With Qiu Ling finally staying put in place again, Jing Yi’s chances of meeting up with him increased exponentially. Unfortunately, things were about to take another turn yet again.

He had just turned away from the body of Qiu Ling’s father to continue wandering through Qiu Ling’s inner self when a stumbled upon the body of a woman. His heart couldn’t help but squeeze painfully at this sight. Most likely, she was Qiu Ling’s mother. Never mind that he couldn’t imagine another person in this situation at this place after he had just found the body of his father, the two of them also had a vague resemblance. It wasn’t as obvious as with his father but it was still there.

Jing Yi was in a bit of a daze when he looked at her. So it turned out that Qiu Ling had lost both his parents, maybe even on the same day if he considered that her situation wasn’t much different from his father. She too had been killed and her death was even more gruesome than her husband’s. She hadn’t even been left with an intact corpse.

Jing Yi knelt down beside her, his hands slightly shaking. His whole life, he had been more affectionate with his own mother even though he had still loved his father. It was just that somehow, he had always had an easier time connecting with her so he had always turned to her if there was something wrong. Most likely, he would have been more devastated if he lost his mother than he had been when he lost his father. Seeing Qiu Ling’s mother like this now … That pained him more than he wanted to believe.

Naturally, he didn’t know how Qiu Ling’s relationship with his parents had been and if he had been just as close to his mother as he was but … losing her like this couldn’t have been easy. Not that it could have been easy for any of them.

Jing Yi took a deep breath and tried to calm himself. He knew that this was long past but still, he couldn’t bring himself to just ignore her like this. "I’m sorry, auntie. You probably felt very bad having to leave your only child behind like that. But you don’t have to worry. Even though the things that happened back here left a shadow in his heart, he has still grown into a good man. You would certainly be proud when you could see him right now." Well, she would probably feel better if Qiu Ling hadn’t been imprisoned in his own inner self because of the things he had had to endure as a child but still. It wasn’t wrong what he said.

"You know …" He started to tell her more while picking up her head and slowly closing her eyes. "Qiu Ling has become a really handsome man. He looks a lot like your husband. And even though I never had the chance to get to know his father, I still think that the two are very similar on the inside too.

"Your husband tried to save the two of you, didn’t he? He even gave his life for that. Qiu Ling is just the same. He does things for those he holds dear without thinking of the dangers it could pose to himself. If I told you of all the things he already did for me, even though we haven’t known each other that long …"

He sighed and brushed her hair back before putting her head back where it belonged. "You would probably worry. But you don’t have to. You really don’t have to. In the future, I’ll make sure Qiu Ling won’t do anything too dangerous. And if there ever comes danger our way, then I’ll help him. I’ll become strong for that. He won’t have to go through things alone anymore. He’ll always have somebody by his side. So you don’t have to worry about him anymore. You can follow your husband to the afterlife in peace. Maybe you’ll even see my father there."

Jing Yi looked at Qiu Ling’s mother and sighed once more. He picked up the rest of her limbs that had been chopped off. Really, who could do something like this? Killing a defenseless woman like this … It was too cruel.

"I’d like to bring you to your husband but, unfortunately, I’m just a mortal. I won’t be able to carry you there. Maybe I’ll return with Qiu Ling. Then he can bring you over and we’ll bury you side by side. You certainly would have wanted that. Being together in life and death … How nice to have that kind of love."

Jing Yi smiled slightly. Love … He hadn’t understood originally. But after spending so much time with him and then being left without his constant presence, his thoughts had cleared up.

Loving someone would mean to be happy when that person was with you and it meant being sad when that person wasn’t there. It meant worrying for that person’s safety when you knew they were doing something dangerous and wanting to get stronger for their sake so that you could be at their side when they attempted something like that again.

And if something happened to that person, then you wanted to be at their side. And you also wanted them to be there when you couldn’t go on. Just like he had regretted not knowing what had happened to Qiu Ling when he thought that he might die. His seemingly last thoughts had been directed at Qiu Ling.

Yes, without knowing, he had fallen in love with that person who had pestered him for so long. It seemed like all defense was futile in front of his persistence. Mn, he really wanted to see him soon to make sure he was alright. It was time to go and find him.

Jing Yi stood up and took one last look at Qiu Ling’s mother. Letting him into his inner self should also mean that Qiu Ling was alright with him seeing these things. He felt honored. It should be hard to show these emotional scars to anyone. Maybe it was even harder to show them to a person one cared about.