This time, it was Jing He who felt that he might be dreaming. He stared at Qiu Ling in a daze, unable to believe that he had truly heard what he thought he might have. He could only slowly repeat his words to make sure. “Planned a … wedding?”

Qiu Ling coughed. “Yes. You see … I talked with your mother and uncle and all three of us felt that even after you have gone through all of this, if you were to come back and decide on me, your father still wouldn’t be willing to support that decision. So we figured it might be time to take matters into our own hands.”

Jing He stared at him with wide eyes and then turned to look at his mother. He understood what Qiu Ling had just said but … he still couldn’t believe it. Was their wedding actually being planned? Would there be an actual ceremony?

Bai Fen couldn’t help but feel that her son looked especially silly right now but she still nodded seriously. “It’s true. Naturally, your father doesn’t know anything about it and I intend to keep it that way until the day of. Although right now …” She pursed her lips and her eyes seemed to glimmer with some amusement. “I suppose he should have started sending out the invitations.”

Jing He could reconcile these two statements even less with each other and turned his head back to Qiu Ling, looking at him imploringly. He needed someone to explain clearly so he could make sense of all of this.

Qiu Ling squeezed his hand and then leaned closer. “Don’t worry, my love. Let me tell you slowly from the beginning.”

Jing He hastily nodded. He wanted nothing more than that right now.

“The day you … left, Jinde and Leng Jin Yu had come to the Nine Heavens to speak to your mother. The intention was to talk about the wedding and how it should go and then slowly come up with a plan.” He sighed and shook his head. “I knew about it but I didn’t tell you beforehand because I wanted things to be more certain. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the chance to do so later.

“While you were gone, I couldn’t help but think about it though: The plan was there and all that was left was to do the preparations to put it into motion. Of course, I didn’t know whether you’d decide on me but I figured that if you did, it would be best to have everything ready to hold the wedding at once. If not … then I’d just never mention it.”

“I do want to marry you.” Jing He insisted on saying this again, afraid that Qiu Ling wouldn’t believe it and somehow, that second vision from the Spring of Fate would still come to pass. He didn’t understand the ins and outs so until he could talk to Qiu Ling and find out, he likely wouldn’t be able to put down the worry in his heart.

Qiu Ling smiled brightly and leaned even closer, kissing his cheek. “I know, my love. Either way, the plan was to prepare everything we need ahead of time, without your father knowing, and then use whatever suitable opportunity we could find to hold the ceremony. If everyone is already gathered, it’ll be too late for him to do anything about it. He’ll just have to grit his teeth and deal with it. Even he wouldn’t dare to make a fuss if everyone with a name from both the Nine Heavens and the dragon realm is gathered.”

Jing He stared at him in a daze. To be honest … that might be true. While his father was somewhat known for his irascible temper, he also liked to save face at normal times. Of course, this still depended on who exactly was invited. He clearly didn’t take Qiu Ling seriously and the same might be true for his advisers. People from the Nine Heavens might be different though. He couldn’t imagine his father throwing a tantrum while Jin Hui of the East Sea was watching, for example. So this plan … might actually work out.

His heart started to race at the idea that soon enough, he might get married to Qiu Ling, all his dreams of the past years coming true. Thinking of how his mother had said that invitations were being sent out, he looked at her questioningly.

Even if he didn’t say a word, Bai Fen knew what was going through his mind. “You just returned. After resting for a few days, shouldn’t this be celebrated? And everyone has helped out so much during this time, searching for you tirelessly. How could we not invite them?”

Jing He trembled and held onto Qiu Ling’s hand more tightly. “Then … when?” She couldn’t really mean to say that it would happen in a mere week, could she?

His mother smiled brightly. “Well, let’s check which day is the most auspicious, shall we? And then, we’ll put it on the closest of those. I’m sure you’re sick of waiting for the ceremony as well.”

Jing He … nodded slowly. Yes, he wanted to marry Qiu Ling as fast as possible. If he could have, he would have done it that very day. If that wasn’t possible, then maybe tomorrow or the day after sounded perfect as well.

It was strange to think about but now, after several years of knowing each other, he had reached the same urgency in wanting to get married as Qiu Ling had felt the day he met him. Even if he didn’t mention it out loud, he still felt that way inside. And while part of this was his fear of a possible bad ending for Qiu Ling, the biggest part was simply his wish to be with this man. Not just today and not just in the safety of his own palace but forever and wherever they went, with everyone knowing that they were now husbands.