While An Rong and Hua Lin Yu teamed up to catch Xiao Li, Jing Yi, Qiu Ling, and Wu Ya entered the capital city of the Long kingdom. Under Qiu Ling’s lead, they naturally didn’t line up in front of the gate and instead just flew over the wall, sneaking past the guards.

Jing Yi who usually liked to abide by the rules couldn’t help but feel a bit worried but surprisingly enough, nobody noticed them. Looking around and seeing that there were actually guards close by, he couldn’t help but glance at Qiu Ling.

His fiance simply raised his brows. “They can’t see us if we use spiritual energy to hide ourselves.” Anyway, he had done that more than once in the mortal realm so by now, it was second nature to him and he had automatically used his energy to shield the three of them when they got close. He had kind of forgotten about the fact that Jing Yi had never needed to do this so he hadn’t explained before but he also didn’t think that it should be that surprising.

Jing Yi faintly raised his brows but finally just nodded. Anyway, he shouldn’t have expected anything else. After all, Qiu Ling wasn’t from the mortal realm and he was the type who didn’t want to deal with others if he felt it was too troublesome. Naturally, he would have ways to get around it. Simply using spiritual energy to hide their figures was already quite good. With this being Qiu Ling, he wouldn’t have been surprised either if he had some more egregious way to go about this.

Wu Ya wasn’t sure what was going on and looked from one person to the other before he finally decided that this also wasn’t something that he wanted to get involved in. “Well, are you two familiar enough with this place to help me find somewhere nice to stay? Otherwise, I could look around myself.”

Anyway, since they had already mentioned that this was more or less a romantic outing, he didn’t want to be in their way. If it was up to him, his relationship with Qiu Ling would be good in the future. He didn’t want to get on his nerves while he was trying to spend time with his lover. The more he pulled back now and allowed Qiu Ling his space, the more time he would be able to spend with him in the future. He was willing to wait for that.

Qiu Ling shook his head though. “If you wander off alone to find a place, who knows if we’ll be able to easily meet up again later? Let’s just go further into the city, find a place to stay for all of us, and get two rooms there. Anyway, Jing’er and I will also need to stay here for a bit. So it’d be best to just find a place for all of us. That way, you’ll also know where to look for us later on. Maybe we can even hold the gathering at that place.”

Wu Ya nodded, happy with that suggestion. “Let’s do it that way then. The two of you just go ahead, I’ll follow right behind!”

Qiu Ling nodded and then turned to Jing Yi. While this was indeed a romantic outing to him for the most part, he knew that it was more to Jing Yi. Thus, he would naturally let him choose where he wanted to go.

To be honest, Jing Yi felt stumped. Since this wasn’t the city that he remembered anymore, he had no idea where to even start. A place big enough for their gathering where they could also stay for the time being … where would one find that usually? Thinking back to the year he had spent here, he could only think of the main road where so many people had passed by.

Yes, no matter how much time passed, it made sense that the guesthouses and restaurants would be on the main road, right? In fact, that would be where the biggest ones would be, while the slightly smaller ones would be in the streets right next to the main road. So they should probably go there.

Thinking until here, Jing Yi motioned ahead to where the main road should be. “Let’s go further in that direction. Sooner or later, we should get to the main road. We should be most likely to find what we’re looking for there.”

Qiu Ling nodded and then reached out to hold Jing Yi’s hand before walking down the road with him.

If not for Wu Ya behind them, he might’ve even wanted to speak up and reminisce about the past, reminding him of how he had been secretly following behind when Jing Yi had come here with his family or all the crazy shenanigans of turning into Jing Yi’s so-called grandfather, or that mysterious traveler that had helped Mister Zhong. But then, he was embarrassed to bring it up with another person listening in. Thus, he simply looked around, trying to get a better feel for the city.

“I couldn’t be sure from here but it seems like the city got bigger. The houses here in the outskirts aren’t as bad anymore either.” He still remembered how things had looked back then when the Zhongs came here for the first time.

Looking at some of those inns, he had had the feeling that they were run-down and almost about to collapse. He might not have said anything, but he had had some complaints in his heart. He had only been satisfied when the Zhongs finally moved out of that inn after a night and moved in with Mister Zhong’s cousin. Even though it wasn’t perfect, it had at least been a place worth living in.

Comparing the city now to back then, while things in the outskirts still didn’t look too good, Qiu Ling at least didn’t feel that looking at them was hurting his eyes. Well, maybe that was also because he didn’t have to imagine his beloved moving in there. After all, there was no way he would let something like that happen.

No, if they got a place to stay together for a few days in the mortal realm, then he would ensure that it was only the best of the best. Yes, even though he had gained a new appreciation for taking his job seriously, that was something that he couldn’t compromise on.

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