Chapter 186
Chapter 186: He’s Jealous, He’s Jealous, He Spilled the Vinegar Jar
Zhong Li He’s smile did not fade. He was neither angry nor annoyed. He joked: “Deputy General Xia, your skill at stabbing me in the heart is no worse than your Commander in Chief’s. As expected of someone he personally promoted. You are just like him.”
Xia Wei Yi gave him a salute: “Thank you for the praise, Executive Commander. It is my honor if I can be even one ten-thousandth like the Commander in Chief.”
She added: “But I have never heard of the Commander in Chief stabbing you in the heart. Do you perhaps have some misunderstanding about him?”
[Who would misunderstand that old dragon? He just showed off his love right in my face. My anger has not even cooled down yet. How could I possibly misunderstand him?]
Zhong Li He returned Deputy General Xia’s salute. He did not want to mention Chong Ming again, so he asked instead: “Deputy General Xia, the youngsters you brought are not familiar with me. Do you want to let them take a closer look at me?”
Xia Wei Yi stepped to the side and said: “Sure.” She then said to Jiang Tea Tea and the other seven: “Step forward. Greet the Western Kingdom’s Executive Commander, Zhong Li He.”
Jiang Tea Tea’s eyes flashed. [As expected of a phoenix from the Phoenix clan. He really knows how to show off and how to be vain. Before, I heard the peacock demon on the mountain estate say this, but I did not believe it. Now I do. Showing off and being full of themselves is an inborn talent of their kind.]
Jiang Tea Tea, Sui Xuan Chu, and the others took one step forward and saluted Zhong Li He in unison: “Greetings, Executive Commander Zhong Li He. Hello, Executive Commander.”
Zhong Li He nodded to them and said: “Hello. I am very happy to meet you. I hope you all work hard and study well. I hope you can surpass your idol, Commander in Chief Chong Ming, as soon as possible and catch up to me.”
Jiang Tea Tea and the others answered in unison: “We will definitely catch up to Commander in Chief Chong Ming and surpass you.”
[What a group of little fans who are completely devoted to Chong Ming. They are so cute it is deadly.]
Zhong Li He let his gaze fall on Jiang Tea Tea’s face. The smile at the corner of his mouth made him look like a big villain as he asked: “Little girl, may I know your name?”
Xia Wei Yi tensed up and was about to speak to stop him, but Jiang Tea Tea tugged at the epaulette on her shoulder and signaled to Zhong Li He: “My unit number is 59311, Executive Commander Zhong Li He. You can call me 59311.”
Zhong Li He glanced at the number on her epaulette and repeated her words: “59311. All right, I will remember it. I am very happy to meet you.”
[This little girl is very smart and does not want to expose her real name. Xia Wei Yi was even nervous just now. Interesting.]
Jiang Tea Tea let go of her epaulette and nodded, then stepped back with Sui Xuan Chu and the others, returning to their place. [This phoenix smells really good. I just do not know how big his beast form is. If I kill him, will there be enough meat for a full meal?]
Xia Wei Yi stepped back into place, standing right in front of Jiang Tea Tea and blocking Zhong Li He’s line of sight to her: “Executive Commander, I still need to take these kids on another round of inspection, so we will not bother you any longer.”
Zhong Li He hooked up the corner of his mouth: “All right, go on with your work.”
Xia Wei Yi saluted him again, then stepped back. She led Jiang Tea Tea and the other seven back onto the flying device and left.
Zhong Li He watched them leave, his eyes shining with great interest. He asked his attendant officer: “Kong Que, what do you think of the Zhenlin Empire Personal Guard soldier with unit number 59311, that little girl?”
Kong Que walked to Zhong Li He’s side, standing half a step behind him, and replied respectfully: “She is very fierce.”
Zhong Li He turned his head to look at him: “Very fierce? Did you feel any fluctuation in her supernatural powers or spiritual power?”
Kong Que answered respectfully: “Reporting to you, Executive Commander, I did not feel any fluctuation of supernatural power from her, but I could sense that she is very fierce. The way she looked at you was like she was looking at prey.”
Zhong Li He laughed out loud: “I thought it was just my imagination. I told myself that since I am getting older, it is normal to have a few illusions.”
“I did not expect it to be real. I was actually treated as prey by a little girl. I knew it. I look better than that dragon Chong Ming. In the M31 Star System, the unmarried women who secretly like me are way more than those who secretly like him.”
Kong Que looked at his deep sapphire eyes and said: “Executive Commander, forgive me for speaking frankly, but the way that Zhenlin Empire Personal Guard soldier 59311 looked at you did not seem like she has a crush on you. It was more like she was treating you as prey… as food.”
They had all become human from wild beasts. Before their ancestors took human form, they lived by their sharp claws, sharp teeth, and fast hunting. After they became human through beastification, the wildness of a beast was still in their bones and blood.
Zhong Li He reached out and knocked on Kong Que’s forehead: “Why are you acting so serious, you peacock?”
“She has a crush on me. She sees me as prey, she wants to get me, wants to sleep with me. To put it in simple, crude words, she wants to treat me like food and eat me. That makes sense!”
Kong Que was speechless: “???”
His beast form was a peacock. It was fine for him to show his tail now and then.
[But what is the Executive Commander doing, showing off like this here? He is from the Phoenix clan, a phoenix, so he does not even have a tail to fan out.]
[Hmm, later I still have to go find Commander in Chief Chong Ming and ask him to lend us his Level S mutated plant-type healer, Jiang Tea Tea, to smooth out our Executive Commander’s spiritual power and calm his supernatural powers, so he will stop going crazy with narcissism.]
After Xia Wei Yi took Jiang Tea Tea and the others on another round, she assigned them the areas they would patrol tomorrow and brought them back to their encampment.
The encampment they were staying in was not big. It housed only three hundred people. The houses were temporary structures, two people to a unit, about twenty square meters, with two rooms and one bathroom.
Everyone had their own private space, making sure they had complete quiet when they rested.
Jiang Tea Tea shared a unit with Cheng Lin Yue. After they checked the living environment and conditions, they received the nutrient injections and nutrient solution provided by the encampment.
There were three meals a day. For a month, each person got ninety tubes of nutrient injections and nutrient solution. If it was not enough, they could apply for more.
Jiang Tea Tea did not make herself special. Even though she did not eat them, she still put her share into her space knob storage device. After saying a word to Cheng Lin Yue, she went back to her own room.
The room was not big and the bed was not big either, but it was clean and neat. Jiang Tea Tea did not get on the bed. She sat cross-legged on the floor.
[The earth was right under the room. As a tree, once she was close to the earth, once she was pressed against the earth, how could she not take root in it?]
As Jiang Tea Tea sent her roots down into the earth, she tapped open her light-brain wrist terminal, ready to look up information on this phoenix, Zhong Li He. Just then, Chong Ming initiated a video call.
[The dragon blood she had drunk three days ago was still being digested, and the little ones in her belly were all doing very well. Why is he video calling me now?]
Jiang Tea Tea could not figure it out, so she did not answer the call. After the call cut off on its own, she thought he would not call again, but he called once more.
The second call rang three times before Jiang Tea Tea finally answered. She projected the holo screen, yawned, and looked at Chong Ming in the image: “It is late at night. Why are you not sleeping? Go work overtime, go do your work. Why are you video calling me?”
Through the video, Chong Ming looked at her. His voice was low and deep: “Schoolmate Jiang Tea Tea, in the last three days, seventy-two hours, you have not sent me a single message or made a single video call.”
[This old mud loach is complaining about me? That has to be my imagination. He is the top leader of the Zhenlin Empire, holding power of life and death over hundreds of billions of people across ten big star systems and many planets. He works from dawn to three in the morning every day, does not even go home, and sleeps in his office. And he is complaining that I have not sent him messages or called him? Is that not the biggest joke in the world, something that would make all the demons laugh?]
Jiang Tea Tea made a small sound: “You are busy, I am busy, everyone is busy. Where would I find the time to call or send messages?”
[In Chong Ming’s eyes, she is just a piece of wood. Every time they finish a call or end a message exchange, he reminds her to call him or send him messages.]
[She treats it as something that goes in one ear and out the other, not taking it seriously at all and never keeping it in her heart.]
Chong Ming quietly drew in a barely noticeable breath: “Next time, please, in the middle of all your busyness, send me a message or give me a call, all right?”
Jiang Tea Tea blinked: “It is not like anything is happening to me. If I send you a message or call you, what would we even talk about?”
Chong Ming followed her words and said: “You can talk about how curious you are about the Western Kingdom’s Executive Commander, Zhong Li He.”
Jiang Tea Tea’s eyes went round: “Wait. Who told you that I am curious about him?”
[She is indeed curious about him and was about to look up his information. She had not even started checking yet, but this old mud loach Chong Ming already knew. What, is he a tapeworm in her belly?]
Chong Ming immediately sold out his good nephew: “Your roommate.”
Jiang Tea Tea blurted out: “You even believe his nonsense?”
The corner of Chong Ming’s mouth lifted into a small curve: “I did not believe him. That is why I called, to ask you whether you are curious about the Western Kingdom’s Executive Commander.”
Jiang Tea Tea did not play by the rules: “Before I met him, I was not curious. After I met him, I am pretty curious. If you did not call me, I was just about to look him up.”
The small curve at the corner of Chong Ming’s mouth vanished at once. His golden eyes flashed: “What do you want to check about him? Ask me. I know.”
Jiang Tea Tea tilted her head and thought. He definitely knew more than the StarNet: “Zhong Li He is a phoenix from the Phoenix clan. How many birds are there in the Phoenix clan? How come I have never heard that the Zhenlin Empire has a Phoenix clan?”
[She is curious about how many birds the Phoenix clan has? Not curious about Zhong Li He himself?]
Chong Ming’s mood became subtly better: “There is no Phoenix clan in the Zhenlin Empire. The Phoenix clan exists in the Heavenly Phoenix Star System’s Western Kingdom and controls the Western Kingdom.”
He went on: “At present, there are 1,358,000 members of the whole race registered. Those of marriageable age, male and female, make up 30%. Younglings are only 10%. Those over two hundred years old are 50%, and 10% have married into other races.”
Jiang Tea Tea was stunned: “!!!”
[1,358,000 phoenixes. More than a million phoenixes. She could not help gulping.]
[Heaven above and Mother Earth. In their Demon clan, phoenixes, like dragons, are Divine Beasts. They look at the Demon clan the way one looks at ants, and their numbers can be counted on one hand.]
[She never thought that after changing to a different place, phoenixes would be as common as cows, and the Dragon clan would also be as common as cows.]
[So here is the question. If she quietly kills a few, eats a few, uses them as fertilizer, and buries them under her tree roots, no one will know, right, right?]
Chong Ming called her name in a cold voice: “Jiang Tea Tea.”
Jiang Tea Tea let out a short sound: “What?”
Chong Ming reminded her: “Wipe your drool.”
Jiang Tea Tea’s mind was full of ideas about catching a few phoenixes to eat and to use as fertilizer. When Chong Ming told her to wipe her drool, she immediately raised her hand to wipe.
Her hand brushed against nothing, and she realized she had been tricked again: “That Chong guy, are you childish or what? Every time you say I am drooling!”
Chong Ming looked at her sharply: “You just gulped. What were you thinking about? What are you craving?”
Through the screen, Jiang Tea Tea met his gaze. Her conditioned reflex kicked in, and she answered without thinking: “I swallowed because I was thinking about you. I am craving you!”