Chapter 89
Chapter 89: You’re Carrying a Dragon Hatchling—the Cub’s Father Is Looking for the Baby in Your Belly
Cheng Lin Yue blurted without thinking. “Who has a baby? You do!”
Jiang Tea Tea pointed at herself and burst out laughing, genuinely amused. “Me? You’re saying I’m pregnant?”
“What kind of ridiculous joke is that?”
She was a tree.
Even as a demon who could wear human form, she was still a tree. Trees flowered. Trees pollinated. Trees fruited. Seeds ripened and fell. Seeds sprouted.
Species barriers existed. Reproductive isolation existed.
Even if she’d slept with someone at First Hotel, that male wasn’t her clan. His ability rank and physical strength were far beyond hers.
But no matter how strong he was, how could one night break reproductive isolation and put a baby in her belly?
If she returned to demon clan with a swollen stomach, every demon within thousands of li would run over just to laugh at her.
Cheng Lin Yue stared at her expression and finally understood.
Earlier, when she’d tried to tell Sister Tea and Sister Tea had cut her off—saying she already knew and to bury it—it had been a perfect, accidental misunderstanding.
Sister Tea didn’t know she was pregnant at all.
Cheng Lin Yue unbuckled, leaned over, and gently pressed Jiang Tea Tea’s pointing hand down toward her belly.
“Sister Tea,” she said carefully, “my pulse-reading skill is from my uncle. He studies dark medical art and ancient medicine.”
“My healing and medical knowledge aren’t great,” she admitted, “but my pregnancy pulse readings are one hundred percent accurate. Every time my mom got pregnant, I was the one who figured it out.”
“So I’m certain,” Cheng Lin Yue said, voice firm despite her shaking hands. “You’re pregnant. Under three months.”
“And not just one.”
“As for how many, and whether they’re male or female—that needs instruments. Imaging. Detailed testing.”
Jiang Tea Tea yanked her hand back and stared at Cheng Lin Yue, searching her face for any hint of a joke.
There was none.
Cheng Lin Yue looked so serious it hurt.
After a long silence, Jiang Tea Tea said, “Move back. Don’t sit so close. I’ll check myself.”
For safety, Cheng Lin Yue pulled out another signal jammer and set it beside the first.
Two signal jammers inside one small flyer.
Jiang Tea Tea slowly placed her hand over her lower belly.
Magic power flowed into her palm, pressing through skin and muscle.
Her belly felt hot—like a ball of fire.
And inside… something moved.
It felt like insects crawling under bark. Like worms wriggling through a tree trunk.
Not a seed. Not a sapling.
Jiang Tea Tea closed her eyes, forced magic power into a piercing sight spell, and looked inside herself.
Her eyes snapped open.
Her back went rigid, stiff as a board.
Cheng Lin Yue’s voice came out in a tiny stutter. “Tea… Sister Tea. A-are you okay?”
Jiang Tea Tea kept her hand on her belly and turned her head slowly. “I’m fine. Don’t worry.”
Cheng Lin Yue didn’t believe her for a second.
“Sister Tea,” she said quickly, scrambling to soothe her, “if the cub’s dad is irresponsible, it’s okay. It’s the interstellar era. Technology is advanced. You’re strong. Whether the cub has a dad or not doesn’t matter.”
“You can raise it. I can help.”
“And… maybe the reason you eat so much is because your belly was kicked before. The cub might be lacking its dad’s mental power soothing.”
“Sui Xuan Chu doesn’t want responsibility, fine. Use him as a tool dragon. Make him release psychic force soothing for the baby. It should help—maybe you won’t have such intense cravings.”
Jiang Tea Tea’s face twisted like she’d swallowed dirt. “You think the cub’s dad is Sui Xuan Chu?”
That half-grown dragon couldn’t beat her, couldn’t out-talk her—how could he be her baby’s father?
Cheng Lin Yue blinked. “Isn’t it? You’re only close to him. There aren’t other dragon clan males around you…”
“And you’re carrying dragon clan babies—more than one—”
“Wait,” Jiang Tea Tea cut in sharply. “Who said I’m carrying dragon clan babies?”
What she’d seen inside her belly looked like loaches, eels, thin worms—wriggling.
No eggshell.
Shouldn’t a dragon clan hatchling be inside an egg?
Cheng Lin Yue panicked, words tumbling. “Dragon clan hatchlings are oviparous. There should be eggshells. But what’s in your belly doesn’t look like eggs… it looks like live birth, in a womb…”
She sucked in a breath. “Then—then it’s not dragon clan. Maybe it’s serpent clan? Serpent clan can be oviparous or live-bearing. But it also looks kind of like—like a bug…”
“No, no,” Cheng Lin Yue said quickly, shaking her head hard. “We need instruments. Imaging. Blood tests. If we do that, we’ll know exactly what species you’re carrying.”
Her voice thinned with every sentence.
Sister Tea couldn’t be carrying insect clan.
No. That was impossible.
It had to be her pulse reading wrong. It had to be.
Then Cheng Lin Yue suddenly froze, eyes bright with realization.
“Wait,” she said, breathless. “Sister Tea, I still think it’s a dragon hatchling.”
Jiang Tea Tea frowned. “Why?”
Cheng Lin Yue leaned forward. “Do you remember two days ago—when my idol, my male idol, Commander-in-Chief Chong Ming, came down looking for a cub?”
Jiang Tea Tea nodded slowly. “I remember.”
Cheng Lin Yue slapped her own thigh. “Exactly! The time he said he sensed the cub in danger—that was the exact time your belly got punched by Jiang Yi Cheng.”
“Dragon clan cubs are different from other cubs,” Cheng Lin Yue said, voice low and urgent. “Once conceived, they don’t leave the mother easily before full term.”
“And once a cub survives in the womb for over a month, if it encounters danger, it releases a special pheromone scent—a distress call—to dragon clan.”
“I’m in danger. Come save me.”
“Dragon clan are huge,” she continued. “They’re divided by color. They fight, they argue, they hate each other. But one thing they all agree on is protecting cubs.”
“If any dragon clan smells a cub’s distress scent, they almost never ignore it.”
“And Chong Ming is golden dragon imperial clan,” Cheng Lin Yue said, eyes shining with conviction. “The highest-ranked dragon clan. Strongest mental power. Strongest body.”
“He would sense a cub’s distress scent more strongly than anyone.”
“So,” Cheng Lin Yue finished, voice shaking with certainty, “I believe the baby in your belly is dragon clan.”
“And the cub Chong Ming was searching for…”
She pointed slowly at Jiang Tea Tea’s stomach.
“…was in your belly.”
Jiang Tea Tea sat in stunned silence.
In demon clan folklore, there was a saying: dragons sired nine sons, and none were alike. Dragons slept with whoever they wanted, and whoever they slept with could bear their children.
If Cheng Lin Yue was right, then the legend wasn’t just a legend.
Her belly held dragon hatchlings.
But because she was a demon, not a dragon, the hatchlings didn’t form eggshells. They were alive, wriggling inside her like worms—viviparous.
Jiang Tea Tea took a slow, deep breath.
“Fine,” she said, voice steady again. “Little Bunny—this pregnancy can’t be known by a third person.”
Cheng Lin Yue nodded fast. “I know.”
“But you have to be careful,” Cheng Lin Yue added. “Even if the cub has passed the danger period after one month, fighting like you did—so violently—without the dad’s psychic force soothing is still dangerous.”
Jiang Tea Tea nodded once. “I know. I’ll pay attention.”
Then she said, “Now get out of this flyer and go sit in Sui Xuan Chu’s flyer for a while. I need to do something.”
Cheng Lin Yue swallowed. “Can I ask what you’re doing?”
“No,” Jiang Tea Tea said immediately. “But when I come back, I’ll bring you good food and good drink.”
Cheng Lin Yue nodded reluctantly. “Okay. Be careful.”
“I will.”
Cheng Lin Yue climbed out of the flyer.
Jiang Tea Tea started the engine at once and lifted off.
Back near the others, Sui Xuan Chu stepped out and called, “Cheng Lin Yue! What is Sister Tea doing? Where is she flying off to?”
Cheng Lin Yue forced herself to lie smoothly. “Sister Tea didn’t eat enough. She went hunting. We rest. She’ll come back after she catches something.”
Sui Xuan Chu started counting on his fingers, baffled. “She ate half an antelope, half a donkey, plus soup, greens, horse meat, roasted mushrooms…”
“That’s dozens of pounds. She’s still not full? Do you think she actually has a disease—”
“You’re the one with a disease,” Cheng Lin Yue snapped. “Your whole family has a disease.”
“She killed thirty legion commanders and saved you,” she added, voice sharp. “What’s wrong with eating more?”
Sui Xuan Chu choked, then changed direction awkwardly. “I didn’t mean it like that. I mean… we should go hunt for her.”
Huang Da Zhuang and Zhang Ting Zhou nodded fast. “Yes, yes. Little Bunny, if Sister Tea wants something and doesn’t tell us, you tell us. We’ll hunt. We’ll find greens.”
“Our points are already unbeatable,” Huang Da Zhuang added. “As long as we don’t get caught and killed by instructor group leaders, we win.”
Cheng Lin Yue snorted and ignored them. She climbed into a flyer, shut the door, tilted her head, and fell asleep on the spot.
Cheng Xiao Ting nudged Sui Xuan Chu with an elbow, grinning. “My roommate Little Bunny is getting bolder.”
“Really proves it—following the right person matters. Look how Sister Tea trained her.”
Sui Xuan Chu shifted his shoulder away. “Cheng Lin Yue changed. We haven’t. Bad review.”
Cheng Xiao Ting stared. “…You just attacked me and yourself in one sentence. Isn’t that already change?”
Far away, Jiang Tea Tea flew more than a hundred kilometers, found a quiet hilltop, and plunged her roots into the earth.
She drank deep—earth essence, rich soil nutrients, dense fertilizer—forcing her magic power back up to nearly three tenths.
Then she opened a comm line.
Chong Ming was half-asleep when the vibration woke him. The video feed showed Jiang Tea Tea’s flyer.
He glanced at the incoming call, then at the time.
Nearly three in the morning.
She should’ve been sleeping, not calling him.
He answered anyway. “Jiang Tea Tea. Calling me this late—what is it?”
Jiang Tea Tea stared at him through the screen. “I need something.”
“What?” Chong Ming asked, voice even.
Jiang Tea Tea replied coldly, “To beat people.”