Chapter 121
Chapter 121: Don’t Play Mind Games with a Cub’s Dad—Others Hit Two Birds with One Arrow; He Hits Eight
“Coordinate what story?”
Before Sui Xuan Chu could even open his mouth, Jiang Tea Tea sprang up, guilt flashing through her face as she snapped, “Chong! What the hell are you implying? Say it clearly!”
Sui Xuan Chu blinked, his brain shorting out.
First Hotel?
His uncle and his roommate knew each other from First Hotel?
They… slept together?
The cub in her belly was actually his uncle’s?
No. No way. Absolutely not.
His uncle could fight like a monster, rule an empire like a monster, and now he could turn an egg-laying golden dragon into a live-bearing one?
Sui Xuan Chu forced his gaze up toward the ceiling. He refused to look at Jiang Tea Tea’s stomach.
His roommate’s belly held his brother… or his sister.
Their Golden Dragon Imperial Clan wouldn’t be just two dragons anymore.
A third golden dragon was coming.
Chong Ming looked at them as if surprised. “You don’t need time to coordinate? Excellent.”
“Go to my office and wait for me.”
“I’m not going—”
Jiang Tea Tea barely got the first word out before Sui Xuan Chu grabbed her arm and hooked an arm around her shoulder. It looked like he was dragging her, but his grip was careful.
“Roommate, don’t be stubborn,” he muttered. “You can’t beat him. Don’t let him kick you in the belly again.”
“Who’s being stubborn? If I can’t beat him and he kicks my belly again, I’ll take him down with me.”
“Take him down with you?” Sui Xuan Chu scoffed. “What kind of interstellar joke is that? You’re tiny. Three piles of cow shit tall. He could crush you like an ant.”
“Who are you calling three piles of cow shit tall?” Jiang Tea Tea hissed. “I can’t kill him, but I can kill you.”
“Killing is illegal!”
“Let go of me!”
“I’ll let go once we’re in his office…”
“Don’t force me to hit you.”
“Hitting people is illegal too!”
“Remember this. When we get back to school, I’m killing you.”
“I’m not going back to school,” Sui Xuan Chu shot back. “I’m living in his office.”
They bickered all the way down the corridor like two chicks pecking at each other, and finally disappeared into Chong Ming’s office.
Chong Ming slowly withdrew his gaze from their retreating figures. His golden eyes lowered to Li Ao’s blood-smeared face.
His boot ground harder into Li Ao’s hand, and every trace of earlier amusement vanished.
“Director Li. The Ability Research Institute has existed for a long time. You’ve served as its director for a long time. I trusted you. I believed you followed procedure and respected the empire’s laws while researching the rules of awakening.”
“But your actions have been dancing on my trust.”
Li Ao’s hand was torn open under the boot, blood soaking the floor. The earlier frenzy in his eyes had drained away, leaving only pain and forced sobriety.
“Commander-in-Chief,” he rasped, “I have always followed procedure. I’ve never violated regulations, never broken the empire’s laws. Everything I do is for the empire’s strength—for the day every citizen can awaken and grow stronger. Please investigate thoroughly. Please see clearly.”
Chong Ming stood over him, the pressure of a true superior radiating in cold waves.
Li Ao looked up from the floor, but he couldn’t bring himself to meet those golden eyes. It wasn’t just the pain in his crushed hand, or the bleeding gash across his face.
It was the way Chong Ming’s presence turned the air into an ice cellar. Li Ao sweated through his clothes—and still felt cold.
Chong Ming spoke, flat and merciless. “Let me see clearly, then. Your hypnosis ability—mutated into something close to the legendary ‘illusion.’ Out of the ten abilities on your body, it’s the most outstanding one, isn’t it?”
Li Ao’s pupils shook as if struck. His breathing sped up. “Commander-in-Chief, I—I don’t understand what you mean. I don’t have ten abilities. I only have hypnosis. I don’t have any so-called legendary illusion—”
Chong Ming’s voice softened by a fraction, slicing through Li Ao’s denial like a blade. “You cleaned the Institute’s floors very well.”
“And you wiped your own ass very clean.”
“If it weren’t for five months ago—when I sent you to the 30-School Military Academy Championship—your hunger for Classmate Jiang Tea Tea made you excited enough to disobey my orders, I wouldn’t have realized how far your hand had reached.”
“For the nation? For ordinary citizens who never awakened? For me?” Chong Ming’s gaze lowered. “Or for yourself?”
“You’ve produced research. You’ve written papers. You’ve helped plenty of stalled ability users level up.”
“But, Director Li… the people who entered your Ability Research Institute—did they all go willingly? Did they all lie on your dissection tables willingly?”
Li Ao’s heartbeat thudded. He lunged for certainty through denial. “Of course. Commander-in-Chief. Everything I do complies with law and regulation. I follow the Institute’s charter.”
“I’ve never forced anyone. Whether rare ability users or ordinary ones, they came willingly. They signed waivers to contribute to the advancement of abilities.”
“If you doubt it, send investigators. I can provide communications, addresses, family contacts—for every ability user who entered the Institute over the last hundred years. I can provide footage of every research procedure.”
“If you find even one violation, you don’t need to arrest me. I’ll walk into the empire’s prison myself. Exile me. Shoot me. Whatever you want.”
Chong Ming applied a little more pressure.
Crack—crack—crack.
Li Ao’s hand bones snapped under the boot.
Chong Ming’s voice remained calm. “Director Li, you’re confident because you believe I, as Commander-in-Chief and Prince Regent, won’t arrest someone without evidence.”
“You’re confident because you use your mutated hypnosis—your illusion—to rewrite the memories of everyone who enters the Ability Research Institute.”
“You turn unwilling victims into ‘willing volunteers.’ You make them climb onto your dissection tables and let you carve them up.”
“Even if they leave the Institute, their rewritten memories won’t threaten you. They can’t become witnesses in court. They can’t accuse you. They can’t testify against you.”
“No. I didn’t—”
Chong Ming didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t need to.
He cut Li Ao off with a command that carried absolute authority. “Major Ma. Take him.”
Da Ma Zi appeared at once. “Yes, Commander-in-Chief.”
Terror burst out of Li Ao. “Commander-in-Chief! I didn’t break the law! You have no evidence! Arresting me like this is abusing privilege!”
The moment the words left his mouth, Li Ao went rigid.
What had he just done?
He’d questioned Chong Ming.
Da Ma Zi yanked him upright, twisted both arms behind his back, and snapped electric cuffs onto his wrists.
Chong Ming watched him with maddening composure. “Director Li. I said it—I know you cleaned the Institute. I know you cleaned yourself.”
“I’ll even admit your mutated hypnosis illusion is impressive. It turned every victim into a ‘hero’ who volunteered to contribute to the advancement of abilities.”
“If I had no evidence, I could imprison you, exile you, or shoot you with a wave of my hand. But it wouldn’t convince the public. It wouldn’t set an example. It would give other nations ammunition for their media.”
“And it would violate the principles by which I govern.”
Hearing that, Li Ao’s hanging heart eased.
No evidence, then no arrest. No punishment.
Chong Ming paused—and then continued.
“But you did break the law, Director Li.”
“And today, my arrest is justified.”
Li Ao’s eyes bulged. “What law did I break?”
Chong Ming’s lips curved, cold and thin. “You insulted the Crown Prince.”
“And you attempted to murder the Crown Prince.”
“That is a great crime. And a capital crime.”
Li Ao stared, blood and disbelief smeared across his face. “I insulted the Crown Prince? I tried to murder the Crown Prince? Who is the Crown Prince? Where is he?”
Chong Ming replied, almost kindly, “Where is the Crown Prince?”
“Minutes ago, didn’t you see him? Didn’t you insult him as nothing but a reckless little cadet who didn’t know the height of the heavens?”
Li Ao’s body began to shake.
That cadet.
The one who had shouted at him and shielded Jiang Tea Tea.
That cadet was the Crown Prince in disguise.
“I didn’t insult him,” Li Ao pleaded, voice breaking. “I didn’t try to murder him. It was Jiang Tea Tea who beat me bloody! I’ll report her for assault—attempted murder!”
Chong Ming’s tone turned meaningfully flat. “Oh. Classmate Jiang Tea Tea beating you? Murdering you?”
“No.”
“She wasn’t beating you, and she wasn’t trying to murder you. She was fulfilling a citizen’s duty—protecting the Crown Prince when someone attempted to kill him.”
“And you—Director Li Ao of the Ability Research Institute—came to the Military Department outside working hours, lay in wait for Classmate Jiang Tea Tea, and tried to force her into your Institute.”
“The Crown Prince refused. You insulted him, then attempted to murder him.”
Chong Ming tilted his head. “Does that sequence sound unreasonable to you?”
Li Ao’s knees went soft, but Da Ma Zi held him upright. His mind, however, was terrifyingly clear.
There was no way out.
“So,” Li Ao said hoarsely, “Commander-in-Chief… you began suspecting me over five months ago. I cleaned too well. I hid too well. You couldn’t find evidence.”
“Even if you found ability users who’d stayed at the Institute, your healers couldn’t undo the illusion I placed on them.”
“But you wanted to arrest me. You wanted to detain me. And you couldn’t do it openly—because I’m the director of the Ability Research Institute. I have influence.”
“So you summoned me today. You let me see the rare mutant plant-type ability user—Jiang Tea Tea.”
“You calculated that I would lose my mind at the sight of her. That I would try to drag her into the Institute. That I would crave her mutant plant-type ability. That I would want her to sort out my chaotic collection of stolen abilities.”
“You set a trap. A trap that would let you arrest me openly and righteously.”
“And then you would have Jiang Tea Tea break my hypnosis illusion—force me to confess to all the crimes I’ve committed over the last hundred years!”
Chong Ming didn’t deny a word.
Instead, he asked quietly, “Director Li… Cheng Yuan.”
“He was your teacher’s most prized disciple. Your teacher’s favorite. Your youngest junior.”
“He was more gifted than you. His ability level was higher than yours.”
“You were once your teacher’s pride. But once he had Cheng Yuan, Cheng Yuan became that pride.”
“And you—someone who always needed to be first—fell from first to second.”
“For others, that shift would be nothing. They’d laugh it off. They might even feel proud.”
“But for you, it was a chasm you could never cross.”
“You were jealous. Envious.”
“You used his trust to lure him into the Ability Research Institute. You put him on a dissection table.”
“And the mutated hypnosis illusion ability on your body now—was his.”
“You peeled it from him, bloody and alive, and claimed it for yourself.”