I, Azure Commander!

Does that mean we can do whatever we want to such children at home?

Feeling the director's gaze gradually becoming dangerous, Lin Xiao also coughed lightly, quickly put down the two children, and in order to divert attention, he said in a serious manner: "Of course you can, but don't take too much at once. After you finish looking, the commander can bring you to buy more."

"OK, all right."

Ximu nodded obediently and pulled her still dizzy sister Chuchun to the next shelf to buy books.

"correct……"

When I was halfway there, I heard the voice of a certain scumbag commander behind me, "Don't buy too many storybooks. The commander doesn't have that much time to read stories to you."

"All right……"

Ximu seemed a little disappointed, but she also knew that the commander's job was not easy. She also had to accompany those older sisters. It was good enough to read stories to them occasionally, but she couldn't read to them every day.

But you can always spare some time once a week, right? That's worth looking forward to! For the children, perhaps the happiest thing is to sit on the commander's lap, lean against the commander and listen to him tell stories...

Chapter 89: You're not really getting married to the destroyer, are you?

Chuchun and Ximu, two good children, went to the bookshelf to pick books. Although they said they were buying books, they were children after all, so they were mostly interested in story books, especially those with lots of pictures. They loved reading them and also liked to let Lin Xiao read stories to them. It would be best if they could sit on the commander's lap and listen to the stories. They could lean back and lean on the commander. At this time, the commander would often stretch out his hands and put them around their waists. The two little cat girls liked the feeling of being surrounded by happiness very much.

It was not until the two children came to the shelf and disappeared from his sight that Lin Xiao shifted his gaze and looked at the other children. Their hands were full of toys. He told them not to take too many, but in fact, when the children really came to such a paradise with toys everywhere, how could they remember his words?

But actually it doesn't matter, they are just some toys and books, they can't be too expensive. Even if a child takes five, six, seven or eight toys, it would only cost one or two thousand yuan, or two or three thousand at most, not much more expensive than clothes. Even if it is more, this little money is nothing for a ship girl like Peter Strasser.

After all, he is the director of the Maritime Administration, so his salary and benefits are quite good. Although Lin Xiao doesn’t know the details, he estimates that his annual salary must be at least tens of millions, right?

After all, the annual subsidy for a captain-level commander is more than 10 million, and that for a general is basically over 100 million. In short, as the director of the Maritime Administration, he will never be short of money. Even if he is short of money, it would be hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars to buy better equipment. A few thousand or tens of thousands... basically is not considered spending money.

Soon, the children came back with toys and books, gathered around her, and when they saw Peter Strasser paying the bill, there seemed to be light in their eyes, and they all looked at her with gratitude and admiration.

The world of children is so simple. Of course, the people who buy toys for them are cool and nice. At this moment, she is the second best person in the world. Well, the first is of course the Commander...

Peter Strasser looked at the children's infectious innocent smiles, and a warm current seemed to flow through her heart. What she had experienced with the ship girls in this port in the past two days was something she had never felt before.

How should I put it? It really feels like a new world has opened up...

"How about it, aren't the kids cute?"

Seeing the smile that appeared on Peter Strasser's lips, Lin Xiao said to her half-jokingly.

"That's true... However, regarding your overly close relationship with the destroyer, I think it's necessary to notify the Military Police and have them conduct a thorough investigation."

"Um, then that's not necessary, right?"

Lin Xiao's mouth twitched suddenly and he waved his hands repeatedly.

"Ha ha……"

Seeing his reaction, Peter Strasser chuckled, "Don't worry about it, it's just a joke."

"That's fine, that's fine..."

"Ok?"

"Um?!"

The two of them suddenly cried out in surprise at the same time. Peter Strasser's eyes seemed to sharpen instantly. "You're not really marrying a destroyer, are you?"

"No, how could it be possible?"

Lin Xiao immediately put on a righteous look and flatly denied: "My love for little Lolita... for children is just out of care and love. It is out of emotion and within the bounds of propriety. I have definitely not done anything weird!"

"From emotion?"

"It's just a proverb, a description, I think you should know..."

"really."

Peter Strasser nodded, and neither side spoke again, and the topic ended there. As for what the truth was, as the director of the Maritime Administration, he would not easily suspect a commander without any evidence.

Since the other party has denied it and it seems that there is no problem, just believe it.

As a veteran ship girl, I understand some truths very well. I can't always get to the bottom of everything. If the water is too clear, there will be no fish. Many times, it's enough as long as things look okay on the surface.

After buying clothes, the children also got the toys they wanted. Snacks and New Year's goods had been bought almost all in the past few days, and there was nothing else they needed. Looking at the time, it was almost noon, so Lin Xiao took the ship girls out of the mall, and then went to have a high-end seafood buffet according to the planned schedule.

Because we booked the whole place, we spent a lot of money and the ingredients were all top-notch. Plus, there were no outsiders to disturb us, so the meal was very enjoyable, especially for the ship girls in the family who had big appetites. They all ate until their bellies were full, especially Yuudachi. After the New Year, she would face the punishment of not being able to eat meat for a long time, so she ate the meat with extra enthusiasm, as if she wanted to eat up all the meat that she couldn't eat later in advance.

Lin Xiao was also somewhat amused by this, but he didn't say anything. If the child likes to eat, then what's wrong with eating more? As long as the food is not wasted, it's fine.

The friends in the port area had a great time having a big meal together. Lin Xiao once again took on the responsibility of feeding the children. Of course, Sirius, as a maid, also naturally began to fulfill her duty of feeding her master. And Sheffield helped Lin Xiao feed with a look of disgust.

A maid who says one thing but acts another. Her sharp tongue is only slightly better than that of a tsundere. She is not popular these days. However, this girl is actually smart. She has a sharp tongue on weekdays, but when it comes to the critical moment, she can come up with any seductive words at will, and she is not inferior to any proactive girl.

Of course, to trigger such a hidden attribute, some conditions are probably needed. First of all, being alone is a must. Sheffield is actually very thin-skinned, and the right atmosphere is also required...

Without thinking too much, I took the ship girls to have lunch again. In the afternoon, I took the children to the amusement park for a walk. The children in the port area always had to go out on the attack, and even if they didn't go out on the attack, they had to stay on standby in the port. Before the commander left, they had never even left the port, let alone the amusement park. Naturally, they had never been there before. This was their first time.

So naturally they had a lot of fun. The Kancolles were not ordinary children and they didn't know fear. Some of them didn't even fasten their seat belts when riding the roller coaster. As a result, they were hung upside down in the air halfway through the ride and fell directly to the ground with their heads on the ground, scaring the staff so much that their faces turned pale.

Fortunately, the ship girl had a strong head and was not injured, but it still hurt a lot and she cried directly...

That was not all. Afterwards, she was naturally scolded by Lin Xiao and several sisters in charge of the port area. She apologized while crying and sobbing.

With the previous experience, Lin Xiao did not forget to remind these destroyers who lacked common sense to pay attention to safety. Unknowingly, an afternoon passed so quickly...

Chapter 90: A Warm New Year's Eve Dinner

"Commander, isn't it time to go back?"

When Noshiro walked up to Lin Xiao and said this, Lin Xiao realized that the sun had already set and a red glow shone down from the horizon, dyeing most of the sky orange.

"what time is it now?"

"It's already past six o'clock..."

Noshiro looked at her watch, inadvertently revealing the white ring she was wearing on her ring finger.

"It's time to go back then."

Lin Xiao nodded, and while calling on the older girls to find the children at home, he looked around and asked, "Where are York City and the others?"

Little Gaga was still playing on the seesaw not far away, but Lexington and Yorktown were nowhere to be seen. As well as Sky Eagle, the three big foxes, Akagi, Akagi and Kaga, were all missing.

"Some people left a while ago, um... about half an hour ago. They asked me not to disturb the commander for now."

"so……"

Lin Xiao remembered that there had indeed been such a plan before, so he asked the girls to go back and prepare tonight's dinner, which was their Hong Kong area's New Year's Eve dinner.

Although everyone ate a lot at noon, there is no rush to eat tonight and the ingredients have been processed and prepared in advance. However, because it is the New Year’s Eve dinner, the preparations are relatively rich. There are many dishes to make and it will take a while to finish them.

While they were talking, the remaining girls had almost all called the children back and counted their heads. There was not one missing, because as some of them had gotten into trouble over the past two days, the children were now more well-behaved and no one dared to act naughty.

"By the way, um...Miss Peter, are you coming tonight?"

"I……"

She did not participate in many entertainment activities in the amusement park. Peter Strasser, who was standing aside, was suddenly asked a question and was obviously stunned. Logically speaking, this was someone else's New Year's Eve dinner in the port area. It was fine to eat and go shopping together, but if she, a free ship girl, still participated in the reunion dinner, it would seem a bit ambiguous.

only……

Logically, I should have refused politely, but somehow, when the words of refusal came to my lips, I suddenly found it difficult to say.

Recalling today's experience, Peter Strasser's mind suddenly emerged the scene of himself returning home silently after rejecting Lin Xiao and staring at the empty living room in a daze.

"Well, why don't I go too..."

In the end, she still chose to accept the invitation without any backbone. It wasn't that she was afraid of being alone. Wasn't that how she had been in the past? But... compared with the experience of the past two days, if she suddenly returned to the original loneliness, the gap would be a bit too big.

After all, it's a holiday, and it wouldn't be like this at other times - Peter Strasser convinced himself in this way and finally gave an affirmative answer.

"Okay, then I'll trouble you to help drive again, because a few of the ship girls have gone home, and we just happen to be short of one person to drive. If you want to go back, you can only take a taxi first, but it's not easy to get a taxi at this time..."

Lin Xiao didn't think so much about it. He just wanted to find a driver. As for whether Peter Strasser would attend the New Year's Eve dinner or not, it didn't matter to him. It all depended on the other party's wishes. If she wanted to attend, that would be great, and he didn't think there was anything wrong with it. If she didn't want to attend... then she didn't want to. Even if she was the director of the Maritime Administration, he would have to have a good relationship with her, but he didn't have to curry favor with her. He could just go with the flow.

----------

When Lin Xiao brought the children back home, bursts of fragrance came from the room that had been prepared for the New Year's Eve dinner, and several plates of exquisite dishes were placed on a super large round table.

Fortunately, the living room is big enough, otherwise there would be no place to put the large round table that was specially customized and assembled to seat more than 40 people.

Looking at the clock on the wall, the time was a little after seven. At this moment, St. Louis walked out of the kitchen with a dinner plate in his hand and placed it on the round table. He looked up and saw Lin Xiao, and immediately smiled and said, "Commander is back? It's almost ready. Let me think... We can eat in about twenty minutes."

"No hurry, I'll take the children to wash their hands first."

As Lin Xiao spoke, he picked up a little girl and called on the other children to follow him, wash their hands first, and then go to the table.

Peter Strasser stood aside, silently watching this lively and warm scene, and for a moment he even felt like he was part of it.

But, there are still some differences...

After all, she was still a free ship girl, not a member of this port area. Those lovely children would sweetly call her Sister Peter, but she was still an outsider after all, and would basically always be an outsider. It was impossible for her to truly integrate into this port area...

If you think about it carefully, you may feel a little regretful, but actually, it seems that you don’t have that many regrets. Maybe it’s because it has existed for too long, and there are always many things lost, so you gradually get used to it.

There will always be times like this, when you suddenly feel a little emotional and realize that your thoughts are no longer young... That's what life is all about, people always have to play the role they are supposed to play, and rarely are they purely themselves.

Perhaps many people have already forgotten what their true selves are like in the repetitive days. This is not special even for ship girls. In fact, it is precisely because they are ship girls, and because of this extra busyness and loneliness, that they are more likely to lose themselves.

Isn’t this also the origin of “degeneration”?

I didn't think about it any further. No matter what, under the bright lights, watching the children sitting down obediently in their seats one by one, that faint feeling of being moved still lingered in my heart and did not dissipate.

I have to admit that this port area really has a warm feeling, a real sense of "home". Even an outsider like Peter Strasser can feel it very clearly.

So I suddenly felt that Nuremberg and Heinrich had found a very good and suitable port area...

She also went to wash her hands. Her two good sisters were still arranged on both sides of her. Seeing that they were obviously more integrated into this environment and happier than herself, Peter Strasser couldn't help but smile knowingly. He had a better understanding of Lin Xiao, the "European Emperor" commander.

Although luck might really exist, and he was indeed a bit too lucky, but at least for now, this guy seemed to be worthy of his luck and was indeed a very good commander.

Chapter 91: Collect the entire illustrated book?

If you think about it, it’s actually a bit funny, right?

Through these two days of observation, Peter Strasser obviously got to know Lin Xiao better - a lazy guy who never does his own work and leaves everything to his secretary. He is idle all day long, and apart from playing with the children, he is fiddling with a laptop computer... In short, he is not doing his job properly, and he doesn't do anything that can be called serious work.

How dare you keep saying that your family member is slacking off? Aren't you not even a bit better than him?

But even so, it does not prevent him from being a very good commander. It is not an exaggeration to say that he is the best commander Peter Strasser has ever seen since his birth.

He cares about his ship girls more than anyone else and completely treats them as his own family. It's as if he has no private life at all. He devotes his whole heart to them. This alone is already quite rare and precious.

Not to mention his strong sense of responsibility towards the ship girls, he is also very much loved and liked by the ship girls, he is also humorous and easy-going, he doesn't put on airs, he is handsome, and he has many, many advantages...

I have to say that if you exclude any personal feelings and simply judge a commander based on some criteria to choose his own destination, most of the ship girls would be happy to join his port.

No wonder he is so lucky and has so many ship girls.

Luck certainly exists, but if a person is brilliant and has made great achievements, it is definitely not just luck. It may also be due to hard work, or his own qualities, or he has a pair of awesome parents...

Even being a commander is no exception. As long as your luck is not too bad and your family has enough money for you to squander and build, you can definitely own a pretty good fleet.

Of course, Commander Lin Xiao's situation was still outrageous no matter how one thought about it. Looking around, the whole table was full of shipgirls, which was already a spectacular sight. It was hard to imagine what it would be like if he could find all the shipgirls back. Not to mention that he would not only find the existing shipgirls, but also a European emperor of this level would find new shipgirls every now and then...

Sometimes, Peter Strasser really wanted to complain: "Why don't you just collect all the ship girls in the entire ship girl encyclopedia?"

But if you think about it carefully, this is a bit too exaggerated anyway. Some ship girls are only one in the whole world. Even if he can collect 80% or even 90% of the ship girls, although it is outrageous, it is still within the range of common sense. As for 100%... It's impossible, absolutely impossible!

Putting aside other things, she had never heard of the birth of a second Peter Strasser in the world!

Peter, who was eating in the lively atmosphere while daydreaming, was finally pulled back into the atmosphere of the banquet by Heinrich. He and the ship girls around him, not only Heinrich and Nuremberg, but also some other girls or children, had been in contact with each other for the past two days and had become more familiar with each other, so they could always talk a few words.

As for Lin Xiao, although he wanted to be more polite in his hospitality, unfortunately, he obviously didn't have the time to do so. The children at home alone were enough to keep him busy...

Fortunately, Peter Strasser didn't care about these things and didn't want any hospitality at all. Everyone just sat together to eat and chat, and this atmosphere was already very good.

Soon everyone had eaten and drunk their fill, and they were all very tired after playing all day, especially the children. Many of them had already started to doze off. Even Yuli, who was usually very noisy at night, seemed to have little energy. Lin Xiao quickly asked them to take a bath and go to bed.

The same goes for the older girls. Although they don’t go to bed so quickly, they also want to take a hot bath quickly and then lie down on the bed comfortably to rest.

However, there is a slight problem -

"Are you still going back? At this time..."

Lin Xiao looked at Peter Strasser who was getting up and about to leave, frowned and said, "It's so late, it's dark outside, it's not convenient to drive, and I don't have to go to work until the next day or the first day of the new year, why don't you stay here?"

"...No, I'd better go back."

Although he hesitated briefly, Peter Strasser was obviously still determined to leave.

"Okay, if Jianchibai wants to leave..." After all, she is not our own ship girl. There is nothing wrong in trying to keep her to show concern, but we can't force her to stay.

"Peter, the commander is right. It's so late and you live so far away from here. There's no need to go back, right?"

Prince Heinrich also spoke up, persuading his old friend, "Anyway, these are just houses, and it's not a port area. You can live with me and Nuremberg. There are only the two of us in our house, no one else's."