Chapter 238

Chapter 238: Coddling You Trash, What Crap Are You Dreaming About

The video showed flames roaring up into the sky. The light of the Five-colored Phoenix Flame looked just like some kind of black weapon that could burn everything to nothing.

Jiang Tea Tea held her Flame Staff, wearing a full combat suit with a high ponytail. The footage of her igniting and burning things was clear as day.

Beside her stood Sui Xuan Chu, Yan Yu, Orange Sparrow, and people from the Military Authorities. Everyone held weapons. Their clothes were splattered with blood and flesh, their eyes fierce and sharp. They looked like executioners, not rescuers.

On StarNet, countless common citizens from the M31 region, a bunch of extreme haters, and even some bugs from the Insectoid Race saw this clipped video of less than twenty seconds. At once, the whole net exploded with reposts, comments, and curses.

Someone jeered: “Anyone who worshipped Chong Ming, the Commander in Chief, step out here. Look at this. It hasn’t even been four hours and Chong Ming, Commander in Chief, has slapped his own face. I just want to ask you, does your face hurt, is it swollen, does it ring?”

Another mocked: “What was that about the Empire not giving up on any infected person or uninfected person, no matter who they are, that the Empire will do its best to save them? The Crown Prince and the three Level S top-tier variant plant-type ability healing masters, with Jiang Tea Tea among them, will be with you. Ah, so it was all lies!”

Someone argued: “Who said it was all lies? We didn’t see the Crown Prince, but we did see Jiang Tea Tea. She really is with them. It’s just that one sits high above, looking down, and the other is below acting like an executioner, killing people, setting fires, and burning bodies.”

Another person complained: “Yeah, look at that fire. That’s not a normal fire. Who has flames in five colors? That’s definitely some new black weapon the Zhenlin Empire developed. This fire burns exactly what they point at, without even a little deviation.”

Someone joked darkly: “Hey, hey, don’t say that, don’t say that, all of you stop. Those five-colored flames are actually pretty nice to look at. The Zhenlin Empire really is a world ruled by a mighty Dragon Clan. Their violent-burning aesthetics are still going strong.”

A more sympathetic comment read: “The ones I feel bad for are the infected people and the uninfected people. They trusted their Commander in Chief, trusted their Crown Prince, trusted the legendary three Level S healers. Who knew they’d just be burned to ash and destroyed.”

Another questioned: “Jiang Tea Tea is a healer. Aren’t healers supposed to be kind, never giving up on any victim? Why did she turn into an arsonist, a burner?”

Someone blamed her directly: “Chong Ming, Commander in Chief, sent her there to save people, not to burn them, not to set fires. She’s too cruel.”

A vicious voice spat: “Someone this cruel has no right to be a healer. She should die.”

Another sighed: “Think about the people in the infection zone. They must have been waiting with such hope for rescue, never expecting to be abandoned, hunted, and then burned.”

Someone started counting: “Nisu Town has about seventy thousand permanent residents. Add tourists and other people, and at most that’s seventy-five to eighty thousand. They said thousands were infected, maybe even more than ten thousand. Let’s say fifty thousand are still uninfected.”

Another analyzed coldly: “Rescuing and isolating fifty thousand people is a huge project, just from food, clothes, housing, and toilets alone. And the infected need healing and people to watch them, and they might infect others. That’s a massive project that drains people and money.”

Someone came to a cruel conclusion: “Instead of draining people and money, why not just destroy them directly? Seventy to eighty thousand people, compared to the whole population of the Zhenlin Empire, is just a drop in the bucket, not worth mentioning. So Chong Ming, Commander in Chief, is a hypocrite.”

Another chimed in: “Yeah, yeah, you shouldn’t blame Jiang Tea Tea or the Crown Prince. Right now, everything in the Zhenlin Empire is decided by Chong Ming alone. The two of them are only following his orders.”

Someone sneered: “Power in hand, how could he let it slip away?”

Another used an old saying: “How can you let someone else snore by your bedside?”

Someone analyzed: “He has a partner now and a youngling. He still sent the Crown Prince out. Think about it. Just think about it and you’ll get quiet.”

Another gloated: “Chong Ming, Commander in Chief, is finished. All you females who shout every day that you want to marry him, come out and take a good look at what kind of man you like.”

A fan shot back: “Why do you care what kind of man we like? You want to use a short, headless video to erase all his years of achievements? I don’t agree.”

Another fan agreed: “Right. A video that’s not even twenty seconds long proves nothing. Just wait and see. The man I stan, the man I want to marry, will not collapse.”

A hater mocked: “You’re all just stubborn ducks who won’t admit you’re wrong…”

Someone replied: “Who are you calling stubborn ducks? Time will prove it. As long as Chong Ming, Commander in Chief, hasn’t made an official statement, I won’t believe anything on the net.”

Another reminded everyone: “Chong Ming, Commander in Chief, said that every citizen of the Zhenlin Empire has freedom of speech. He won’t suppress any trending topic.”

Someone reasoned: “This topic has been up for so long. If it were really as bad as they say, would Chong Ming, Commander in Chief, just ignore it and slap his own face? Are you all underestimating the power of a national leader?”

Another scoffed: “Exactly. The Zhenlin Empire is an empire, not some little planet, not a tiny nation. You think if Chong Ming, Commander in Chief, wanted to do something bad, you’d find out? That it would get posted online? That’s so naive!”

Chong Ming sat in the Imperial Military Headquarters, directing everyone. It wasn’t only Nisu Town. Nanbei Star and Blazing Star were also within the search range.

Under his orders, the Police Bureau, the Imperial Military Headquarters, and the healing departments of all planets had all their personnel in position. They were searching, protecting, and hunting infected beastkind.

Up to this point, not a single beastman or infected person had been killed. Troops were going in batch after batch, risking infection to capture and arrest them.

He could see all the noise online. After he saw it, he gave one order to the Relevant Authorities: use satellite footage to restore the full scene.

The video online was less than twenty seconds long and had made Jiang Tea Tea and Chong Ming carry the crime of a collapsed image, getting cursed under every post on their accounts.

The restored video was one hour long. Even if you skimmed and skipped through it, it was far more than twenty seconds. Anyone who watched it felt their blood boil and their heart shake.

All the online opinions that were bad for Jiang Tea Tea and Chong Ming flipped at once. The comments now went one-sided in the other direction, scolding: “The person from Nisu Town who uploaded that video, you should have died in the infection. Jiang Tea Tea and the army didn’t only pull you out. They also hunted infected four-horned beasts, mutant rats, cheetahs, and more. But you cut the start and the end and added your own captions to frame them!”

Someone threatened: “Just wait. Don’t think you can hide in the Severe Contamination Zone. Just because you posted one video, you think you can run? You cannot run. People like you will get punished by the Beast God.”

Another cursed: “Damn, those four-horned beasts are more than ten meters tall. The heaviest ones weigh ten tons, the lightest still several tons. Once infected, their bodies are covered in rotten flesh and black blood. Jiang Tea Tea and the people from the Military Authorities were hunting them. From the footage, some of them wouldn’t even die. Their claws got chopped off and they could still attack people. Tell me, in that situation, if they don’t burn them, what then? Take them home and make soup?”

Another added: “And those mutant rats and mutant termites that weigh more than ten jin each, they rushed the town like they cost nothing. Because there were survivors in the town, uninfected people and infected people both, they couldn’t just bomb the place. They had to use supernatural abilities and cold weapons to hunt them one by one.”

Someone pointed out: “Not a single person from Jiang Tea Tea’s team or the Military Authorities had clean clothes. From the video, several people almost got infected by those aberrant beasts. So I ask you: if they don’t burn them, what should they do? Answer me. If they don’t burn them, what should they do?”

Another scolded: “All you haters, all you Insectoid Race bugs, all you people with nothing better to do who just want to stir up trouble, shut your lying mouths. Open your eyes and see what ‘people first’ really looks like.”

Someone suggested: “Judicial Department of the Zhenlin Empire, hurry up and form a squad to catch all the rumor-mongers on StarNet. Lock up the ones who need to be locked up, exile the ones who need to be exiled, fine the ones who need to be fined. Let’s see how arrogant they’ll be then!”

Once again, the wind on StarNet flipped one-sided, this time in favor of Chong Ming and Jiang Tea Tea.

Jiang Tea Tea had no idea what was happening online. She watched the Five-colored Phoenix Flame burn near its end and sighed: “The Phoenix clan’s Five-Flame Fire is really powerful. It can burn anything.”

Chong Ming’s voice came through the earpiece in her ear: “Lower your voice. If Zhong Li He hears that, he’ll charge you royalties.”

Jiang Tea Tea choked and laughed: “If he dares charge me, I’ll find a way to quietly kill him. Half braised, half roasted.”

Chong Ming said: “His beast form looks like it weighs dozens of jin. If you strip the fur and take out the organs, two dishes is too few. You could make three dishes, even five.”

Jiang Tea Tea snorted: “Fine. I’ll be sure to tell him later that you have very special ideas about how to eat him.”

Chong Ming said calmly: “I’m not worried. If he studies how to eat me, he’ll come up with at least a few dozen methods.”

What he meant was that he wasn’t afraid of her tattling on him.

Jiang Tea Tea laughed and teased him: “Dragon and phoenix, a perfect pair. If we stew you two together, boil you together, it would be super nourishing!”

A phoenix bird and a male dragon were both peak pure-yang supplements. Jiang Tea Tea didn’t even dare imagine burying the two of them under her roots. The nutrients would be so rich she would grow thick, tall, and lush beyond belief.

Chong Ming replied to her tease: “I don’t match with him.”

Jiang Tea Tea said: “You match, you match. You two match to death.”

Chong Ming corrected her again: “No. I don’t match with him. Right, I have something I want your help with.”

Jiang Tea Tea said: “Say it.”

Chong Ming briefly told her what had happened online.

When she finished listening, Jiang Tea Tea asked: “You can let other people livestream.”

Chong Ming answered: “You are the future Commander in Chief of the Three Armies that I am training. You need a record you can show.”

He added: “Other people livestream as other people. You livestream as you. With three sides livestreaming, do you get what I mean?”

Jiang Tea Tea said: “I get it. But you need to be ready. Even if the virus’s infected hosts 3.0 evolved version is caught, some serious infected hosts will still have to be executed in the end.”

Chong Ming said: “I know.”

Jiang Tea Tea nodded: “Okay, I’ll start a stream.”

She opened a first-person livestream using her own account. The Military Authorities, the people building the tall iron walls, and the satellite system covering all of Nisu Town also opened rescue livestreams.

Three streaming channels, three live broadcast rooms, could show Nisu Town’s full rescue operation from different angles.

Jiang Tea Tea’s first-person live broadcast room was flooded with StarNet Friends from every major planet in the M31 Star System. The number of viewers reached into the tens of billions.

Her voice came through the stream, wild and sharp: “I don’t know how many people are in my live broadcast room, and I don’t care. I heard some people are cyberbullying me, so I had no choice but to start a livestream.”

She went on: “Day after day I work like a beast of burden. I don’t even sleep well when I’m on break. If I’m not on a mission, I’m on the way to a mission. And you still cyberbully me?”

She snapped: “You people who are too full and have nothing to do, go make more money and do more cultivation practice. Practice your supernatural abilities. Don’t sit around being keyboard warriors, typing away and spouting crap.”

She cursed: “I’m out here rescuing, hunting infected beastkind, and capturing infected hosts. And I still have to show you trolls the live scene and comfort you trolls? I’ve really had enough!”

She added: “Hey, if there are any StarNet Friends watching who like me, do me a favor. Help me remember the IP accounts of everyone who flamed me and slandered me, and keep evidence of what they said. When I finish my work here, I’ll block them forever. No matter what lottery I run, no matter what healing event I hold, they will never be included!”

She wrapped it up: “Alright, that’s it. You keep watching. I’ll keep working. Stop talking nonsense and cyberbullying me. Thanks.”

God might love all people, but she was a demon. Even if someone believed that she had karmic merit shining on her, she would not love all people.

She didn’t know about other demons, but this demon tree was sometimes petty, selfish, and difficult.

After Jiang Tea Tea finished speaking, she exploded into action. She swung her Flame Staff and smashed it into an infected host who lunged at her.

The hit sent flesh and blood flying off the infected host. As soon as it fell to the ground, the people behind her rushed up, tied it up, and dragged it away. Her speed-type ability was so fast and her strength so great that viewers in the live broadcast room almost had their eyeballs pop out. Their fingers flew over the keys as they sent bullet comments.

Someone shouted: “So Jiang Tea Tea’s real strength isn’t healing. It’s combat. She’s amazing, one hit per person!”

Another gushed: “She’s not only good at fighting. Her words are sharp too. I thought she was just arrogant, but she’s actually cool and tough. She’s A-level hot!”

Someone announced: “I officially declare she’s the female I want to marry. I’ll marry no one but her.”

Another mocked him: “Your brain is broken. With her strength, you say you’ll marry her? What are you going to use to marry her? You can’t beat her, you can’t win an argument against her, you can’t even out-snark her. How do you have the nerve to say that?”

Someone called out: “Where are the haters, where are the trolls? Hurry up and come back.”

Another laughed: “Am I the only one who feels the resentment of a beast of burden coming from Jiang Tea Tea the healer?”

Someone replied: “It’s not just you. We all feel it. Her words are full of beast-of-burden resentment.”

Just then, someone shouted: “Oh crap, a cheetah, an infected cheetah…”

An infected cheetah with a speed-type ability rushed toward Jiang Tea Tea. Her Flame Staff turned into a hard, sharp blade in her hands and stabbed straight through it.

The cheetah let out a shrill roar. The Flame Staff inside its body expanded and grew bigger and bigger. With a boom, the cheetah was blown into pieces.

Bones, rotten flesh, and thick black blood rained down like a sudden storm. It was disgusting and terrifying.

Sui Xuan Chu rushed to Jiang Tea Tea’s side, eyes fixed on her Flame Staff. He praised without holding back and with clear desire: “Roommate, that was beautiful. Your weapon is so cool. Get me one too, okay?”

Jiang Tea Tea replied: “Not for sale. There will never be a second one.”

Sui Xuan Chu refused to give up: “Name a price and make me one. I’ll pay whatever it costs. I have a lot of pocket money now.”

Jiang Tea Tea said bluntly: “Even if you gave me everything you own, I still couldn’t make another one. Come on, stop talking. That living dead zombie in front is yours.”

Sui Xuan Chu snorted: “Fine, fine, I’ll go.” He gathered his supernatural abilities. A thunderbolt fell from the sky and struck the living dead zombie.

The zombie was smashed to the ground. Other people rushed up to tie it up. Their teamwork was so fast that in a blink it was bound, loaded onto a flying device, and taken away.

Jiang Tea Tea, Sui Xuan Chu, and the others worked with the army to search and arrest people across the whole town.

They killed infected beasts with one strike. For infected people and uninfected people, they separated them and took them away.

They started in the afternoon and searched until night, then from night until the next morning. For a full twenty-four hours, they searched the town three times. Only after making sure there were no infected hosts or uninfected hosts left behind did they withdraw.

After they left, ten-meter-high iron walls completely sealed the town. The Military Authorities used the town as the center and expanded their search five hundred kilometers out, looking for other infected hosts and any laboratory that might be hidden in the town.

Jiang Tea Tea and the other seven people, covered in the smell of blood, boarded the isolation rescue ship to wash and be examined.

Jiang Tea Tea didn’t want to be examined and risk exposing the little ones in her belly, so she planned to ask Chong Ming to give an order. But when she came out from washing, she saw him.

Her brows lifted: “I was just about to look for you, and you show up. You really are the roundworm in my belly.”

Chong Ming reached out and grabbed her hand. Golden eyes full of worry, he said: “You were scratched by the infected person Reboot. Why didn’t you say anything?”

Jiang Tea Tea blurted: “No, I wasn’t. Who said…”

Chong Ming pointed at the nail mark on her hand and cut her off: “What is this?”

Jiang Tea Tea looked down and said carelessly: “It’s just a little scratch. It didn’t even bleed. It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.”

It was just a nail mark that scraped off a layer of skin. He was acting like she was dying. She almost thought she was already seriously ill and about to keel over.

Chong Ming’s golden eyes stayed on her. His voice sank: “Jiang Tea Tea, this isn’t a small scratch. This is a scratch from the evolutionary infected person Reboot.”

He added: “The virus in her body is tens of thousands of times stronger than the zombies who’ve lost their minds and are nothing but rotten flesh and foul blood.”

He stared at her and demanded: “She scratched you. Why didn’t you say anything? Do you know you might be infected?”

Jiang Tea Tea lifted her chin and looked back at him. The anxiety in his eyes and the hidden, controlled emotion under them confused her.

[Could it be that he’s afraid I’ll die, and his babies won’t be born, so he’s this anxious?]

She yanked back her hand and slapped her palm lightly on her stomach: “You don’t have to worry. My babies are fine. I’m not infected.”

Chong Ming looked at her deeply. She was such a block of wood. He wasn’t worried about the younglings in her belly. He was worried about her.

Jiang Tea Tea frowned under his stare. He didn’t believe her and insisted on taking her for an exam. That would not do.

She spoke again: “I’m really fine. I’m a healer. I know my own body better than anyone. You don’t need to worry. Oh, and I don’t need any exam or isolation. Tell your subordinate to let it go.”

Chong Ming took a breath so soft it was almost invisible and forced his voice to calm: “You need an exam and you need isolation. You don’t trust other people, so I’ll have Cheng Lin Yue and Cheng Yuan examine you alone. Only the two of them and I will see any of your data.”

Jiang Tea Tea refused without thinking: “No.”

Chong Ming stepped forward, cutting her off as he closed in on her: “The infected person Reboot said that anyone who touches her flesh and blood or gets scratched by her, no matter who they are or how strong their supernatural abilities are, will be infected.”