Romancing the Son of Heaven

Stratagem 30: Create Lasting Memories (5)

Qiu Ling didn't press the issue. In any case, he was happy enough to be able to spend some time with Jing He. Now, he had said what he wanted to say and even a little more. He felt that this should've reassured Jing He quite a bit.

In any case, who didn't like to hear praise? Since that was the case, he felt that he had done a pretty good job. Now though, he didn't want him to dwell on it for too long. Otherwise, with how his beloved was prone to overthinking, it might result in him just starting to worry again. Since he didn't want to see that, it would be best to stop at this point.

He thought for a moment and then raised the painting at him. "Do you want to keep this? As a reminder of how I see you?"

Jing He's face turned crimson again and he wanted to shake his head but then again, he didn't want to reject a present from the dragon king. Also, to be honest, he really wanted to keep it as a reminder. Then he would be able to think back to this day in the future no matter what came. He was torn between shaking his head and nodding and really didn't know how to go forward.

Qiu Ling chuckled at that and then rolled up the scroll, getting up. "I'll put it in your study. You can decide what to do with it later on." He didn't wait for his response and just brought the painting over, also taking back the book he had read from before. He did put it down right on his desk though, making sure that Jing He would see it whenever he felt well enough to go back to his study on his own.

As soon as he had done that, he went back and checked the box with the medicine again, looking around for the instructions again. "From what I know, the God of Medicine left quite a few things here. Let's see if there's anything other than tea that you can have already. It must be quite frustrating to only drink and even the same thing for several days in a row."

Jing He smiled faintly but noncommittal, not quite sure what to do about it. To be honest, these last few weeks, he had also not done much more than just drink some tea, although the kind had varied. He just hadn't been able to get a single bite down because his insides seemed to be tied up in knots over his worries about the dragon king.

Sorting through everything, Qiu Ling finally found some herbs and other ingredients like seeds that Jing He could apparently eat as well. Looking at them and then looking at his beloved, he felt that eating them like this was quite pitiful though. "Uh ... I'll send one of your guards to get somebody to make something out of this. Just eating it like this ..."

Jing He looked at him and shook his head, not really wanting for somebody to disturb them. "It's alright. I don't mind."

Qiu Ling looked at him and then read the instructions again, wondering if there was anything specific in there. "Well, this says it doesn't matter how exactly it's prepared. Just that it shouldn't be processed for too long or it would lose some of its qualities." He pondered for a moment and then put down the things that he had chosen on the small desk that he still had outside before he started to rummage through his spatial ring again. Finally, he took out a big pot, making Jing He look at him in confusion.

"Ah, I was thinking that we should at least make some kind of soup out of it. I'm not sure if you'll like it but I think it's better than nothing." With that, he filled the pot with water and then froze again when he realized that he couldn't bring it to a boil with his magic in front of his beloved.

Jing He realized what was going on and faintly cleared his throat. "Should I heat it up?"

Qiu Ling looked at him and hurriedly shook his head. "No ... don't. You're still recuperating. If you had any energy to spare, you should use it on yourself, not on something like this. I'll just do this the old-fashioned way."