Chapter 1671: Wu Chengyu's Exchange Condition

When a top-tier big shot in the precision instrument manufacturing industry stands before you, speaking with such emotion that snot and tears stream down his face, what is your expression?

Xia Qing's face was expressionless. A person who had survived the brutal and fierce survival competition all the way to Year Twelve of the Calamity did not believe in tears.

After hearing Wu Chengyu's account, Xia Qing reached a conclusion: this big shot's position and circumstances at Lan-1 were very similar to her idol's at Hui-1.

The difference was: Zhang San was restricted by Hui-1 because of old affection—when he and his mother were driven to desperation by severe qiang-element allergies, the former base commander of Hui-1 Base had extended a helping hand to him; Wu Chengyu was restricted by Lan-1 because his two sheepdogs were coveted by too many people, and he had exchanged his own outstanding abilities for Lan-1's protection of the two evolved dogs.

Hui-1 used a top-tier medical research big shot as a doctor; Lan-1 used a top-tier precision instrument R&D big shot as an engineer.

The pillar industry of Lan-1 Base was the production and maintenance of civilian helicopters, and Wu Chengyu was the pillar of that pillar industry. The debugging, annual inspection, and repair of the core components of Lan-1's civilian helicopters were handled by the team led by this big shot.

As the developer of the core components of Lan-1's civilian helicopters, Wu Chengyu should have been more focused on the core technologies of helicopters—such as R&D on quantum navigation systems capable of achieving precise navigation on Blue Star with its post-evolution chaotic magnetic field, entirely new anti-gravity engines, and brain-computer interface cockpits.

To get Wu Chengyu to work seriously, Lan-1 Base negotiated with him and reached a cooperation agreement:

In the twenty years before the Calamity, the helicopter industry focused on stability and profit; the profits earned by this industry supported the development of other industries at Lan-1 Base, especially livelihood-related planting and medical industries, helping Lan-1 Base get through the most difficult period of the Calamity.

After Year Twenty of the Calamity, Lan-1 Base increased its investment in the helicopter industry, allowing Wu Chengyu to upgrade and iterate helicopter core technologies, and to carry out R&D on precision instruments for other industries that interested him.

As a mid-level manager at Hui-3 Base, Xia Qing had attended many high-level meetings at the base commander's request, and understood the difficulties of managing a base with over a million people. She endorsed the approach of Lan-1 Base's leadership.

In the Calamity years of scarce resources, survival should take priority over development. Without increasing investment in the helicopter industry, Lan-1 had already made its civilian helicopters nationally leading, satisfying humanity's basic need for long-distance travel—there really was no need to increase investment at this stage.

Wu Chengyu also endorsed Lan-1 Base's development plan, so he led his team into the daily work. In exchange, Lan-1 Base provided protection for his family and his two sheepdogs.

But the protection the base provided did not match the protection Wu Chengyu wanted. On this point, Wu Chengyu's situation was also similar to Zhang San's.

Hui-1 Base had lobbied Huaguo's higher-ups to secure an anti-allergy serum made from Recovery Factor for Zhang San, but in daily diet it had not given this big shot any special care. Because this anti-allergy serum alone could keep Zhang San's body in a basically healthy state.

As for the mild allergic reactions Zhang San suffered from eating non-green-light food—nausea, stomach pain, diarrhea and so on—there was simply no way around it. Because green-light food was scarce, and Hui-1 Base had many people more important than Zhang San; the base had to consider everything comprehensively and allocate resources in a balanced way.

Lan-1 Base reached a cooperation agreement with Wu Chengyu, providing his family with a two-bedroom apartment of over forty square meters in the Inner City, and assigned people to protect his family and dogs. In the base officials' view, they had already done a very thorough job.

To secure a better living environment for his family and his two Border Collies, Wu Chengyu had no choice but to busy himself with work during the day, and in the cramped home at night, work overtime on precision instrument R&D to earn points.

He had done it.

The spherical robot Zhang San placed in the rock crevice of the chestnut grove in Area Three of Mountain Forty-Nine to observe the giant bees; the detection instrument Yang Jin placed underwater when he and Xia Qing went to survey the python pool at Mountain Fifty-Five—both were developed by him…

In Year Four of the Calamity, the Wu family had already moved into the Inner City villa district, gaining an outdoor activity area, quality food, and higher-level defenses.

In another eight years, Wu Chengyu would complete his agreement with Lan-1 Base, no longer having to engage in repetitive, tedious, and uncreative daily work, and could focus solely on precision instrument R&D.

Everything was going according to his plan, perfect—then the accident struck without warning.

Last December, Wu Chengyu noticed that his two evolved dogs no longer played happily in the yard; whenever Wu Chengyu came home, they would crowd around him, gazing at him with sorrow. At first Wu Chengyu thought it was because he spent too little time with his family and dogs, causing them to develop depressive moods—until Huan brought the medicine bottle to Wu Chengyu, and he realized the two evolved dogs had discovered, through smell or some other means, that he was ill.

"…Countless reports say that high-level Evolvers possess stronger immunity, and theoretically can live to 150 years old, still in their golden years at 80. So I stretched out my life plan, but I never expected the collapse of the body's immune system to come so suddenly."

The two evolved Border Collies lay on the ground, their eyes listless.

Wu Chengyu took the tissue Xia Qing handed him and wiped his tears and snot, his voice hoarse: "I went to the hospital for a checkup and found that the backache I'd been having recently wasn't simple fatigue—I have a very rare cancer."

Hearing that Wu Chengyu had cancer, the die-hard, bone-tier fan couldn't help but worry about her idol, who lived day and night reversed and was so busy he couldn't even eat.

"…At the beginning of this month, people from the Blue Blood Alliance contacted me. Director Xia should have dealt with the Blue Blood Alliance before, right? An outstanding, young female high-level Evolver like you is their main recruitment target."

Xia Qing answered carefully, "I've heard of this Alliance, but I've never dealt with them directly."

"It should be because you've reached a deep cooperation with Third Brother, so they understand that winning you over is extremely difficult, and they won't make a move without a certain degree of certainty. Over the years, the Blue Blood Alliance and its related organizations have contacted me many times—at first they wanted to recruit me into the Alliance, then they wanted Huan and Le, and later they wanted their somatic cells, to clone more brain-domain evolved dogs…"

Wu Chengyu's slightly trembling hand picked up the water cup; he took two sips of filtered warm spring water to moisten his throat: "At the beginning of this month, they contacted me and clearly stated that the Blue Blood Alliance could restore my health, on the condition that I bring Huan and Le and join them."

Xia Qing stood up and added some hot water to Wu Chengyu's cup.

Wu Chengyu raised his slightly reddened eyes to look at Xia Qing: "Do you know how they would restore my health? Their method is: after removing the tumor, replace all my blood with that of a Recovery-type Evolver—the Blue Blood Alliance has cloned multiple Recovery-type Evolvers!"

Hearing this news, which once made public would absolutely trigger a massive earthquake on Blue Star, Xia Qing's face remained expressionless as she reminded Wu Chengyu to return to the point: "The purpose of your coming to find me is?"

Wu Chengyu's hand once again landed on the heads of his two sorrowful companions: "Blue Blood is a road of no return. I want to use ten million points and the precision instruments in my hands—including instruments not yet released to market and design drawings—to exchange, for my wife, children, Huan and Le, the chance to survive safely within your territory, or within the Ninth Planting Center you manage."