Qiu Ling raised his brows and gave An Xin a deep look. “Seems like you’re stuck with me now.” He wasn’t sure how to feel about this but finally just sighed and pulled An Xin into his arms. This certainly couldn’t compare to embracing his beloved but he knew that Jing He liked An Xin very much. Come to think of it …

“It’s really no wonder he took a liking to you immediately. You wouldn’t know since you were up in the High Heavens with him but his mother told me he liked animals when he was younger but would inevitably get injured around them. He must enjoy having you now and being sure that nothing will happen.”

Of course, a flame beast wasn’t exactly harmless. Qiu Ling glanced at the sharp claws that could be seen and then warily eyed the fur that wasn’t burning right now but still emanating quite some heat. Maybe he should file the former down and prepare a collar with an array to make sure the temperature wouldn’t get too high?

An Xin had turned onto its back and stared up at Qiu Ling in almost the same wary way. It was mostly worried about this person currently holding it though. Their previous encounters hadn’t all been good, after all, so it remained to be seen how today would go by.

Qiu Ling left his room while pondering whether he should take action. He also absentmindedly rubbed An Xin’s belly. As a dragon, he really didn’t think the temperature was all that high but Jing He was a god. His people weren’t necessarily physically strong. But then, if this was an issue, would he have been carrying An Xin in his arms? That seemed unlikely.

In the end, the idea to make An Xin less dangerous was abandoned. Anyway, this specific flame heart was still very small and not that dangerous yet. And in the future when it was … that was also a good thing because it meant that An Xin could protect Jing He. Until then, it could just be a fluffy hand warmer.

Qiu Ling clicked his tongue when he thought of that. “How could you forget to run through the portal with Jing He? What if he feels lonely while up there now?” His beloved couldn’t very well go and chat with Tian to alleviate his loneliness, could he? No, that might have the opposite effect considering the matter with their child.

Qiu Ling’s steps slowed when he thought of this again. He truly didn’t mind not having children if that was the only way forward with Jing He. Having a child and then losing it would be difficult though. He definitely wasn’t looking forward to that experience but … it didn’t seem like they’d have a choice. Tian wasn’t the type to do you a favor and then not collect the interest later on and he’d be much less likely to forget about this if it involved his lover and his child.

Qiu Ling sighed deeply and looked at An Xin. “I suppose you being there wouldn’t change that he has to deal with him either. I just hope it’ll be alright. Jing He didn’t seem …” He searched for the right words but finally shook his head. He wasn’t even sure where to begin.

Maybe ‘stable’ would be the right place. His beloved had been going from blissful happiness to devastation and back again in rather quick succession. Even though he had always liked to overthink, the rapid changes in emotion and the depth of every new feeling that hit him just seemed different from before. This was likely the effect of his fall.

Qiu Ling walked into the throne room and looked around but nobody could be seen yet. The study next to it was also empty when he entered it so he quietly set up his desk and sat down behind it, keeping An Xin on his lap, rubbing the soft ears.

He didn’t have much to compare Jing He’s behavior to when it came to fallen gods. He had only met one so far and he wasn’t sure how typical of a fallen god Xiang Yu was. Most likely … not that much. No matter how he looked at it, he only seemed like a child to him which … was funny because he was well aware that Xiang Yu might actually be older than him. It was hard to tell though.

As for other fallen gods, he was only aware that there seemed to be some in the High Heavens. They had given him a creepy feeling when he was there so he’d rather not get close again.

When comparing Jing He to this limited experience, he didn’t know what to think. Xiang Yu was also a little extreme in his views. After all, with every problem he encountered, his first thought seemed to be ‘Let’s just kill them!’ before he ever considered something else. He was easy to talk out of that though. Oh, right. When it came to matters of the heart, he also seemed to have an explosive temper. Hadn’t he attacked Xin Lan once because he thought the person liked him?

To sum it up, it seemed like fallen gods might tend to have high emotions and go to extremes when encountering something they didn’t know how to deal with. He somehow didn’t believe that Jing He would ever turn into the kind of person who would wantonly kill someone. Of course, he also had no idea how a child like Xiang Yu had turned out like that. But still, with Jing He, it had to be impossible. It was much more likely that he’d pull back farther than before and hide even more.

Hopefully, Tian would help them to deal with that. He himself really wouldn’t know what to do otherwise. There were just some things where he was helpless and Jing He’s current situation was definitely one of them.