Qiu Ling sighed. This was what he had feared all along. In fact, he wouldn't even have needed Bai Fen's affirmation. After ten years of trying to woo him, he knew Jing He more than well enough. That Jing He had that kind of tendency … it hadn't been a secret for quite some time already. It was just that so far, it had never been a problem.
Usually, he would always be around him. Each day was spent rushing to the Nine Heavens, trying to spend as much time with him as he possibly could. If he was unable to make it one day, he would just go over the next and apologize profusely. When had there ever been a chance for bigger misunderstandings?
But the situation right now was a different one altogether. Now, there was a situation where he seemed to prioritize somebody else. Even if that person was actually Jing He's reincarnation, he might feel insecure when he found out. After all, Jing Yi had had the same reaction.
And even though Jing He certainly understood the curse on the three immortal races better than Jing Yi did, with the way his mind worked and his insecurity, there would be even more questions that he asked himself. First and foremost, he would probably wonder what would be if it was not for that curse. What if maybe his lover was able to fall in love more than once? Then over the course of the trial, would his feelings have waned? Yes, that was exactly the type of thing that Jing He would think.
Qiu Ling closed his eyes, sighing deeply. "Then what should I do?"
Bai Fen could only smile wryly. "What am I supposed to say to that? You already made some promises. Knowing you, you won't be able to ignore that. If you could, it would be best to just stay here for the time being. Accompany Jing He and let that boy ascend like any other cultivator from the human realm. When he arrives, there will be people there to deal with them. Then, Jing He could wake up immediately."
Qiu Ling opened his eyes and looked at her with a faint smile. "You know that it's impossible for me to do that. I just wouldn't be able to bring myself to do so. In any case, I'll stay here for a bit. I just … can't bring myself to go back right now."
Bai Fen lightly squeezed his hand. "Is it because of the question you asked?" She had given him an answer but somehow, they had started to talk about the curse that was on her husband's family instead. She still hadn't found out what it was that had made Qiu Ling come here in the first place.
Qiu Ling also realized that he hadn't really told her anything. Now that she brought it back up, he wasn't quite sure what to say though.
"Well, I would be willing to give some advice if I knew what it was."
"The problem is that I'm not quite sure if you can give me advice. What you experienced was really bad. And I can imagine that if that happened without any forewarning, you had a very hard time. But I guess that is exactly what makes it so different. Basically, I met a person that was very important to me. I thought they were dead but I saw them again. Unfortunately, they only had a few more hours left to live."
Bai Fen nodded slowly. "So you did have time to say your goodbyes but you are still worried about something?"
Qiu Ling turned to look at Jing He instead, playing with his fingers. "I asked that person a few questions and we spoke for a while before we said our farewell. I can't help but think now that maybe the things I asked were wrong. Maybe there were other things that I should've talked about instead.
"And to think that I would never get the chance again … I just have a hard time with that thought. It wouldn't be so bad if this had been the only time. But being able to see them again and then maybe still messing up is really hard. It makes me feel that this chance that I was given was completely wasted in my hands."
Bai Fen didn't speak up immediately. The situation that Qiu Ling described wasn't usual even among the immortal races. If you died, you died. At most, the one thing you could compare this to was if two gods went on a trial in the mortal realm and somehow met and then — after they regained their memories in the Nine Heavens — reconnected by son amazing stroke of luck.
That was not something that happened often but sometimes, it would. The only problem was that in these cases, those people usually had their whole life ahead of them. Whatever needed to be asked, whatever they wanted to talk about, there would be enough time.
Qiu Ling's situation … it was a different one. What was she supposed to say there? But then again, she also couldn't keep quiet. After all, she had already said that she would try and give him some advice. So she could only try to make up her mind about what she thought of this.
Thinking for a while, she finally spoke up. "I think that this chance wasn't wasted. Yes, you might have different questions in the future and regret that you weren't able to ask them. But those will be questions of the future. The questions you had right now are the ones that you need to ask right now.
"What comes later … Nobody would be able to think of that. You can't guess that much. Nobody can. You made the best of the precious situation that you got. And I think even if the things you spoke about weren't everything you could have spoken about, the most important thing might be that you were able to say your farewells. At the very least, it means that you were able to send that person off. Don't you think that that is already worth a lot?"