Oh. My. Fate?! (Bl, Volume 10, Part 1)

30 Rip Off the Band-Aid

Back in the dragon realm's capital city, Jinde and the others made their way over to the throne room. As soon as the doors were opened, Jing Yi and Qiu Ling's gazes met before they both turned to look away, pretending that nothing had happened.

Jinde glanced from one person to the other and sighed. Well, he hadn't expected this to be easy. No, for the time being, it wouldn't be that simple to solve things. These two would need some time and some honest conversations to come to terms with things. After all, this wasn't just about what had happened in the Nine Heavens but also about the overall situation and how they imagined their future to be.

If they didn't talk those problems out as well, then clearly, nothing would change. That was inevitable. Even if it would seem to go better for some time, they would sooner or later be back at the very same point. Clearly, that had already happened once at least. It was about time that they changed this.

Still, he didn't want to force them to start on that immediately. It would be best to give it some time and ease them into it. After all, they would likely both have to brace themselves to actually have an honest talk about this.

Nobody was helped if they started before they were ready. If they did that, it would just cause even more problems in the future. He wasn't interested in having that happen.

Jinde walked inside, pretending that he hadn't noticed anything and then flopped down in one of the chairs, crossing his legs and propping himself up on the armrest. "Well, Your Majesty, as you can see, we arrived in the dragon realm without much trouble. The lodgings are ... decent but I had expected something more."

Qiu Ling turned to look at him and nodded woodenly. "I will task somebody to take care of it."

Jinde smiled and gave a satisfied hum, feeling that with that, one problem was already out of the way. That only left about a million others.

Thinking of that, he turned to glance at his husband. "Well, since we are already on the topic, I'm afraid that the two of us might get a little bored with nothing to do. How about giving us some kind of official task? That would also be able to give us some justification for living a little closer by."

Qiu Ling looked at him unenthusiastically, not sure what to say to that. "What kind of task do you want?"

"Well, for me, it would probably be best if it was something that I could pretend I had been studying for a while and that wouldn't draw too much attention. Maybe something with refinement or the like. In any case, I'm not bad at that."

Leng Jin Yu glanced at his husband, feeling that Jinde was understating things. Sure, he had mostly been known as the greatest beauty of the dragon realm but it couldn't be denied that he had also been a first-class refiner. Whether it was the dragons or the gods, quite a few of them had consulted him on difficult questions if he remembered that right. There had definitely been quite a few admirers just based on that as well which had irked him to no end.

Qiu Ling didn't even seem to think of that though and just gave a hum in response. "You could probably team up with An Bai then but he is currently in the Nine Heavens." Thinking of that, he sat down on his throne, tapping the armrest. "In fact, I guess we are lacking somebody in the department of the scholar right now. How about taking over for the time being?"

"As a scholar?" Jinde brushed through his golden hair, a smile on his lips that suggested that he was amusing himself quite well right now. "I never thought that would be a position I'd ever have but I guess it would be quite fun as well. Alright, let's go with that. What about my husband?"

Leng Jin Yu glanced from Jinde to Qiu Ling and then back again, not quite sure if this was the right time to speak about that. Clearly, Qiu Ling was quite preoccupied with other things.

Qiu Ling's response wasn't any better than before. He just looked at Leng Jin Yu dispassionately, clearly not caring too much. "Well, what would you like to do?"

Leng Jin Yu gave a wry smile. "Well, it would be nice to recover some strength. Whatever kind of position you want to give me, I'm alright with it but it would be nice if it left some time for that."

Qiu Ling just nodded him and then blinked his eyes. "Then I guess team up with Fu Heng. You'll have more than enough time to work on your strength then. He is into that."

Leng Jin Yu nodded even though he wasn't completely sure what to expect. Those advisers of Qiu Ling ... they hadn't been around when he had still been Chun Yin. And he hadn't managed to get to know any of Qiu Ling's advisers closer. So while he roughly knew who that Fu Heng was, he didn't know any more than that.

Jinde clicked his tongue when Qiu Ling dealt with things in such a straightforward matter, feeling that it really wasn't helping the situation. But, well, Qiu Ling's thoughts were probably on the person who had stopped not too far away from the door while, at the same time, he was probably trying not to think of him quite desperately.

It seemed that no matter what they did, they wouldn't get around having that talk a little early. Because really, he wouldn't be able to clear anything else up with Qiu Ling while he was in this kind of state. No, it would indeed be best if they just ripped the Band-Aid off and dealt with whatever would happen afterward.