Bai Fen took a trembling breath but then focused again. Alliance aside, she felt that Qiu Ling should know these things so even if it hurt to remember, she’d tell him all about it. “The next time was about half a year after that accident. He was finally getting a bit more outgoing again so I took him to visit the Palace of Magnanimity.

“There is a spacious garden situated behind it, much more extensive than the one in my palace or the one next to Jing He’s. It’s been there for generations and was supposedly built by the very first God of Magnanimity to please his lover. Because of that, it contains several sceneries from a courtyard with an adjacent tearoom in the middle to a sea of roses to a small stretch of woods on the outskirts … There are a lot of different things to see and Yu Lin, the current Goddess heading the palace, has maintained it very well.”

Qiu Ling gritted his teeth. He could already imagine a lot of horrible ways for a small child to get hurt or at least scared at such a place.

Bai Fen shook her head. “At that time, I only wanted to have a look at one of the parts close to the palace with him. After all, even though nothing had happened for six months, I wasn’t about to risk it. So we went to a piece of land that was used as a stone garden, showcasing naturally formed rock sculptures in various shapes. It seemed like a fun thing to see for a child.

“Jing He was indeed having a blast and it seemed like he had completely forgotten about what had happened that time at the palace. He ran from one formation to another, looking at them from all sides and peeking through the holes.

“It all seemed to go well … until we reached the end of this part of the garden. The path there leads through a small mountain. Jing He wanted to go further but he had only taken a few steps into the entrance when a shadow tiger cub jumped out and attacked him.”

Qiu Ling clenched his hands. Shadow tigers were beautiful creatures but also incredibly dangerous. Their fur was inky black so they could easily hide in the shadows. Sneak-attacking their prey was their preferred hunting strategy and as long as they managed to jump you, most people would be hard-pressed to escape because they usually went straight for the throat or the heart. Apart from the dragon race or other creatures with a hard enough body to withstand the first strike, most others would perish in a short amount of time.

Obviously, Jing He had made it out alive. This might be due to the fact that it had only been a cub and not a fully grown shadow tiger or because Bai Fen had been close by and was able to save him in time but it had been a close call. That really wasn’t something he wanted to think about.

“With the experience from the last time, I reacted faster that day. I didn’t even see what exactly was in the dark. I only saw something move and heard my child scream as he fell to the ground and I attacked. I hit the cub with a lot more force than was probably necessary. I managed to blast it away but it was also badly hurt and there was blood everywhere. When I pulled Jing He out of the mountain and back into the light, I couldn’t tell for a while whether he was injured or not.”

“He wasn’t though, was he?” Qiu Ling gritted his teeth, unable to calm down even though he knew very well that it had been more than two millennia since then.

Bai Fen shook her head. “There were a few scratches but he was actually less injured than the time before. The shock was bigger though, especially after I had some time to calm down. I don’t think I need to tell you about how dangerous shadow tigers can be. The dragon race probably knows more about these things than we gods do. Even a cub … they might not measure up to an adult one but they are still dangerous for a small child of the god race.”

Qiu Ling nodded gravely. Yes, a dragon child had a certain amount of protection thanks to their body’s innate defensive measures but the trueborn gods were different. They were soft all over, their skin easy to cut, their bones easy to crack, their lives easy to lose …

The more he thought about it, the more he felt unwell all over. At some point when he hadn’t even known Jing He yet, his beloved had been in such danger. And it hadn’t only happened once but over and over again. He could have been lost a hundred or even a thousand times in those years and the two of them never would have met. To imagine such a possibility … he didn’t know what to do with it.

Bai Fen kept quiet for a moment, giving Qiu Ling some time to take all of this in. She knew how much he loved Jing He and how much he worried for his safety so she knew that even though all of this was in the past, it would cause Qiu Ling some panic too. “This wasn’t the only time.

“In the same year, he found an injured five-tailed cat. They’re cute and not that dangerous so I figured it should be alright to let him nurse it back to health. If it could get him over the encounter with the shadow tiger, it would be alright. Then, when it was better, it ran off, and he took off after it, and he fell down a slope on the outskirts of the city, once again getting injured. He didn’t manage to get the cat back either. For a small child, it’s tough to take.”