Qiu Ling didn’t have anything to say to that. In any case, he never expected anything else from her. Jing He was her only child. And it wasn’t wrong to say that he was the most important thing in her life. She would give anything for him. But that also meant that she wouldn’t be willing to give Jing Yi a chance no matter what. Because to her, the fear that this might upset Jing He was much too great.

In a sense, she was in the same conundrum as Qiu Ling himself. But the consequences she had drawn from that were different. While he had decided that he would treat Jing Yi as he would treat Jing He and then explain it to him after he woke up, Bai Fen had decided to just ignore Jing Yi as far as she could to signal to Jing He that nobody would ever be able to replace him.

Neither of them was really wrong in their approach. Both options had pretty much the same chance of going wrong. So they could only try to figure out what to do by themselves and hope that they hadn’t gone wrong. Thus, he naturally wouldn’t be angry at her. If this was what she had come up with to try and make sure that Jing He would do well, then he had nothing to say to that. In any case, in the end, at least one of them would have gone right. That should help Jing He slowly come to terms with everything.

“I’ll go and tell him.”

Bai Fen nodded and then watched him leave, finally giving a deep sigh. If she could, she really wouldn’t want to see Jing Yi. But she also realized that that wouldn’t work out. Currently, there were at an impasse. And the only thing that she could do to help was to have this talk with him, to try and give him the perspective that he believed he needed in the hope that it would change something.

Maybe it wouldn’t but it wasn’t like they would lose anything if she tried. Even though she might not feel comfortable with it, she was willing to give it a try for Jing He’s sake. As his mother, that was what she needed to do.

Meanwhile, Qiu Ling reached the palace where he and Jing Yi were currently staying. He walked over with a faint smile and pulled him into his arms. “I talked to Bai Fen and she agreed. We can go over right now.”

Jing Yi raised his brows at that. “Just like that?” He certainly hadn’t expected that. He would have thought the Heavenly Empress would make more of a fuss. Certainly, she wouldn’t want to see him?

Qiu Ling shook his head and took Jing Yi’s hand, pulling him along. “Not quite just like that but she understood your point. So in the end, she did agree. But she also said not to expect too much. You aren’t Jing He so she also doesn’t see you as her child. I hope that you’re not going to be disappointed because of that.”

Jing Yi gave him a strange look. The Heavenly Empress didn’t see him as her child but neither did he see her as his mother. Even though many years had passed by since her death, he still remembered his own mother, Ru Chun. There was nobody that could ever take over her position. So naturally, he understood the Heavenly Empress’s point.

“It doesn’t matter. I don’t want to become family. I just want to know more and gain a better understanding. So whether she sees me as her child or not doesn’t really matter. Despite his memories, she is a stranger to me. So maybe it’s good this way.”

Qiu Ling gave a hum. In this situation, it was indeed good if they could both see it this way. Inwardly though, he did feel a bit miffed. Clearly, Bai Fen was a very good person. He himself would have given a lot to have her as his mother. But, well, their situation couldn’t be compared. His own mother had been … Ah, he didn’t even know what to call it.

She had been good enough when interacting with him and his father probably so she wouldn’t be caught. In fact, he remembered some situations where she had tried to seduce Chun Yin again but he had never taken the bait. Cheating on Jinde once had probably left him quite traumatized.

In any case, that last memory of her had destroyed everything. And the years without his parents had definitely made him perceptible to the kind of person Bai Fen was. He would have loved to gain another family.

But Jing Yi was different. Even though a millennium had already gone by, he naturally still remembered his parents. And he definitely missed both of them every now and then. He might feel like getting closer to Bai Fen would be a betrayal to Madam Zhong. At the very least, that was the explanation that Qiu Ling found for himself. It was one he could somewhat understand so he didn’t bother to try and convince him otherwise.

These two didn’t need to become close anyway. It was more than enough to have a short conversation and clear up whatever it was that needed to be cleared up. After that, they could leave and Jing Yi and Bai Fen would likely never need to see each other again. It was as simple as that.

With that thought, the two of them finally reached Bai Fen’s palace.

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