Revisit Azur Lane

Now that Zhou Hezhen was tired from playing, he didn't have the mind to think about anything else. He stretched out his right hand and let Xili nimbly slip into his arms. The two of them leaned against the pool to rest. The hot spring garden was open-air, and the sky was still quite bright at this time. The azure sky was very beautiful, which reminded him of the night sky. Soaking in the hot spring here at night should be quite nice.

However, if there are no lights at night and no roof, it's more likely to feel terrifying than romantic.

"Yes, we also need to prepare streetlights."

Zhou He knew he wouldn't be taking a bath that night, but his ship girls might be interested, especially Kursk.

But I'll think about these trivial matters later.

……

After soaking in the hot spring with Yuudachi for about ten minutes, Zhou He felt refreshed and invigorated when he came out. The fatigue from today's work was swept away, which made him feel amazed. Is hot spring really that effective? It can not only remove fatigue, but also give him a buff.

Thankfully, he was wearing oversized beach shorts, which prevented Yuudachi from noticing anything amiss; otherwise, he would have had to put on a short skit recreating the hero's short sword.

"Is it the system's hot spring buff, or the buff given by Yuudachi? I'm not quite sure."

Zhou He was also puzzled as he helped Yuudachi dry her hair with a towel. As a destroyer, Yuudachi had quite impressive assets, and theoretically he would be tempted. However, he had enjoyed all the perks while taking a bath and didn't have any particular thoughts.

"Ok?"

Zhou He thought about it but couldn't come up with an answer. He'd think about it again next time he took a bath with Xi Li.

"Commander, can the hot spring water here be changed?"

Yuudachi sat on the stool, kicking her legs and looking curiously at the calm surface of the hot spring water. Theoretically, there shouldn't be a hot spring here, but Zhou He made one. So where did this water come from?

"Sure, the water here is flowing, didn't you feel it, Yuudachi?"

Zhou He explored it; although it was mysterious, the pool was indeed fluid, just like the wild hot spring pools outside.

"No."

Yuudachi is very honest; the hot springs and Zhou He together are enough to keep her from thinking about anything else.

Zhou He smiled and gently wiped Yuudachi's ears with a towel. Cats and dogs would flinch when their ears were touched, which he found very interesting. Yuudachi's dog ears were the same, and he found it quite addictive.

After resting at the hot spring, Yuudachi strode lightly across the paved road, while Zhou He carried the clothes the two had changed out of back to the command post and threw them into the washing machine. He then went back to the kitchen and replenished the refrigerator with 3 Home Coins worth of ingredients (meat, vegetables, eggs, etc.). Today they had spent 22 Home Coins and had 12 left.

"Let me check... no ship girls dropped today."

After spending lavishly, Zhou He felt a little uneasy. He opened the map and observed that everyone was starting to return. Only after confirming that no new members had joined that day did he collect his daily 9 Home Coins, bringing his balance back to 21.

Feeling better, Zhou He resumed his daily chores.

"Hey, Commander, we're back."

As evening approached, Hood's squad was the first to return to the port. Cleveland's smile was like another sun, but it was fleeting. She then touched her stomach and asked shyly, "Commander, is there any food at home? I'm a little hungry after running for so long."

"Haha, I've prepared some snacks in the kitchen."

Zhou He had anticipated this, and with a smile, he invited the three of them to go home. Of course, he also introduced the 'building' that had suddenly appeared behind the command post, his tone casual yet proud: "That's the hot spring I mentioned before. It's excellent for relieving fatigue. You should try it too."

"Huh~ a hot spring?"

Cleveland was extremely supportive; she was genuinely surprised that Zhou He had dug up a hot spring while she was out—it was simply too extravagant.

"The commander seems to be in a very good mood."

Hu De was equally surprised, but she concealed it well. What she cared more about was Zhou He. Before, Zhou He seemed to be rushing her away, but now he was relaxed and much more confident. Was the hot spring really that effective?

"Can you tell? After all, this marks the first step in the development of the port area, which is a milestone for me."

Zhou He answered frankly, "If the hot springs are already here, how far behind can the others be?"

Hu De and the other two smiled upon hearing this, and took the opportunity to praise Zhou He, making him feel quite proud.

"Speaking of which, why did Bismarck and the others take so long to return? Did something happen to them?"

Back at command post, Zhou He glanced at the map and asked Hood about Bismarck's squad, who still had at least half an hour to go before arriving home. He reasoned that their speed shouldn't be that much slower.

"They haven't contacted us; they probably took a longer route."

After Hood finished speaking, he went upstairs. Cleveland ran into the kitchen, and Hermione smiled slightly at Zhou He before following him upstairs.

"Hmm, it seems we'll have to consider adjusting the fleet based on speed in the future."

Zhou He remembered that in the game before he transmigrated, someone seemed to adjust the attack speed of each ship girl down to the smallest detail. He hadn't tried it in the game, but in reality, speed was very important and needed to be studied.

Back in the kitchen, while cooking and putting the food into the thermos, he chatted with Cleveland about their experiences that day. Soon, the Bismarck squad was about to return.

After being reminded by Zuikaku once, Zhou He would go out to greet the returning ship girls every time, spending time with his own ship girls, which he felt was worthwhile.

The sun was almost setting, leaving only a sliver of light on the horizon. Zhou He, who had come to the beach, looked up at the stars that were gradually appearing in the sky and thought about lighting up the hot springs. However, before he could browse the Home Mall, a dark shadow in the distance on the sea caught his attention.

"what?"

He squinted, watching the huge black shadow approach, and as if he had thought of something, he raised his hand and took the binoculars out of the warehouse to look over.

It was a black and red ship that had been bombed beyond recognition, and what was pulling it forward was the Tosa, Zuikaku, Bismarck, and Z23, who looked incredibly small compared to the warship on the sea.

Before setting off, he casually remarked that these four men actually towed back a destroyer for him!

I type too slowly, so I'm posting this a bit late.

This book will be available on Friday, December 29th.

This book has been written at a leisurely pace (I myself think it's slow), but there's nothing I can do about it; once I started writing, it turned out this way.

In short, it's going to be released soon. Although the book's current performance isn't ideal, I still want to try my best to write more.

Yes, it is like that.

Hopefully, people will read it after it's published.

Chapter Forty-Four: A Bountiful Harvest

The bay depth fabricated by the system was modeled after a naval port. The crippled Sirens were easily dragged in and stopped a hundred meters or so from the shore.

After parking the destroyer in a suitable position, Bismarck and the others retracted the towing equipment extended from their ship rigging and returned to the shore. Zuikaku was in the lead, and after reaching the shallow water, she directly deactivated her ship rigging. Using the last bit of buoyancy, she jumped up and landed quite stylishly in front of Zhou He, her chin raised with a proud little expression: "How about it? I said I would tow a ship back for you, Commander, this time. I didn't break my promise, did I?"

"You look very handsome right now."

Zhou He gave Zuikaku a thumbs-up and praised him a few times, then turned his attention to Bismarck and the others who had followed behind: "I heard that your horsepower has decreased, so it must have been difficult to tow this ship back, right?"

"It wasn't particularly strenuous."

Bismarck walked ashore and glanced back at the destroyer. In her memory, tugboats were something that logistics fleets were supposed to do. But after experiencing it firsthand, she understood the hardship and importance of logistics during wartime.

"Hmm, I didn't expect our horsepower to have become so low. When we were still ships, this kind of destroyer could have been carried by just one person."

Z23 felt this more deeply than anyone else. As a destroyer, she was much more aware of the logistical aspects. It was astonishing that a single destroyer required the assistance of three capital ships to recover the lost ships. The labor input and the output were completely disproportionate, making it impossible to form a proportional recovery chain.

With little memory of what happened, only the feeling of doing manual labor, Tosa shone through the sand and looked at Zhou He: "Zuikaku said that Commander, you really wanted us to recover a destroyer. The ship has been towed back. What's next?"

Zhou He felt like he was being willful after hearing this, but it was pretty much true. He had nothing to refute, so he just smiled and spread his hands: "I have some things I want to test. Tosa Bismarck and you all worked hard today. I just happened to make a hot spring today, and it's great for relieving fatigue. I also prepared some snacks at home. Z23, if you feel hungry, you can go and have a bite first."

"Ah, thank you, Commander."

Z23 blushed slightly when she was suddenly called out. She was indeed a little hungry. After bowing to Zhou He to thank him, she jogged away first. Bismarck turned around and looked at the hot spring garden behind the command post. She nodded to Zhou He and followed Z23.

"Hot springs? Wow, it's actually real."

It was already dark when Zuikaku looked curiously toward the command post and spotted the hot spring. The reason was that the hot spring park had built-in night lights, which weren't strong lights, but were still quite visible at night, something that hadn't been seen in the port area before.

"..."

Tosa glanced over there, then looked back at Zhou He: "Didn't we say we'd cut down the trees and build the house first?"

"Plans can't keep up with changes."

Zhou He smiled and said, "Although it disrupted the original plan, I think it's good that it allows you to experience the hot spring bath more quickly, right?"

This playful remark made Tosa glance at him again, then he looked away and walked toward the command post: "That depends on how good or bad the experience is."

"Well said, then I'll too~ Commander, why are you grabbing me? Do you want to take a bath with me?"

Zuikaku agreed with Tosa's statement, nodded, and prepared to leave, but Zhou He grabbed his clothes, turned around, and teased him with a smile. He then saw the latter pointing with his other finger at the dark Siren destroyer in the distance: "Take me over there to take a look."

"what?"

Zuikaku glanced subconsciously in the direction he was pointing, somewhat puzzled: "It's already very late, Commander, it wouldn't be too late to go tomorrow."

Moreover, carrying people on a voyage is a bit difficult for her now. The only place that can be considered a seat is the deck runway of her ship's equipment. She casually said, "Even if we were to go, Tosa would probably be more suitable than me. Her ship's equipment is larger and more suitable for carrying people."

As soon as Zuikaku opened her mouth, Zhou He was stunned. Why did he look for her instead of Tosa? Naturally, it was because she was easy to talk to, while he couldn't figure out Tosa at all.

Tosa hadn't gone far when he heard their conversation and immediately stopped. He turned to look at Zhou He, his cold, golden eyes radiating a chilling light in the dim light. Despite being about the same height, Zhou He could feel Tosa looking down at him, and the oppressive feeling made him break out in a cold sweat.

"Ah."

Zuikaku was somewhat perceptive, but she was also quite puzzled as to why Zhou He was so hesitant and timid in front of Tosa. So she smiled and waved to Tosa: "Tosa, you think so too, right?"

"That's true, but you just want to slack off, don't you? The Commander asked you for help, not me."

Tosa opened and closed his eyes, his tone indifferent.

"Haha, have you been discovered?"

Zuikaku also had this thought in mind to some extent, and she didn't feel embarrassed when she was exposed. Seeing that Tosa didn't seem to want to take on this task, she didn't force him. So she closed her eyes and thought about how Zhou He should ride her ship equipment, whether standing or sitting. But because the scene she imagined was too magical, the corners of her mouth unconsciously turned up.

"..."

When Tosa and Zuikaku's gaze shifted while they were talking, Zhou He paused for a moment. He thought back to how similar situations often occurred between him and Tosa in 'private' settings. When he subconsciously showed weakness to Tosa, Tosa was not very happy, but when they were having a normal conversation, Tosa's reaction was quite good.

Given his personality, could it be that they hope he can be more assertive?

Is this possible?

Faced with Tosa's aloof and introverted personality, Zhou He really didn't want to interact with her unless necessary. However, as the commander, he would inevitably run into Tosa again, and there would be similar aloof or even more troublesome ship girls he needed to interact with in the future.

He needs to cultivate a mindset of facing challenges head-on.

hiss~

Having mentally prepared himself, Zhou He took a breath, coughed lightly to bolster his courage, and spread his hands toward Tosa: "Zuikaku is right, Tosa, you are more suitable to take me on a journey across the sea. Can you take me there?"

"Have you thought it through?"