While Qiu Ling and Jing He finally returned to the latter’s palace, Bai Fen continued to sit at the table in her palace with her brother. Her expression looked tangled and the tea in the cup she was holding had long grown cold.

Qiang Yan watched his sister’s expression while sipping his own tea. At this moment, he wasn’t sure what she was thinking about. Was it her own past and the regrets she had let herself have? Or was this about her son’s future? Both were equally possible which might just speak to how difficult the life of their family really was.

The minutes trickled by until Bai Fen finally sighed and lowered her hand, putting the cup down with an audible click. “It’s not going to be easy. Not at all. Rong Su will absolutely fight this tooth and nail.”

Qiang Yan also put down his cup and nodded. “Any idea how to go about this?” He had already thought about it when Qiu Ling brought it up earlier and had to admit that he couldn’t see any way this could work. If his sister could … well, it’d be to Jing He’s advantage.

Bai Fen could only smile wryly. “An idea … I guess I do have a general one. Basically, we’d need to first convince him to even consider that Jing He is old enough to start a relationship and get married. Right now, even that will be hard to accept for him, not to mention Qiu Ling as his fiance. As long as he is able to accept that Jing He isn’t a child any longer, there might be an opportunity. Before that … I’m afraid it’s absolutely impossible.”

Qiang Yan nodded again. “You’re not wrong. That seems like the best approach. I’d just be worried about what your husband is going to make out of this. If you’re unlucky, he’ll start thinking about possible candidates and find a match for Jing He. That’d be awkward.”

Bai Fen’s lips twitched. “Don’t jinx it.” To be honest though, now that Qiang Yan mentioned it, this seemed very likely to happen. Well, at first, he would be staunchly against Jing He having any relationship at all. But if she managed to slowly make him warm up to the idea, he’d naturally start thinking that he should be the one to choose his future son-in-law ‘lest some bastard take advantage’ or whatever whimsical reason he could come up with to force this on their son.

Thinking about what kind of mess this would be, Bai Fen could only sigh. “There is no way to not have this happen. With Rong Su’s character, he won’t just easily accept Qiu Ling. Not after talking against him for so long. The easiest would probably be to just let him go ahead for a bit and come up with a test for any potential candidates, then let Qiu Ling show him that he’s the one most suitable.”

Qiang Yan gave a hum but he didn’t look convinced. “You know, if it was Li Yin searching for a spouse for Ru Zhen, I’d believe this could work. But your husband … he’s not the reasonable type. He’ll probably put the first requirement as ‘be a trueborn god’ and thus eliminate Qiu Ling directly.”

“You’re not wrong but with Rong Su’s expectations, he won’t find a single person that can fulfill them. As long as Qiu Ling keeps trying and shows that he is able to clear any other task Rong Su gives him, he will have to admit that he isn’t half bad. In Rong Su’s case, that shift in attitude can already be considered major.”

“What if there is somebody else who does the same though?”

Bai Fen raised her brows. “In a competition with Qiu Ling? Please. He might look unreliable at first glance but he’s the dragon king for a reason. Plus, for any idea to his disadvantage that my husband comes up with, I’m sure that Qiu Ling’s advisers will be able to think of a countermeasure.

“In fact, they might even think up ways to disqualify other suitors. Anyway, they have been at this for ten years.” She shook her head thinking about it and then sighed. “Anyway, it’s not like we have much of a choice. Rong Su won’t accept if Qiu Ling simply walks up to him and asks for his blessing. Even if Jing He is the one to bring it up, it won’t work.”

Qiang Yan hummed. “He’d probably just use it as an opportunity to convince him otherwise and Jing He isn’t self-assured enough to deal with that.”

“Exactly. At the same time, the two of them can’t go there together to make sure Qiu Ling can jump in if Rong Su tries anything either. If they do, Rong Su will just say it’s Qiu Ling forcing our son. He might even believe that kind of line.” Bai Fen really felt a headache when it came to dealing with this matter.

Just why was her husband so stubborn? It was alright to be a bit reluctant to let him get married young and likely move to the dragon realm to be with his husband. She herself felt that she wouldn’t have Jing He around as much and that she couldn’t walk to his palace to see him whenever she felt like it. And yet, she also realized that some inconvenience on her part absolutely didn’t justify trying to prevent her son from having a relationship or getting married. This was about his happiness, after all.

She sighed but tried not to think of all these things. “Well, let’s not take the second step before the first.” She pushed away the cup with the cold tea and got to her feet, her expression solemn. “I’ll go and have a talk about Jing He entering a relationship in general first. As for everything that comes after that, we’ll deal with it in whatever way we think is appropriate when the time really comes. Who knows? Maybe Rong Su will surprise us.”

Qiang Yan nodded but his gaze, as he watched his sister walk out of her palace, was somewhat doubtful.