The Librarian and the Fox Princess: a Donghua Dijun and Bai Fengjiu story, V.I

Chapter 54 - Smells to High Heaven

(Image credit - above image of purple sweet potato teacake borrowed from tastingtable.com)

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Feng Jiu was still thinking of all the snacks she'd have at the sleepover with Dijun when Third Prince's voice interrupted her.

"Princess Feng Jiu may be young, but it's obvious that she sees the situation with great maturity and foresight. We would do well to consider her points carefully," said Lian Song as he waved his fan.

"We also agree with Her Highness," said Ling Yue's father, General Ling Chen. "It is only a matter of time where we may have another Qing Cang to deal with. They are in the dark shadows and we are in the light. We do not know the full extent to how the insurgents have organized and what their plans are. We do not know of their resources and stockpiles. If we continue to underestimate them, I'm afraid it might be too late to develop the counter strategy we need."

The other general stepped forward and respectfully bowed before addressing Tianjun. He gestured over to the little highness.

"Her Highness was trying to get us to avoid the scenario I'm afraid we're facing today, Your Majesty. If we focused strategically with strengthening the Ghost Lord's base of power, we would need to use less of our actually manpower and resources. Unfortunately, the attacks have become more frequent, more bold, and more heinous. I'm afraid we have no choice but to deploy more of our heavenly forces to the different realms to gather not only intelligence, but provide support to affected areas."

She exhaled a quiet sigh of relief to hear that others were agreeing with her. She had tried to convey how important preventative measures were previously but apparently she was not convincing enough for them to take seriously. Perhaps it was because she was much too young, female, and from Qing Qiu, an outsider? 

Would this be her future as queen, she wondered, having to endure long boring meetings lead by a patronizing pretentious hot-tempered Heavenly Lord.

She would be surrounded by much older more experienced men who might or might not take her suggestions. Her grandfather would undoubtedly have her come in his stead when she became Queen of the Eastern Lands of Qing Qiu.

She had known he was wanting to retire to live a more carefree life with her grandmother. No one in her family, not her father or uncles had a liking for the Nine Heavens' court proceedings. Since she had actually lived there and was becoming more familiar with the culture and protocols, she knew the task would fall to her. While she would get to see Dijun, it probably wasn't appropriate for her to sit with him anymore. He would not get to covertly play with her hair or share messages with her on her back.

You spoke well, he wrote. She bit the bottom of her lip gently to suppress the smile that wanted to form. The intensity of the growing smile slowly faded as she thought that all of this, exactly the way it was, as she looked around the grand throne room, and then down at her beautiful comfortable cushion—was limited and finite. Just the thought of having to sit across the room from her librarian in the future at court made her sad.

She released a heavy sigh.

Why ... sad, he wrote.

He was not only the almighty god, he was apparently, also all-knowing. She didn't know how to answer him. Her telepathy wasn't good or strong enough to talk to him without all the high-level immortals in the throne room listening in. She might as well just yell everything out. Everyone would most definitely laugh at her.

She began to absent-mindedly stare at the bells on her ankle. The discussion had shifted to the logistics of coordinating with the Ghost Lord, things she knew they should have done a long time ago. Such discussions would usually be of great interest to her but her thoughts were drifting elsewhere.