Revisit Azur Lane

Zhou He raised his hand and gave her a thumbs up in response, then turned to Hermione and complained, to which the latter gave a subtle smile: "It's also possible that Miss Zuikaku was worried that you, Commander, were tired."

"Ignore her, her way of expressing herself is just that stupid."

Tosa passed by and casually replied that Zuikaku often said strange things to her, but compared to Zhou He's well-reasoned nonsense, Zuikaku's words were truly incomprehensible.

"Yeah, too."

Zhou He smiled. He admired Ruihe's straightforward personality, because he could tell at a glance what kind of bad things she was planning to do.

After resting for a while, Zhou He continued climbing and soon caught up with the main group. Ruihe was standing on a protruding rock, observing the route.

"The best campsite for tonight is upstream on the river."

Shoukaku and Jintsu were giving advice to Tirakaku, while Cleveland and Montpellier were still moving up the mountain. The rest of Yuudachi and the others were scattered around, seemingly searching for something.

"Then let's go over there."

After a moment's thought, Ruihe pointed in a direction, and Zhou He, who had just arrived, looked in the direction he was pointing and saw a very conspicuous white rocky area. Next to it was a stream that flowed down from the mountain and branched out about half a meter wide. The rocky area was thus divided into several levels, some steep and some gentle, and one could walk across the shallow water.

It looks close, but in reality, it's a long detour. By the time Zhou He gets there, it will be quite dark.

"Then we'll set up camp over there for today. Ruihe, you guys go check out the situation first. If you can, gather some branches to make a fire. Also, see if you can catch any fish."

Zhou He took a liking to that spot, temporarily seizing control of Ruihe's conversation and completing the formalization of the situation.

"You brought a fishing net?"

When Zuikaku heard about catching fish, he instinctively thought of casting a net. Then he widened his eyes and turned his head slightly to avoid Shoukaku's line of sight.

Zhou He found it somewhat amusing and pointed to the knife at her waist: "Use this, or whittle a few sticks into spears and plunge them into the water."

"Spears and knives? You think you can catch fish with that?"

Upon hearing this, Ruihe was skeptical, and even the little strategist Shentong looked thoughtful—they had received proper fire-making knowledge, not these unorthodox life skills.

"You'll see once you try it. Remember to cut a few extra pieces so everyone can participate."

Zhou He raised an eyebrow. He had never caught fish himself before he transmigrated, but he had seen people catch them like this in videos. The fish here hadn't been beaten by fishermen, and with his ship girls' innate aiming skills, it should be no problem.

He had heard that fish caught this way would be unpalatable if the gallbladder was broken, so he wanted to experience a different way of life and actually eat the fish, and he would carefully select the best ones.

"Alright, but Commander, have you seen Kaga? We haven't seen her since we came out. Could she have gotten lost in the mountains?"

Knowing he couldn't win an argument with Zhou He, Zuikaku turned to ask Zhou He, and also inquired about the Tosa men who had been acting as his bodyguards.

"She saw something and ran off after it. Don't worry about her, someone will find her."

Tosa had been following Zhou He closely, falling behind the group, so she also saw what her adoptive older sister was doing. However, because the big tree blocked her view, she couldn't see what had attracted Kaga's attention.

Since even Tosa had said so, Zhou He and Zuikaku naturally had no objection and began to gather their troops to prepare for departure.

"commander!"

The scattered crowd returned, some carrying oddly shaped stones, some having pulled up some grass to make grass circles, and others, like Yuudachi and Bush, running back from a higher position, each holding a claw-like object with densely packed, small, purple, spherical fruits. Zhou He reached out and took a look, and wow, it was actually wild grapes.

"Can this be eaten?"

Yuudachi asked expectantly. Zhou He pondered for a moment, looked at the wild grapes in front of him, which were a size smaller than the grapes in the market, picked one, peeled off a piece, and put it in his mouth. Sweet and sour juice overflowed from it. The flesh was already very soft. In a while, or even a few more days, it might spoil.

"Theoretically, it's okay to eat, but eat less so you don't get an upset stomach."

Zhou He licked his lips. The system had indeed left him a lot of good stuff. If he were to grow these grapes himself, he would have to put in a lot of effort. But if they were wild grapes, he wouldn't need to take care of them. After being exposed to the wind and sun, they would bear fruit next year.

There aren't many birds on their island, probably because it's a pristine environment with no outside birds, which is why the fruit has been preserved so well.

As for rats—he had never actually eaten rat meat.

"Great!"

Yuudachi cheered and, still having a lot to say, turned and ran back to pick more grapes. Zhou He followed. There, they saw grapevines everywhere in the thicket. Some grapes had gone bad, and those that had fallen to the ground had been eaten, but many had still been preserved, making it a bumper harvest.

"Commander, you're really daring to eat this! Aren't you afraid it's poisoned?"

As Cleveland said this, she ate one herself, and the sweet and sour taste made her squint her eyes: "It's really delicious."

"...On this island, I believe that nothing that is edible should be poisonous."

Zhou He also picked out some for himself. His family only had tea, not beverages. He couldn't eat desserts without spending homestead coins to buy them. This was free, so why not take advantage of it?

"As confident as ever."

Cleveland struggled to understand the source of Zhou He's confidence, but that didn't matter; as long as everything went smoothly.

"necessary."

Zhou He savored the grapes and strolled around when he suddenly spotted a white figure darting out of the woods at the foot of the mountain. Upon closer inspection, he realized it was Kaga. She looked somewhat disheveled, as if she had just survived a fierce battle. Her clothes concealed what appeared to be a long, thin object, and the exposed tail was black and yellow, resembling…

A red fox?

Did Kaga leave the team to catch foxes?

Zhou He couldn't understand it; she had actually caught him.

Chapter Ninety-Six: Setting up camp

"That's amazing! How did you catch it?"

As Zhou He called out, the others gradually noticed Kaga's appearance. In an instant, she became the focus of the crowd. Zhou He followed the crowd and first glanced at Kaga, whose face, clothes, hair, and arms all had scratches. Then he bent down and focused his gaze on the red fox, who was wrapped up like a cylinder, struggling and waving her hind legs incessantly. She bared her teeth, looking fierce, but her eyes were filled with fear.

"I saw it, chased after it, and grabbed it with my clothes."

Kaga smiled and calmly explained his three-step strategy.

This exaggerated statement amazed Zhou He. He thought he had overestimated the ship girl's physical abilities, but he never expected that she could catch up with and capture a wild fox in the forest when she went all out.

"After catching it, given its strange smell, should you take it home and raise it yourself?"

U556, who was closest to Bush, reached out and poked the seemingly fat red fox's body. Then, he frowned and jumped away, horrified by the strange smell, and asked a question.

"Ah, this is how I plan to have it fill in for Akagi before Akagi joins the port."

Kaga's words elicited subtle expressions from everyone present who knew Akagi's name, but Kaga didn't care. She looked at Zhou He and said, "The Commander should have a way, like a cage or something."

In her opinion, if Zhou He could make such a big house by hand, making cages and such must be a piece of cake for him.

"and many more."

To be honest, Zhou He had actually wanted to keep a fox as a pet at home. Before he transmigrated, he was often captivated by the foxes in the pet section. Now that he had the chance, he naturally couldn't let it pass. After saying that, he immediately activated the system and searched through the Home Mall. Among the items priced at 1 Home Coin, he found a textbook-perfect iron cage, which also came with a few bags of food. It was really thoughtful.

After selecting to purchase, Zhou He raised his hand to signal the others to disperse. He then pressed his hand lightly on the ground, and blue light points converged to form a huge iron cage that was more than two meters long, nearly one meter wide, and half a meter high. There were gaps of about 2 to 3 centimeters between the supporting pillars. There was a door on the front, with a lock that had a key.

It's clear that the system knows he, as the commander, wouldn't use such a cage to keep small pets like cats.

The space in this iron cage is more than enough to hold a siren experimenter.

‘Bang! ’

Akagi, in his fox form, was thrown into a cage by Kaga, along with his coat, and given prison food.

"This cage looks quite heavy, are we just going to leave it here?"

Zhou He was relieved and squatted outside the cage to observe the red fox. He wondered if it was storing up fat for winter. The fox looked plump, with large patches of light yellow fur, brownish fur on its back, white fur from its chin to its belly, and black paws. It was currently in a state of stress and its fur was standing on end, so it smelled a bit pungent.

"Hmm? Let Shoukaku and the others be airlifted back to command by carrier-based aircraft."

Kaga dusted himself off and turned his head to look at Shoukaku who was walking over. Shoukaku frowned slightly and said, "I'm sorry, but I don't have the same skills as Akagi-senpai and Kaga-senpai in controlling carrier-based aircraft. If we use air transport, this fox will probably have a hard time getting home alive."

"Hmm? Then there's nothing I can do. I'll go back by myself first. I need to tame it a bit, given how it's acting."

Kaga didn't blame Shoukaku when she heard this. Instead, she patted the top of the cage and smiled, "Akagi is always eyeing those little foxes around Nagato. There are no red foxes on this island, so this time she should be able to get her wish."

"Are you talking about Akagi-senpai in his battlecruiser form?"

Shokaku was quite surprised. Was Akagi, before becoming an aircraft carrier, the type who liked small animals?

"Yes."

Kaga closed his eyes and recalled that summer when he argued with Akagi. Suddenly, he opened his eyes and said, "If she knew that her future self was actually cooperating with the Sirens, she would definitely be furious and want to beat up the aircraft carrier Akagi."

"I don't know what she and I went through in the future, but it probably was some trivial things that we were obsessing over. Anyway, I'm going back now. You guys take good care of the commander. There might be bears in these mountains."

With that, Kaga called on the others to help lift the iron cage over his head, and then staggered down the mountain.

"Bear?"

Zhou He was taken aback, then startled. A bear?

"A bear, is that right?"

Upon hearing this, Tosa's eyes flickered slightly, and he muttered to himself, "If we capture him and raise him, he might be able to use him for training."

"Is bear tasty?"

This is Yuudachi, who ate grapes until her lips turned slightly purple. She didn't peel them at all—Zhou He suspected that if he left this child in the wild for a few days, she would turn into a real stray dog ​​when she came home.

"..."

Zhou He panicked for less than half a minute before his own ship girl's words calmed him down. After thinking for a moment, he figured that even if there really was a bear, it probably couldn't beat Kursk in hand-to-hand combat. Plus, with Bismarck, Tosa, and Zuikaku around, if they dared to attack, they would become more mature.

……

After the little incident caused by Kaga, Zhou He and his group collected wild grapes and continued their journey. They wandered around the mountainside for nearly an hour before finally arriving at their planned campsite, which was situated on a gentle slope of white rocks.

Ruihe, who had arrived earlier, was following Zhou He's instructions and had chopped down many three-pronged wooden sticks to carve spears.

The stream on the outer side only reaches your ankles; you can cross it by lifting your shoes and rolling up your trousers. But if you go deeper, you'll see a pool of water more than a meter deep, crystal clear. Standing on the edge, you can see the fine sand and stones underwater, as well as fish of all sizes and species hiding around the stones. You can also see fish, shrimp, and crabs moving around.

"This place is quite nice too."

Listening to the babbling water, Zhou He crossed the shallow water area and sat on the bank watching the carefree fish and shrimp in the pool. He thought it would be nice if there was such a pool in his own port area.

Pfft!

Before Zhou He finished speaking, U556 plunged into the pool, causing a large number of bubbles to rise to the surface. Faced with such a huge creature, the fish and shrimp at the bottom of the pool all began to dodge, and for a moment the pool was silent.

"I want to play too!"

Yuudachi shouted and was about to jump into the water when Tosa, who was beside her, reached out and grabbed her collar from behind, pulling her back: "It's so cold, don't mess around."

"Huh! Commander~"

Yuudachi tried to resist but to no avail, and could only ask Zhou He for help. Zhou He shook his head mercilessly: "556 is a submarine, and it has the ability to regulate its temperature. It will be fine after a while by the fire. Yuudachi, you should at least take a hot bath when you go down to avoid catching a cold."