Chapter 88
Chapter 88: The Cub Cheered—Careless Mom Finally Noticed Me, and the Cub Cried
Cheng Lin Yue’s eyes lit up. “Yes, Sister Tea!”
The twelve legion commanders protested at once, aghast. “Jiang Tea Tea—strip us? Not a single thread? That’s too much!”
“Yeah! We’re old enough to have dignity! Leave us at least one pair of underwear. Third round, I’ll go easy on you!”
“Jiang Tea Tea, leave some room. We might be coworkers one day. This is going to be so awkward!”
“The commander-in-chief is watching! Have some mercy—don’t strip us that clean. It’s humiliating!”
Jiang Tea Tea lifted her chin, grin sharp. “I know you came down to gang up on me while your commander-in-chief watched.”
“That’s why I’m stripping you. I want him to see how weak his soldiers are.”
“And don’t pretend you don’t know—twelve of you attacked me, and another eighteen went after my teammates.”
“They still haven’t come to help. That means either your other eighteen already slit their throats and eliminated them—or they’re being beaten bloody and can’t break free.”
“I’m only stripping your clothes and taking your storage buttons,” Jiang Tea Tea said sweetly. “I didn’t set you on fire and singe your fur. You should be thanking me.”
“Now strip.”
The twelve legion commanders looked at each other, humiliation burning across their faces.
They were “dead.” Dead people couldn’t resist. They had no choice but to endure whatever the enemy did.
One by one, they stripped off their combat uniforms. Then their underwear.
They stood naked in the grass, desperately yanking up handfuls of green to cover themselves.
Cheng Lin Yue searched them one by one, taking storage buttons and Lightbrains and stuffing everything into her own storage button.
When she finished, she turned away, face flaming, caught between worship and embarrassment.
Jiang Tea Tea didn’t blush at all. She didn’t even breathe harder. She whistled like a hooligan and casually judged them.
“Oh? Legion Commander Ye—six-pack? Not enough. Aim for eight next time.”
“Thirteenth Legion Commander—eight-pack? Not great. Too bulky. Take it easy.”
“Eighth Legion Commander—look at your arms. The muscle’s all uneven. Bad review.”
The twelve legion commanders looked like they wanted to crawl into a hole and die twice.
“All right,” Jiang Tea Tea said at last. “Enjoy the scenery. We’re leaving.”
She waved at Cheng Lin Yue. “Cheng Lin Yue. Take out a flyer. We’re going to find Sui Xuan Chu and the others.”
“Yes!” Cheng Lin Yue pulled a flyer out instantly, opened the pilot seat, and made a little after-you gesture. “Sister Tea, please.”
Jiang Tea Tea climbed in, shut the door, and lifted off. Once Cheng Lin Yue buckled in, Jiang Tea Tea accelerated toward their teammates’ coordinates.
Cheng Lin Yue kept glancing at Jiang Tea Tea’s hand, which kept drifting back to her stomach. “Sister Tea… are you okay? How’s your belly?”
Jiang Tea Tea took her hand off. “I’m fine.”
Cheng Lin Yue didn’t believe her. “If you’re fine, why do you keep holding your belly? Is it uncomfortable?”
Jiang Tea Tea’s voice went casual, blame-ready. “It’s not uncomfortable. It’s just… back at Royal Military Academy, I thought I could ambush Commander-in-Chief Chong Ming and get into a legion whenever I wanted. I didn’t expect him to kick me. It never fully healed.”
Cheng Lin Yue’s eyes nearly popped out of her head.
Chong Ming had kicked Sister Tea’s belly?
She started counting days on her fingers, panic climbing. Chong Ming had gone to Royal Military Academy a little over two months ago. Sister Tea’s pregnancy—by pulse—was under three months.
Meaning Sister Tea might already have been carrying the cub when he kicked her.
And Chong Ming was the strongest beastfolk in the Zhen Lin Empire. If he’d kicked a pregnant belly and the baby survived…
That meant the baby was strong.
Strong cubs in the womb meant stronger abilities after birth, especially for dragon clan.
Jiang Tea Tea glanced at her. “Stop staring. I know my body. If I’m uncomfortable, I’ll tell you.”
Cheng Lin Yue nodded fast, trying to calm herself. “Okay. Okay. If you feel bad, you have to tell me.”
Jiang Tea Tea smiled faintly and pushed the flyer faster.
In under half an hour, they reached Sui Xuan Chu’s location.
As expected, eighteen legion commanders were beating the six boys like dogs—stepping on faces, stomping bellies, grinding boots into hands. Blood ran from noses and mouths. Faces were bruised and swollen. Miserable.
Jiang Tea Tea hit the flyer horn and leaned out. “Hey. I thought I was shameless enough when I stripped your colleagues and confiscated their storage buttons and Lightbrains.”
“Turns out you’re even less human—eighteen of you beating my teammates this badly.”
The eighteen legion commanders had already seen the flyer approaching. Now they heard her and snorted.
“Seriously? You stripped them? You didn’t even leave underwear?”
“You’re a little female. That’s wild. I don’t buy it. If you have photos, show us. I’ll let one of your teammates go.”
“Yeah, where’s the video? Prove it. Otherwise you’re just talking.”
Jiang Tea Tea landed the flyer and stepped out, meeting them head-on. “If my teammate and I are standing in front of you like this, that should tell you your colleagues were wiped out.”
“I’m hungry,” she added, calm as ever. “How about my teammates roast some donkey meat first? I’ll eat, then fight you.”
The eighteen legion commanders stared.
“You’re bargaining with us?”
Jiang Tea Tea spread her hands. “It’s not bargaining. It’s halftime.”
“And besides,” she said, tilting her head, “eighteen against one is unfair. Even if you win, it’s not glorious.”
“Let me eat. Tomorrow at ten in the morning, we fight. Deal?”
The commanders exchanged looks. It didn’t sound terrible.
They wanted to fight her one-on-one anyway, to see her limit. And they wanted to see what trick she was planning.
Jiang Tea Tea pulled out her red flexible blade and pressed it to her own throat. “If you don’t agree, I’ll slit my throat and eliminate myself. You know my points. Even if I lie down until the third round starts, I’ll still win first place personally.”
That got them.
They truly didn’t want her to self-eliminate. Good seedlings were meant to be tested.
“Fine,” one said. “Temporary ceasefire. We eat together.”
“Whoever breaks it is a puppy.”
“Deal,” Jiang Tea Tea said, nodding once. “Deal.”
She called out, “Cheng Lin Yue, check them. Treat what needs treating. I’ll help these legion commanders skin meat and start a fire.”
Cheng Lin Yue rushed to the six boys, checking injuries, pulling out simple medical devices, giving injections, handing out pills.
Jiang Tea Tea set up a pole, hung the donkey, and skinned it with quick, brutal efficiency.
The eighteen legion commanders weren’t useless. Some used blink ability to hunt a wild horse and an antelope in under fifteen minutes. They also found mushrooms and edible greens in the dark.
Their gear was absurdly complete: pots, pans, oil, salt, sauces, iron racks, tables and chairs.
They stewed antelope soup, roasted antelope and horse, stir-fried wild greens, cooked mushrooms.
At midnight on the vast grassland, the air filled with the thick scent of meat.
Jiang Tea Tea ate a mushroom slice, sipped antelope soup, and gave them a thumbs-up. “Your cooking is amazing. If it weren’t for this damn competition, I’d definitely run with you.”
Cheng Lin Yue nodded while chewing. “Yeah. Better than our school buffet. Does your legion need a healer? After graduation I’ll join you.”
The six boys chewed without tasting, glaring at the legion commanders like they were chewing their enemies’ flesh.
The commanders leaned back, sliding into recruitment mode. “Jiang Tea Tea, my cooking is good. After the competition, I’ll apply to the commander-in-chief to bring you into my legion. You just need to agree.”
“Don’t listen to him. Come to mine—we’re mostly female. Easier to talk.”
“They’re all trash. Come to mine. I guarantee—”
“Eat,” Jiang Tea Tea cut in, smiling. “Eat first. Talk later.”
She ladled soup into every commander’s bowl and added meat, too.
She also ate like she didn’t have a heart—chewing, gulping, relaxed—making the commanders lower their guard.
They never expected the trap.
Their own soup was fine.
Their own meat was fine.
The donkey was fine.
The problem was the soup and meat Jiang Tea Tea served them.
One by one, the eighteen legion commanders collapsed—foaming at the mouth, eyes rolling white.
The six boys panicked. “Sister Tea—Sister Tea, what happened? Poison?”
“Poison your heads,” Cheng Lin Yue snapped.
She pulled out her red blade and slit their throats cleanly—one after another.
The six boys stared, stunned.
When had Little Bunny gotten so decisive?
When Cheng Lin Yue finished, she returned to Jiang Tea Tea. “Sister Tea. I slit all their throats. I took their storage buttons. Their Lightbrains too.”
Jiang Tea Tea nodded approvingly. “Nice work.”
Cheng Lin Yue beamed. “It was your idea. You knew how to drug them.”
A tree demon who’d spent a month on a primitive tropical planet knew exactly which plants were poisonous. She’d collected them for fun, and now they paid off—enough to knock out eighteen people without lasting harm, putting them down for seven or eight hours.
Jiang Tea Tea waved it off. “Minor trick. Sui Xuan Chu, Huang Da Zhuang, Yan Yu—after the way they beat you, aren’t you going to get revenge?”
Joy hit the six boys like lightning.
They sprinted to the unconscious commanders and started beating them like drums—punching and kicking until faces swelled and noses bled. Then they stripped them too, leaving them naked in the grass.
Jiang Tea Tea ate and drank at her leisure and, while she was at it, pulled a little more nourishment from the land. Her magic power crawled back toward two tenths again—almost.
When she was done, they took every pot, pan, table, chair—everything—and flew away in three flyers, vanishing into the night.
On the command ship, Chong Ming watched his legion commanders get wiped out and laughed through his anger.
For the first twelve, he posted photos and videos of them covering themselves with grass to the military department internal network—for everyone to admire and mock.
For the other eighteen, he had ice water dumped on them until they woke.
The moment they opened their eyes, they were naked. No clothes. No underwear.
They didn’t need explanations to know what happened.
They’d been played.
Played so hard they didn’t even have a scrap of cloth left.
And now they faced Chong Ming’s wrath—and the kind of professional humiliation that would follow them forever.
On the flyer, Cheng Lin Yue kept glancing at Jiang Tea Tea’s hand drifting back to her belly. She couldn’t stop thinking about it.
Sister Tea fought too hard. Too violently.
What if it affected the baby?
Maybe the baby needed its dad’s psychic force soothing.
And the dad was right there—Sui Xuan Chu, the useless dragon.
But Sister Tea acted like she was fine. How could Cheng Lin Yue even bring it up?
Jiang Tea Tea finally noticed the constant staring. She flew two hundred li away from any cadets and landed in a forested mountain sea of red flowers.
Only Jiang Tea Tea and Cheng Lin Yue were in this flyer. Sui Xuan Chu and the others landed behind them in the other two flyers, planning to sleep inside.
Jiang Tea Tea unbuckled and turned. “I told you I’m fine. Why do you keep staring at my stomach?”
Cheng Lin Yue pulled out a signal jammer and set it on the flyer’s console. Then she shut the windows.
“Sister Tea,” she said quietly, “I’ve thought and thought, and I think… Sui Xuan Chu is right by your side.”
“He’s trash, but you can endure a little. Treat him like a tool dragon. Make him provide psychic force soothing. It’ll be good for you.”
Jiang Tea Tea stared, completely lost. “What are you talking about? Why would I need Sui Xuan Chu to give me psychic force soothing?”
Cheng Lin Yue looked deadly serious. “I know, Sister Tea. Don’t worry. Even if he won’t take responsibility, it’s fine. With your ability, plus me, plus my mom and dad and uncle—we can help you through it.”
“We can deliver the baby. We can raise the baby!”
Jiang Tea Tea looked like she’d been hit by an asteroid.
Her voice shot up. “What delivery? What baby? Who has a baby? What baby?”