Chapter 73

Chapter 73: Little Brat’s Mom Gets Fed Once and Bends Like a Dog

“You’re sick. Your whole family is sick.”

Jiang Tea Tea shot upright. She couldn’t get enough to eat, her spiritual power had dropped again, and she was already in a bad mood. Now she heard him say she was sick, and she blew up on the spot. She didn’t indulge him at all and started spraying him with words.

“Who talks like that? Just because you’re the Commander in Chief of the Three Armies, the Empire’s prince regent, with power in your hands, you think you can call people sick? I think you’re the one who’s sick, and very seriously sick.”

Chong Ming got yelled at and scolded, but his face didn’t change at all. He pulled back his gaze from her stomach, kept tying the fishing line to the rod, and said slowly: “Schoolmate Jiang Tea Tea, I meant no harm with my words. There was no other meaning either. I was only thinking about your health.”

“Everyone has secrets, has things they want to keep private, things they don’t want anyone to know. My rule is, as long as you don’t betray the country and don’t break the Empire’s law code, no secret is a big deal.”

Jiang Tea Tea: “!!!!”

[What did that mean?]

[Was he saying she was making a fuss over nothing? That she was the one overreacting?]

[He had already said she was sick, and she wasn’t allowed to blow up even a little?]

“Same idea.” Chong Ming finished tying the fishing line, put bait on the hook, cast the line into the sea inlet, set up a stand and propped the rod on it. His golden eyes looked into Jiang Tea Tea’s eyes, very serious and calm: “I know you have secrets, secrets you don’t want to tell anyone. I’m not very interested in the secrets you’re hiding.”

“The only things I’m interested in are your explosive power, your leadership, your ability to pull people together, your supernatural abilities level, how flexible your mind is, and the way you dare to fight heaven and earth and refuse to accept anyone. That all matches what I expect from a candidate for Commander in Chief of the Three Armies.”

“In the M31 Star System, the average lifespan of all kinds of races is from one hundred fifty to four hundred eighty years. I’m one hundred fifty this year. If nothing unexpected happens, I’ll probably live three hundred to four hundred years.”

“Your roommate is only seventeen this year. That’s a difference of one hundred thirty-three years between us. I can’t stay by his side forever, and I can’t stay in the seat of Commander in Chief of the Three Armies until the day I die.”

“I need someone who can hold down all the army corps of the Zhenlin Empire as Commander in Chief. Besides you, I have many other backups. I want to pick better backups out of those backups, and I want the better ones to pass my tests and take my place.”

“The testing process is very long and covers many, many sides. If I say ten years, it might be fifteen, or maybe twenty, or even longer.”

“You eat a lot, and it’s not that I can’t afford to feed you. It’s that you eat a lot and your body doesn’t get any fatter. You’ve even gotten a bit thinner. When I asked if you were sick, I didn’t mean anything bad. I just want you to have a healthy body so you can pass my tests, take my position, become Commander in Chief of the Three Armies of the Zhenlin Empire, and protect the Empire together with your roommate. That’s all.”

At this moment Jiang Tea Tea was glad she was a demon with some knowledge, who didn’t buy soft words or hard threats and didn’t let oil or salt in.

Otherwise, just from this bit of “brainwashing from the heart,” she would have dropped to her knees right against his combat boots, crying with snot and tears, shouting that she would never let Your Highness down, that she would do her best to complete the task he gave her, become Commander in Chief of the Three Armies, serve the country, and be loyal to Sui Xuan Chu.

Jiang Tea Tea bared her teeth in a bright grin: “You value me so much that if I don’t agree, it feels a bit like I’m not giving you face.”

Chong Ming raised a brow, as if he saw right through her: “You agree to be my candidate for Commander in Chief of the Three Armies with no extra conditions?”

Jiang Tea Tea scooted the stool a bit closer to him and leaned over: “No wonder you… hmm…”

[What smell? What was that smell on him?]

Chong Ming didn’t stop her from leaning in. He waited for her to finish what she was saying, but she stopped halfway, so he asked: “What?”

[What is she sniffing at?]

Jiang Tea Tea leaned in closer and closer to him, almost touching him.

Chong Ming leaned his body back, pulling some distance between them: “Schoolmate Jiang Tea Tea, what are you doing?”

He smelled so good.

It was like the smell of food, and also like a scent that nourished her spiritual power.

She wanted to kill him and bury him under her roots.

She also wanted to sprawl on him and sniff him up close.

Jiang Tea Tea used a lot of effort to force herself to sit up straight again. She pretended to ask casually: “Nothing. I just think you smell really good. What brand is it? Send me a link?”

Chong Ming was speechless for a moment: “You really are hungry. Your nose has evolved into a dog nose.”

When she sat far away, she couldn’t smell his scent on him.

She didn’t have that clawing urge to pounce on him, suck his scent in, and rub against him.

But once she got close, she couldn’t stop wanting to cling to him and sniff him.

Jiang Tea Tea laughed: “If you say my nose evolved into a dog nose, I’ll take it as you cursing me. But if you say that to Huang Da Zhuang, he’ll jump up with joy and think you’re praising him.”

Chong Ming reached back into his space knob storage device, took out a box, and handed it to her: “I’m not cursing your nose. I’m praising it.”

“The smell you’re picking up on me should be its smell. I watched its whole making process from start to finish, so some of it probably rubbed off on me.”

The box was pretty big, about ten jin heavy.

Jiang Tea Tea took the box, set it on the ground, and opened it: “Red crab?”

Chong Ming nodded: “Raw-marinated red crab. When your roommate called me down, I was eating, so I brought you a box as a small gift for agreeing to be my candidate for Commander in Chief of the Three Armies.”

Jiang Tea Tea lowered her head and sniffed. The raw-marinated red crab smelled like red crab. It wasn’t the same as the scent she had smelled on him at all.

[Forget it. With food in front of her, what was there to be picky about?]

Jiang Tea Tea closed the box, put it into her space knob storage device, and said to Chong Ming: “I do have extra conditions for agreeing to be your candidate for Commander in Chief of the Three Armies.”

Chong Ming spread his hands: “Go ahead.”

Jiang Tea Tea bluntly took out three cups, each one thousand milliliters: “Give me three of your blood a month.”

Chong Ming paused, his gaze sliding over the three cups: “Schoolmate Jiang Tea Tea, I suggest that if you’re sick, you should go see a doctor.”

Jiang Tea Tea was unhappy: “Why are you cursing me again?”

Chong Ming explained calmly: “I’m not cursing you. In the interstellar era, technology has developed very fast, and medical skills have improved a lot too. Except for things related to spiritual power and supernatural abilities, which are hard to treat, all other problems have solutions.”

Oh. He was disgusted by how much blood she wanted.

Jiang Tea Tea stepped back and put one cup away: “Two cups a month is fine too.”

Chong Ming was very patient with a candidate he had set his eye on: “Schoolmate Jiang Tea Tea, this isn’t a problem of two cups or three cups a month.”

“Even though I’m a dragon, and my supernatural abilities are stronger than the average dragon, my body is longer than most dragons, and what I eat and use is better than most dragons, even if I did nothing else and only focused on bleeding for you, giving you three thousand milliliters of blood a month still isn’t realistic. Do you understand?”

Three thousand milliliters of blood wasn’t realistic.

Two thousand milliliters also wasn’t realistic.

What about one thousand milliliters?

She really was very hungry. Her spiritual power had dropped until only eighteen percent was left.

Seeing Jiang Tea Tea put away one more cup so that only one cup was left, Chong Ming spoke first before she could open her mouth: “Schoolmate Jiang Tea Tea, you are a legal resident of the Empire, and you are also someone I value.”

“You don’t have to worry about anything bad happening to you if we check your body on my ship, or that I’ll do something to you.”

“If the results aren’t good, then we do whatever healing is needed. You’re still you, and I’m still me. I won’t let anyone throw you into a laboratory.”

Jiang Tea Tea: “…”

[She was a tree spirit.]

[The only tree spirit in the whole M31 Star System.]

[If they really found something out, the laboratory would be her final destination.]

[Did he really think she was some clueless little demon he could trick that easily?]

Jiang Tea Tea stood up with the cup in her hand and folded up the small stool: “Sorry, since you won’t meet my extra condition, just treat it as if I called you down here to fart. See you tomorrow in the second round of the Supremacy Tournament.”

She finished and turned to get on the flying device.

“Come back.” Chong Ming called out to her.

Jiang Tea Tea didn’t even look back and said, annoyed: “What?”

Sitting on his stool, Chong Ming looked at her and said: “I can give you one thousand milliliters of dragon blood a month. If, in the next two months of the Supremacy Tournament, you get results that are better than I imagined, I can give you three thousand milliliters over those two months.”

“In the same way, after the Supremacy Tournament ends, besides studying in the Pacification Division, you also have to transfer into the Combat Department, the Command Faculty, the Mecha Armor Department, and so on. You have to take classes in at least ten departments, and in every department your grade has to be an A.”

“If you go beyond A to A+, I can give you two thousand milliliters of dragon blood a month. The better you are, the more dragon blood you get.”

“If you aren’t good enough and don’t reach the standard I set, then you get less dragon blood. How about it, do you want in or not?”

“I’m in.” Jiang Tea Tea agreed without even thinking. In the blink of an eye she was squatting in front of him, holding two one-thousand-milliliter cups, looking up at him with bright eyes: “Come on, let’s start with two months.”

Chong Ming lowered his eyes and looked at Jiang Tea Tea squatting in front of him with her eyes shining: “You really aren’t shy at all.”

Jiang Tea Tea smiled bright and sunny: “You should feel lucky you get a candidate like me who isn’t fake and delicate.”

“Hurry up, use your speed-type ability.”

Chong Ming rolled up his sleeve. His index finger turned into a golden dragon claw, and he sliced his own wrist. Fresh blood dripped into Jiang Tea Tea’s cups.

The moment his blood started flowing out, Jiang Tea Tea leaned her head closer and sniffed with her nose.

Fragrant. Yes, it was fragrant.

To her, his dragon blood had a rich, delicious smell, like her favorite fertilizer.

Sui Xuan Chu’s dragon blood… she had smelled it as fishy and gross, like the smell from the bugs she hated most when they crawled on her branches.

They were clearly uncle and nephew, both golden dragons with the same bloodline. It shouldn’t be like this.

[Could it really be like Sui Xuan Chu said, that because she drank Chong Ming’s blood first, his blood was still left in her body undigested, so it clashed with other dragons’ blood, even close family?]

“All done, Schoolmate Jiang Tea Tea.” Chong Ming filled both cups, wrapped his wrist with a flip of his hand, and reminded the stunned Jiang Tea Tea.

“Thanks. See you tomorrow.” Jiang Tea Tea snapped back to herself, picked up the two cups, and went straight up onto the snowfield flying device.

Once again, Chong Ming got a face full of flying device exhaust. He watched the white flying device leave, then went to grab his fishing rod.

Facts proved that at the same place, same fishing spot, same position, if you got skunked once, you would get skunked twice.

The Empire’s Commander in Chief of the Three Armies, who was also the prince regent and a lord, stared at the still bait, tossed it back into the water, then took out three more rods, tied lines, hung hooks, put on bait, and cast them out.

One minute passed, two minutes passed, half an hour passed. None of the four rods had a single float move. When he reeled them in, all the bait on the hooks was exactly the same as before.

Chong Ming was sure now. The problem wasn’t his fishing rods, or his lines, or even his bait. This spot just didn’t have any fish. It had nothing to do with his fishing skills.

Jiang Tea Tea steered the snowfield flying device while sipping dragon blood in small gulps. As expected of dragon blood from someone with a high supernatural abilities level, every mouthful slid down like sweet rain after a long drought, making her whole body comfortable and her spirit lively again. The bit of spiritual power she had lost slowly came back.

By the time she finished one cup of dragon blood, her spiritual power had recovered by a bit over twenty percent. Her body felt warm and cozy, and she didn’t feel hungry anymore.

Her lower belly especially felt like a ball of fire, burning hot. She touched it with her hand and swore in her heart that if she was going to eat, she should eat the best. She couldn’t keep thinking about other dragons. She had to focus on that Old Mud Loach Chong Ming. He was the real top-grade tonic.

Jiang Tea Tea set this as her goal, feeling cheerful as she went back to the dorms. To guard against the drill instructor team suddenly doing a surprise night raid and emergency assembly, Sui Xuan Chu and the others had already packed up everything they could.

Jiang Tea Tea went into the room and put the red crab Chong Ming had given her on the table: “Come on, let’s eat.”

Sui Xuan Chu’s eyeballs almost fell out. His uncle had really gone to this so-called usual place to see her and had even brought her food?

Heaven above, Mother Earth, his uncle had never taken the initiative to bring anything for him. He always said that as a male, and as the crown prince, the future heir apparent to the imperial throne, he had to learn to be brave and endure hardship. Going hungry for a meal or two was no big deal.

Huang Da Zhuang opened the lid and yelled: “Red crabs! Raw-marinated red crabs that are a jin each. Sister Tea, where did you get these? Amazing, awesome, these are my favorite. They smell so good and taste even better.”

Cheng Xiao Ting had already grabbed one and was sucking on it: “I like raw-marinated stuff too. So strong. Following Sister Tea means we get meat to eat.”

Zhang Ting Zhou, this octopus, also ate seafood. He took a red crab and bit off a claw. “If tomorrow wasn’t the second round of the Supremacy Tournament and we had more time, my tentacles would have grown out by now. I’d cut off two tentacles, soak them in this marinade, and let you all have some.”

Cheng Lin Yue chimed in: “It’s fine, there will be a chance. After the Supremacy Tournament is over, you can cut off two tentacles for us to try.”

Orange Sparrow and Yan Yu nodded along: “Yeah, yeah. After the Supremacy Tournament ends and we go back to the Academy, when you have nothing to do, just cut off a few extra tentacles for us to try.”

“Roasted Zhang Yu, Zhang Yu balls, spicy stir-fried Zhang Yu slices, we want a bit of each so we can taste something new.”

Zhang Ting Zhou had offered his own tentacles as food, and now they had all booked him as a dish. He didn’t get mad at all and happily agreed.

Jiang Tea Tea was already full and didn’t eat: “You guys eat. Don’t save any for me. I’m going to lie down for a while.”

Huang Da Zhuang and the others froze with crab in their hands, mouths open, staring at her. Only after she went back to her room and closed the door did they look at each other.

“Sister Tea isn’t eating today. Did she eat outside already?”

“Maybe she’s not hungry?”

“That’s impossible. She eats so much every meal. Suddenly not hungry? You believe that?”

“I don’t, but look at her. Her face is rosy and she looks full of energy. She looks like she ate, not like she’s just not hungry.”

Sui Xuan Chu’s heart was bleeding. To get Jiang Tea Tea to become his successor, his uncle had not only given her blood but also made her a special meal.

“Sui Xuan Chu, you eat too.” Huang Da Zhuang saw Sui Xuan Chu not moving and handed a red crab right to him.

Sui Xuan Chu was too sad to eat anything: “I won’t either. You guys eat. I’m going back to sleep.”

Huang Da Zhuang and the others: “???”

[What did that mean? He wasn’t eating either. Was he full too?]

[Did he sneak off to eat behind their backs?]

Jiang Tea Tea went back to her room, kicked off her shoes, flopped onto the bed, and went straight to sleep.

They had thought the drill instructor team would do a surprise night raid and emergency assembly, but instead, it wasn’t until eight in the morning that the drill instructor team’s broadcast came blaring from all directions: “Darlings, schoolmates, little darlings, good morning. The squad rankings for the first round of the Supremacy Tournament have been sent to your light-brain wrist terminals. You can all check them yourselves and see just how trash you are.”

“Next, welcome to the first match of the second round of the Supremacy Tournament between the thirty military academies. The rules are as follows: no matter how many people are in your squad, each squad only has three slots to enter the second round. Please pick up whatever weapons you can reach at your side, kill your teammates, and advance on your own!”