Chapter 27

"Mm."

Shi Changyuan's tone was as calm as ever. "The elders all care greatly about Ling Ling. At the grand wedding and investiture ceremony, they will be honored guests and properly entertained."

Shi Changyuan had said only one sentence, yet Lin Ling heard just two words—grand wedding.

Lin Ling's eyes flew wide open.

"Hm? Had I not told Ling Ling yet?" Shi Changyuan deliberately asked. "What should we do, then?"

"Little Mushroom was about to be carried off without even knowing it."

After a brief conversation, the spirit elders could not have been more satisfied with Shi Changyuan. Seeing the young couple all sweet and lovey-dovey, they could not help sighing.

"Ah, it's just a pity Little Mushroom can't carry children. Otherwise, the child would surely be clever and beautiful, and could inherit the throne."

Lin Ling, who had not yet gone far, instantly recalled that dream from before.

Why did everyone want Mushroom to carry children!!!

"What did you all talk about in there?" Once Lin Ling and Shi Changyuan returned to the Imperial Study, Lin Ling asked curiously.

"Hm?" Shi Changyuan smiled. "Ling Ling did not ask about it the entire way back. I thought Little Mushroom was not interested in our conversation."

Lin Ling had been teased again. He gave two little huffs. "I just wanted to get farther away first. If I openly gathered intelligence and plotted loudly right in front of the elders, wouldn't that be disrespectful?"

Shi Changyuan smiled. "It was nothing much. They were probably worried that their child had been lured away by a bad person, so the parents wanted to step in and probe his background."

Lin Ling nodded and instinctively replied, "You're not a bad person."

Hearing Lin Ling's words, Shi Changyuan suddenly chuckled. "Not necessarily."

Seeing Shi Changyuan expose himself like that, Mushroom's eyes widened at once. Yet Shi Changyuan had no intention of explaining, immediately hooking Mushroom's curiosity. No matter how Lin Ling pestered him, Shi Changyuan would not reveal anything.

Lin Ling twisted his butt and turned around right in Shi Changyuan's chair, presenting his back to him.

Shi Changyuan smiled as he gently kneaded the back of Lin Ling's neck, then turned Mushroom back around. Seamlessly changing the subject, he asked, "What kind of wedding ceremony does Ling Ling like?"

"A wedding ceremony?"

"Did I not say before that I was preparing our grand wedding and investiture ceremony?" Shi Changyuan looked at the blank-faced Lin Ling. "What is it, Ling Ling?"

Lin Ling's long lashes trembled. A faint sorrow suddenly surfaced in his eyes, along with the despair of poverty. "Why are you already preparing the wedding ceremony?"

Little Mushroom was terribly upset.

"But I haven't even prepared the betrothal gifts for proposing yet."

Everything Lin Ling knew came from storybooks, and in those storybooks, which protagonist did not have a grand wedding with ten miles of red bridal trousseau, magnificent fanfare, and celebrations across the realm?

Little Mushroom thought that he, too, wanted to give the person he liked—Shi Changyuan—a wedding like that, so he had been secretly working toward it.

He counted all the good things he had saved up before, only to find that he had accumulated merely one small box so far.

Mushroom finally understood why some humans began saying from a very young age that they needed to save money to marry a wife.

Mushroom Spirit had suffered from being uneducated, QAQ.

Shi Changyuan's movements paused. He looked at Lin Ling with great interest. "Ling Ling prepared some too?"

Lin Ling nodded.

Shi Changyuan coaxed and tempted him. "Let me see?"

He had never expected that such a little mushroom could have such big dreams.

Shi Changyuan instantly imagined a little mushroom dragging along a pile of strange and unusual things, bringing his bird and beast friends to propose marriage at the palace gates. Still, it was quite interesting.

"No!" Lin Ling's face reddened at once. Squirming bashfully, he said, "I haven't saved up enough yet. What if you think it's too little?"

"I won't." Shi Changyuan smiled helplessly. "Anything Ling Ling gives me is priceless."

Besides, if they truly waited for Little Mushroom to save up enough, the betrothal gifts would probably become burial goods.

"And even if Ling Ling came to propose with only a stone, I would agree." Shi Changyuan looked at Lin Ling as though he were very easy to talk to.

Shi Changyuan's words left Lin Ling stunned. Then Lin Ling fiercely used the words Little Fat Chirper had taught him to lecture Shi Changyuan. "You can't be love-brained!"

After saying that, Lin Ling hesitated for a while, but Shi Changyuan eventually coaxed him into taking out the things he had prepared for him to see.

It was a wooden box just large enough for Lin Ling to wrap his arms around. It was not ornate, but it had been carefully secured with a large lock.

Lin Ling took the key he had hidden atop a beam in the Imperial Study and opened the box.

There were many miscellaneous items inside, but they had all been arranged neatly. Some were even wrapped in silk, making the owner's care obvious.

At the very top lay a branch as long as a forearm, with several pink flower buds on it. It seemed to be a peach blossom branch.

Lin Ling took it out and introduced it to Shi Changyuan. "A few days ago, I asked Little Fat Chirper to help me ask Peach Tree Spirit for this. The flowers on this peach branch will never wither. Give it just a little water, and they will bloom forever."

"I found a line of poetry in a book: 'The peach tree blooms in splendor, radiant with its flowers'... It is a blessing for newlyweds."

Lin Ling's eyes shone brightly, his gaze as radiant and beautiful as those peach blossoms and that poem.

Little Mushroom did not like reading poetry collections, nor could he understand them very well, but for Shi Changyuan, he was willing to seek out every beautiful blessing.

Shi Changyuan looked at the earnest Lin Ling, his gaze softening. He accepted the flower branch and waited for Lin Ling to pick up the next item.

"This is my Moonstone." Lin Ling picked up a stone as white and luminous as moonlight and introduced it. "When I had just become a spirit, I used this stone to cultivate with moonlight."

"And this painting—this was the first thing I saw after gaining spiritual awareness. I had someone paint it for me." Lin Ling excitedly picked up the scroll, spread it over the table, and slowly unfurled it.