Qiu Ling took a look at his beloved's face and cursed inwardly. It seemed he had said something wrong. What to do now? He frowned a bit and looked around to find something he could use to divert Jing Yi's attention. Finally, his gaze landed on the petal with the message.
Qiu Ling perked up. Right! Wouldn't Jing Yi need to concentrate on this when he told him?
"Mn, my love, by the way … It seems like the sect sent a message tonight."
Jing Yi turned around while trying to understand what exactly Qiu Ling was saying. "The sect sent a message."
Qiu Ling nodded with a smile. It seemed his plan had worked! His beloved had indeed stopped to think about it!
"And this message already came in the night."
Qiu Ling's lips twitched. Oh. Right. He had forgotten about that. "Uh … I read the message and it didn't seem all that urgent." His fingers flicked and the petals that had accumulated on the windowsill fell to the ground as if they had just fallen down from some tree in the vicinity. Those definitely weren't any messages.
Jing Yi furrowed his brow. "What did it say?"
"Oh. Let me read it to you." Qiu Ling picked up the petal and started to read: "Meet me at the cave five li from the big tree …" He made a pause and looked at the other characters. That person had written 'as soon as you get this message'. No way he'd read that out loud! Wouldn't his beloved get furious if he found out that he hadn't woken him up even though they were supposed to hurry over right then? "… to report on what you found out about the Hei Dian Sect. Tomorrow night."
Jing Yi watched Qiu Ling's face and slightly narrowed his eyes. He had noticed the small pause in the middle and he knew Qiu Ling well enough to understand that something fishy was going on. "You wouldn't mind if I took a look myself, would you?"
Qiu Ling struggled to keep a straight expression. "No, why would I?" He handed the message over but covertly used his magic to change it a bit. Well, it was that person's own fault for sending a message written with that so-called inner energy. Wasn't that too easy to forge?
Jing Yi looked at the message. He couldn't read everything but it was enough to verify that his fiance had seemed to say the truth. He never would have thought that Qiu Ling had just changed what had been written there.
Qiu Ling smiled when he saw Jing Yi's face relax. It seemed he was saved.
Before he could celebrate Jing Yi's brows furrowed again. "Why is there such a gap in here?"
"Ah?" Qiu Ling looked at the petal and cursed inwardly once more. "Uh … It's written with inner energy. The one they send is probably just a simple disciple. Maybe he needed to take a break?"
"Is that so?" Jing Yi looked at him and then tipped on the character that he could indeed decipher as 'tonight'. "This looks a lot like your handwriting, Qiu Ling." He should know, even though he had learned a lot from Senior Martial Brother Yue his fiance had still insisted on helping him, too. Thus he had seen a lot of Qiu Ling's handwriting and since he always tried to copy exactly what Qiu Ling wrote he was especially familiar with it.
Qiu Ling couldn't quite find an explanation to that. Ugh. Why did he have to answer on the spot?
"You don't have another excuse? Then change it back!"
Qiu Ling pursed his lips but still did as he was told.
Jing Yi looked at the original message but unfortunately, he couldn't read the characters that had appeared. He looked up at Qiu Ling with a questioning gaze.
There was a sparkling in Qiu Ling's eyes that gave his plan away before he even uttered the first syllable. Jing Yi gave him the opportunity to display his shamelessness though. He really wanted to see what kind of excuse his fiance had come up with.
"Oh, it says exactly what I've read to you. You see there is more than one opportunity to write 'tonight'. I just changed it to make reading easier for you!"
"How noble of you."
"Mn! It's good that you know!"
"So why would he use this one?"
"Mn … That … how would I know what he's been thinking? I don't even know who the person is!"
"Oh. That's true." Jing Yi didn't stop staring at Qiu Ling though. That guy was clearly lying to him. He wouldn't let him get away as easily as this.
"What … What is it … my love?" Qiu Ling gulped. Looking at him like this … This was really too vicious! Why did it seem as if his beloved was very, very disappointed in him? It seemed as if he was just a few words short of breaking up with him!
Well, this was probably Qiu Ling's bad conscience raising its head.
"You don't have any idea why he used another word?"
"Mn, no … how … how would I know?"
"I always thought my fiance was incredible, knowing so many things, being able to infer so much from just little hints …" Jing Yi looked away, the very image of someone disillusioned about the person they had thought to be so great.
Qiu Ling panicked and naturally missed how the corner of Jing Yi's lips curled up for a moment. "Ah! Wait! Let me think, let me think! I'm sure I can figure that out!" He stared at the petal darkly, just one step away from ripping it to shreds. This damned thing had made him lose face in front of his beloved!
"Oh! I know! I know!" Qiu Ling pressed Jing Yi's hand up against his chest to show his sincerity and looked deeply into his eyes. "In fact, it's so simple I overlooked this possibility."
Jing Yi actually lost his train of thought. Qiu Ling's eyes … were really too beautiful. Especially if he looked as serious as right now.
"You see I'm sure this person … he's using a very strange dialect. It's no wonder he used this word."
With his fiance looking like this, Jing Yi didn't have the heart to call him out on his lies. So, he just played along. "So it's like that. Still … It's quite dangerous for that person to wait here for so long. Maybe we should get up and go over right now?"
"Oh. Sure." Qiu Ling nodded. He didn't care when they went to see that person. The only important thing was that his beloved had brought that excuse. Ah, he was safe now!
It was probably like Leng Jin Yu had once said in the Nine Heavens: Love really made people blind. Even the dragon king wasn't able to think rational in front of the person he loved.