Romancing the Son of Heaven

Stratagem 34: Revisit Strategies at a More Appropriate Time (1)

By the time the dragons had finally finished giving advice, Qiu Ling was happy but also felt like this might have been a bit too much effort for just one day. He should have scheduled a meeting with every single person over the course of several weeks to slowly get some input.

Actually, come to think of it, he should still do that. He pondered for a moment and finally nodded to himself. "I think I learned a lot today. Thank you for taking the time. You've missed out on quite a bit of the festival today but you have really done me a huge favor."

The dragons actually didn't mind at all. "Your Majesty, this is the celebration of the anniversary of your coronation. This festival, while it is certainly fun to attend, the most important part of it is honoring you as our king. And I think that I speak for all of us when saying that if there is something that we can do to directly help you — maybe not as our king but as a person — then that is making all of us incredibly proud. So really, you have given us a gift today when it should have been the other way around."

Qiu Ling couldn't help but smile. Actually, whether it was his advisers or his subjects, he wasn't really close to either of them. But right now, he felt just a bit closer to them. And that was something he wouldn't have expected to ever happen. He still had his doubts but, for the time being, this was something that was welcome.

"I hope you really do see it this way. In fact, if you do, then ... might I be free to ask you for another favor? You don't have to say yes. Don't think of my status when I ask this and just consider whether you actually have the time and any interest in doing this.

"The thing is, while I have learned a lot today, most of that is still mere theory. You might've had me try some things but I'm afraid that it will take much more time until I am able to practice enough and figure things out for myself.

"To make a long matter short, I would like to give it a try and then see you again. Not ... quite in the way we did it today. I feel like that would put a strain on all of you. But maybe — in a month or two — one of you could take some time each week or so to come to the palace or wherever it will work best for you, listen again, and give me some more feedback. Would that be alright with you?"

The musicians exchanged a glance, able to see in the eyes of the others that all of them were just as ecstatic as they themselves were.

"Of course!"

"We would be honored if we could, Your Majesty."

"Even if you asked us to meet every day, we'd still do it. I'm sure that you will be successful in wooing the son of heaven!"

"Right? I can't believe that he still hasn't fallen for Your Majesty! You think so highly of him, and you are clearly putting in a lot of effort. I'm sure that any dragon would have been moved by now."

Qiu Ling smiled and got to his feet. "Well, I do think that I'm making progress on that front. But anyway, thank you very much. I assume that adviser An Bai will know who all of you are and where to find you. I'll ask him to contact you when I would like to see you again. If you don't have time on a specific day, please tell him and we can arrange an appointment that works for you. We'll organize everything else around that."

The dragons nodded as if they wanted to say that they had understood, but inwardly, they all thought that they would have to be nuts to say that they didn't have time to meet the king and have him rearrange attending to his duties based on their schedule. Who exactly was the subject here?

But the fact that he offered this just showed once more how much of a splendid king he was. Really, after today, they had a whole new level of appreciation for him. And this was something that meant a lot considering that most dragons were already blindly worshiping their current king.