Chapter 61
Chapter 61: I Spit in Your Face and You Still Thought It Smelled Nice, You Bastard
Bang!
Jiang Tea Tea slammed the table and shot to her feet. “Zhong, don’t go too far! I’m not your soldier! Are you treating me like I’m the Insect Clan now—just messing with me however you want?”
So it wasn’t that he’d dug a pit for her. It was that he’d made her dig it herself, jump in herself, shovel the dirt over herself, and pack it down tight with her own hands.
As if that made him look noble.
Sui Xuan Chu’s soul nearly left his body.
It was over. His roommate wasn’t just fearless—she was trying to die. How could she pick a fight with Chong Ming like that?
Anyone who picked a fight with him didn’t have a grave. They had stardust.
A moment ago, the huge command room had been full of movement—breathing, footsteps, low conversation. Now it was like someone had hit pause. Silence fell so hard it could shatter a needle.
No one dared breathe too loudly. No one dared turn their heads. They just listened like thieves, ears pricked, waiting for blood.
Chong Ming didn’t move at all. His posture remained composed, his face calm. His golden eyes slid from Jiang Tea Tea’s face to the cracked tabletop. “Blue crystal. One slap cracked it. Strong hands.”
His gaze returned to her. “Taking down the Insect Race Eldest Prince, Agris, shouldn’t be a problem.”
Sui Xuan Chu couldn’t stand by and watch her die. He rushed in like he was trying to save a drowning person. “Commander-in-Chief, sir—my roommate is young. She doesn’t understand. Please be generous and don’t take it personally.”
As he spoke, he could feel the pressure rolling off Chong Ming like a storm front. It crushed the room so hard people could barely breathe.
Surely he wasn’t really going to argue with a kid, right?
Chong Ming lifted his eyelids and looked at Sui Xuan Chu. “If she won’t go, you will?”
Sui Xuan Chu blinked. “Huh?”
He hadn’t expected to get dragged in too. Fine. Fine. If he had to go, he’d go. Who was he afraid of—grandson?
“I’ll go,” Sui Xuan Chu blurted. “Don’t make my roommate—”
“Move,” Jiang Tea Tea snapped.
Before he could finish, Jiang Tea Tea yanked him aside and shoved him behind her. Then she stepped forward until she was right in front of Chong Ming, eyes blazing.
“Zhong. I’ve eaten two meals at your place. One of them I didn’t even get full. Anyone who knows what happened would say that’s all. Anyone who doesn’t would think I dug up your family grave, the way you’re trying to bury me.”
“Let me make it clear: I’m not going. Find whoever you want. It has nothing to do with me. I’m not a hero. I’m a coward. I’m timid. I’m afraid of dying. If you think you can send me to my death—dream on.”
This was the interstellar age. High-tech artillery everywhere. She was a demon with only twenty percent of her magic power left. If Chong Ming got into a heated fight with the Insect Race Eldest Prince and ordered full-coverage bombardment, she’d be blown into powder before she could blink.
She was the pride of the Tea Tree Clan. Out of countless green-tea varieties, only she had cultivated into a human form. She wasn’t about to die here.
Chong Ming tipped his chin back slightly and waited until she’d finished. Then he wiped between his brows with two fingers and flicked the moisture away like it annoyed him. “Classmate Jiang Tea Tea. If you won’t go, then don’t. Everything can be discussed. I’m not a dictator.”
He looked at her calmly. “You don’t need to spray me in the face with spit.”
The room’s staff collectively forgot how to breathe.
That was their Commander-in-Chief. The man who hadn’t laughed in years. The man who could freeze a room with a glance.
Since when was he… like this?
Sui Xuan Chu stared so hard his eyes hurt. Who was this? Where was the real one?
Jiang Tea Tea hadn’t actually spat. But since he mentioned it, she decided to make it true.
She braced one hand on the table and the other on the armrest of his chair, leaning in close. “No negotiations. I’m not going. Find someone else. Ptooey.”
Chong Ming’s eyes flickered. She really did spit on his face.
There was a faint scent in it—subtle, barely there. And beneath her anger, he caught a wisp of something else, like the presence of a fellow Dragon Clan.
He didn’t show anything. He only sat up straighter and leaned closer. “You won’t go because you’re afraid of dying. I promise you won’t lose even a single hair. How about it?”
Jiang Tea Tea laughed through clenched teeth. “There’s an old saying: I’d rather believe a sow can climb a tree than believe a man’s mouth.”
Her lover’s grandmother—whose connections stretched across the Three Realms—had told her long ago: men, male demons, male immortals, male ghosts… all the same. Their words went in one ear and out the other. If you believed them, you lost.
Chong Ming’s lips curved faintly. “Since I was ten, I’ve kept my word. You’re the first person who doesn’t believe me.”
That faint fragrance vanished. That Dragon Clan wisp vanished too, as if it had never been there.
Jiang Tea Tea scoffed. “Keep your word from age one and it still has nothing to do with me. I’m not going—”
“Name your terms,” Chong Ming cut in.
He leaned back in his chair again like nothing could touch him. “As long as you go once, ask for anything. I’ll give it.”
Jiang Tea Tea snorted. “Anything? Then I want your life. Will you give me that?”
She wanted to bury him under her roots and use him as fertilizer.
Would he die for her? Of course not.
And she couldn’t beat him anyway.
Chong Ming spread his hands. “Sure. Beat me. Replace me. Then kill me.”
Jiang Tea Tea choked. Her temper, in front of him, was worth less than dirt. “Zhong—”
“Wait, wait,” Sui Xuan Chu hurried in, yanking Jiang Tea Tea to the side. “Commander-in-Chief, if my roommate and I go together to meet the Insect Race Eldest Prince for tea and conversation… does that mean I can also ask for whatever I want?”
Chong Ming lifted a brow. “Of course. If you convince your roommate to go with you, whatever terms I offer her, I’ll offer you the same.”
“Give me a moment,” Sui Xuan Chu said. “I’ll talk to her.”
He grabbed Jiang Tea Tea’s arm and tried to drag her out.
Jiang Tea Tea struggled. “What are you doing? Let go—let go! If you don’t let go, I’ll hit you!”
Sui Xuan Chu had no choice but to release her. He didn’t even leave the command room—he just dropped his voice to a conspiratorial whisper, like he could hide the sound from the entire universe. “Roommate. Don’t be stupid. Don’t be stubborn, okay?”
“Why do we study? Isn’t it to serve the empire, succeed, and leave our names in history?”
“There’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity sitting right in front of us. We can’t miss it. If we agree, all we have to do is go see the Insect Race Eldest Prince and drink tea and chat.”
“It’s nothing. I’m not even afraid. Why are you afraid?”
Jiang Tea Tea took two steps back and looked him up and down. “Are you on his side or mine? Why does it feel like your elbow is bending outward? Betraying your own people?”
Sui Xuan Chu met her stare without flinching. “I’m on your side. But this really is rare. He almost never promises anyone anything.”
“We go once. I swear on my head he won’t let either of us die. When we get back, we ask for the most advanced flyers and mechs in the empire, and then we ask for a few hundred million.”
Jiang Tea Tea fell silent.
Flyers, mechs, money—none of that mattered to her. What she needed was magic power. And the fastest way to replenish magic power wasn’t meat or seafood. Those were minor supplements.
The real tonic was dragon blood and dragon flesh.
Jiang Tea Tea pulled a cup out of her storage button and marched back to Chong Ming. She thrust it in front of him. “Your words. I go, you give me whatever I want.”
She shoved the cup closer. “Fill it. Bleed. Now.”