My mobile game wife came knocking.

Well, actually, while Fu Hua is unfair, she can't really be considered particularly capable.

Moreover, Ye Ming is also an Azur Lane player. As for Azur Lane, those who have played it know that as a hardcore naval warfare game that anthropomorphizes warships, the biggest characteristic of Azur Lane players is that after playing the game for a long time, their perception of Nai will be distorted by the game.

Simply put, before getting into Azur Lane, players' perception of D is usually "Wow, what a big heart!", but after playing Azur Lane for a while, their reaction to D will be "Huh? That's all?".

In Azur Lane, there's the aircraft carrier Illustrious, who's afraid to bend down to pick up a handkerchief for fear of losing her balance. Closer to home, there's the yandere aircraft carrier Taihou (Wren), who asks the commander, "Should I eat Taihou, take a bath with Taihou, or... do something shameless with Taihou?" upon first meeting her. And even closer, there's the transport ship Kashino, who climbed to the top of the new generation of Azur Lane's most voluptuous figures by stepping on the breasts of her predecessors. Living in such an environment, it's no wonder that the commander's perception of breasts becomes distorted.

Of course, it's also possible that some commanders are indifferent to European-style ships and only like destroyers like Laffey, Ayanami, and Tashkent Gaja.

With a jumble of random thoughts swirling in his mind, Ye Ming took a deep breath, turned off his computer and the lights, picked up his phone, lay down on the bed, and began to think about what to do tomorrow.

The apartment he rented was originally a three-bedroom, one-living room, one-kitchen, and two-bathroom unit. When the landlady renovated, she specially combined a small room with the bathroom and installed a large bathtub. When renting the apartment, Ye Ming immediately took a liking to the bathtub in the bathroom. As a single man, he felt it was a waste to rent a three-bedroom apartment by himself, so after viewing the apartment and negotiating the price with the landlady, he quickly signed the contract and moved in.

But now, it would be a bit awkward if Fu Hua were to come and stay temporarily.

There are only two bedrooms, but now there are three people: Ye Ming, Raffi, and Fu Hua. How should the bedrooms be allocated?

To be honest, although Ye Ming isn't a lolicon, as Laffey's commander, if there's only one bedroom, Ye Ming wouldn't be so pretentious as to insist on sleeping separately from Laffey. After all, the relationship between the commander and the ship girl is what it is, and Ye Ming wouldn't really do anything to Laffey. However, if there are uninformed outsiders present, then it wouldn't be appropriate.

Should we arrange for Raffi and Fu Hua to sleep together?

Frankly speaking, Ye Ming felt that there was also a problem with this approach.

squeak~

Just as Ye Ming was lying on the bed, frowning and deep in thought, the bedroom door suddenly creaked open. Then, the door was pushed open a crack, and Raffi, with disheveled white hair and wearing pajamas, tiptoed into the bedroom barefoot and stood in the dark in front of Ye Ming's bed.

Unaware of what was going on, Ye Ming closed his eyes and decided to pretend to be asleep to see what Raffi was up to.

But the next second, he was startled by Lafite's bold move.

"Commander~ Commander~?"

In the dimly lit bedroom, a little girl in loose pajamas softly called Ye Ming's name. After confirming that Ye Ming was still fast asleep, the little girl tilted her head and thought for a moment. Then, she gently stroked Ye Ming's cheek with her small hand, bent down, and awkwardly and clumsily moved closer to Ye Ming.

Ye Ming was startled by Lafite, so he quickly raised his hand to his face, then pretended to have just woken up and hummed twice before slowly opening his eyes.

"Hey? Raffi, what are you doing here? What's wrong? Is something the matter?"

Ye Ming asked, feigning surprise, while reaching out to turn on the light.

Lafite pressed down on Ye Ming's right hand as he turned on the light.

"Don't turn on the lights, it'll ruin the atmosphere, Commander. Look at me, look at Laffey here."

The little girl's languid voice carried a hint of seriousness. As she spoke, Raffi released Ye Ming's right hand, straightened her chest, lowered her head, and stared intently at Ye Ming with her beautiful wine-red eyes. She put one hand to her lips and reached into her pajamas with the other, rummaging for a moment before slowly pulling out a gift box tied with a red ribbon from her chest.

"Commander~, do you want to eat this box of chocolates~, or Lafite~, or..."

The little girl drawled, "We still want to dip the Lafite in chocolate and eat it together~"

Chapter Ten Opening Lightning Strike

Little Lafite, despite making terrible movements and delivering terrible lines, had a completely bewildered look on his face. His innocent appearance didn't stir any emotion in Ye Ming; in fact, it made him want to laugh.

Seeing Lafite's expression, Ye Ming knew that the innocent Lafite probably didn't know what doing this meant, let alone the consequences. The little girl must have learned it from someone else.

Snapped!

Ye Ming turned on the light, sat up in bed, and looked at the little girl, suppressing a laugh: "Tell me, who did you learn that from?"

"Huh? Lafite's imitation isn't very good?"

Laffey was deeply shocked and lowered his head. After a while, he confessed, "Laffey learned it from Prince Eugen. I also saw Taihou practice many times in the Commander's office."

"Prince Eugen? Taihou?"

Ye Ming was stunned.

Based on the voice lines in the game, Prinz Eugen and Taihou do seem like ship girls capable of doing such a thing.

As a heavy cruiser of Ironblood, Prinz Eugen is a very proactive type. Ye Ming remembers that when he touched Prinz Eugen in the game, she would ask, "Is this all you've got?" If he touched her specially, she would say, "Okay, now it's my turn to taste you~". In short, she is a very proactive Ironblood older sister. After marriage, she would even say in a coquettish way that she suddenly felt weak all over and needed the commander's kiss to get up.

Taihou goes a step further than Prinz Eugen; she's not only proactive but also a severe yandere.

The lovely Raffi is a completely different type from them.

“Prince Eugen is Prince Eugen, Taihou is Taihou, and Laffey is Laffey. Laffey is different from them. What they do may not be suitable for Laffey.”

Ye Ming didn't want his Raffi to become a yandere, but he also didn't want to hurt the little girl.

"Lafite is the cutest Lafite, unique, there's no need to imitate them."

Ye Ming spoke cheesy words without changing his expression.

"Even if the Commander says that, Laffey won't be happy."

Raffi pursed his lips, his eyes forming crescent moons.

"Commander, a gift."

Lafite handed the gift box to Ye Ming.

Ye Ming reached out and took it, only to realize that it was the gift box of chocolates that Lafite had specially chosen at the supermarket. Lafite had been carefully carrying it himself the whole way.

"This was specially bought for me?" Ye Ming was surprised.

Laffey nodded: "This is Laffey's Valentine's Day chocolate this year. Although it was bought with the Commander's money, Laffey personally selected it after a long time, so it can also be considered Laffey's homemade chocolate. Happy Valentine's Day, Commander."

Valentine's Day is long gone, why are we still celebrating it now?

Ye Ming wanted to laugh, but couldn't.

He remembered. In the game, Laffey was his first married ship, accompanying him through the initial beginner phase. In Ye Ming's heart, Laffey always held a special place.

There's a very interesting mechanic in Azur Lane: placing a ship girl in the secretary ship interface will increase her affinity. On Valentine's Day, the ship girl placed as the first secretary ship will send you Valentine's Day chocolates, which the commander can receive in the warehouse.

Although Ye Ming usually puts newly built ship girls in the secretary ship position to increase their affection, every year on the day before Valentine's Day, Ye Ming would change the secretary ship to Laffey. For three consecutive years, Ye Ming received Valentine's Day chocolates from Laffey.

But in the fourth year, he quit the game. Before quitting, Laffey was not the first secretary ship he had.

Now, long after Valentine's Day, in the real world, Lafite has personally delivered Valentine's Day chocolates for the fourth year.

His Lafite always remembered this.

How could Ye Ming not be moved by this?

"Lafite." Ye Ming hugged the little girl tightly, feeling his heart healed by her.

"Commander, can Laffey sleep with you tonight?"

Little Lafite nestled in Ye Ming's arms, her voice languid.

"Laffey likes the Commander's scent."

"Yes, of course."

At this moment, how could Ye Ming let his beloved Raffi down?

And so, Lafite ended up in Ye Ming's bed.

Ye Ming turned off the light, and the two of them talked about the past in bed until late at night. When Raffi fell asleep without realizing it, Ye Ming, whose eyelids were heavy, yawned, covered Raffi with the blanket, and fell into a deep sleep.

At 9:30 a.m. the next day, when the girl named Fu Hua couldn't get through on the phone and opened the door with the key given to her by Ye Ming's mother, this was the scene she saw.

The bedroom door was half open. Inside the bedroom, on the bed, a young man named Ye Ming and a petite little girl were sleeping in each other's arms. The little girl's white hair was spread over the two of them, creating a rather beautiful scene.

The girl was stunned.

Chapter Eleven: Love Stories of the Bakumatsu Period

"His illness is tuberculosis, which I infected him with."

The girl named Okita Souji whispered, her absurd answer causing Yae Sakura to widen her eyes in disbelief.

Yae Sakura almost instinctively wanted to ask why, but when she noticed Okita Souji's amber eyes, which were filled with inexplicable emotions, she involuntarily shut her mouth.

The girl named Okita Souji had a look in her eyes that seemed to be both reminiscing and wistful. It was the same look in the eyes of Okita Souji in the village of Yae in Shinano during the Sengoku period. Whenever Yae Sakura questioned that man about his past, he would always shake his head with a light laugh and not say a word. He would just look into the distant horizon and show the same look in his eyes as Okita Souji did now.

At this moment, for some reason, Yae Sakura felt a little jealous of the girl in front of her.

Okita Souji didn't notice Yae Sakura's unusual behavior; she was already lost in her memories of the past.

"The late Edo period in Japan was an unprecedentedly turbulent era. The arrival of the Black Ships in 1853 forced open Japan's long-closed doors, causing the entire country to experience violent upheavals and clashes in both thought and system, plunging it into a chaotic world."

The so-called chaotic world is like a whirlpool where great rivers converge. Everyone in the chaotic world is like the silt and sand in it. The survival, fate, ideals and ambitions of countless people are churning, merging and colliding here.

"This was also the last glorious era when individual martial prowess could stir up the winds and clouds. Those who wielded swords did so for their ideals, for their loyalty, or for their personal ambitions and future. Countless swordsmen used their will, blood, and lives to compose one magnificent story after another."

"He and I lived in that era."

“He was an abandoned baby that Master Kondo found by the river. He trained with me in the Tennen Rishin-ryu swordsmanship from a young age. He was a very strange person. How should I put it?”

Okita Souji frowned slightly: "Before I met him, everyone I met, whether they were samurai in a dojo or poor people on the street, whether they were laughing or excited, always seemed to be carrying invisible shackles, making it impossible for them to feel relaxed. But he was completely different."

"His temperament is different from everyone I've ever met. He has a high talent for swordsmanship, but he often finds ways to slack off, and he always tries to drag me along. When I ask him about it, he always says things like, 'Sir, times have changed,' or 'What's the use of practicing swordsmanship so hard if all you get is 25% critical damage to your teammates?'"

"But as everyone grew up, he started to focus on swordsmanship again. When I asked him why, he shamelessly said something absurd like, 'I'm practicing swordsmanship not for myself, but so that I can protect the strongest and invincible Miss Okita in the future...'"

"At that time, I was obsessed with kendo. To be honest, from the beginning I thought that someone with his personality could not achieve much in kendo. But later I realized that I was wrong. Once he made up his mind to do something, he would unleash a focus and diligence that would make anyone take notice."

"For more than ten years, apart from the routine training, he would shake the big tree with me three thousand times every day, without interruption, regardless of wind or rain. From the initial shaking to the later real sword test, I have gradually gotten used to his presence. Just like eating, drinking, nurturing the sword and wielding the sword, he has become a part of my life."

“In his spare time, he often told me things like, ‘The shogunate will surely fall, and following the shogunate will not end well,’ and ‘As long as you cling to the anti-shogunate faction at the right time, you can live a life of ease.’ I knew that he did not want me to join the shogunate like Kondo and Hijikata, and he did not want me to get into trouble.”

"But I still joined Mr. Hijikata's team."

As he said this, a look of pain or regret flickered in Okita Souji's eyes.

Okita Souji knew her own heart very well. The reason she joined Hijikata and the others, besides the camaraderie among fellow disciples, was another important reason—she wanted to go further and witness the splendor of the Sword Saint realm.

For a swordsman who is devoted to the sword, what could be more fascinating than the way of the sword?

The way of the swordsman is not something that can be achieved through empty talk or arduous training. The only two sword saints in Japanese history both went through countless wars, forging the path to the realm of sword sainthood with blood and fire.

"Climbing to the next level of swordsmanship is every swordsman's instinct. I never thought I would regret this decision, but in the end, I still regret it."

"Because he also joined the Ronin group."

"In that turbulent era, we fought our way from Edo to Kyoto, forging the illustrious reputation of the Ronin Group as the foremost swordsman group of the late Edo period with the blood and lives of countless swordsmen. In the turbulent Kyoto, we together accomplished a series of astonishing feats, such as the assassination of Serizawa Kamo and the bloody battle at Ikedaya, becoming the most renowned swordsmen in the newly formed Shinsengumi. At the same time, we also became lackeys of the shogunate, bloodthirsty executioners."

"Then the shogunate began to collapse, and I contracted tuberculosis."

Okita Souji will never forget the conversation she had with that man on the night she contracted tuberculosis.