General Min Jun had been sitting quietly, not saying anything for a long time as if this discussion hadn’t originally started because of him. Now that Jinde had spoken directly to him, he seemed to wake up from a trance and looked at him oddly. “How can you be so calm about all of this?”

Jinde simply smiled in return. “What else am I going to do? Qiu Ling has had mixed blood since his birth. To be completely honest, I had my doubts about his mother even back then. She seemed … too coincidentally get entangled with his father but I figured it was my preconception, my unwillingness to accept he had someone more important than me in his life.”

The generals who had just returned to normal after figuring out that the Heavenly Emperor didn’t know about their king’s heritage and also hadn’t been in favor of the wedding at all despite being there, were once again thrown for a loop. Please excuse them? What had just been said?

Even though Qiu Ling and the people close to him were aware of the feelings between Jinde and Chun Yin and also about Leng Jin Yu’s identity as the latter’s reincarnation, the same naturally didn’t go for the generals. In fact, they had been wondering somewhat about this person whom Jinde introduced as his husband but it seemed less important than their king’s mixed blood so nobody wanted to inquire about that.

Now, they were suddenly thrown such a casual statement about the reason for the previous king’s distrust of their current king’s half-blooded mother. It was … well, they really didn’t know what to do about this any longer! Why was this getting stranger and stranger?!

Jinde chuckled when he saw their expressions that they tried to keep normal. Their efforts only made things worse but he understood why they were cautious and didn’t want to expose their feelings too much. He leaned over to Leng Jin Yu and kissed his cheek. “My dear, they seem to have some doubts. Do you want to say a few words?”

Leng Jin Yu glanced at his husband and faintly raised his brows. Why did he have the feeling that Jinde was just playing around? “I think you’re handling it just fine.” He also felt that the dragons would take everything better when it came from Jinde directly, instead of an ascended deity who was one life removed from everything.

Jinde pursed his lips. Ah, his husband was too boring! He sighed and turned back to the generals whose expressions were even odder now. Well, at least there was something to amuse himself with. “It turns out that I was right in the end but it was too late by then. Chun Yin was killed and left that life with a partial soul.”

The expressions around them turned subtle and Leng Jin Yu got a few more looks. Even though the generals had had their moments when they were too stunned to completely grasp the plot of everything that had happened, nobody who led soldiers during the war was an idiot. While they might have their blind spot in certain topics like Shou Quan who couldn’t really figure out how romance worked and had to rely on her wife for that, all of them were usually quick on their feet when they received enough information to judge a situation.

With as much as Jinde had exposed, they could already fill in the blanks about what had gone on back then. Even if there were still some questions left to be answered, it was enough to understand the previous king’s attitude: He had been in love with the current king’s father and obviously, despite losing to their king’s mother when it came to that relationship, he still loved the child of the man he loved as his own. No wonder he was speaking so much for him.

Most dragons didn’t have much of a bottom line when it concerned the one they loved. They had always been passionate people and with the curse on top, their partners had only become more important to them. Who didn’t want to spoil their significant other and who wouldn’t love even the crows on their roof? No matter what faults the person you loved had — even if they were in love with somebody else, had a child with them, and bound their soul to that person instead of you — you’d still love them and you would still love that child who meant so much to them even if it wasn’t yours.

This all-encompassing love had made the lives of many dragons difficult but it wasn’t easy to escape. So hearing such a story from their previous king, while there was some surprise, it also made sense to the generals.

Min Jun furrowed his brows though. “So all of this talk is simply based on the fact you loved his father?”

Jinde smiled. “That was the beginning of it all, yes. But that notwithstanding, everything I’ve said is true: I believe he is a good king and I believe he has shown everyone that this is the case through the years of hard work he has put in. Certainly, he has made some mistakes during these years but we all do and none of them were malicious.

“Even now, when it concerns the matter with the Heavenly Emperor, I believe everyone can see that Qiu Ling has done his best to appease him but he is in love with the crown prince of the Nine Heavens and he has long since bound his soul to him. How long is he supposed to wait until they make matters official? Especially after the crown prince vanished for so long, I am sure everyone will agree that there was a need for this.

“As for you, General Min Jun, you are afraid he will ally with the demons simply due to his blood. If you think about it, you know that this isn’t a rational fear after all this time so I believe that given some time, you will come to the conclusion that I am right. One thing you might think about is what happened to his mother: When she killed his father, Qiu Ling was the one who fought against her and killed her. That is to say that by now, he doesn’t even have any blood ties to the demon realm left. So what exactly are you fearing?”