Romancing the Son of Heaven

Stratagem 18: Get to Know Your Beloved by Heart (6)

While Jing He spent time with his father, Qiu Ling finally managed to gather the last few materials that he needed for his masterpiece. He returned to the palace with a proud smile on his face and once again adeptly circumvented the guards, sneaking into his own chambers and locking the door behind him.

What he was going to do next wasn't something he could do in his favorite hiding place on the beam so he would have to make sure in other ways that nobody would come to bother him. He couldn't have a slip of attention, after all! Thankfully, he had managed to gather the materials faster than expected so now, he actually had four days to finish the rest. He should get started as soon as possible though.

Thus soon enough, the whole room was barricaded and Qiu Ling sat down, taking out the materials from his spatial ring and then got to work. As for what he wanted to do ... Well, wearing a mask was nice and all but he definitely had to make sure that they also wore matching clothes, right?

Considering how he had designed those masks, he already knew what vibe he was going for with the robes as well. Naturally, they should reflect the thoughts he had had when he made the masks: One white, one black. A simple cut that seemed low-key but was still elegant when worn by the right person. A few embellishments that were able to draw the eye of others. He definitely felt that this would make for a spectacular sight.

As for whether or not Qiu Ling was able to pull it off ... Quite surprisingly, this wasn't a problem for him at all. Just how he had been able to easily make those masks, he didn't have any trouble weaving the cloth or cutting it up into the right pieces and sewing everything together.

He had lived alone for long enough before he became the dragon king to be able to handle this type of work. And, being a dragon had its perks here as well. Thanks to his claws, quite a few of these things could be accomplished by just using his hands without needing any additional tools. That did save him a bit of time and made everything much less of a hassle.

Soon enough, Qiu Ling was holding up a pristine white robe, the lapel and sleeves as well as the accompanying belt unembellished with beautiful embroidery and a handful of sparkling crystals in some specially chosen places.

He nodded to himself, folded the robe, and put it into his spatial ring, right next to the white mask he had forged before.

Afterward, he went to make the black robe for himself, but his expression wasn't quite as much at ease anymore. While he was actually quite adept at this, it didn't mean that it wouldn't require a lot of time. And for all these steps had to be highly concentrated and couldn't allow the slightest mistake. If the cloth woven in the beginning wasn't without a fault, then later on when adding the embroidery, this was sure to fail.

But, unfortunately, he did have neither the materials nor the time to spare for giving it another go. Thus, he needed to make sure that everything worked out on the first try. Considering the fact that he hadn't had much sleep for the past three days, and that the festival was drawing nearer, he couldn't help but start to worry.

"This better work out. If not ... I guess I could make do with some other black robe but Jing He would certainly notice. How could I let that happen?"

This festival was the perfect chance to show his beloved just how much effort he was willing to put in for him. If he didn't actually go the whole way, who knew what Jing He would think? Naturally, he wouldn't make a huge fuss over it but it was still better to show him that he cared.

He got up from the place where he had been sitting for the past few hours and stretched his body, walking a few rounds around the room before he sat back down, shaking his head and getting back to work.