"Are you feeling embarrassed? How about impulsive? Well? You deserve it!" Qiao Chen glared at Auray and said. The two had returned to Qiao Chen's lab.
"Even if he's your brother, you can't just skip over me and let him pilot the Z-801." Auray said unhappily. "If he was more qualified than me, then I of course wouldn't have said anything. But you said it yourself- he isn't more qualified than I am."
"I told you I have my own reasons. Can't you just let me finish saying what I want to say?" Qiao Chen took out a projection screen, turned it on, and handed it to Auray. "It's the blueprints for my mech. I designed it myself and it's ready to be built. The enriched minerals that we brought back from before was very compatible with building the mech's armor, so I submitted a request with the captain and it was approved."
Auray looked at the interactive 3D blueprints for the new mech on the screen. The mech's design was far superior to the mechs that were currently available. Even the Z-801 wasn't as good as this.
"I guarantee that this mech will be much better and stronger than the Z-801. Besides, the Z-801 was specifically created for my father by his lover. Don't you want to pilot the mech that your lover personally created for you?" Qiao Chen asked.
Of course Auray wanted to very, very much. However, he didn't know why he couldn't just give up the chance to indirectly become Qiao Chen's replacement father. He couldn't help but utter, "But that's the mech that your father used to pilot."
"Even if you pilot the Z-801, to me, you are still you. I will not treat you like my father. I don't have a daddy kink." Qiao Chen was truly convinced that this man was addicted to playing daddy. No wonder the soul downloading program immediately activated when it came to his father. Was this man obsessed with his dad or what?
Qiao Chen pulled Auray to sit down onto the couch. He sat himself onto Auray's lap, wrapped his arms around the man's neck, and said, "When Henry was little, my attitude towards him was pretty bad. I hurt him and my mother, and I wanted to make it up to him. However, if he wasn't second to you, then I wouldn't have picked him either. So I decided to let him pilot the Z-801 and personally make a better mech for you. That's what I wanted to do to make it up to him. And that's why I wanted to personally design a mech for the one that I love. That way, wouldn't I be able to have my cake and eat it too?"
Qiao Chen held Auray's face and leaned in, forehead to forehead. "This heart of mine… can you understand it?"
Auray tightly hugged Qiao Chen's waist and kissed him on the lips, so Qiao Chen couldn't speak another word of disagreement. Suddenly, Auray didn't feel like arguing over Henry piloting the Z-801 anymore. Instead, he was excitedly expecting and wholeheartedly looking forward to Qiao Chen's very own new mech coming to life.
In order to build the new armor, Qiao Chen devotedly threw himself into making it. He spent a massive amount of time and energy on it. Sometimes, Qiao Chen became so busy that he'd forget the time. He wouldn't remember to even eat or sleep. Nevertheless, Auray would keep track for him. From time to time, the thirds fleet witnessed Auray forced Qiao Chen out the lab to rest. And whenever Auray had training, he'd urge Qiao Chen's assistant to have Qiao Chen eat and rest on time.
Several countries negotiated for most of the year over dividing the resources of the emergent cluster of planets. It took them a lot of time, but they finally came to a conclusion. If they didn't have talks or the negotiation period, then the star cluster would have had constantly produced various minerals and unknown energy signals. If that had happened, then the talks wouldn't have finished so quickly.
Each country sent delegates to formally meet on the newly formed planets. There, they negotiated and signed the agreement in person. The Star Empire also sent out a team of experts to study the emerging mineral and energy signals. They needed to figure out how to mine and retrieve the materials for their empire.
The negotiating team and the previous team of experts were undoubtedly escorted by a team of comprehensive professionals with the strongest capabilities. There was also the third fleet's restored Z-801 mech. However, since the negotiating team was part of the other political faction, they insisted on bringing in members of their own faction to feel confident. Therefore, the fifth fleet, who were heavily punished after they returned from that last mission, also set off alongside the third fleet to escort the delegates.
Since the negotiating team and the team of experts were important, high status individuals, all members of both fleets carried out their protection missions on the third fleet's spaceships instead of piloting their own. And even though both fleets' captains would be attending, the mission lead was of course the third fleet's captain while the fifth fleet acted as the assist.
Nowadays, Qiao Chen was like the third fleet's good luck charm. The captain always thoroughly believed that Qiao Chen brought luck wherever he went, so the captain brought Qiao Chen with the fleet wherever they went. However, Qiao Chen's new mech entered the critical and final stages of development, so he wasn't able to come and go so easily. The captain wasn't willing to let his good luck charm stay behind, so he just finally decided to install a new mech lab onto the warship so that everyone would be able to go on the mission with Qiao Chen working on his new mech on board with them.
Qiao Chen exited the ship's lab and prepared to return to his room and rest. They had just set course a few hours before, so it would be several days before they reached their destination. If there were no accidents in the upcoming days, then Qiao Chen would be able to continue the work of building his new mech.
"Qiaoyi." A voice called out just as Qiao Chen took his first steps upstairs and towards the ship's living quarters.
"Mother, professor." Qiao Chen greeted after he looked behind him. The two walked towards him. His papa and Henry's father were a part of the negotiation team. Qiao Chen's mentor was a part of the team of experts.
During the 6 month period where he was constructing the mech on the base, Qiao Chen occasionally returned home to visit his grandfather on top of the work he still had to complete. His papa also occasionally came by the base to visit and send Qiao Chen some things. Therefore, their relationship wasn't as strained and unfamiliar as it had been before.
"I haven't seen you for one second since I've been on this ship. And if I didn't confirm with your vice captain beforehand, then I would have thought that you hadn't even come." Caesar said with a smile.
"I've been on the ship for two days already. I have been very busy in the lab though." Qiao Chen said. After they finished talking, Qiao Chen invited Fionn and his mentor to his room.
After they entered the room, Caesar was surprised. He commented, "Your room is far more luxurious than ours- you even have a kitchenette and a dining room too. Your captain really treats you really well."
The ship's living quarters were divided into moderately sized rooms. The staffs on the ship were assigned based on rank. The regular staff was given a room for every six people. The soldiers were given more space with two or three to a room. Only the higher ranked members, such as Captain Auray, were given a single room. Engineers had a relatively good ranks too, so they were given better rooms too. However, it was only Qiao Chen who was given such an excellent room.
"It's about the same level as the two dukes."Caesar said. He and his husband lived in a room together. Because of his husband's high rank and status as an earl, the room they had was already very good. But it nothing compared to the room Qiao Chen lived in.
There were two very important people in the negotiation team, Duke Lucaron and Duke Sovdeli. The reason as to why the fifth fleet was able to join the mission along with the third fleet was precisely due to Duke Sovdeli. He was one of the most important people on their faction.
"The captain has always treated me very well." Qiao Chen said and poured black tea for the two.
"Their captain has thanked me more than once for recommending Qiao Chen over to their fleet. I have no idea how many bottles of fine wine he has sent to our house anymore." Caesar proudly said to Fionn. Then he turned back to Qiao Chen and said, "The matter of you repairing the Z-801 was a huge sensation. The entire empire was excited about it for quite some time. With that kind of contribution you've made to the third fleet- they ought to be treating you with the best. You deserve it."
Qiao Chen smiled and asked, "Are you hungry? I'll cook for you. It's almost time for dinner anyways."
"You can cook too? I've never seen you cook at school before." Caesar said with a surprise.
"I learned some simple dishes. Is there anything you want to have in particular?" Qiao Chen asked as he entered the kitchenette.
"Just do what you can and we can order the rest. We can still order delivery if anything goes wrong, right?" Caesar said jokingly.
Fionn had never eaten Qiao Chen's food before, so he was really looking forward to dinner. He quietly looked at his cup of black tea and smiled. He never would have thought in a million years that his relationship with Qiaoyi could be this close. It was like a dream to him.
Qiao Chen knew that he and his mother had similar tastes. They both loved to eat seafood, but they didn't like eating raw foods. Sashimi was a no go for both of them. He opened and looked into the fridge and pantry to see what the assistant had stocked.
First, Qiao Chen took out a huge lobster, some mussels, and a whole salmon as well. He cooked the lobster and added it to some vermicelli. Then, he sautéed the mussels and salmon. Finally, he plated the tasty looking food in a beautiful way.
After Qiao Chen set the food on the table, Caesar and Fionn were surprised. Caesar said, " These dishes look simple, but they aren't easy to execute. It's even harder to plate it so nicely."
It wasn't long before Qiao Chen brought another plate out. He set the braised beef down. It was another dish that he and his mother loved to eat.
Caesar pursed his lips and said, "These are all your mother's favorites. Your favoritism is too obvious."
"There's also some of your favorite foods too, professor." Qiao Chen smiled. Afterwards, he brought out and set Caesar's favorite fresh vegetable stew and bacon wrapped asparagus.
Caesar laughed and said, "Ahh~ you still have me in your heart after all."
Qiao Chen cooked five or six more dishes in a little over an hour. The dishes all finished at about the same time.
"It looks pretty good. It smells good too. I just don't know how it tastes." Caesar said.
"Give it a try." Qiao Chen said.
Fionn picked up a piece of lobster meat. It looked like a whole piece but was pre-sliced and kept together. He put the lobster in his mouth and laughed.
"What kind of expression are you making?" Caesar asked doubtfully. However, he picked up a piece of lobster and put it in his mouth anyways. Caesar's eyes opened wide and said, "It's delicious. It's about the same as how my chef would make."
Fionn picked up some vermicelli under the lobster and put it with some soup. He ate and nodded in agreement, "It's delicious."
"Your own child made it for you. Of course you'd think it was delicious. If it wasn't good, then you'd still say it was delicious- but it's really good." Caesar called out when he tried the bacon wrapped asparagus and the braised beef.
Qiao Chen heard the doorbell ring, quickly got up, and opened the door. Henry quickly walked in and said, "I knew you were here when I didn't see any of you at the dining hall."
Henry was familiar with the kitchen as he made his own dinner. He took out Qiao Chen's homemade minced meat sauce from the pantry and mixed it into some rice to eat.
"You should eat at the dining hall instead. What are you running over here to snatch our food for?" Caesar asked unhappily.
"Does the dining hall have any of my brother's delicious cooking? I'm not snatching your food anyways. With this minced meat sauce alone, I can eat three bowls of rice." Henry said contently while eating. Actually, the dining hall also had good food. Due to the important people in the entourage, the army specifically added three more skilled chefs. However, even with them, none of the food came close to his brother's home cooking.
"What meat sauce? Let me try. " Caesar took the bottle of mince meat sauce beside Henry and poured some out to try. "This tastes so good. The next time I don't have time to have a meal, I can just use this. It'd be good with everything- like noodles, bread, and so much more. Here, try it."
After that, he handed it over to Fionn. Fionn tasted a bit, and his taste buds were also in agreement. He asked, "How did you make it?"
Qiao Chen told them the ingredients and recipe. Both Fionn and Caesar wrote it down and were ready to go back and try it out.
"Slow down. No one is going to fight over the food with you." Fionn said as he helplessly looked at his son wolfing the food down.
"I have a meeting to go to soon. If I eat too slow, then I won't be able to eat my fill." Henry said while gulping the food down.
"Another meeting? You've had so many meetings before you left and you're still not done yet?" Qiao Chen asked.
"The situation is different this time. Not only are there many significant people here, but there are even fifth fleet forces on our ship. We need a tight defense, and it needs to be very well guarded." Henry took his last bite, stood up, and said, "I'll be going now. Please continue your meal."
Caesar and Fionn enjoyed a nice meal at Qiao Chen's quarters. After the trio had finished their meal, they chatted for a while before Caesar and Fionn left.
Qiao Chen felt too lazy to return to the lab. He took a hot bath and went to bed. While he was in a sleepy daze, someone made their way under his quilt and held him. A pair of naughty hands wandered all around his body until it reached the area between his legs.
"En~ Lighter- you're always so rough." Qiao Chen softly whispered his complaints.
Auray lifted his leg up a little more, but the impact hadn't decreased at all.