Chapter 27
Chapter 27: Let Aberrant Beasts Into the Academy, Sell Yourself Out to Frame Others
Jiang Tea Tea glanced at Chong Ming again and asked: “He is that strong?”
He could wipe out seventy to eighty thousand people with supernatural powers in one go, stronger than she had been at the peak of her Great Demon Stage. [Why does this sound so much like bragging?]
Sui Xuan Chu sighed and said earnestly: “Roommate, you really do not understand Commander in Chief Chong Ming. Jiang Yi Zhu should not have said you have an antisocial personality. She should have called you a spy from another country. That would be more convincing.”
Huang Da Zhuang nodded like a flunky and echoed: “Right, right, Sister Tea. My heartthrob idol is so amazing, and you know nothing about him at all. You really do seem like a spy!”
As a fake young miss, she only had an impression of his name. What did that have to do with her, a big tree spirit? She had only taken over everything that belonged to the fake young miss, to fulfill her unwilling wishes and finish what she had left undone. It was not like she was going to spend her whole life with him. [Why should I bother to understand him? Do they think I have nothing better to do?]
Jiang Tea Tea cleared her throat and started playing the victim: “I am just the Jiang family’s fake young miss. I do not have a single cent to my name, and even eating is a problem. Why would I care about some heartthrob idol? I cannot eat him.”
Huang Da Zhuang looked doubtful and asked: “Really? The Jiang family parents swapped you by mistake and do not give you even a single coin?”
Sui Xuan Chu followed up with a question: “So you leave early and come back late for school, and no one sees you all day, just so you can go out and earn money to eat?”
Jiang Tea Tea shot back: “What else? You did not seriously think I had a big bubble in my brain and was suffering for nothing, right?”
Sui Xuan Chu paused, which counted as agreeing with her. At first, he really had thought she was suffering for nothing.
After all, anyone who became his roommate had to have their family background checked by his parents and siblings. No matter what, they should not be so poor they could not afford food. He never expected she really could not afford to eat.
Huang Da Zhuang sniffed and wiped away nonexistent tears as he said: “Sister Tea, you are so pitiful. It is okay, my parents give me a lot of pocket money. From now on we can split it half and half.”
Jiang Tea Tea asked curiously: “Half and half is how much?”
Huang Da Zhuang chuckled and answered: “My parents give me two thousand star credits a month. The two of us can take one thousand each.”
Before Jiang Tea Tea could agree or respond, Sui Xuan Chu already started disliking that amount. He said: “What can you do with your one thousand? Roommate, I will lend you money. My uncle gives me a lot of pocket money.”
Jiang Tea Tea and Huang Da Zhuang spoke in unison, curious: “How much does your uncle give you?”
Sui Xuan Chu stretched out his hand, dark from being struck by lightning, and said proudly: “Five thousand star credits!”
Jiang Tea Tea let out a long sigh and said: “Forget it. That is still not enough for me to eat. I will think of a way to make money myself later.”
Huang Da Zhuang and Sui Xuan Chu both remembered how, yesterday in the school cafeteria, she had eaten meat by the basin and had not touched a single vegetable. Five thousand star credits really were not enough for one meal of meat for her.
The three of them sat on the edge of the flower bed, talking like no one else was there, discussing His Highness Chong Ming, their pocket money, and how poor she was. The school leaders kept wiping sweat as they listened, both relieved and jealous. These kids really were newborn calves unafraid of tigers.
The other students saw how casual the three of them were and how their idol, their heartthrob idol, did not mind, so they also sat down on the ground. They waited to see whether their idol, their heartthrob idol, would find out if Jiang Tea Tea had taken forbidden drugs.
Jiang Yi Zhu sat collapsed on the ground, mouth full of blood and looking a mess. Watched by Da Ma Zi and two other attendant guards, her heart was full of panic and fear, and she had no confidence at all. She did not dare to move even a little.
Chong Ming lowered his eyes, holding Jiang Tea Tea’s light-brain wrist terminal in one hand. While they were talking, he checked all the information on it. When he saw that the account balance was zero, his golden eyes grew even darker.
About half an hour later, Deputy Officer Ai returned, bringing with him a first year Information Department student from the Royal Military Academy, an antelope beastman named Yang Jie Jun.
When Jiang Yi Zhu saw his ashen face, she kept silently praying and comforting herself. [It has to be a coincidence. Yang Jie Jun must have committed some other mistake and been arrested for that. It has nothing to do with me.]
Deputy Officer Ai held the empty forbidden drug vial in both hands and offered it to His Highness as he reported: “Your Highness, in schoolmate Jiang Tea Tea’s dorm we did indeed find an empty forbidden drug vial used for awakening supernatural powers!”
Chong Ming took the empty vial, turned it over, and looked carefully as he said: “Model 1101 black forbidden drug for awakening supernatural powers, a design from more than ten years ago. It is not easy to find.”
Deputy Officer Ai answered respectfully: “Yes, Your Highness. According to our information, this model 1101 black awakening forbidden drug for supernatural powers was bought by Royal Military Academy Information Department first year student, antelope beastman Yang Jie Jun. It took him two and a half months, cost one hundred thousand star credits, and passed through six hands before he got it.”
He continued his report: “After he bought it, the forbidden drug passed through Jiang Yi Zhu’s hands and then became an empty vial. The empty vial then went back to Yang Jie Jun’s hands. Today, less than twenty minutes after schoolmate Jiang Tea Tea and her roommates left the dorm, Yang Jie Jun went into schoolmate Jiang Tea Tea’s room on the excuse of checking the signal strength in the dorm and threw the empty vial under her bed.”
Deputy Officer Ai went on: “After Yang Jie Jun threw down the empty forbidden drug vial, he used his professional knowledge to deliberately damage schoolmate Jiang Tea Tea’s dorm surveillance system, deleting all footage of his comings and goings to create the illusion that he had never gone in.”
He added: “Our information officer took less than five minutes to restore the dorm surveillance system and recover the footage he had deleted. Please take a look.”
As he spoke, Deputy Officer Ai tapped on the light-brain wrist terminal and projected a huge holo projection screen. The image on it showed the antelope beastman Yang Jie Jun leaving his own dorm, going all the way to Jiang Tea Tea’s dorm, throwing the empty vial, damaging the surveillance system, and deleting all the footage.
The footage had timestamps and dates, and also showed Yang Jie Jun making a call to Jiang Yi Zhu, telling her that he had finished the task of planting the empty forbidden drug vial and arranging to meet her tonight at First Hotel.
Yang Jie Jun had still been clinging to a bit of luck. He never expected that everything he thought he had done carefully would be laid bare in front of Commander in Chief Chong Ming.
In order to save himself and cut ties, Yang Jie Jun panicked and hurried to shift the blame as he cried out: “Commander in Chief Chong Ming, it has nothing to do with me. It was all Jiang Yi Zhu. She gave me money, told me to buy the forbidden drug, and made me frame her elder sister Jiang Tea Tea.”
He rushed on: “I know that secretly buying forbidden drugs is illegal and secretly injecting forbidden drugs is even more illegal, but Jiang Yi Zhu told me that the reason she fell to Trash Star and suffered for more than ten years was all because Jiang Tea Tea stole everything from her.”
Yang Jie Jun kept confessing: “She wanted Jiang Tea Tea to go to Trash Star and live the life she had once lived for more than ten years. She said it would not really hurt her. She gave me two hundred thousand star credits and even said that she would be my female in the future. I got confused for a moment and agreed.”
He begged loudly: “Commander in Chief Chong Ming, I did not mean to. I really did not mean to…”
Jiang Yi Zhu saw that Yang Jie Jun had stripped her down and sold her out. She cut him off and started denying everything as she cried: “You are lying. You are slandering me and framing me. Your Highness Chong Ming, I did not give him money or tell him to buy forbidden drugs. I do not know anything about what he said or did.”
She hurried to explain: “I only saw forbidden drugs in my elder sister Jiang Tea Tea’s bag, and she awakened supernatural powers in the last two days. I just guessed that she used forbidden drugs…”
Before she could finish, Chong Ming raised his hand to stop her and made her look at the holo projection screen Deputy Officer Ai was projecting.
On the holo projection screen, the images now showed the account transactions between Jiang Yi Zhu and Yang Jie Jun, their call logs, and their voice message records.
All of this made it clear that no matter how they tried to argue, the charge that Jiang Yi Zhu and Yang Jie Jun had framed Jiang Tea Tea was already set.
Jiang Yi Zhu’s breathing grew rapid. Her eyes turned involuntarily to Jiang Tea Tea, hoping to beg her not to hold it against her.
What she did not expect was that the image on the big holo projection screen suddenly shifted to another scene as Deputy Officer Ai’s voice sounded again: “Your Highness, when we went to investigate whether schoolmate Jiang Tea Tea had used black forbidden drugs, we also checked all the Royal Military Academy’s surveillance system footage for the last ten days.”
Deputy Officer Ai continued: “We just happened to find footage showing that the back gate of the Royal Military Academy’s defenses was deliberately opened by Jiang Yi Zhu. She used aberrant beast lure to draw many aberrant beasts into invading the Royal Military Academy.”