“Welcome, sir.” He smiles wide, feeling his eyes crinkle as he briefly stoops. “How may I help you on a fine day like this?”

The bright sun digging into his skull isn’t really a definition of a ‘fine day’ for Lu Han who is about to swoon due to the high dampness in the air, but it’s a small detail no customer would be interested in. So he easily ignores the sweltering weather, which he sadly has already gotten used to, and straightens himself.

That’s when he spots lenient slant eyes looking at him. The eyes doesn’t resemble his own in any way other than that, but it still indicates the young man across him comes from a land far, far away nonetheless – just like him.

“Hello yourself,” his customer - judging by the fancy looking fiacre outside, the tall man in a butler’s suit trailing behind and qualified satin outfit with a quaint cane, a lord; nods once with a reflecting smile. It makes Lu Han feel delighted; not many people ever visits him in his little workplace, and when a lord or lady feels like passing by, they only shoot a glance around with noses risen up in the air almost at their eye level and look down at Lu Han, metaphorically and literally. It’s rare to get bright, kind and pure smiles like what this lord endows him. “I’m looking for a betrothal ring to offer to a young, beautiful lady and I happen to coincidentally have heard of your unique, East themed works. May I have a look, if you please?”

The voice does have a British accent, but Lu Han doesn’t change his mind about the lord’s origins. “Of course, my lord.” Lu Han grins before cheerfully moving behind the cheap wooden counter. “I assume you have a very felicitous future awaiting for you, and that beautiful lady, of course.”

The lord laughs, the joyous sound is like music, adding into the bargain by virtue of the fact that all aristocrats Lu Han has encountered refuse to believe laughter is good for everyone, including their supposedly high selves that some amount of yellow metal they keep in a bank determines and it’s not rude or a marauder like act to let out some more often than once in a few hours. “I do fancy thinking that for myself, but if you imply this felicitous future of mine involves Lady Bentinck, I’m going to have to apologize for disappointing you.”

“I beg pardon of my confusion, but…” Lu Han finally manages to open one of the locks of his strongbox. “Why are you thinking of buying an engagement ring for Lady Bentinck if you are not planning to purpose to her beautiful self?”

“Isn’t it a bold behavior to ask an earl concerning about their private schemes for life?”

Disappointment is like a bucket of hot water pouring above Lu Han’s head as the exultation of meeting a modest lord dies like an unlucky rat climbing into his alembic, and he struggles to keep the kind smile on his face when he misses the playful spark in the lord’s eyes. “Do accept my deep apologies, my lord,” he mutters, only loud enough for the earl to hear. “Here are some of my newest creations, but I would gladly design something new if you have more different models in your mind.”

He hasn’t expected to hear that bubbly laughter again. It immediately injects serenity in his body like an acupuncture needle, causing his eyes to fill with hope.

“I was only having a lark, I must be the one apologizing. In all honesty, I do not understand why I must think differently of telling about my plans to a rich duke I momentarily meet in a grand ball and doing the same with a kind, talented goldsmith who has a pure face and lively attitude in a modest workshop.”

Albeit the small embarrassment of the sudden compliment, Lu Han is once again happy to be right about this exclusive lord. “Thank you for your generous words, sir.” He smiles more sincerely this time, aware of the slight color on his cheeks but surmising the young lord isn’t close enough to see it. “I take it as in no ways I have offended you, yes?”

“Absolutely in no ways, indeed,” the lord assures with a grin. Lu Han notes the weirdly good looking asymmetry the lord’s lips bends in, right side of the upper lip lifting a bit higher than it should, revealing pink, healthy gingiva. The lord takes two short steps towards the counter; and he doesn’t impose his weight onto his cane whilst doing so, thence Lu Han wonders the real reason as to why he carries it with him. He is aware that most aristocrats carry canes without an actual exigency but this young earl has already proven to be different from those who likes to flaunt. “May I?” The lord asks before glancing at Lu Han’s ring collection.

Lu Han nods before remembering to answer out loud. “Of course, sir,” he says, though the lord doesn’t seem to mind. Instead, he wanders his fingers on elegant figures; a yellow dragon with ruby eyes circling its body around itself as it throws away fire out of its muzzle, a similar one made of white gold shaped as a wild snake with emerald touches here and there, another white snake which eats its own tail – probably one of the least original designs of Lu Han’s so far, a much different one from the manly and wild figures with a jasmine made of diamonds and emerald leaves, a series of rings which involves twelve animals of Chinese years with various designs made of either white or yellow gold, some classical strip rings with Chinese characters and a lot more inventive designs with the said characters shaped in what they express, some little experiments Lu Han has done using only gems and never adding any type of metal… The young lord pays each and every one of them the same span and strength of attention, examining them as if they are currently the only reality in the world, evidently appreciating all the pieces particularly.

“These are… These are truly extraordinary.” The lord’s voice is only a tone above a whisper. He raises his head to look at Lu Han, admiration is overt in his expression. “They are amazing, I fail to find any further adjective for them. Every one of them is definitely one of a kind, and all details from the littlest curves to intended smoothness are certainly masterstroke.  Have you designed all these by yourself?”

“Sketches, treating the metals, cutting the gems and everything in between belongs to me and my mediocre hands. I don’t think they are worthy enough deserve such munificent compliments from you, who must have met the world’s best jewelers across the whole Europe and witnessed the classical masterpieces,” Lu Han honestly states. As much as he loves what he does for a living, he has never thought himself as a decent goldsmith. Considering even fewer of his meager amount of willing customers actually decide his designs are worth more than swanking with their Eastern ornaments, he knows very well why he’s just an ordinary artisan living in the long forgotten corners of London.

“Then I am afraid you must be blind, if you are actually daring to insult this pure treasure.” The lord’s scowl is not incensed, but together with his voice, it’s a sign that he sure enough doesn’t wish Lu Han to be serious. “Classical masterpieces, you had said? A craft doesn’t need to be classical to be a masterpiece, and I like these which you have crafted because they aren’t anything classical.”

Lu Han tilts his head downwards, not to bow, but to hide his now actual embarrassment. “I truly can’t find a way to respond…”

“Then don’t.” The lord smiles, the scowl long gone. “Just accept my honest words as a brief of the truth…” The smile turns into that unique grin that Lu Han has sometime somehow already grown fond of as the lord reaches out his fingers once again, this time targeting a specific ring, the second last one from left in the last row of the strongbox. “…and do tell me how much this craftsmanship costs.”

The ring originally consists of two pieces made of similar but different elements that Lu Han has adroitly mended together; a glamorous golden bird occupying entire left side and a vigorous platinum dragon on right, tails hooked together in behind and have a fire between the beak and the muzzle to connect them on something mutual. Lu Han is not to say it is the magnum opus, but it’s the best ring of his so far. He had used the finest white and yellow gold, paying his food money for that month for the sake of the sudden afflatus came over late at night, and had spent months on preparing a colorful liquid that he could use to dye shadows on the metal that wouldn’t decrease the platinum or the gold’s quality. He was aware that dying gold was foolish, meaningless – no real gold needed paint to look beautiful but an expert goldsmith and it was like betraying the bible of the workmanship; but he didn’t care about acting like an incompetent boy who knows nothing about gold while he was cutting a brush thin enough to give no more or less effect than what he wanted. Besides, it’s the only ever piece in whole Lu Han’s collection that he did or ever will use a color, so it must not be a problem. He’s still proud of what it turned out to be: the dragon was shadowed with green from bottom while the bird was highlighted with of orange here and there – the powerful fierce color of flames but still coherent to the tone of green on the dragon. The ball of fire in between is the only part that is fully colored; every wave of heat colored with red, orange and yellow, definitely betraying the whole nature of the ever noble platinum and turning it into a harlot on streets – but it still looks good, and Lu Han isn’t a famous goldsmith or anything, so he has no pride to be afraid of staining. All details from the wings and crest of the bird to the scales and the thin whisker of the dragon is carved carefully, taking a total of eighteen months to complete the whole ring but it was definitely worth it.

“Phoenix and dragon…” Lu Han’s fingers unconsciously touch the carved figures as well, avoiding the lord’s just by a single millimeter. “In China, it symbolizes wife and husband, bliss of wedding, the empress and the emperor…” he absentmindedly informs.

The lord’s grin goes wider. “I suppose this means I have just found the perfect ring to bind my dear cousin Henry and the ever graceful Lady Bentinck.”

Lu Han hasn’t expected the relief to wash over him, after all, he wasn’t even nervous nor anxious in the first place. “So that’s why you are looking for a ring for a lady while you are not planning to purpose.”

The man on the other side of the counter chuckles to himself. “Excuse my forgetfulness and inadvertently avoiding your question from before. I guess I got distracted.” The almond eyes looking into Lu Han’s are meaningful, so that the goldsmith has to look away to cure the shocking dry feeling in his throat. “Yes, though; it’s my cousin who intends to get himself committed in hopefully near future. He is really nervous about this, and I can’t say his usually brilliant mind makes the best decisions under such pressure, therefore I offered my help to find the excellent ring he needs.”

“I understand, but in all honesty, I do not think my rings are appropriate to offer commitment to a lady. The symbolism sure means something, but even in China we don’t exchange rings like this. It’s all my bizarre ideas for some valuable diggings. Besides, I do not mean to offend your common sense, but ladies usually prefer simple golden circles with a big gem on it over such designs that can’t be classified as elegant. If-”

“Forgive my intrusion,” The lord stops him only with his voice. “But if the lady or my cousin fails to acknowledge this different but strong type of beauty, then this only means that they do not merit to unite their futures over it either…” The lord’s finger trails the curves of the ring, brushing against Lu Han’s in process. “And it would also mean that I’m lucky enough to keep it for myself.”

Lu Han really should stop smiling before his face rips out in half - or worse, it creeps the lord out, and be busy with vanquishing the obvious feeling that threatens to change whole natural color of his face into something similar to the phoenix’ ruby eyes. “I understand,” he repeats, this time sincerely. “Thank you for your compliments, honestly, I have no idea how I should express my gratefulness. It’s really encouraging to get such words from such a noble person.”

“I suppose there are three things you could do,” the lord says, this time with a sly expression.

Lu Han blinks his eyes twice. “What are that I am supposed to do?”

“First, you shall stop addressing me as if I am superior just because there is a piece of dirt the Queen has endowed my family.”

“O- Of course,” Lu Han hesitates, desisting to add ‘my lord’ or ‘sir’ at the end of the sentence at the last minute, unsure about how the lord wants him to act.

“Secondly, you shall also quit trying to thank me for praising your crafts each time. You say you don’t know how to respond, yet I can’t help but feel nervous whilst you act like the words are not coming out of my mouth but the King’s himself, although I confess that I find your pudency winsome.”

In fact, Lu Han does feel strange to repeat the same statement of gratefulness again and again, but that’s how he is told to reply whenever he gets words of appreciation from the upper society. And he is glad to be appreciated by someone, lord or not, who sounds pure and honest; and the worry of not being able to evince it is what actually makes him express the same things scores of times rather than social code.

“And lastly, you can tell me your name,” the lord finishes suddenly with a grin.

The Chinese goldsmith is taken aback. “Han,” he says. “Lu Han.” He wavers before he dares to ask a question, but if the lord has subtly asked him to act as if the latter is, well, not a lord – so be it. “Are you from East by any chance, sir?”

The lord up an eyebrow, his hands are now away from the ring and joined on the tiger shaped top of his cane once again. “Why yes, is it really obvious?”

“The shape of your eyes,” Lu Han tries to explain. “They don’t seem out of the royal castle itself. And as far as my knowledge goes, the only Eastern family who has been living on these lands for long enough to be trusted by the Queen to be given land is the Kims.”

The lord nods, smiling. “Earl Minseok Kim. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Lu Han.”

“The pleasure is mine,” comes the automatic reply before Lu Han can even realize that the statement is quite literal.

“But I need to say that the only things I have to connect me to the Asia are my name and my facial features. My ancestors who has first migrated from one of the farthest islands in East died over four centuries ago.” The lord, Minseok Kim, runs his left hand through his hair with a somewhat bothered gesture. “Sadly, I don’t even know where I am from or what language was supposed to be inherited to me, and I can’t say I enjoy lacking the simplest knowledge of my originations.”

“I don’t agree with the supposition of it should stop you from seeking, though.” Lu Han remembers that he needs to look for a satin plated box for the ring. “I believe you would absolutely learn about anything you want to know if you won’t give up on searching,” he calls out from where he has bended to find a box in the appropriate sizes for an engagement ring.

“I don’t remember mentioning anything about giving up,” Earl Minseok points out just when Lu Han pops up behind the counter again, a small smile of victory on his lips with the subject of his effort in his hand. “But I confess that I don’t particularly do research for wherever my ancestors have come from, instead, I am interested in various cultures all around the known world. From France to India, Japan to Ottoman; different languages and various symbols, how a simple butterfly could mean beauty on one land and disease in another has always caught my interest, weirdly enough.”

“It’s not weird,” Lu Han protests, gently placing the ring in the box and hooking the simple lock on it. “Wondering what’s outside of the world we’ve grown accustomed to indicates a colorful mind.”

“Thank you,” Earl Minseok says, and Lu Han gives up on counting his smiles this afternoon. “What about you, Lu Han? Have you ever been to your homeland?”

“Yes, I have,” the Chinese confirms. “In fact, I was born in China to live whole my childhood in Beijing. It’s actually where I learnt alchemy that made me want to investigate the metal I am aiming to produce when I grew up and eventually led me to be a goldsmith.”

The earl seems genuinely interested, even more than before, with already big eyes slightly rounded and the body unconsciously leaning forward with curiosity. “Alchemy? Wait, we can talk detailed about it later, but why have you immigrated to Britain, then?”

“When I was thirteen, after I lost my mother, my father and I left home and traveled for about five years in various countries before we settled in Britain,” Lu Han summarizes, dismissing the memories of his mother as soon as they come before he feels the longing once again. “Our last stop before Britain was India where we barely succeeded to make enough money to sail to Great Britain. My father, thankfully, got lucky here and after two years we arrived, he somehow became major-domo of the ambassador. The last time I saw him isn’t less than twenty months ago, I do miss him sometimes, but he has a job to do nevertheless. And I am a grown man who is able to hold a tool for his bread, and he writes letters from wherever on world he is time to time, so I don’t really have anything to suspect about his concern either…” He clears the uneasy feeling in his throat away, shaking his head a bit to expel another torrent of threatening emotions and putting up an apologetic smile. “I apologize for answering more than what you asked, I don’t know what came to me to talk about what I’m sure you are not concerned about.”

“No, no, it’s completely alright.” The lord’s smile is sympathetic, and Lu Han can read it’s a genuine feeling rather than a politely fake one. It makes something inside him whirr, and makes him instantly feel a lot better. Growing attached to someone so quickly, especially a lord whom he most likely won’t even see again can’t bring any good, but it doesn’t seem like it will bring any harm either, so there is no reason for Lu Han not to let it go. “Have you learnt the ways of being a goldsmith from your grandfather, too?”

Lu Han is aware that Earl Minseok changes the subject instead of digging it further using the dialog they are now temporarily bound with, and he is grateful for that. “No, it’s the curiosity that made me wonder if I’d be more successful in alchemy once I knew more about gold, the real point of whole my experiments. Testing how it would bend without getting any damage, and what would harm its build to prevent it even get produced; from these experiments, I wanted to do some art too and started using my new knowledge to make little golden designs with whatever I managed to find on all those lands I’ve been in.”

“This is truly fascinating!” The admiration exclaims itself in the earl’s voice, making Lu Han want to kneel and hide himself behind the counter once again. “Self-improvement is the most difficult task on this world, and I believe that you must be a genius, an outright genius for getting this far using a whole different knowledge to gain another with such little time and material, considering such skill requires a whole youth to be sacrificed to master! If this is not a wiz just by itself, then I must excuse myself out of all my beliefs because I don’t know what is.”

As the lord keeps on going, Lu Han feels his heart press into his chest a bit faster and his hands shake a bit more with the force of every beat. No one, not a duke nor a street rat, has ever complimented him this passionately other than some allusive words about his apparently handsome looks which only held back jealousy if not some sort of concealed thought. He’s again at the loss of words, especially how to react to the approving sentences to his mind and his skills, ones he truly values the most amongst all merits anyone has. He has known himself as a brave a confident man, but due to uncertainty of his actions, “Thank you” which he couldn’t help but let out comes out as a shaky stutter.

That’s what it takes for the lord to calm down and grin slyly again. “I thought I had warned you about thanking me each and every time.”

Lu Han grins back, his eyes are crinkling again. “I’m sorry,” he says as he finally hands the satin box to the lord, not minding the way their hands brush but making the mistake of raising his head. His eyes instantly locks with the young earl’s, unable to move away from the melting brown orbs which threatens to pull him into the depths of Earth or whatever is lying beneath them.

Surely Lu Han wasn’t expecting himself to admire probably the most modest man despite his title who likes to spend effort to resolve his curiosity no matter how unusual they are in London society and has the most heartfelt smiles and also appreciates Lu Han deeply with both his words and gestures in less than an hour when Earl Minseok has walked into that door, but maybe due to the joy of finding another Eastern who isn’t in the depths of underworld of opium commerce – or just simply everything counted above, he realizes he wouldn’t miss the chance if the earl ever offered him his friendship.

Earl Minseok doesn’t look away either as he hands the box to his tall butler, whom Lu Han has forgotten the existence of to keep it safe, and smiles once again, this time eyes slightly getting minimized. “Do tell me, Lu Han… What would you say if I were to be interested more of the Chinese culture, alchemy and all those lands you’ve been to, and would like it if you accepted my offer for you to join me for dinner in my mansion tomorrow?”

Lu Han feels brighter than a full moon on a summer night with the pure happiness throbbing in his veins; this is the chance he has just wished for. “I would say this is too much of an honor to refuse, my lord.”

“I will send my coachman tomorrow at six to take you, then. I can’t wait to talk to you tomorrow, Lu Han.”

Lu Han bows his head with a grin he shouldn’t wear that big, and after responding to the gesture, Earl Minseok turns to leave – only to stop at the gate, as if he has just remembered something he has forgotten to mention.

“Oh, and Lu Han?” He turns his head backwards, so he can get a view of the goldsmith without having to step back. “If I remember correctly, you had mentioned sketching your jewelry designs on papers before you bring them to life.”

Truth to be told, Lu Han doesn’t remember when he had said such a thing, but it is true so he probably have let it slip sometime. “Yes,” he confirms, not foreseeing what kind of wish the earl leads into.

“Then would you mind bringing those with you tomorrow? If you excuse my never ending curiosity, I’d love to see them.”

“I don’t see a problem to do so,” Lu Han responds. The earl nods in acknowledgement and sends one last smile before he climbs into his cart.

Lu Han watches until the fiacre disappears further down on the street, and as soon as it’s out of sight, he rushes into his atelier on the back, stumbling on the leg of a chair in process. Now where in the hell were those papers?