Shipgirls and Salted Fish Commander, Port Survival Guide

"Huh!?" Jing Su was taken aback. Wasn't this a bit too drastic a change of topic?

"You've worked so hard for so long, come on over and have a good rest. Leave the rest to me~" Hu Teng had calmed down by now. The resentment he had just felt had quietly dissipated, replaced by inner peace.

Hu Teng suddenly realized that it had been a long time since he had been able to express his emotions so freely. As the secretary ship, Hu Teng and the others had done their best and used every method they could think of to maintain the port area after Jing Su went missing, but they still could not prevent the port area from splitting apart.

Over the years, feelings of regret, distress, and sadness have weighed on her like mountains, making it hard for her to breathe.

Compared to the other ship girls, Hu Teng was hesitant to meet Jing Su. When Jing Su first appeared on the port's ring road, she noticed him and was overjoyed, thinking she should go find him right away. But when she stepped out the door, she hesitated.

Hu Teng was scared~

She was afraid. When they first met, Jing Su asked about the current situation in the port area, and she didn't know how to answer.

The answer is that the port area is now fragmented.

Hu Teng couldn't bring herself to say the answer. She didn't dare look at the disappointed expression on Jing Su's face; that expression would make her feel so guilty that she wanted to drown herself.

Later, Jing Su revealed that she had lost many memories. While Hu Teng was stunned, he was also secretly relieved. Since Jing Su had forgotten everything, she wouldn't be held responsible for failing to protect the port area.

But soon, Hu Teng became angry at herself for having such an irresponsible thought. She thought that as the secretary ship, she had already failed in her duty by not protecting the port area, and yet she wanted to shirk her responsibility.

Hu Teng was so overwhelmed with guilt that he couldn't bear to face Jing Su.

This is also why Hu Teng, despite being the first ship girl to encounter Jing Su and having the greatest advantage, did not do so when they first met, even though she was the first one to meet Jing Su and had the advantage of being able to persuade her to join the Ironblood faction.

Ultimately, it's because he's afraid to face Jing Su.

Now, Hu Teng felt relieved. The self-blame and guilt that had been building up inside him dissipated without him even realizing it, even though Jing Su hadn't done anything. She had simply been chatting and talking to him when they were together.

But even with just that, Hu Teng already knew that Jing Su wasn't the type to hold anyone accountable. He was just scaring himself. It had nothing to do with whether Jing Su had amnesia or not. Even if Jing Su hadn't lost his memory and still remembered what happened in the port area, he would still act the same way.

'Having been separated from the Commander for so long, I was worried he would forget us and wouldn't be able to fit in. Turns out, it was me who forgot how to interact with the Commander!'

"Ahem, Hu Teng, I'm here. If possible, please be a little gentler~"

By the time Hu Teng came to his senses, Jing Su was already lying on his lap, turned to the side with her eyes closed, looking like she was ready to risk everything.

"Hehe, Commander, don't worry, my skills are top-notch~"

Chapter 305 The Things That Have Been Overlooked

"Ouch, what happened to the promised excellent technique!" Jing Su covered her ears and cried out in pity.

"Hehe, good technique doesn't mean it doesn't hurt~" Hu Teng packed up his tools and said softly, "Commander, your ears are too sensitive. Come to me more often in the future, and I'll help you get used to them."

"I guess I should clean my ears more often."

"Come on, if you do this a few more times, my ears will turn into sieves! This has happened so many times already!" Jing Su was on the verge of tears. "Also, you can't clean your ears too often, it's bad for them!"

"But it's so relaxing, isn't it?"

"Where did the stress relief come from?! The whole process scared me to death!"

"I mean, I feel very relaxed!" Hu Teng packed up his tools, a slight smile playing on his lips, his once cold eyes now radiating tenderness.

"Cough cough, you, don't look at me like that, it's scary~" Jing Su blushed when Hu Teng stared at her like that, and quickly turned her head away, not daring to look at Hu Teng again.

Today, Jing Su finally understands what it means to have a smile that can launch a thousand ships.

Beneath her cool and eccentric appearance lies a gentle and passionate nature.

"Hehe~" Hu Teng rolled his eyes at Jing Su, then took out a box and handed it to Jing Su, saying, "Go back and apply some medicine every day. Come see me in three days, and I'll get you a nicer one~"

“...Okay~” Jing Su took the ointment helplessly. This girl really likes to put all sorts of weird things on herself.

'Well, she's still our own daughter, and naturally favored!'

This is how Jing Su comforted herself.

"Dingling bell~"

Just as Jing Su was thinking about whether to go get something to eat, the phone rang. It turned out that Hu Teng's break time had come, and the command center had re-established contact with the front line.

At this moment, Jing Su and Hu Teng looked at each other, clearly neither of them wanted to answer the phone!

"Hmm~" Hu Teng nodded, pointing the horn on his head at the phone, signaling Jing Su to come over.

"Hmm?" Jing Su shook her head and made a sound, gesturing for Hu Teng to come over.

"Hmm!?" Hu Teng opened the drawer, took out a needle, tilted his head, and looked at Jing Su with a smirk, his threat obvious.

"Um..."

Jing Su had no choice but to give up and quickly ran to answer the phone.

"Combat Command Center, this is Jing Su. What's up?" Jing Su got straight to the point after answering the phone.

"Hey, it's Honey! Honey~ Honey~" Cheers came from the other end of the phone. The sound was so loud that it hurt Jing Su's ears. After all, she had just had her ears cleaned and had been tormented by Hu Teng. Now, any slight vibration in Jing Su's ears was excruciatingly painful. This was why Jing Su wanted Hu Teng to answer the phone.

"Ahem, why are you shouting so loudly?" Jing Su muttered to herself, then asked, "So, is something happening at the front lines?"

"Well, nothing too serious. I don't know what's going on with the Sirens today, none of them are attacking. The reconnaissance teams I sent out can see Siren warships searching. I haven't had any battles for a long time, it's so boring, so I called to ask what Honey is up to~" Garden's cheerful voice rang out.

"Garden, you even lied to me? I answered the phone. Do I need to repeat what you just said? Hurry up and tell me what it is. If not, I'm hanging up~" Jing Su rolled her eyes. Did you really think I couldn't understand the subtext? If you really came to see me, you wouldn't have made such a commotion. My ears, no, my head, are buzzing. I still have tinnitus.

"Ahem, Honey, you recognized me~" Garden's voice was clearly a little embarrassed. After a moment of silence, Garden stammered, "Um, Honey, where did you go this morning? Um, weren't you supposed to be on duty today, it's just..."

"Hey, Garden, if you can't speak properly, let me do it!" Before Garden could finish speaking, an angry voice came from the other end of the phone. Garden exclaimed, "Hey, hey, don't take it from me! I haven't even finished talking to Honey yet..."

Then, another silence fell, followed by heavy breathing from the other end of the phone. "...Why don't you come to the garden yourself? I... I can't bring myself to say it!"

"..." Jing Su was a little helpless. What was going on? Were these guys really going to the front lines to fight? This damn relaxed feeling, if it weren't for the occasional Siren cannon fire, Jing Su would really think they were going on a picnic.

"Um, Commander, anyway, I just wanted to ask what you meant by that mass message you suddenly sent this morning." After another round of commotion, a ship girl with a clear voice finally spoke up, asking a question that all the ship girls in the entire port were concerned about at the moment.

"Oh, this~" Jing Su immediately understood. At the same time, she felt Hu Teng's resentful gaze. She turned her head and saw Hu Teng pouting. When he noticed Jing Su looking at him, he quickly returned to normal, turned his head away, and seemed not to care about her anymore.

'Oh, that explains why Hu Teng didn't want to answer the phone. If I'm not mistaken, she must have received quite a few calls this morning asking about this issue. Judging from the messages in the group chat, Hu Teng probably didn't tell anyone about Belfast's situation. It must have been really tough for her.'

However, given Hu Teng's personality, the fact that he was questioned to the point of being unable to bear it shows that this phone call was truly...

"To put it simply, I went to be with Belfast. She's encountered a slight problem." After organizing her thoughts, Jing Su finally decided to give a brief explanation of what had happened between Belfast and little Belfast.

Of course, Jing Su consciously omitted the part about her pregnancy.

We can't omit this part. Jing Su still vividly remembers Hu Teng's exaggerated expression this morning. Even after explaining Belfast's situation, she was still tormented by Hu Teng. This shows just how terrifying the issue of having a child is for a ship girl.

Jing Su was worried that after he told them about it, the ship girls at the front line would stop fighting altogether and all run back to see what was going on with their own eyes.

Judging from Hu Teng's reaction that morning, Jing Su knew that this was entirely possible.

However, even though Jing Su had deliberately omitted the key information, he still couldn't figure out what the appearance of a new ship girl in the port area really meant.

"What! Commander, you said a new ship girl has appeared in our port!?" A sharp bang came from the other end of the phone. This time, it wasn't just ringing in Jing Suzhen's ears; it almost made him faint.

It was only then that Jing Su realized just how piercing a ship girl's voice could be when she exerted all her strength.

"Huh!? Say it again!? What is it? Ship girls? New ship girls? New ship girls have appeared in the port?" The questioning and arguing were clearly audible.

Immediately, various sounds of fighting erupted from the other end of the phone.

"Enough!" Jing Su knew things would get out of hand, so he roared. Silence fell quickly on the other end of the phone. "Watch your words. It's not that a new ship girl has appeared; it's that a ship girl has returned. Her name is Belfast. She's always been a member of our port, but she only recently appeared."

Jing Su felt it was necessary to explain this matter to the ship girls, but she didn't know how to say it for a moment.

Long ago, Jing Su discovered that the ports and ship girls in this world were different from those he had encountered in the game; to be precise, their worldviews and backgrounds were different.

As mentioned earlier, due to various official matters, there are contradictions in the game, and many things cannot be investigated in depth. After the port area was allowed to develop on its own, it became what it is now.

Overall, the current port area is part of the port area storyline in the game, but it's not exactly the same. Previously, Su didn't realize where the problem was, but now she sees it.

Some of the ship girls have disappeared!

For example, ship girls like Belfast.

However, Jing Su could sense that the ship girls in his game had always been there, because the number matched, and the number in the encyclopedia matched; it was just that Jing Su hadn't had time to confirm it.

After all, the port area is now divided, and the various factions are scattered all over the world. Some of them are not even in this world anymore. Even if Jing Su wanted to confirm it through communication devices, he could not do so. He could only confirm it offline.

As for calling on the leaders of each camp to confirm the numbers, Jing Su did do that at first, but after what happened with Belfast and Little Belfast, Jing Su realized that this method was not rigorous.

To the ship girls, Little Belfast is a ship girl who has just appeared in the port, but Jing Su knows that Little Belfast has actually been in the port from the very beginning, but she is hidden in Belfast's mind cube.

It seems that it only appears when it is stimulated in some special way.

Jing Su wasn't sure what the specific stimulus was; it could be Se Se, or something else entirely. In any case, further testing was needed.

'Perhaps I should call over those ship girls with small boats to see what's going on,' Jing Su thought to herself.

Because of Belfast's appearance, Jing Su realized that confirming the number of ship girls by asking the leaders of each faction was unreliable, since you can't expect the leaders to name ship girls they haven't seen before.

In other words, Jing Su ultimately has to confirm it himself.

"Always a ship girl from the port? How could that be!?" Hearing Jing Su's words, a long silence fell on the other end of the phone. Finally, Garden's voice came through, "If they've always been ship girls from the port, why haven't we seen them for so long, Commander? What's going on here...?"

The meaning of "Garden" is simple: after Jing Su disappeared, the port area split up, but despite the split, each faction would still send its main force to the front line or the port area for rotation.

Over such a long period of time, apart from a few secretary ships and the person in charge, almost all the ship girls have taken turns serving. In other words, all the ship girls currently in the port are recorded in the system. However, I have never heard of Little Belfast or Garden. There is a ship girl in the port named Little Belfast!

"To be precise, her name is Belfast, the one from the Royal Navy, the head of the Royal Maid Corps, Belfast. They share the same roots, and strictly speaking, their memories were inherited from the same warship." Jing Su tried to explain in terms that Garden and the others could understand.

"Then why haven't we seen each other for so long!?" Garden still had this question. Since they had been in the port area the whole time, they should have seen each other a few times before. Even if they hadn't seen each other, they should at least be able to find information about each other in the system.

“I’m not entirely sure what’s going on right now, but I’ll say it again: Belfast has always been a comrade of the port. Let’s put it this way, she was before I disappeared.” Jing Su suddenly had a thought and said this.

“Hey, Commander, before you went missing? Shouldn’t you remember even more…” Garden originally wanted to say that if Jing Su was a partner before she went missing, then she should remember even more, but before she could say it, she shut up.

Just like Jing Su lost her past memories, the ship girls also know very little about what happened in the port. It's not that they have no memories, but rather that they don't know the situation. The ship girls only remember a few things related to themselves and have very little contact with other factions.

They don't even count as other factions anymore. When they're not going out to sea or on expeditions, the ship girls basically do their own thing and rarely come into contact with other ship girls they don't know.

Life with Jing Su is very happy. Although the ship girls will occasionally get together, as I said before, overall, ship girls from different factions don't really know each other very well.

'As expected...' Jing Su thought to herself, sensing the garden's reaction. 'It seems something happened during the time I was missing, but what could it be?'

Suddenly a large number of small boats disappeared...

In this kind of situation, it's one thing for a garden without a boat, but Belfast has actually spent time with little Belfast. This has been shown in both game voice lines and anime storylines, including the scenes where Belfast teaches little Belfast. Logically speaking, it's impossible for Belfast not to know little Belfast.

But neither Belfast nor Belfast Jr. felt any affection for the other.

What exactly is this...?

He hit a roadblock when he thought about this. In the end, Jing Su hadn't been in this world for very long, and there were many things he hadn't figured out himself. He was also being dragged around by the ship girls, so he had no time to think about the essence of the ship girls and the world.

Of course, thinking about this kind of thing is boring and meaningless.

"Anyway, Garden and Belfast's matter, you don't need to worry about it for now. Just know that she's always been our partner." Since he couldn't figure it out for the time being, he wouldn't think about it anymore. Jing Su wasn't the type to try to understand everything. If he really wanted to, the existence of ship girls alone would drive him crazy. "By the way, one more thing, don't call me randomly unless it's something special. Be vigilant. Garden, I'm personally checking your defense zone later. If I find even one remaining Siren, you can expect a spanking!"

"Hey, Honey, are you going to spank me? No need for all that, you can just do it directly, hehe. Are you going to come and inspect my defense zone yourself?"

"Hiss, what's wrong with your brain! Cough cough, anyway, be careful~" Jing Su blushed, realizing that he had been so engrossed in talking to himself that he had forgotten what the garden was all about.

"Hehe, yes, Honey~" a playful voice rang out from the garden. "By the way, really don't want to hit it? It's very bouncy~"

"garden!!!"

Chapter 306 Interesting Things

After ending the conversation with the garden, Jing Su sent another group message, briefly explaining her return to the command room and the situation with Belfast and Little Belfast.

Then, he disconnected the phone from the internet. According to Hu Teng, if Jing Su had been even a moment slower, the phone would have been used as a vibrator.

Upon hearing this news, Jing Su's eyes were extremely strange, making Hu Teng feel uneasy.

"What kind of look is that? I... I sometimes use that in rock music!" Seemingly realizing that what he had just said was very ambiguous, Hu Teng rolled his eyes wildly, and even wanted to punch Jing Su at one point. Don't you know what kind of person I am? How dare you look at me like that.

"I didn't mean anything by it~ If you're thinking the wrong thing, it's not my fault~" Jing Su replied with a smile, but as she said that, her eyes involuntarily glanced at the bridge of the Hu Teng ship, "It seems like it won't fit either~"

"Boom~"

"hiss!!!"

A dull thud, followed by a painful cry!

"Cough cough, Hu Teng, you..." Jing Su clutched her chest, panting.

"Making jokes about a girl's body is not something a gentleman should do." Hu Teng took out a tissue and gently wiped his hands, exuding a terrifying aura.

In many ways, Hu Teng can appear quite indifferent, as she is naturally aloof and detached. However, her figure is one of the few things that can cause her any inner turmoil.

'Heh, is it because the scale isn't large, or is it really because you're sorry, unlike other battleships?'

Although Hu Teng didn't say anything, Jing Su read a sentence in her eyes.