AP Chapter 12

Title: 顶级掠食者 (Alpha Predator)

Author：水千丞 (ShuiQianCheng)

Translator: K (@kin0monogatari)

Protagonists ：沈岱 (Shen Dai -MC), 瞿末予 (Qu Moyu -ML)

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Shen Dai was restless all morning because of Uncle Heng’s words in the morning.

In fact, many things do not need to be pointed out to him directly, he knows it well. But he still deceived himself. People will bargain, avoid, get lucky, and make reason and sensibility as an endlessly battle between heaven and man.

He must be more restrained, at least he shouldn’t be Qu Moyu’s ‘trouble’.

A junior sister came over and interrupted Shen Dai’s depression: “Senior Brother Shen, the teacher asked you to go to her office.”

“Okay, thank you.”

Professor Liu Xi is one of the most influential experts in the field of international rare earth research, and he is also Shen Dai’s mentor. Under his leadership, Shen Dai was selected into the talent plan and entered Xingzhou, the top rare earth research institute in China. What Shen Dai admired the most was not only his contribution to the academic world, but also because he was a beta who had achieved higher than the alphas.

“Teacher.” Shen Dai entered the office and picked up Liu Xi’s teacup, “How many times have I told you not to make such a strong tea? It’s not good for your health, and you even use it to water flowers all day long, raising a pot to let them die.”

“Bland tea doesn’t taste good enough.” Liu Xi pulled out a manuscript from a pile of documents, “The materials for the investor meeting are well written here.”

Shen Dai smiled and said, “Thank you, teacher.”

“It happened to be written by you, so this time, you will speak for me.”

“What?”

Liu Xi said in disgust: “These people, the meeting time has been changed for the third time, and my air ticket has been changed again and again. The mine in South Africa has not yet been completed. I can’t wait. I will leave tomorrow. I told them that you will go to the meeting on my behalf.”

Shen Dai was a little dumbfounded: “Isn’t that by the beginning of next month?”

“Yeah, you are doing projects every day, what else do you need to prepare? You have participated in conferences before, so just talk about our results and future plans. In fact, many of them won’t understand much.”

The so-called investor meeting is an annual report on the work of the senior management, major shareholders and shareholder representatives of the group. Their group receives hundreds of millions of funds every year, and they have to let the payers know what they have done. This is a very important meeting.

This means that Qu Moyu, the CEO, will definitely attend as well.

Shen Dai said helplessly: “Teacher, you are too generous. This is an investor meeting. If they ask me some tricky questions, aren’t you afraid that I won’t be able to bear it? They may not understand rare earths, but they understand financial reports, right?”

“We have achieved results this year. If we have results, we will have confidence. What are you afraid of?” Liu Xi patted the table with a firm look in his eyes. “You do it, it’s okay if there are no major problems. The above has told me that they won’t cut the budget this year, so I dare to leave.”

“…Okay, when will you come back?” Shen Dai’s intuition tells him that this level of meeting won’t be so easy. In the investment stage, investors often deliberately throw some difficult questions. It is a kind of psychological compensation. As a matter of fact, there are many cases of scientific research without results in ten or eight years.

“I don’t know, this mine has no proven reserves yet, but the content of neodymium and dysprosium are not low. I may have to stay there for a while. Your brothers and sisters are squatting in Gansu again. I’ll leave it to you and Zimei for the time being.”

“Okay, don’t worry, teacher.”

In order to prepare for the speech, Shen Dai has been working overtime until late these days, which is more tense than during his thesis defence presentation preparation back then. It is only his own business if he were to screw up his thesis defence, but for this meeting, he is not willing to screw up as he will drag down the entire project team, although the teacher asks him to relax, he didn’t dare to be relaxed at all.

One night, Shen Dai and Qu Moyu came home at the same time. Since that day, the two have not seen each other again.

Shen Dai nodded in greeting: “Good evening, Mr. Qu.” He thought that if Qu Moyu wouldn’t mention that trivial dish, neither would he. He will just pretend that nothing happened, no matter what he said when he was drunk or after sobering up. He is already self-motivated.

“You came back so late, are you working overtime?” Qu Moyu asked casually.

“Yes, I have been working a lot of overtime recently.”

“I heard that for the investor meeting, Professor Liu asked you to give out a speech.”

“Yes, the teacher is in a hurry to go to South Africa for prospecting.” Shen Dai joked, “I’m very nervous, Mr. Qu, please do not ask questions.”

“You have to face not only me, but also other high-level executives, shareholders and shareholders’ representatives.” Qu Moyu looked down on Shen Dai, “Do more preparations, don’t be stage-fright then, just say whatever you want, I will say a few words to them.”

“Thank you Mr. Qu.” Shen Dai’s heart warmed. Qu Moyu was so perfect. It was impossible to not like him because despite of Qu Moyu’s shortcomings, he is still perfect.

“The topic of your group is the most promising in the research institute. The board of directors is very optimistic and will not cut your budget. If the prospecting in South Africa goes well, it may be added.”

Shen Dai said happily: “That’s great, the teacher is very confident in the South African mine.”

Qu Moyu nodded: “Go to rest early.”

Shen Dai said softly, “Good night.” As soon as these two words were uttered, a burst of sourness and sweetness appeared in his heart. Good night is different from good morning. When you go to school or work, you always say good morning to people, but the people who you would say ‘good night’ to are usually people close to you. So these two words are endowed with a hazy ambiguity.

For the first time, he said goodnight to Qu Moyu in an open and honest way.

When he got home on the weekend, Shen Dai brought some vegetables and daily necessities as usual, but as soon as he entered the door, he felt that the atmosphere at home was not right. Grandma was sitting on the sofa waiting for him, her face tense.

“Grandma, you didn’t cook, so I’ll do it.”

“Don’t worry.” Grandma patted the seat next to her, “Come here, let’s talk.”

Shen Dai knew that he couldn’t escape this hurdle, and the moment he sat down, he decided to tell the truth.

“Where did you get so much money to pay off the debt all of a sudden?” Grandma had an unbelievable expression, “I thought it was a liar who called and told me about it. The last time you took me to see a doctor, you said it was because you received a bonus. How can you get such a high bonus?”

“Grandma, don’t worry, let’s talk slowly.”

Grandma took a deep breath: “Okay, we can talk slowly, but you have to tell me the truth.”

Shen Dai nodded: “I won’t tell you, I just don’t know how to tell you. And I’m afraid that you will be angry.”

“You, did you get the money the right way?” Grandma clenched her hands nervously.

“Don’t worry, it’s absolutely right.” Shen Dai said hurriedly, “Don’t think about it blindly. In fact, this money is… given to me by the You family.”

Grandma’s eyes widened, and her voice suddenly became fierce: “The You family?!” She hated You Xinghai down to the bone, because You Xinghai had ruined her son.

“Grandma.” Shen Dai held his grandma’s hand and said softly, “Will you listen to me?”

Grandma lowered her head slowly, her chest was still heaving vigorously: “Why did the You family give you money? So much money, it’s impossible, why?”

“The reason may sound unbelievable, but it’s true.” Shen Dai briefly recounted the fact that he needed to fulfil the marriage contract for You Baiyue, but withheld saying Qu Moyu’s name.

Grandma was silent for a long time, grabbing Shen Dai’s hand to the point of pain, but couldn’t say a word for a long time. After a long while, she quietly shed tears.

Shen Dai’s heart also twitched, and he wiped his grandma’s tears lightly: “Grandma, I know you don’t want me to have any relationship with the You family, and I never thought of looking for him, but we do need the money, and this cooperation has not hurt me. I go to work and live as usual, and I can still pay off my debts. With the remaining money, I can buy a house and treat you at a better hospital. This money has helped us a lot.”

“I know.” Grandma choked, “I just know, it’s uncomfortable. You shouldn’t have to bear these things. Your father became like that. Of course, that scum is hateful. Your grandfather and I have a bad upbringing of your Omega father, but you are the most innocent. Yes, I didn’t wish for you to make money to support your family, and to use your life to pay off the debts, which delays everything for you.”

“It doesn’t delay me. It won’t take long for us to dissolve the marriage relationship. When our cooperation is completed, we should be divorced soon.” Shen Dai forced a smile, “Grandma, think for the best, this is a good thing. The You family has been getting worse and worse over the past few years, and the son still doesn’t let him free from worry. We took his money again, and saw his unfortunate appearance, how happy that is.”

“He gave you 10 million, such a large sum of money, is it really just for you to get a marriage certificate?” Grandma said worriedly, “What kind of beast is You Xinghai? I’m really worried about him setting another problem.”

“No, he came to me because he was desperate. Now that I took the money and spent it already, what else could he do to me?”

Grandma shook her head with a sad face: “I hope so. Then your… who is the person who married you, and how does he treat you?”

“He’s a stranger, we haven’t seen each other a few times, so I’m just being polite to him.” Shen Dai stroked his grandmother’s thin back, “We will definitely not be working together for a long time. When things are done, and we get divorced, I’ll be just fine. It’s just that I will have a marriage history, that’s the price. But it can be exchanged for us to live a normal life, isn’t it a good deal?” Although the front of this sentence is a lie, but the last few words are true, the contract says five years, that’s to fully protect Qu Moyu’s interests, it can’t actually take that long. Before long, the only connection left between him and Qu Moyu will disappear.

Grandma sighed, “You must never get too close to the You family.”

Shen Dai thought of You Baiyue, and for some reason he also thought of Qu Chengchen, he frowned slightly: “No.”

“Then…” Grandma hesitated to say anything, “Then you get married, although it is a cooperation, but, will he still want you…”

Shen Dai immediately understood her grandmother’s indescribable words: “No, I said it all. I haven’t seen him more than a few times, and he won’t contact me if there’s no business affairs.”

Grandma breathed a sigh of relief: “That’s good, that’s good, Omega is the easiest to lose. No matter what you do, you have to be measured and think about the lesson from your father’s mistake.”

Shen Dai’s eyes darkened, no one understood better than him, because he was the price of making mistakes, and he was forced to use his life to bear the consequences of mistakes that were not his, he said solemnly: “I understand. “

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Next Update: today

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