Qiu Ling stared at Jing Yi in a daze. Another chance for him to live? What he thought about that? “That … of course, that would be great!” How could that even be a question?

Jing Yi looked back at him as if he didn’t quite believe it. “Really?”

Qiu Ling nodded slowly, not understanding why he would doubt that in the first place. “Honestly, I never thought about it before but now that you mention it, it seems reasonable. Since it was your soul once, it should go back to your body. Isn’t that the same principle as what happens at the end of a trial?” He sure hoped that was the case, at least. He couldn’t say for sure.

Jing Yi nodded. That was the same as what Xiao Dong had said so he felt relieved. It seemed that this might indeed be true. “Well, this happening still relies on my body being preserved and I can only ask you to do that for me. So are you really sure you would?”

Once again, Qiu Ling didn’t quite catch his drift. “I’m not sure why you are doubting this. Isn’t it a good thing?”

“Well, it is for me, of course. But do you think Jing He would like it?”

Qiu Ling kept quiet at that. Would Jing He like this? He didn’t think Jing He would expect him to destroy Jing Yi’s body. He could imagine that he would have some doubts about this decision though.

Jing Yi had always struggled with the thought that after his death, he would go back to Jing He. Part of that had been because he always felt that he was the second choice after the ‘original’ but it remained a fact that this jealousy had been there.

Now, compared to that, Jing He was even more likely to have doubts. After all, Qiu Ling couldn’t deny that his beloved had always felt somewhat insecure. Yes, Jing He had doubted his love for him from day one. Knowing that he had been together with his mortal reincarnation and had even married him would hit hard. To know that this ‘person’ was still around in a way would surely make him wonder even more who he preferred.

Imagining such a time, Qiu Ling felt a headache. He had thought the most difficult part would be to tell Jing He the truth about his parentage before he could remember how he had told his mortal reincarnation first or reassuring him that his feelings for Jing Yi were related to him in the first place. But now, it seemed that he hadn’t even gotten close to the most difficult part.

Jing Yi gave a faint chuckle. “I figured.”

Qiu Ling hastily shook his head and reached out, grabbing his hands. “It’s not that. I … I know you’re right. Jing He will have trouble accepting this at first. And thinking about it right now, I don’t know how to explain it to him either. But that isn’t a question I need to answer at the moment. I will think about that when the time comes.

“No, for now …” He squeezed Jing Yi’s hands and stepped closer. “For now, this is only about the two of us and I don’t want you to doubt my sincerity regarding this matter. If what you said is true, I will naturally keep your body. In fact, even if it isn’t true and we just got it wrong, I would still preserve your body if that would make you happy.”

Jing Yi looked at him with some doubt. He knew Qiu Ling had always tried to find a compromise between his feelings for him and his feelings for Jing He and it hadn’t always been easy. In this case, he seemed open to favoring his position though. Well, maybe he shouldn’t be surprised. In a sense, this was his last wish and Qiu Ling was the type of man who would take something like that very seriously.

Looking at it this way, Jing Yi finally nodded. “Alright. Then let’s do that. I’ll leave all of these things to you. After I go … I trust you’ll take care of it.”

Qiu Ling nodded. “I will. But … we shouldn’t think about that right now. It’s still some time until then and for the moment, we’re celebrating your life so let’s not talk about your … end or whatever this will be.”

“Some kind of stopover but yes, let’s not talk about that. Anyway, there are still two people to invite and I also wanted to go and tour the Long kingdom’s capital city before we meet up with the others. Let’s take care of those things first.”

Qiu Ling nodded. Hesitating for a moment, he finally leaned down and kissed Jing Yi’s lips before he pulled back. “Alright, back to finding the Ye Zhong Order then. Although I’m not quite sure why you would want to see that Hong Bao of all people again.”

Jing Yi laughed while following him again. “We might be surprised. Grandmaster Shen and his wife said that she had changed a lot. Who knows what type of person she’ll be now?”

Qiu Ling gave an unconvinced hum. “No matter what type of person she is, she’ll probably just be as aggravating as before. Maybe she simply stepped up her game in terms of how she annoys others now.”

Jing Yi refrained from commenting on that. In his opinion, while Hong Bao might have been very straightforward, she hadn’t been annoying. But then, he had been young and focused on other things so his perception might have been off. For Qiu Ling, things might have looked differently.

Either way, he had fond memories of the time they spent together and he was curious about how she had turned out. He could imagine quite a few things, to be honest. Although, when they finally arrived and saw her, he still had to admit that he had been far from the truth. Hong Bao … really couldn’t be recognized any longer.

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