Chapter 248
Chapter 248: Toss a Trap in Front of You and You Stick Your Neck In
Kong Que was already used to how his own Executive Commander’s mind jumped all over the place whenever he faced Commander in Chief Chong Ming, always thinking of ways not to let the man have it easy. He leaned closer to him and lowered his voice to advise him: “Executive Commander, lying is not a good habit. If Commander in Chief Chong Ming exposes you, he will show you no mercy and laugh loudly at you.”
Zhong Li He reached out and pushed Kong Que’s head away as he said: “Talk if you want, but don’t lean so close to me. It feels annoyingly hot.”
Kong Que’s head was pushed to the side. His expression did not change as he answered: “Yes, Executive Commander.”
Zhong Li He lifted his chin and gave a proud snort: “I don’t care whether he laughs at me or not. When it’s time to talk nonsense so he doesn’t have a good time, I have to talk nonsense. Otherwise, did I lose all those feathers for nothing?”
“As soon as I think of my beautiful feathers being knocked off all over the ground, my grudge with him becomes one where we cannot live under the same sky.”
He was a bird-kind beastman, and a male bird at that. He relied on his gorgeous feathers to strut around in public and attract the attention of females.
But when Chong Ming fought him, he just had to go after his feathers, plucking them on purpose. He almost plucked him bald.
Back at the Zhenlin Empire Imperial Military Headquarters training ground, Kong Que had not only picked up large feathers, but also lots of small bits of down. So he understood very well why his Executive Commander was so unhappy with Commander in Chief Chong Ming.
He gave in a little, but still reminded him: “Executive Commander, you are right, but when you go in and talk, you should still hold back a bit and give Commander in Chief Chong Ming some face.”
Zhong Li He waved his hand: “I know, I know, you don’t need to worry. Just watch me perform. I only need to make him so mad he jumps to his feet.”
Kong Que answered: “Alright, Executive Commander.”
Zhong Li He lifted his foot and marched toward Commander in Chief Chong Ming’s office. His proud, aggressive stride did not look like someone going to discuss major matters of the Nation at all. It looked like someone going to pick a fight.
________________________________________
Jiang Tea Tea and Sui Xuan Chu left the Imperial Military Headquarters building. On the open field below, they met up with Huang Da Zhuang, Orange Sparrow, and the other three, five men in total.
The five men were all wearing combat uniforms. They were full of energy, eyes bright, looking like the kind of people who could charge through a mountain of blades or a sea of fire right in front of them.
They had not called Cheng Lin Yue along. She mainly specialized as a healing master and secondarily in researching all kinds of potions. Right now she and her uncle were busy studying Chong Qi, hoping to find the key to breaking the super virus from her body.
“Sister Tea, where have you been running off to these days?” Cheng Xiao Ting was the first to ask. “We haven’t seen you at all, and you never reply to messages. You almost worried us to death. We were so scared you got infected.”
Zhang Ting Zhou and the others nodded: “Yeah, yeah, Sister Tea, don’t scare us like this. We were really afraid something happened to you.”
“Sister Tea, we are your most loyal flunkies. Next time you have something to do and you can’t show up, just tell us. We will definitely keep our mouths shut and not tell anyone.”
“Living every day with our hearts in our throats is like living a year in a day. It’s really miserable.”
After they caught all the infected people and locked them up in quarantine, they had all written wills to their families, afraid that they might really get infected, lose their minds, and become living dead zombies.
Jiang Tea Tea comforted them: “Don’t worry about me. Someone as strong as me, if I get into a fight with anyone, the one who dies or gets hurt is the other side.”
“Anyway, let’s keep it short. Huang Da Zhuang, Cheng Xiao Ting, I have something to ask you. I want your help.”
Huang Da Zhuang’s beast form was a big yellow dog.
Cheng Xiao Ting’s beast form was a black wolf.
In their Demon Realm, there was a saying: dogs are born knowing how to find medicine. Whether or not they have spiritual consciousness, they will find it.
Huang Da Zhuang and Cheng Xiao Ting both stared at Jiang Tea Tea, eyes bright, and asked in unison: “Sister Tea, what do you need our help with? Just say it.”
Jiang Tea Tea simply and carefully explained that she wanted them to help her find medicine. When she finished, she did not forget to ask: “Do you two have that kind of innate talent?”
Maybe the dogs and wolves in the M31 Star System were not the same as the dogs and wolves she knew from the Demon Realm and the mortal world.
Huang Da Zhuang and Cheng Xiao Ting looked at each other, both confused, and said apologetically: “Sorry, Sister Tea, I don’t think I have that kind of innate talent.”
“Yeah, Sister Tea,” another added, “the medicine we’ve taken since we were little, the healing pods we lay in, the healing liquid we used, all came from state factories of the Empire. There were no private little workshops, and definitely no unlicensed home-made products.”
Different regions had different habits.
Jiang Tea Tea had been holding on to a little bit of hope, but it was crushed.
Huang Da Zhuang hesitated for a moment, then said: “Sister Tea, how about I make a call and ask my parents and my grandparents?”
Cheng Xiao Ting hurried to follow up: “Right, I’ll call my parents too and have them ask the elders in our clan.”
Jiang Tea Tea thought it over: “Alright, call them and ask. Ask the oldest people in your clans.”
Huang Da Zhuang and Cheng Xiao Ting moved at once. They dialed their parents, and clearly and simply told them what they needed.
Both sets of parents loved their sons very much. They knew they were valued by Commander in Chief Chong Ming, and they also knew that they were close friends with Jiang Tea Tea.
As soon as they heard their sons’ request, no matter how busy they were, they put down what they were doing and began asking around and searching.
While they waited, Jiang Tea Tea and the others went to check on Cheng Lin Yue and Cheng Yuan. The uncle and niece were so busy that their feet almost did not touch the ground.
Especially Cheng Yuan. He really was an innately talented healer and potion maker, and he also worked as a researcher. When he threw himself into his work, he was even fiercer than the healers, potion masters, and researchers at the Imperial Military Headquarters.
Because Commander Chong Ming valued him so much and gave him a lot of authority, the Headquarters’ healing department, potion department, and Research and Experiment Division had all ended up listening to him.
After seeing Cheng Lin Yue and Cheng Yuan, Jiang Tea Tea went to check on Chong Qi.
Chong Qi was lying on the lab table with her eyes closed. She had reverted from looking seventeen or eighteen to looking like an eleven or twelve year old. Her face was pale and childish. Flame bracelets were locked around all four of her limbs and her neck. Streams of five-colored phoenix flame flowed over them, like a seal welded onto her body.
Jiang Tea Tea had just raised her hand to probe her when Chong Qi suddenly opened her eyes. They were completely emotionless, like mechanical eyes, as she looked at Jiang Tea Tea and said: “Elder sister, I haven’t seen you for days. Did you miss me?”
Jiang Tea Tea pulled her hand back, dragged a chair over, and sat down. Her aura was strong, full of pressure and authority, as she said: “I heard that after your dad left the Imperial Military Headquarters, you fell into a coma. Is that right?”
Chong Qi blurted out: “Who said that?”
Jiang Tea Tea replied: “Your older brother Chong Ming told me. You were yelling for him, remember?”
Chong Qi said: “Impossible. He never found my dad.”
Jiang Tea Tea corrected her: “No, he did find your dad. He even brought your dad to the Imperial Military Headquarters for questioning and let you two use a simple method to exchange a few words.”
“He told you to sleep, and you obediently went to sleep. Whenever anyone came to examine you, you were like a robot with its battery pulled out and refused to wake up.”
“In fact, your mind was clear and you could sense the outside world. You just shut down your brain activity so that anyone who checked you thought you were in a deep coma or a deep sleep.”
Chong Qi suddenly sat up. The long nails on her fingers shot out as she reached for Jiang Tea Tea’s neck.
But before her hand could touch Jiang Tea Tea, there was a loud bang, and she fell right back to where she had gotten up from.
The flame bracelets on her limbs and neck slowly tightened, burning her, making her hurt and scream in pain.
Jiang Tea Tea watched her struggle and howl and summed it up: “So your dad really is Chong Xing Qi. As for why I didn’t find you when I probed his memories, maybe that is one of his hidden supernatural abilities. Or maybe it has to do with your mutated hypnosis control.”
Mutated hypnosis control could be used to hypnotize and control a person. It could also be used to wash away a short stretch of a person’s memory.
Chong Qi’s painful screams stopped all of a sudden. Her fierce black eyes gradually turned redder and redder, as red as a vengeful ghost’s, as she glared at Jiang Tea Tea.
When Jiang Tea Tea had not found Chong Qi in Chong Xing Qi’s memory, she had thought about clones and twins. She had completely overlooked that Chong Qi might have a mutated hypnosis control ability.
She had come to see her, to watch her pretend to sleep and then get angry. By a sudden flash of insight, she thought of testing her and doubting her.
She had not expected that her casual test and suspicion would turn out to be true. Chong Qi had used hypnosis control to wash away his memories of her.
Jiang Tea Tea pushed off the sides of the chair with her hands and stood up. She walked to the side of the lab table and tapped Chong Qi’s forehead with a finger as she said: “Thank you, little cutie.”
Chong Qi opened her mouth, showing her fangs, and went to bite her hand. But Jiang Tea Tea moved faster. Her hand clamped onto Chong Qi’s lower jaw, and with a crack, she dislocated it.
Chong Qi’s drool poured out at once. Her mouth could not close, but her eyes were still fierce, like she wanted to tear Jiang Tea Tea apart.
Jiang Tea Tea let go in time so that her hand did not get covered in drool: “Little cutie, stay here and wait. I’m going to catch your dad and bring him over so you two can have a proper reunion.”
“C… co’ back…”
With her jaw dislocated, Chong Qi’s words were unclear.
“You… you come back, back…”
Jiang Tea Tea stepped back and left the laboratory. She told Chong Ming about how she had probed Chong Qi and what she had found, and asked him to send people to capture Chong Xing Qi again.
Two days earlier, Chong Xing Qi had left the Imperial Military Headquarters and returned to the Yellow Dragon Clan. People from the surveillance system had been watching him the whole time.
At Chong Ming’s order, the people monitoring him through the surveillance system moved out to grab him and bring him back to the Imperial Military Headquarters.
“Antibodies, antibodies!”
As Jiang Tea Tea opened the door of the interrogation room to go in and question Chong Xing Qi, Cheng Lin Yue came running over happily, holding a test tube, and called out to her.
“Sister Tea, antibodies! My uncle and the Imperial Military Headquarters researchers have developed antibodies against the super virus infection. Look.”
Jiang Tea Tea stood at the door, delighted, and asked Cheng Lin Yue: “Really? Have the antibodies been tested? Have you told Commander in Chief Chong Ming?”
Cheng Lin Yue nodded quickly, her face full of joy she could not hide: “We did the experiments. Because of the experiments, we can be sure that extracting the antibodies was a success.”
“We’ve also told Commander in Chief Chong Ming. For the sake of antibodies, he directly ordered the researchers to cut flesh and draw blood unconditionally from the super virus infected host Chong Qi, so they can use her flesh and blood to study and create more antibodies!”
Jiang Tea Tea slapped her thigh and cried out: “I knew it. If we want antibodies and want to solve the super virus, we still have to start from Chong Qi, this one and only infected host version 3.0, who still has reason, whose body has not rotted, who has supernatural abilities, understands orders, and is cunning.”
“As expected, cutting her flesh and drawing her blood, and finding antibodies from her body, is perfect. This is so great, really so great…”
“Great, my foot!”
The chained Chong Xing Qi in the interrogation room roared and cut her off: “Jiang Tea Tea, when you stood up for Jin Lin, you said that others cutting flesh and drawing blood were committing terrible crimes. How come when it is your turn, you become so disgusting and feel so at ease about it?”
________________________________________