Chapter 163
Chapter 163: Old Golden Dragon On Fire, Showing Off His Love
When Jiang Tea Tea heard that, her steps stopped. She turned her body to face Chong Ming, her voice full of excitement: “You mean the Lang family estate broke the law?”
Chong Ming’s golden eyes looked into her dark, shining eyes. He opened his mouth to correct her: “They are suspected of breaking the law. There is no evidence yet.”
Jiang Tea Tea was surprised: “You are the Empire’s top leader. You control all the top-tier resources. You already know they are suspected of breaking the law, and now you say you have no evidence. How am I supposed to believe that?”
Chong Ming saw her lift her chin, eyes bright and eager like she was ready to watch a show. He could not help flicking her forehead with a finger: “Jiang Tea Tea, my schoolmate, do you really want me to say it like this? That I already found the evidence, but I am not taking it out yet so you can all go on a mission and brush your records?”
Jiang Tea Tea let out an “ah”: “That Chong guy, your fanboys and fangirls always believe you are fair and just. I never thought you also mix public and private. For your big nephew, you are willing to open the back door and give him a chance to earn merit?”
[You think having long arms is so great just because you can reach my forehead? I’ll chop them off later and use them as fertilizer.]
Chong Ming was really angered into laughter by her. His strict, cold face came alive in an instant, like snow and ice melting when winter suddenly warms up.
Jiang Tea Tea stared at his smile for a moment. Her hunger to bite and eat him suddenly rushed up again.
To calm her own hungry feeling, she snapped at him: “What are you laughing at? Did I say something wrong?”
Chong Ming’s smile slowly faded. His voice grew low: “I do have some evidence in my hands that proves the Lang family estate is suspected of breaking the law.
“But the evidence is not enough. It is not enough to take them down. So I thought that the eight of you could go on a mission, make the evidence solid.”
“You insist on saying I am mixing public and private and opening the back door for Sui Xuan Chu so he can build his record. Instead of that, you might as well say I am opening the back door for you, helping you build your record…”
“No need.” Jiang Tea Tea lifted her hand with her palm toward him and cut him off: “You don’t need to open any back doors for me. You don’t need to help me build my record. I know exactly how much I can do and how far I can walk. I don’t need other people to hold me up.”
She was a Great Demon Stage demon. Even if she was pregnant with a youngling, it was not like she could not carry or lift things or walk on her own.
Thinking of her demon clan, whether they were Great Demon Stage, little demons, or ancient demons, even when they were carrying younglings, it never stopped them from jumping up and down, fighting from one mountain estate to another mountain estate. Every one of them was full of life, their angry roars echoing thousands of miles.
Chong Ming let out a quiet sigh: “Alright, I admit it. My subordinates are useless, and I am useless too. We did not manage to find proof of the Lang family estate’s crimes.
“All we have is one report and some guesses. So I thought you eight could go once, and you could also take a look at your birth parents, see what kind of people they really are. That way it will be easier for you to cut off any chance of recognizing them in the future.”
Jiang Tea Tea rubbed her chin. In the light of the evening glow, she circled around Chong Ming once, looking him over from every angle.
When she finally stood in front of him again, Chong Ming asked: “So, did you get any insights from looking at me?”
Jiang Tea Tea raised one finger and waved it at him: “I didn’t see any deep insights from you. I just feel like your bloodline may not be pure. There is a high chance you have chameleon blood.
“Yeah, that’s it. You definitely have chameleon blood. Otherwise, why would you send us on a mission and flip the script a few times? One line of yours comes with eight different meanings. Don’t you think so, Lord Commander in Chief Chong Ming?”
She was scolding him in a roundabout way for going back on his word and changing his statements like a color-changing lizard.
Chong Ming raised an eyebrow as if he were praising her: “Jiang Tea Tea, my schoolmate, your eye is really sharp. You jumped past the breeding part and directly put the chameleon’s invisibility gene on me. Thank you.”
[See? Who says the Commander in Chief is always serious? He is very good at sarcasm and playing tricks.]
Jiang Tea Tea let out a fake smile that did not reach her eyes: “You’re welcome.”
Chong Ming suddenly changed the topic: “What do you want for dinner?”
Jiang Tea Tea did not even think before asking: “Whatever I want to eat, you’ll cook it?”
To her, the question of what to eat was simple. His cook would make it, and she would eat it.
Why was he taking off his pants just to fart, asking her again what she wanted when it would be the cook making it anyway?
Chong Ming was caught off guard: “You want me to cook for you?”
Jiang Tea Tea did not believe he could cook: “Yeah, I want you to cook for me.”
Chong Ming reached out, took her hand, and pulled her along: “Let’s go. We’ll go to the kitchen. I’ll cook for you.”
Jiang Tea Tea: “!!!”
He was really going to cook for her?
He really knew how to cook?
Also, even if he knew how to cook, why was he holding her hand?
By the time Jiang Tea Tea realized it and tried to pull her hand back, she found she could not pull it free.
His walking pace matched hers. Not too fast, not too slow, as he led her toward the Imperial Palace kitchen.
Jiang Tea Tea tugged a few times and could not get free. She finally started to speak: “Let go!”
Chong Ming not only did not let go, he even threatened her: “I won’t. If you keep struggling, I’ll just carry you.”
Jiang Tea Tea’s eyes went round: “That Chong guy, do your subordinates know you act like a bandit?”
Chong Ming’s deep voice rose as he asked back: “Do you want them to know?”
Jiang Tea Tea looked at him like he had turned into some ugly giant monster: “That Chong guy, are you crazy? Are you stupid? Where is your dignity?”
Chong Ming answered: “It’s gone. Help me find it?”
The corner of Jiang Tea Tea’s mouth twitched: “Does Sui Xuan Chu know you are this funny?”
Chong Ming said: “He doesn’t know. You can tell him later.”
Jiang Tea Tea said: “Tell him yourself. I’m afraid I’ll scare him to death.”
Chong Ming replied: “It’s fine. He won’t die that easily. Just tell him. Tell him everything.”
Jiang Tea Tea rolled her eyes at him. She really could not win against him in a war of words, so she simply stopped talking.
Chong Ming held her hand, the corner of his mouth lifting in a barely visible smile, and walked with her through the Imperial Palace.
One of them wore a military uniform. The other wore the Academy combat uniform. One was tall and strong. The other was small and delicate.
They walked side by side. One moved with calm, dignified power, the corners of his mouth slightly raised. The other was full of unwillingness, her whole body feeling like it had grown spikes.
The Imperial Palace staff members and bodyguards tried to keep their eyes straight ahead, but their gazes could not help following the two of them.
The Commander in Chief was dating. His partner was a pretty, petite pure human. With her by his side, even the Commander in Chief seemed closer to the ground.
But that pretty, petite pure human seemed to really dislike the Commander in Chief. Her eyes at him were fierce, and she clearly did not want to hold his hand at all.
The Imperial Palace cooks had prepared everything ahead of time. After Chong Ming arrived in the kitchen, they all went into the rest area.
The big kitchen held every kind of cookware and every kind of prepped food, all laid out neatly on a huge counter.
As Chong Ming took off his military jacket, he said to Jiang Tea Tea: “Tell me what you want to eat. You order, I’ll cook.”
Jiang Tea Tea did not quite believe it: “You really know how to cook? I am very picky.”
Her mouth was not picky. But since he wanted to cook for her, she was going to act picky.
After all, she did not like the look of him, so anything he did, she would not like the look of either.
Even if he made something delicious, she had to pick bones out of the egg.
Chong Ming put down his military jacket and rolled up the sleeves of his shirt: “Just go ahead and be picky.”
He had never seen her be picky about food. She ate everything and ate with good appetite.
Seeing how confident he was, Jiang Tea Tea did not hold back. She listed things that flew in the sky, ran on the ground, and swam in the sea, and told him every sort of cooking method: pan-fried, deep-fried, boiled, stewed, and roasted.
After she finished reporting the menu and the cooking methods, Chong Ming glanced at her, tied on a white apron, and started to work.
Jiang Tea Tea sat at the long table and watched his skilled movements. She was a bit shocked, a bit surprised, and a bit doubtful.
He was the Empire’s top leader, ruling several star systems and many planets, with hundreds of billions of common citizens. He still had time to learn how to cook and could really make dishes?
As if he knew Jiang Tea Tea was staring at him, Chong Ming looked back at her: “You ordered sixteen dishes. Pan-frying, deep-frying, boiling, and stewing at the same time will take about an hour and a half. You can do your homework. If you don’t understand something, ask me.”
Jiang Tea Tea pulled at the corner of her mouth: “If I don’t understand something and ask you, will you still have time to help me?”
Chong Ming nodded: “I should.”
He really was the Empire’s Commander in Chief. His confidence was strong.
Jiang Tea Tea answered with a simple “fine”, then took her homework out of her space knob storage device. She propped up her light-brain wrist terminal and started doing the homework the teacher had assigned.
As a demon with perfect recall, even if she did not understand a problem at first, she only needed to watch the real combat example and the teacher’s explanation video two or three times, and she would basically understand it.
Other people needed two or three hours or even three or four hours to finish the homework. She only needed one hour.
After she finished her homework, she was surprised to see that while Chong Ming was cooking, he was also giving orders and handling urgent government work, and sometimes even joining video meetings.
Things like using one mind for two things, or even three things, were nothing for him. His hands stayed steady and orderly as he cooked, while he finished his work quickly and accurately pointed out the key problems.
Looking at his broad shoulders and narrow waist, with an apron tied around him, a strong husband aura hit her right in the face.
Jiang Tea Tea could not help it. She opened her light-brain wrist terminal and took a picture of Chong Ming’s back, then sent it to Sui Xuan Chu: “Roommate, I understand your pressure now.”
Sui Xuan Chu was being beaten by ten top-tier Imperial Palace beastkind and avian beastmen. They beat him from the sky to the ground, from the ground back to the sky, from human form to Beast Form, and from Beast Form back to human form. He had no time at all to look at his light-brain wrist terminal and no time to reply.
His scales were beaten off piece by piece. New wounds kept appearing. One against ten, he was completely not their match. When he cried to the heavens, the heavens did not answer. When he cried to the earth, the earth did not respond. He could only grit his teeth, fight back with all his strength, and try hard to win back some face.
Chong Ming had said dinner would be ready in an hour and a half, and sure enough, after an hour and a half, all the roasted, stewed, boiled, and fried dishes Jiang Tea Tea had ordered were on the table.
Snacks, fruit platters, and juices that she had not ordered were also set out. She had ordered sixteen dishes, but over twenty different things were on the table.
Jiang Tea Tea picked up the chopsticks Chong Ming had placed by her hand and asked: “Do you want to call your good nephew, my roommate, to come eat with us?”
Chong Ming took off his apron and put it aside, then sat down across from Jiang Tea Tea: “No need. If he comes, he’ll just have to vomit everything up after he eats, because of the beating. It would be a waste.”
Jiang Tea Tea nodded and said with sarcasm: “You really are his blood uncle.”
Chong Ming raised an eyebrow: “Of course. Try it and see how my cooking is.”
Jiang Tea Tea lowered her chopsticks, picked up a piece of stir-fried meat from the closest plate, and put it in her mouth. She chewed it. It was salty, spicy, and very good with rice. It tasted much better than she had imagined.
After she swallowed it, she spoke against her true feelings: “It’s okay. Barely edible.”
Chong Ming took in all of her little expressions. He pressed down the corner of his mouth and used his chopsticks to pick up more dishes for her: “Try the others and give me detailed comments. I’ll improve next time.”
He was so serious that Jiang Tea Tea felt a little embarrassed. Then she changed her mind. She had to pick bones out of the egg. She could not let him get proud.
So, every time Jiang Tea Tea tasted a dish, she started to comment on it. She picked it apart from the color matching of the dish, the color of the meat, the heat level, and the use of salt, oil, and seasonings. She was picky about every single detail.
Chong Ming listened with full attention. At the same time, he opened his light-brain wrist terminal and recorded a six-second video of the dishes on the table, catching Jiang Tea Tea’s picky words perfectly.
He logged into his StarNet account and posted the six-second video online with the caption: “Cooking is not tasty, getting picked apart, disliked, and criticized!”