Carrying My Sugar Daddy Through the Apocalypse – CH387

Chapter 387: Son-in-law?

What was thought to be an insignificant vacation took a surprising turn. The very next morning, Zhao Changming returned to the lab and requested a meeting with Lu Weiyi.

Lu Weiyi, completely baffled, had just arrived when Zhao Changming hit him with an unexpected demand—

He wanted Gu Qingji to marry Zhao Qianqian.

“My abilities have been proven. If my daughter marries a member of the Elite Team, then I will be fully integrated with the base. Even for the sake of giving my daughter a better life, I’d devote all my energy to developing more projects and weapons for the base.”

“And although my daughter can be proud and willful, she’s not a bad girl. She’s young and beautiful—there aren’t many at the base who can compare. Especially with my support as her father, marrying such a wife would be an honor for Gu Qingji, who currently has no real authority in the team.”

Zhao Changming sat across from the desk, hands clasped on the tabletop, with the posture of a negotiator weighing the benefits.

If the subject hadn’t been Gu Qingji, Lu Weiyi would have thought Zhao was asking for his own hand in marriage.

After listening to him finish, Lu Weiyi asked in confusion, “Did you ask the wrong person? Shouldn’t you be speaking to Gu Qingji directly?”

Zhao Changming wasn’t thrown off by the question. He answered confidently, “Aren’t you his team leader?”

“I’m also the head of the entire base. Does that mean I’m responsible for finding spouses for everyone here too?” Anyone witnessing this scene without context might think he was arranging a marriage for his son.

Lu Weiyi stood up, looking at the man so blatantly wasting his time. “Mr. Zhao, I hope this is the last time we have a conversation like this. Adults should know what is and isn’t appropriate.”

As Lu Weiyi stepped out of the office, he paused at the door and turned back. “I admit you’re talented, but talent isn’t irreplaceable. In this world, people who are truly irreplaceable are rare. Are you one of them?”

The office door slammed shut. Zhao Changming sat there alone for a long time, gradually lowering his head. His aging back slowly slumped.

Lu Weiyi, though displeased, didn’t mention the incident to anyone else.

As temperatures dropped sharply, Zhuang Mingxu hoped to store more food before winter set in. In addition to what the base could produce itself, he arranged a trade with Pingjin City: a large batch of seeds in exchange for marine products.

There was a wide variety of seeds, covering everything they knew. To ensure success and safety, he sent Ning Yuan and Wu Yue, along with a number of ability users and skilled negotiators, to strike the deal—hoping to close the biggest transaction before the snow came.

Surprisingly, Ning Yuan returned just a few days later with the supplies they had negotiated.

“Why are there two prices?” Zhuang Mingxu noticed that each type of grain on the list had two different prices, with a significant difference between them.

“The lower price is for accelerated-grown grain, and the higher one is for unaccelerated, natural grain,” Ning Yuan explained. They had initially assumed all grain would be artificially grown, but the other side had clarified up front that some may not be. If they were in a rush, they might need to accept some naturally-grown seeds. Any naturally-grown ones they received were essentially a bonus. They hadn’t expected such transparency.

“Completely unaccelerated?” Zhuang Mingxu was skeptical.

“Yes,” Ning Yuan replied. “They said wood-type ability users can verify it.”

Zhuang Mingxu stared at the pricing sheet, then paused in thought. “Do you believe them?”

“I don’t want to believe it,” Ning Yuan admitted, “but the frozen seafood we brought was all traded. I had the accompanying wood-type users inspect the seeds repeatedly. They were all original, untouched seeds.”

“Along the way, I kept thinking it was an ambush and had everyone stay on alert day and night. Nothing happened.” He spread his hands, equally confused.

“Did you have the base’s wood-type users check them?”

“Before they were stored, I had Li Dongsheng inspect them. He confirmed they were fine—actually, very well-preserved. Li Dongsheng has long been in charge of plant growth stimulation. He’s extremely sensitive to seeds that have been accelerated. If anyone could make a mistake, it wouldn’t be him—he’s 90% accurate at worst.”

But that price…

“Could it be that their base has enough food stored and doesn’t care about this batch?” Ning Yuan guessed. “Since their base is all ability users, gathering food isn’t a big deal.”

Zhuang Mingxu shook his head. “Anyone who openly specifies that these are original seeds clearly understands how valuable they are. They wouldn’t be so short-sighted. There must be something we don’t know. When’s the next scheduled visit?”

“Within ten days—probably in the next couple of days. Just the travel alone takes several days, even with nonstop movement. But this kind of deal is too good to miss.”

Zhuang Mingxu agreed. “Is there a quantity limit?”

“No. They said the more, the better. Their base is full of ability users and has high demand for meat. They don’t have ships for fishing, and it’s inefficient to send people to the coast. They hope we can provide as much as possible—and if we have salt, even better.”

“So Xiao Yi really cut them off from that route.” Back then, Zhuang Mingxu had instructed Lu Weiyi to bring back all ships along the coast. He hadn’t expected it to become a bargaining chip at a time like this. “Then this time, have Xiao Yi go with you. Take Li Dongsheng as well, and bring all the stock from our cold storage.”

“A while ago, when Li Zhuang and the others went out, they planted a mole in the Pingjin Base. I had someone contact her afterward. She’s now in a pretty decent position within her faction—maybe she can dig up some intel. I’ll have someone reach out again as soon as possible.”

Lin Ya had good luck. She used to be the deputy captain of Team Six of the Fierce Tiger Squad. Who would’ve thought that one of the people Li Zhuang got rid of just happened to be the actual team captain? After she returned, the Fierce Tiger Squad was attacked by another faction, and they were short on manpower. Without much effort, she was promoted to full captain of Team Six.

Everyone in the Pingjin City Base had powers, and they weren’t weak. This made bribing them difficult. So far, their infiltrators hadn’t risen high in rank, and the intelligence they’d gathered was limited.

Previously, they didn’t dare alert the enemy, so Lin Ya hadn’t been contacted. But now Zhuang Mingxu felt the time was right.

The plan sounded great—reality was more cruel.

Once the temperature began to drop, the barely restored communications became even more difficult. Zhuang Mingxu sent messages repeatedly but couldn’t get through to anyone.

Time passed quickly. With such huge potential benefits, Zhuang Mingxu wasn’t willing to give up. To reduce the chances of walking into a trap, he asked Lu Weiyi to handpick a few people from Teams One and Two to accompany him.

In the end, Lu Weiyi brought along 14 powered individuals. From Team One’s S-Class, he took Ning Yuan, Liu Rui, Li Zhuang, Li Dongsheng, Wu Yue, and Xu Sa. Team Two sent one person for each of the five elemental types. In addition, they brought Lei Jun (a lightning type), Qilin (a speed type), Xu Yi (a healer), and Xing Zhou, who wanted to ask about upgrading mental abilities.

After half a month of busyness in the base, you wouldn’t feel it much staying at home—but once outside, the temperature change was obvious.

Lu Weiyi wore an overcoat, sitting atop a moving vehicle on night watch, gazing at the faint stars scattered across the black sky. Beside him was Li Qing, bundled up in a military coat, looking like a ball. Lu Weiyi couldn’t help glancing at him repeatedly.

“Cold? I’ve got another military coat—brand new cotton, really warm,” Li Qing asked solicitously.

Lu Weiyi shook his head politely. “I’m still young.”

“…” Li Qing replied, “It’s exactly when you’re young that you should take better care of yourself. Otherwise, how will you handle it when you’re old?”

Lu Weiyi figured this guy might be an idiot. He had just checked—it was at least 10°C. Back at the base, Antonio would still be lifting weights in a tank top. Wearing an overcoat was already a nod to decency. But a cotton-padded coat?

“Are you… frail?” Lu Weiyi asked.

“Pfft.”

“Haha.”

A few suppressed chuckles came from the dark nearby, with Lei Jun laughing openly.

“Everyone saw that, right? This is a textbook case of flattery completely missing the mark. Take it as a cautionary tale,” Lei Jun said, keeping his voice low but still loud enough for everyone to hear.

“Lei, do you have a death wish or something?” Li Qing asked.

“I’ll shut up. Captain, please continue,” Lei Jun responded.

Li Qing cleared his throat, took off his coat, placed it aside, and after a moment said again, “So, uh, Weiyi, do you need anything? Anything you want?”

“Captain, calm down. You’re actually trying to steal the Deputy Base Chief’s thunder? You must really be living too comfortably,” joked Zhou Nan, who had accompanied Lu Weiyi to the capital for a few months and now joked with ease.

“Get the hell out of here, all of you!” Li Qing grabbed whatever was beside him and threw it at the group. Mid-throw, he realized it was his beloved coat and frantically tried to snatch it back.

Even in the dark, Lu Weiyi could see how flustered he was.

Turning his head away, Lu Weiyi continued to watch the stars above. When Li Qing cleared his throat again, he finally couldn’t help but ask, “What exactly do you want to say?”

“Well… do you need a dad? A slightly younger one?”

“What the—”

“He’s out of his mind!”

“I don’t know this guy. Don’t drag me down with you if you’re looking to die.”

A flurry of reactions broke out. Only then did Li Qing seem to realize something was off.

“No, no, that’s not what I meant. I mean… damn… I…”

“He’s asking how you feel about Lone Wolf dating a younger man,” Lei Jun finally stepped in to spare everyone the awkwardness.

“Yes, that! That’s what I meant,” Li Qing admitted sheepishly. He and Lin Yimu had been circling each other for over a decade. They hadn’t been with anyone else in all that time. After getting back together, things naturally progressed.

Lin Yimu had never settled down. Having taken care of Lu Weiyi like a son for years, he clearly cared a lot about his opinion. Li Qing had struggled for a long time on how to bring it up. This time, he specifically requested to join the mission just to speak to Lu Weiyi directly, but even now, it felt incredibly awkward.