairs...

________________________________________

Oh how the tables have turned.

Now Marinette was the one with an obnoxiously knowing smirk and Lucas was extremely uncomfortable and mildly terrified expression.

Getting into his personal space was an unknown girl with a stylishly black bob and designer clothes. She puckered her glossed lips and sent Lucas extremely flirty looks and hung off of his arm like a sloth.

"Oh Lucas I wished you would make time for me. I'm sure my parents would love to meet you." She drawled and batted her eyelash extensions resembling heavily to a moth batting it's wings. Lucas looked away from her and ran his hand through his hair.

"E-eheh well you know. I'm just really busy?" He ended his sentence as a question and Marinette  had to bite the inside of her mouth in order not to snort at his weak excuse.

"Too busy for me?" The girl pouted childishly. At that, Marinette did snort out loud, quickly slapping her hand over her mouth in hopes of getting ignored by the couple before her. Unfortunately they certainly did hear her. Lucas looked at her with puppy eyes and a pleading expression, clearly silently asking her to bail him out of this situation whereas the girl looked at Marinette like she just evolved from the dirt beneath her flashy high heels.

"Excuse me do you need something, we're busy." She pointed between the non existent space between her and Lucas and smirked maliciously at her. Marinette frowned and put her hands on her hips.

"Excuse ME, he's my friend and he doesn't look very comfortable with you up in his space." She stated, coating her words in cold hard steel and she glared down the brat. Lucas's whole face lit up with hope of getting out of the situation and slowly inched away from the girl. Before the girl could talk back at Marinette, Jiānhùrén caught up to Lucas and Marinette.

"Something the matter mademoiselle Cheng?" Marinette fought the urge to correct Jiānhùrén but since he was scowling heavily at the incredibly rude twat she held her tongue and gently pulled Lucas away.

"You, skedaddle." She barked at Marinette's bodyguard, not looking at him, and he simply raised his eyebrows. Marinette's jaw dropped at the girl's rudeness towards her bodyguard but before she could snap  back Jiānhùrén held his hand in front of her face.

"Ah, Miss Liu, how do you do?" He said pleasantly as 'Miss Liu' suddenly noticed his presence and turned whiter than a sheet, making Marinette's eyebrows shoot up in surprise and Lucas look close to grovelling at Jiānhùrén's feet in immense gratitude.

"I-I- YOU-"

"Run along now, I suspect that your own bodyguard is looking for you correct?" He gave her a completely fake smile. Miss Liu was no longer pale with fright but instead burning red with anger.

"This doesn't mean anything!" She yelled, turning quite a few heads in their direction but the girl ignored it and stomped off in the presumed direction of her bodyguard.

"THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU!" Lucas's was talking so fast it almost gave Marinette a headache but Jiānhùrén merely sighed and brought down his fist on Lucas's head lightly causing the bespectacled boy to jump in surprise.

"How many times have I told you to run the minute you see her?" The older male scolded with furrowed eyebrows and Lucas had the decency to look sheepish.

"Well, y-yeah..."

"Who was that?" Marinette brought up her question. Lucas turned to face her.

"Satan." He said completely serious and looked at her dead in the eyes. Another knock to the top of Lucas's head.

"Shush, she might still be in the area." At that Lucas mimicked Miss Liu from earlier and his complexion turned whiter than milk. He quickly slapped his hand over his mouth and whipped his head in every direction just in case Jiānhùrén wasn't bluffing at all.

"To answer your question, Miss Liu Nǚwáng, aka Lucas's admirer."

"Aaaah, I figured as much-" Marinette looked mischievous and elbowed Lucas's side causing him to shriek in surprise. "-she's a real beauty isn't she Lucas?" The groan he made could only be described to resemble a wounded animal being forced to watch a cringe compilation.

"How about we end this outing here?" His voice reached a higher octave and he finger gunned back and forth between Marinette and Jiānhùrén. Marinette rolled her eyes and started walking in search of something else to do, her bodyguard diligently trailing behind her and leaving behind the bespectacled boy. Lucas caught up to the two not a moment later with an accusing glare to the both of them.

"So how did you scare her off?" Marinette brought up the previous incident and directed the question at Jiānhùrén.

"Well I know her father incredibly well and I occasionally babysit her."

"How can you handle her?" She said with an incredulous expression which only got a shrug in return.

"Same way I handle Lucas, I ignore her and treat her like the child she is."

"I resent that."

"Naturally."

"Stop bickering you two." Marinette chided automatically, not paying one bit of attention towards the duo and instead scanned her surroundings, looking through each stall and store to find anything interesting.

The market place was incredibly busy and full of life as each person was bustling throughout the crowd. Marinette's sides kept getting jabbed with elbows from other people but she ignored the dull pains as she was occupied with taking in the sights and taking pictures to send to her friends and families later. Everywhere she looked was something interesting but she kept an eye out for the promised fabric store from Jiānhùrén but so far she couldn't spot anything that grabbed her attention. Downside to being out and in the open was the many different scents that assaulted her nostrils from delicious freshly made food to live animals such as chickens being sold in the open. Marinette was extremely thankful for her face mask as it kept the full force of smells at bay.

Unfortunately it wasn't a hundred percent effective and she still got a whiff of the market place. She badly wanted to get away from the farm animal smell but her curiosity for exploring the markets overruled it and so she kept pushing onwards

"Hold on miss, your great uncle's restaurant is around here somewhere." The bodyguard informed her.

At that, both teens eyes lit up at the implication of food then as if on cue their stomachs growled soon after.

"Well? What are we waiting for? Lead the way travel guide." Lucas brightly said and promptly squeezed himself between Marinette and Jiānhùrén, looping his arms through theirs and dragging the duo in the directions provided by Jiānhùrén.

After a few more minutes of walking, with extra elbow jabbing and squeezing through the crowds, the trio finally stopped in front of an old building that still had designs to reference the past Chinese structures. It had three levels to it and took up quite a lot of area. On the balconies tables and benches were set up along with umbrellas to keep customers out of the sun while on bottom floor was similar but instead surrounded by a fence to indicate how much space was included with the restaurant.

Marinette danced on the balls of her feet excitedly at the thought of seeing her great uncle again and getting to eat his food (if only Adrien were here with her again, it would've made everything just perfect!) while the three took their place in the queue. Lucas had the expression of a hyper active child about to be let loose in a candy store and even Jiānhùrén was salavating at the mouth, surprisingly eager to dine at the genius Wang Cheng's restaurant.

What? He just really liked how the dumplings were made there... And the wonton soup... And just about everything sold in the restaurant...

Soon enough, it was their turn to be seated. The waiter led them to a table that was perfect, not too surrounded by already occupied tables and near the walkway as well. As they sat themselves down Lucas let out a low whistle, showing his appreciation for the deco and Marinette simply stared around with a slack jaw.

Compared to the outside's ancient design and structure, it was a pleasant change and contrast with the inside being more modern. The walls were built with stylish mahogany wood and which complemented the ambient but still bright lighting situated at every support beam. The tables were gleaming, indication that they were polished very thoroughly and everyone looked extremely happy and content while eating their food. The staff interacted with the customers really well and the overall mood of the restaurant was very welcoming and the wafting delicious smells from the kitchen were making the trio more and more hungry.

"Excuse me, may we see the Wang Cheng personally before our meal?" Jiānhùrén inquired with the waiter. They looked confused for a moment but eventually nodded and went back into the kitchen leaving Marinette, Luca sand Jiānhùrén to converse with one another.

Minutes later Marinette had spotted a very familiar pot bellied man wearing the head chef uniform come out of the kitchen and strode towards their table. Marinette had to keep herself in check from jumping up from her seat in glee, run over to her great uncle and give him a huge hug.

It would've turned quite a few heads to see a tiny girl being openly familiar with the World's Greatest Chef.

"Ah my dear great niece." Wang Cheng greeted Marinette in his broken French, making up for it by engulfing her in a heartfelt hug. Marinette briefly got to hug him back before he pulled away and addressed her two companions.

"I will assume she's here because of her royal duties correct?" Wang started to speak in Mandarin. Jiānhùrén responded with a nod while Marinette's eyes widened in surprise. Her uncle knew about this situation?!

"I wish you luck great niece, I'm sure you'll become a fair and great ruler." Wang complimented Marinette in english making her hug him again in response.

"Thank you uncle Wang." She said as sincerely as possible because it felt so nice to be praised by someone as stoic as her uncle. Plus now she knew that she at least had one relative she was familiar with, Marinette felt an immense wave of reassurance of the possibility of being able to confide in someone. Sure she could tell her grandmother her troubles but Marinette hadn't seen her in years so it'll take a bit of a while to become familiar with the old woman again.

The chef patted Marinette's shoulder and got up from his seat, facing the three with an erected professional expression.

"Now you must be hungry if you seek service here. What would you like?" Jiānhùrén didn't answer since it was he was suppose to be chaperoning the two so he left the option up to them. Marinette opened her mouth but came up blank on what to order. Fortunately Lucas filled up the moment of silence in an excitable tone.

"Surprise us! I'm just starving." He admitted and on cue, his stomach let out a very audible rumble. Kinda sounded like a demented cat on steroids. Lucas blushed while the other three had the graciousness to stifle their laughs, saving Lucas from further ridicule.

"Ah, you three must try 'Marinette Soup' then." Wang concluded then whisk off to go back into the kitchen. Once he left, Lucas faced Marinette with a cheeky grin and raised an eyebrow.

"'Marinette Soup' huh?"

Marinette blushed and shrugged her shoulders helplessly with an sheepish smile.

_____________________________________

The soups were brought to their table and honest to god, they looked and smelled goddamn delicious. The purple hue with small traces of chilli powder and pepper looked incredibly enticing and the smell of spices wafting from the soup was absolutely mouth watering.

"Woah 'Marinette Soup' sure does look amazing." Lucas lightly teased again.

"Shut up and eat." Marinette retorted.

Before the two could start bickering again, Jiānhùrén puts in hand in between the two, efficiently cutting off their eye contact and cleared his throat.

"We express our deepest thanks to the head chef." Jiānhùrén told the waiter.

"Thank you." Marinette and Lucas synced and the waiter smiled, slightly bowing then heading back into the kitchen for their next orders.

"You two behave, I don't want to have to break up yet another spat." The bodyguard frowned making Marinette and Lucas laugh nervously, trying to break Jiānhùrén's disapproving glare on them by trying the soup. Marinette scrunched her nose in irritation of the face mask covering her mask, hastily moving it downwards and started to eat.

"Oh my god." Lucas's voice dropped down to a dramatic whisper.

"What is it now." Jiānhùrén sounded heavily exasperated but Marinette couldn't share the mutual annoyance of Lucas at this moment for she was in the very same state of shock Lucas was in.

Lucas stared off into space for a few more moments making Jiānhùrén all the more agitated.

"This is a wonderful piece of art." Lucas whimpered while shoving another spoonfuls of soup into his mouth. Jiānhùrén actually face palmed but chose to ignore Lucas's antics and start on his own bowl of soup.

"Face palm all you want but this is way better than I remember." Marinette commented falling silent to eating her soup.

Jiānhùrén rolled his eyes and took his first taste of the soup.

His eyes widened and he mentally made apologies to both Marinette and Lucas. Meanwhile, said duo smirked knowingly at Jiānhùrén's awe.

[A.N: Hey guys, I have two things something to announce.

Since Miraculous Ladybug season 2 is taking quite a while to come out I've kinda lost the inspiration and motivation to finish my Miraculous fanfics. Don't get me wrong, I still want to write for you guys to enjoy but the fandom is slowly decreasing during the hiatus and I kinda have other stories that I want to focus on. I want to expand my horizons.

I have a Harry Potter fanfic that I'm drafting right now and I want to work on my BTS fanfic. There are also a lot of other fandoms I want to write for and I kinda have an idea for my own story.

I'm sorry for this. I am, however, going to finish Crushed for sure, What, Who, When is going end in another few chapters and for A Royal Pain I'm contemplating on doing the short and silly version of it or the more longer version that has more plot. Choose which one you guys would like to read. But take heed, if the plot filled one is popular than it'll take more time for me to update.

SHORT AND SILLY

FULL OF PLOT AND LONG

Also as always, I'm so incredibly sorry for the long wait for this update

Thanks for taking the time to read this long ass author's note and I love you all so much for putting up with me]