Jing He didn’t know what Jinde was thinking. Even though his husband had the same idea of waiting for quite some time before they even thought about starting a family together, he still felt that preparing early on was in his best interest. He didn’t think that Jinde only wanted them to come over to play either. After all, he had complained just before how difficult children could be in the first few years.

Thinking about all this, Jing He straightened up further. “I will definitely do my best to help father-in-law when the child is there. I might just need some instructions first.” He couldn’t help but think that it might be worth it to ask his mother about this in the upcoming days though. Even though she wasn’t a dragon, she had raised two children after all, and some things shouldn’t differ too much.

Jinde smiled. “Well, you can but the playing is the important part. Children that young are cute and with this being your brother-in-law, you don’t even have the responsibility. It’s the best kind of child.” He chuckled and then turned to look at the door to the shared courtyard. “You’ve seen the shell during your trial but you’re welcome to take a look now that you’re back as well. Your impressions might be different now that you have the perception of a trueborn god again.”

He and Leng Jin Yu had talked at length after he recovered his past life’s memories and they retreated to the secret dimension to hide out, speaking about all the similarities between those two lives but also the differences that came with it. Among the latter, the innate abilities of the dragons compared to humans had been a big point. With the gods, it should be the same.

Looking at Jing He, Jinde leaned forward and propped an elbow up on the table, resting his chin on top of his hand. “I guess we can’t be said to have been all that familiar during the trial and now, it is even less so because we have hardly ever met since your return. I do hope we’ll change that in the future. I remember that Qiu Ling mentioned you were quite fond of gardening and during your trial, you learned some refinement. Do you want to pick that back up?”

Jinde had vast achievements in this area and while it had been a long time since he actively pursued this subject, the knowledge and experience were still there. Just as he had thought before, this would be the perfect topic to bond over. And, well, with Jing He’s timid character, it seemed like he might need something like that or it could take years for this child to open up.

Jing He felt somewhat troubled when he heard this question. He could understand what Jinde meant but … “I didn’t think about that yet. Right now, I am most worried about fitting into the dragon realm. But I guess after that … it wouldn’t hurt to take the time to learn more. Anyway, Qiu Ling’s status is high. It would be best to do something that fits this.”

Jinde pursed his lips. It almost felt like he had been talking to himself earlier. He suddenly understood why Qiu Ling had had such a headache in the past. Jing He really seldom thought about his own wants and needs and rather considered the impressions it would give others or how it could benefit the overall situation.

Even though he himself had originally started learning refinement for Chun Yin’s benefit as well because he wanted to appeal more to him and make up for what he considered lacking sword skills at the time, it had also been something he genuinely liked doing. Otherwise, he never would have delved into it as deep as he had. But chastising Jing He for not considering this wouldn’t help. Instead, he might have to use a roundabout way.

He thought for a moment and finally smiled again. “Well … I suppose there are many things you could do to achieve that result. You can think about it slowly. It’s easiest to do if you genuinely like the activity so maybe try finding something like that. Anyway, you don’t have to be in a rush so you can also try out a few things.”

Jing He nodded but felt that refinement would indeed be a good choice. Not to mention that Jinde cared about this and had vast knowledge so that he could help him, he also felt that he might have an easier time caring for spiritual herbs that could be used in refinement because he had always taken care of plants. Maybe he could even just learn more about that and help Jinde with this so Jinde himself could focus on pursuing his interest in refinement more.

Jinde watched him but didn’t pursue the topic further. He had brought it up and he had given some advice and now, it seemed that there was nothing left to say about this. Unfortunately, Qiu Ling — who Jing He would likely feel more comfortable with — still wasn’t back, and keeping quiet would be incredibly awkward.

He pondered what else there was but the only available and somewhat promising topic seemed to be Jing He being new to the dragon realm. As for what to say … “I remember when I went to the mortal realm. It was … different from what I was used to even though I had been there before. I lived in isolation, without really meeting anyone, and yet, for a long time, I was very much aware of the fact I wasn’t home any longer.

“I hope you’ll adjust to the dragon realm more easily. Maybe having people you know around will help. Qiu Ling should show you around more tomorrow and if you want to know anything, you can also ask me. I don’t know any of the current people all that well but I do know the city and its surroundings. I’m sure there’ll be interesting stories to tell. If not general ones, then I can still tell you about my youth in the city. That shouldn’t be too boring.”