Chapter 65
Chapter 65: The Cub’s Dad, Old Peacock, Was Fanning His Tail—Say Who It Was For
“Now?” Adjutant AI’s expression tightened. “Reporting, Commander-in-Chief. Classmate Jiang Tea Tea and the Young Highness are still inside Agris’s main battleship.”
Chong Ming’s gaze never left the screen. “Once their commander is captured, they’ll have no one left to command.”
“The enemy’s Information Bureau has been fully breached by Minister Cai. Their main battleship’s intelligent central-control system is in my hands.”
Adjutant AI’s mind rang with disbelief. Since when had Cai Xi Chao become this terrifying?
Chong Ming gave a single order.
Every department moved in perfect sync—lock on, aim, fire.
In less than six seconds, the three defensive lines surrounding Agris’s main battleship vanished under bombardment.
Explosions bloomed through the void. Fire, fragments, shockwaves—bright enough it looked like the universe itself had cracked open, dazzling and cruel.
On Agris’s battleship, Jiang Tea Tea pressed Agris’s head toward the glass, forcing him to watch. “Wow. Little bug. From your command room, those explosions are beautiful. Truly beyond words.”
Agris’s body shook with fury as his defenses were erased with Chong Ming’s perfect accuracy. “Chong Ming! You petty bastard! Have you no shame?!”
Chong Ming’s projection appeared, as if he were standing in his own command room looking down. “Shame? Your Highness Agris, you were the one who abandoned shame first. Don’t blame me for tearing off the mask.”
Agris’s compound eyes reddened. “You’re really something. Even when you twist logic, you say it like you mean it.”
Chong Ming raised a brow. “Twist logic? I’ve followed our ceasefire agreement the entire time. I didn’t send my people into your territory to cause trouble. I didn’t target your Crown Princess. I didn’t covet your life.”
“And I certainly didn’t sail my battleship to your doorstep without an invitation.”
He smiled, polite and cold. “I assumed arriving uninvited is a provocation. I assumed you understood that walking up to someone’s door gets you beaten. Apparently you didn’t. So I’m teaching you.”
Agris sneered. “You have no evidence I sent anyone to your home. I stayed outside your Eighth Star System defensive line. I never entered your star-system territory.”
“You fired on me. You attacked my border regions. That’s you tearing up the ceasefire unilaterally. That’s deliberate provocation of the Insect Clan.”
“Now the Insect Clan has the right to attack you and wipe out the hundreds of billions of citizens in the Zhen Lin Empire.”
Chong Ming spread his hands. “Then come. I’ve already cleared out a room on my ship. You’re welcome to move in. Let’s see your Insect Clan wipe out my empire.”
His tone snapped crisp. “Sui Xuan Chu. Classmate Jiang Tea Tea. Bring Your Highness Agris over. My people have arrived to receive you.”
Jiang Tea Tea pressed her palm to her bleeding hand, magic power smoothing the wound shut enough to stop the flow. “Understood.”
Sui Xuan Chu answered like he was trying to redeem his entire bloodline. “Guaranteed mission completion!”
Chong Ming’s eyes stayed on Agris. “Oh, and Your Highness—your Information Bureau has been wiped out. I fully control your ship’s central intelligent system.”
“So don’t try anything. Don’t have your soldiers move against my people. Don’t play tricks.”
“If you do, your ship will be paralyzed, and my people will send you to meet the Beast God.”
Agris shook with rage, unable to swallow it down. “Chong Ming, you filthy loach, rotten loach, bastard! Kill me if you’ve got the guts! If you can’t, I swear I’ll never be at peace with you!”
Chong Ming smiled—calm, almost gentle—and cut the projection.
Jiang Tea Tea looked at Agris and laughed. “Your Highness, you’ve fought Old Loach Chong Ming plenty of times. Why did it take you until now to realize he’s a filthy loach and a bastard?”
Agris stared at her like she’d grown a second head. She agreed with him? What kind of nightmare joke was this?
Sui Xuan Chu kept his gun trained and hissed, “Roommate. Villains die because they talk too much. Say less.”
Jiang Tea Tea ignored him. She pulled out a thin, soft branch from her storage button, looped it, and slipped it over Agris’s neck like a leash. “Move.”
Agris’s thighs were both shot. His abdomen was pierced. Now he was leashed by the throat.
Humiliation and pain crushed him until he dropped hard to the floor and refused to budge.
Jiang Tea Tea tugged the branch. “Little bug. I’m giving you face. Take it. Don’t throw a tantrum with me, or I’ll stop being nice.”
Agris tilted his head, looking at her sideways. “Even that Old Loach Chong Ming wouldn’t dare humiliate me like this—”
Jiang Tea Tea kicked him mid-sentence.
Clang.
Agris flew back and slammed into the hard glass.
Sui Xuan Chu’s grip on his gun trembled. He swallowed. His roommate was terrifying—fierce, explosive, unstoppable. Huang Big Dog had been right to worship her.
Jiang Tea Tea yanked the branch, dragging Agris back as he slid down. “Are you moving or not?”
“Kill me,” Agris snarled.
Clang.
Another kick. Another slam into glass. Another yank back.
“Are you moving or not?” Jiang Tea Tea asked again.
“You—” Agris tried to speak.
Clang.
A third kick.
A third slam.
A third yank back.
“Are you moving or not?”
Blood splattered from Agris’s mouth. His body trembled. He didn’t answer.
Jiang Tea Tea kicked him again.
Then again.
Back and forth—kick, slam, yank back—until it stopped being a contest and turned into a lesson.
By the time she reached the tenth kick, Agris was so bloody and miserable he didn’t look like an Eldest Prince at all.
“Fine,” he rasped. “I’ll go.”
Jiang Tea Tea lowered her foot slowly. “If you’d said that in the beginning, we’d be done already.”
She tugged the branch. “Roommate. Let’s go.”
Sui Xuan Chu shivered at being addressed and answered fast, “Okay!”
Da Ma Zi’s team arrived to escort them. They stared at Agris’s state in disbelief. The Insect Clan’s Eldest Prince—who had fought their Commander-in-Chief countless times—was now bloody like a defeated dog. It felt unreal.
Jiang Tea Tea shoved the branch into Da Ma Zi’s hands. “Take it. Why are you staring?”
Da Ma Zi snapped out of it and grabbed the leash. “Classmate Jiang Tea Tea… are you two okay? Who beat him into this state?”
Jiang Tea Tea pointed at herself. “He wouldn’t listen. I did.”
Da Ma Zi gave a stiff laugh. “Impressive, impressive. Hurry. Board the ship. Commander-in-Chief is waiting.”
Jiang Tea Tea and Sui Xuan Chu boarded the small transport shuttle. Da Ma Zi dragged Agris aboard too.
As the shuttle pulled away from Agris’s main battleship, a massive shell struck the ammunition depot.
The explosion shook space.
Flames and fragments erupted. Then secondary blasts cascaded—one after another—until the ship became a tearing bloom of fire.
Emergency exits. Rescue systems. Everything shut down. Everything failed.
Insect Clan soldiers were shredded by shrapnel, or blown into open space to suffocate.
Shockwaves rippled outward, disturbing nearby asteroids. The burning debris looked like a small planet dying in the brightest possible light.
From the shuttle, Jiang Tea Tea watched, throat tight.
Even at her peak, with all her magic power, she couldn’t blow a behemoth like that into pieces with a single strike.
This era was dangerous. Too dangerous.
Once she satisfied all the fake heiress’s requirements and restored her magic power, she needed to leave. If she stayed, one day she would offend Old Loach with her foul mouth and temper, and one shell would erase her without leaving a bone behind.
Their shuttle docked with Chong Ming’s main battleship.
Jiang Tea Tea and Sui Xuan Chu stepped out and saw Chong Ming waiting.
He’d changed out of his combat suit and into a black uniform. Tall, straight, one hand in his pocket—broad shoulders, narrow waist, long legs. He looked like he’d been carved out of cold elegance.
One second Jiang Tea Tea was thinking she should never offend him.
The next second she forgot, as usual.
She leaned toward Sui Xuan Chu and whispered, “Roommate. Tell me—doesn’t he look like old Peacock fanning his tail?”
Sui Xuan Chu blinked, then whispered back, “If I remember right, old Peacock only fans his tail when he’s got a target. He doesn’t have one. So tell me—who’s he fanning it for? Me, or you?”