It's been a thousand years since donghua went into seclusion and 400 years since he came back from it. After seclusion of 600 years, his first and only thought had been bai feng jiu. He wanted to see her, wanted to find out how had she been and what she had been doing for the past 600 years. He went back to taichen palace with the mind to find her again. Si ming and Zhong lin will tell him all about her.

Si ming was elbow deep in ink when he received dijun's missive. He knew what dijun was expecting to hear from him but he had no idea how to tell him that without getting his neck on canghe. The positions these two placed him in, he shook his head at this thought, and with his heart in his hand, he headed to taichen palace.

Zhonglin was happy since he wasn't the one giving dijun the bad news. He could see the star lord shaking in his boots when dijun looked at him waiting for the news about her highness of qingqui.

"qingqui had prospered and done well in the last 600 years. No unusual activity had been detected there." Si ming tried to deflect.

"And." Donghua pushed.

"The eastern lands of qingqui is being managed by high god bai yi. Her highness queen bai feng jiu of qingqui is said to be in training. No one has seen or heard from her since the day of the coronation." Si ming stammered. He couldn't read dijun's face, well no one could, but still, the expressionless face made his knees quiver with fright.

"Go to bai qian and ask her. Use the whole spy network to find where she is. I believe you know not to include my name in this, don't you si ming?

Si ming could only nod his head in answer.

"zhonglin, send for third prince." Donghua gave the commands and left the study.

Back in his chambers, he wanted to yell out from frustration for once in his life. He can't lose her now. Not when everything he had done to save the realms was crumbling down around him. She was the only thing he had to go on in his life. He can't save the realms now anyway, so, what harm could be there in being with his beloved little fox. He had left her so that he could get back his cultivation and protect the realms but that had failed. Even after cultivating for 600 years, his cultivation never went above the 50 percent mark. He came back with the resolution to earn back her love but she wasn't there, to begin with. He had to find her. He can not let go of her again.

There at xiwu palace, si ming interrupted the crown prince and his family.

"si ming greets crown prince yehua, crown princess bai qian and prince ah li." He curtsied to all three.

Bai qian was confused as to the appearance of si ming. He did not usually come to see them.

"greetings star lord. I am surprised to see you here. I wonder what brought you to our door." Bai qian mused.

"you misunderstand me, your highness. This servant just wished to see the little prince ah li. Earlier I used to see him whenever her majesty bai feng jiu came by. But it has been so long since I have met her majesty and his little highness. " si ming explained. But bai qian understood what he was here for, though the poor soul would not be getting what he came looking for.

"in that case, you should feel comfortable coming here, star lord. Ye hua and I don't mind you spending time with our little dough. In fact, we will be delighted, if you could take the little dough for some sightseeing today. He has been asking us for so long but we just did not have the time for it. That is a great idea, is it not, ye hua?" bai qian looked at ye hua pointedly, urging him to follow suit. And follow he did. The crown prince told si ming to take the little prince out for the day. Saddled with babysitting duties and no answers to dijun's questions, he left deflated.