AEKMEM chapter 11

Chu Heng’s face darkened further.

He knew An Qiao was somewhat stubborn, but he hadn’t expected him to be this stubborn.

He thought that, once confronted, An Qiao would at least realize that carelessly throwing away his medicine and displaying a negative attitude was wrong.

However, to his surprise, he didn’t think he was wrong and was dismissive of the idea.

His cold, indifferent face and aloof, detached attitude were extremely irritating.

Chu Heng was both angry and heartbroken.

He realized that he had been wishfully thinking all along.

He had hoped that if the matchmaking had to end, it would upset An Qiao, who was already fragile from a failed awakening, abandoned by his family, and frequently coughing up blood.

He believed that by sharing his experiences with him, offering encouragement, and giving advice to be optimistic, not contemplate suicide, maintain a positive mood, rest, and recover, he was doing it for his own good.

He was only worrying unnecessarily. He feared that not going along with An Qiao’s wishes might upset him and hinder his recovery. He worried that An Qiao might be bullied at school, which could lead to depression.

However, An Qiao didn’t need his wishful thinking!

He didn’t care about it, didn’t value it, didn’t want to be controlled, and found his nagging and meddling annoying.

An Qiao didn’t care whether he got better or worse or whether he lived or died, so why was he worrying?

He shouldn’t have been so softhearted and impulsive in the first place.

“I was being nosy,” Chu Heng said coldly. “Since you don’t want me to interfere, then… let’s dissolve the match.”

Before he could finish, An Qiao suddenly groaned and coughed up several mouthfuls of blood.

The silver-haired youth lay wearily with his eyes half-closed; his frail body looked as if a gust of wind could topple him.

His brows furrowed involuntarily. His pale, snow-white face stained with crimson blood at the corners of his lips resembled white jade stained with blood. It possessed a shockingly decadent and fragile beauty.

“An Qiao?!” Chu Heng’s expression changed drastically, and he hurriedly stepped forward to support him.

“Butler, have Jun Yiran come over right away!”

“No need.” An Qiao frowned slightly. “I’m fine.”

“You call this fine?!” Chu Heng had never been so agitated; he didn’t know what to do.

“Really, I’m fine. I cough up blood all the time…” An Qiao said listlessly. “It’ll be all right in a bit.”

It hurts.

It really hurts.

The demonic curse within him had suddenly activated for an unknown reason. The pain came unexpectedly, which is why he couldn’t control his coughing.

An Qiao was extremely frustrated.

This damn body doesn’t give me any face at crucial moments; it just keeps holding me back!

Just now, he was facing off against Chu Heng with a cold expression. Then, suddenly, he coughed up blood. It made it seem like he was showing weakness to Chu Heng.

How embarrassing! Utterly humiliating!

**

This time, the Demon King’s Curse struck with ferocious force, contrary to what An Qiao had said.

An Qiao had a high fever for three days straight.

Military doctor Jun Yiran came to see him, and Chu Heng also invited other renowned doctors from the capital to examine him. However, they all shook their heads in helpless frustration. Healing abilities were useless, and all other methods were ineffective. They said they could only wait for An Qiao to recover on his own.

The sickly An Qiao lay in bed, drifting in and out of sleep and barely conscious.

Every time he groggily opened his eyes, he would see Chu Heng standing by his bedside.

This care made him feel somewhat guilty.

If Chu Heng hadn’t woken him up on time for three meals a day and provided him with nutritional supplements, he might have been even more grateful.

He was woken up again.

An Qiao, looking sickly, groggily glared at Chu Heng sitting beside him.

His glare, which would normally be quite imposing, looked weak and powerless at that moment. It was more like that of a spoiled cat, seemingly scratching but actually being affectionate.

Looking at the familiar bottle of nutritional supplements in Chu Heng’s hand, An Qiao’s face showed disgust. His voice was hoarse. “Another nutritional supplement? Can’t you choose something else?”

“This supplement will perfectly meet your body’s nutritional needs,” said Chu Heng, opening the bottle and handing it to An Qiao.

“Young Master, this is the best-tasting nutritional supplement on the market. If you don’t want to drink it, then hurry up and get better. Then you can eat whatever you want.”

An Qiao forced down the supplement with a bitter face. “It tastes awful.”

As he spoke, he handed the empty bottle back to Chu Heng.

“That’s what you get for not taking your medicine and not taking care of yourself. Now you know how painful it is, right?”

“Those medicines were useless to me. I’d have to be stupid to take them.”

“…Then why didn’t you explain it like that before?”

“You questioned me with such a grim face, like you were interrogating a criminal. I was annoyed and didn’t want to explain.”

“…Wasn’t it because you were too stubborn and secretly threw away the medicine?”

Chu Heng, whether apologizing for his previous cold questioning or trying to comfort and encourage An Qiao, said, “If you get better soon, I’ll grant you one reasonable request.”

An Qiao immediately perked up. His beautiful ice-blue eyes lit up. “It’s a deal—no backing out?”

He had been eyeing Chu Heng’s black dragon beast form for a long time. He wanted to see it!

“Okay, no regrets.”

**

A few days later, An Qiao had finally recovered.

The day after, he had a morning class that included a visit to the botanical garden. Despite Chu Heng’s objections, he insisted on going to school.

“An Qiao, are you all better? Why didn’t you rest at home for a couple more days?”

As soon as he sat down in the classroom, Song Leran, who was sitting next to him, asked with concern.

Song Leran was actually the cousin of Chu Heng’s adjutant, Jiang Qi, and therefore knew that An Qiao had been sick for several days.

An Qiao: “I’m fine now, nothing’s wrong.”

“That’s good.”

Song Leran nodded.

Then, as if suddenly remembering something, he said, “Oh, right. The lesson later is a visit to the botanical garden. You…”

He wanted to say, “Maybe you shouldn’t go,” fearing that the visit would evoke memories of An Qiao in the Star Beast Forest.

Moreover, the botanical garden of the Empire’s First Military Academy wasn’t an ordinary ornamental garden for appreciating plants. The plants there were incredibly ferocious, enough to terrify anyone with a weak heart. Even with an energy shield, ordinary-level ferocious plants wouldn’t harm visitors, while extremely ferocious ones would be isolated by an isolation shield.

However, after pausing, he realized that saying it that way might hurt An Qiao’s pride. He asked more tactfully, “Are you going to visit?”

“Yes,” An Qiao replied without hesitation.

Wasn’t this the very reason he had insisted on coming to the school?

Song Leran was a little worried, but considering the energy shield protecting them and the teachers watching over them, he felt safe.

“A Beastman A-level class is also going to visit this time.”

The First Military Academy of the Empire didn’t have many elf classes, nor did it have rank-based class divisions. There are relatively many beastmen, and their talent and strength vary greatly. Their ability levels, from lowest to highest, are C, B, and A—S-level students are extremely rare, and it sometimes takes several years to recruit even one.

To improve teaching efficiency, the academy divides each class into A-, B-, and C-level groups.

This year’s freshmen are divided into three A-level beastman classes.

To encourage teamwork and connections between beastmen and elves on the battlefield, the school occasionally holds joint classes for elves and beastmen.

For example, there was a recent course that visited the botanical garden.

The visit wasn’t just for sightseeing. Under the teacher’s guidance, the students learned about typical ferocious plants, their characteristics, and their weaknesses so that they could better deal with them in the future.

**

The Imperial First Military Academy’s botanical garden was vast.

At the entrance, the instructors distributed C-grade energy shields to the elf class.

These shields were made of special materials and powered by C-grade energy crystals. The energy could maintain the shield around the human body for one hour, rendering C-grade and lower attacks ineffective.

The garden mainly housed C-grade and lower plants. The few B-grade plants and the even rarer A-grade plants were isolated by the shields and unable to penetrate them.

The beastmen s in the A-rank beastmen class didn’t need energy shields, of course.

Elves, however, were weaker in combat and had primarily supportive healing abilities. Furthermore, elves were relatively rare, so each one received an energy shield.

An Qiao looked curiously at the small, bracelet-like object on his wrist.

Pressing the activation button on the bracelet would automatically raise an energy shield around the person to protect them from external harm.

A C-rank energy shield is immune to C-rank attacks and lasts one hour. A B-rank shield was immune to attacks of B-rank or lower but only lasted forty minutes. A-rank energy shields lasted even less, only twenty minutes.

Once the maintenance period ended, the energy crystals inside would run out and need replacement.

These high-tech products amazed An Qiao.

He curiously examined the small bracelet on his wrist.

He was itching to take it apart to examine its internal structure and manufacturing principles.

Unfortunately, the bracelet was only temporarily allocated to the students and would be collected after the tour.

It didn’t belong to him.

However, he thought, just looking at it and using his mental energy to “drill” inside should still be feasible.

With this thought in mind, he quietly separated a small strand of his mental energy and attached it to the bracelet, carefully feeling it back and forth.

After the teacher emphasized the precautions again, he led everyone into the botanical garden.

Upon entering, An Qiao was immediately captivated by the lush greenery and vibrant life of the garden.

It was the first time he had ever seen such lively, energetic plants.

He felt completely refreshed, and his mood instantly improved.

The garden boasted a vast array of plant species, each with unique and unusual shapes.

As they strolled through the garden, the instructor provided explanations.

Some graceful vines adorned with delicate flowers were actually ferocious and aggressive.

Meanwhile, some tall, imposing trees were surprisingly harmless and lazy; they wouldn’t even bother you unless you attacked them first.

In short, appearances can be deceiving. While some plants are true to their appearance, others use their seemingly weak appearance to mislead their enemies. Therefore, never judge a book by its cover.

The first plants we visited were of a lower level, all below grade C.

Upon reaching the Grade C Botanical Garden, the first thing we saw was a large, sprawling Bloodthirsty Vine with numerous tendrils.

This Bloodthirsty Vine was extremely ferocious, feeding on human blood and possessing formidable attack power.

Before anyone could react, it swiftly extended a tendril and viciously attacked An Qiao.

Everyone was astonished, wondering why the vine didn’t attack the more vigorous beastmens, which would have been a better match for its tastes, but instead targeted an elf.

However, since it was a C-grade vine, the teacher and classmates weren’t too worried. With a C-grade energy shield in place, the vine couldn’t penetrate it and wouldn’t harm An Qiao.

Since visiting the botanical garden was intended to build courage, the teacher didn’t intervene.

Some people watched An Qiao with schadenfreude, eager to see how frightened he would be.

Even weak elves were traumatized by such things. An Qiao, who now lacked superpowers and looked like a sickly, useless parasitic vine, was no exception.

The Bloodthirsty Vine was about to touch the energy shield surrounding An Qiao’s body. Contrary to outsiders’ expectations, An Qiao didn’t panic or show fear. Instead, he remained calm and appeared curious.

Suddenly, to everyone’s surprise, the Bloodthirsty Vine pierced the energy shield and attacked An Qiao’s heart!

Everyone was shocked.

What?! How could the energy shield suddenly malfunction?

Was this an accident, or was someone plotting against him?

If… if An Qiao, who held the title of “Crown Princess,” were to be harmed because of this, how would they explain it to the Crown Prince?

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