Chapter 259
Chapter 259: Keep Acting—Who Could Out-Act You? Big Golden Dragon Finally Got to Touch His Cubs
Starnet didn’t slow down. If anything, the attacks sharpened.
“Yes. Jiang Tea Tea is a fraud. A useless pretty face pushed out by Chong Ming to stabilize the masses. Pure performance.”
“Zhen Lin citizens are pathetic. You trust your Commander-in-Chief so much, but he treats your family like the insect clan would—hunting and burning your loved ones.”
“Your family got infected because Chong Ming failed to govern. He should take responsibility and raise them all.”
“Just feed them aberrant beast meat. Keep them confined. Zhen Lin can afford it. Families can visit. At least there’s something to hold onto.”
Immediately, citizens fought back.
“Hold onto your ass. I’ve never heard such evil in my life.”
“You really think Zhen Lin citizens are idiots with no brain? You expect us to swallow that?”
“Raising infected is a stupid idea. Not stupid—evil. You want to drag us down.”
“Jiang Tea Tea isn’t useless. She’s given us free lottery rewards. Even small amounts of what she gave helped smooth mental power. What have you ever done besides type?”
“We won’t be tricked into doubting the Commander-in-Chief and our healer.”
“Report them. Anyone posting from non-Zhen Lin IPs—report. Let them show their faces.”
“I’m a family member of an infected. I was taken to see them. They were in agony. They begged to die. I won’t let anyone smear the Empire or smear the Commander-in-Chief.”
The troll posts were reported in waves—accurate, ruthless.
Jiang Tea Tea handed Cheng Yuan the remaining eight portions of ingredients and gave him the full brewing method—order, heat control, timing.
If families wanted to speak to their infected loved ones, the medicine could be used to restore brief sanity for farewell.
Cheng Lin Yue, having watched Jiang Tea Tea brew before, went with her uncle to help prepare more.
Sui Xuan Chu, Cheng Xiao Ting, and the other men joined quarantine guards as temporary patrol staff.
Jiang Tea Tea followed Chong Ming to send Zhong Li He and Kong Que back to their hotel. She still didn’t understand why she’d gone.
Afterward, Chong Ming didn’t return to the military department. He returned to the imperial palace with his entire workload.
Jiang Tea Tea, separated from him by only a wall in his suite, ate, bathed, changed into pajamas, and went to greet him—only to catch him pouring nutrient solution into his mouth.
She paused at the open doorway and knocked lightly.
Chong Ming set the bottle down and looked up. “Go to sleep. I’ll be a while.”
Jiang Tea Tea walked into the study, eyes flicking to the nutrient drink. “I’m here to eat with you.”
Chong Ming’s lips curved. “Didn’t you already eat?”
Jiang Tea Tea didn’t blink. “I’m hungry again.”
Chong Ming sighed like a man who’d already lost. “Sit over there and wait a few minutes. I’ll finish this and eat with you.”
Jiang Tea Tea raised a brow. Her long black hair spilled to her waist, loose pajamas making her look far softer than she usually felt. Barefoot, she crossed to his sofa, sat cross-legged, and opened her lightbrain to scroll.
Starnet was a mess—topics about Chong Ming and her everywhere. Other nations, including the insect clan, were waiting for the Zhen Lin Empire to fail.
Chong Ming wasn’t suppressing the discourse. He wasn’t silencing anyone.
Jiang Tea Tea stole a glance at him.
People online said it right: he was constantly busy, barely eating, living on nutrient solution. If someone told her that before seeing it, she would’ve laughed.
She found a comment calling her a useless fraud, reposted it, and fired back with a wall of text like artillery.
“Ahhh, yes, yes, yes. You’re right. I’m a useless fraud. So you—Mr. Not-Fraud—dare to face me in the arena? If I can’t take you down and kill you within one minute, then I’m truly useless.”
“P.S.: Supervirus infected rot from the inside out until nothing is left—except a tiny part of the brain.”
“There is medicine that can restore short-term rationality and clarity. It cannot restore the body. It cannot restore organs.”
“So tell me—if it’s you, if it’s your family: after taking the medicine, with full awareness and full pain, feeling your organs rot and the stench rise from your own body… would you keep them alive in agony just because you want to ‘raise’ them and visit?”
“No. You wouldn’t. You just like typing. You just like running your mouth from a safe place.”
“Even if I’m ‘useless,’ you’ve never fought me. You don’t get to judge me.”
“Watch your mouth. Stop making karma. Beast God may bless you, but keep talking like this and you’ll invite bad luck.”
Her post shot up the trending charts instantly. Fans swarmed in to cheer.
“That’s my favorite youngest mutant 3S-rank healer—direct clapback! So cool!”
“She’s right. Why are you judging her? She fights like a monster.”
“Chong Ming has the dignity of a national leader. He won’t fight trolls. But Jiang Tea Tea is young and sharp. She doesn’t swallow insults. That’s what makes it satisfying.”
“We support you! Next time, we’ll clap back with you.”
“Zhen Lin Empire is strong. The insect clan is trash.”
Jiang Tea Tea skimmed a few comments when Chong Ming finally finished his work. He walked over with a food box pulled from his storage button, set it on the table, and began arranging dishes.
Jiang Tea Tea watched him and asked, “Did you see the stuff online—people insulting you?”
Chong Ming smiled faintly. “Starnet is a free public network. It has trillions of users. People will talk about everything.”
“Some are old. Some are young. They vent emotions online. They vent dissatisfaction. It’s normal. No need to focus on it.”
Jiang Tea Tea clicked her tongue. “You’re right. But that’s you. Not me. If someone targets me, I hit back.”
In demon cultivation, holding anger inside was poison. Better to let it out and keep the mind clear.
Chong Ming sat beside her. “You didn’t do anything wrong. Someone insulted you, you defended yourself. Normal.”
Jiang Tea Tea squinted. “You’re such a double-standard dog.”
Chong Ming laughed quietly. “I call it flexible application.”
He really did look good when he laughed.
It was just rare.
With his genes, the dragon hatchlings would definitely not be ugly.
And there were five of them.
When she brought five hatchlings back to the demon clan, she would become a legend.
Even Jin Lin’s 1301-year ascension wouldn’t compare to her explosive legend status.
Chong Ming saw her staring and deepened his smile. “Is there something on my face? You’re looking at me like you want to memorize every line.”
Jiang Tea Tea was blunt. “I’m looking because you’re handsome. Thinking my cubs won’t be ugly if they take after you. If they take after me, they’ll be gorgeous.”
Chong Ming’s gaze dropped toward her belly. “You’re right. If they take after you, they’ll be beautiful.”
Her pajamas were loose and she was sitting cross-legged. You couldn’t see her belly at all.
Jiang Tea Tea lifted her chin. “Obviously. Even if they’re not beautiful, I’ll make them beautiful.”
Face-renewal arts. Youth-preserving arts. A few beauty pills from a fallen immortal. Worst case, find a skin-painting demon and slap on a new face—turn a pig into Chang E.
Chong Ming’s eyes returned to hers. “I believe you. Anything you want to do, you can do.”
He hesitated. His fingers curled slightly, tension showing for the first time.
“But… Jiang Tea Tea.”
“What?” she said.
Chong Ming’s voice lowered. “Can I touch them?”
Jiang Tea Tea’s hand automatically crossed over her belly, protective, refusal rising to her lips.
“Don’t—”
Chong Ming cut in softly. “Jiang Tea Tea. I’ve been tired these past few days.”
“I want to touch them. I want to hold you.”
The cubs and his future mate were right in front of him—yet he couldn’t hug her, couldn’t touch her, couldn’t kiss her.
His heat was growing more unstable. Suppressant injections were meaningless comfort. In the end, it was just him holding himself together.
Jiang Tea Tea looked at him—at the rare, quiet vulnerability—and something in her chest softened.
For all his power, he was still alone at the top. Besides Zhong Li He, he had no one he truly spoke with.
It was like the ancient great demons in the demon clan—terrifyingly strong, yet endless eons of solitude. No mates. No descendants. Only themselves.
Jiang Tea Tea exhaled slowly and pointed at the table.
“Eat. After we eat, we’ll talk.”
Chong Ming’s breath caught slightly. Not a direct refusal—meaning there was hope.
“Okay,” he said hoarsely, then handed her chopsticks.
Jiang Tea Tea had already eaten earlier. She’d only seen him drinking nutrient solution and—on impulse—dragged him into another meal.
She took the chopsticks and said, “You eat too. Eat more.”
Chong Ming nodded. “Okay.”
He knew she’d already eaten.
So he took five bites and fed her one. If she reached for food herself, he stopped feeding. It turned into a quiet, ridiculous rhythm.
Twenty minutes later, they finished.
Jiang Tea Tea slipped into her slippers and stood. “Alright. It’s late. You keep working. Keep your overtime. I’m going to sleep. Good night.”
Chong Ming reached out and caught her hand, pulling her back in front of him.
“Jiang Tea Tea. Before dinner, you said you’d give me a hug, and let me touch the cubs.”
Jiang Tea Tea twisted her wrist. “I didn’t agree—”
“You’re lying.”
“No. I didn’t agree. I said we’d talk after eating.”
“That means you agreed.”
Jiang Tea Tea lifted her chin and glared. “No. It means I was considering it. Now I’ve considered it. I don’t agree.”
Chong Ming looked down at her.
His eyes dimmed. His voice lowered, heavy with disappointment.
“My hug and my touch trouble you that much? Then forget it. I’ll go back to work.”
He released her hand and turned back to his desk.
Jiang Tea Tea stood frozen.
She’d expected him to push, to force her into agreement.
Instead, he looked… tired. Like a dragon whose bones had lost their strength.
Was he really exhausted enough that a hug would recharge him?
She watched him sit, open his projections, and return to official matters.
Lonely. Quiet. Powerful—and somehow pitiful.
Jiang Tea Tea hesitated, mind tangled.
A hug. A touch.
It wasn’t a big deal. The cubs were asleep. He wouldn’t sense there were five of them.
Maybe… let him touch once?
She cursed her own soft heart under her breath and walked quickly to his side.
She grabbed the hand he’d been using to handle his work and pressed it against her lower abdomen.
“Fine,” she said, voice rough with impatience. “You can touch once…”