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

"it is good."

As Shen Liang spoke, he suddenly pressed Alice's shoulders with both hands, and then used all his strength to slam her upper body to the ground, her face pressed against her ankles!

"Waaaaah! My back, my back!" Alice screamed. "It's broken... Don't move! It's broken! Replace me, replace me!"

Alice was on the verge of a breakdown from the pain. Although she was a very powerful witch, she wasn't a martial artist who relied on her body to fight. Just doing a split felt like her entire upper thigh was being torn apart. Experiencing this before even having a man was far too early for her!

"What are you calling me? You don't even have this much flexibility?" Shen Liang asked in confusion. "Sister Fanan can do the splits, let alone a regular one. Even if she does a bridge on the bed and bends back until she's completely turned around, with her head coming out between her legs, she won't feel any pain."

“Your little fish is a naval admiral, he’s in the water all day, of course he’s too soft, you want me to…” Alice paused for a few seconds, then suddenly looked at Fanan, “Why are you in this yoga pose on the bed?”

Fa Nan, embarrassed, took her hand and lowered her head.

Alice was momentarily stunned. She quickly pulled Shen Liang's hand to look at the cinnabar mark on his arm. But when she found the mark was still there, she paused for a moment.

However, if the cinnabar is still there, then it seems that she would be even more intimidating.

Alice couldn't help but feel awe towards her.

"You can't swallow this position, can you..." Alice muttered.

Pretend you didn't hear the trouble.

However, Alice relaxed for a while, and Shen Liang put his hands on her back, thought for a moment, and then simply sat down on half of her shoulders.

"Hey!" Alice roared.

"Time it, five minutes," Shen Liang said. Splits usually start at five minutes.

Alice had no choice. At this moment, Shen Liang and the others began to distribute breakfast. Alice felt the little boy on her shoulder chatting and laughing with the other girls while pressing down on her, making her unable to move.

"Come on, Liang'er, have a grape. This is the Abyss of Layered Rocks, and all the local fruits are imported from Sumeru." Ying Da leaned against Shen Liang and ate a grape, then casually fed him one. "Is it sweet?"

"good."

"It should be said that 'it's mainly because Sister Yingda fed them sweet things'."

"Sister Yingda fed me the sweetest food."

"Good boy!" Yingda happily ruffled his hair. "Then Liang'er, give me one too, ah—"

Alice, who was sitting in Shen Liang's seat, was furious.

It was breakfast that I brought!

Why are you two showing off your love here?!

Then Shen Liang placed a piece of grilled chicken breast in front of her, touched the witch's lips with his finger, and when Alice opened her mouth, he stuffed the chicken breast in and then teased the witch's little tongue with his finger for a while.

Alice looked up irritably, but when she saw the boy's beaming face, her anger vanished.

However, she still bit Shen Liang's finger, not too hard, as a form of punishment. But Shen Liang didn't mind, withdrew his hand, and licked the oil off his finger in front of Alice's gaze.

The unmarried, older witch from Mondstadt was stunned. She quickly looked at Rosalind and found her engrossed in eating her chicken leg.

Wow, that's amazing.

Alice no longer knew whether the little guy was seducing her or if it was just his nature... or perhaps this little wildcat's talent was that whatever he did, anytime, anywhere, made people feel like he was tempting her to commit a crime!

After finishing their meal, Shen Liang parted ways with Fanan Yingda. Although he didn't have his own tent, he had his own work to do. Fanan Yingda needed to go to the camp every day to train and practice with the soldiers, while Shen Liang, Alice, and Rosalin stayed at the Caiqiao Valley camp to act as relay stations for the radio every day, analyzing which information sent by various units was useful and which was not, and then transmitting it to the Jigong Palace.

In short, it was a very easy job, because the soldiers who had only temporarily learned how to operate the telegraph machine were not very proficient, so it was unlikely that they would send telegrams for every little thing. Therefore, Shenliang's small base station did not receive much information each day.

However, this was the first trial operation of a telegraph system on a military scale worldwide. Liyue had no experience with it, and neither did Inazuma. Shen Liang knew that, to some extent, if he could make the achievements of the telegraph machine known to the world, then Raiden Shin would undoubtedly be able to activate the telegraph system for the entire Teyvat continent in the future.

He gradually realized that the Ji Palace might also have this idea: to have Shen Liang personally oversee the telegraph system. Regardless of Shen Liang's dedication, if even he couldn't utilize the telegraph machine effectively in war, then the telegraph machine was merely a pipe dream. No matter how far the Inazuma side promoted the telegraph machine among the civilian population, other countries wouldn't even glance at it. Because military technology is the real technology; civilian technology is unimportant, at least during wartime, civilian technology is meaningless.

Shen Liang could roughly guess what the Yakshas were thinking. They were wondering if this thing could compete with Sumeru's "Void".

"The 'Dust Net' system has been in trial operation for 377 hours. Operation report number 16. Please submit your reports in due course." Shen Liang sent the first telegram of the day.

"The personnel system is operating normally. Today's roll call for preparations is approximately 156,630 people, with no one missing. Among them, 11,050 are wounded or sick personnel who have not yet been evacuated, and it is estimated that 2,000 people can be evacuated from the rear today."

"The food supply system is functioning normally, and all camps are able to guarantee the supply of military rations and clean water, except for the Dansha Cliff camp. Fresh vegetables are in short supply today, but will be replenished within three days."

The water supply to Dansha Cliff was irregular because there was no water source and the logistics troops had to replenish it daily. Shen Liang knew this, so there was no need for the telegraph operator to say more.

These telegraph operators learned very quickly. Shen Liang was used to using the word "system" to summarize many "wholes composed of parts," just as an array of telegraph machines was called a "telegraph system," and the work systems of logistics, personnel, and other personnel were also called various systems over time. They found that many of Shen Liang's words seemed obscure, but using them actually saved a lot of trouble. Sometimes, things that required many words to define could be solved with just one word from Shen Liang.

"The healthcare system is functioning normally."

"The military defense system is operating normally, and the first round of shift handover has been completed today."

"The logistics system is operating normally."

"..."

"Currently, all military camps are operating normally, and there are no signs of mutiny, riots, plague, poisoning, lethargy, or morale collapse. As of the time of this report, there are no military operations in any of the major military camps. The total number of wounded and sick personnel is around 100, 110 lacking food, 120 lacking water, 110 lacking clothing, and 150 lacking weapons. Overall, everything is normal."

Chapter Ninety-Six: Hopeless! This kid's a born scumbag!

Up to this point, the quartermasters of all the camps in the Layered Rock Abyss war zone have performed perfectly.

The quartermaster was also a telegraph operator. Every day after roll call, he would conduct a general communication, exchanging information at 9:10 a.m., 2:10 p.m., and 7:10 p.m., to report on the combat readiness of each military camp.

However, during wartime, the night was also unsafe, even more so than the daytime. Therefore, the nighttime telegraph operators had an additional task: to conduct brief communications with the entire unit every half-hour to ensure that nothing was amiss in any of the military camps. Thus, each camp had at least two telegraph operators, one responsible for daytime and one for nighttime.

As for Shen Liang's base station, someone had to be there at all times. Although Shen Liang valued the job, it was clearly impossible for him to guard the telegraph machine all day long. So he left the nighttime telegraph base station to the general who never slept, while he was taken into his tent by Ying Dafanan or Ellie every day.

However, it seems that the quartermasters prefer working at night. Compared to the daytime when they only have three opportunities to interact with Shen Liang, at night they can hear the icy loli's clear and melodious "reports from each military camp" every hour, which immediately energizes the quartermasters on night watch! Most of them even wait for the moment when the general speaks during the reporting time!

“Managing military supplies via telegram is like…” Rosalyn hesitated for a moment, unable to recall.

"It's like being in a machine factory in Fontainebleau, standing in the control room facing a bunch of switches," Alice said excitedly. "Even though I'm directing people, the way everyone's so organized is like they've all become machines—it's so convenient!"

In past wars, military camps were stationed in various dangerous areas, ranging from tens to hundreds of miles apart. The Laminar Abyss is a vast desert that occupies half of the southwest region of Liyue and is full of canyons. As a commander, it is basically impossible to coordinate all military camps. If you want to do something, such as assembling an army to advance, you need to plan and arrange it several days in advance.

More often than not, it is best for the army to camp in one place rather than disperse, so as to ensure that military orders can be issued quickly enough.

But now, with the telegraph, military camps can be established in various locations, even surrounding the entire Layered Rock Abyss, leaving no possibility for the enemy below to escape, and no possibility for the monsters to break through the encirclement and endanger civilians. The long-distance telegraph system is showing initial results, and the generals Fushe, Yingda, and Xiao, who are the commanders of this war, have recently been looking at him differently.

But for Shen Liang, this was all just work. He still had no intention of interfering in the Liyue war, and he didn't even recognize many of the soldiers in the military camp. As for promoting the telegraph machine, it couldn't be considered interfering in the war between Liyue and Kanria, because this was part of Raiden's grand plan to dominate the mainland telegraph machine market, and Shen Liang was merely cooperating with his mother. His own interests on this battlefield... were simply for those academic credits.

With more credits, it wouldn't matter if Liyue got zero in academic subjects. He can't even remember the historical lineage of Inazuma, yet he has to remember Liyue's? He doesn't even remember whether the Dust Demon God who died in Liyue was called Hagentus or Häagen-Dazs.

"It's still a pretty boring job." Shen Liang put down his pen and paper, stopped taking notes, and then pushed back his chair and stretched.

Alice casually pulled his hand to take another look, and Shen Liang said helplessly, "Why do you all seem to like looking at these dots all the time?"

“This isn’t just a dot, it’s a dot of cinnabar, the kind of cinnabar that you Liyue people, the Inazuma people, are used to.” Iris rolled her eyes at him. “Raiden, really… your mother used her own blood to make this cinnabar, that took a lot of effort. Isn’t this a form of surveillance on you? Your reach is too far.”

Rosalyn asked curiously, "What is the purpose of the 'virginity mark'?"

"You do not know?"

“It’s not that I don’t know, but my classmates say it’s something that only appears in novels and has no real basis,” Rosalin said. “This thing was originally used to determine whether a girl was virgin. Although it was recorded in medical texts, nobody believes in it anymore. After all, it doesn’t make any sense. How can a ‘gazelle’ fed with cinnabar be used to determine virginity?”

"'Shougong' refers to the gecko. In ancient times, people in the East believed that geckos, which often lived under the eaves, were auspicious beasts guarding palaces. Over time, the term 'shougong' also came to mean 'guarding a young girl's womb and proving her virginity.' 'Shougongsha' (a type of cinnabar mark) is similar; it's applied to the body, and if it falls off, it proves that the virgin's womb has been breached, and she has lost her virginity." Alice glanced at Shen Liang. "It can only be said that his mother is very worried about him."

Do gods also have superstitious moments?

"Gecko blood is superstition, of course, but... using divine blood is a different story. You just asked me what its use is, and I'll answer you now. With the essence of a demon god's blood, no matter where Liang'er is, his life force can be sensed by that Thunder Supreme. If he were to encounter misfortune one day, such as suddenly weakening his life force, falling seriously ill, being severely injured, or... having an affair, even if they are thousands of miles apart, he cannot escape her perception." Alice smiled. "Even more terrifying, she can even sense who the other party is! Because this is the essence of a demon god's blood, the price required to extract this stuff is not low, and a small amount of such essence blood can even create a puppet like General."

“Then more than just a drop will be needed,” the general said calmly.

Alice shrugged. She actually had something else she wasn't saying: she was genuinely speechless at Raiden's behavior. If Shen Liang were truly a girl, this would make some sense; after all, it's understandable to be so worried about her being kidnapped by some bad uncle… But he's a boy! What kind of logic is there in giving a boy a virginity mark? This overprotective motherly behavior is too strange. Even if he inexplicably brought home a dozen or so daughters-in-law, you could still afford to support them. The castle tower could easily house another hundred people.

However, Rosalyn seemed to still think Shen Liang was a girl, so she couldn't say these things directly.

“After all, he’s Liang’er. I’ve heard that demon gods grow in units of hundreds of years. It’s normal for Thor to be worried about a demon god who’s only a teenager. I’d be worried about him too, even if I were his mother.” Rosalind laughed. “To be honest, even though we’re both girls, I have to put in a lot of effort to suppress my urge to carry him to bed and show him how powerful the girls of Mondstadt are, since I live with this little cat every day.”

Alice almost burst out laughing. "If you hug him, he won't resist."

"That's what's dangerous is that Liang'er won't resist. It's all thanks to my strong self-control!"

Alice smiled knowingly. She knew that Rosalyn was indeed affectionate towards Shen Liang, even if she thought he was a girl. The witch's psychology called this "conquering attraction," which refers to the fact that, when the gender of two people with the same appearance is unknown, anyone would find the "male" more attractive.

This experiment is fascinating; even if the observer is male, even if the observer dislikes men, even if the observer is a lesbian… it doesn't affect the conclusion. Some believe this isn't just about physical appearance, but rather a conquest instinct ingrained in the genes of humans, or rather, anthropomorphic social organisms. Both men and women are attracted to beautiful humans, and in society, men generally hold a more dominant position than women. Furthermore, the desire to conquer the strong is genetically ingrained in humans. Therefore, if all the participants are presented as bright and cute "beautiful girls," the observer will invariably choose the male one.

Even if the observer has no idea which of them is male.

This tendency to "conquer the powerful" exists in almost everyone's heart, only the standards differ from person to person, and the standards are mainly based on "power and weakness" rather than "male and female." For example, even if a princess is more beautiful and younger than an empress, many people might still prefer to conquer an empress if given the choice.

So Rosalyn herself might not know that if Shen Liang were really just a little girl, she probably wouldn't be so used to dragging Shen Liang out to play every day, or even insisting on using Shen Liang for her graduation project.

Of course, this could also be a subtle form of "sexual attraction".

Shen Liang didn't care about their unrestrained exchange of experiences; he was only concerned with his own curiosity. "So, Sister Rosalin, what do you mean by 'loss of virginity'?"

Rosalyn popped a date into his mouth. "Don't ask questions, little kid!"

Shen Liang's eyes widened, even more curious, "You know!"

Rosalind lowered her head somewhat embarrassedly, but then she thought that this kind of thing was only kept secret in Liyue. In Mondstadt, it wasn't a secret that needed to be kept quiet. She turned her head back, put her hands on her hips, and said, "I know, so what? I can't tell you even if I know. Your mother gave you a virginity mark because she was afraid you would do this kind of thing. What if you found out and got curious?"

Alice nodded repeatedly.

"Then I'll go ask Sister Yingda." Shen Liang estimated that the next telegram wouldn't arrive for another two hours, and turned to leave.

"Hey, hey!" Alice quickly stopped her. She knew the Fire Demon's personality; she would definitely bring it up on her own, and who knows, they might even start talking about... well, you know! We can't give the Demon sisters that chance. It's better if we, master and disciple, do it!

After considering for a moment, Alice took out a sketchbook from her God's Eye, somewhat helplessly, "This is what I planned to use to teach my daughter when she asks me this question... I didn't expect to use it on you first, what a mess..."

"Can't it be used on me?"

Alice stared into the boy's innocent gaze, a strange sense of guilt rising within her. How to put it? This kind of question should be posed by my adorable little daughter, blinking her big eyes as she circles my knees, and I should gently and kindly answer her. But for you, Liang'er, to ask this is just too guilty… You don't even know this, yet you've pinned me to the edge of the bed—is it my fault or yours…?