I really don't have money for the ship girls.

“No… wait a minute.” The Prince of Wales suddenly remembered his experience on the first night and said, “It seems like I did have some diarrhea, which I’ve never had before.”

“That does align with my assessment; our existence requires us to adapt to the rules of another world,” Strasser said, squinting meaningfully. “However, we have too little information to draw any definitive conclusions. I still need to personally investigate and collect data.”

After he finished speaking, no one in the conference room responded. Strasser pursed his lips, implying that everyone should have understood, but as for his attitude... well, he had already expressed his feelings, so it couldn't be considered a waste of time.

“This matter certainly needs to be put on the agenda, but there are more important things to do right now.” Hood casually brushed aside Strasser’s proposal and said, “Wales, so your opinion is to proceed with Plan A of the Second Garrison Project, is that right?”

The Prince of Wales nodded and said, "That's right. There's no need to adopt Plan B in the war plan. Our intention is to create a stable logistical base, or even a retreat route if necessary. There's no need to disrupt the peace of that world."

Hood looked at the people in the conference room and said, "I agree with Wales's assessment. What are everyone's opinions?"

Amagi: "Agreed."

Company: "No objection."

Soviet Belaros: "I second that."

Yixian: "Agreed."

Richelieu: "Of course I agree. Since we're sending Wales to another world, we should naturally go by her opinion. I believe she is worthy of such trust."

The Prince of Wales, head held high and solemn, declared: “I swear by my honor.”

Bismarck nodded and said, "Then it's decided. We'll implement Plan A for the Second Naval Base. We'll prioritize the economy, establish a foothold in another world first, and then proceed with the next steps."

“Okay.” Akagi smiled, her red lips curving upwards. “Then the next step is to confirm the candidates.”

Essex retorted bluntly, "Wasn't the candidate already decided?"

"It was indeed decided, but that was before we knew about the situation in the other world. Now, of course, we should adjust it according to the current situation."

I thought Akagi would just spout nonsense, but what she said made a lot of sense. Akagi isn't one of those people who just go crazy; there's a reason she's sitting in this conference room.

The Princess of Wales agreed, saying, "Indeed, I suggest that in addition to the financial staff, another ship girl be sent to take care of the commander's daily life. Perhaps because of financial difficulties, his eating habits are not very healthy."

"The commander's health is very important..."

Glorious raised her head, her gentle eyes sparkling, before being ruthlessly interrupted by Soviet Rossiya: "Commander's health is of course very important, and the selection of personnel should still follow the original rules. Ship girls with high affinity should not be allowed to go in the early stages, to avoid them from doing anything irrational."

Bismarck chimed in, "That's right, maids aren't allowed either... Belfast, this isn't directed at you."

Belfast smiled: "I understand. Maids always follow their masters' orders, so it's not suitable for them at first."

Glorious glanced at the Prince of Wales with a disappointed expression. Wales shrugged, indicating that he was powerless to help.

The naval base was naturally united, but there were some disagreements and trade-offs over the details. The meeting lasted a full afternoon, and finally, through compromise, the list of two ship girls to go to the Commander's World in the second batch was finalized. The timeframe was tentatively set for within a month, after obtaining enough materials for the journey from the Sirens.

After the meeting, the Princess of Wales did not return to her room to rest, because she had been summoned to the science building by Frederick the Great.

"What exactly is it that can't be said in the meeting room?"

Frederick the Great went straight to the point: "You kissed the commander, didn't you?"

The Prince of Wales frowned slightly: "What do you mean?"

"It means exactly what it says. The technicians detected what happened between you and the commander when you parted ways."

The Princess of Wales narrowed her beautiful red eyes, which flashed with a dangerous light, and said in a deep voice, "I remember the technicians saying that they couldn't monitor the situation in another world."

“That’s right. It’s usually impossible to monitor, but at that time we were already in the process of teleportation, and the two worlds were connected by a passage, so we were able to catch a glimpse.” Frederick the Great stood tall and spoke in a gentle tone, “You don’t need to worry, for now only Strasser and I know about this.”

The Prince of Wales crossed his arms and said, "Why should I worry? It's just a goodbye kiss, a normal cultural custom."

"We're all on the same side, I think we can all understand what this means."

Frederick the Great and the Prince of Wales looked at each other. Her long black hair and bangs covered one eye, but could not hide her deep gaze.

Ultimately, the Prince of Wales's momentum was somewhat weakened because she was not in the right in this matter. If others knew that she had "abused her power" to get the Commander's first kiss, they wouldn't say anything, but her next visit to the Commander's world might be a long way off.

With a sigh, the Prince of Wales said, "Just tell me what you want me to do. I won't do anything excessive."

“Of course it’s not an excessive thing.” Frederick the Great said with a gentle smile, “I just need you to support my opinion when we confirm the list of those going to the Commander World next time.”

The Prince of Wales bluntly stated, "Your suggestion won't work."

"It won't be me."

Who is that?

"You'll see when the time comes," Frederick the Great said, arms crossed, leaning against the wall. "He's absolutely the right person."

The Prince of Wales remained silent, which was tantamount to tacit agreement. She stood with Frederick the Great, watching the setting sun stream in through the window. She knew that Frederick the Great, like many others, would not disrupt the overall situation of the naval base even if he had selfish motives. Moreover, as one of the major powers in the naval base, it was indeed time for the Ironblood ship girls to take over next.

"I believe it would be a reasonable choice, but there are just too many reasonable choices."

"Yes, there are too many. Who should come first and who should come later is an eternal problem."

Chapter Twenty-One: Choices in the Supermarket

Almost a month has passed since Yingtian parted ways with the Prince of Wales, and his life has gradually settled down.

Fu Ya decided to suspend her studies, and without even taking her luggage, she quietly boarded the train home.

Zhang Ze is still pretending to be dead, but since he hasn't been attending classes, he's bound to fail countless courses today. Even if he doesn't voluntarily suspend his studies, he'll still be expelled from the school.

The original Binjiang University confession wall account was confiscated, the operator was publicly criticized, and all other accounts operating under the school's name were reviewed.

Ying Tian's reputation at school is polarized. Some say he is a hero who fought against the injustice of fate, while others say he is taking the opportunity to promote himself. After all, the presence of numerous self-media outlets around the school has also caused trouble for the lives of ordinary students.

As for Ms. Shi, who was once incredibly popular, she disappeared from the internet world like a shooting star and never reappeared. Countless speculations about her live-streaming sales, modeling, or even entering the entertainment industry to act were all just conjecture. This reality only further propelled Ms. Shi onto a pedestal.

However, no one was able to interview Ms. Shi again. Zhao Man, the only reporter from Binhai TV who had interviewed Ms. Shi, later approached Ying Tian with great enthusiasm, wanting to do another interview with Ms. Shi, but Ying Tian refused on the grounds that he could not contact Ms. Shi.

Other similar invitations, even direct invitations to Ying Tian to do live-streaming e-commerce, were all rejected by him in a way that seemed to involve feigning madness. These online self-media outlets persisted for a while without success, and given the ever-changing nature of internet traffic, they eventually gave up on Ying Tian, ​​a tough nut to crack with little traffic.

As for the bizarre incidents such as being harassed by Ms. Shi's fanatical fans and being impersonated by people using the orphan's name to solicit donations and swindle money online, Ying Tian just laughed it off. All the donations received were sent back to the orphanage. They had also been bothered by various self-media before, and the orphanage director had complained to Ying Tian about it several times.

In short, the matter is now over.

Only occasionally, when Yingtian opens the game and sees the Prince of Wales in the secretary ship's position, he still feels a little dazed. Ms. Shi, like a shooting star, not only streaked across the sky of the internet, but also across Yingtian's heart.

In early April, Binjiang was still experiencing alternating periods of warm and cold weather. By the end of April, the restlessness in the air had begun to clamor through the warmth of the sun, and the short, almost non-existent spring could slip away at any moment.

Ying Tian took off the inflatable costume at the back of the milk tea shop where she worked part-time, and took a long breath of fresh air. Even though it wasn't the height of summer yet, standing outside in this mascot costume for an entire afternoon was still uncomfortable. Her black long-sleeved shirt was already soaked and stuck to her body, and now with the air conditioning blowing, she felt chilly all over.

"It's time for my shift change, so I'll head back now."

Ying Tian greeted the store manager and then prepared to leave through the back door.

"You've worked hard, wouldn't you like an iced drink?"

"No need, I brought my own water."

Ying Tian waved to the shop manager, who politely replied and then got back to work. He then walked out of the shop, unscrewed his own water bottle, and took a big gulp. The gentle afternoon sun felt wonderful on his skin.

There's an elective college Chinese class in the evening, it's quite interesting, so I can't skip it.

I've finished my linear algebra homework for tomorrow. There's a problem with my algorithm project; my secondhand laptop has limited performance, so I'll choose a simpler topic.

Next week is Labor Day. Should I take a break or start saving money? ...Maybe I should do a part-time job. What if the store manager has a change of heart and really does pay triple wages on holidays?

Lost in thought, Ying Tian didn't return to school but instead went to the large supermarket near the school gate. The supervisor who had cheated him out of five days' wages was nowhere to be found. Ying Tian had chatted with some familiar supermarket employees, who said that the president had transferred him to the Northwest region to develop the market, and he was probably counting cacti on some desert highway now.

Yingtian had only one comment on this: Good!

Good and evil are rewarded accordingly, and the cycle of karma is real. Well done, CEO! I hope your mistress gets discovered by your wife soon and your family fortune is lost. Of course, as compensation, I will only buy things from your family's supermarket during my university years.

That's right, Ying Tian plans to shop at the supermarket today to improve his meals and contribute a small amount of profit as a token of gratitude to the president. However, given that the president is not a good person due to his extramarital affair, he will not contribute too much, just a little bit.

Ying Tian stood beside the freezer, caught in a deep dilemma—

The cheapest dumplings are 4.8 yuan for 500g, which is very affordable. So the question is, should I choose pork and cabbage filling or pork and shepherd's purse filling? The cabbage is sweet and the shepherd's purse is fragrant, both are good choices. I can't give up either of them. As for having both... well, I can't afford it, and I don't have a refrigerator to store them if I can't finish them.

Ying Tian was unable to make a decision for the time being, and while he was deep in thought, he naturally did not notice the commotion around him in the supermarket.

"These dumplings are so cheap compared to others, are they really safe to eat?"

A mature and charming voice sounded behind him. Ying Tian knew that the question was definitely not directed at him, but the voice was really beautiful. Just by hearing the rising tone, he could feel the beautiful smile of the voice's owner.

So Ying Tianxia instinctively turned around and saw a tall, mature woman standing behind him. Her fair and beautiful face had a lovely lip line, and her purple eyes were captivating. She had shoulder-length light blue hair, a rare hair color that even trendy young men and women rarely chose to dye their hair, yet it looked perfectly natural on her, giving her an indescribable beauty and charm. Of course, compared to her beauty, what was most striking was her remarkably high and firm chest, which made her blue and white coat bulge, revealing only her fair neck.

Yingtian originally thought the Prince of Wales looked quite old, but she never expected to see someone even older than her. What country was this person from? He was truly gifted.

However, Ying Tian quickly realized that it was impolite of him to be staring at the spot, and after seeing the blue-haired woman's amused smile, he quickly turned his head away.

"I probably shouldn't eat them. I heard that these dumplings are full of lymph node meat or hereditary frozen meat, and the vegetables are all rotten leaves. They're carcinogenic."

As expected, the question wasn't directed at Ying Tian. A gentle, melodious female voice came from behind him on the other side, presumably a friend of the blue-haired woman.

Regardless of whether they are foreign friends or not, spreading rumors and slandering our country's food industry is intolerable to Ying Tian, ​​so he said, "It's not that exaggerated."

"Is it really not that exaggerated? Then why is the price so cheap?"

The owner of the gentle voice seemed to lean forward slightly, and Ying Tian felt a fragrant breeze coming from behind him, with warm breath blowing into his ear canal, making it itchy.

Ying Tian quickly stepped forward, turned his head, and glanced at the person who had spoken out of the corner of his eye. Sure enough, just like her voice, she was a gentle and beautiful woman with rare silver-white long hair styled into a pretty Japanese fringe. Her eyebrows and eyes were gentle, her cherry lips were pink, and the faint beauty mark under her left eye added a touch of gentle and graceful charm to her.

It's no wonder they're friends; both women have their own unique charm, yet both possess stunning beauty.

Ying Tian cleared his throat, pretending to be selecting items while saying, "The modern food industry can naturally keep costs very low. In addition, large companies buy in bulk, and their factories are located not far from the source, so it's normal for prices to be cheap. Of course, at this price, the raw materials used certainly won't be of high quality, but under normal circumstances, food safety is still guaranteed, and it's unlikely to cause cancer."

“I see,” the blue-haired woman said. “You know a lot.”

The white-haired woman smiled and said, "Amazing."

"It's nothing, it's just common sense."

Ying Tian felt uncomfortable being praised by the two beautiful women, so he decided not to choose anything and just grabbed a bag of pork and cabbage dumplings and put it in his shopping basket, ready to leave immediately.

Then Ying Tian was dumbfounded.

The blue-haired woman said, "Then I'll have this flavor."

The white-haired woman said, "This tastes pretty good."

The two of them each took a bag of dumplings from the freezer and put them into Yingtian's shopping basket.

Yingtian: ? ? ? ? ?

What does this mean?

Chapter Twenty-Two: We Were Just His Ex-Girls Who Were Played With

"I can help you carry these for a while; there are shopping baskets over there."

Ying Tian pointed to the place where the shopping baskets were not far away, and he decided to treat the two strangers with the utmost kindness.

"No need," the blue-haired woman said with a smile, her eyes slightly narrowed. "You can pay the bill at the same time."

The white-haired woman kindly suggested, "Why don't you buy a pot? You probably don't have gas in your dorm, right?"

Ying Tian's first reaction was that she was probably being scammed or set up by a con artist. The con artist was using her beauty to lower her guard and even knew that she was a student living in a dormitory. The con artist's intentions were definitely malicious.

Without saying a word, Yingtian took out the dumplings he wanted to buy, handed the shopping basket to the two ladies, and ran off to pay the bill first, regardless of whether they accepted it or not.

The two ladies looked at each other, then couldn't help but laugh when they saw Ying Tian's somewhat disheveled figure.

“St. Louis, you seem to have frightened the commander.”

"It should be a surprise... Hehe, a surprising encounter. The Commander is even cuter than Wales described."

"But he didn't get recognized, that's too much, Commander."

"After all, Wales also said that the commander has not fully accepted the facts yet, so it will depend on our efforts... Let's go, Shoukaku, let's catch up."

After paying at the cashier, Ying Tian noticed out of the corner of his eye that the two beautiful women had followed him again. His male intuition told him that regardless of whether he was the target or not, this was definitely going to be trouble, so he had to slip away quickly.

He walked in front, and they followed behind.

Ying Tian seemed to hear the two calling out to each other, but the surrounding area was very noisy, and the two beautiful women were so conspicuous that there were many people around them, so he couldn't hear what they were shouting.

Cross the road and enter the school gate. Security guard, it's all up to you now!

Then the two obviously very mature women walked into the campus of Binjiang University with ease, without even being stopped by the security guard who was known to everyone in the school.

Ying Tian was a little suspicious. It seemed that these two people might be students or teachers, and they might be joking with him. After all, he did have some fame because of what happened before, and he had also encountered people who sympathized with Fu Ya and came to harass him. Of course, it was more likely that he was just imagining things.

Regardless, Ying Tian strode into the dormitory building. In principle, girls are not allowed in boys' dormitories, so this was good; any trouble could be kept out.

"Commander, are you surprisingly a little shy?" St. Louis dressed sportily for this time travel, wearing a long coat and jeans, exuding not only maturity but also a youthful and vibrant charm.

“We should have just said it back then. Looking at it this way, maybe Akagi-senpai’s arrival would have been surprisingly effective. She would probably have pounced on her.” Shoukaku said, seemingly amused by her own words, covering her mouth and squinting her beautiful eyes. “Never mind, Akagi-senpai’s arrival would probably scare the Commander to death.”

"It's unlikely." St. Louis's beautiful eyes narrowed, thinking that given Akagi's personality, it was impossible for her to be scared to death; she would definitely eat him directly.

"It's not that bad, Commander is still very strong." In front of the Eagle Union ship girls, even though she couldn't help but want to tease her seniors from the First Carrier Division, Shoukaku knew when to stop. "So what do we do now, just call out the Commander?"