Having cut off the connection, Qiu Ling gave the other three a bright smile. "Alright, everything is taken care of. He will be here in a bit."

Shen An De raised his brows. "Just like that?" From what he had heard from that conversation just now, it hadn’t seemed that easy. "Will that woman be able to let him out?"

Qiu Ling nodded without any doubt. "Of course. If there’s one person that bastard doesn’t dare to go against, then it’s my mother-in-law. She can do anything she wants." Well, maybe it would be different if he had to choose between his wife and his son but that was very unlikely.

Jing He would never put him on the spot like that so, in the end, the Heavenly Emperor would always default to doing what his wife wanted of him. And in this case, there was nothing else speaking against this other than his own idea of wanting to protect his original statement that the Fate’s Scribe was supposed to stay in that palace of his. That probably shouldn’t be too important.

Shen An De wasn’t quite sure how trustworthy Qiu Ling’s impression of this was but then again, they didn’t have any other option anyway so he just let it go. They’d see soon enough of this would indeed work out as he said or not.

He pondered for a moment longer and then motioned at the building next to them. "It seems that you’ll have to stay here for a while. How about getting a room ready for you? Or do you need to do something else in the meantime?"

Qiu Ling shook his head. Xiang Yong would definitely need some time to gather the relevant people and without the sword, there was nothing he could do anyway. "No, it’s alright. We can wait until he gets here and then …" He turned to Hong Ai and raised his brows. "If he really comes here, you will give me that sword without trouble, won’t you?"

Hong Ai still didn’t like the idea very much but a promise was a promise and if this could help out her sister, then she was willing to do so. "I’ll do that. I will get it back afterward anyway, won’t I?"

Qiu Ling nodded. "I definitely don’t want to keep it. It’s just for testing something so we’ll be able to go and make trouble for the Chun Feng Sect."

Shen An De narrowed his eyes, a thoughtful expression hidden inside them. He didn’t say anything though and instead looked back at the board in front of him, as if he wanted to get back to playing a game with his wife.

Qiu Ling didn’t care but Jing Yi couldn’t help but feel a little awkward. "Then … Maybe we should go for now. The two of you were probably busy."

Hong Ai looked from the two of them to her husband who blinked at her, making her finally nod. "Well, tell me if there’s anything you need."

Jing Yi shook his head and looked at Qiu Ling. "I guess we should be good?"

Qiu Ling took his hand, feeling quite happy. Being good after what happened before would definitely be for the best. Well, not that he thought that Jing Yi had actually meant that. Still, he would just pretend that he had. That was much better.

The two of them got up and then left the courtyard, wandering through the hallways of the palace.

"Do you think that that Fate’s Scribe will really do this?"

Qiu Ling harrumphed. "What else can he do? My mother-in-law is the Heavenly Empress. If she tells him to go to the mortal realm to see us, he can hardly say that he won’t. That would be almost as bad as defying the Heavenly Emperor."

"But from what I heard before, the Heavenly Emperor was the one who told him not to go outside. So can the Heavenly Empress really just get around that?"

"Even if she can’t, do you really think the Heavenly Emperor would make a fuss about that? He’d have to take it up with his wife then. He won’t do that."

Jing Yi nodded even though he wasn’t completely sure. While he had remembered quite a few things from Jing He’s life, most of that had been about Qiu Ling and the biggest other part had been about his childhood. He actually didn’t understand the relationship between Jing He’s parents very well.

Jing Yi hesitated but finally couldn’t help but ask. "So … His parents, what are they like?"

Qiu Ling paused in his steps and turned to him, not quite sure what to do with this question.

Jing Yi’s cheeks flushed but he still insisted. "I’m not thinking much. I was just feeling that I didn’t really know much about them. So, what are they like? I’m just trying to understand."

Qiu Ling hesitated for a moment longer but then sighed. "Well, his father and I never really got along. He feels that I’m not good enough for Jing He. I guess a big part of that is because I’m a dragon. Another part is because he has always prided himself on his son. Especially … his son’s obedience.

"Seeing that Jing He would defy him for another man definitely doesn’t sit right with him. He wants to be the most important person to him. The one he refers to if there is something he is unsure about. It’s still alright if the person he actually goes to is his wife but it definitely isn’t anymore if it is another man."

Jing Yi nodded slightly, feeling that this would explain why Jing He had been so reluctant to get with Qiu Ling in the beginning. "That … sounds tough."

Qiu Ling sighed. "It sure was. It was especially difficult to make Jing He give up the notion that he should indulge that kind of behavior. He isn’t just his father’s person. He is his own person. He should be allowed to make his own decisions."

"In the end, he still did just go along with whatever you said, didn’t he?"

Qiu Ling wanted to retort but finally swallowed down the words and kept silent. Jing Yi should know pretty damn well that he had just overstepped the line again. He really didn’t want to hear him talk about Jing He like this.

Anyway, that wasn’t the truth. Jing He … While he had tried to please him in the beginning, he had finally made up his mind when he agreed to marry him. That wasn’t the same anymore. In those ten years they had known each other, Jing He had really come a long way.