Daily life with the ship girl

"Yes, the admiral's cooking skills are the best in the port area. Even Pinghai and Lexington learned their skills from the admiral. Don't stand. Sit down first. I'll get some tea. As for the snacks, the admiral will prepare them quickly."

"Oh." Galatea looked incredulous, but seeing her sister's expression, she didn't ask any more questions.

Lin Xian breathed a sigh of relief. Her sister was usually carefree and sometimes outspoken. She was worried that her sister would ask some embarrassing questions after getting familiar with Senior Helena, so she took her sister's hand and sat down, then said politely:

"Thank you for your hard work, Senior Helena."

"It's okay. Our house is a little messy, please don't be surprised. By the way, you don't have to be too restrained. We don't have so many rules in our garrison, and the admiral is not a very rigid person."

Helena looked at Lin Xian who seemed a little restrained, she smiled, then picked up the teapot and walked to the water dispenser.

"Helena, I heard what you said." Li Ran was in the kitchen, listening to Helena's words, he felt relieved and in a much better mood. Although he was in trouble last night by the deep-sea raid, fortunately the crisis on the Mishima side had been resolved. He was fiddling with flour at this time, and then jokingly said to Helena outside the living room.

Helena continued as she drew water:

"You see, the Admiral is not that serious and rigid."

Li Ran shrugged, while Lin Xian and Galatea watched the conversation between the two without too much scruples, and their doubts deepened.

Galatea's eyes rolled around. While Helena's back was facing them, she glanced around the living room. Then she saw the rectangular dining table, which was filled with nautical charts and some documents that had not been put away yet. She was a little curious:

"Senior Helena, what are those things on the table?"

It was too late for Lin Xian to stop it. This question was a bit rude. After all, they were guests. Some of the things in the host's house, especially the things on the table, were related to the military of the garrison. She pulled her sister's hand and said quickly:

"Don't be offended, Senior. My sister didn't mean to ask."

"It's okay." Helena filled the teapot with hot water, then turned back to look at the nautical charts and surveying tools, as well as the scattered manuscript papers on the dining table. She walked while holding the teapot and said:

"Those should be where the admiral and his men held their combat meeting last night. Feel free to look around. There aren't many secrets anyway."

Helena said, then she raised her voice a little and shouted to Li Ran in the kitchen:

"Admiral, it should be okay to show Lin Xian and the others the sea chart, right?"

Li Ran kneaded the flour into dough, and then pinched some cute little animals. He was going to make cookies. When he heard Helena's words, he didn't stop moving his hands, and subconsciously answered:

"It's okay. It's okay as long as she's Helena's friend."

Helena got the reply, and then said to Lin Xian and Galatea:

"The admiral has given permission, you can look at it at will."

Lin Xian watched as her sister impatiently stood up and walked to the dining table. Due to her ladylike reserve, she could only smile apologetically at Helena, who was sitting opposite her in the main seat:

"My second sister is so rude."

"It's okay. We all have to fight against the deep sea, so it's inevitable that we are interested in military matters, especially sea charts. I think this is what your sister is curious about."

"Well, to be honest, when we were hired ship girls, the commissions we earned were not enough to buy decent sea charts. Sea charts are strictly controlled commodities, and we cannot buy them even if we have money."

"I see. You told me another very important piece of information. How about this? I will ask the admiral for you later to see if I can get you some spare sea charts. By the way, if you come here this time, when will you return to the Nanyang war zone? Or do you want to go somewhere else?"

Helena had heard that Lin Xian wanted to come to her port area when she left the Nanyang war zone, but after all, they should have places they wanted to go too, so she took this opportunity to express her doubts.

"Senior, if possible, can you let us stay in your port for a while? I want to train with you, so that I can better protect my sisters in the future." Although Lin Xian found it a little difficult to say, after fighting with Helena, she knew very well that as light cruiser girls, if they wanted to protect themselves on the ocean, in addition to improving their own strength, they should find an admiral like Helena.

However, Lin Xian did not want to look for an admiral, and the four sisters had no plans to look for an admiral for the time being, so after much deliberation, Lin Xian could only think of this compromise.

Helena thought about it for a while, and then remembered that her port area just happened to be short of manpower, so she made a cup of hill black tea for Lin Xian, and then said:

"Of course you are welcome. By the way, I can help you talk to the admiral and ask you to accept our employment as a hired ship girl. It just so happens that the number of foreign merchants in the three islands under our port area has increased recently, so you can also accept some commissions.

As for resource replenishment, if you don't mind, you can go to any dock on our Xiguang Island to get it. Of course it's not free, but the price will be lower than other places. You can also use the repair dock at any time. I and other sisters just need to tell them. What do you think?"

Lin Xian was moved when she heard Helena say this. After all, her request seemed a bit excessive. However, she did not expect Helena to give her such a good plan. She did not know how to describe her feelings at this moment. She just stood up and respectfully performed the etiquette of the nobles of Country E:

"Thank you very much, Senior Helena. On behalf of Fleet K, Lin Xian would like to express the highest respect to you and your admiral."

Helena looked at Lin Xian who was so serious, and a smile appeared on the corner of her mouth. She saw the shadow of her sister Brooklyn in Lin Xian.

I thought to myself, maybe all sisters in the world are like this.

Helena stood up gently, walked to Lin Xian, and motioned her to raise her head gently, then pretended to be a little angry and said:

"Since you all call me senior, I have to take care of you. If you continue to be so polite, I will get angry."

"Senior..." Lin Xian murmured, and then she watched Helena take her hand and sit down. Only then did she react and hurriedly wanted to thank her again.

"I told you not to be polite, otherwise I will be angry."

Helena gently covered Lin Xian's mouth and looked out the window:

"You are a sister, and you are so considerate of them. Why should I refuse your request?"

Lin Xian was stunned for a moment, then looked at Helena's profile. In addition to admiration, she also felt adoration for her.

Chapter 262: The little thoughts in the cookies

Li Ran put the cookies into the oven and set the timer. He yawned. He hadn't slept all night and now he felt very sleepy.

After all, he had spent the entire night sorting out the information that Leipzig and Emden had told Yixian before they set out to reinforce Island A.

He marked several coordinates on the nautical chart, but they were all just suspicious targets.

The deep sea that attacked this time also seemed to come from unknown waters, but he had met Pachina before, and she told him that she was able to meet Li Ran with the help of the deep sea. In other words, the deep sea that attacked the port this time was probably not the same group of deep sea as the previous ones.

As Li Ran took off his apron, he felt that he seemed to have found a crucial clue.

But there is too little information available now.

Without much follow-up intelligence, it was difficult for him to be sure whether the deep sea that attacked their location came from the unknown waters in the east.

"So annoying."

Li Ran couldn't figure it out and could only comfort himself in his heart that maybe this time the deep sea just wanted to attack his port area.

After all, Lexington had said, operations in the deep sea were rarely possible with any regularity.

However, it was precisely because of the lack of regularity that Li Ran was so concerned about last night's attack.

If we look at last night's events in context, it's clear that the Deep Sea had a strategy.

This was Li Ran's intuition as a soldier, and subsequent developments also confirmed Heze's point.

Why was Li Ran so sure that Deep Sea’s attack was premeditated?

In fact, it is very simple. He sorted out the situation last night. After he received Bismarck's request for help, there were only a few ships left in his port area that could be dispatched. Leipzig and Emden were the last guarantees of the port area, and they were the eyes of the port area.

Li Ran couldn't stay calm in that situation. It was Bismarck's first request for help, and he couldn't stay calm, so he immediately ordered Leipzig and Emden to attack.

After Leipzig and Emden left Xiguang Island, he was almost surrounded by the deep sea that had suddenly attacked him last night. If Helena had not returned to the port, he would have been in danger.

If it was just a coincidence in time, he would not care. The point is that the information Yixian got from Leipzig and Emden was that when they were attacked, the other side was not like ordinary deep sea. They even suspected that the ones who attacked them might be the ship girls from other naval bases.

However, this was too absurd. Not to mention the geographical location of Xiguang Island, there was also the Leiming Garrison nearby. It was obvious that Li Ran had seen the other side's ship girls before, so it was impossible for him not to recognize them even at night.

Therefore, after excluding the Thunder Garrison, the problem returned to the starting point.

Li Ran scratched his head. He could only be sure of one thing now, that is, last night's attack used the strategy of frontal harassment and surprise attack from behind.

It is certain that whether Helena won or Bismarck reported that there was no danger, the crisis was resolved.

However, being targeted like this at this time, Li Ran couldn't feel good at all.

The assassination attempt more than a month ago had already made him brush shoulders with the dangerous god of death once, and the problem this time was even more serious. No matter who the enemy was, it was obvious that the purpose was not just against him, but it seemed that they had intentions towards Xiguang Island.

Of course, all of this is Li Ran’s own speculation, and conspiracy theories are necessary at a time like this.

He has already agreed with the seven governors that the plan of exploring unknown waters will probably be implemented at the beginning of the year.

This is probably all Li Ran could guess about last night. He felt a slight headache and it was not a very pleasant experience to stay up all night.

"Ding……"

The beeping sound from the oven brought him back to reality. He listened to the laughter of Helena, Lin Xian and Galatea outside and could only put these speculations aside for the time being.

He took the cookies out of the oven and carried them out of the kitchen with his heat-insulated hands, his face calm again.

"Sorry for the wait, these are the cookies I tried to make, I hope you like them."

Li Ran smiled, then sat down next to Helena and said to Lin Xian and Galatea:

"You're welcome, try it."

Galatea looked at the cookies of various shapes with sparkling eyes, and then looked at her sister pitifully.

"Since the senior said so, we won't be polite." Lin Xian found it a little funny, but she had just chatted with Helena and knew that Li Ran didn't like guests to be too polite. In fact, she was also looking forward to whether Li Ran's cooking skills were as good as Helena said.

When Galatia heard her sister say this, she put down the teacup in her hand and picked up a piece of bear cookie impatiently.

It was a little hot to the touch, but the ship girls were not afraid of that. She looked at the brown cookie and was a little curious:

"Senior, what does this taste like?"

"This one has a licorice flavor. Fireflies and the others sometimes come back from the three islands these days, and they often bring some food ingredients bought from the sea merchants. I heard that this licorice is brought from the sea merchants in the Far East. I don't know if it suits your taste."

"Hmm..." Galatea nodded and put the cookie into her mouth with a little trepidation. She found that it tasted surprisingly good. The light licorice flavor hit her taste buds, and the sweetness that followed mixed with the licorice flavor, mixed with the heat from the oven. She couldn't help but praise it:

"Delicious, so delicious."

Lin Xian knew her second sister's preferences. She loved snacks, but there were not many snacks that she could say were delicious. She picked up a small piece of cookie skeptically. It was light yellow in color and gave off a hot egg and milk aroma. She took a bite like a lady, and then her eyes lit up.

The light smell of eggs and milk mixed together, making people feel as if they were in a sea of ​​milk and eggs. She quickly ate the rest of the 7, then looked at Li Ran's questioning expression and said quickly:

"It's delicious. I like it very much. I didn't expect Senior Li's cooking skills are so good."

"That's good, yawn..." Li Ran breathed a sigh of relief, and sleepiness suddenly came over him, and he couldn't help yawning.

Helena knew that her admiral was an ordinary human being, and he would definitely be tired after not sleeping all night. After all, humans are not like ship girls, so she quickly persuaded him:

"Admiral, why don't you go upstairs and rest first, and leave the port affairs to us."

"How can this be possible? Lin Xian and the others just arrived..." Li Ran was about to continue speaking, but when he saw Lin Xian and Galatia looking at him, he was stunned.

Then I heard Lin Xian say seriously:

"Senior Helena is right. If you feel tired, go and rest first. You don't need to worry about us."

"Okay then, Helena, for lunch, you can ask Lexington to cook. I'm going to take a nap. Call me back around three or four in the afternoon."

Seeing how considerate they were, Li Ran had no choice but to nod. He was really sleepy now.

After watching Li Ran leave the living room and walk upstairs, Helena withdrew her gaze and looked at Galatea with an ambiguous expression. Her cheeks were slightly red.

"What's wrong? Is there something on my face?"

Galatea picked up another cookie, put it into her mouth with satisfaction, and said:

"Helena-senpai's admiral is a very gentle person, no wonder he showed such a gentle expression, which surprised me."

"Gentle?" Helena was stunned. It was the first time she was asked such a name.

Normally Helena is actually quite strict. As the head of the intelligence department, she is sometimes very serious when teaching intelligence courses, and the destroyers all respect her very much.

"Well, Senior Helena is actually very gentle, otherwise, Senior Li would not have made such thoughtful snacks. I can feel it from these cookies." Galatea is a snack lover, and she blinked mischievously at this time.

Helena was stunned. Is the heart in the cookies?

She picked up a cookie curiously and put it gently in her mouth. The sweet and crispy taste made her feel as if all the fatigue from the battle was relieved a lot. She really felt that there seemed to be some strange things added to the small cookie.

This is a feeling, just like what Galatea said, it is the admiral's intention.

Is the Admiral concerned about me?

A smile unconsciously appeared on Helena's lips.

When Lin Xian saw this scene, she felt a little envious of Li Ran. He was able to make Senior Helena show such an expression. Senior Li, what kind of person are you?

Chapter 263: Kent's Recognition of the Master and Big News

While Li Ran was resting, Island A was already in a frenzy.

The purpose of this deep-sea attack was clear, which caused the original plan of the merchants to withdraw to Island C to be stranded.

Many businessmen are prepared to die at any time.

However, the ship girls of the Xiguang Naval Base not only saved their property, but also prevented the deep sea from invading the A Island Pier.

So when Bismarck and others returned to port, the merchants felt like they were dreaming, and a few brave businessmen ran out to greet them at the first opportunity.

However, Bismarck only asked them not to leave the port easily for the time being, left Leipzig and Emden to deal with these merchant representatives, and took the other ship girls to the repair dock.

The repair dock on Island A was a bit crude, so Bismarck imposed martial law immediately. After all, taking a bath in the canal was the private property of the ship girls.