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

141 Some Work Was Needed

Jinde watched the two of them get along and couldn't help but slowly raise his brows. "You know, first healing Qiu Ling, then seeing the two of you not at each other's throats for once ... this is making me a bit nervous as if our luck is going to run out soon. You'd better make some more trouble now to calm my nerves."

Xin Lan gave a faint laugh and shook his head. "You've gotten things wrong. I don't want to argue with somebody who is beneath me."

Qiu Ling gave a huff as well, turning back to the front. "Knowing him, that means he wouldn't want to argue with anyone since they are all beneath him in his eyes. And yet, he still does. He just needs to be right, doesn't he? Anyway, how are things going? Anything I can help with?"

Jinde's gaze softened and he reached over to nudge Qiu Ling's forehead. "You! You don't know the first thing about refinement. You'd only mess things up if you were to get involved."

Qiu Ling gave a wry smile but shook his head. "I know that I don't know anything about that. But I'm sure there are still some other things that need to be done. For this kind of thing, don't you need ... ingredients? Or a cauldron and stuff like that? Don't tell me you have everything ready. Even if you do, it's probably stuff from the mortal realm. I'm sure you'd like something that was of a higher grade."

Jinde raised his brows and realized that Qiu Ling was right. This kind of big procedure would take a lot of energy even in the best of cases. Being able to mitigate some of the effects by using better equipment would really help them. "Mn, I guess you're right. I assume my old equipment wouldn't be here anymore?"

He wasn't really hopeful that it was. Anyway, it had been a long time. Back then, times had still been troubled as well from what he knew. It was very likely that his things had been lost in the wars back then. Or in one of the many years after that. "Well, if it's not those, I'll take the highest grade you can get me. A full set of everything preferably. As for ingredients ..." He thought for a moment and then took out a piece of parchment while Leng Jin Yu already ground some ink at the side.

Jinde wrote a short list and handed it to Qiu Ling. "This isn't everything but this is what I will need for the first part. We can start with that one today already so if you can get this fast, I wouldn't begrudge you for that."

Qiu Ling raised the list and nodded, pulling Jing Yi to his feet and motioning to the door. "Then I'll go and get you everything."

Jinde nodded and gestured back to the books. "Then I'll continue. Also, don't rush. I'm sure you still have at least a few hours for this."

Qiu Ling nodded and then left with Jing Yi, making a beeline for Xiang Yong's room.

When it came to the things that Jinde had possessed, they should have been dealt with before he became king. After all, he had only returned after the war had reached its tipping point. The time since Jinde supposedly died had been quite a bit earlier.

In those years, it was likely that his things had been stored away somewhere and then might have been moved since then, ending up somewhere else. And the person most likely to know about their current whereabouts was definitely Xiang Yong. So he'd just ask his adviser and then go from there.

Knocking on the door, he poked his head and found Xiang Yong sitting at his table, looking a bit stressed out. "I'm afraid I'll have to add another task on top of whatever you're currently doing."

Xiang Yong looked up, giving a wry smile. To be honest, if this had been in the past, he really would've been furious now and wanted to give him a stern talking to. Even back then, he might not really have done it and just gritted his teeth and done what his king needed him to, but the thought still would have been there.

As would the thought of just quitting and going somewhere else to work for somebody who was a little easier to get along with. But then, he also wouldn't have done that because he would've felt responsible for their people. After all, if the king wasn't taking care of them, somebody else needed to and after becoming an adviser, he couldn't just wash his hands off matters only because things got hectic.

Now though, after seeing their king actually work through documents whenever he had time — and even doing so at a time when he himself wasn't doing well — he had gained a completely new appreciation for this man.

Even if Qiu Ling wanted to give him a handful of other tasks, he still wouldn't say no. Not because he felt that they wouldn't get done otherwise but because he would've loved to take some of the burdens off his shoulders. Thinking of that, Xiang Yong motioned to the chair opposite him and his smile turned a little softer. "Whatever it is, Your Majesty just needs to say so."

Qiu Ling nodded and went over, once again pulling Jing Yi onto his lap. Right now, he wasn't constantly tortured by that image of Jing He almost dying anymore so he was finally able to deal with Jing Yi somewhat normally again. He should make use of the opportunity for as long as it lasted.

"I'll get straight to the point: Jinde is doing some refinement for Xin Lan and he needs some equipment. He would prefer if he could get his old stuff back. You know if we still have that, right?"

Xiang Yong's brows shot up, not having expected that. Actually, he should probably be happy. This wasn't too difficult. "I don't think we have the full set of refinement equipment anymore but there should still be some things back in the treasury. Do you want me to take a trip?"

Hearing the treasury being mentioned, Qiu Ling shook his head. "No, you seem pretty busy. I'm sure that there are others that are familiar with the treasury as well so I'll just go and grab one of those people. You just continue with what you were doing."

Xiang Yong inclined his head and then went back to work as soon as Qiu Ling pulled Jing Yi up and to the door.

When they were almost outside, Jing Yi couldn't help but tug at Qiu Ling's sleeve. "Shouldn't you tell him?"

Qiu Ling turned back, not sure what he meant at first before he realized that yes, his own advisers hadn't been informed yet that he had been healed for now since all of them had been out at the moment when Leng Jin Yu originally went to get the water.

He turned back to Xiang Yong and raised his brows before pointing at himself. "You should know that senior Xin Lan came by because of that matter he wants Jinde to do and he had an idea of how to help me. We just tried it and so far, things are looking good. I guess we'll have to wait tonight to see but ... I actually feel pretty normal again."

At that, Xiang Yong could only stare at him, not sure how to feel. This news, he couldn't even put into words just how relieved he was. On the other hand, he also felt a little chagrined that his king had needed to be reminded of telling him.

This ... was probably the problem with not communicating for years. Even when they finally had a better relationship, they still needed time to really make it work. Every now and then, there would be hiccups like this, even if what he had to say was incredibly important. Well, there were worse things. At the very least, the news this time was good.