Qiu Ling gave Jing Yi back to his mother with a smile and turned around to Qiang Wei, still in a good mood. "Let's go upstairs." He went over to the stairs without waiting for an answer.
Qiang Wei looked at his king's back, at the broken flask on the floor and finally at a totally stunned Madam Zhong with an incensed Jing Yi on her arms.
Oh, wow. You did it again, Your Majesty. And now you're leaving the aftermath to me?
He cleared his throat and bowed to Madam Zhong. "I'm sorry. He normally isn't like that. Normally he's …"
"I know. It's alright." Madam Zhong smiled wryly. She couldn't really reproach him. He was obviously very much in love. It was a pity … This love would probably never come to fruition.
For now, there was too much of an age difference between them. But that wasn't even the biggest problem. No, the worst thing was that that man didn't love her son but the person he had been before.
Her gaze fell onto Qiang Wei. He had whispered when he tried to get Qiu Ling off her but since Qiu Ling had hugged her so close, she had still heard. He had called him 'Your Majesty' and the person watching 'his Highness'.
It can't be that Ah Lei was right, can it? Does this have something to do with the emperor? But no, that's not right either. If it was like that, the daoist master should be the emperor.
She couldn't figure it out, but she did understand that this was something out of her league. And knowing this … even though she had thought in the beginning that it would be alright to wait and see, she wasn't so sure anymore. Did she really want her son to meddle with affairs of royalties?
No, she didn't. That was exactly what Mister Pi had warned them about. Crouching dragons … Who would fit that description better than someone from the royal family? It would be better to distance themselves from him.
But how would they do that? Telling him would offend him and wasn't that what they wanted to avoid? She really didn't know what to do.
"Then … I'll better go and have a look at him." Qiang Wei nodded at her again and followed Qiu Ling upstairs.
His king had managed to get up the stairs without any problems, but finding an unoccupied room proved to be difficult. He had opened five doors, but behind each of them were already people.
"Hm …" Qiu Ling eyed the next two doors, trying to decide which he should open next.
"Your Majesty!" Qiang Wei hurried over and cautiously grabbed his shoulders. "How about I search for a room?"
Qiu Ling frowned. "I want a nice one."
"Uh … sure." Qiang Wei gently pushed him down the corridor. There were quite a few doors there from behind which he couldn't hear anything. He wanted to open the first one, but Qiu Ling tensed.
"It has to be a nice one!"
Qiang Wei sighed. "Alright, alright. We'll take the next one." He pushed him again and opened the door before his king could complain again. "Is this one nice enough?"
Qiu Ling's gaze flitted around and he finally nodded. "It's nice. Would Jing He like it?"
Qiang Wei took a look. "I think so."
Qiu Ling turned around. "It's not nice. Let's take another one."
Qiang Wei lifted his brows. "Why would you say so? What's wrong with the room?"
Qiu Ling frowned and looked at him as if he was an idiot. "You said Jing He would like it."
"Uh … Isn't it good if the crown prince would like it?"
"But you don't know him that good. How would you know he'd like the room? You have to be wrong! Let's take another one."
"This …" Qiang Wei sighed. "There's no point in arguing with a drunk, is there?" He really wished Yi Zan could have been with him. He was normally better at understanding their king and calming him down if something happened.
He pulled Qiu Ling with him to the next door. "How about this one?" He opened the door and — seeing that Qiu Ling wanted to complain again — just pushed him in.
Qiu Ling wanted to erupt, but then he took a look at the room. Mn … Blue … It was blue. Just like Jing He's robe that day … He shuffled forward, plopped down and hugged the table. "Ah … Jing He …"
Qiang Wei's lips twitched. He closed the door behind him and sat opposite his king. For a while, nothing beside their breaths could be heard inside the room. Qiang Wei started hoping that maybe, maybe he was lucky and the king had already fallen asleep.
Then, Qiu Ling jerked up and stared at him.
Qiang Wei gulped. What now? "Is … is something the matter?"
Qiu Ling squinted. "We were drinking. Where's the wine?"
"You smashed the flask."
Qiu Ling frowned. Did I? He couldn't remember. He thoughtfully ran a finger over his lower lip, but it hurt and his skin got sticky. He had a look and realized that there was blood. Huh? How come his finger was bleeding?
He tilted his head and moved his hand as if he could solve that puzzling question this way. Of course, in his drunken stupor, he couldn't come up with anything. There was only one last resort: He looked up at Qiang Wei and lifted his brows.
"You kissed the crown prince's mortal reincarnation."
Qiu Ling smiled and dropped his hand, not caring about the blood any longer. "I did!"
Qiang Wei's eyelid twitched. So he really drank too fast before. Now he's finally drunk. So please, just collapse, would you?
"Mn. Jing He …" Qiu Ling's expression fell. "I've never drunk with Jing He before."
"You shouldn't do that even in the future."
"Mn." Qiu Ling tilted his head even further. "But … he'd certainly be cute if he got drunk. Ah … I want to see it."
Qiang Wei saved his comment on that.
Unfortunately, with nobody interjecting something, Qiu Ling was left to his own devices. And no, a drunk, lovelorn dragon being left to his own thoughts was not a good idea.
"I want to see him."