Elder brother's garrison

"……"noob.

Xiao Bai suddenly felt that the banana in his mouth didn't taste good anymore.

These Fire Mercenary Group members are utterly shameless... They've clearly seen how much money Shropshire made after becoming a big star and they want to extort some from him...

That slap was too light.

Thinking of this, Xiaobai looked at Mutsu.

Mutsu was also looking at Shropshire in surprise.

"Shropshire, the Fire Mercenary Group came looking for you later? How come you never mentioned something so important before?"

“Because nobody asked…” Shropshire said.

"Ah..." Mu'ao sighed, holding her forehead, her eyebrows furrowed tightly. "At that time... I had probably just left the Li Huo Mercenary Group not long ago... Li Yan actually managed to do such a disgusting thing to you without my knowledge."

"Actually, it's not too bad." Shropshire looked at Mutsu, who looked remorseful, and smiled slightly as she replied, "The company people took the initiative to send them away, saying that if they continued to cause trouble, they would take legal action. Those ship girls were afraid of being arrested, so they all went back. After that, no other members of the Fire Mercenary Group came looking for me."

"That's more like it," Xiaobai nodded.

"Admiral, is the Fire Mercenary Group still in Kyoto?" Mutsu asked Shiro at that moment.

"Huh? What?"

"If it's convenient, could you take me back to Kyoto?" Mutsu asked with a grim face, his expression unusually displeased. "I suddenly regret not slapping Li Yan before leaving the Li Huo Mercenary Group. I want to go back and make up for it now."

"Um... well... he might not be available right now."

"what happened?"

"I mean... this..." Xiaobai scratched her cheek. She thought for a moment, gave Mutsu an awkward smile, and didn't continue to explain. Instead, she tugged at Mutsu's arm, "Forget it, I've already stood up for you. If you keep thinking about that kind of person, you'll only hurt yourself in the future. After all, you have a long life ahead of you. Live for today, don't worry about tomorrow. There are so many happy things waiting for you, it's not worth it."

"But this feeling..." Mutsu got stuck on it, unable to let it go.

"Don't worry, he's definitely living a much worse life now than before." Xiaobai calmed Mutsu down with a few words. "The Li Huo Mercenary Group has been disbanded now."

"Disband?"

Mutsu and Shropshire looked at Little White.

Xiao Bai scratched his head sheepishly.

"...Was it done by the admiral?"

"more or less."

Where are the ship girls?

"He was taken away by the military police and sent to the mausoleum for ideological reform."

"Where's the captain?"

"...Probably at the police station or the hospital?" Xiaobai asked uncertainly.

Xiaobai didn't know where to put the suspect's body... This was completely beyond Xiaobai's knowledge.

"Oh...no wonder he's having trouble."

Mutsu nodded, finally calmed down by Shiro's words.

The news of the disbandment of the Li Huo mercenary group seemed to have put Mutsu in a rather good mood.

Seeing that Little White had finished her banana, Shropshire quietly picked up a bright red apple, rubbed her palm on it until the peel almost shone.

Shropshire handed the apple to Little White.

"Shropshire, I can't eat anymore." Little White looked at the apple in front of her. She wanted to take it, but she subconsciously touched her stomach and smiled sheepishly. "I've been eating all day in Kyoto, there's hardly any room left in my stomach..."

“…Oh…” Shropshire put down the apple, lowered his head slightly, and looked somewhat disappointed.

"Ah! But Shropshire, your fruit is really delicious!" Little White quickly encouraged, "I didn't eat any today because I ate too much and didn't want the feeling of fullness to spoil my enjoyment of such good fruit! It's definitely not for any other reason!"

“…Then, I’ll pack it up for you.”

Upon hearing this, Shropshire's expression softened. She stepped forward, skillfully took out brown paper bags, sorted the fruits into categories, and finally handed the bags of various sizes to Little White.

"Thank you, Shropshire..." Little White accepted the fruit and quickly expressed his gratitude.

"Admiral, Shropshire rarely sends fruit to others," Mutsu said with a laugh. "Even for my older sister, if I want to get a taste of her fruit, I have to wait in a really, really long line. Every time I ask her if she can give me a special treatment, she always makes excuses like fairness, equality, and that others have been waiting for a long time. But even so, she always sets aside a small portion of fruit every day, saying that the Admiral said the fruit was delicious last time, and she wants to prepare some for him, so that he can have some whenever he comes back..."

Mutsu's words were interrupted.

Because Shropshire was red-faced, raising his hand and waving it repeatedly, trying to cover her mouth.

While dodging Shropshire's hand, Mutsu let out a few silvery laughs, as if he had just gotten revenge for a past grievance.

Shropshire and Mutsu got into a "fight" right in front of Shiro.

This was the first time Xiaobai had ever seen Shropshire in such a shameful state.

It's quite fresh.

Little White touched the brown paper bag, feeling the texture from her fingertips, and smiled as she called out to Shropshire.

Shropshire.

"...!" Shropshire's menacing display towards Mutsu seemed to freeze in place for a moment, as if a pause button had been pressed.

Shropshire slowly withdrew her hands, lowered her head to tidy her hair and collar, patted the dust off her clothes, and her downcast cheeks were as red as the apple she had just eaten.

"Thank you, Shropshire." Little White said sincerely to Shropshire, holding the fruit. "Your fruit is the best fruit I've ever eaten in my life."

“…” Shropshire’s shoulders trembled, and she nodded silently.

Mutsu, standing to the side, looked meaningfully at Shropshire's profile.

"Oh... there's nothing else here, I'm going back now." Xiaobai smiled and said to the two ship girls, "I'll come find you again after I'm done with my business, you'll both be home tonight, right?"

Chapter 3449 The Dumplings' Relationship

Xiaobai checked the time and figured that even if Hancock was slow, it should be almost over by now.

It was quite pleasant chatting with Shropshire and Mutsu, but Shiro has other things to do now, so he'll have to come back another time.

After greeting the two ship girls, Xiaobai, carrying a brown paper bag, turned to leave.

Mutsu smiled and waved goodbye to Shiro as he left.

Shropshire stood there, blushing, seemingly lost in thought.

However, just a few steps after Xiaobai left, Shropshire suddenly called out to him.

"Admiral."

"Hmm?" Little White, carrying the brown paper bag, turned around and looked at Shropshire. "What's wrong?"

Shropshire is indeed a professional actress; her facial expressions were perfectly controlled. The blush that had covered her face earlier had faded by most of it in just a few seconds, leaving only a hazy, sunset-like expression on her beautiful face.

After Shropshire called out to Little White, she spoke softly.

"Admiral... I have... something I'd like to ask you."

"What is it?"

“I want to expand this place.”

“Expansion? Oh…you mean the flower bed! Sure, I’ll go back and talk to Lexington and ask her to build another flower bed for you next to it.” Xiaobai glanced around subconsciously, then immediately replied with a smile.

Shropshire is a ship girl who is quite rare, even among newbie naval bases, as she is someone who can own a large area of ​​land on her own.

Aside from Shropshire, the only other countries that could rival Shropshire in terms of treatment are Yubari, which also boasts a small ship conversion factory, and Frederick the Great, who owns an entire prison and a dormitory supervisor.

Compared to Shropshire, the other two are extraordinary.

From this perspective, it seems that White is quite biased towards Shropshire. When Shropshire applied for another piece of land for expansion, White acted without hesitation and asked for permission first.

But actually, this isn't because Xiaobai is biased.

Xiao Bai felt that even if Shropshire didn't tell her about this and went directly to Lexington to report it, Lexington wouldn't refuse her.

After all... although Shropshire has such a large private flower garden, the flowers produced from this garden have indeed made the lives of the ship girls in the newbie naval base much better.

Sometimes, even just putting a single flower in a vase in the room is enough to make a leisurely life more pleasant and happy.

A flower garden can really enhance the atmosphere of a naval base.

Furthermore, the flowers in Shropshire have always been in short supply in the newbie naval base, so expanding the flower nursery in Shropshire would be a good thing for all the ship girls in the entire naval base.

"...Admiral, I don't want to expand the flower garden." However, to Xiaobai's surprise, Shropshire shook his head firmly after seeing Xiaobai's words.

"Huh? Not a flower bed?" Now it was Xiaobai's turn to be stunned.

"I want to build... a fruit shed."

"Huh? A fruit stand?" Xiaobai opened his mouth, tightening his grip on the brown paper bag in his hand. "Are you sure?"

"Um...is that okay?"

"Sure... of course you can, but... didn't you only want to grow flowers? Growing fruit is just something you do on the side..." Xiaobai asked with some concern.

“It’s alright,” Shropshire shook her head, then said, looking down, “I’m… interested in growing fruit now.”

"Ah... well... okay then."

Xiao Bai never expected that the expansion Shropshire was talking about was actually a fruit shed.

That would be even better, of course.

After all, Shropshire fruits are actually more popular and sought-after than Shropshire flowers.

Shropshire's fruit production is usually very low because she doesn't grow much. The ship girls at the naval base wish they could go and help her manage her small orchard every day, but Shropshire has always been too laid-back about growing fruit. Once someone else takes over her fruit, even if it's only for a few days, the taste quickly becomes ordinary again. So the ship girls can only grit their teeth and watch pitifully as Shropshire slowly tends to her small orchard, waiting in a long line for a fruit quota that seems to have no end in sight.

Has Shropshire finally come to her senses and decided to focus on growing fruit?

Good thing, good thing!

In that case, all the ship girls in the naval base will be in for a treat...

Thinking of this, Xiaobai was immediately moved and nodded to Shropshire.

"If it's an orchard, let alone one plot, whether you need two, three, five, six, or ten plots, I'll approve as many as you want!"

“Thank you, Admiral.” Shropshire smiled at Little White. “But just one piece will do… I can’t take care of anything too big.”

Little White happily bid farewell to Shropshire and Mutsu, and left the flower garden.

Outside the flowerbed, the sky was gradually darkening, and Xiaobai could vaguely see the moon.

When Xiaobai returned to the admiral's office building with the parchment in his arms, he bumped into Hancock and his group who were just walking out of the building.

Hancock and Changchun were initially surprised to see Xiaobai carrying large and small bags of fruit, but then immediately called out in delight.

"Admiral! You're back!"

“What are all these things on you? Wow… could it be that these belong to Miss Shropshire…”

"So, Admiral, you went to see Miss Shropshire!"

"Great, lots of fruit, lots of Shropshire fruit!"

The ship girls swarmed forward and surrounded Xiaobai.

The brown paper bags in Xiaobai's hands were taken by the ship girls one by one.

"This was a gift from Shropshire, everyone share it," Xiaobai said with a smile to everyone.

"Oh—thank you, Admiral!" the ship girls said gratefully, then took out the fruit from their bags, took a bite with relish, and their faces immediately showed a look of delight.

Hancock looked around at the ship girls who seemed to be eating some kind of delicacy, his expression strange.

"This fruit is..."

"Come on, Hancock, you have one too!"

Yubari came over with a bunch of grapes, pinched off a grape, and stuffed it into Hancock's mouth.

Hancock chewed unconsciously. She was about to continue speaking when the intense texture and sweet taste that burst into her mouth made her freeze in place, somewhat dazed.

"This is... a grape?" Hancock asked uncertainly.

"Oh right, this is our newbie naval base's newbie grape!"

“…That’s amazing.” Hancock shut his mouth, swallowed a few times, and finally said.

“This stuff is incredibly precious. Even in our naval base, not just anyone can get a taste of it. I reckon only someone of the rank of admiral could get so much from Miss Shropshire in one go,” Yubari remarked. “You got to eat Miss Shropshire’s fruit on your very first day here. That’s something you can brag about for a long time.”

"..." Hancock listened silently, his gaze shifting to Little White.