Jinde raised his brows in surprise. He had thought of coming to see the Heavenly Empress because he figured having an ally in the Nine Heavens would be helpful. He hadn’t thought it would be this helpful though. Thinking that maybe the whole process could be sped up, he smiled. “Well, I’m all ears then.”

Bai Fen wasn’t sure how aware Jinde was of her husband’s personality so she started explaining her idea from that viewpoint. “Right now, all that stands in the way of the wedding is my husband. He has his preconceived notions of what should or shouldn’t be done. It’s possible to convince him otherwise but it would take forever. I don’t think that is right for the children.

“Since this is the case, I believe that we can only force his hand. As long as he has no other way forward but to agree, it’ll be alright. Sure, Jing He won’t feel good about not getting his blessing but he’ll manage. As long as he can get married, I believe it’s worth it.”

Jinde nodded. “I would agree with that.”

Leng Jin Yu nodded as well but didn’t say more. This matter was likely to be settled between Jinde and the Heavenly Empress. He was just here to accompany his husband.

Seeing as their thoughts aligned, Bai Fen continued her explanation. “Since this is the case, the question is how to do this. Now, you don’t know my husband but I can tell you that he cares about reputation just as much as Jing He or maybe even more. So as long as opposing this marriage will make him lose a great deal of face, he’ll swallow his pride and let it happen even if he has to grit his teeth through all of it.”

Jinde hummed. He could see what she meant. It was just … “He clearly doesn’t care about the opinion of the dragons so this should be in regard to the gods, right?”

Bai Fen could only sigh. “Yes, my husband is a bit …” She finally just shook her head. To be honest, she felt that his attitude wasn’t right either but Rong Su believed that they could do without the alliance since the demons were mostly at war with the dragons anyway. He felt that it only added to their troubles and didn’t actually help. To him, getting rid of the alliance might have been a bonus to making sure Jing He couldn’t get married to the dragon king.

Of course, there might be even more to this but this was all he had said out loud in front of her. Since she hadn’t reacted well to that, he had probably kept the rest of his thoughts to himself. Bai Fen wouldn’t have been surprised if her husband’s view on the dragons was similar to that of many demons though: That actually, they didn’t deserve to be their own people and should instead be considered as one of the demon tribes. In that case, of course, he wouldn’t deem it appropriate for his son to marry one of them.

Bai Fen would never agree with such a view but it wasn’t like they actively talked about it. Even if they did, he might just insist that Qiu Ling wasn’t right and try to find a million reasons for that instead of getting to the bottom of the truth.

Bai Fen sighed again. It really wasn’t easy being married to Rong Su. But she’d make sure that her son wouldn’t end up in a situation like this. Since he loved Qiu Ling and Qiu Ling loved him as well, she had to make their wedding happen.

“Anyway, you’re not wrong. This will mostly be about the gods but I presume it can’t hurt to involve your people as well. In fact, according to what I’ve thought of, there won’t be another choice.”

Jinde smiled and gestured at her. “Let’s hear it then.”

“Personally, I believe we should just prepare a wedding and invite everyone. When my husband gets to the scene and everyone is already gathered, what can he still do?”

Jinde’s golden brows raised faintly but his lips finally curled up. “A secret wedding with a big reveal?” This was quite bold. But then, the Heavenly Empress knew her husband best and if she felt that this would work, that should be the case. “Well, I don’t see a reason not to do it. In the worst case, we’ll have to force the issue that day.”

Bai Fen chuckled but shook her head. “I would advise against that. Even though we have an alliance, threatening the Heavenly Emperor would still be a great offense and my brother is the God of War, so he’d have to get involved. Not to mention that this would just give Rong Su an excuse to dissolve the alliance.”

At this, Jinde narrowed his eyes. “I believe Qiu Ling told me once that the Heavenly Emperor had the Heavenly Guards try and attack him. Is that not a great offense?”

Bai Fen shook her head. “It naturally is but Qiu Ling isn’t as vengeful as my husband.”

Leng Jin Yu’s gaze turned a bit doubtful. As somebody who had been at the other end of the dragon king’s claws once for supposedly stealing his beloved, he was sure that ‘not vengeful’ weren’t words that could describe Qiu Ling. The truth of the matter should be that Qiu Ling loved Jing He too much to make a fuss about anything his father did because he knew that Jing He cared.

Speaking of which though … “Will your son be alright with this kind of secretly prepared wedding? Since he cares about his reputation so much, it might be hard to bear if something were to go wrong.”

Bai Fen nodded. “That is the one worry I have. But as I said earlier: As long as he can marry Qiu Ling, I believe it is worth it.”