Chapter 234
Chapter 234: Want to Kiss Wife, Hug Wife, Touch the Little Brats
Chong Ming’s eyes suddenly darkened when he heard that. He stared at Jiang Tea Tea and spoke through gritted teeth: “Thank you for your concern. I will take good care of my body. I will not let myself become useless, and I definitely will not ‘nurse my stomach’.”
Looking at the rough, tree-trunk-like lines of his body, Jiang Tea Tea said: “We’ve known each other for almost a year now. Don’t be so stubborn. If you should find a partner, then find a partner. If you should take medicine, then take medicine. If you should get injections, then get injections…”
She sighed: “Hey, if you don’t want to take medicine or get shots, how about I talk to Cheng Yuan? He’s a shady doctor, he knows a lot of dark medical arts. I can ask him to come give you a few needles, help you vent some fire and tone down that smell of yours?”
Cheng Yuan, that healer beastman, really had some skills. He knew many crooked medical arts. In their words, it had a bit of deviant cultivation flavor.
Chong Ming’s gaze dropped and landed on her lower belly. He suddenly changed the subject: “Your belly is a little bigger than usual.”
Jiang Tea Tea never expected him to turn the topic that sharply. She froze, then instinctively put her hand over her stomach: “I’m almost more than eight months pregnant with my little brats. So what if my belly is a bit big? What are you looking at? Never seen one before?”
Chong Ming looked at her bristling like a cat and answered very seriously: “I really haven’t. This is the first time.”
Jiang Tea Tea ground her teeth in anger and jabbed right at his heart: “First time seeing it doesn’t mean you can touch it.”
“I will,” he said.
“Ah? What do you mean, ‘will’?”
“It’s nothing. I’ll take you to the Imperial Military Headquarters laboratory. Let’s go.”
After he finished, he turned and walked out, cold air rolling off his whole body.
Jiang Tea Tea curled her lip and followed him, leaving his office.
On the way they ran into quite a few of his subordinates and security guards. Each one saluted him, eyes full of respect.
Wherever he went, everyone stepped aside and cleared the main path for him. Walking side by side with him again, Jiang Tea Tea once more enjoyed the feeling of being watched by everyone.
The only bad part was that his scent was too strong, like it was always tugging at her, tempting her.
Luckily she was a powerful demon tree with inhuman self-control, or she would have already been hooked by the scent coming off him.
The Imperial Military Headquarters laboratory was neither too far nor too near from the main building. As Jiang Tea Tea walked there with Chong Ming, she saw from a distance Sui Xuan Chu and the other six standing at the entrance, waving and shouting at her.
“Sister Tea, over here, over here, come quick, come quick, we haven’t seen you for days, we missed you to death!”
“Sister Tea, when you get rich, remember us. You’re our big backer, you can’t abandon us!”
“Roommate, are you doing okay?”
Jiang Tea Tea lifted her hand and waved back at them.
When she and Chong Ming got close, the seven of them instantly turned serious and proper. Faces solemn, they saluted: “Commander in Chief!”
Chong Ming nodded: “Hello. Thank you for your hard work.”
The seven answered in unison: “Serving the nation is not hard.”
Jiang Tea Tea: “…”
[What a bunch of bootlickers. So fake.]
Chong Ming glanced at them: “Let’s go in.”
He walked in first. Jiang Tea Tea did not walk beside him this time, but fell back to join Sui Xuan Chu and the other six, following behind him.
Sui Xuan Chu quietly and boldly asked Jiang Tea Tea: “Roommate, where did you go these past two days? Did you meet some new friends?”
Jiang Tea Tea blinked: “How did you know I met new friends?”
Sui Xuan Chu pointed to his own eyes: “I have eyes. I can see. I read the post you made yesterday, and all the comments under it.”
“Isn’t the water under the lab pool connected to an underground river, and isn’t there something locked up in that underground river?”
Jiang Tea Tea let out a small “wow”: “Did your uncle tell you something?”
She did not believe he was so smart he could read a post and a bunch of comments and figure it out.
Sui Xuan Chu secretly peeked at his uncle. His uncle was now giving off freezing cold air. Even with two people between them, he felt like he was about to freeze to death.
Sui Xuan Chu quickly cleared himself: “No. My uncle has been so busy lately his feet barely touch the ground. He has no time to care about me. I just guessed from your post and the comments.”
“It wasn’t only me guessing. All of us guessed and discussed it. Right, Cheng Xiao Ting, Huang Da Zhuang?”
The named Cheng Xiao Ting and Huang Da Zhuang and the others nodded again and again. Yes, yes, they all guessed Sister Tea had saved someone and made a new friend.
Jiang Tea Tea replied: “Alright. Later I’ll ask the Commander in Chief if I can tell you about the mission I went on and the new friend I made. If I can talk about it, I’ll tell you.”
Sui Xuan Chu and the others nodded again and again: “Okay, okay…”
“Ahem!”
Chong Ming coughed.
The seven of them instantly went silent.
Jiang Tea Tea looked up and saw he had already stepped into the elevator. The eight of them hadn’t followed and were still huddled together gossiping.
Cheng Xiao Ting, Huang Da Zhuang and the others instantly went back to their serious-but-stupid young man pose.
Seeing them all cowering and not daring to move, Jiang Tea Tea walked ahead on her own into the elevator. Only then did the seven quickly follow.
The seven of them stood behind Chong Ming and Jiang Tea Tea, trying their best to press themselves into the elevator wall, staring straight ahead at the backs of the Commander in Chief and Sister Tea.
The elevator doors closed and started to go down.
Jiang Tea Tea watched the changing numbers and rested her hand on her belly. She did not know if it was because Chong Ming’s scent was too tempting. It not only hooked her, it also made the little brats in her stomach more active than ever.
Chong Ming lowered his eyelids and looked at her hand on her belly. He could clearly see the babies inside pushing against her palm.
[The babies and their partner are right in front of me, but I can’t touch them. I can’t feel them. I can’t hold them. I can’t kiss them…]
Standing behind the two of them, Sui Xuan Chu and the other six suddenly felt the temperature in the elevator drop. It was so cold, so cold that they did not dare breathe too loudly.
With a ding, the elevator doors opened.
Several researchers in white coats were standing outside.
Chong Ming withdrew his gaze and stepped out of the elevator first.
Jiang Tea Tea followed him out.
The researchers saluted him. As they walked, one handed him a stack of printed reports: “Commander in Chief, regarding the two living dead sent over the day before yesterday, after two nights and one day of study, we found that they are infected by a virus.”
“We are still analyzing which virus exactly caused this. Here is the report. Please take a look…”
Chong Ming took the report and scanned it: “Jiang Tea Tea, come here.”
Jiang Tea Tea took a big step to walk beside him: “What is it?”
Chong Ming handed her the report: “The preliminary test results for the living dead. Take a look.”
Jiang Tea Tea took the report and skimmed through it. Even with the fake young miss’s memories, she did not understand some virus names from the interstellar era at all. She really could not read it.
She spoke honestly: “I don’t understand. Let Cheng Lin Yue take a look?”
Chong Ming glanced over: “Alright.”
Jiang Tea Tea handed the report back to Cheng Lin Yue. She was more professional than Jiang Tea Tea and she also had an uncle in this field.
Cheng Lin Yue took the report with both hands. After reading it carefully, she said: “Commander in Chief, these two viruses, and the two listed below them, and the way their curves move, I’ve seen them on my uncle’s research cards.”
“The other viruses, I’ve never seen before. I have not dealt with them. I do not know them, so I cannot help.”
After hearing this, Chong Ming opened his light-brain wrist terminal: “Secretary Wen, go to the Imperial Palace and bring healer Cheng Yuan to the Imperial Military Headquarters laboratory.”
Secretary Wen answered: “Yes, Commander in Chief!”
After that, Chong Ming followed the researchers and led Jiang Tea Tea and the others into the lab where the two living dead were kept.
The two living dead were stark naked, covered in rot, tied to the lab tables. The laboratory was completely sealed.
They struggled on the tables, roaring and howling. All the lab staff working inside were fully suited up.
Standing beside Chong Ming, Jiang Tea Tea bent over and narrowed her eyes to look through the glass. In the light of day, she kept feeling she had seen something like this living dead somewhere before.
“Chong Ming.” Jiang Tea Tea didn’t even pull her gaze back. She just raised her hand and waved at him beside her, calling his name without any title.
Several researchers nearby felt their hearts jolt. As expected of the empire’s only variant Level S healer. She was really bold.
At her call, Chong Ming bent his straight back and leaned forward like her, looking through the glass at the test tables: “What is it?”
Jiang Tea Tea answered: “Those two living dead inside, I feel like I’ve seen something similar somewhere, but I can’t remember it for the moment.”
Chong Ming’s golden eyes narrowed: “Near the lab where they were found, when the army went back to clean up later, they cleared out more than ten others.”
“Those dozen were not cleared from inside the lab, but from the mountains outside. Their eyes looked dull and blind, but their speed-type ability was extremely fast. They liked to hunt living things, gnaw them, bite them…”
Jiang Tea Tea suddenly cut him off. She straightened up, eyes shining as she looked at him: “Chong Ming, I remember what they are.”
Still bent over, Chong Ming turned his eyes toward her: “What?”
Jiang Tea Tea answered: “They are living dead. To put it simply, the word is zombie.”
“Right, zombies. Living dead formed from a pollution virus. They live by eating living people and animals, and they also keep infecting more animals and humans, turning them into their own kind.”
After listening, Chong Ming straightened and looked at the researchers beside him: “Activate the virus archive from two thousand years ago and compare it one by one.”
The researchers answered: “Yes, Commander in Chief. We’ll start the comparison right away.”
Jiang Tea Tea frowned: “Commander in Chief, I have a question.”
Chong Ming turned his gaze to her: “Ask.”
Jiang Tea Tea pointed at the two living dead tied to the test tables: “You just said ‘activate the virus archive from two thousand years ago’. Did your empire have a large-scale living dead incident more than two thousand years ago?”
Chong Ming answered in a low, steady voice: “More than two thousand years ago, it was not the Zhenlin Empire that had a large-scale living dead incident. It was the Western Kingdom.”
“In that incident, almost five million people were infected and around eight million people died. The losses were beyond counting.”
“Many countries from other star systems, including the Zhenlin Empire, sent researchers and healers there, trying to heal the infected. They found there was no way to heal them. The only way was to kill.”
“Besides the first five million infected, another three million became infected and died during the hunt for the first group. A total of eight million people died before the incident finally ended.”
“After the event was over, the researchers and healers who went to the Western Kingdom brought back virus samples and sealed them.”
Jiang Tea Tea let out a soft “oh”: “So that’s how it is. But normally, when you see one ant, the ant nest must be somewhere nearby.”
“So do you think there might already be many ant nests somewhere on Capital Planet, or on some other planet in the Zhenlin Empire?”
Chong Ming nodded: “I know. That is possible…”
Before he finished speaking, his light-brain wrist terminal rang.
He lifted his hand with the terminal and glanced at it. It was a call from Zhong Li He.
Zhong Li He usually only sent messages when chatting. He called only when there was something serious.
Chong Ming answered. Just as he was about to speak, Zhong Li He’s slightly anxious voice came through: “Chong Ming, Kong Que just got news. That illegal lab run together by the Western Kingdom and the Yellow Dragon Clan has created a living dead virus version 2.0 and smuggled it into your Zhenlin Empire!”