Qiu Ling had no trouble seeing through Jing Yi's thoughts at this moment. His expression and the way he had looked at him right now … it was obvious what was going through his mind. He would need to be an idiot not to see that.
When he noticed, he smiled wryly. He definitely deserved this kind of treatment. After all, this whole situation was pretty much his fault. And also, he had to admit that he was a bit relieved seeing Jing Yi act like this. This whole day — since the moment An Bai and Xiang Yong had voiced their displeasure about his treatment of the Heavenly Empress that was — he had felt a bit unaccustomed to the way Jing Yi acted.
Clearly, Jing Yi should be unhappy about what was happening to him. After all, no matter how you looked at it, it wasn't fair for him to have to give up his life in exchange for Jing He's. After all, while Jing He had more or less willingly gone on this trial, the same couldn't be said for Jing Yi. He had been born without his knowledge and had only come to find out much later. Now, how could he be expected to just go along with it? That just didn't seem right.
So by all means, Jing Yi should be angry. He should be making a fuss about it and demanding that his life was also valued. To just casually accept and go along with everything, promising that he just wanted to see a few more things to have an easier time … that just wasn't right. It wasn't him. And this kind of deceptive lie was something that made things more difficult. It would be good if he was just honest about this.
Qiu Ling finally sighed. Maybe it was his behavior that had made Jing Yi feel that he couldn't say his true thoughts. After all, he had also echoed what An Bai and Xiang Yong had said. "It's alright. You don't just have to take everything in stride. You can be angry. I don't think that anybody expects you not to be."
Jing Yi slightly raised his brows but still pretended that nothing of the like was the case. "I'm not. I just expected that you would react like this. I was just making a statement." He turned away, seemingly looking at the books in front of him again.
Qiu Ling didn't let it fool him. He looked at Jing Yi, a hint of regret contained in his gaze. It was him who had made him become like this. Now, there was no way to change things anymore. This had been going on for far too long. No matter what he tried, it would be difficult to solve the situation.
The resentment that Jing Yi already carried would likely not be cleared until the day he died. And then, Jing He would have to grapple with that as well on top of everything else he would suddenly be confronted with. In fact, treating Jing Yi well was also treating Jing He well. He might not know yet how he was going to explain to him but if he was cruel to Jing Yi, then Jing He would remember that and considering that he was his lover, that would make things even more difficult.
Yes, looking at Jing Yi right now, and seeing what this whole situation was doing to him, that it would even drive him to lie to his face like this, he suddenly realized that maybe he had been wrong all along. Jing He had carved his soul because he was unwilling to be with anybody else. Jing Yi hadn't had a choice. He had been bound to fall in love with him because that had been Jing He's will. Even now, he couldn't extricate himself unless he was willing to erase the engraving on his soul which would probably hurt him even more than it had Jing He to do the original coming. And what would the end result be? It was hard to say. So no matter what he wanted, he was stuck in the situation.
At the same time, even if Jing He had originally thought that his mortal reincarnation would just never fall in love and stay alone, that already hadn't happened. They had met and they had fallen in love. Jing He might not have ever thought about this but it was a logical consequence of his own actions. Maybe he should trust that Jing He would see this as a sign of his love instead of a betrayal. It might not be easy to make him see it that way but right now, Qiu Ling felt that there might indeed still be a way for that.
Qiu Ling didn't say anything about it though and just kept quiet, silently following Jing Yi through the rows of bookshelves. This was something that he had to slowly think through. In fact, getting a second opinion sounded like a good idea as well. After all, he had rushed headfirst into things way too often with terrible results. It was better to take it slow now and think of all the possible outcomes that this might bring. Then, he would feel a lot calmer and the chance of hurting neither Jing Yi nor Jing He would be higher as well.
If he could truly achieve that, it would be for the best. And even if not … maybe there was some other way to deal with this. It would definitely be best to try finding one. For now, he just had to be patient.