Didn't you go to Teyvat to earn money to support me?

Then everyone saw Shen Liang, who had stood up, nod and say, "She can be counted in."

The girls looked at the innocent-looking little boy, while the little boy looked at the girls grinding their teeth.

This whole thing was both funny and absurd. In the end, Pado could only warn Shen Liang to watch his words. Many times, Shen Liang would just blurt things out without considering how flirtatious or manipulative his words might sound to girls. He should try to be more restrained in the future.

But for Shen Liang, he did have some very strange experiences. Listening to the sounds coming from Blanca's belly, he found that he actually had some anticipation for the birth of that baby.

Much later, he finally understood. That moment was the first time he realized that "caring for the weak as a strong person" was an obligation. That creature called "sister" was someone a man, as the "brother," had to protect for his entire life.

Desdobia stared at the light blue-haired woman who was pulling down her hem, watching her gentle and kind smile as she rubbed against the boy—and the bright red line pattern on her waist.

"Blanca and Hen, such a typical academic couple... when did they get tattoos?" Daisy Dobia wondered, somewhat puzzled. "Scales? What does it symbolize?"

But that didn't matter; she quickly put the matter out of her mind.

--------

Two more months have passed.

The Moth of Fire base is located in East Asia, and due to the needs of their work, the Fusion Warriors often need to travel around the world to handle Honkai-related matters.

Correspondingly, human settlements in East Asia are also safer due to their proximity to the Firemoth base. Therefore, many immigrants have arrived in the Asian continent, and several large human cities in East Asia have even developed into thriving commercial centers in the current apocalyptic context. However, due to the overpopulation of humans and the considerable turmoil caused by the restructuring of world rules under the influence of the apocalypse, these cities are often a melting pot of diverse characters and have deep gray areas.

For example, Pattaya, famous for its tourism industry, has a complex web of relationships due to the various tourists and illegal immigrants trying to enter Asia. The government is powerless to deal with it, and it is firmly controlled by various local gangs and companies. Even the United Nations census data is submitted after being reviewed by gangs.

"But that's just a lot of talk. If you live here for a while, you'll find that officials and thieves are pretty much the same. Everyone just goes about their lives and pays taxes anyway."

Paddo busily picked out various fast food items and threw them into the cart, saying as she turned around, "Besides, we're now part of the Moths of Fire. In the past, I had to be careful around people, but now I'm an employee of a big company with a lot of influence! A high-ranking envoy! I'm not afraid of these shady people at all. They all have to respectfully call me Sister Paddo Phyllis!"

Shen Liang calmly pushed the cart, letting the words go in one ear and out the other.

They were on a garrison duty in Pattaya, a mission that, for the warriors of the Firemoth, was essentially a vacation. The garrison city was practically harmless, and they could even use the opportunity to travel around. So, after using several favors, Patto finally secured this mission, and just in case, she brought Desdobia along as a fighting asset.

Since Shen Liang belonged to her this week, after much pleading and with Daisy Dobia as a guarantee of combat strength, Mei finally reluctantly approved her taking Shen Liang out to see the world.

Of course, all nine guardian sisters knew that this was just a way for Pado to avoid the base's eyes and ears and go on her honeymoon.

“Oh right, Mei said you need to eat at least three eggs a day…” Pado looked around at the egg vendors, “Although I don’t think you’d grow taller even if you ate thirty.”

"Shut up, kitty."

"Wow! You're yelling at me, baby! And don't call me 'kitty,' I'm the older sister, you have to respect me!"

Shen Liang pushed the cart and followed her around for a while. When he didn't see any fresh produce stalls, he walked up to a stock clerk who was dozing off and tugged at her sleeve.

Thinking she'd been caught slacking off, the stock clerk abruptly stood up straight. Still dazed, she suddenly saw a beautiful, aloof face before her that instantly snapped her out of her daze. Her face immediately lit up with a smile: "Little..."

“I’m a man,” Shen Liang interrupted before the words “little sister” could even be uttered.

"Huh? They're starting to give her medicine at such a young age to raise her to be a girl? That's illegal!" The stock clerk seemed a bit confused.

Pattaya has a unique local custom. Before urbanization, the country was called "Thailand," and there's a strong reverence for a special group called "shemales." Many boys undergo various methods to become voluptuous and alluring like girls to satisfy the desires of various perverted individuals.

The stock clerk's first reaction was that this was normal. She was even a little surprised that technology was so advanced now. Although upon closer inspection, the child did have striking features and a prominent Adam's apple, the level of beauty was completely outrageous, surpassing that of any other pretty girl...

Shen Liang was used to not explaining to these people and letting them imagine. He asked directly, "Where is the fresh produce stall?"

"Huh? Oh, oh, what does the baby want to buy?" The stock clerk was still immersed in self-doubt about being outshone by a boy despite being a woman.

"Don't call me baby," Shen Liang finally got a little annoyed, but the other party was just an ordinary woman with no knowledge of the world, so he had no choice but to say coldly, "I'm an adult."

Behind her came Pado's maniacal laughter. She was more than happy to see Shen Liang forced into a speechless situation. This little boy, who was treated as the group's darling, was always indifferent and direct, often leaving people speechless. It was rare to see him being the one who was choked.

First, he was treated like a girl, then like a pitiful boy who had been drugged and manipulated, and finally, he was added insult to injury by being called a minor. Shen Liang had probably never experienced such a barrage of verbal abuse in the base.

The stock clerk, who was trying to salvage the situation because of the boy's obvious displeasure, breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Paddo: "Look, even your mother is smiling."

Chapter Thirty-Four: A Day in Pattaya

Pado's smile froze. She stared at the young stock clerk for a long time, which startled him.

She then concluded that this was an ugly competition between women, and that the stock clerk was maliciously using exaggerated language to belittle her beauty in order to inadvertently elevate herself. She reasoned that everyone in Pattaya was shrewd and must be trying to seduce her.

There was no need to respond at this point, so she quickly pulled Shen Liang away and ran off.

However, they didn't wander around for long before they found the fresh meat and vegetable section. Pado bought a bag of eggs, a rooster, and some pork spine and leg bones.

For Pado, taking out fast food was fine, and so was Daisy Dobiya. However, Mei specifically instructed her to take good care of Shen Liang, to provide him with three meals a day at regular times and in fixed quantities, and to take photos for Mei to check. This was one of the conditions under which Pado secretly brought Shen Liang out.

The young rooster was naturally specially prepared for Shen Liang; it was a newly crowed rooster, said to be rich in male hormones. The recipe provided by Mei used pork bones as a base for the broth, because chicken broth is light while bone broth is rich, resulting in delicious stewed chicken.

Moreover, Mei had repeatedly warned Pado not to steal any of the chicken, no matter how much she craved it, as it was meant to nourish Shen Liang's body. Pado didn't understand why Mei, an excellent researcher, would still believe in folk remedies from her hometown, but Mei, Ying, and even Su firmly believed that the young rooster could make boys in their early teens grow ten centimeters taller in a year, with amazing developmental effects.

However, Pado felt that such folk remedies were pure wishful thinking. It wasn't that she maliciously hoped Shen Liang would never grow taller, but rather that she felt the boy was probably already entering adulthood. After all, a boy's maturity isn't solely determined by height and appearance; certain abilities also play a more significant role.

Thinking of this, Pado's face flushed, and she could only stare at Shen Liang's back, biting her lip in embarrassment and annoyance.

"The chicken I bought in the city is of much better quality than the chicken from the Zhu Huo base." Shen Liang picked up the little rooster that looked like it had lost all hope. The rooster was originally flapping its wings, but it fell silent after Shen Liang lifted it by its legs and applied a little force. Shen Liang didn't like noise, so he glared at the chicken.

Those who disregard life possess an innate chilling aura. In the Moth of Flames, everyone is a Fusion Warrior, and his indifference to life doesn't instill fear in them; in fact, they find his baby-faced, cool demeanor rather endearing. But for an ordinary person, or even a chicken, his gaze is enough to render them immobile.

"Because the chicken in the base is all delivered from cold storage. To be honest, it does taste a bit worse than outside. After all, who knows how many years of zombie meat it has been frozen?" Pado said, carrying large and small bags and walking with her slender long legs. "The rare times we get a good meal are when someone gets married or gets promoted, and we order ingredients from outside to hold a banquet or something."

Pattaya's livestock industry hasn't been destroyed by the wartime economy of the apocalypse; you can still buy live chickens in small supermarkets. Although they're just farm-raised chickens, they're natural and taste much better than the various synthetic foods in the Fire Chaser Base.

It's not to say that synthetic food is necessarily worse than natural food. For example, Sakura once hunted a minke whale during a mission to nourish Shen Liang, but that was just for novelty and not actually suitable for consumption. Most fish taste much better than whales, and whales' long lifespans lead to excessive levels of heavy metals in their bodies, resulting in coarse meat.

Shen Liang carried the unconscious little rooster to the street. The sky was overcast. Although it was six o'clock in the afternoon, the working people of Pattaya had already finished their day's work, and the streets were bustling with people and vehicles.

This is the pedestrian street near the beach, one of Pattaya's most famous tourist streets, with the famous Pattaya Beach right on the outer side. Looking out, Pattaya sees alleyways branching off from both sides of the street, neon lights flashing, and heavily made-up women in deep V-necks or even daring swimsuits standing in front of their respective shops, their faces beaming with flamboyant smiles.

The two walked towards the parking lot, and as soon as they arrived, they heard a man scream.

A blonde girl wearing a JK-style short skirt and shirt grabbed an old white man by the hair and slammed him against the wall. Almost simultaneously, the old white man's bodyguards drew their guns and pointed them at her, rattling off a string of questions in their local dialect.

"What nonsense! Speak Common Tongue, don't you hear me!" Just as Desdobia was about to raise her knee to give the old white man a good whack, she turned around and saw the black-haired, red-eyed boy had already circled around the wall. She coughed, and to maintain her ladylike image, she immediately stood up straight, pulling her skirt with both hands and looking shy and aggrieved.

“Baby, I’m not bullying people! This guy came up to me with a lecherous look and asked how much I make a month. How could I stand for that? What does he take me for? How can he be so insulting?”

Shen Liang looked at the group of bodyguards.

Perhaps it was the dignified and elegant demeanor of the young man before them, or perhaps it was the presence of worldly-wise bodyguards, but after a moment's consideration, one of them spoke in Common Tongue: "This young lady, after being spoken to by Mr. Wilson, attacked him without reason. We are the guards of the local Zongchewa family, bodyguards hired by Mr. Wilson. May I ask who you are?"

Before coming, Shen Liang had researched the local city and knew that Pattaya was a gang-controlled city. However, in order to protect the rights of tourists and outsiders, wealthy people often hire thugs from these gangs as bodyguards to protect their safety during their travels.

Desdovia was supposed to be waiting for them outside, but unexpectedly, she got into a fight with other tourists within ten minutes.

"No reason?" Shen Liang said calmly.

“Mr. Wilson, he probably mistook this lady for a prostitute. Such a beautiful prostitute is a rare sight in Pattaya. Boss, you fell in love at first sight. This is not against local laws.” The bodyguard stammered in broken Mandarin. “But she knocked the boss into the wall, so she must pay compensation.”

Shen Liang glanced at the guilty-looking Daisy Dobia and nodded, "Well done."

Desdovia's eyes lit up with surprise, while Paddo covered her face.

Shen Liang didn't think there was anything wrong with Desmond. In fact, if Mei hadn't repeatedly told him that ordinary people were extremely vulnerable and should never be killed easily, he might have killed that old white man and his group of bodyguards on a whim.

In his heart, only the people of the Fire Chaser Base were considered family and friends, and only fusion warriors were worthy of his attention. For an ordinary human with no achievements to dare to clash with Desdobia was simply courting death, without even needing to consider anything else.

"If there's nothing else, we'll be going now." Shen Liang made the decision on his own, walked to the RV, and put the little rooster into the external cabinet of the RV.

He was so self-willed that his bodyguards were somewhat bewildered. Some were about to yell at him, but their companions immediately covered their mouths.

Because when Shen Liang bent down to open the RV, the sharp-eyed bodyguard noticed a familiar logo on the belt that was exposed when his shirt fell down – a bright red moth that was very familiar from various news reports.

Anyone on Earth knows what that conspicuous sign means. The bodyguards immediately dug the old white man with the concussion out of the wall, gave him a quick bandage, and hurriedly ran away.

"Tsk."

After watching the whole thing, Pado pouted and said, "It feels like we're some kind of villains who bully others by taking advantage of their power."

"Hey, I was mistaken for a prostitute! Giving him a concussion was already showing him mercy!" Desdovia angrily punched her shoulder. "Have I ever suffered such a humiliation?"

"That's because you don't understand the rules of Pattaya. You're a girl in your twenties, wearing a JK uniform like a teenage girl... Humph."

"JK is a style, right? Can't people in their twenties go for a campus style? This is age discrimination!"

“But it’s different in a chaotic city like Pattaya.” Pattaya jumped into the back seat of the car, squinted, and curled up in the seat. “This city has many red-light districts, and the place we are in is one of them. Look, it’s getting dark soon, and every few meters there are women coming out to stand on the street, filling the whole street.”

Daisy Dobia was taken aback; she hadn't done her research before coming.

"What is a red-light district?" Shen Liang asked curiously.

"Don't ask, little kid!" Daisy Dobia pinched Shen Liang's cheek hard. "If you dare to be curious about that kind of place, the entire Firemoth will be furious!"

“The ‘wife rental’ service is prevalent here. To put it bluntly, it’s about finding streetwalkers, for extended periods, sometimes several months or even years. The monthly fee is around two thousand credits—yes, that’s not even enough to buy a low-end civilian car,” Pado said. “To attract wealthy tourists, they wear all sorts of revealing clothes, even if they don’t suit their image at all. You can see women in their thirties wearing miniskirts and school uniforms everywhere. After all, white people have different tastes, and even very unattractive East Asian women can still be favored if they are petite. Two thousand credits is a small amount, but it’s not a small income for low-level streetwalkers.”

"How do you know all this?" Desdobia stared at her best friend, slightly taken aback.

“It’s simple. Twilight Street is a similar place. I’ve been exposed to it since I was a child.” Pado shrugged. “If I hadn’t been lucky enough to run into Sister Mei by chance with Sister Aponia, joined the ‘Children of Man Project,’ and come into contact with the Fire Moths… my life would probably have been pretty much the same as theirs.”

The blonde girl, seeing the rare look of reminiscence in the cat-like girl's eyes, couldn't help but feel a pang of heartache. She reached out and hugged her. "No, no, Pado. You're the luckiest girl in our base. Even if you don't meet the Fire Moth, you'll definitely meet a benefactor and you'll definitely have a happy life!"

"Hey, why are you suddenly getting all sentimental..."

“Yes, Pado is my cat. Even if there’s another timeline where Pado didn’t join the Fire Moth, I will still bring Pado back.” Shen Liang patted the cat girl’s head.

Both Paddo and Daisy Dobiya were taken aback.

"Hey, doll, you can actually say...sweet nothings now?"

"Sweet talk? You mean what Jack and Rose said in the cabin?" Shen Liang tilted his head. "I don't understand."

"Who showed you Titanic? It must have been Ellie..." Paddo covered her face. "But if I hadn't met the Fire Moth, there probably wouldn't be a doll like you in that timeline, right?"

“Then maybe I’m the ninth Primarch?” Daisy Dobia laughed.