To Whitebeard, the word "family" had never had anything to do with blood.
Whitebeard released Ace, pointed at Mu Chen, and laughed as he scolded, "Hey, you brat, you did that on purpose, didn't you?"
"You just wanted to see the look of shock on my face, right?"
"How could I?"
Mu Chen shrugged, though his face plainly said that was exactly what he meant.
"I just thought there was no need to hide something like this. If Roger knew his son had become your son, he'd probably jump out of his grave."
"He'd dare!"
"If he came, I'd beat him up again!"
Whitebeard glared.
The atmosphere on deck completely relaxed. Whitebeard's laughter swept away the shock and tension from before.
Ace wiped away his tears, looked at Whitebeard, then at Mu Chen, and suddenly felt a stone that had hung over his heart for so long finally fall away.
He had always feared that this secret would make Whitebeard despise him, but he had never expected this.
"But Whitebeard, you really do have a big heart. You're not even going to ask how Ace and Garp protected Ace, or why they preserved Roger's bloodline?"
The only thing that annoyed Mu Chen was that Whitebeard did not ask those questions. It had been satisfying just now, but not satisfying enough!
Whitebeard shot Mu Chen an irritated look and said, "Ask what? What is there to ask? Ace is my son. That's enough."
Whitebeard was actually a little curious, but he simply did not want to see Mu Chen looking so pleased with himself. Besides, he knew Roger and Garp well enough to roughly guess what had happened. Anything he did not know, he could just ask Ace about later.
Mu Chen could only curl his lip helplessly. "Ah, how boring."