Elder brother's garrison

"Thank you..." the tall ship girl said to Xiaobai.

Xiaobai smiled as he looked at the tall ship girl, without saying a word.

The tall ship girl was quickly helped up from the ground by her companions, and led by Missouri, they walked to the corner where the equipment was piled up.

Large quantities of purple equipment were piled up in heaps, as if the person who piled them up didn't care at all that this rough treatment would damage the equipment itself.

The tall ship girl and her companions gathered around the equipment. Looking at the stack of equipment they had lost and recovered, they couldn't help but show expressions of relief.

The tall ship girl stepped forward, grabbed some equipment from the pile, glanced at it, and then turned around and handed it to her companions behind her.

The tall ship girl glanced at each piece of equipment she picked up before handing it to a teammate behind her. The teammate who received the equipment immediately showed a happy expression of having found something they had lost, and then promptly put it back into their own ship equipment.

It seems that these pieces of equipment weren't distributed randomly; each of them remembered which piece of equipment belonged to them.

The tall ship girl repeated mechanical actions, handing equipment to her teammates one after another. Her eyes lit up slightly when she saw her own equipment, and she put it into her ship equipment space before grabbing the next piece of equipment.

The mountain of equipment was huge, but each piece of equipment was also quite large. After picking them up one by one and distributing them to teammates, the small mountain of equipment shrank rapidly. Before long, the tall ship girl had given away all the equipment.

The tall ship girl subconsciously reached out and touched the spot where the equipment had been piled up, only to find a layer of dust on the ground.

The tall ship girl's face stiffened as she touched the dust, then she looked at Missouri with some unease.

"What's wrong?" Missouri, standing to the side, asked the tall ship girl with a smile.

"Um... there should still be four aircraft... and two main guns..."

"Oh, that? We'll borrow it for now," Missouri said to the tall ship girl. "Is that alright?"

The tall ship girl trembled slightly, and nodded silently.

Xiaobai didn't return all the equipment. After all, although the quality couldn't compare to the equipment in the newbie naval base, there were still two gold-grade turrets among the loot. Xingzuo had been complaining recently about why she was the only one with purple turrets. She didn't like purple; it was the color of old people. So, the two turrets were given to Xingzuo. As for the other four planes, they were also equipped on CV-16. Carrier equipment is relatively rare, and it's not easy to buy good equipment for carriers from the Admiral's Guild in a short time. So, all the equipment that was stolen was used to equip CV-16.

As for the other equipment, firstly, it's definitely not as good as the equipment that Xiaobai brought from the naval base. Secondly, that equipment is limited to large ships, and there aren't many large ships in Nia's naval base, so they can't equip themselves with that equipment. Therefore, the remaining equipment has been sitting in a corner.

As for taking it back to the naval base, that's even more impossible. In the eyes of the admiral in the second chapter, these things might be very valuable, but in the eyes of both Xiaobai and Luo Lian, these purple equipment are just some "quasi-junk" items that are extremely troublesome to manage. They take up space in the yard and block the sunlight. Now that someone has come to ask for them, Xiaobai is overjoyed, so returning them is just a matter of a word.

Although the tall ship girl didn't know why Xiaobai returned the equipment so easily, she knew that getting the equipment back was already a great thing for her. As for getting the gold equipment back, she had never even thought about it.

The only slight regret is that the two golden equipment pieces were originally in the ship equipment of the tall ship girls. Now that the equipment has been distributed, most of the partners are back to a fully equipped state. Except for a few unlucky carriers who are missing a plane, I am the only one who still has two empty equipment slots.

"Don't look so disappointed. We won't take your equipment for nothing." Missouri smiled at the tall ship girl, then reached into her ship equipment space and pulled out two purple turrets, handing them to the tall ship girl. "These are the turrets that our senior replaced. Yesterday, the admiral asked Missouri to leave them here, and Missouri felt it was a pity, so she kept them. If you don't mind, you can use these."

The tall ship girl stared at the two purple turrets Missouri handed her with a dark expression.

Looking at the two purple turrets, the tall ship girl felt like she had something to say, but when she saw Missouri's harmless smiling face, she subconsciously swallowed back her complaints.

"Thank you..." The tall ship girl accepted the turret and then tossed it into her ship equipment space.

After doing all this, the tall ship girl finally let out a breath. Looking at the empty ground, she felt a sense of emptiness in her heart.

"Here's your equipment back. Would you like to continue drinking porridge?" Xiaobai asked the group after watching the tall ship girl take the equipment back.

The tall ship girl looked at Xiaobai, stood up, and shook her head at Xiaobai who was still sitting in his seat: "Thank you very much, esteemed admiral."

The tall ship girl spoke as she walked back to her seat. She looked at the white porridge on the table, thought for a moment, and then reached out and took out a red banknote, placing it on the table with both hands. "This is for breakfast. I'm very sorry for bothering you."

“…Oh.” Xiaobai looked at the paper and pen on the table and nodded.

"Um...may we be able to go back?" the tall ship girl asked Xiaobai cautiously.

Xiaobai nodded.

The tall ship girl breathed a sigh of relief. She quickly put the cloak back on and then left the courtyard with her companions.

Hurried footsteps echoed outside the courtyard and then slowly faded into the distance.

"Ah, they've gone." Some time after the tall ship girl led her companions away, one of the ship girls in the courtyard said this with a hint of loss.

"They've left." Luo Lian, who was sitting next to Xiao Bai, had also finished her porridge. She put the empty bowl on the table and repeated the sentence.

However, compared to her previous wistful tone, Luo Lian's words sounded more like a statement of fact.

"Is there any room left in our yard?" Luo Lian suddenly asked Nia.

"Huh? The place?"

"Empty room."

“Uh… there are only two or three empty rooms left, not many…” Nia said, looking down.

Nia's courtyard was quite large for the second chapter of the sea area. Almost every ship girl brought by Xiaobai and Nia's own ship girls had their own room. Even after Luo Lian moved in with her ship girls, there were still empty rooms.

"Lianlian, why are you asking this?" Xiaobai knew that Luo Lian rarely spoke nonsense, so Luo Lian must have her reasons for asking this question.

"Someone else will probably come in after a while."

"Lianlian, do you want to build a boat?"

"Hmm... As for me, it will take some time. There's no rush. Even if it's built, it's fine. I can share a room with Warspite, and Des Moines can share with the new ship girl," Luo Lian said.

"Who is the new person who moved in?"

"Who else could it be?" Luo Lian looked at Xiao Bai and smiled at her.

Looking at Luo Lian's smiling face, Xiao Bai thought for a while and roughly understood that Luo Lian was referring to the ship girls who had just left.

"Are those the ship girls from earlier?"

"Ah."

"Why did they move in?" Xiaobai asked.

"They came to ask for equipment behind their admiral's back. Judging from the fact that they were wearing cloaks, they probably tried their best to hide their identities and didn't want to make too much of a fuss, but it backfired." Luo Lian reached out and cupped Xiao Bai's face. "Xiao Bai."

"Well?"

"If you're a wicked person who does evil and is used to bullying ordinary people, and one day you suddenly kick a steel plate—a steel plate you don't even know how hard it is, but feel like you could easily break it with a little more force—and you're resting and preparing to settle scores, while your subordinates secretly go to that steel plate to apologize, and quite a few people see it, and in the end you lose all face, what would you do after that?"

"I..." Xiaobai thought for a while.

"Ah, never mind, don't answer. No matter how I look at it, Xiaobai, you're not that kind of person." Before Xiaobai could give her answer, Luo Lian let go of Xiaobai's hands.

Chapter 716 Successful Infiltration

Luo Lian released Xiao Bai, then stretched and stood up from her chair: "In short, those ship girls probably won't get away with this."

"...Is it really that bad?" Xiaobai asked Luo Lian while rubbing her face.

Luo Lian grinned at Xiao Bai, showing her teeth, and said nothing more.

Xiaobai wasn't particularly resentful of the ship girls who came to apologize. Firstly, it was easy for them to say that since it was Nia who was being targeted, not Xiaobai, she didn't feel much aversion to it. Secondly, although Xiaobai didn't know what the ship girls who came to apologize were really thinking, at least their attitude on the surface was quite sincere and they did a very good job. That's why Xiaobai agreed to return the equipment that was useless to her.

After Luo Lian analyzed the behavior of these ship girls, Xiao Bai became slightly more concerned about the situation of the tall ship girls.

"Lianlian, why didn't you tell her about this before?"

"Hmm? This isn't a bad thing for us, right?" Luo Lian said to Xiao Bai, "It's a way for everyone to find happiness."

"..." Xiao Bai pouted as she looked at Luo Lian.

The little incident at breakfast ended there. The visit of these ship girls did not disrupt Xiaobai and her ship girls' normal lives. The ship girls ate breakfast as usual, and those who finished breakfast began to prepare.

Half an hour later, Xiaobai, Nia, Luolian, and the other two left the courtyard with the prepared ship girls and headed towards the sea area of ​​the fourth node.

The fourth node in the early morning was exactly the same as before. However, when Xiaobai and his two companions arrived at the beach, many admirals on the beach frequently turned their gazes toward them.

It seems that news of Xiaobai and her friends' reverse sniping of the tall ship girl yesterday has already spread.

"What are we planning to do today?" While setting up parasols for the admirals on the beach, Warspite quietly approached Xiaobai and Luo Lian and asked them.

The question about war weariness was quite direct; she was asking whether her group should continue sniping at the ship girls like yesterday, or proceed with the normal expedition.

"Let's fight the deep sea today, it's our job as ship girls," Xiaobai said to Warspite with a smile.

“Anyway, what happened yesterday has already happened, so they should be quiet for a while,” Luo Lian said.

"Yay!" Warspite cheered happily as he ran off.

For war-weary people, deep-sea operations are exactly what they want.

The ship girls quickly got ready, and just like yesterday, Bismarck led them into the sea under the watchful eyes of the three admirals.

"Will they come today?" After watching the ship girls' figures gradually disappear into the sea, Xiaobai turned to Nia and asked.

Nia knew who Xiaobai was asking about, and she nodded: "There are many admirals in that team. If a few fall ill, there are others who can fill in."

"Oh."

Just as Nia said, after Xiaobai and the other two had been on the beach with Tirpitz for a while, a train arrived at the station, and soon several admirals with serious expressions appeared on the beach.

They looked around the beach, their gaze finally settling on Xiaobai and Nia. Upon seeing them, their expressions darkened, but they didn't make a sound. Instead, they walked away from Xiaobai and Nia to a corner of the beach.

Two groups of ship girls followed behind them, including several ship girls who had come to Nia's courtyard that morning. However, they kept their heads down, as if they had encountered something quite unpleasant.

They noticed Xiaobai, and Xiaobai and Nia Luolian also noticed these people.

After seeing familiar ship girls in the group, Xiaobai understood the identities of these admirals.

"The tallest ship girl isn't here," Xiaobai said, pointing to the group behind the admiral.

“After all, they’re all big ships, so it’s rare for someone to bring all the ship girls with large ship equipment out together,” Nia explained to Xiaobai. “They’re probably left at the naval base.”

Where are these ship girls' naval bases?

"Well, although the command authority is shared, the ownership still belongs to only one admiral, right? The ship girls will probably still live with their admirals."

"..." Xiaobai looked at the admirals who were avoiding her, and after her gaze lingered on the ship girls behind them for a while, she nodded thoughtfully.

The ship girls led by the admiral today did not search for Cleveland on the high seas. They were just on a normal expedition today, and it seems they didn't dare to provoke Bismarck again.

Because everyone chose to fight in an area with the highest concentration of deep-sea ships, Bismarck's team of ship girls encountered those ship girls a few times. Bismarck didn't mind, but those two encounters scared the ship girls quite a bit. Only after confirming that Bismarck was just a group of ordinary ship girls passing by and had no intention of attacking did the group of ship girls feel relieved.

Bismarck was not a Spartan-style training officer like Veneto; she returned with the ship girls when she felt it was time to rest.

The morning passed quickly, and before we knew it, it was afternoon.

After putting away the parasols on the beach and stuffing the small stools and other items back into their ship equipment space, Xiaobai and Nia Luolian left the beach amidst the cheerful chatter of the ship girls.

The day passed unusually peacefully. Because they were afraid of exhausting the Abyssal Fleet of the Fourth Node by exerting too much effort, Bismarck and her crew did not gain much materially today. However, Warspite got her first real battle in her life as a ship, and the combat power of Des Moines, CV16 and Constellations also increased in many ways.

Back in the courtyard, the ship girls put down their training and indulged in a relaxing sea of ​​rest.

The pleasant afternoon passed slowly, and night gradually fell. The three admirals returned to their rooms to rest, and the ship girls also quieted down.

Night deepened, the sky was dark, the moon was bright and the stars were few, and the entire coastal city of the second chapter was once again enveloped in the tranquility of the night.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

One second he was sleeping, the next he suddenly pulled off the covers and sat up in bed.

The sound of getting up was a little loud, panting, but luckily Xiaobai was alone in the house, so it wouldn't disturb anyone.

Little White opened its eyes and looked at the moonlight outside the window.

"...Hmm..." Xiaobai pondered for a moment, then slowly got off the bed.

Xiao Bai still cares about what Luo Lian said to him this morning, and is still worried about it.

Perhaps saying "I'm worried" isn't quite accurate; "curiosity" seems to be a more accurate way to express Xiaobai's inner thoughts.

What kind of treatment is that tall ship girl receiving now?

What Luo Lian meant was that it wasn't exactly a good treatment.

Xiao Bai thought Luo Lian's words made sense, which aroused her great curiosity.

Indeed, it's better to witness things with your own eyes at times like these.

As Xiaobai thought about it, she changed her clothes, pushed open the door, looked around the empty courtyard, and after confirming that no one had discovered her whereabouts, she quietly went out.

Little White reached the gate of the yard, wondering if Missouri would be there at this time, but the gate was empty and there was no one there.

After a subtle sense of disappointment, but mostly relief, Xiaobai patted his chest and then left Nia's courtyard.

This was the umpteenth time she had secretly gone out at night without telling the ship girls. Xiaobai had long since become more skilled at it than at first, and as she moved away from Nia's courtyard, she closed her eyes and gradually sank into her spiritual world.

In the realm of the mind, the will of the deep sea had long been prepared to hand over the reins to Xiaobai.

After a while, Xiaobai opened her eyes, and her gaze became sharper.

"Hoo." The deep-sea will that controlled Xiaobai's body let out a soft breath, then looked up at the sky. "It's so cold."

As the Deep Sea Will walked, a hidden spiritual force slowly spread out. This spiritual force, like a quietly flowing stream, spread in all directions at a seemingly slow but actually incredibly fast speed.

In the spiritual world, sitting in the living room of Abyssal Will, with a Deepsea Taihou in each hand, another on her lap, and a maid-outfit Deepsea Taihou on her back, Shiro looked at her behavior in real life and asked Abyssal Will standing in front of the TV with some concern: "Abyssal Will, won't this attract the attention of the ship girls and the admiral?"

You mean mental power?