Ch64.2 - Special Interests (Part Two)

Editor: malaysian_asian

Proofreader: Lia 

Today’s dinner was jerky with fried garlic and sorghum rice.

The jerky was just the right amount of salty without being overpowering and extremely fragrant, and the fat wasn’t overwhelming. It became the finale of the dish, as eating it with smoked and dried lean meat added just enough richness in one’s mouth. The garlic sprouts, which had been cut and washed, were tender and sweet, as well as slightly salty from being based in the jerky’s oil. When one bit down on the stems, it gave a satisfying crunch and also smelled faintly of red chili pepper.

They wrapped the garlic sprouts up with a piece of jerky, placed it carefully on a scoop of sorghum rice, and crammed each bite into their mouths. With such delicious dishes as an accompaniment to the sorghum rice, the consumption of sorghum rice was particularly high.

Cui Hu also ate with gusto, but still managed to maintain a gentle appearance. On the other hand, the baldies, who were acting like they’d been starved for days, were like a whirlwind that swept through their surroundings and demolished their plates. After the food was picked clean, they shouted for more. 

Cui Hu saw their appetite and whispered to Cui QiChao, “Younger bro Chao, these baldies eat a lot—I don’t think we should serve them sorghum rice anymore or else our entire supply will be eaten up.”

Initially, Cui QiChao had only allowed the baldies to eat dried food from their aircraft, but they ended up performing their jobs very well. Along with the fact that the others felt pity seeing the baldies eat like that while they feasted on rice and meat, they started feeding them meat and vegetables too.

But these people could really eat well, requesting more rice with every meal they ate, but winter was far from over and they only had a thousand kilograms of sorghum rice and noodles to feed everyone here. This farm would not be able to withstand their rate of consumption.

Cui Ting started calculating with her fingers. “We still have an extra stash of a hundred kilograms of sorghum that was set aside for sowing. We can afford to take a part of it out for consumption if we really needed to. Besides, don’t we only need two kilograms per mu to sow?”

Cui QiChao immediately refuted her and said, “No, we will not take from there. Even if we starve our parents, we should never eat seeds for sowing.”

Cui Ting: “……”

She has never heard of such an idiom before. What sins had her parents committed for them to be starved?

It was just a saying, but when Cui QiChao was the one speaking, they really felt like he would starve his parents to death… 

“Start managing the arrangements more carefully and reduce the frequency of exporting grains. Rotate the consumption of our dry food with rice and noodles, but don’t schedule it so that we finish up all the rice in the beginning and have to drink nutrient solution in the end.” Based on his calculations, their food reserves would be able to last them. There should be more than enough, since they had hoarded a lot of meat and vegetables in preparation for this winter.

There should’ve been enough. However, they had started using too much of their food reserves, and the allocation of their food became imbalanced. The most important thing was to start curbing boring recipes and menus.

They should only eat some dry food, canned food, and lettuce and sorghum occasionally instead of being careless like they had been recently. When the sprouts and garlic seedlings planted by Cui QiChao matured enough, they could cut off some of the top to eat and cook the food in different ways. This way, they could sometimes eat sorghum porridge or sometimes sorghum cake. Wouldn’t this diversity be great?

Even with this plan, Cui QiChao thought to himself that these people ate more than the students and serfs he had fed from the first two virtual planes. 

Though, to be fair, the serfs from the middle ages, the students from the campus, and his men here had wildly different perceptions. The serfs in the middle ages were living in hard times and became happy if Cui QiChao gave them beans to eat, and the students could accept any food as long as it tasted normal.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

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An example would be now. Cui QiChao saw that the bald serfs were full, but they had taken a pill to strengthen their stomach and digestion in order to consume more. They did this because they wanted to eat more of the jerky, and it wasn’t like it was the most amazing thing they’d ever eaten. It was simply because they felt like it.

Of course, this kind of wasteful behavior was not tolerated and had to be curbed immediately. They didn’t have enough food reserves to treat so recklessly. 

Cui QiChao was giving instructions when he suddenly heard a beta on duty report, “Boss, an outsider is approaching.”

Another outsider is approaching? Did the Cui family hire someone again?

Cui QiChao put down his chopsticks and stood up to check the monitors. Thankfully, it was just his old acquaintance, Lisa. She might have been wearing protective clothing that only exposed her eyes, but Cui QiChao still recognized her.

“Why did she come here?” Although Cui QiChao didn’t meet Lisa again, he foresaw the current situation. Lisa should know that they live here. With the reward offered by the Cui family, which organization wouldn’t know about their organization? 

The beta, one of the bald serfs, didn’t know Lisa. He asked, “Boss, should we wipe her out?”

“No, I know this person. I’ll ask why she came here in the first place.” Cui QiChao said, going back to get his clothes. “I’m done eating. I’m going out to see that person.”

Nobody had much of a reaction. They were completely nonchalant about a lone omega going out of his own—especially this one.

A bald serfs even stretched his hand out to grab Cui QiChao’s abandoned bowl, “Boss, since you’re not eating, I’ll help you finish up your food?” 

Cui QiChao: “…Okay.”

.

There had been an accident that led Lisa to come here. The food at their base was still enough, but an omega organization similar to theirs had come to their doors.

The other party was originally stationed on another unmanned planet, but they had been attacked by a group of commissioned mercenaries and fled in a hurry. Not only did they lose manpower, their supplies were also damaged, and they had temporarily escaped to ask Lisa and her people for help. 

The two sides had had friendly exchanges with each other before, and they could be said to also have the same interests. The only difference between them was the area they operated from.

Since Lisa’s organization agreed to cooperate with them, that meant they had to go borrow food from their fellow neighbor’s home, and everyone knew Cui QiChao had plenty of vegetables and little men to feed. And since Lisa was the one always trading with Cui QiChao, she had been sent to negotiate with him.

But honestly, Lisa was a little nervous. While they usually exchanged grains with other grains, and vegetables with cans, she had nothing else to give to Cui QiChao. Aside from food, only weapons held the same value, but Cui QiChao also was not lacking in weapons. She was afraid he would not agree to trade.

She had never stepped foot in these coordinates before. All she knew was that this was where Cui QiChao and his people resided, and that there were high-risk weapons here. She feared that they would not recognize her and fire at her directly. 

Lisa raised both her hands and showed that she meant no harm. After thinking some more, she took off her mask and turned her face to the monitoring system in the hopes that it would recognize her. It was during dinner time now, and the darkness outside meant that the temperature was also much lower than during the day. The cold air made her face turn blue and red, and it hurt to have the wind blow past her, but she held on for a few seconds longer before putting her mask back on.

Thankfully, not too long after, Lisa saw a very familiar scooter coming towards her in the distance.

When the distance between them had shrunk down enough, Cui QiChao stopped the scooter in front of Lisa and asked her, “Why are you here?” He had already estimated that Lisa’s organization couldn’t have consumed all their food reserves so quickly.

Lisa was a little embarrassed to hear him go straight to the point. “Can we find somewhere better to talk? It doesn’t have to be your place, let’s find a shelter nearby to get out of the wind.” Lisa didn’t want Cui QiChao to doubt her intentions, so she didn’t try suggesting entering his station. They found a larger-sized space junk and went to the back of it to sit down and talk. 

“It’s a bit embarrassing for me to say this to you, but remember when I told you about the nature of our organization before?” Cui QiChao almost thought Lisa had come here to try and persuade him to join her, but soon Lisa went into detail about the ins and outs of what had occurred.

“Now they’re staying with us temporarily and set up a new residence nearby, but all their supplies are gone and their supply chain can’t be set up fast enough. We don’t have enough food to feed both of our groups, so we… decided to come ask Mr. Tristan.” Lisa felt a bit shy saying this. “I know it’s rude of me to do so, but at the moment they only have weapons. Can they temporarily exchange weapons with you, or use it as a mortgage to exchange some food? When their supply chain is restored, they will come to redeem their weapons and pay you back.”

Cui QiChao looked at Lisa carefully as she talked and determined that she didn’t lie.

“Let them come pick up food tomorrow. Based on the number of men they have, I can lease them our food for a month.” Cui QiChao looked up at the stars in the distance and continued, “As for weapons, they’re not needed. Instead, they should use them to ensure their safety in times like this.” 

Lisa was surprised. “Mr. Tristan, you…”

“I have enough food. It doesn’t matter whether their organization is borrowing or exchanging food from me, they just have to give me my remuneration. It’s best if they could give me seeds.” Cui QiChao mused faintly. “If you want to ask me if I’m doing this because of the nature of your organization, I can say that it’s somewhat due to that.”

Lisa was moved and thanked him sincerely, “Truly, thank you so much. I couldn’t have even imagined this trade to go so smoothly. Your esteemed self didn’t even want any mortgage and just agreed to lend us your food.”

An idea flashed through her mind. With Cui QiChao’s capabilities, even if he didn’t want weapons as a mortgage, he would be doing rather well… Of course, this has nothing to do with Cui QiChao’s generosity. She had really been right since the beginning—although Mr. Tristan had no desire to join their organization, he still supported the same gender in his heart! 

She suddenly thought of something and said, “I lied to you before. In fact, my name is not Lisa, but Rosa Burton.”

Cui QiChao didn’t particularly care and told her, “It’s fine. My name is also not Tristan.”

Lisa thought too deeply about his meaning. When Cui QiChao referred to “the nature of their organization”, he meant that it wasn’t easy for these people to pursue their ideals in this kind of adult genre program. Anyways, it was all LJJ’s fault.

. 

Cui QiChao went back to the station and asked people to prepare some food. As he was basically a tyrant here, no one dared to oppose his commands. And if they were against his decisions, he would just tell them not to use sorghum to exchange it with Lisa and the other organization. They didn’t have enough sorghum now anyway.

The next day, Lisa came with some omegas. Cui QiChao sent someone ahead of time to the place where he and Lisa spoke. He didn’t think much and randomly sent someone. A strong bald male alpha was waiting to lead them, and his presence scared some omegas, but with Rosa’s assurance, they followed the alpha with peace of mind. After all, this wasn’t Rosa’s first time seeing Cui QiChao commanding alphas to do tasks.

They were taken to the aircraft, but as soon as they boarded, they could smell the pheromone smell of an omega in estrus. Well, three months had already passed, so Cui QiChao’s cycle just happened to align with their meetup.

The alpha halted as soon as he smelled the pheromones. “Our boss’s special period is here, so this is where I’ll leave all of you. Wait here, I will find a beta to accompany you the rest of the way.” He soon found someone and they continued to lead Rosa and the others forward. 

Rosa tried to confirm what she was smelling again. “Is this the scent of Mr. Tristan’s pheromones? Is he okay? Is it really fine for us to bother him during this time?”

She knew Cui QiChao didn’t use pheromone masking agents, and she guessed that he might not even have inhibitors, but since he Cui QiChao had his own alpha, she supposed it didn’t matter—but he was in estrus, would he have time to receive them?

The beta didn’t answer and took them directly to the boss’s room. Cui QiChao, who was pumping out high amounts of pheromones, acted perfectly fine as he drew. The lines left by his digital pen formed a three-dimensional figure and were stable without faltering. If they were only looking, no one would be able to tell he was in estrus.

But the smell in the air… it was really coming from him. Every omega was able to tell, and if they hadn’t been taking pheromone masking agents and inhibitors, they were afraid that they would’ve been affected by Cui QiChao’s pheromones. 

Now, rather than being anxious about their food, the omegas cared more about how Cui QiChao was doing it.

Cui QiChao put down his pen and looked up at them. “You’ve come. I have the food ready, come sign the IOU and take it.”

A male omega brought by Rosa spoke up. “Wait, Mr. Tristan… You seem to be in estrus now, and I apologize if it comes off as insensitive, but how is your esteemed self so calm right now? Did you take medication?”

“No, it’s my willpower,” Cui QiChao answered. 

The omegas immediately had a heated discussion in soft voices. What, willpower? He’s not relying on injections or medicine, but willpower?

The male omega thought for a while, and his eyes suddenly brightened and said, “I heard that there are some special meditating techniques in the East which can be used to help people calm down. What secret method did you use?”

The others had their eyes wide open as well. So that was what it was?

While alphas had outstanding abilities and omegas had strong fertility, the two genders were always a subject of criticism—especially omegas. No matter how talented or excellent they were, they were always plagued by estrus, which took away their control over their body and which they relied on drugs to control. 

But, if there truly was a method to enhance their willpower and control their reaction to estrus, then wouldn’t it liberate humans from their beastly tendencies?

The more they thought about it, the more excited they became.

Cui QiChao didn’t quite understand why they were looking at him like that. “It’s not a secret. At the base of it, you just have to find what your interests are, in the deepest depths of your heart… but don’t you have inhibitors?”

“We do, but what we want is to be completely independent,” the omega replied brightly. “Mr. Tristan, if I may take the liberty to ask, how did you make use of your deepest desire? We also have goals we want to achieve, but they don’t seem to be strong enough to use as self-control. Is it because your interest is special? Could you spare us some advice?” 

Even Rosa became excited and took two steps forward. “Please, Mr. Tristan! We beg of you!”

Cui QiChao said dryly, “Then why don’t you stay and plant with me for a few days…”

T/N: I’m taking a two-week hiatus from this week to focus on some rl stuff. Will be back on the 29th. See you guys two weeks later.