Chapter 243
Chapter 243: Big Golden Dragon Climbed Into Bed on His Own—and Still Tried to Blame Her
Jiang Tea Tea rose immediately. “Someone bombed your Military Department? Whoever dug their own grave like that—I have to see it.”
Gossip wasn’t a human trait. It was a universal trait.
And Jiang Tea Tea had eaten her fill. She was not missing this.
“Fine,” Chong Ming said curtly. “Stay with me.”
He buttoned his shirt back up—rigid, controlled, composed—and stepped into his role as the empire’s Commander-in-Chief without missing a beat.
Jiang Tea Tea followed him out.
The shaking continued, but weaker now. The booming blasts stopped, replaced by occasional crackling rumbles like distant thunder.
A person who knew the details hurried over, saluted, and reported quickly. “Commander-in-Chief, the building shook because He Tan Mountain exploded.”
Chong Ming didn’t slow. “The whole mountain?”
“Not the entire mountain. A section about fifty kilometers from the Military Department. The affected area is roughly a hundred kilometers.”
The report came in rapid bursts. “Our people were searching the mountain and found an underground armory and an underground lab.”
“We were still investigating and hadn’t had time to report when the armory detonated.”
“It was packed with weapons and ammunition. The explosion triggered a chain reaction and shook the entire mountain range. The Military Department, fifty kilometers away, was hit by a smaller wave.”
“With the collapse, the underground lab was buried. We can’t retrieve anything that proves who built it or what they were researching.”
Chong Ming stepped into the elevator with Jiang Tea Tea. “Any casualties?”
“No deaths so far. Fifteen injured. They’ve been sent for treatment. We also dispatched two additional search teams.”
Chong Ming nodded once. “Understood. Get more details.”
“Yes!”
The elevator rose to the top floor.
Jiang Tea Tea and Chong Ming stood on the roof and looked toward He Tan Mountain.
Thick smoke rolled upward. Fire shot into the sky.
Birds swarmed out in panicked flocks, shrieking. Animals screamed below, their cries carrying on the wind.
Jiang Tea Tea watched the distance and clicked her tongue. “Chong Ming, fifty kilometers. Even if they weren’t bombing your Military Department, that’s still like slapping you right in the face.”
Chong Ming’s eyes flashed, sharp and cold. “You’re right. They’re jumping on my head and swinging at my face.”
Jiang Tea Tea shoved the knife deeper. “If it were the insect clan or some foreign power, fine. But this looks like locals.”
The Gold Dragon Clan only had two dragons, yet they controlled countless habitable planets and governed hundreds of billions of lives. Outside enemies were one threat.
Domestic greed was another.
Chong Ming’s voice stayed steady. “Maybe locals. Maybe foreigners. Either way, we investigate.”
Jiang Tea Tea yawned. “Hard to investigate when it’s all blown up.”
“Anything that exists leaves traces,” Chong Ming said. “Even after an explosion. It’s only a matter of time.”
Jiang Tea Tea shrugged. “All right. Looks like I’m not sleeping today.”
She glanced at him. “Want me to check Chong Xing Qi again?”
Chong Ming studied her. “In Reboot’s memories, was Chong Xing Qi truly just a researcher working for her dad?”
Jiang Tea Tea nodded. “From what I saw, Chong Xing Qi is gifted—far beyond the image he put on at school. If I hadn’t read Reboot’s memories, I never would’ve connected him to illegal research.”
Chong Ming went quiet for a moment, then spoke. “I’ll have someone take you to him. If anything feels wrong, contact me immediately.”
Jiang Tea Tea lifted a brow, smiling. “Your Highness, don’t worry about Reboot scratching my hand and infecting me.”
“If I got infected, calling you wouldn’t help. I’d go find Jin Lin. So relax—I’m healthy.”
Chong Ming’s gaze sharpened. “Where is Jin Lin? Do you need me to arrange a new identity for him?”
“No need. He ate four dragons and can’t digest them easily. He’s in the mountains. When he comes out—who knows.”
Jiang Tea Tea didn’t hide it. She’d used his card to buy that mountain. If he wanted to find anything, it would be easy.
Chong Ming’s voice eased. “Understood. If you need anything, tell me.”
Jiang Tea Tea hummed and watched the smoke slowly thin and the flames dim over He Tan Mountain.
Then she went downstairs with an escort and headed for the interrogation area.
She stood outside the room and watched through the observation window as Chong Xing Qi was questioned.
Her escort murmured, “Chong Xing Qi keeps denying everything. He claims he knows nothing about his grandfather, grandmother, dad, and mom betraying the country or conducting illegal research.”
“We showed him video of Reboot. He still denied knowing her. He insists it’s a frame-up and has demanded to see the Commander-in-Chief several times.”
That stubborn refusal—the same kind of “I won’t admit it until you rip it out of my brain” attitude—reminded Jiang Tea Tea of that Black Wolf Clan father who created the fake heiress.
She nodded. “Can I go in?”
“Of course. Give me a moment.”
The escort spoke to the people inside. A guard stepped out.
Jiang Tea Tea walked in and sat across from Chong Xing Qi.
The moment Chong Xing Qi saw her, jealousy flooded his yellow eyes. “Jiang Tea Tea. When I was chief in first year, you were a useless pure human who hadn’t even awakened an ability.”
“I’m about to enter second year. You became a 3S-rank mutated plant-type healer—Commander-in-Chief Chong Ming’s key protégée.”
“He made you a personal study plan. He even trained the other seven who stayed with you, all because of you. That kind of honor and favor… it’s enough to make people jealous, to make them want to kill you and replace you.”
Jiang Tea Tea leaned back, relaxed, crossing one leg over the other. “I thought you’d hate me. I didn’t expect envy.”
“Why would I hate you?” Chong Xing Qi scoffed. “My family abused Jin Lin for three hundred years. He came to collect his debt and swallowed them. They deserved it. Why would I hate you?”
“I don’t hate you. I envy you.”
His voice sharpened. “You’re a pure human, yet Chong Ming values you and likes you. You can walk into the Military Department whenever you want.”
“Even interrogating me—your arrival makes others step out. How am I not supposed to envy that?”
Jiang Tea Tea stared at him for a beat, thinking how casually she held what others would beg for.
Then she spread her hands. “Your envy isn’t my problem. Now you have two options. Confess. Or I probe your memory.”
Chong Xing Qi smiled, calm and oddly certain. “Confess what? I’m just a student. I only learned what my grandfather, grandmother, and parents did when Jin Lin came knocking.”
“If you don’t believe me, probe my memory.”
That confidence was wrong.
No one innocent invited a memory probe that easily.
Jiang Tea Tea stood and approached. Chong Xing Qi’s hands and feet were cuffed, no ability to resist.
She raised a hand toward his brow.
Chong Xing Qi lifted his chin, obedient.
Jiang Tea Tea gathered her magic power and pushed into his mind.
Minutes passed.
She withdrew her hand and stared at him without speaking.
Chong Xing Qi sat like a statue, letting her examine him with a strange stillness.
Jiang Tea Tea turned and walked out.
Chong Xing Qi called after her. “Jiang Tea Tea, please tell Commander-in-Chief Chong Ming… he’s my idol. My model. My ideal. I want to become someone useful to the empire like him.”
Jiang Tea Tea didn’t look back. She lifted two fingers in a casual sign of agreement and closed the door behind her.
Outside, she told the interrogator, “Pause the questioning. I’m going to see the Commander-in-Chief.”
The interrogator nodded quickly. “Understood.”
Jiang Tea Tea hurried back to Chong Ming’s office.
He was speaking to a projection. She waited until the call ended.
The moment he looked up, she said, “Chong Ming. Wrong. We were wrong.”
Chong Ming sat behind his desk. “Explain.”
Jiang Tea Tea braced her hands on the desk and leaned forward. “I read Chong Xing Qi’s memories. There’s no Reboot. No lab. No equipment. No drugs.”
“But in Reboot’s memories, he’s there.”
She met Chong Ming’s gaze. “So either Chong Xing Qi has a twin brother—one in the light, one in the dark, and neither knows the other exists.”
“Or Reboot’s ‘dad’ is a clone. A clone made to look like Chong Xing Qi.”
Chong Ming’s voice sank. “Cloning technology is illegal in the empire.”
“Illegal research is illegal too,” Jiang Tea Tea shot back. “People still do it.”
Chong Ming nodded slowly. “I understand. I’ll have it investigated.”
Jiang Tea Tea yawned. “Can I sleep here?”
Chong Ming stood. “Sleep in my lounge.”
Jiang Tea Tea followed him into the adjoining room.
It was smaller than his bedroom in the imperial palace but clean and bright. The bed was a normal two-meter bed, not some extravagant half-moon design.
Jiang Tea Tea opened a window, drew the curtain halfway, kicked off her shoes, shrugged out of her coat, and slipped under the blanket.
Chong Ming didn’t leave at once. He released a thick wave of psychic force—soothing, wrapping the room and Jiang Tea Tea inside it.
Her breathing grew even. She looked asleep.
But she wasn’t—yet.
She waited. Only after she was sure Chong Ming had left did she quietly form a few hand seals. Then she truly fell asleep.
She never knew that while she slept, Chong Ming issued orders nonstop, rapidly mobilizing information teams, medical teams, search squads, and investigation units.
Not just the Capital Planet—Nan Bei Star and Blazing Star were placed under full-scale sweeps. Any planet with life was to be investigated thoroughly.
Zhong Li He, the chief executive of Da Xi Nation, assembled an elite medical and research team across star systems. Using space jump technology, they arrived at the Zhen Lin Empire’s Capital Planet in one day and one night.
They brought the oldest samples of the living dead zombie virus, purified samples, the newest samples, and a stack of treatment proposals.
The moment they arrived, they split into four groups—into rescue ships, quarantine ships, infected beast zones, and labs—working alongside the Zhen Lin Empire’s medical staff and researchers to study and contain the living dead zombie virus.
Jiang Tea Tea was exhausted. And she trusted her own protections.
She slept deeply—day to night, night to day.
Two days and three nights passed.
When she woke again, the moon and stars hung outside the window.
She was about to sit up—then froze.
Beside the bed, on top of the blanket, lay a golden dragon thicker than her thigh.
Its head rested on its forepaws. Long whiskers trailed from its muzzle. A mane of smooth gold hair flowed down its neck and spine. Under the moonlight, its golden scales seemed to shimmer with silent temptation.
Jiang Tea Tea stared.
Then, as if bewitched, she reached out.
She tugged his whiskers—thicker and longer than his mane, with an absurdly good texture.
One tug became several. Her hand drifted to his nose, then his face, then his throat, then his claws, then the mane on his back.
She petted him like someone who’d stumbled onto treasure, amazed at how good everything felt.
Just as she began plotting to pluck a little mane—or maybe pry off a scale—Big Golden Dragon opened his eyes and met hers.
Jiang Tea Tea’s heart jolted. Like a thief caught mid-act, she snapped her hand back and forced a stiff smile. “You’re awake. I wasn’t trying to pull your mane or pry your scales. I just woke up and saw you here without a blanket, so I was checking if you were cold.”
Big Golden Dragon blinked slowly.
His upper body was human and bare. From the waist down, he was dragon—body and tail.
His voice was calm, almost amused. “Oh? You tugged my whiskers four times. Rubbed my back mane ten times. Pressed against my nose three times like you were trying to suffocate me.”
“You played with my claws, extending and retracting them seven times. And you hovered over my scales, testing five times like you wanted to pry them off.”
He lifted his gaze, unblinking. “Did I accuse you unfairly, Jiang Tea Tea?”
Jiang Tea Tea sat up fully, facing him. “You were awake the whole time. You pretended to sleep.”
Chong Ming flipped the blanket aside and pointed at her legs. “Not pretending. Your legs were pressing my tail.”
He held her gaze. “When you got hot, you hugged me. When you got cold, you kicked me away.”
“I didn’t sleep. I was waiting for you to wake up so I could tell you—if you want to hug me, then hug me. Don’t kick me away the moment you get cold.”