"So that's how it is—"
Meng Chao recalled Shen Yuanbao's wording. "From a certain perspective, the members of the Blue Alliance really are a rabble, then?"
"Calling them a rabble would be going too far, but they are indeed a motley mix of fish and dragons—there's every sort of person among them."
Ai Lei said, "In truth, the so-called 'Blue Alliance' is nothing more than a collective made up of everyone in Dragon City who opposes the Nine Super Enterprises, the Nine Great Cultivation Families, and the God Realm Experts behind them.
"As for why they oppose the Nine Great Families, the reasons are strange and varied—there's everything under the sun.
"Some opponents are simply ordinary people. They oppose the great families because their wives ran off with Transcendents from those families, or because they have remained single all their lives and never found wives. Every woman looks down on them, and they blame the existence of Transcendents from the great families for their lifelong bachelorhood. From then on, their minds grow twisted and resentful. They not only hate those Transcendents, but even hate the opposite sex."
"I've heard of people like that too."
Meng Chao nodded thoughtfully. "But are there many of them? Do they have much influence?"
"Many, and a great deal."
Ai Lei said, "In today's Dragon City, it is extremely difficult for an ordinary person to find a steady partner, let alone build a family and have descendants of their own—many would rather become the lovers of Transcendents from the great families, or not even qualify as lovers at all, merely share one night of springtime passion, than stay together with an ordinary person until their hair turns white.
"When you think about it carefully, it isn't entirely without reason.
"Marriage, after all, isn't just about