Chapter 113
Chapter 113: Pregnant Women Were Irritable, Especially at the Cub’s Dad
After Jiang Tea Tea finished messaging Cheng Lin Yue, she set her lightbrain to silent and didn’t notice any further alerts.
She grabbed the flyer’s controls again and pushed the speed to the limit, following navigation straight for the Military Department.
The Military Department sprawled like a fortress city.
Before her flyer even fully stopped at the gate, she saw the security line: twelve guards, six mech troopers, and six fully armed soldiers carrying live-fire weapons.
Beastfolk. Half-beastfolk. Female soldiers. Human personnel.
All of them stood perfectly still, like iron trees—unyielding, alert, eyes hard.
Her flyer settled at the gate.
Adjutant Ai sprinted out of the guard booth behind one-way glass and opened her flyer door with a grin. “Jiang Tea Tea, classmate. Long time no see. Hello.”
Jiang Tea Tea hopped down and tossed him a small box of tea leaves. “Long time no see, Adjutant Ai. You got even more handsome. This is for you. Brew it in water—three to five leaves each time. It helps with ability backlash and soothing the mind sea.”
Infiltrating Old Loach’s inner circle and buying hearts with gifts was impossible. But her “3S-grade mutant plant-type healer” persona still needed maintenance.
Besides, the tea leaves were old leaves from her true body. If she didn’t pluck them, they’d fall off anyway.
Adjutant Ai caught the box with both hands like it was treasure and tucked it into his storage button. “Thank you. I won’t refuse, then.”
He straightened. “Come, classmate. Please follow me. The Commander-in-Chief is waiting.”
She was a Commander-in-Chief-certified 3S-rank mutant plant-type psychic power awakener. Anything she gave someone was assumed to be good.
She followed him through the gate and stared at the distant buildings—towering, sleek, and gleaming with advanced tech, stabbing into the sky like spears.
She squinted. “It’s pretty far from here to your Military Department building. Are we walking? With our legs?”
Adjutant Ai paused, as if he wasn’t sure he’d heard her correctly. “Classmate, anyone who comes to the Military Department—except the Commander-in-Chief—walks from the gate.”
So: you walk because that’s the rule.
Old Loach didn’t walk. Everyone else did.
Jiang Tea Tea raised a brow. “Is that so?”
“Yes,” Adjutant Ai said solemnly.
She sighed dramatically. “It’s far. What, five kilometers?”
Adjutant Ai answered with complete seriousness, “Straight-line distance, fifteen kilometers—”
She didn’t let him finish.
Jiang Tea Tea turned on her heel. “Tell your Commander-in-Chief the road to see him is too far. I’m not going. Whatever he promised me, he can have it delivered to the academy.”
Adjutant Ai froze. He hadn’t expected “walk fifteen kilometers” to make her turn around and leave instantly.
He hurried after her. “Commander-in-Chief is already waiting in the Military Department. Fifteen kilometers isn’t far. Walk faster and you’ll be there in no time.”
Jiang Tea Tea didn’t look back. She waved at him, marched straight to her flyer, climbed in, started it, and rolled away in a smooth, defiant escape.
Her magic power was still depleted. The cubs inside her still churned. She was craving his blood—craving the soothing of his mental power.
But she was a great demon with dignity.
Old Loach knew she’d come. He even sent someone to meet her. Walking three to five kilometers would’ve been one thing.
But fifteen?
When she was already exhausted?
Great demon pride did not allow such humiliation.
Adjutant Ai couldn’t stop her. He watched her flyer vanish, then sprinted back to the Commander-in-Chief’s office at top speed.
Chong Ming looked up when he entered. His gaze flicked to the man’s back—empty—and he frowned.
“Where’s Jiang Tea Tea?”
Adjutant Ai snapped into a salute. “Reporting, Commander-in-Chief. Jiang Tea Tea, classmate said the fifteen kilometers from the gate to your office building was too far, so she left.”
“She said that whatever you promised her can be delivered to the academy instead.”
Chong Ming’s golden eyes tightened. “Understood. You may leave.”
“Yes, Commander-in-Chief!”
Chong Ming set down his pen and opened a video call to Jiang Tea Tea.
One ring—no answer.
Two rings—no answer.
Six rings—no answer.
The call cut off automatically.
He called again.
This time, after five rings, it connected. Jiang Tea Tea’s image appeared on the projected screen in front of him.
He studied her face and said, “Fifteen kilometers for you—if you go fast, it won’t take fifteen minutes. If you go slow, thirty.”
“You have three and a half days of rest. You won’t even walk fifteen minutes?”
Jiang Tea Tea didn’t look at him. She kept flying, voice sharp with irritation. “Correct. I’m not walking. I hate walking. I don’t want to walk.”
Chong Ming watched her through the screen.
Over three months of study, her grades were all S-rank except one department where she held A-rank.
Every instructor who’d taught her said she was a genius—capable of becoming better and better and better. The problem was that she didn’t try. No matter how hard the questions were, she could always score an S, and she never, ever bothered to go past that. The moment she hit S, she stopped.
In the same three months, the other members of their eight-person squad had all lost weight to varying degrees.
She hadn’t.
She only looked pale.
Jiang Tea Tea waited for him to speak again. When he didn’t, she said impatiently, “My grades are excellent. Hurry up and send me the dragon blood. That’s it. I’m hanging up.”
“Wait,” Chong Ming said, stopping her.
“I’m opening your access to the Military Department now,” he continued. “Fly straight in and dock with my office.”
Jiang Tea Tea finally turned toward the screen. Her eyes slanted, and a nameless fury surged in her chest. She snapped like a lit fuse.
“What am I, your pet? When you called me over, you didn’t open access. I leave, and then you open access and call me back like I have nothing better to do?”
“Get lost. I don’t want to see you. You’re annoying.”
The cubs didn’t want to see him either. The moment she said “annoying,” they churned harder, as if agreeing.
Good.
Good cubs. Same side as her.
No dad’s psychic force soothing? Fine. They could eat her magic power. She could afford it.
Chong Ming stared at the dark screen after she cut the call. His brows drew together.
Her temper wasn’t just bad.
It was volatile.
That wasn’t normal.
After hanging up, Jiang Tea Tea finally saw Cheng Lin Yue’s message.
She’d originally intended to return to the academy.
Instead, she didn’t.
She went on Starnet, searched for the nearest Forest Hotel, booked a treehouse, and flew there.
She was a tea tree. Returning to the mountains felt like a river finally meeting the sea—like a flood of comfort sliding into her bones.
Inside the forty-to-fifty-square-meter treehouse, she paced, checked every corner, then poured magic power outward to shield the area.
She kicked off her shoes and fell onto the bed.
Her feet shifted into branches and roots. Her root system plunged into the earth.
The treehouse sat deep in the mountains, far from the others. Jiang Tea Tea had deliberately chosen one isolated from the rest.
She let her roots spread without restraint, burrowing through the mountain soil, drinking in fertilizer, nutrients, and the living pulse of the land.
She cultivated as well—reciting her methods, pulling spiritual energy from the air, strengthening her demon power.
The cubs craved their biological dad’s psychic force soothing, but with magic power feeding them and mountain nutrients supporting them, they settled down and slept.
One day passed.
Two days.
On the third day, Jiang Tea Tea finally rolled out of bed and drew her roots back in. She laid a hand over her belly.
The cubs sensed her touch immediately. They wriggled excitedly, bumping her palm with their heads and bodies like they were greeting her.
She used her magic power to see through and check them.
Just under seven months. Gold to an almost offensive degree.
She liked everything about them—except that color.
She opened her lightbrain and discovered several missed calls and urgent messages from Cheng Lin Yue, asking her to meet in person.
Huang Da Zhuang also messaged her with wild good news: he’d awakened dual abilities—speed and scent. Even though both were only C-rank, it was still a miracle.
Sui Xuan Chu and the others messaged too. Their abilities had upgraded—only by half a level, but it was real.
Jiang Tea Tea didn’t reply.
She only shared her current location with Cheng Lin Yue.
Cheng Lin Yue arrived fast—less than an hour.
The first thing she did was set up equipment in the treehouse: signal jammers, audio-blockers, video scramblers. She stacked them like a paranoid professional.
Then she dragged Jiang Tea Tea into the bathroom and spoke with grim seriousness.
“Sister Tea. Every female at the Royal Military Academy—including the teachers—has been examined. Only you haven’t.”
“Teacher said that when you come back, you have to be examined too. I said you’re a 3S-rank mutant plant-type psychic power awakener and don’t need it. Teacher said no. Every female at the Royal Military Academy must be examined.”
“I probed around. Teacher said it was an order from Chong Ming, the Commander-in-Chief. Every female must be examined.”
Cheng Lin Yue’s eyes went wide with panic. “No, no. You can’t take a leave of absence. If you leave, what am I supposed to do? I can’t study without you. Without you, I don’t have a backbone. There’s so much I can’t learn.”
Jiang Tea Tea watched her spin like an anxious hamster.
Then her eyes shifted. A plan formed.
“Don’t panic,” she said lightly. “I won’t be forced into a physical exam.”
Cheng Lin Yue stared at her like she’d lost her mind. “But… Chong Ming gave our teachers the order—”
“That’s his business,” Jiang Tea Tea cut in, smiling. “Whether the teachers carry it out is their business. Whether I cooperate is my business.”
“Relax. I’ve got an idea.”
Cheng Lin Yue’s eyes lit up instantly. “What idea?”
Jiang Tea Tea said, “We studied a lot of departments over the last three months. That includes the Disguise Department.”
“If Chong Ming insists on finding me, then fine. I’ll make the entire Capital Planet full of my shadows. I’ll let the cub distress scent cover the whole Capital Planet.”
Cheng Lin Yue’s eyes went round as bells. “You mean… I disguise myself as you and stay here in this Treehouse Hotel so you have proof.”
“And you use your stealth and disguise abilities to go around the Capital Planet, spreading the Dragon Clan cub distress scent and screwing with Chong Ming, the Commander-in-Chief!”