The two men didn’t have to wait long. With the first rays of sunlight filtering through the treetops, Jing Yi’s eyelids twitched. He opened his eyes and … went into a daze.

What is a tree doing in our house?

Jing Yi couldn’t wrap his little head around this idea. He blinked again to make sure it wasn’t his eyes that were playing tricks on him.

Qiu Ling snickered. Ah, my love, you’d certainly think I was mean if you knew who I am right now. But you really can’t fault me! I thought and thought but I can’t see any other solution anymore. You can’t want me to see how you fall in love with somebody else. This is just for your own good! For our future together!

Mister Zhong also noticed that his son had woken up. "Jing Yi! Good morning. How did you sleep? Isn’t it such a nice day?"

Jing Yi looked up at his father and noticed all the other trees and the star-littered sky above their heads. The boy was dumbfounded and could only stare. Mister Zhong waited patiently. He’ll be laughing and jumping around in no time! he encouraged himself. Only … he didn’t know his son as good as his wife did.

Jing Yi scrunched up his face. Tears gathered in his eyes and the tip of his nose turned red.

Now it was Mister Zhong’s turn to be dumbfounded. "What to do? What to do?! The child is about to cry … It wasn’t supposed to be like this!"

Qiu Ling put a hand to his forehead and sighed. Yes, it wasn’t supposed to be like that! As his father shouldn’t you try to pacify him?!

"Wife … How am I supposed to react now?!" Unfortunately, Madam Zhong still slept at home, completely unaware of what her husband had done. And if she knew and found the two of them like that, he would have gotten himself a good scolding.

Thinking about that Mister Zhong manned up. "Jing’er, there’s no reason to cry. Look, there are such beautiful stars up in the sky! How about daddy tries to catch one?"

Mister Zhong reached up, trying to distract the boy but Jing Yi didn’t even notice. He had clenched his small hands into fists and furiously rubbed at his eyes that got redder and redder while tears spilled out.

Flustered, Mister Zhong dropped his hand and cudgeled his brains. What would his wife do in such a situation? But he just turned up with a huge blank. Jing Yi was normally so well-behaved that he had never seen his wife pacify their son.

Qiu Ling leaned against one of the trees and closed his eyes. He didn’t want to see Jing Yi’s crying face. But without looking, Jing Yi’s cries sounded even more mournful.

"Damn it! I shouldn’t have sent that dream! But what’s with you?!" He furiously turned to Mister Zhong even though the man couldn’t see him. "Your child’s crying! Aren’t you going to do something? Sing him a song? Cuddle him? Damn, I should just cuddle him myself!" Qiu Ling set out to do exactly that but stopped just short of reaching out.

Jing Yi also couldn’t see him. It would just get worse if he did anything.

"Aiya! What are you crying for? Everything is alright!" Mister Zhong picked Jing Yi up, stood up himself and sat his son down on a protruding root. "Look!" He squatted down next to Jing Yi and motioned to a hole in the ground. "Doesn’t that look just like a burrow? There might be some rabbits inside! Wouldn’t you just love to see a rabbit?"

An even louder wail answered him. Not just that, his son dropped his little fists, jumped down from the root and flitted away from the burrow on his short legs. His father stared after him dumbly.

"Uh … So, you don’t think there are rabbits inside? Should we search for them elsewhere?" He stood up and scratched his head. It was really hard to take care of a child.

Qiu Ling winced. Thank god he had saved Jing He’s mortal mother back then! He didn’t even want to imagine how the child would have turned out if he was left alone with a guy like that. He followed the boy while Mister Zhong wasn’t sure what to do. When he finally got out of his daze and went after his son the boy had already disappeared somewhere in the underbrush.

"Uh … Jing’er?" Mister Zhong called out to him.

No answer.

"Jing’er? Where are you?" Only the wind answered him and it started to blow more fiercely as if it wanted to scold him for his incompetence. "Come back here! We … we don’t have to search for rabbits if you don’t want to! How about going to play at the river instead?"

Hearing his father talk about the river Jing Yi only ran faster. The Zhongs would probably find out soon that lying to a child would come back to bite you.

Qiu Ling sighed. It worried him that Mister Zhong had taken his son without telling his wife just because he had a dream and even managed to lose him in the forest. But then again it was still beneficial to his own plan.

It was just, that … he felt himself to be a little cruel.

"Ah, forgive me, my love. But I’ll make up for it later on. It’s a promise!" With that, Qiu Ling followed Jing Yi to the scrub he had hidden in and took cover behind a tree out of Jing Yi’s sight. It was time for the grand finale of his plan!