Jing He looked at Jinde in a daze, feeling even more troubled now. By failing to make a decision fast enough, he had now troubled Jinde to ask about this in addition to having him wait for refreshments. He probably wasn’t leaving the best impression.

Jinde watched his expression slowly and made sure to think twice before he said anything else. With Jing He’s character, he probably thought about every sentence he heard several times, examining if he was being admonished or felt that he should be. Truly a troublesome personality! This type of flaw wasn’t easy to get rid of.

Even though he felt that Jing He was wrong to think like this, he knew that he couldn’t come at this from a standpoint of criticizing him or it would only make matters worse. While they weren’t familiar, he knew from Qiu Ling how sensitive his spouse was.

Thinking again, he finally motioned at the other chair. “Why not sit down first and then tell me about it?”

Jing He hurriedly nodded but still felt troubled inside. Taking a seat, he looked at Jinde before quickly lowering his gaze.

“So, what’s the matter?” Jinde made sure to speak as gently as possible, afraid to make the other person even more nervous.

Jing He glanced at him once more but wasn’t sure where to start. Most likely … admit fault? “I … I should be offering you tea.”

Jinde continued to look at him but wasn’t sure what he was getting at. Offering or not offering didn’t matter to him but Jing He was likely particular about such things. So if he wanted to offer but didn’t … “But you’re still unfamiliar with this place so you don’t know what to do? That’s alright, child.”

Jing He looked up and hurriedly nodded but he felt even worse when Jinde was so understanding. He knew how important he was to Qiu Ling. In the whole dragon realm, this was the person he should treat best right after his husband but here he was, doing so badly right after the wedding ceremony.

If the circumstances had been different, Jinde simply would have gotten some tea himself to end this but seeing that this mattered a lot to Jing He, he simply pointed to a cabinet at the side. “The tea set is over there so if you want to, just go and get it. From now on, this is your place as well so you don’t have to hesitate to do anything. Qiu Ling would never mind. He wants you to feel at home here.”

Jing He hurriedly nodded and got to his feet. “Please give me a moment, father-in-law.”

Jinde hummed and watched as Jing He walked over to the cabinet, indeed starting to prepare tea for him. He didn’t say anything in the meantime, hoping that these actions would also help Jing He calm down. Obviously, he wasn’t all that comfortable with him yet. Knowing his relationship with Qiu Ling and maybe even his identity as the past king of the dragon race might be putting additional pressure on him.

Jing He finally returned to the table and poured tea for Jinde and himself before quietly sitting down again, once more apologizing for taking so long.

Jinde simply shook his head. “No worries. Qiu Ling might take a while and I’m just here to accompany you in the meantime. You must be nervous. Getting married is a huge step. It means quite some changes in your life.”

Jing He hesitated but finally nodded. “There are indeed a lot.” In fact, he was very nervous but he didn’t dare to say so. He knew that Qiu Ling would be a great husband, he didn’t worry about that. No, he only worried about whether he would manage to fit in. But saying how worried he was might be taken wrong so it was better to keep quiet.

Jinde watched him and suppressed a sigh when he didn’t get more than this one sentence from him. This child was really … well, timid wasn’t enough to describe it. “You know, I myself haven’t been married for too long.” Jinde finally started here. Establishing some common ground might help with getting his message across.

Jing He nodded. He was naturally well aware of the story between Jinde and Leng Jin Yu.

Jinde hummed again. “Of course, I have known my husband for a long time if you count both his lives. Looking back now, I can see where we went wrong in the past and what is working better now. Leng Jin Yu has qualities Chun Yin never had. Which isn’t to say that I didn’t love both of them.” He looked at Jing He, his own expression calm. The other person also seemed to be listening quietly.

Jinde felt relieved that things were going somewhat alright so far. “I know you love Qiu Ling a lot. It’s clearly visible. Sometimes though, love isn’t enough. I’ve experienced that and while the two of you are clearly doing much better than Chun Yin and I were, I want to give you a bit of advice if you’d like to have it.”

Jing He felt startled when Jinde said that love wasn’t enough but hearing him say that he wanted to advise him, he hurriedly nodded. “Of course, father-in-law. I’d be happy to hear what you have to say.”

“Mn.” Jinde took a sip of the tea and then sighed. “Looking back, what broke the relationship between Chun Yin and I was that we talked too little. We thought we knew the other in and out, that we could guess every thought and change in emotion, and that it was the same the other way around. But you can’t know everything so it’s important to say it out loud if there is something on your mind.” He looked at Jing He who was listening quietly and smiled gently. “You seem a bit timid but you don’t have to be. Not in front of your husband. That is the one person in front of whom you don’t have to hold anything back.”