Chapter 14
Chapter 14: Slaps Landed Loud and Fast—So Satisfying, So Addictive
Accusations flew like stones. People who had nothing to do with it suddenly became brave, righteous, loud.
Jiang Tea Tea listened without a hint of agitation. She raised her pinky, lazily dug in her ear, and asked lightly, “Oh. I’m a shameless ingrate.”
She blinked. “And then?”
Her tone was so casual—so sincerely curious—that the crowd choked on their own fury. Mouths opened. No words came out.
Jiang Yi Zhu wiped blood from her mouth, eyes blazing. “What ‘and then’? You admitted you’re a shameless ingrate, so hurry to the Police Bureau and bail out Dad, Mom, and Chu Ming!”
“Then kneel and kowtow and apologize to us. If you do, we’ll forgive you.”
Jiang Tea Tea laughed. Her face—small, bright, almost radiant—looked like sunlight spilled over stone.
Huang Da Zhuang and Lu Ling Er stared, entranced, thinking the same thing at once: She’s gorgeous when she’s arrogant.
Jiang Yi Zhu’s eyes went red with rage. “What are you laughing at?! What’s so funny, you trash with no abilities!”
Jiang Tea Tea stepped closer, smiling. “I’m laughing because you think you deserve to watch me kneel.”
Her voice dipped into cold mockery. “I kneel to heaven and earth. I kneel to my grandmother. Besides that?”
She leaned in. “No one gets that privilege.”
Jiang Yi Zhu’s legs trembled with fear.
But she refused to look weak in front of the crowd. She forced her spine straight, raised her hand, and swung with ugly courage.
“Bitch. Don’t push your luck.”
Jiang Tea Tea caught her wrist mid-swing, fingers closing like iron.
Pain flashed across Jiang Yi Zhu’s face—sharp enough to drag memory out of the dark. Broken fingers. Broken wrists. This wasn’t new.
Something had changed in Jiang Tea Tea. Something terrifying.
Jiang Tea Tea yanked Jiang Yi Zhu forward and turned her to face the crowd. Her voice cut clean through the noise.
“Everyone,” she said, “use those brilliant brains that got you into the Royal Military Academy and think for one second.”
“In the Zhen Lin Empire, do you really think someone like me—a powerless person—can shake the law with a casual word?”
She lifted her chin. “Who am I, exactly? The Emperor? The Empress? His Highness?”
“Do you think I can just open my mouth, wave a hand, and send Jiang family parents and Chu Ming into the Police Bureau?”
Her smile sharpened. “You think far too highly of me.”
“Well said!”
A voice sliced through the crowd.
A first-year Combat Department student stepped forward—black eyes, blue-black uniform, and two small fleshy horn buds on his forehead like tiny branching antlers. A beastfolk male.
He faced the crowd, posture straight, voice loud with righteous certainty. “The Zhen Lin Empire’s laws are strict. They won’t wrong a good person, and they won’t let a bad person go free.”
“You’re Royal Military Academy students,” he continued, gaze sweeping over them. “You’ll graduate and enter the empire’s forces one day. You’ll serve the empire.”
“And yet someone tosses out a few rumors and you start acting like the Police Bureau can arrest anyone at will, lock them up forever, and do whatever it wants.”
He scoffed. “Aren’t you ashamed?”
The bystanders went pale.
It wasn’t just shame. It was the kind of shame that made you want to dig a hole with your toes and crawl inside.
Jiang Tea Tea watched their faces shift and stabbed gently, sweetly, right where it hurt.
“With pillars like you,” she said, beaming, “the empire will definitely become the strongest in the M31 Star System one day.”
She blinked. “I believe in you.”
The crowd looked like they’d been punched.
The horned boy wasn’t finished. He opened his lightbrain and projected a video, fingers flicking briskly as he pulled up midday news trending on StarNet.
“Seniors,” he called out, grinning, “seniors! The Capital Planet Police Bureau cracked a group orgy case last night.”
He angled the projection toward the crowd. “Look. The masterminds are a certain Chu family of three and a certain Jiang married couple.”
He leaned forward, eyes bright with malicious glee. “Do they look like the parents and brother of this adorable little sister who’s missing teeth and using you as her weapon?”
Gasps rippled.
He flicked again. “Can’t see clearly? Fine. Here’s the Royal Military Academy’s official site.”
An expulsion notice filled the screen.
“Second-year fire ability user Chu Ming—expelled.”
More flicks. More notices.
“First-year water-element ability user Jiang Yi Zhu—probation and major demerit.”
“Third-year water-element ability user Jiang Yi Cheng—probation and major demerit.”
The bystanders stared, eyes wide, as realization hit like a meteor.
The news was from only a couple hours ago. They’d been in class. They hadn’t heard.
And now they’d stood here, loudly defending a criminal family, using their own mouths as weapons.
Regret crashed over them so hard they looked sick.
Jiang Tea Tea gave the horned boy a thumbs-up.
Then she flung Jiang Yi Zhu’s wrist away.
Jiang Yi Zhu stumbled and fell at the bystanders’ feet—right into the circle of people she’d tried to manipulate.
The crowd turned instantly.
“Jiang Yi Zhu, you look decent, but your parents commit crimes and you still dare play victim? Shameless.”
“Chu Ming is your sister’s fiancé, right? He committed crimes with your parents, and you came begging your sister to sign a settlement… Oh, I get it. You’re the other woman. You’re stealing your sister’s fiancé.”
“Like parents, like child. Your parents commit crimes, you behave disgusting, and you dragged us in as your accomplices. Nasty.”
Insults crashed down on Jiang Yi Zhu one after another.
She’d come here to pressure Jiang Tea Tea into saving her parents and Chu Ming.
Instead, she’d dragged herself into public humiliation and exposed the punishment waiting for her at school.
She couldn’t get her parents out. She couldn’t get Chu Ming out. Without them, who would fund her? Who would love her? Who would help her target Jiang Tea Tea?
Her eyes darted wildly.
She had to find her brother.
Jiang Yi Zhu stumbled away, face twisted, disappearing into the crowd.
The bystanders, suddenly sober, turned toward Jiang Tea Tea with awkward, guilty expressions.
Jiang Tea Tea made a slow, exaggerated motion, rubbing hard at her eyes as if wiping dust away.
Open your eyes, she silently told them. Stop being blind.
They flushed, unable to meet her gaze.
The horned boy stepped forward again. “You’re Jiang Tea Tea and Huang Da Zhuang from first-year Pacification Department Class 6, right?”
Huang Da Zhuang slid to Jiang Tea Tea’s side so fast it looked practiced. “Yes! Yes, that’s us. I’m Huang Da Zhuang and she’s Jiang Tea Tea. What’s up?”
The horned boy nodded. “Here’s the thing. Chong Ming—His Highness, the Supreme Commander of the Imperial Armed Forces and the Prince Regent—is coming to the Royal Military Academy tomorrow morning at eight to inspect and give a speech.”
“The school decided to add three more powerless cadets to the welcome lineup—humans, beastfolk, and half beastfolk.”
“We already notified another powerless half beastfolk,” he continued. “We didn’t catch you earlier. The task came down, and we happened to run into you here in the cafeteria, so I’m telling you now.”
His gaze settled on Jiang Tea Tea. “Especially you, Jiang Tea Tea. You’ve been assigned as the first person to present flowers to His Highness.”