As soon as they had returned home, Zhen Zhu couldn’t help but start firing off all the questions that the other phoenixes had brought up. "Say, what about my role in the house?"

Zhu Hong raised his brows, not quite sure what to make of his little spouse’s spirited inquiries. "What kind of role do you mean?"

Being asked like this, Zhen Zhu wasn’t quite sure how to explain. How had the other phoenixes managed to make it sound so simple? "Well …" He searched for the right words but they didn’t quite want to come to mind.

Zhu Hong continued to wait patiently, not hurrying him up. In any case, he had a faint guess in mind but he also didn’t want to assume too much. This kind of thing, it was better to let Zhen Zhu explain clearly.

"Well, I mean what exactly am I supposed to do? You said you will go out to do missions in the future. So what about me? You don’t intend to take me along, do you?"

Zhu Hong’s lips suddenly twitched when he heard that question. "Dong Ling wouldn’t have given you some kind of idea, would he?"

Zhen Zhu tilted his head, surprised that Zhu Hong would immediately think of that phoenix. "Why would you think so?" He clearly didn’t understand the other phoenixes that well yet.

Zhu Hong smiled wryly but then cleared his throat and still explained. "Well, let’s just say that Dong Ling and his husband are quite infamous in the valley. Back then, his husband, Yin, was definitely one of the most gifted hunters in our clan. He really prided himself in it. I have to admit that I looked up to him quite a bit."

"He must be really awesome!" In Zhen Zhu’s mind, his husband was wise and knowledgeable. If he looked up to another man, that person had to be brilliant.

Zhu Hong nodded. In any case, he had thought the same. "Well, Yin always said that he couldn’t wait to get married. To have a gentle wife that would wait for him at home, showering him with kisses and affection when he returned in glory. As a result, when the egg he had picked out finally hatched and Dong Ling had stayed with him for a few days, things did not turn out like he had imagined.

"When Yin wanted to bid farewell to him before leaving for his first mission since the day they had gotten married, Dong Ling wasn’t happy at all. Not because he didn’t want his husband to leave like most other phoenixes would. No, rather than that Dong Ling himself didn’t want to stay at home either. He wanted to accompany him on the mission.

"Well, he got his will. In all these years since getting married, he never had to stay home. Not even once. When the dragons go hunting, Dong Ling will always accompany them. No matter who it is, whether his husband is in that group or not, he will always be there, and usually at the forefront. This guy … I’m afraid that whether it is among the phoenixes or the dragons, he is fiercer than all of them. It has given Yin quite the blow."

Zhen Zhu’s eyes had turned round. He really couldn’t make up his mind about what he thought about this. "So the phoenixes can actually go hunting as well." It hadn’t really occurred to him before. If this was possible …

Zhu Hong’s expression immediately twisted. "That … While it is generally possible, I really wouldn’t advise you to do so." He really didn’t want to tell him what to do but there was a difference between phoenixes and dragons. The reason why Dong Ling’s husband wasn’t thrilled at him coming along was that phoenixes were usually more fragile. Even though Dong Ling was clearly able to carry himself, if he ever did get hurt, the result might be disastrous.

On the other hand, with their hard scales, there really weren’t many things out there that would be able to hurt a dragon. Thus, the likelihood of something happening to them was actually quite low. There was still the chance that something might go wrong if an enemy somehow managed to attack precisely the spot where their reverse scale had grown or managed to injure their eyes but those cases were exceedingly rare. And usually, if there weren’t any outside reasons, then nothing would happen.

But, well, that wouldn’t keep a phoenix like Dong Ling from following along. Since he wanted to do it, he would do it. That was the kind of attitude he had. If his husband tried to say no … Well, it would probably end in their divorce. And no matter what, Yin actually loved the guy to bits.

So even though he worried him sick every time they went out to hunt, Yin just quietly endured, and at most grumbled to himself a little. People were joking that he was afraid of Dong Ling but it was probably just that he was afraid for his sake. He didn’t want him to get hurt. And that, clearly, was because he loved him so much.

Putting himself in Yin’s shoes, Zhu Hong really wasn’t sure if he could match up. If he was able to keep Zhen Zhu from trying something like this himself, he would definitely do so. He didn’t want to forbid him from anything but to have to worry like this … he wasn’t sure if he had the mental fortitude to do so.