Xiang Yu’s eyes widened while his mind immediately wandered to the earring Xin Lan had made for him on his trial as Hua Lin Yu. Actually, this explained why he had gone for a piece of jewelry as a gift for what he wanted to be their engagement.

Also, now that he thought about it … it seemed like Xin Lan had often complimented him if he wore a more elaborate hairpin or some jade bracelets. And while they were visiting new cities, if he picked out a souvenir, he usually went for jewelry as well. Sure, there had also been other things but if he were to look into the spatial gem on the earring now and piled up everything that had been gifted to him by Xin Lan, then nine out of ten of them would likely be some form of jewelry or clothing.

“Huh. So it was like that.” He really hadn’t made the connection but it was obvious when pointed out. That certainly meant that he would have a chance to catch Xin Lan’s eye even in his current form if he just dressed up right. Anyway, he didn’t think that Xin Lan wouldn’t like him. He was still the same person, after all! He simply looked a bit differently.

While Xiang Yu was having a revelation, Leng Jin Yu pointedly looked at the necklace around Jinde’s neck. He didn’t bother saying anything though.

Jinde coughed and reached up to touch the high-quality transmission stone in the middle. “I only realized much later and then didn’t think it was like that with me. Although … he did give me a lot of jewelry throughout the years. It seemed to be his go-to present whenever an opportunity arose.” Or even outside of any occasion if he was being honest. Xin Lan really liked giving jewelry.

Leng Jin Yu shrugged. “I can’t even blame him. It probably looks good on you.” Not that he had seen much jewelry on Jinde. While he paid a lot of attention to his appearance, he seldom wore jewelry.

Jinde sighed. “I guess it does but I never liked it. Speaking of which …” He turned to look at Xiang Yu who was still taking mental stock of the gifts he had received. “I never wore them but didn’t want to throw them out either so they’re stashed away in some spatial ring. You could have them if you want. Xin Lan has never been stingy so they’re all high quality and really beautiful.”

Personally, he had only refrained from wearing them because, often, people would only think of him as the first beauty of the dragon realm. It was pleasant to a degree but it stopped being flattering when that was all people considered him to be. Many had even judged him to be a vase when he acceded to the throne.

He hadn’t wanted to foster that image even further so he tended to dress well but not overly eye-catching. Part of that was not indulging in jewelry. So while he had treasured the sentiment of wanting to do something nice for him, he hadn’t ever really used Xin Lan’s gifts. Well, apart from the transmission necklace since that one was practical and also rather understated in general.

Xiang Yu’s eyes lit up when Jinde offered this. He himself had no jewelry apart from the ones he had received from Xin Lan and Yan Xia. Unfortunately, he couldn’t wear any of them. Xin Lan would certainly get angry if he saw him with the jewelry that had been given to him during the trial and the pieces Yan Xia had gifted him … well, he’d rather not think of it.

His expression had already dimmed when he thought of Yan Xia. Not even mentioning that he disliked the memories of him in general, he also couldn’t help but notice the difference in the treatment he received from Yan Xia and Xin Lan.

During his trial as Mo Qing, he had been a poor human boy. He didn’t know what was good and what wasn’t so he naturally didn’t notice that the beautiful hairpin or that sparkling bracelet Yan Xia gave to him was actually of low quality.

Even after his trial ended and he went to find him in the demon realm, he was ignorant. After all, he hadn’t even come of age yet and he hadn’t been like Jinde or Qiu Ling who grew up in the king’s palace. No, he had been part of the common people, a simple villager who knew nothing of those things. Whatever Yan Xia gave, he’d treasure it and loathe to part with it because they indeed seemed like treasures to him.

So many years had gone by since then and his view of them had stayed the same. It was only now that he put them next to Xin Lan’s gifts and compared them that he realized … in Yan Xia’s eyes, he had always been worthless.

Xiang Yu stopped again, his mood even lower than when he first thought of Yan Xia. It wasn’t like he didn’t know that that man hadn’t loved him. Yan Xia had been a demon, he couldn’t love so that was no surprise. Also, the things he had done to him … you wouldn’t do that to somebody you loved. In fact, if he asked anyone else, they likely wouldn’t think to do them to a person they hated either.

But he had never thought about it too much because he had fallen, after all, and his memory preserved the seemingly beautiful times with the one he loved while trying to push out what had caused his fall in the end. Yes, most of the time, he stopped remembering what had happened at the moment their wedding ceremony ended because he simply could not bear the truth. But it seemed that even if he ignored that, Yan Xia’s lack of interest in him as a person would have been obvious to anyone but himself.