Chapter 90
Chapter 90: The Cub’s Dad and Mom Were Never Going to Be Lovey-Dovey—He Went Straight for a Fight
A cub’s dad was never going to be sweet and tender with the cub’s mom. If anything, he’d go straight to throwing punches.
Chong Ming lifted a brow, amusement sliding into his low voice. “Beating people up? Who on my battleship pissed you off? Most people come aboard in the middle of the night looking for a place to sleep or something to eat. You came up here to hit someone.”
Jiang Tea Tea didn’t hesitate. “You. And Jiang Yi Cheng.”
A flicker of surprise flashed through Chong Ming’s golden eyes. “I can understand you wanting to hit Jiang Yi Cheng. Me? Thirty Legion Commanders surrounded and blocked you and your eight people. That wasn’t my order. They did it themselves—they wanted to see how capable you really were.”
His gaze stayed steady. “The only thing I did was tell them to use their abilities while they fought you. Other than that, I don’t remember giving you any reason to hit me.”
Was he even listening to himself?
Now it made sense. When she’d fought those twelve Legion Commanders, nobody had used abilities. It had been pure close-quarters combat. Then, halfway through, they’d suddenly started blasting her with abilities.
So it had been this bastard loach’s order.
Jiang Tea Tea’s temper flared. “Cut the bullshit. I’m coming over right now. Are you opening your battleship’s lower bay or not?”
Chong Ming went momentarily silent. Then he said, “Yes. I’ll send you the coordinates. Come.”
She didn’t answer. She cut the lightbrain connection.
Chong Ming stared at the black screen. Usually, he was the one who ended conversations first. Jiang Tea Tea doing it to him was… new.
Jiang Tea Tea climbed into the flyer and patted her belly, warning the cubs inside to behave and stop causing trouble.
As if answering her, the cubs squirmed—small, gentle movements.
It still felt unreal. Before she’d known she was pregnant, when she was hungry or full and felt something shifting in her stomach, she’d assumed it was digestion.
Now that she knew there were cubs in there, even the faintest movement registered clearly, like her senses had been flipped on overnight. It was eerie.
She patted her belly again, started the flyer, and followed the coordinates Chong Ming had sent.
A massive battleship hung high in the sky, its invisibility field lifting. Moonlight and starlight framed it like an enormous mountain looming above the clouds—cold, imposing, and suffocatingly oppressive.
The lower bay opened. Jiang Tea Tea flew inside, landed, and stepped out.
Chong Ming was waiting in combat uniform and boots. Two bright golden dragon horns rose from his head, and long golden hair fell loose and glossy over his shoulders.
Bang.
Jiang Tea Tea slammed the flyer door hard enough to make the metal ring. Then she walked straight up to him. “You came to meet me? That’s rare.”
Chong Ming’s expression didn’t change. His voice stayed low and calm. “You said you were coming to hit me. If I didn’t come to meet you, that would feel… impolite.”
She still didn’t have absolute proof he was the cubs’ father. She suspected it. Nothing more.
But demons were protective.
Before she’d known she was pregnant, getting hit or kicked was just part of the world. Now that she had cubs, anyone who laid hands on her owed her ten times over.
And she was here to confirm whether he really was the cubs’ father.
Preferably not.
Chong Ming watched her silent assessment and spoke again. “If I were you, I wouldn’t bother studying sneak attacks before hitting me.”
Jiang Tea Tea bristled and doubled down, chin high. “What’s wrong with studying sneak attacks? I study them openly. I ambush people openly.”
He drove the knife in with perfect aim. “Right. Open and aboveboard. Like at the Royal Military Academy. You ambushed me, and I kicked you in the stomach.”
His tone remained smooth. “Your stomach doesn’t seem fully healed yet. You’re also avoiding having a healer examine you. So if you try to ambush me again, I might ‘accidentally’ kick you in the stomach again.”
Jiang Tea Tea stared at him, index finger stabbing the air in front of his face as she searched for words.
Finally, she forced them out. “You have a point. But you’re wrong about one thing. I’m not sizing you up because I’m planning to ambush you.”
She looked him over slowly, then sneered. “I’m looking because you’re ugly. Ugly enough to hurt my eyes.”
Don’t get mad. Don’t get mad. She was a great demon. Getting angry at a stinking loach wasn’t worth it.
Besides, if he was that ugly, there was no way the cubs in her belly were his.
No way.
Chong Ming actually laughed. “You’re the first person who’s ever described me that way. I’ll take the lesson. So what now? Do you want to hit me first, or hit Jiang Yi Cheng first?”
Jiang Tea Tea didn’t hesitate. “Jiang Yi Cheng first.”
Chong Ming dipped his head. “Come. I’ll take you.”
She fell into step with him, suspicion still sharp. “Your ‘big nephew’ said you’re not just dual-ability, and your strength isn’t what your file claims. Your file says you’re 10S-rank mental power. So what are you really?”
Chong Ming glanced sideways at her. “You’re asking pretty openly for someone planning to hit me.”
She shot back, “So can’t ask, or can’t tell?”
“I can tell.” His smile was faint, pleased. “I have two dual-ability sets. Each ability is above 10S rank.”
Two dual-ability sets.
That meant four abilities.
And if each one was “above 10S,” then 10S wasn’t an upper limit. It was a floor.
Right now, her magic power had only recovered to about thirty percent. One-on-one, she wasn’t beating him.
But not hitting him at all made her chest feel tight and furious.
She kept walking. “Your file says you have dual lightning-and-fire ability. What are the other two?”
Chong Ming didn’t answer. He countered, “I already told you all four of the abilities I used on your maternal grandfather. Now it’s your turn. What abilities do you have?”
Jiang Tea Tea let out a humorless laugh. “When did you tell me? You told me you had four types. You didn’t tell me what the other two were. How is that ‘telling me everything’?”
Chong Ming stopped and turned to face her fully. “Classmate Jiang Tea Tea, conversation is mutual. You can’t just ask and ask while I answer and answer. It should go back and forth—one question from you, one answer from me; one question from me, one answer from you.”
His eyes held hers. “If that doesn’t work for you, we can have a frank talk. How about it?”
Scheming stinking loach. He still wanted to dig into her background.
Jiang Tea Tea kept her expression neutral and pressed harder. “And your ‘frank talk’ means what? You want me to tell you when I left the First Hotel? How I left?”
“Or do you want me to tell you who I ran into when I left the First Hotel? Or which invisibility-ability person took me with them?”
Chong Ming’s gaze sharpened. “You’re admitting someone helped you leave the First Hotel?”
Jiang Tea Tea didn’t answer. She twisted the knife right back. “What were you doing at the First Hotel? And which room were you staying in?”
Chong Ming’s eyes went still and deep as a cold sea. “What exactly are you trying to find out?”
“Just answer the question.”
He didn’t move. “If I answer, will you answer mine?”
“Depends.”
Chong Ming haggled calmly, like they were negotiating a contract. “One question each. If you agree, we keep talking. If you don’t, I’ll take you to Jiang Yi Cheng. You beat him, then you beat me.”
Jiang Tea Tea fell silent for a beat. Then she nodded. “Deal. You answer first.”
Her voice turned sharp. “You’re the Supreme Commander of the Imperial Armed Forces and the Prince Regent. You have the Imperial Palace. You have the Military Department. You have your own residence. Why were you at the First Hotel?”
Chong Ming answered without hesitation. “I was returning from an inspection tour in another star system. I passed by the First Hotel and happened to be in heat, so I checked in.”
He added, matter-of-fact, “The top floor of the First Hotel is highly private. It contains my mental power surge and ability instability. The pressure can’t leak out, which cuts down on unnecessary trouble.”
Damn it.
The First Hotel’s top floor was the 199th floor.
Her suspicion hardened into grim certainty.
He really was the cubs’ dad.
That dog-loach bastard had been awful in bed, too—rough enough to nearly snap all her branches—and he still got her pregnant. It made her want to kill him, chop him up, and bury him beneath her roots.
Chong Ming watched her lowered lashes and bowed head. “How did you leave the First Hotel? Why weren’t you on the surveillance footage?”
Jiang Tea Tea opened her mouth and poured out a lie mixed with truth, truth wrapped in lie. “My adoptive parents wanted to become suppliers for your Military Department. The so-called supplier likes pure humans without abilities—says it’s more fun to play with them.”
“My ex-fiancé wanted to get rid of me. So he worked with my adoptive parents and sent me over. I wasn’t going to sit there and die. Before I went, I tricked them out of several million.”
Her eyes hardened. “When I got there, there was another woman in the room. She had an invisibility ability. She was kind-hearted. She helped me knock out the supplier, my adoptive parents, and my fiancé. Stripped them and threw them on the bed. Then she told me to call the police.”
“When the Police Bureau arrived and the door opened, she used invisibility to bring me out of the room and escort me out of the First Hotel. Then she went back in.”
Chong Ming’s voice dropped, urgency slipping through. “Was she a pure human or a beastfolk? Which room was she in? What did she look like?”
Jiang Tea Tea looked up, grinning in pure, arrogant triumph. “I don’t have any more questions for you.”
She smiled wider. “So I refuse to answer yours. Thanks.”
Chong Ming’s gaze sharpened. “You don’t want to know my other two abilities?”
Jiang Tea Tea bared her teeth. “When I hit you later, I’ll find out.”
He nodded slowly. “Classmate Jiang Tea Tea, you’re very good at taking shortcuts.”
Jiang Tea Tea spread her hands. “Learned from you.”
Chong Ming’s tone turned almost indulgent. “Good. Very good. You’ve burned through all your credibility with me. In the future, if you want to know my private affairs, it’ll be—”
“Stop.” Jiang Tea Tea lifted a hand and cut him off. “You’re too ugly. Looking at you hurts my eyes. I won’t be interested in your private affairs.”
Then she tilted her head, eyes glittering. “Of course, you’ll be curious why I asked if you’d stayed at the First Hotel, and which room.”
“I can generously tell you.” Her smile sharpened. “Someone told me to ask.”
Chong Ming’s golden eyes flashed. He bent slightly at the waist and leaned in close, voice quiet and dangerous. “Classmate Jiang Tea Tea… did someone tell you to ask? Or did you ask on your own?”
Jiang Tea Tea wasn’t a demon who got intimidated easily.
She stared straight into his eyes without the slightest hint of fear. “Commander-in-Chief Chong Ming, you told me you have the best information engineer in the entire galaxy. If you want to investigate me, you’d know what color socks I’m wearing.”
Her smile thinned. “But I still want to tell you something. There’s always someone better out there. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be unable to find the person you’re looking for.”
He’d been pressing her, probing her, again and again.
He was looking for her—the one who’d slept with him.
Why he wanted to find her, she didn’t know. But it wouldn’t be good.
Now that she was certain he was the cubs’ father, she could not let him learn the cubs existed.
And she absolutely could not let him learn she was the one who’d slept with him.
Chong Ming straightened, satisfied, like he’d gotten exactly what he wanted. “Thank you. I’ll take you to Jiang Yi Cheng.”
Jiang Tea Tea’s face changed. “You were baiting me?”
So that had been it. He’d deliberately baited her, trying to force proof from her mouth that the woman existed.
And that “thank you” meant he’d confirmed something—she knew something about the woman, or where she was. He’d keep his eyes on her now.
He turned and started walking. Over his shoulder, he tossed out, “Learned from you, classmate.”
Jiang Tea Tea snapped a branch from her body like a staff, her eyes going cold.
As he walked away, she swung the branch at his back in a full sneak attack. “Don’t learn from me. I’ve decided to beat you first!”
Chong Ming moved like he had eyes in the back of his head. Before her branch could land, he blink-shifted, appearing behind her.
His long leg drove toward her lower back. “Perfect. I also want to beat you, you little liar!”