Elder brother's garrison

Page 1818

"..."

As Xiaobai scrolled through the comments, he found that the later ones were mostly repetitions, various complaints, and nostalgia for past Spring Festival Galas.

"Sigh, Miss Luming isn't going to the Spring Festival Gala because she's getting medical treatment at my house, and Sister Dahe and the others aren't going to the Spring Festival Gala because they're spending the New Year at my house..." Xiaobai held her phone, looking at the screen and talking to herself. When she got to this point, she suddenly smiled helplessly, "...Even if I told people online this, they probably wouldn't believe me."

Xiaobai rolled over in bed and continued browsing the internet for a while.

Time often flies when surfing the internet, and before a novice realizes it, the scenery outside the sky has already darkened.

The satisfaction of surfing the internet was accompanied by a slight sense of emptiness. Xiaobai sat up on the bed, stretched, put away her phone, and left the room.

The living room of the villa was decorated with lanterns and colorful decorations.

The ship girls pulled out large red lanterns from somewhere and hung strings of all kinds of red lanterns in various corners of the living room. They also pasted bright red couplets all over the walls. When Xiaobai first walked into the living room, looking at the walls full of red blessings, she even had the illusion that she had accidentally entered a lively temple fair.

"Huh? Admiral, you're down here!" Fubuki ran past Shiro, clutching a sugar figurine, then quickly stopped and turned back to greet the happy Shiro. "Admiral! Look! This is a sugar figurine that Akagi-neechan made for me!"

"Wow..." Xiaobai nodded with a smile.

Fubuki skipped and hopped, bringing the sugar figurine in her hand to Shiro, gesturing for Shiro to lick it a few times.

Just as Xiaobai was about to lick the sugar figurine, his gaze suddenly froze when he focused on it.

The sugar figurine in Fubuki's hand is lifelike, sketching a rather familiar face with just a few strokes.

"Huh? Isn't that me?" Xiaobai exclaimed in surprise.

"Yes, yes!" Fubuki said contentedly, holding up the sugar figurine. "Akagi-neechan put in so much effort to make the sugar figurine look like you, Admiral!"

"Uh..." Xiaobai looked at the sugar figurine helplessly.

The sugar figurine version of Xiaobai is actually a half-body portrait. In the portrait, Xiaobai is wearing a cartoon version of a dress, shyly covering the loose skirt, revealing a pitiful and charming appearance.

In any case, making Xiaobai lick a sugar figurine like this is still too challenging for her.

"Admiral, won't you try some? It's very sweet!" Fubuki asked Shiro.

"I...I'm not hungry..." Xiaobai smiled wryly, grasped Fubuki's hand, and pressed it down. "Fubuki, you eat."

“The sugar figurine won’t fill you up…” Fubuki expressed a hint of dissatisfaction with Shiro’s refusal. She mumbled an explanation, but did not force Shiro to taste the sugar figurine. “Alright then… I’ll eat it myself.”

Under Xiaobai's watchful gaze, Chuixue picked up the sugar figurine with both hands and stuck out her pink tongue to lick it.

The hard sugar coating gradually melted under Fubuki's tongue, turning into strands of sweet juice.

Under Xiaobai's watchful eye, the sugar figure gradually melted into a wretched state.

"Mmm! It's delicious! It smells like flowers!" Fubuki said happily to Shiro. "Admiral, you're really missing out if you don't try this!"

"..." Xiaobai looked at Chuixue's smiling face and blushed.

Xiaobai rubbed Fubuki's head and made up an excuse to send Fubuki away.

Little White quietly approached the kitchen door and peered into the kitchen.

The spacious kitchen was now packed with people, with many ship girls wearing white hats and white gloves, eagerly watching a pot of syrup that emitted a strong, sweet aroma.

Under the watchful eyes of all the ship girls, Akagi picked up two slender bamboo skewers and dipped them into the pot.

"The key to making sugar figurines is, first and foremost, having a steady hand. Secondly, before drawing, we need to have a general overview of the work we've decided on... For example, the admiral we've decided to make this time is a small and cute girl, so we need to choose the size of the sugar figurine from the beginning..."

As Akagi picked up sugar cubes from the pot, she explained to the ship girls beside her.

The ship girls beside them listened intently, nodding repeatedly.

Even Xiaobai noticed that Miss Luming was among the nodding ship girls, listening attentively to Akagi's explanation and humbly learning.

Chapter 2508 Nerve Drug Nine

"Why is Miss Luming here too..." Xiaobai, who was peering through the door, looked at Luming with a wry smile.

The ship girls in the kitchen were enthusiastically playing with sugar figurines. Seeing the joyful scene, Xiaobai didn't want to go in and disturb them.

Xiaobai shook her head and eventually left the kitchen.

However, as soon as Xiaobai turned his head, he found three ship girls sitting on the sofa in the center of the living room.

The three ship girls were sitting on the sofa with their legs crossed, eating sunflower seeds and watching TV. When Xiaobai approached them, they all looked over and greeted him.

"Hey, Admiral, you're down here." Yubari waved to Shiro while munching on sunflower seed shells.

"..." The female stove goddess chewed on peanuts and looked at Little White without saying a word.

"Aren't you going to play with the girls in the kitchen, Admiral?" Mutsu asked Shiro with a smile. "I heard that Akagi-nee is making a sugar figurine of you, Admiral?"

"Um... I think I'll pass." Xiaobai gave the three ship girls a wry smile, then sat down next to them. "Um... aren't you going?"

“We have more important things to talk about,” Yubari said slowly, bending down to grab a handful of sunflower seeds and handing half to Shiro.

"Oh?" Shiro looked at the sunflower seeds that Yubari handed over, somewhat curiously. "You guys... are you talking about Miss Shikamei's illness?"

"Huh? You noticed that, Admiral?"

"I can't think of anything else you three would talk about if you got together."

"Hahaha!" Yubari burst into laughter, patted Shiro on the shoulder, and said to her, "As expected of our admiral! You're so smart!"

"It's alright..." Xiaobai scratched her head sheepishly, then asked with clear eyes, "So, what's the condition of Miss Luming that you were just talking about?"

“Yes, after a month of recuperation, Miss Shikamei’s health had actually recovered to its best state during the Spring Festival.” Yubari exchanged a glance with the female hearth goddess and Mutsu, then turned to Shiro and said, “The female hearth goddess and I were just discussing when we can begin Miss Shikamei’s final treatment surgery.”

"Oh! The final treatment can begin now?" Xiaobai asked in surprise, her hands clasped together.

“Yes.” Yubari, the goddess of the hearth, and Mutsu all nodded.

"That's great! Miss Shikamei is completely out of danger now." Shiro stood up happily, smiled slightly at Yubari and the goddess of the hearth, "Thank you, goddess of the hearth, Yubari, I'll tell Miss Shikamei this good news right away!"

"Hey, Admiral, don't rush!" Yubari quickly reached out and grabbed Shiro when he saw her about to leave.

"Huh? What's wrong?" Shiro stopped and looked at Yubari curiously.

At this moment, Yubari's expression was not as vibrant as before; instead, she seemed to be burdened by something and looked somewhat sullen.

"Hmm... We were just thinking about this... Admiral, please sit down." Yubari pondered for a moment, gave Shiro a bitter smile, and then gently patted the seat next to her.

"...Is there something you're having trouble saying?" Xiaobai paused for a moment, but still obediently sat back down in her seat.

“It’s not a problem with any unspeakable secrets…” Yubari cracked open a sunflower seed, pondering how to explain to Shiro, “If we only consider it from a treatment perspective, Miss Shikamei’s final treatment should go smoothly… however…”

"but?"

“Let me speak, Yubari.” The female hearth goddess gently patted Yubari’s thigh and took over the conversation.

"Okay! Come on." Yubari tilted her head back and rested her head on the sofa.

"Admiral, it's like this." The Vess sighed, looking at Shikamaru surrounded by the ship girls in the kitchen, then turned to Shiro and slowly said, "Regarding the cause of Shropshire's treatment... As you know, Admiral, the reason Shropshire fell to the point where she needed our treatment to prolong her life was because the ship equipment energy originally contained in her body completely went berserk and began to frantically corrode her physical body, right?"

"Yes," Xiaobai nodded.

"And our method for saving Shropshire is to have you, Admiral, use your abilities to devour the rampaging energy within her body," the Vesta Goddess added.

"Is there anything wrong with this?" Xiaobai asked, puzzled.

“There’s nothing wrong with it. In fact, you could say it’s the only way in the world.” The Vesta shook her head at Little White. “However… the ship’s equipment energy has been completely absorbed, which means that Shropshire has completely severed its connection with the ship girls.”

"Huh?" Xiaobai was a little confused when he heard this.

"Admiral, have you ever thought about this?" Vestal asked Shiro, "While there aren't many retired ship girls, they're not so rare as to be completely extinct. So why is it that only Shropshire has become a big star?"

"Uh...acting talent?"

“Talent is definitely a very important reason,” the goddess of the hearth laughed, but quickly her smile faded as she said seriously, “The reason why Shropshire became such a great star is also partly because of the incomplete dismantling I did to her.”

“…Oh?” Xiaobai sat up straight and looked at the female stove goddess seriously.

“Compared to ordinary ship equipment dismantling, incomplete dismantling is a dismantling surgery that first seals the ship equipment energy into the ship girl's body before performing the ship equipment removal,” the Vestal Goddess said earnestly to Xiaobai. “Although this is a last resort, in a sense, it's not entirely a bad thing for Shropshire. For example, the ship equipment energy sealed into her body, although it's more like a bomb inside her, is precisely because of the energy that even after losing her ship equipment for a long time, Shropshire can still maintain her ship girl-level beauty. For example, her skin is still as smooth and moist as a ship girl's, her appearance is still beautiful and flawless, she won't have dark circles under her eyes no matter how late she stays up, and her body will be very healthy…”

The female Kitchen Goddess counted on her fingers as she spoke to Xiaobai, and then summarized her points to Xiaobai.

"In short, it's precisely because Shropshire still possesses ship-equipment energy within her that she continues to maintain her ship-girl beauty," the Vestal said to Shiro. "And once we perform the final surgery on Shropshire, and the energy within her is completely drained by you, Admiral, then Shropshire's body will completely lose the influence of her ship-girl power. From then on, time will leave its mark on her body, and as she ages, her skin will gradually become rough, just like a human's..."

Little White listened blankly to the explanation from the female Kitchen Goddess, blinking her eyes in a daze.

"I see..." Xiao Bai pondered for a moment, then asked the female hearth goddess, "Then... what if I don't absorb all the energy?"

"Miss Luming will die. Probably."

"It's all sucked dry..."

“She won’t die, but if she does, Shropshire will truly become human,” the Vesta said regretfully. “Although I’ve often said before that her current state is similar to that of a human, this time she has completely become human… The term ‘ship girl’ has nothing to do with her. She will age like a human and thus drift further and further away from us.”

“Aging…” Xiaobai murmured, her gaze shifting to the kitchen.

In the kitchen, with the help of the ship girls, Lu Ming carefully lifted the bamboo skewers from the sugar pot.

As Lu Ming held up a piece of candy, the ship girls around her clapped and cheered for her.

Faced with the kindness of the ship girls, Shikamaru, who was surrounded by them, managed a shy yet satisfied smile, looking exceptionally happy.

Xiao Bai looked at the scene and fell silent.

Xiaobai couldn't even imagine what Luming would look like as an old lady.

"Does Miss Luming... know about this?" Xiaobai asked the three people beside her, her gaze fixed on the kitchen.

“That girl from Shropshire is much smarter than she looks.” Mutsu’s voice came from behind Xiaobai. “She probably already knew this would happen the moment she broke the seal and regained her power.”

"Then... how long can Miss Lu Ming's surgery be postponed at most?"

"It won't be long, Admiral," the ship girls' voices rang out again. "At most, no more than a week, the ship equipment energy within her body will start to slowly go berserk again, eroding her physical body."

"..." Xiaobai turned her head and asked the ship girls with hope, "Is there really no other way?"

"Admiral, this is already the best solution," the ship girls said regretfully.

"..." Xiaobai remained silent.

"So we were just discussing what time to choose for Miss Luming's final treatment surgery." The ship girls said to Xiaobai, their voices somewhat low. "Sigh... I feel that talking to Miss Luming about this during such a festive time as the New Year is a bit of a spoilsport for her."

Little White held its head, looking regretfully at the ceiling.

Is it really just a matter of accepting reality...?

Although it's better than death, the thought of a beautiful girl like Miss Luming becoming an ordinary human being after this surgery, her appearance gradually fading with the passage of time... a subtle sense of reluctance and heartache welled up in Xiaobai's heart.

Sigh... If I could, I really wouldn't want Miss Shikame to become human...

If I were to become human...

If I were to become human...

Xiao Bai leaned his head on the sofa, looking at the kitchen with some regret.

Just then, Missouri's figure flashed past Xiaobai's eyes.

Little White silently watched Missouri.

then.

Suddenly, Xiaobai's eyes widened significantly.

"what……?"

"Wait... speaking of which..."

Xiao Bai sat up abruptly, muttering as she opened her ship equipment space and began rummaging through it.

The three ship girls beside him looked over curiously.

"Admiral, what are you looking for?"

"I...I'm looking for something that I've kept for a very, very long time..."

Xiao Bai answered, and then, in front of everyone, took out a medicine bottle from his ship equipment space.

It was a crystal bottle about the size of a finger, containing a red and white capsule.

Upon seeing the capsule, both Yubari and the goddess of the hearth were stunned.

"Admiral, could this be...?"

"Ah."

Xiao Bai held up the medicine bottle and nodded to everyone.

—This is Xiaobai's nerve medication.

Chapter 2509 The Final Surgery