Chapter 208
Chapter 208: I’ll Take the Bullet for You, Cover for You; I Love You, But I Want to Leave You
At the moment the gunshot rang out, Jiang Tea Tea gathered spiritual power in her hand, ready to catch that bullet and send it back into Aceras’s body.
But the body of Atuya, who was standing in front of her, suddenly tilted, and she blocked that bullet for Jiang Tea Tea.
The bullet went into her shoulder armor. Because of its force, her upper body jerked back. The pain made her let out a low groan, and blood flowed out.
Aceras froze. The hand holding the gun shook hard as he shouted: “Atuya, what are you doing? Why did you block that bullet for her?”
“You are my fiancee, the bug who is supposed to spend your whole life with me. How can you side with an outsider? You should be on my side!”
Atuya looked at his face, twisted with panic and anger, and pulled up the corner of her mouth in a smile as she said: “Your Highness, I am standing on your side. Commander in Chief Chong Ming is right here on Ri Pan Star.”
“You think that by kidnapping Jiang Tea Tea you can safely take her away from Ri Pan Star? You think that if you kill her, you can safely leave Ri Pan Star?”
“Don’t be naive. Outside Ri Pan Star, there are two heavy-firepower cruiser warships from the Zhenlin Empire. A Teleportation Gate links them to their armory.”
“Inside Ri Pan Star, for this Space Weapons Expo, Commander in Chief Chong Ming has publicly said there are five hundred thousand soldiers patrolling, protecting every national leader and tourist common citizen who came from all over the M31 Star System.”
“If he says there are five hundred thousand soldiers on patrol, then there must be another five hundred thousand covering all of Ri Pan Star inside and out, all day and all night.”
“Maybe you won’t believe it, but I still need to tell you this. You and I have no secrets in front of Commander in Chief Chong Ming. It is very likely that from the moment you kidnapped Jiang Tea Tea, he has been watching everything in real time.”
“Clap clap clap…”
“Atuya, you’re exactly right. I’m standing here, and our Commander in Chief is watching us!”
Jiang Tea Tea tucked her staff under her armpit and could not help raising her hands to clap. The sharp, crackling applause was filled with open admiration for Atuya.
“Wow, listen to her calling him ‘our Commander in Chief’. That ‘our’ is so sweet it’s splashing all over my face.”
As the one being force-fed dog food, Zhong Li He’s mocking tone went straight into Chong Ming’s ears when he heard Jiang Tea Tea call out to Chong Ming.
Chong Ming pressed the invisible earpiece at his ear and said in a cool voice: “I’m letting you watch this live. If you think it’s too sweet, so sweet you’ll get cavities and your teeth will rot, I’ll just close your access…”
Zhong Li He cut him off right away and slapped his own face verbally: “No, no, no, I’m happy to get cavities, happy to have my teeth rot.”
Chong Ming let out a cold snort, proud and a little smug.
That cold snort went into Zhong Li He’s ears and sounded especially harsh to him.
But… to watch Aceras suffer, he swallowed his anger and told himself that a gentleman’s revenge is never too late, even in ten years. Just you wait.
Aceras heard Atuya’s words and Jiang Tea Tea’s agreement, and rage shot up in his heart like a fire burning across a field. He shouted: “So what if Chong Ming is watching? Jiang Tea Tea is in my hands right now. What can he do?”
“Blast you and me with artillery?”
“He doesn’t dare. I am the Insectoid Race’s great Imperial Prince, and you are the Insectoid Race’s High General. If he blows us up, it will start a war between our two countries.”
“Our Insectoid Race has tens of trillions more bugs than the Zhenlin Empire. We lost the war decades ago, but now we will not lose again…”
Atuya cut off Aceras’s words with calm, icy reason: “We will. We lost decades ago. If we start a war with Zhenlin again now, we will still lose.”
“The reasons are simple. First, their technology is higher than ours. Second, their common citizens have more unity than ours. Third, decades ago was not Commander in Chief Chong Ming’s peak period. Only now is his peak period.”
“When he wasn’t in his peak period, he could already lead his common citizens and, with technology that was behind ours, still defeat us. Now he is in his peak period, and their technology is better than ours. Defeating us would be very easy.”
“You are just boosting other people’s morale while killing our own…”
“Wrong. I am just telling the truth. I have simulated every battle Commander in Chief Chong Ming ever fought at least a dozen times.”
“While you were only thinking about how to grab Jiang Tea Tea, I went to their space weapons hall and saw their weapons. They have many high-tech space weapons. Judging by their model names, everything on show was odd-numbered.”
“If there are odd numbers, there must be even numbers. He only brought out the odd numbers. Where are the even numbers? Of course he is hiding them. Why would he hide them? That is his backup. And who is that backup for? For us.”
Atuya had climbed from a low-ranked soldier all the way up to the position of High General. She had gone through countless civil wars and external wars.
Her Majesty the Queen herself had named her one of the Insectoid Race’s top ten High Generals. Her ability to analyze battles and move troops was the best of the best.
She was not a highborn insect who had family resources holding her up, kept in the position of High General only by money and power.
Every step of her promotion came through seas of blood and piles of corpses, stained with pieces of flesh and fresh blood, stepping over countless shattered bones to reach today.
Compared with her, Aceras only cared about what was right in front of him and about his own gains.
The Insectoid Race’s pride, arrogance, short-sightedness, selfishness, and bloody greed were all shown clearly in Aceras.
Aceras stared blankly at Atuya. In his green eyes, gloom, strangeness, madness, and killing intent twisted together.
There was a wound on Atuya’s shoulder armor. Blood had already soaked through her uniform and dripped onto the floor. She looked as if she could not feel the pain at all as she stared back at him.
As a bystander, Jiang Tea Tea looked at him, then at her, sweeping her eyes back and forth several times. Once again, she sighed in her heart: [Aceras really does not deserve a bug like Atuya.]
After a long time, Atuya did not take the gun from Aceras’s hand. Instead, she turned to the side, faced Jiang Tea Tea, and gave her a deep formal bow. When she spoke, her voice carried apology, and she was still trying to cover for Aceras.
“Sorry, Miss Jiang Tea Tea. Our Highness brought you here without permission. That is my failure in supervision.”
“If you need to blame someone, please blame me. It has nothing to do with His Highness. I will personally send you back and explain the situation to Commander in Chief Chong Ming. I hope, when the time comes, you can be merciful and say a few kind words for me to Commander in Chief Chong Ming.”
Aceras shared the same male father as Crown Princess Heir Asais, so the two of them would rise and fall together very easily.
Atuya did not want the matter of Aceras kidnapping Jiang Tea Tea to be reported to Her Majesty the Queen. Earlier, when Asais and Atuya worked to rescue Aceras from the Zhenlin Empire, they paid too much compensation and had already drawn the Queen’s displeasure.
If Aceras angered the Queen again this time, then the other princesses who were already eyeing the position of Crown Princess Heir would definitely not let it go.
They would surely try every method to pull Aceras and Asais down, take their place, and become the rulers of the Insectoid Race in the future.
Jiang Tea Tea tapped the Flame Staff against her palm. She did not agree right away. Instead, she raised her brows at Aceras and said: “You have no ability of your own, and you let a female clean up your mess, yet you still act so justified.”
Aceras’s hand tightened on the gun. He raised the muzzle at Jiang Tea Tea again and growled in a low voice: “Who says I have no ability? You are in my hands right now.”
Jiang Tea Tea let out a sneer: “You’re lucky, little bug. That shot you fired at me was blocked by your fiancee. Otherwise, do you really think you would still be standing here in one piece?”
Aceras choked with fury: “You…”
Jiang Tea Tea’s voice suddenly dropped and turned cold: “Put the gun down.”
“You tell me to put it down and I’ll just… What’s going on, what’s going on? My hand is out of control. Why is my hand out of control…”
Aceras never planned to listen to Jiang Tea Tea and put down the gun. But his hand with the gun would not obey him. It felt as heavy as a thousand pounds and kept sinking down.
Zhong Li He had been lying limp in his office chair, watching the show. But because of one sentence from Jiang Tea Tea, Aceras could no longer hold the gun. Zhong Li He sat up straight at once, wishing he could be there in person.
Chong Ming, however, acted as if nothing had happened. He sat just as he had before, as if he was long used to every move and skill Jiang Tea Tea showed.
There was a clatter.
Then a loud bang.
The sound of the gun hitting the ground and the sound of it firing automatically rang out almost at the same time.
“Ah!”
The bullet hit Aceras’s lower leg. He cried out in pain and jumped on one leg.
Atuya turned in an instant and again stood in front of Aceras, facing Jiang Tea Tea as she said: “I’m sorry, Miss Jiang Tea Tea. Could you please show mercy and spare him this time?”
Jiang Tea Tea met her gaze and asked: “Is he worth it?”
Atuya answered without hesitation: “He is worth it.”
Jiang Tea Tea nodded: “All right. I respect people who are deeply devoted and still have principles.”
Atuya said quickly: “Thank you, thank you!”
Jiang Tea Tea stepped past her, lifted her leg, and kicked Aceras hard.
Aceras flew into the air from the kick and then crashed heavily back onto the floor.
Jiang Tea Tea looked back at Atuya and said: “You’re welcome. I won’t take his life. Any follow-up compensation to me on your side, talk to our Commander in Chief. Goodbye.”
When she came, she had been brought in locked inside a confinement box. When she left, she walked out swaggering.
When Jiang Tea Tea was almost at the ship’s hangar door, Atuya called her own Deputy Officer over and told her to lead Jiang Tea Tea out first.
Only after she could no longer see Jiang Tea Tea did Atuya bend down to help Aceras up.
Even though Aceras had two broken ribs and a mouth full of blood and looked completely miserable, he still did not accept her help. He shoved her away and said: “Atuya, I am so disappointed in you.”
Atuya’s hand stopped in mid-air. She looked at him for a long time, then slowly curled her fingers into a fist, squatted down in front of him, lowered her eyelids, and did not look at him again.
She opened her mouth, and her voice was extremely calm: “Your Highness, I know you want a mistress who is full of ambition, and I know my status is not good enough for you.”
“When Her Majesty the Queen gave us our marriage contract, I was only a major general. When I saw you, your green eyes were very beautiful. I liked you. I fell in love with you at first sight.”
“Because I knew I had no family backing and could not give you a life as good as in the Imperial Palace, after I became your fiancee, I went to fight every aberrant beast other people did not want to fight, because I could earn bonuses and military merit.”
“I went to fight every civil war that others did not want to fight, and killed bugs that others did not want to kill, because there were bonuses, military merit, and titles.”
“I climbed step by step to where I am now only because I wanted to be worthy of you. I wanted to spend my whole life with you, one male lord.”
“But you do not like me. You do not love me. I thought I could move you. In the end, I only moved myself. I am not worthy of your ambition.”
Atuya paused for a moment, then spoke again as if she had made up her mind: “Your Highness, let us end it. After the Space Weapons Expo is over and we return to the Insectoid Race, I will use all my military merit to beg Her Majesty the Queen to cancel our marriage contract. I will return your freedom.”