While Jing He spent time with his father, Qiu Ling finally managed to gather the last few materials that he needed for his masterpiece. He returned to the palace with a proud smile on his face and once again adeptly circumvented the guards, sneaking into his own chambers and locking the door behind him.
What he was going to do next wasn’t something he could do in his favorite hiding place on the beam so he would have to make sure in other ways that nobody would come to bother him. He couldn’t have a slip of attention, after all! Thankfully, he had managed to gather the materials faster than expected so now, he actually had four days to finish the rest. He should get started as soon as possible though.
Thus soon enough, the whole room was barricaded and Qiu Ling sat down, taking out the materials from his spatial ring and then got to work. As for what he wanted to do … Well, wearing a mask was nice and all but he definitely had to make sure that they also wore matching clothes, right?
Considering how he had designed those masks, he already knew what vibe he was going for with the robes as well. Naturally, they should reflect the thoughts he had had when he made the masks: One white, one black. A simple cut that seemed low-key but was still elegant when worn by the right person. A few embellishments that were able to draw the eye of others. He definitely felt that this would make for a spectacular sight.
As for whether or not Qiu Ling was able to pull it off … Quite surprisingly, this wasn’t a problem for him at all. Just how he had been able to easily make those masks, he didn’t have any trouble weaving the cloth or cutting it up into the right pieces and sewing everything together.
He had lived alone for long enough before he became the dragon king to be able to handle this type of work. And, being a dragon had its perks here as well. Thanks to his claws, quite a few of these things could be accomplished by just using his hands without needing any additional tools. That did save him a bit of time and made everything much less of a hassle.
Soon enough, Qiu Ling was holding up a pristine white robe, the lapel and sleeves as well as the accompanying belt unembellished with beautiful embroidery and a handful of sparkling crystals in some specially chosen places.
He nodded to himself, folded the robe, and put it into his spatial ring, right next to the white mask he had forged before.
Afterward, he went to make the black robe for himself, but his expression wasn’t quite as much at ease anymore. While he was actually quite adept at this, it didn’t mean that it wouldn’t require a lot of time. And for all these steps had to be highly concentrated and couldn’t allow the slightest mistake. If the cloth woven in the beginning wasn’t without a fault, then later on when adding the embroidery, this was sure to fail.
But, unfortunately, he did have neither the materials nor the time to spare for giving it another go. Thus, he needed to make sure that everything worked out on the first try. Considering the fact that he hadn’t had much sleep for the past three days, and that the festival was drawing nearer, he couldn’t help but start to worry.
"This better work out. If not … I guess I could make do with some other black robe but Jing He would certainly notice. How could I let that happen?"
This festival was the perfect chance to show his beloved just how much effort he was willing to put in for him. If he didn’t actually go the whole way, who knew what Jing He would think? Naturally, he wouldn’t make a huge fuss over it but it was still better to show him that he cared.
He got up from the place where he had been sitting for the past few hours and stretched his body, walking a few rounds around the room before he sat back down, shaking his head and getting back to work.
He didn’t have the time to take a longer break even though he might need to. Anyway, if he finished this soon, then he could sleep for a few hours and then still make it in time to get to that festival and spend the whole day with his beloved. That was worth it, wasn’t it?
Telling himself so, Qiu Ling sped up and continued to work with renewed vigor. He could definitely do it. He would never never let anything get between him and this perfect opportunity to woo his beloved.
In this manner, Qiu Ling finished the robe when the sun was already going to set on the evening before the festival. Ah, it seemed it had been his luck that he managed to gather the materials sooner than he had thought or he wouldn’t have made it in time. Well, this might just be Heaven helping him.
He smiled to himself and put the robe in his spatial ring. He took a moment to heave a sigh of relief and close his eyes. If he could, he would have liked to lie down and sleep for a few hours. But it wasn’t the time for that yet. No, there was still one thing that he needed to do.
He shook himself awake and sneaked out of his room again, not even bothering to turn it back into a presentable state. He rushed to the Nine Heavens as fast as possible. While he didn’t need to hurry as much anymore, he still wanted to get this over with. Needless to say, he didn’t go to see his beloved. Otherwise, his attitude would have been very different.
No, instead, he went to the Heavenly Empress’ palace.
Just when he wanted to go in, he spotted the Heavenly Empress who was returning from outside. Unfortunately, she wasn’t alone. That bastard of a Heavenly Emperor was right beside her, gushing to her about something.
Qiu Ling narrowed his eyes but it seemed that there was nothing he could do. For now, the Heavenly Empress was unavailable. He could wait but who knew when that bastard would leave? He didn’t have that much time. He had to go back as fast as possible and catch a few hours of sleep before tomorrow morning. Otherwise, he might not look presentable in front of his beloved. He couldn’t let that happen!
Pondering for a moment, he finally rushed to another palace and sneaked inside. As for the master of this palace … He found him in the study.
Qiang Yan turned around when he heard a sound outside and raised his brows at the person that was hanging outside the window, upside down. "Longjun …"
Qiu Ling took the white robe and mask out of his spatial ring, wrapped them in a cloth to keep them from being seen and also make sure they would stay just as pristine as they were and then put them on the windowsill. "Do me a favor and give this to your nephew tomorrow morning, alright?"
Qiang Yan glanced from Qiu Ling’s face to the package and then back again. "And why would I do that?" Not that he had anything against helping the dragon king to woo his nephew but he would at least like to know what this was about.
Qiu Ling blinked his eyes. "Aren’t you the brother of the Heavenly Empress?"
"I am. That doesn’t tell me what this is about though."
"Well, your sister does want me to marry your nephew. So don’t you feel that as her brother, you should help her out a bit? Now, there’s a prime opportunity for me to woo your nephew. You should definitely help me secure it. Don’t you think so?"
Qiang Yan got up from his chair and picked up the package, giving Qiu Ling another look. "And what exactly is this prime opportunity Longjun is talking about?"
"No need to be so nosy. Just leave it to me. I don’t need any help other than you bringing this over to him tomorrow morning."
Qiang Yan raised his brows, feeling slightly insulted. This guy … He really just said whatever he wanted, didn’t he?"
Qiu Ling blinked his eyes at him and tilted his head to the side. "So are you going to do it or aren’t you? I could also go to ask your sister but she was with her husband right now. I don’t think she would like to be disturbed."
Qiang Yan’s brows twitched when he heard that. "Longjun, do me a favor and do not break into my sister’s palace this late in the evening in the future, alright?"
"If I do, will you bring this over to your nephew?"
Qiang Yan sighed and then nodded. "I will. Don’t worry about it. He will definitely have this on time." He put the package down on his desk and then turned around to ask some more questions but when he turned, Qiu Ling was already gone.
Qiang Yan raised his brows and then just shook his head with a sigh. The dragon king … He really couldn’t understand him. Well, as long as Jing He liked him, that was enough. He just wanted his nephew to be happy and from the looks of it, he might be able to find that happiness precisely with this strange man. Who was he to judge?
