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

Why is Great Britain in such a hurry to deploy? And if they're in such a hurry to deploy, why aren't they in a hurry to join the war?

Shen Liang felt the situation before him was incredibly confusing, with mercenaries, Valkyries, the supernatural, and Great Britain all contributing to the confusion. But he understood only one thing: behind the chaos in the small country of Elsa, England, one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, was watching something closely.

He is very likely to have some friction with this behemoth.

Shen Liang let out a soft breath. He was not afraid of the unfathomable black mist.

Are you kidding me, the Five Constants? Would the Five Constants even deign to look at an unknown mortal like him? All he needs to do is find Bronya and Seele, take them away, and avoid any conflict with others... in theory.

Even so... but he has even faced the gods directly, so what is facing the swords and guns of Britain?

As darkness fell, Shen Liang and his three companions found a relatively safe-looking small building in the old city complex, which had been reduced to ruins by bombing. They drew back the curtains and lit the fireplace.

There's really no need to worry about the campfire being discovered by the rioting army. The coup in Tallinn was too sudden, and there are still many citizens in the city who haven't evacuated. After the power outage, many buildings have candles, fireplaces, or campfires for heating, and there are chimneys everywhere with smoke rising from them. Whether or not to draw the curtains is mainly for psychological comfort.

Shen Liang took out a cold meat platter from the light screen, then took out two violets and roasted them in the ashes of the fireplace. These were the foods provided on the passenger ship on the other side of the light screen. Shen Liang then took out three cans of eight-treasure porridge and a whole large roast chicken, placed them on the grill above the fire and started to spin them, while also spreading chopped onions and sweet flower petals on them.

Anna was staring blankly at the flames when she turned around and saw Shen Liang bustling around. Her beautiful eyes widened. "Is this what we're having for dinner tonight?"

"This is all the resources I have. Even though you are a young lady, there's nothing I can offer you. You have to eat, even if you don't like it, or you'll go hungry."

"No, no, no, I'm just shocked. I thought I was going to starve to death tonight." Anna stared in amazement at Shen Liang's skillful movements. "You're a chef?"

"Let's just say it."

"I can't tell."

"Where can't you see it?"

Anna thought for a moment, then leaned back on the armchair, stretching her slender legs out in front of the fireplace to warm them. In the flickering firelight, her white stockings were covered with a golden-red hue. She stared blankly at the ceiling and said, "Because you look like a pampered young master, or rather, a young lady? And just a few hours ago you were using such a cruel method... I'm sorry, I'm sorry, but you know, when you do those things with that face, it really makes people feel disillusioned."

Shen Liang glanced at her. "Are you afraid of me?"

“It’s not that bad. I’m a Valkyrie of the Shaniat family, after all,” Anna said softly. “I just think you might have gone a bit too far. You might not realize it yourself, but your expression was very off when you killed him… You’re not the kind of person who’s bloodthirsty, are you? That was just to extract a confession, but you were very strange at the time—aggressive, uneasy, cruel…”

"That's enough," Shen Liang said calmly. "To be honest, I'm just very anxious."

“Is it really just because you’re in a hurry?” Anna stared at him. “Mr. Pandora, your face shouldn’t be covered in so much blood. You should be clean. You’re not used to killing, so you might be showing signs of mania. To put it simply, it’s a lot like post-war PTSD…”

"I've said enough." Shen Liang's tone was clearly impatient. "I was just too impatient. I know this better than you do. Let's change the subject. I don't want to continue this topic."

He had a vague feeling about what Anna was saying, but he didn't want to think about it too much.

Bronya and Seele are still missing, and he doesn't have time to study his own state of mind right now. He's becoming increasingly irritable, whether in Teyvat or on Earth... but this is caused by environmental factors. Once he finds them and returns them to a safe place, these so-called manic episodes or PTSD can be resolved.

“Let’s change the subject…” Anna glanced at Shen Liang, then at Lilia, who was fast asleep because it was past 7 p.m., and Rosalia, who had crawled into her sleeping bag with her sister out of boredom. “Let’s talk about you two. We’ve known each other for so many days, but we haven’t gotten to know each other yet.”

"Us?" Shen Liang nodded. "Where do you want to find out?"

"For example, why do you have shoulder-length hair when you're a boy?" Anna blinked and smiled sweetly. "If you don't want to talk about that topic, don't blame your older sister Anna for giving you an embarrassing topic."

Chapter 125 Fireside Chat

"This topic isn't embarrassing." Although Shen Liang didn't particularly like people bringing up his face, he was basically used to it.

“I lived in an orphanage when I was young. The director of the orphanage adopted many girls, and I was the only boy. Now that I think about it, the reason she adopted me was probably because she thought I was also a girl. There was a little girl in the orphanage named Seele Freya. She had black hair like me. At that time, I was not growing very tall, and in the eyes of the director and many nuns, she and I were almost indistinguishable.”

Anna thought to herself, "You don't seem to have grown much taller yet. What boy is still under 1.6 meters tall?"

“Miss Seele, it seems that’s true. She’s a very pretty young girl,” Anna said. “So?”

"To make it easier to distinguish our backs, the dean forced me to grow my hair at least past my shoulders to differentiate me from Xi'er," Shen Liang said casually. "For this, I learned how to tie my hair in a ponytail, so that I would at least look like a free-spirited art student instead of a beautiful girl with long, straight black hair."

Anna's lips twitched slightly, but she held it in with all her might.

"Why is it that you're the one with long hair when Xi'er is clearly the girl?"

“Because I’m the older brother.” Shen Liang said calmly.

Anna was about to ask what this had to do with being the older brother, but then she suddenly realized. So that's how it is. In an orphanage that favors girls, being a man is so humiliating. You have to sacrifice your dignity and even your personality, just because of a casual "you're the older brother."

You are the older brother, you must take care of your younger sister. You are the older brother, you must make sacrifices. You are the older brother, you must set an example.

You're the older brother, so you'll be bullied by your younger sister.

What a painful and helpless childhood!

Anna almost burst out laughing.

"Looking back now, the director might have had some ulterior motives. The members of the orphanage were all clearly beautiful from a young age, and she probably initially trained us to be spies." Shen Liang smiled slightly. "But later, she realized that the collapse of the Soviet Union was inevitable, and the orphanage's organization was transferred from the KGB to the Siberian Federal Security Service, and then to the Federal Ministry of Science and Education, becoming a children's welfare institution from start to finish. Ha... She was actually very conflicted all along, but from that day on, she truly treated us as her children."

"Did she go from being a soldier to a mother?"

“The military funding for the orphanage was quite substantial at first, but it kept decreasing. Sometimes the supply trucks only came twice a year, and the director even had to find extra income to support the orphanage.” Shen Liang tore off a piece of chicken leg, dipped it in syrup, and handed it to her. He then bit off a large piece of chicken breast and mumbled, “The root cause is that the orphanage is located too far away to avoid the war. Oymyakon is the coldest town in the world, and the cost of transporting supplies there is much higher than the supplies themselves. Most of the time, we can only eat frozen meat. Fresh food is completely unavailable, and there is a severe shortage of vegetables and fruits, to the point that all the children in the orphanage are somewhat malnourished.”

Anna thought about it and felt a pang of guilt, realizing she really wasn't a good girl. For a moment, she even felt relieved that Shen Liang was malnourished, otherwise, if he really grew up, she might never see such a cute and handsome boy again.

Thank you to the malnourished orphanage!

Shen Liang noticed Anna's expression and felt somewhat helpless.

"It's not just me. You see, Rosalia and the others are the same. By the time Siberian girls are fourteen, they're already quite beautiful and have great figures. Many of them are already dancing ballet or joining gymnastics teams at that age. You know, Siberia is a country where you can get married at sixteen with your guardian's consent. By fourteen, their average height is already 1.6 meters. But look at Rosalia."

Anna looked at the little girl who was curled up with her sister in the sleeping bag and snoring softly. Rosalia, who was only 1.49 meters tall, did not look like a "graceful and slender" girl at all.

She's already fourteen, but she's still a Russian loli whose shelf life hasn't expired, and it looks like she'll be in and will remain in that shelf life for a long time.

Thinking about it this way is indeed problematic, and a very big one at that.

"So I supplement their nutrition every day. I've learned a little bit about everything from Chaoshan cuisine to Hunan cuisine to French cuisine and even other cuisines, but the results have been minimal... I can't even grow taller myself, let alone them." Shen Liang finished his big chicken leg in a few bites, then wiped his hands. "I'm done eating. I'm leaving now."

"Where are you going?" Anna asked, startled. "I can't finish this! There's still so much left!"

Shen Liang opened the light screen and smiled, "It wasn't originally prepared just for you."

Anna looked at him blankly, and then she saw two little girls with their eyes still closed, but already smelling the fragrance, crawling over into the round sleeping bag while sniffing the air.

The two little ones were clearly sleeping in each other's arms, but they were in perfect sync, their sleeping bags bobbing up and down like caterpillars. Then Rosalia bit the chicken's rear end, and Lilia bit its neck, tearing at each other without backing down, their little faces covered in oil.

They weren't even awake yet.

"Isn't she cute?" Shen Liang pinched Rosalia's soft cheeks, revealing his brotherly doting smile. "Our orphanage tradition is four meals a day plus a midnight snack. It's midnight snack time in two hours. Could you please peel out some roasted violet melons for them to eat? A horse won't get fat without night grass, and they're at the age where they're growing."

Anna looked at the pink-haired little girl chewing with her cheeks puffed out, and smiled slightly. "I can understand why they like to stick to you... But, let me ask you something: they all like you, so who do you favor more?"

"Favoritism?" Shen Liang laughed nonchalantly. "I'm not biased. I treat everyone equally."

"Surely there must be a younger sister you like even more?"

“No, I really treat them all equally.” Shen Liang proudly pouted her little nose. “I don’t care what they want; I just do what I think is right. If I think they need to wear thicker clothes, I buy them thicker clothes; if I think they’re hot, I buy them little skirts. Rosalia likes cherries and Lilia likes blueberries, but I think they need calcium supplements, so I make them gnaw on big bones. No one gets special treatment from me; I treat everyone equally and I mean what I say.”

"Don't they...resist?"

"Resist?" Shen Liang chuckled, not answering the question.

The rebels were easy to deal with. While Rosalia was asleep, he quietly took Lilia away and found a hotel to stay in for a few days. While enjoying life with Yan'er, he listened to Rosalia's desperate cries on the phone, saying that she was alone at home with no one to cook for her and was too scared to sleep alone. He glanced at Lilia in his arms and revealed a subtle smile that served as a warning to others.

As a result, no one dared to defy the older brother's authority anymore.

------------

Shen Liang made several spatial jumps and arrived at the mountainside of Narukami Island, at the Kamisato House.

Mount Kagemachi is the root of Inazuma's only sacred cherry tree, a place where countless earth veins converge. It is also the site where countless famous figures and extraordinary individuals from Inazuma have left behind their legends.

But unlike in the Coral Palace, Shen Liang was unsure whether he was spying on anyone while exploring the ley lines here.

The Thunder General's thousand hands and a hundred eyes cover Inazuma. His actions on Narukami Island are practically under the Thunder General's nose. If a Heroic Spirit is contracted here, and the gods see it... it's hard to explain.

After all, the legends of those famous and extraordinary people might have been witnessed by General Thunder.

"Mr. Ryoko's visit once again brings honor to the Kamisato family." Just as Shen Liang was deep in thought, Kamisato Ayaka came out of the courtyard and happened to meet him.

"It's you again?" Shen Liang raised an eyebrow, impatiently. "Just passing by. If you're going to spout any more nonsense about wanting me to do something for the people of Inazuma, then forget it."

Ayaka Kamisato had never seen anyone so disrespectful to Princess Shiraga, and was momentarily speechless, but still managed a smile: "I've never understood why Mr. Ryoko harbors such malice towards the Kamisato family..."

"Don't misunderstand, I'm not targeting you. I harbor ill will towards all of you in Inazuma." Shen Liang interrupted her. "Isn't that obvious? I've killed so many of you, how could I possibly have any goodwill?"

Princess Egret was choked back again.

"But Mr. Ryoko seems to have a good impression of Sara?"

"Oh, that's because I admire her character. She's upright and principled, someone I can trust. Most importantly, she's beautiful." Shen Liang actually quite admired Kujo Sara. The two should have been mortal enemies, but Kujo Sara was able to put aside her hatred and examine right and wrong—something even he couldn't do.

Moreover, Kujo Sara is indeed very beautiful; this kind of heroic and valiant daughter of a military family would definitely appeal to many people on Earth.

"Beautiful?" Ayaka Kamisato gripped her fan tighter, somewhat unconvinced. "If Mr. Ryoko judges people by their looks, then Ayaka must have some merits, right? Why..."

"No breasts, no butt."

As if struck by an arrow from an unknown place, Ayaka Kamisato paused, then said with difficulty, "I'm two years younger than Sara..."

"Even Xiaogong has a better figure and much bigger breasts than you."

Another arrow!

"No, Mr. Ryoko, actually, if Ayaka were to remove her breast binder..."

"Then you can't possibly be bigger than Saro, I measured it with my back."

Three arrows!

Ayaka Kamisato stared in disbelief at the handsome-looking but uncouth-speaking boy. Did he even know what he was saying? Measurement? If General Sara knew you were "measuring" like this, she would surely challenge you to a duel before the Emperor!

Taking a deep breath, Ayaka Kamisato felt she had been slighted.