In the dragon realm, Fu Min was startled awake by the faint feeling of somebody’s breath brushing his face. He extended his claws and lashed out only for his hand to be swatted down.

“What are you trying to do?” Qiu Ling scowled at him. There was already some wild man going after his beloved and now one of his so-called advisers even wanted to scratch his face. The audacity! Was this some kind of plot against him? Did they not want him to get together with his beloved?!

Fu Min awkwardly received his claws and wriggled away. “Your Majesty … What are you doing here?” In the middle of the night? Didn’t you say you were into the Son of Heaven? Continue reading →

Qiu Ling returned to the dragon realm in a great mood. Ah, he felt that he and his beloved were on the right way to eternal bliss. It couldn’t take much longer for them to become a real couple and finally marry! Ah!

Qiu Ling fell down on his bed and stared at the ceiling. Even though quite a bit of time had passed, he felt as if he could still feel Jing He’s hand in his and smell his sweet, flowery scent. Back when he had held him and jumped onto that tower, Jing He’s hair had brushed his hand for a moment. It … really was just as soft as it looked. No, actually, it was even softer than he had imagined. Mn, he was a lucky man to have had the good fortune to feel it once. Now … he only needed to earn the right to touch it whenever he wanted. Continue reading →

Jing He finally found himself in front of the Tower of Wisdom. Or, well, it was probably wrong to say that they were standing in front of it. They were actually standing behind the tower. He glanced at Qiu Ling who smiled happily.

“What do you say?”

“Longjun’s meaning is … we should enter the tower to watch the festival? Well … I guess that would be the best way. The Tower of Wisdom is the highest building in the Nine Heavens’ capital.”

Qiu Ling blinked. That … hadn’t been what he had in mind. He looked up at the tower and lightly pursed his lips. It was one of those buildings with several stories that seemed to be separated by a roof from each other. The building had the same scope on each story, giving the tower a tranquil feeling. Continue reading →

Qiu Ling had no idea what he was supposed to do but he managed to wind his way through somehow. If the Heavenly Emperor and Empress greeted the gods at the bank of the river and Jing He made to do the same, then he would naturally follow suit. When the Heavenly Emperor and Heavenly Empress made a sacrifice to honor the deceased, then he … would be handed a floral wreath?

Qiu Ling blinked and took the ring of pink blossoms from Jing He. Such a strange ritual! Were they supposed to burn this like the Heavenly Emperor and Empress with their sacrifice just now? Continue reading →

The Da He festival was held at the Da He or at the least at the place that remained of it: The River of Forgetfulness.

The gods had crowded around the water, blocking almost every bot of land on the banks. Jing He couldn’t help but worry. He had never liked being among many people. This kind of festival … he had always been happy that he didn’t have to attend before he came of age. Now, this kind of excuse couldn’t be used anymore. He would have to get used to it and maintain his image the whole time.

Qiu Ling glanced over when his beloved tensed. His first impulse was to grab his hands and ask what was wrong but he bit his tongue before the words could come out. No, he couldn’t do this! He had to remember what Fu Min had said! Those had really been wise words even though he hadn’t understood them at first. But now that he did and had even managed to implement this great advice once, he couldn’t fall back into his old behavior. He had to get a grip on himself and think clearly! Continue reading →

The Heavenly Emperor finally abandoned his suspicions. He didn’t allow Qiu Ling to walk next to his son though and instead pulled Jing He to his own side. “Forget about this. Since you’re here now come on in. Your mother should also be here soon. Then we can go and attend the festival.”

“Yes, father.” Jing He nodded but glanced at Qiu Ling. The dragon king had obviously come to spend the festival with him and even accompanied him to his father’s palace. There was no way he would return to the dragon realm before the festival was over. Normally, he wouldn’t mind. After all, this person had run over to his palace almost every day for the past year. If he was still bothered by it, he already would have found an excuse to refuse him entry. Continue reading →

Seeing Qiu Ling’s blank look Jing He folded his hands in front of his chest and looked ahead at his father’s palace. “Legend has it that there once was a river originating in the High Heavens that flowed through all the immortal and mortal realms until finally ending in the sea in the underworld.

“The High Heavens are where everything is destined. So in a sense, this is the place where life begins. The immortal and mortal realms are where life takes place and finally, it ends in the underworld. So this Da He river accompanies every living being from beginning to end.”

“I’ve never seen that river.” Continue reading →

Three days later, a certain dragon king appeared in front of the crown prince’s palace especially early. This time he neither barged in uninvited nor did he secretly sneak in. Instead, he waited in front of the main door like a sane person, making the two guards in front eye him warily.

Just what was this guy planning?

Actually, it wasn’t too hard to figure the answer to this question out. Today was the Da He Festival and Jing He was currently inside preparing himself. Naturally, Qiu Ling was waiting for him to take part in the festival together. Continue reading →

In the end, Jing He couldn’t convince himself to invite Qiu Ling. If he did, wouldn’t it seem as if his intentions were more serious than they were? Well, even if he intended to marry Longjun, he still couldn’t show it that outwardly, could he? What would people think if he did?

Thankfully, there still were some days until the Da He Festival and there was one visit of An Bai’s scheduled before it. He anxiously waited and couldn’t help but walk up to the door the day An Bai was supposed to arrive, staring off into the distance as if that could make the dragon appear sooner. Continue reading →

With Qiu Ling using every opportunity to spend time with him and making every effort to let him still be comfortable, Jing He couldn’t help but slowly form a favorable opinion of this person that had scared him so much at first. It slowly made him feel that he was the real problem in this relationship. The dragon king had done so much while he barely managed to think of inviting him to drink a cup of tea or play a game of weiqi. Even after knowing the other person for almost a year and finding out more and more about the dragon race, he still knew almost nothing about him as a person. Obviously, he hadn’t tried hard enough to bring them closer together.

“Jing He.” The Heavenly Emperor looked at his son with worry. Somehow, his precious child seemed a little absent-minded for the last few days. Could it be something was wrong? Had Jing He fallen sick? Was somebody bullying him?! “Did something happen? You can tell father. I’ll send someone to break his legs.” Continue reading →