Chapter 28
Chapter 28: Yell Loud, Hit Hard, Die Fast. Whose Fault Is It, Mine?
Deputy Officer Ai spoke in a flat voice as the video played on the giant holographic screen. It was like an asteroid slamming into a planet with a bang, making the headmaster of the Royal Military Academy and all the students whip their heads around to stare at Jiang Yi Zhu.
She really did not care about her life. First she paid someone to buy forbidden drugs to frame Jiang Tea Tea. Then she opened the academy’s protective gate and let aberrant beasts and mutated insects into the academy.
Most of all, she chose to do it while His Highness Chong Ming was visiting the academy. For a moment, no one knew whether they should admire how bold and fearless she was, or thank her for the extra 20 credits she had just delivered to them.
The video was clear from beginning to end. Jiang Yi Zhu stared at the holographic screen, shaking her head like crazy. She pointed at Deputy Officer Ai on the screen and babbled in panic: “It is not me, not me, the person in the video is not me! I clearly checked the timing and avoided the surveillance system. How could they still record me?”
She kept shouting as she pointed at the screen and yelled: “Liar, it is face-swapping, yes, it is face-swapping. Your Highness Chong Ming, the person in the video is not me, it is him. He used high-tech face-swapping to frame me and help that bitch Jiang Tea Tea!”
Jiang Tea Tea stood up slowly from the flower bed after half an hour of absorbing the rich nutrients from the soil, which had eased her stomach pain. She watched Jiang Yi Zhu argue and then walked over, clicking her tongue. She came to stand in front of her and said with cold sarcasm: “Tsk. Someone went out of their way to frame you? What big, important person do you think you are, that the right-hand man of the Commander in Chief of the Three Armies would personally come to frame you?”
She stopped in front of Jiang Yi Zhu and looked down at her as she added: “You dare to do it but do not dare admit it, Jiang Yi Zhu. You really did crawl out of Trash Star. You will never get rid of the filth you picked up there.”
Jiang Yi Zhu’s eyes went red as she gathered her water element supernatural ability. She did her best to attack Jiang Tea Tea and shouted: “What right do you have to talk about me like that? I am the real eldest miss of the Jiang family, the true young lady. You took my place and made me suffer on Trash Star for fifteen years.”
She gritted her teeth and screamed again: “Why do you get to stand aside and stay clean? You should have gone to Trash Star with me, eaten the same suffering, felt what I felt, so I could vent fifteen years of hate!”
Trash Star would always be her pain.
It was the nightmare that woke her up in the middle of the night, afraid that she would be sent back.
Ever since she was found and brought back to the Capital Planet, she had not dared remember the days on Trash Star, when she was bullied, ate garbage, and had to use every bit of strength just to take one more breath and stay alive.
She was supposed to grow up on the most prosperous Capital Planet as the precious daughter of the Jiang family, never worrying about food or clothes, living carefree. Jiang Tea Tea had taken everything that belonged to her, enjoyed everything that should have been hers, and now had even sent her parents and the man she liked into the police bureau.
Why?
Jiang Tea Tea lifted her leg and kicked Jiang Yi Zhu’s wrist. There was a crack as the wrist snapped. She stepped down hard on it, crushing the broken wrist under her foot. At the same time, she shattered Jiang Yi Zhu’s control over her water element ability so that all the water Jiang Yi Zhu had summoned crashed back down onto her own head.
Jiang Yi Zhu had already looked a mess, with broken teeth and blood at the corner of her mouth. Now that she was soaked through, she looked even more like a dying, flailing, drenched chicken.
Jiang Tea Tea ground her heel on Jiang Yi Zhu’s wrist and looked down at her. Her light voice slid into Jiang Yi Zhu’s chest like a soft, sharp knife: “Jiang Yi Zhu, you hate me. You wish I were worse than dead. Did your mother never tell you? She was the one who lost you. She was the one who picked me up and took me home instead.”
She kept her gaze on Jiang Yi Zhu and continued: “Those ten-plus years of misfortune on Trash Star were caused by your mother, not by me. You hate me, but does that hate even land on the right person?”
The words the fake young miss had always wanted to say to Jiang Yi Zhu finally poured out through Jiang Tea Tea’s mouth. The last trace of that fake young miss’s consciousness seemed to have had a heavy shackle taken off and no longer felt so hard and heavy.
Jiang Yi Zhu shook her head, refusing to accept that it was her mother’s fault. She choked out: “No, that is not how it is. It is not like you say…”
Jiang Tea Tea looked at her like she was nothing but grass underfoot. The corner of her mouth curled up as she said: “So it is not like I say? Or are you just afraid to blame your mother? You cannot live without your current life, with plenty of pocket money, endless pretty clothes, and bullying me until it becomes an addiction, right?”
She leaned on her words and pressed on: “Admit it, Jiang Yi Zhu. Your fear and your weakness can only push you to attack an innocent person like me. You are trying to pull the dignity you lost on Trash Star out of the body of someone who did nothing to you.”
Jiang Tea Tea’s words stabbed right into Jiang Yi Zhu’s heart and smashed the fragile self-respect she had worked so hard to build up after coming from Trash Star to the Capital Planet. Jiang Yi Zhu could not argue back. Tears streamed down her face.
Jiang Tea Tea moved her foot off Jiang Yi Zhu’s wrist and lifted her eyes to look at Chong Ming. She said calmly: “Your Highness Chong Ming, now that the truth is clear and it has nothing to do with me, and since I am also injured, I will not serve as the outstanding student who guides you around the Royal Military Academy anymore.”
Chong Ming’s golden eyes swept over her, pausing for a moment on her stomach. He handed her light-brain wrist terminal back to her and said: “If you are injured, go to the healing department. The healing department of the Royal Military Academy has top-level equipment and top-level doctors.”
Jiang Tea Tea clasped the light-brain wrist terminal onto her wrist and replied: “Alright. I will go to the healing department for a full-body checkup and have them send my examination report to you later.”
[So he just wants to know if I have awakened any supernatural abilities. He really had to walk such a big circle to get that answer. Is he tired or not?]
Chong Ming was not surprised she would say this. He simply admitted what he wanted and said: “I will be waiting for your examination report.”
Before Jiang Tea Tea could turn around, Sui Xuan Chu dragged Huang Da Zhuang over. Sui Xuan Chu called out: “Commander in Chief Chong Ming, one of us got kicked and the other got struck by lightning. We also need to go to the healing department.”
Huang Da Zhuang nodded like an obedient robot and said: “Yes, yes, yes. We need to go to the healing department. We have to heal our bodies so we can study better, serve the Empire, and serve Your Highness.”
Chong Ming’s gaze fell on the two of them. He said in a deep voice: “Good. I hope you two study hard, defeat me, become me, surpass me, and then lead the Empire to new heights.”
Being personally reminded and encouraged by his heartthrob idol, Huang Da Zhuang’s pupils shook. He suddenly forgot how close to half-dead he had felt before and shouted with full strength: “Yes, Your Highness. We will not let you down. We will study hard and make progress every day!”
Sui Xuan Chu fell silent: “…”
[This dead yellow dog. My ears almost went deaf from his shouting.]
Jiang Tea Tea turned and called out: “Let’s go. We are going to the healing pods.”
Sui Xuan Chu immediately pulled Huang Da Zhuang along and hurried after her, yelling: “Roommate, wait for me. Give me a hand. I got struck by lightning three times. My whole body is burnt. I am cooked!”
Jiang Tea Tea answered over her shoulder: “I almost ended up in a mutant tiger’s mouth and got kicked twice. My whole body is falling apart. I have no strength to hold you.”
Sui Xuan Chu shouted back: “Sister Tea, you almost died in a mutant tiger’s mouth, so what? My leg bone was almost bitten off by that mutant tiger. I did not even scream from the pain.”
Jiang Tea Tea replied without looking back: “You just have thick skin.”
Sui Xuan Chu huffed: “If you are not hurting, walk by yourself and do not make me drag you.”
He quickly changed his tone when he saw her ignore him and said: “Hey, hey, hey, Top Student Sui Xuan Chu was only joking. Do not take it seriously, okay?”
He kept calling out: “Roommate, do not walk so fast, wait for us!”
Jiang Tea Tea’s voice drifted back: “Not waiting…”
The three of them stepped through the blood of aberrant beasts, under bright sunlight, walking toward the healing department of the academy while everyone watched.
Chong Ming took his gaze back from their backs and lowered it onto Jiang Yi Zhu, who was lying on the ground, still crying nonstop. His voice dropped, turning colder: “Deputy Officer Ai, notify the military judicial department to thoroughly investigate every person connected to Yang Jie Jun and Jiang Yi Zhu.”
He added without any mercy: “No matter what you find or whom you find, including Yang Jie Jun and Jiang Yi Zhu, all their crimes are to be punished according to the highest level of the Empire’s legal code. If needed, they are to be executed on the spot by firing squad.”