Chapter 156
Chapter 156: The tea tree spirit grew a flower bud, and Chong Ming plucked it off—ridiculous, ridiculous
A date?
That was a deadly word, and it came from Old Loach’s mouth. Jiang Tea Tea didn’t believe it for a second.
She stared at the two words until they looked unfamiliar, then waved Sui Xuan Chu over.
He walked up beside her. “What is it, roommate?”
Jiang Tea Tea showed him the message on her lightbrain. “Did your uncle get hacked?”
Sui Xuan Chu saw the huge words A date and went wow inside. Not bad. One audio clip and his uncle took action.
He couldn’t admit he sold her out, so he exaggerated. “I think he got hacked too. But then again, who in the M31 Star System has the ability to hack him?”
Jiang Tea Tea pointed at the lightbrain. “No one can hack him. He just took the wrong medicine and sent the wrong message.”
Sui Xuan Chu hesitated. “Is it possible he really wants to ask you out?”
Jiang Tea Tea let out a disdainful laugh. “Sui Xuan Chu, do you hear what you’re saying? He asks me out? Is that even possible?”
Possible—too possible.
Her roommate was carrying his uncle’s cubs. His uncle, that old innocent dragon, was obviously starting to burn.
And an old dragon on fire didn’t burn alone. He dragged his mate with him.
Sui Xuan Chu stood firmly on his uncle’s side. “Whether he’s asking you out or not, just go look at the school gate. Then you’ll know.”
“Hurry up. I’ll do homework with Huang Da Zhuang and the others. Your notes and assignments—I’ll cover them for you.”
Jiang Tea Tea frowned. “Are you serious?”
Sui Xuan Chu didn’t waste time. He summoned a one-person school driver pod and shoved her inside. “Go check. If he’s not there, come back.”
Jiang Tea Tea didn’t believe Old Loach Chong Ming was waiting at the gate for a date, but she didn’t resist. If he wasn’t there, even better—she could slip out and take a detour to the back mountain to root into the earth and absorb nutrients.
Huang Da Zhuang watched the pod speed away and asked, “Sui Xuan Chu, chief, where did Sister Tea go?”
Sui Xuan Chu couldn’t say his roommate was going on a date with his uncle, so he grinned. “Classified.”
Huang Da Zhuang’s eyes widened. “Classified? You mean Sister Tea is executing a secret mission?”
“Shh. Keep it down.”
Sui Xuan Chu made a quiet gesture, not denying it and letting Huang Da Zhuang imagine whatever he wanted.
Huang Da Zhuang covered his mouth and mumbled, “I get it, I get it.”
Sui Xuan Chu withdrew his gaze. “Come on, let’s do homework. After we finish, I’ll treat you all to a meal outside.”
Huang Da Zhuang and Cheng Xiao Ting nodded fast. “Yes, yes! I know a late-night snack place. Cheap, fresh food, lots of people.”
“Perfect. Let’s finish homework today, then go. For snacks, for Commander-in-Chief Chong Ming—hurry up and write!”
The seven of them went to the library together, took a corner, and started studying.
—
Jiang Tea Tea walked out of school and looked around. Aside from school staff and various flyers parked near the gate, she didn’t see Chong Ming anywhere.
Delighted, she was about to call her own flyer and head for the back mountain when a flyer slid to a stop in front of her.
She took a step back. The window lowered.
Chong Ming—disguised in hair color, eye color, and facial features—leaned out and looked at her. “Get in.”
Jiang Tea Tea lowered her gaze and studied him.
His hair and pupils were disguised as black. His golden dragon horns were disguised black too. His sharp, defined face had been disguised into an ordinary one. He hadn’t disguised his voice, and he hadn’t reined in his aura either.
Even his flyer looked like a plain white two-seater you could spot a hundred of on the street.
He wore a white shirt and long pants. His disguised long hair was tied in a ponytail. Somehow, because of his eyes and presence, he still looked extraordinary.
“Jiang Tea Tea…” Chong Ming opened his mouth again, calling her name.
Jiang Tea Tea reached out and put a hand on his forehead.
His words cut off. He narrowed his eyes at her.
She checked his temperature, then touched her own forehead. A dragon was pure yang; his skin was warmer than hers by nature, but not fever-hot.
No fever, yet he asked her out.
Oh. She understood. He was thinking about her cubs and trying to trick her into lowering her guard.
Jiang Tea Tea waved him off. “Go date yourself. I still have homework to finish. See you.”
“Jiang Tea Tea.”
Chong Ming watched her turn to leave. He got out of the flyer and walked up to her. “Get in. I’m not working overtime today. Have a meal with me.”
Jiang Tea Tea’s eyes spun. She lifted her chin. “Any benefits?”
Chong Ming lowered his gaze into her bright black eyes and went silent for a beat. “What benefits do you want?”
Jiang Tea Tea said, “Give me some dragon blood to keep as backup.”
Chong Ming nodded. “Okay. Get in.”
He was too agreeable. For no reason, she felt like she was bullying an honest old dragon.
Jiang Tea Tea shook off the strange feeling and followed him to the passenger side.
Chong Ming opened the door for her.
Her matter-of-fact attitude made Da Ma Zi and the others—protecting their Commander-in-Chief from an invisibility warship—nearly pop their eyes out.
When had their Commander-in-Chief ever opened a flyer door for anyone?
Even foreign leaders who came to visit never got that treatment.
So Jiang Tea Tea wasn’t just the Zhen Lin Empire’s only mutant 3S-grade plant-type healer. She was also the future Commander-in-Chief being trained by the Commander-in-Chief, and a princess consort-in-waiting.
The flyer rose into the sky. Chong Ming set it to autopilot and pulled out a bouquet of bright red flowers from the storage button.
“Hold it farther away,” Jiang Tea Tea snapped. “Hurry. Farther.”
She twisted sideways against the flyer door like she was facing an enemy. “Don’t let them touch me.”
Why was he pulling out blooming plant reproductive organs? Was he going to give them to her? No. If she wanted flowers, she could grow them herself.
Chong Ming had bought a bouquet for the first time, tried to give flowers to a pure human female for the first time, and got treated like he’d produced a bomb.
He put the flowers away and looked at her. “If you don’t like flowers, what do you like?”
Jiang Tea Tea opened the window and let the wind blow out the trapped scent. She took several deep breaths before turning back, voice flat and eerie. “I like your blood. I like your meat. If you’ve got time, bleed more and cut off a little meat for me.”
Chong Ming could tell she genuinely hated flowers—deeply, intensely—and couldn’t even stand their scent. “Okay. Next time there’s a chance, I’ll let you taste my meat.”
Jiang Tea Tea stared. “You’re willing to let me taste your meat?”
His disguised black eyes were like a deep abyss. “If you want it, if you like it, then when there’s a chance, you can taste it.”
His beast-form scales were too hard to bite. Human form would be easier. Letting her bite a couple times wasn’t a big deal.
Jiang Tea Tea smiled so hard her eyes curved. “Chong Ming, you’re a really good dragon.”
Chong Ming’s lips curved. “Thanks for the compliment.”
“No need to thank me,” she said brightly. “You earned it.”
She’d already tasted dragon blood. Next she could try dragon meat too.
She would be the first demon in the demon clan to drink dragon blood and eat dragon meat.
When she returned with her cubs, she could brag until the sky fell.
—
Jiang Tea Tea had never gone on a date. Chong Ming hadn’t either.
A dragon and a demon—neither had dated.
Jiang Tea Tea kept telling herself he was only being nice because he wanted her cubs. But once she started eating snacks and watching a film…
In a 360-degree immersive super-screen theater, she watched for less than ten minutes before her head tipped and she fell asleep.
Chong Ming listened to her steady breathing. With his sharp vision, he watched her sleeping face for a while, then opened the “pursuing pure human female” forum and left a negative review under the step-by-step guide.
Jiang Tea Tea woke to applause and excited chatter. The 120-minute war film ended.
“This film was so tight and intense,” someone said as they filed out. “The male lead was based on Commander-in-Chief Chong Ming. He’s not as handsome, domineering, or calm as Marshal Chong Ming, but he feels similar.”
“Right, right! It’s so realistic, it’s like we were there.”
“And the female lead is gorgeous too—a 2S-rank plant-type combat healer.”
“Yeah, she’s really cool. Great figure, clean fighting style, and she stabilizes and untangles mental power fairly for everyone.”
“Do you think Commander-in-Chief Chong Ming has a plant-type combat healer like her in real life—someone who stays behind him and supports him?”
“No way. With my years of worshipful research on Commander-in-Chief Chong Ming, if someone like that showed up, he wouldn’t let her stand behind him. He’d push her to the position she should be in, shining on her own.”
“Exactly. Look at the Military Department appointments, Imperial Palace appointments, and public service appointments. The ratio of females to males is already 4:6, way higher than other countries—2:8 or 1:9.”
“Commander-in-Chief Chong Ming’s minister of information and deputy secretaries are all female, and they’re outstanding.”
“That shows in the Commander-in-Chief’s eyes, excellent females shouldn’t stand behind males. They should stand beside them, or even surpass them.”
“He’s never promoted the idea that a female’s only job is marrying a male and raising cubs.”
“He once said raising cubs is the responsibility of both male and female, not just the female. Females also have the right to chase dreams and conquer. Anything that blocks female development is illegal.”
Jiang Tea Tea leaned toward Chong Ming and whispered, “Commander-in-Chief Chong Ming is loved by so many citizens. You’re right here—how does it feel?”
Chong Ming leaned closer too. “No feelings. It’s what should be.”
Jiang Tea Tea made a small sound of disgust. “Narcissist.”
The theater lights turned on.
Chong Ming took a mask out of the storage button and handed it to Jiang Tea Tea. “Cover your face. Let’s go.”
Jiang Tea Tea took the mask, covered her face, stood, and took one step.
Chong Ming’s hand caught hers.
Jiang Tea Tea tried to pull away. “What are you doing?”
“It’s not very bright, and there are steps,” Chong Ming said calmly. “I’ll hold your hand.”
Jiang Tea Tea stared at him like he’d lost his mind. Even with only thirty-five percent magic power, she was still a powerful demon, not a fragile little flower.
“There’s no need—”
“Sorry, please walk faster.”
Her refusal was drowned out by someone urging from behind. She couldn’t pull her hand back, so she had to let Chong Ming hold it.
His hand was big, hot, and dry.
Jiang Tea Tea suddenly thought of the First Hotel—how he dragged her onto the bed, how his hand burned when it pinched her jaw and neck.
The film had drawn a huge crowd. There were random interviews at the exit too.
The moment Jiang Tea Tea and Chong Ming stepped out, an interviewer stopped them with a smile. “Hello, sir and miss. We’re staff from the film channel. We’d like to interview you. After watching the film Freshman, what are your thoughts?”
Chong Ming looked at Jiang Tea Tea. “What are your thoughts?”
Jiang Tea Tea blinked. “I watched ten minutes and slept. What thoughts could I have?”
Chong Ming nodded and turned to the interviewer. “She watched ten minutes, slept one hundred ten minutes, and has no thoughts.”
“My thoughts are: the film was grand, the scenes were huge, and the storytelling was smooth. But in 120 minutes, it didn’t show even one-tenth of the bloodiness of war.”
“Real battlefields—on planets or in space—once fighting starts, it’s either you live and I die, or I live and you die.”
“War is bloody. Hard-won victories deserve to be remembered. Next time you film something like this, I suggest applying through the proper departments to observe real battlefield records, then discuss how to reproduce battles with the highest accuracy.”
The interviewer froze, then asked quickly, “Sorry, can battlefield records be applied for and viewed?”
Chong Ming answered, “Our Zhen Lin Empire ended the war only a few years ago. Many cubs and young people never fought and never faced war directly. They don’t understand its cruelty.”
“If you film related works and reenact battles, with proper procedures, you can apply to view battlefield records.”
“But the premise is that the film and lines truly restore the battle, instead of only showing romance, only showing females silently supporting males from behind.”
“The film we watched today was adapted from the Jin Dou Star battle seventy-six years ago. In that battle, Commander-in-Chief Chong Ming was the remote overall commander and wasn’t on the Jin Dou Star battlefield.”
“At Jin Dou Star, the frontline command was led by a great, smart, strong, unyielding female major general—Ling Si Tong.”
“But in Freshman, they didn’t mention Major General Ling Si Tong at all. They gave her credit entirely to a male.”
“And they claimed that male commander was based on Commander-in-Chief Chong Ming. That’s misleading. It misleads citizens and cubs.”
“Victory wasn’t the work of Commander-in-Chief Chong Ming alone. It was the work of the entire empire and all soldiers.”
“We can admire someone, but we can’t admire blindly. Credit belongs to whoever earned it. Don’t shove other people’s contributions onto one person. It’s unfair to the living soldiers, unfair to the dead soldiers, unfair to everyone.”
The interview staff looked shaken. People leaving the theater clapped and cheered.
“You’re right!”
“If you adapt, you should restore!”
“The scenes were huge and realistic, but without true restoration, something is missing.”
“Decades ago isn’t far. But our films choose to forget it. That’s wrong.”
Jiang Tea Tea looked at Chong Ming beside her.
This dragon really was a top-tier universal crush, radiating charm nonstop. Watching one film, he earned more cheers and worship—while disguised.
If he wasn’t disguised, the whole cinema would probably collapse under the stampede.
It even made her heart race a little, made her thirsty, made her hungry, made her crave him.
The interviewer smelled a viral clip and pushed again. “Sir, what’s your surname? Could you leave a contact and an address? We have a gift we can send later.”
Chong Ming refused. “No need. Goodbye.”
He pulled Jiang Tea Tea away.
As they walked, Jiang Tea Tea’s scalp itched. She reached up to scratch.
Chong Ming’s gaze fixed on her head. “Jiang Tea Tea, your head…”
The itch was gone now. “What’s wrong with my head?”
“Don’t move.”
Chong Ming reached toward her hair. “A flower bud fell on your head.”
Jiang Tea Tea yelped. “A flower bud on my head—ow…”
Before she could finish, she clapped a hand over her head.
Chong Ming withdrew his hand and held it out in front of her. “A flower bud fell on your head. I picked it off.”
Jiang Tea Tea stared at the round, deep green bud in his palm. Her pupils tightened sharply.
A bud… the bud she grew…
Chong Ming plucked it off?