"Approximately how much was smuggled out?"
Li Da Shuai sighed, "About twenty of the first batch of guns, and three of the laser bullet guns that came later."
"Just these?"
"Isn't that enough?" Li Da Shuai's eyes widened. "The small matter is them smuggling them out; what if they can replicate them?"
Originally, they had the advantage. He had planned to wait until domestic issues were resolved and then capitalize on the enemy's internal strife. Even if not a full-scale invasion, they could at least reclaim what the Westerners had taken.
Now, before they had even stabilized their own footing, their weapons had already flowed out. The West was already far more developed than them. If these could be replicated, who would be in charge in the future?
Just thinking about it made him uncomfortable.
Zhuo Nian couldn't help but chuckle at this. "If they could replicate them, I wouldn't need to have them sent over."
The manufacturing in this world was too backward. To create weapons effective against the xenomorphs, it would take at least another hundred years. Not to mention other things, the special metal used in laser weapons could not be extracted in large quantities in this era, nor was the purity sufficient.
He could only say that Li Da Shuai had thought too simply.
Li Da Shuai also realized this belatedly.
"That makes sense. Although their military industry is much better than ours, those things are not so easy to replicate." He then added, "However, we must be more careful in the future and not give them any more opportunities."
"You just need to be careful."
In fact, those weapons were completely abandoned by the future world. That world was more than two thousand years from now. The xenomorphs appeared very early, and they had thousands of years of combat experience. These weapons, developed long ago, were no longer useful.
Two thousand years.
Zhuo Nian suddenly thought of something and abruptly stood up.
"What's wrong?"
Her expression was serious. "I just remembered something. If there's nothing else, let's head back first."
Chong Yan naturally listened to her. Li Da Shuai, however, spoke up before them, "Sixth Brother, Miss Qin, I have something I'd like to discuss with you both."
The two exchanged a glance. Chong Yan said, "Big Brother, just say what you need to say."
Li Da Shuai also stood up. "The two elders at home are getting old. Mother and Father have been nagging you to get married and have children. Before, you were... so I didn't dare to rush you. Now that you've found someone you like, and you and Miss Qin are mutually in love, why don't you pick a time to get married first?"
At this, the other two were stunned.
To be honest, Chong Yan, with his memories, had never thought about this. After all, he and Zhuo Nian had held countless weddings in other worlds. Without memories, they would have been overjoyed. Now, recalling it, it seemed dispensable. Especially since this world was unstable, they didn't want to spend time on this matter.
"What's wrong? You don't want to get married?"
He quickly shook his head. "No."
After a look exchanged with Zhuo Nian, he said, "We feel that given the current situation, it's unnecessary to make a grand affair out of this. It's enough for our families to know."
"How can that be?" Li Da Shuai frowned. "What does it matter what's happening outside? Has there been any period in the past few decades that was truly peaceful? People should still get married and have children. If everyone thought like you, wouldn't the next decade be filled with only old people?"
Chong Yan: "..."
He knew very well that even if he and Zhuo Nian followed their arrangements, they wouldn't have children. Wu Xiang was an accident, an unexpected occurrence during Zhuo Nian's fusion with the original character of the plot. Such an accident was unlikely to happen again.
Moreover.
He thought of how, during the time he was unconscious and Zhuo Nian was in pain, Wu Xiang had experienced birth, aging, sickness, and death alone in the Divine Palace, undergoing rebirth from fire. Even now, she was still a spiritual body, born of nothingness. He didn't want anyone else to experience such suffering.
So, after much deliberation, Chong Yan stated directly, "Big Brother, we can have a wedding ceremony to ease Father and Mother's minds, but I want to tell you something. We are truly going to leave this place, possibly very soon. I will not have any offspring. That girl with us, I truly consider her my daughter. If she doesn't leave, you can treat her as my child. If you encounter any unsolvable problems, you can seek her help."
Since Li Xiao Xian had told him those things, Li Da Shuai had already harbored suspicions about the identities of Zhuo Nian and that young girl. Coupled with the transformation of Li Shuang Jin into Chong Yan, whether he admitted it or not, the person before him was no longer his sixth brother with whom he had lived for over thirty years.
At least, not entirely.
Considering the situation they were currently facing, even if this woman had coerced his sixth brother and insisted on taking him away, he couldn't disregard the lives of so many people in the country and oppose her.
Besides, they were doing it willingly.
Helplessly, he could only say, "I don't know who you two truly are. Perhaps, as that old Taoist said, you two are ultimately not part of the Li family. One died young, and the other was replaced by… something."
Chong Yan felt a pang in his heart. "Big Brother, whether you believe it or not, I've always been your sixth brother. It's just that I've remembered some things, and I need to resolve them. I..."
Li Da Shuai raised his hand to stop him from continuing. "You don't need to explain. I've always treated you as my sixth brother. No matter who you are, I believe you. I believe you won't harm me or the Li family. Whatever plans you have, go ahead and pursue them without worry. I will explain to Father and Mother."
Chong Yan wanted to say something but stopped.
"Then thank you. Rest assured, before we leave, we will at least help you control the situation in this world, allowing humanity to continue to procreate."
And not just for them.
Li Da Shuai sighed, "Alright. Thank you, Miss... May I ask your real name?"
"Zhuo Nian. 'Zhuo' from 'chasing,' and 'Nian' meaning white."
"Good." He looked at the two of them. "Zhuo Nian, my dear, Shuang Jin... I'll entrust him to you."
"Okay."
This seemed to be their last conversation with such emotional depth. Not long after, they held a wedding ceremony. Li Da Shuai went north and couldn't return to attend.
In the interim, Zhuo Nian learned the story behind Chong Yan's name.
The elder Mrs. Li had been carrying twins. While they were healthy in the womb, problems arose during childbirth. The babies were too large, and being twins, they couldn't be delivered. Only one could be saved, either the mother or the child.
Li Da Shuai defied his father's orders and found someone to perform a cesarean section on his mother.
However, due to the long delay, only one of the two babies survived. If born in order, Chong Yan should have used his own name, but he didn't. Thus, he became Li Shuang Jin.
As she had promised, Zhuo Nian used all sorts of means to help them control the situation, preventing other countries from falling into ruin, and instead helped China gain an advantage, giving them more international influence.
Li Da Shuai was very grateful to her. As their departure neared, he understood they would be leaving soon and held another family banquet. He even had Wu Xiang bring people back to attend, so the whole family would know that Li Shuang Jin had "descendants."
Half a month later, they met with an accident on their way to the West, their bodies never recovered.