Chapter 29

Chapter 29: Cub’s Father Says You Have No Money to Eat—I’ll Raise You. Eat. Eat as Much as You Want.

Adjutant Ai saluted sharply. “Yes, Your Highness!”

Yang Jie Jun couldn’t take it anymore. His eyes rolled back, his legs jerked, and he collapsed unconscious.

Jiang Yi Zhu stopped crying. Her eyes were bloodshot, regret flooding through her like poison, but it was too late.

Chong Ming’s escort guards produced electric restraints, cuffed both her wrists and ankles, and carried her and Yang Jie Jun away like luggage.

“Principal Wu,” Chong Ming called.

Principal Wu straightened so fast he nearly toppled. “Yes, Your Highness. I’m here.”

Chong Ming’s golden gaze swept across the cadets rising to their feet, faces lit by adrenaline and awe. His voice carried unquestionable authority.

“Have someone tally the cadets who fought bravely and hunted aberrant beasts and mutant insects today. Anyone who killed five or more receives an additional 20 credits.”

“And any cadet with outstanding performance will receive priority recommendation for entry into the Top Thirty Elite Legions after graduation.”

Principal Wu looked like he might faint from joy. “Yes, Your Highness!”

The cadets erupted into excited murmurs—especially those who’d actually killed five or more. They looked like they’d been blessed by the Beast God himself.

Their worship for Chong Ming, Commander-in-Chief, deepened into near-fanatical devotion. In their heads, they were already studying harder, training harder, surpassing him… becoming him.

Once the crisis was under control, Chong Ming returned to his original schedule. He spent an hour inspecting departments, touring research labs, and observing the academy’s operations.

By the time he boarded a flyer and left the Royal Military Academy, a single-page physical exam report had been delivered into his hands.

Pure human female. 18 years old. No awakened abilities. No ability fluctuations. Malnourished. Physical fitness barely passing. B-rank.

Chong Ming stared at the report for three full minutes, then lifted his eyes to Adjutant Ai in the passenger seat. “Adjutant Ai. Cadet Jiang Tea Tea’s report—did Old Jin send it?”

“Yes, Your Highness,” Adjutant Ai answered immediately. “Old Jin personally conducted the full exam. He also reviewed the report himself before sending it to me.”

Chong Ming rested the report on his knee and reached into his storage button.

He drew out a tender green branch, still fresh, longer than his middle finger, with two curled leaves.

He had picked it up from First Hotel’s bed.

He stared at it, expression unreadable.

It didn’t add up. A female with no awakened abilities, ignoring his pressure like it didn’t exist. Fighting like someone who could drop any one of his escort guards.

After a long moment, he put the branch away.

“Adjutant Ai,” Chong Ming said, “draft a three-month tournament among thirty military academies. All cadets, whether they possess abilities or not, are forbidden to refuse participation for any reason.”

“The tournament grounds will match the difficulty level of the Top Thirty Elite Legions’ recruitment assessment,” he continued. “Run it under the strictest elimination system.”

“Also notify the Top Thirty legion commanders. Each legion will send 2,000 to 3,500 instructors for training and encirclement.”

“And inform them,” Chong Ming said, voice cool, “that this tournament is not only a competition for the cadets. It is also an assessment of the legions themselves.”

Adjutant Ai didn’t hesitate. “Yes, Your Highness.”

Chong Ming’s golden eyes flickered. “One more thing. Contact Yan Lan Shen of the Security Department. Have him personally disguise himself, lead a team, and investigate the Royal Military Academy.”

Adjutant Ai’s heart jolted. “What will Minister Yan be investigating, Your Highness?”

Chong Ming lifted his eyelids slightly, gaze turning cold. “A tea king hornet requires two to five years from egg to maturity—enough time to grow and break through stone. Unless someone accelerates the process with a catalyst.”

“Jiang Yi Zhu used aberrant beast lure,” he said. “That lure draws various aberrant beasts. It does not specifically target tea king hornets.”

“And yet tea king hornets erupted from the ground near my feet.”

His voice hardened. “Their arrangement was not meant for me.”

“It was meant for the crown prince.”

Adjutant Ai felt his scalp tighten. His heart skipped.

The crown prince studying at the Royal Military Academy was SSSS-level classified information. Only a handful of people knew.

Yet someone had sensed something.

“Because they couldn’t confirm the crown prince’s identity,” Chong Ming continued, “they kept probing, searching. Today they used Jiang Yi Zhu as a hand to test the waters—hoping to flush him out.”

Adjutant Ai swallowed. “Understood. I will send an encrypted notice to Minister Yan immediately.”

—

Plants hated the sting of medicine—the sharp, strange scents of high-tech drugs. Compared to that, manure smelled like heaven.

After Jiang Tea Tea used her magic power to alter the machine’s exam data, she was gifted an armful of nutritional supplements and assigned a medical pod full of treatment fluid.

The supplements were impossible to swallow all at once. The medical pod was impossible to step into.

So she stuffed the supplements into her pocket and made up an excuse to refuse the pod.

Huang Da Zhuang and Sui Xuan Chu went through their own exams and were tossed into treatment.

One soaked in a dark, murky fluid.

The other soaked in a yellowish one.

With their heads near the viewing window, they looked like corpses sealed in glass jars—so creepy Jiang Tea Tea couldn’t bear to stare.

She dug up a half-beastfolk and beastfolk pacification theory book and flipped through it while she waited.

They soaked for three hours. When they finally emerged, their injuries were mostly healed.

Uniforms on, shoulders straight, they looked almost normal again.

Sui Xuan Chu, however, looked like he might weep. “I kept my hair for seventeen years… and now it’s gone.”

On the way to the cafeteria, he mourned nonstop. His hair had once reached his waist. After getting struck by his own lightning, it looked like something a dog had chewed up.

He could only tie it into a tiny tuft. Even the small horns on his forehead were singed.

Huang Da Zhuang patted his shoulder, trying to comfort him. “Hair grows back. If you’re handsome, you’re handsome. Right, Sister Tea?”

Jiang Tea Tea made a small, indifferent sound. “Sure.”

Then she added, “But since we’re out—can either of you lend me some money? I need to eat.”

She had donated all the money she’d scammed from Mu Mei Xi and the others for “karma.” Now she was broke.

Yesterday, Lu Ling Er had treated her. Today she had nothing.

If she’d known, she would’ve waited until after class and snuck out to do odd jobs—or gone to the primeval forest behind the academy to eat fresh, organic fertilizer.

Sui Xuan Chu’s grief vanished instantly. “Roommate, don’t talk about lending. Since we beat up Chong Ming, Commander-in-Chief, together today, I’ll treat you. Eat whatever you want—up to 10,000 star credits.”

Jiang Tea Tea blinked. “Your uncle only gives you 5,000 star credits a month. Treating me to a 10,000-star-credit meal… isn’t that forcing it?”

Sui Xuan Chu lifted a brow. “He gives me 5,000 star credits as allowance. But he loads 300,000 onto my meal card every month.”

Huang Da Zhuang’s mouth fell open. “Wow. Chief Xuan Chu, I really couldn’t tell you were a rich dragon.”

Sui Xuan Chu grinned. “It’s nothing. I’m not an adult yet, I’m still growing. I eat a lot.”

Jiang Tea Tea’s eyes lit up. “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go.”

They hurried to the same cafeteria as yesterday.

But today, the moment Jiang Tea Tea reached for food, she noticed something different.

Yesterday had been self-serve.

Today, the head chef and the cafeteria staff were all out, smiling so warmly it made Jiang Tea Tea’s skin crawl. They looked at her the way traffickers looked at a child.

“Cadet Jiang Tea Tea,” the head chef said, beaming. “Yesterday you were eating from a basin. Why are you using a plate today?”

“Open your stomach and take a basin,” another staff member urged. “Our cold storage has meat by the ton. Whatever you want, we’ve got it.”

“Exactly,” someone chimed in. “An 18-year-old young female is still growing. Eat more. If you gain weight, it’s baby fat—cute!”

Jiang Tea Tea stopped with a plate holding a single steak. She stared at the smiling wall of people and decided honesty was easiest. “I don’t have enough money today. I can’t eat basin after basin.”

The head chef slapped a hand down like he’d finalized a verdict. “No money is fine. Eat anyway. It’s free.”

Free food?

Jiang Tea Tea’s eyes narrowed at once. “Free? Why?”

The head chef lifted a notice board. Jiang Tea Tea’s photo was on it, along with her grade and department.

Jiang Tea Tea blinked. “This is…?”

The head chef tapped the board and announced proudly, loud enough for everyone nearby to hear.

“Prince Regent Chong Ming said any cadet who can enter the Royal Military Academy is a heaven-chosen talent with limitless potential.”

“And no cadet should go hungry just because they don’t have money to eat.”

He grinned at Jiang Tea Tea like he’d personally won a prize. “So he singled you out. Even if you don’t have money, it’s fine.”

“He’ll raise you!”