Chapter 145
Chapter 145: I Worked My Ass Off Killing Bugs—And You Came to Steal the Credit
Jiang Tea Tea’s whole body went tight.
She covered her belly like it was treasure and backed away as if he were a venomous snake. “These are my babies. Why are you saying hi to them?”
She’d moved around and fought a little, and her cubs were awake now—wriggling and lively.
If he put a hand on her stomach, he’d feel it immediately.
More than one.
All her careful hiding would be for nothing. No. Absolutely not.
Chong Ming’s curled fingers tightened. His golden eyes lowered, hiding whatever he was thinking.
“Fine,” he said quietly. “Let’s go eat.”
A 150-year-old dragon putting on that wounded, wronged look, like she’d soften.
Please.
Jiang Tea Tea wasn’t that kind of fool.
She called to the knotty mess still rolling on the ground. “Sui Xuan Chu! Breakfast!”
Sui Xuan Chu hadn’t even managed a dragon roar in reply before Chong Ming spoke first. “He’s not eating. He’ll train here until 7:15.”
Sui Xuan Chu’s eyes nearly popped out.
He never said that!
He couldn’t even speak right now—he was still trying to untie his stupid knot.
Jiang Tea Tea checked her lightbrain. It was barely past five. Almost two hours until 7:15. “Maybe let him eat first, then train?”
Chong Ming didn’t blink. “Training hungry is more effective.”
“Besides, his ability level has risen, but his beast form hasn’t grown at all. He’s weak.”
“He needs more beast-form practice. If another emergency like last night happens, he won’t get pinned down by multiple dragons again.”
Jiang Tea Tea nodded once. “Fine. I’ll eat. Let him train.”
As they walked away, Chong Ming called over four avian beastfolk guards from the Imperial Palace.
Their beast forms were a vulture, a serpent eagle, a crowned eagle, and a sea giant eagle. Massive wings. Talons sharpened to a shine.
All four were battle-hardened, equally skilled in beast-form and human-form combat.
They received Commander-in-Chief Chong Ming’s orders: don’t go easy on the Crown Prince. Let him taste blood. Let him taste scales falling. Teach him how to attack, defend, and escape in the sky.
Jiang Tea Tea walked beside Chong Ming along the palace paths. No matter how fast or slow she went, he matched her step for step.
And his gaze kept drifting toward her belly.
Jiang Tea Tea pretended she didn’t notice.
Besides, she was wearing the Royal Military Academy uniform—loose, baggy, and shapeless. No waist. No curve. Let him stare.
Eventually, she spotted a steward and told them to call Cheng Lin Yue and Cheng Yuan to breakfast as well.
Cheng Lin Yue’s body clock was just as cruel as Jiang Tea Tea’s. She woke at 4:45, washed up, and with nothing she dared do inside the Imperial Palace, she stayed in her room reviewing her lessons.
When the steward came to escort her, she practically sprinted the moment she saw her uncle waiting outside.
The two of them followed the steward to the Imperial Palace dining hall.
The moment Cheng Lin Yue saw Chong Ming, her eyes lit up.
Usually her male idol wore his long hair loose. Today it was tied up, and he was in training clothes with combat boots. He looked even younger.
Not that he was old.
The outfit just made him all legs and shoulders, a narrow waist, and an aura that hit like heat.
And yet the most dazzling person at the table was still Sister Tea.
Even beside him—petite and pale—her presence didn’t lose ground for a second.
They sat facing each other like negotiators: one composed and stern, in total control; the other relaxed and lazy, countering every move.
Cheng Lin Yue sat beside Jiang Tea Tea. Cheng Yuan sat beside his niece.
A four-person table somehow turned into Chong Ming facing three.
Under Chong Ming’s presence, Cheng Lin Yue and Cheng Yuan couldn’t relax. They ate stiffly, shoulders tight.
Jiang Tea Tea ate like she was back in the cafeteria—eating, drinking, ordering more when something tasted good, even packing extra.
Seeing Cheng Lin Yue and Cheng Yuan so tense, she nudged them into eating more too.
After breakfast, it was only a little past six.
Jiang Tea Tea, Cheng Lin Yue, and Cheng Yuan left Chong Ming behind and went for a walk.
Chong Ming stayed a while longer, then returned to his lodging palace. He washed up, changed uniforms, let his hair down, and handled urgent work.
At 7:30, Sui Xuan Chu finally washed up. Starving, he climbed onto a flyer.
He thought they’d fly themselves back to school.
Instead, his uncle sat in the pilot seat.
Sui Xuan Chu took the co-pilot seat, trying to look calm while internally screaming.
In less than half an hour, they arrived at the Royal Military Academy gate.
Chong Ming turned his head toward the back seat. “Jiang Tea Tea. Tonight at 9:30, I’ll come pick you and Sui Xuan Chu up and bring you back to the Imperial Palace.”
Jiang Tea Tea paused with her hand on the door. She pointed at herself. “Pick me up? For what?”
“Doctor’s orders,” Chong Ming said, expression unchanged.
Last night he’d soothed her for hours, and she’d assumed that would last ten days, at least.
Apparently not.
Fine.
Free was free.
She’d treat him like a tool dragon.
“Got it,” Jiang Tea Tea said.
Chong Ming unlocked the flyer doors.
Cheng Lin Yue and Sui Xuan Chu climbed out like thieves, barely daring to breathe.
Jiang Tea Tea followed.
Cheng Lin Yue and Sui Xuan Chu shut the flyer door as if they were closing a precious egg—slow and careful, terrified of bumping it.
Jiang Tea Tea slammed it shut like thunder.
The flyer didn’t lift off immediately. It waited until the three of them had entered the academy.
Cheng Lin Yue sneaked a glance back and saw only the tail end rising into the sky. She patted her chest. “That scared me to death. I never thought Sui Xuan Chu’s uncle would be my male idol.”
Sui Xuan Chu made frantic shushing gestures. “Low-key. Low-key. Did you forget last night—”
Cheng Lin Yue clapped a hand over her mouth. “Mm! Mm! Right. Low-key. Secret. I won’t let a fourth person know. Don’t worry.”
“Move,” Jiang Tea Tea called over her shoulder. “You’re going to be late.”
They hurried across campus.
The invasion traces from last night were gone, cleaned so thoroughly it looked like nothing had happened.
The academy was bright and busy again—students riding hover vehicles to class, jogging to class, strolling if they weren’t rushed.
Their eight-person squad had played a key role last night: protecting, calling for help, delaying, stopping.
Their names had blown up overnight.
So when Jiang Tea Tea, Sui Xuan Chu, and Cheng Lin Yue crossed campus, stares followed them like spotlights.
When they finally met up with Cheng Xiao Ting and Huang Da Zhuang, the two of them swarmed in before Jiang Tea Tea could even say hello.
“Sister Tea! How many bugs did you kill last night?”
“Sui Xuan Chu! How many bugs did you kill? And how many dragon clan did you knock out?”
Jiang Tea Tea and Sui Xuan Chu exchanged a look.
Then they asked in unison, “What happened?”
Huang Da Zhuang looked ready to explode. “What happened? You three left school in the second half of the night—you don’t know. After that, the Police Bureau, the Special Operations Bureau, the Guard Corps, and the Military Department all sent people over.”
“Four departments working together. They cleaned out the insect clan on campus and investigated everyone.”
“And five bug corpses were dragged to the Police Bureau officers by your biological triplet brothers and sister. They said they killed them in Jin Garden Zone.”
“The Police Bureau praised them last night. They said once everything’s confirmed, they’ll get real rewards.”
“And the school intranet pinned them up as an example, right alongside us. Each of them already got 200,000 star credits as a bonus.”
As Huang Da Zhuang spoke, Cheng Xiao Ting pulled up the school intranet on his lightbrain.
There it was on the front page: Lang Xin Rui, Lang Xin Chong, and Lang Xin Ping—photos and a dramatic story about how they’d killed five bugs.
Jiang Tea Tea skimmed it.
The fake heiress’s leftover consciousness inside her snapped with rage.
Stealing credit.
Her three “siblings” had stolen her credit.
Sui Xuan Chu read it and erupted on the spot. “Jin Garden Zone is where Sister Tea and I fought bugs! What does that have to do with Lang Xin Rui, Lang Xin Ping, and Lang Xin Chong? Those three wolf clan from the mecha departments—what the hell do they have to do with it?”
“With their pathetic abilities, they killed five bugs at once? Their tails would be sticking into the sky!”
Jiang Tea Tea forced down the boiling fury and asked Huang Da Zhuang, “Jin Garden Zone… there are no cameras there, right?”
Huang Da Zhuang nodded hard. “Right. The camera near where they dragged the corpses out broke a couple days ago. Dead angle.”
“The school checked the surrounding cameras. They only caught your silhouette flashing past and leaping into the air. Nothing else.”
“But cameras farther out clearly recorded your triplets going into that dead angle for a long time… and then coming out injured and covered in blood.”
“And because the school wanted to use them as inspiration, they even posted the video of them dragging insect corpses out while drenched in blood on the intranet.”
“They told everyone to learn from them—if you run into the insect clan, even if you get badly hurt, you still kill.”