Elder brother's garrison

Page 1339

"...This is what happened before you arrived, Miss Stove Goddess." Little White explained to the Stove Goddess, giving her an awkward smile.

“New Jersey…” After hearing Little White’s words, the goddess of the hearth turned her head to look at New Jersey behind her with a subtle expression.

From the perspective of the goddess of the hearth, New Jersey remained as calm as ever, binding the ship girls on the ground like logs, ignoring their various protests against New Jersey's brutality, but unable to stop the ropes in New Jersey's hands from wrapping around them again and again.

The goddess of the hearth looked at the young girl in Xiaobai's arms.

The young girl in Xiaobai's arms trembled as she clutched Xiaobai's clothes, not daring to even lift her eyes to look at him. She burrowed into Xiaobai's arms like a frightened child. Her pitiful appearance was so conspicuous that if Xiaobai hadn't told the Goddess of the Hearth that this was the leader of the Obsidian Mercenary Group, the Goddess of the Hearth would have thought she was some innocent villager who had been caught up in this conflict.

"Uh... since she's alright now, should we take her to the police station?" The goddess of the hearth stared blankly at the trembling young girl for a long time, suddenly realizing that her prepared words were somewhat inappropriate for this situation. She hesitated for a while before asking Xiaobai.

"Huh?!" Upon hearing that the goddess of the hearth was going to take her to the police station, the young girl let out a startled scream. She clung tightly to Xiaobai, pressing her face against his chest, and making a series of frightened noises.

"..." The scene made the goddess of the hearth feel guilty.

“Miss Stove Goddess, wait a minute… you seem to have startled her a bit.” Xiao Bai patted the young girl’s shoulder, smiled at the Stove Goddess, then hesitated for a moment before explaining, “Miss Stove Goddess, actually, this is all a misunderstanding…”

"Huh? Misunderstanding?"

"Well, before you came in, I actually had a good talk with Miss Leader," Xiaobai said to the female Kitchen Goddess. "Miss Leader isn't a bad person; there was just a misunderstanding between us..."

While comforting the young girl, Xiao Bai relayed everything he had just heard from her to the Kitchen Goddess without missing a single word.

After listening to Xiaobai's explanation, the female kitchen god stared blankly at Xiaobai and the young woman in his arms, blinking her eyes.

"In other words, Miss Leader came to you, Miss Stove Goddess, to get back the money she was swindled out of twenty years ago," Xiaobai summarized to the Stove Goddess. "In terms of the outcome, although her methods were a little forceful... she was actually a victim as well."

"Tough?" The goddess of the hearth glanced back at New Jersey, who was practically binding the ship girls like rope dumplings.

“Tough.” Xiaobai nodded.

"..." The female hearth goddess and Little White exchanged a glance, sighed, and shook her head. "Alright... but let me make this clear, I've never cheated anyone out of money. As for what she told you about twenty years ago, I do have some recollection of that mercenary group contacting me every day during that period, but I had no idea they were being paid..."

"As expected." Xiaobai breathed a sigh of relief. "It seems that Miss Vestal was tricked by the finance director of the Ship Equipment Research Center back then."

"Why is it that person again..." The female Kitchen Goddess frowned, pouted, and sulked.

"Now that Miss Vessel has clarified things in person, the misunderstanding between Miss Captain and us can be cleared up, right?" Xiaobai said to the young girl in his arms, while releasing his Admiral Network to comfort the young girl's panicked and frightened emotions.

When Xiaobai's admiral network first came into contact with the young girl's body, it encountered a slight obstacle, but quickly integrated into her body. The young girl's panic and fear, under the intervention of Xiaobai's admiral network, gradually calmed down, much like stroking a cat's fur.

The young girl, clutching Xiaobai's sleeve, slowly calmed down from her trembling.

"Miss Commander, did you hear what the Goddess of the Hearth said just now?" Xiaobai asked the young girl.

“…I heard it.” The young girl swallowed, her body still trembling slightly, but her expression had calmed down considerably.

"The person who lied to your father twenty years ago wasn't Miss Vestal Goddess, nor was it me; it was someone else entirely. Actually, Miss Captain, you don't know this, but because of that liar, Miss Vestal Goddess suffered a lot over these past twenty years—both your mercenary group and Miss Vestal Goddess were victims." Xiao Bai said to the young girl, patting her shoulder. "Now the misunderstanding is cleared up, isn't it?"

“...Yes, yes…” the young girl replied softly, her head bowed.

"So, what should we do after the misunderstanding is cleared up?" Xiaobai asked gently.

"Apologize..." The young girl nestled closer to Xiaobai's arms.

"So, after doing something wrong, you should apologize promptly, right?" Xiaobai said gently, holding the young girl's hand.

"I'm so sorry..." The young girl looked up at the goddess of the hearth pitifully, her eyes filled with tears, and apologized, "I... I was wrong... Can you forgive me..."

“…Uh.” The goddess of the hearth looked at the teary-eyed young girl, then at the little white dog behind her, and scratched her head helplessly. “But…it’s fine, I don’t have to lose anything.”

"Thank you... thank you for forgiving me!" The young girl's eyes lit up with gratitude.

"..." The goddess of the hearth.

Is it the Kitchen Goddess's imagination?

Why does it feel like the mercenary group leader is so obedient to Xiaobai, like she's his daughter? Weren't they kidnappers and hostage-takers before...?

Looking at Xiaobai and the young girl, the female hearth goddess suddenly felt that this world was truly complicated.

The misunderstanding has been cleared up.

He has apologized for everything that needed to be apologized for.

The weight on my heart was lifted, and I felt completely relaxed.

Xiao Bai pulled the still somewhat timid young girl to her feet from the corner.

In the very center of the office, New Jersey had practically tied the core ship girls of the Obsidian Mercenary Group up like rope dumplings.

Xiaobai called out to New Jersey twice before New Jersey reluctantly released the rope and untied the bruised and battered ship girls one by one.

The first thing the Obsidian Mercenary Group ship girls did upon being freed was to rush to the young girl's side, anxiously asking her if she was alright, while keeping a wary eye on the calm New Jersey man, fearing that the young girl had been harmed in any way by him.

"Commander, you weren't injured just now, were you?"

"Commander, they didn't do anything to you, did they...?"

"Captain..."

The ship girls of the Obsidian Mercenary Group anxiously questioned the young girl and examined her injuries.

"I'm fine, thank you all..." The young girl thanked the ship girls, her tone much more obedient than before. She subconsciously leaned against Shiro, her small hand tugging at Shiro's sleeve, as if just being near Shiro gave her a strong sense of security. "Are you all alright too..."

"It's okay, it's okay."

The ship girls breathed a sigh of relief.

"Speaking of which, what's your name, Miss Commander?" Xiao Bai suddenly realized that he didn't seem to know how to address a young girl, so he asked her.

"My name is Lin Yueyue." The young girl rushed towards Xiaobai and stared intently at Xiaobai's face as she spoke.

"Ah... what a lovely name." Xiaobai smiled at the young girl. "Hello, Miss Yueyue, you can call me Lu Lin."

After being praised by Xiaobai, the young girl's pupils shone, and she clasped her hands together, her face beaming with excitement.

"Okay... okay! Thank you, Mom!"

"You're welcome," Xiaobai smiled.

Chapter 1720 The Frugal and Thrifty Female Stove Goddess

The atmosphere in the office fell silent instantly.

The ship girls of the Obsidian Mercenary Group looked up, staring in shock at their leader, Lin Yueyue.

The female hearth goddess looked up, staring at Xiaobai in shock.

New Jersey squatted in the center of the office, silently looking at the hemp rope in his hands.

"..."

"..."

The quiet atmosphere lasted for a few seconds.

"Huh? What did you just call me?" Xiaobai suddenly realized what was happening and stared at Commander Lin Yueyue with confused eyes.

"Mom?" Lin Yueyue crossed her arms and looked pitifully at Xiaobai.

"Mom?!" Xiaobai exclaimed in surprise. "Why are you calling me Mom?"

"I...I don't know either." Lin Yueyue lowered her head, thought for a while, shook her head at Xiaobai first, then nodded, "But I just feel like being with you is like being with my mom, it makes me feel so safe..."

"...Do they look alike?"

"Ok!"

"Really?"

"Mmm-hmm!" Lin Yueyue nodded repeatedly.

"..." Xiaobai hesitated for a moment, then suddenly seemed to remember something and quickly shook her head, "No! No! How can I be your mother... Please call me by my name, don't call me Mom..."

"Ah..." Lin Yueyue's expression turned disappointed. "Okay... fine..."

The ship girls around Lin Yueyue finally breathed a sigh of relief after hearing Xiaobai's words.

"Compared to this matter, Miss Yueyue," Xiaobai changed the subject, taking Lin Yueyue's hand and saying, "Although today's events were rather convoluted, in the end, it all comes down to that bad guy who deceived the Kitchen Goddess and your father twenty years ago. We just happened to be dealing with that matter this morning. If you don't mind, Miss Yueyue, would you like to go to the police station and provide some testimony for us?"

"Has the bad guy been arrested by the police?" Lin Yueyue was surprised when she heard Xiaobai's words.

"Well... after all, that happened twenty years ago. I'm not sure if the person I arrested is the same person from twenty years ago..." Xiaobai murmured hesitantly.

"The Finance Minister has already confessed that those were all the work of the previous minister," the Goddess of the Hearth interjected to Little White. "When we left the police station, the captain there was already preparing to investigate the previous minister."

"So it was the former minister?"

"Hmm." The goddess of the hearth nodded and said to Lin Yueyue, "The police station probably needs some evidence... Anyway, do you want to give your testimony? This might help you get back the money you were scammed out of before."

"This..." Lin Yueyue lowered her head hesitantly. She didn't seem very keen on going to the police station, but when she looked up and saw Xiaobai's concerned eyes, she seemed to be encouraged by his gaze. She nodded quickly, like a child eager to impress her parents, and said to Xiaobai, "Okay... okay! I'll try my best!"

Changchun and Yubari had great faith in the fighting prowess of the Goddess of the Hearth and New Jersey. Instead of chasing after the Goddess of the Hearth, they stopped in the open space below the office building to clean up the battlefield.

Although the office building was built to be fairly sturdy, after being hit by two missiles from Changchun, it was now teetering on the brink of collapse, a typical dangerous building. Even if Xiaobai wasn't worried about his own safety, he had to consider the safety of his goddaughter... cough cough, the safety of Miss Lin Yueyue, whom he had just recruited as a partner. She didn't have Xiaobai's physique. If the building collapsed and she fell from the roof without timely protection, her life would be in danger.

Before going downstairs, Xiaobai glanced at the group of ship girls who were barely clothed and had bruised and swollen faces surrounding and protecting Lin Yueyue.

"New Jersey, please help us get twenty quick-repair devices and distribute them to them," Xiaobai said to New Jersey, who was tidying up the rope.

"Hmm." New Jersey nodded, silently stuffing the rope back into his ship equipment space, and then took out twenty quick repair devices.

The conversation between New Jersey and Shiro is one of the most ordinary and unremarkable exchanges in the newbie naval base. After all, almost all the ship girls in the newbie naval base have at least forty or fifty spare quick repair devices in their ship equipment space. And that's not because the newbie naval base can only provide forty or fifty, but because some smaller ship types don't have that much space in their ship equipment space.

However, when Lin Yueyue, the Goddess of the Hearth, and a large group of ship girls from the Obsidian Mercenary Group heard this conversation, they were so frightened that their eyes widened.

"Huh? What? Twenty yuan for express repair?"

The female hearth goddess looked at Little White in surprise.

“Yes, I see that the ship girls’ equipment is damaged to varying degrees. Their injuries were inflicted in New Jersey. Although it was a misunderstanding and I wasn’t captured by the Obsidian Mercenary Group… But now that Miss Lin Yueyue has reconciled with us, we should at least take responsibility for their ship girls.” Xiaobai said to the female hearth goddess with a smile, seemingly unconcerned.

“No… I’m not giving a reason…” The goddess of the hearth shook her head, then looked at the ship girls of the Obsidian Mercenary Group.

really.

At this moment, all the ship girls of the Obsidian Mercenary Group stared wide-eyed in disbelief as New Jersey pulled out the rapid repair device from her ship equipment space.

When civilian ship girls' equipment is damaged, the mercenary group leader usually has to take some time to rent a repair pool from a nearby naval base for the ship girls to use. It can be said that once their ship equipment is damaged, repairing it is not only time-consuming, but also more troublesome and expensive, which is very inconvenient.

However, the rapid repair device, a powerful tool, can perfectly solve this problem for civilian ship girls.

However, despite its exceptional convenience, the rapid repair device has a fatal flaw that the ship girls cannot avoid.

That's because it's expensive.

For civilian ship girls, these are like a lifeline, a means to maintain their jobs. Even regular naval bases carefully plan their use, afraid of wasting a few. Let alone giving them to civilian ship girls. Nowadays, the quick repair devices circulating in the civilian ship girl community are all extremely expensive single-use products, and they are all priceless and unavailable. You can't buy them even if you have money.

Even the Obsidian Mercenary Group, a top-tier civilian mercenary group, has only managed to collect a dozen or so rapid repair devices after decades of collecting them. These are the kind of treasures that the group keeps at home and never uses.

Xiaobai's sudden outburst of twenty from New Jersey really startled the ship girls.

This is the ultimate gift!

"Where did you get so many rapid repair devices?" Having spent so much time with civilian ship girls, the Vesta naturally knew how valuable the rapid repair devices were.

"Ah... this..." Xiaobai looked at the expressions of the female ship girl and the surrounding ship girls, and thinking back to the scene when she first met Enterprise and Emerald, she immediately understood their thoughts. She explained to the female ship girl and Captain Lin Yueyue, "I am a regular admiral... so I have a little stock of quick repair devices... Um, you are a civilian ship girl group, repairing ship equipment is much more troublesome than for a regular admiral like me. Consider these quick repair devices as a small gift for our recent reconciliation."

Xiaobai, mindful of the worldviews of these civilian ship girls, refrained from saying that her family had so many quick repair devices that they could use them to hold rice and water or even as slippers.

New Jersey distributed twenty rapid repair kits to the ship girls of the Obsidian Mercenary Group.

The ship girls of the Obsidian Mercenary Group held the rapid repair device in their hands, their hands trembling, and for a moment they were stunned and didn't know what to say.

Although they were considered relatively senior ship girls in the fan community, they had never used the rapid repair device before. Staring at the small green dog bowl in their hands, they were momentarily at a loss as to how to activate it.

"What a waste!" Finally, it was the voice of the Vestal Goddess that brought the ship girls back to their senses. The Vestal Goddess cried out in pain, summoned her ship equipment in front of the ship girls, and then pressed the quick repair devices back into the ship girls' hands one by one. "Most of these ship girls are still green-blooded, it's such a waste to use quick repair devices! I'm right here! Let me repair them!"

After saying that, the goddess of the hearth didn't give the ship girls a chance to refute. She grabbed one of the ship girls next to her and swung her little hammer at the ship girl's rigging.

Ding ding dang dang...

As the small hammer played cheerful and lighthearted music on the sheet metal, the damage to the ship girl's equipment slowly recovered at a visible speed.

"Look, it's fixed now! What more could you want!" The goddess of the heart said with a pained expression, pulling the ship girl whose ship equipment had been repaired directly to Xiaobai's side, and then running towards the next ship girl with her little hammer.

The ship girl, repaired by the goddess of the hearth, stood bewildered in front of Xiaobai and Lin Yueyue, holding the rapid repair device.

"Huh? I'm... all fixed?!"

The ship girl stared at her ship equipment in astonishment, her face filled with disbelief.

Obsidian Mercenary Group is a top-tier mercenary group among civilians. Precisely because it is a top-tier mercenary group, the treatment of ship girls is naturally much better than that of other mercenary groups struggling to survive. They also regularly arrange for ship girls to soak in the repair pool. Therefore, the ship girls in Obsidian Mercenary Group often do not need to worry about their salaries being cut off or going without food for a period of time after their ship equipment is damaged. For this reason, they only regard the legend of the Goddess of the Hearth as a legend and have never taken it seriously.

Until then.

After the goddess of the hearth finished decorating the ship girls' ships with a few clanging hammer blows, the ship girls stared at her with wide eyes, looking at her as if she were a living Hua Tuo (a legendary Chinese physician).