Shipgirls and Salted Fish Commander, Port Survival Guide

'Could it be that my actions just now angered the Commander? Yes, it was all one-sided on my part; I completely ignored the Commander's feelings and hurt him. What am I going to do now?'

"There are no 'buts'." Jing Su interrupted the female stove god again, which startled her. Could it be that Jing Su was really angry about what she had done?

"Shouldn't I be the one to say something like this?"

"Huh...?!" The goddess of the hearth suddenly looked up, incredulous. "Commander, what did you say?!"

“I’ve been back for so long, I know how to handle these things to some extent. If you were to tell me, you would be very troubled. Let me do it, I’m suitable in every way~” Jing Su pinched the goddess of the hearth’s rosy cheeks and said softly.

"Commander~" The goddess of the hearth was crying so hard. Just thinking about what she had done earlier made her so ashamed that she wanted to crawl into a hole. Now she knew what it felt like when Jing Su was lying on the bed and she touched him.

Admittedly, the connections that Vestal Goddess has built up over the years can indeed help her arrange Jing Su's matter, but that has a bit of a moral blackmail feel to it. Although Vestal Goddess did good deeds in the past not specifically for today's matter, there will inevitably be people who think that way. If even one ship girl thinks that way, Vestal Goddess will feel very distressed.

To be precise, what the female Stove Goddess wanted to do was to announce to the public that Jing Su had a health problem, gastrointestinal inflammation, and needed to be examined, and that he should come to her for a check-up every month while he was on the front lines.

It seems perfectly reasonable and without any flaws, but in reality, it's a slap in the face to both the Eastern Huang and the Royal factions, a direct and brutal attack.

The commander has health problems? He needs to come to you for checkups every month? What, are you saying the testing standards of other factions aren't good enough? Or something else?

Furthermore, Jing Su previously served in two factions: the Eastern Empire, renowned in the port for its healing abilities, and the Royal Empire, renowned for its attentiveness. Now you're saying the Commander's health wasn't well taken care of? What do you mean by that? Are you implying that the Royal Empire didn't take good care of the Commander, or that the Eastern Empire didn't provide adequate care for him?

To some extent, this is a direct slap in the face to the Eastern Empire and the Royal Army, targeting their strongest point. If someone were to deliberately provoke this, the conflict in the port area would be ignited immediately.

Such a thing could really happen on the front lines right now. After all, the goddess of the hearth herself is not entirely innocent, and her behavior of requiring Jing Su to come to her clinic for a check-up every month is hard not to make people think.

The Vess doesn't actually care much about her own reputation, but she does care a lot about the harmony among the ship girls in the port. It's best to avoid things like this from happening in the first place.

So, how can we avoid it?

Jing Su can just say it herself. The same thing proposed and implemented by the female Kitchen Goddess is completely different from what Jing Su asked for. They are two entirely different concepts.

On a whim, Jing Su went to the female Stove Goddess for a checkup and discovered some health issues. For the sake of her health, she proactively suggested coming for a checkup every month. Given that the equipment at the front-line female Stove Goddess's place was the most comprehensive and professional, choosing to have her checkup there was perfectly reasonable and without any problems.

At most, some ship girls will complain that another good opportunity was snatched away by other ship girls, and wonder why they didn't seize it.

As for the situation of slapping the faces of the Donghuang and Royal camps, there is a new explanation—Jing Su messed up his own health, which has nothing to do with the Donghuang and Royal camps. Doesn't that give us more angles to explain it?

The same thing, said by a different person, can have a completely different effect.

“Commander, I…” The goddess of the hearth was speechless for a moment, choked with sobs, and didn’t know what to say.

"Haha, alright, I'll handle this kind of thing~" Jing Su hugged the female Stove Goddess and whispered in her ear, "As the commander, isn't this just my job?"

"Mmm." The goddess of the hearth nodded, her voice choked with emotion. "As expected, it's still up to you, Commander, to go up there~"

"Huh!?" Jing Su was taken aback. What did "up or down" mean?

“This, Commander.” The goddess of the hearth pulled out a small trinket she had hidden away, her glistening eyes suddenly brightening as she looked at Jing Su. “Since you’re already wearing so many, Commander, it won’t be a problem if I add another one, will it?”

"Stop! No!"

Seeing the female stove goddess's actions, Jing Su felt a pang of pity. Was she trying to create another hole for him?

While the things the ship girls use to protect themselves are, to some extent, for self-preservation, and they already wear many different kinds of life-saving gadgets, because these life-saving gadgets are injectable and each ship girl develops something different, every time a ship girl injects herself with a life-saving substance, it results in a hole being cut in her body.

Jing Su isn't afraid of anything else, but she's terrified of this. Every time she got a shot in the buttocks as a child, she was scared out of her wits and developed a psychological trauma!

"Hehe, Commander, I might have been embarrassed before, but now I understand. Commander, we really shouldn't release them~"

"Wow!"

Chapter 310 That depends on how capable you are!

"Zizzizi~"

"Sigh~"

"Commander, don't move. If you twist it like that, it'll be impossible to correct if it's drawn crooked later."

"This, this is something that shouldn't be done!" Jing Su cried out, panting heavily.

"Is it so difficult to just keep you still without doing anything else? Or do you think it hurts a lot, Commander?"

"Who stays still like they're doing a plank?!" If Hu Teng hadn't been wearing gloves and holding a dagger, walking around on her back, Jing Su would have really wanted to get up, hug Hu Teng, and yell at him.

"Didn't the goddess of the hearth say that your physical condition isn't very good and you need to exercise more? This is completely based on the doctor's advice." Hu Teng's teasing voice rang out, but he didn't raise his head. Instead, he poked Jing Su's back with his hand. "This is bent over. Lift it up!"

"...Yes..." What could Jing Su do? She could only grit her teeth and try to straighten her back.

At this moment, Jing Su was shirtless, lying on a bed in a plank position, while Hu Teng, dressed in a maid outfit, was drawing for Jing Su with a paintbrush in hand.

After leaving the command center in the afternoon, Hu Teng did not go straight back to her room. Instead, she went to a bar, changed into a maid outfit, and sang. This was her way of finding inspiration. As a rock enthusiast in the port area, Hu Teng's mind was only exceptionally clear and her thoughts and inspirations were most agile when surrounded by music that made people's blood boil.

Because Jing Su issued a rest order, the entire front line was given a holiday today. Many ship girls who were originally supposed to be on rotation at the front line went around to different places, so the bar still had customers.

As Hu Teng sang his heart out, trying to clear his mind with music, a discordant gasp rang out in the bar. It turned out that a customer had spotted Jing Su through street surveillance cameras.

It was only then that Hu Teng learned that after Jing Su left the command room, the Goddess of the Stove had come looking for her. Hu Teng was furious. "So, I just left the command room and you've already run off to find a new lover, huh?"

But after observing for a while, Hu Teng silently withdrew her gaze from searching for the wood-chopping knife. She knew that Jing Su's condition was not normal at the time. Although she didn't know what had happened, she could tell that Jing Su was very disappointed.

Suppressing the urge to immediately go find Jing Su, Hu Teng returned to her room and began sketching. Jing Su's forlorn expression had strongly stimulated Hu Teng, giving her unparalleled inspiration. Whether it was out of a desire to comfort Jing Su or out of her own inner turmoil, it filled her with endless sorrow.

This is the influence Jing Su has on the ship girls. Even if Jing Su does nothing, simply sitting in a chair with a sad expression is enough to make the girls empathize and shed tears.

To some extent, this is also why Hu Teng stopped being angry later. In Jing Su's situation, no one knows what he is thinking, and no one dares to provoke him. What if Jing Su has a mental breakdown and runs away again?

Not everyone has the courage to take on the task of appeasing Jing Su. If they fail, they will become a sinner in the port area. Hu Teng dared to take on the task, but he could not guarantee that he could succeed. To be precise, the best candidate at the time was indeed the Goddess of the Hearth.

Hu Teng prides himself on being able to take care of anyone, but when it comes to comforting people, with his expressionless and dark appearance, he'd better not get involved. It would be troublesome if he worsened the symptoms.

Although engrossed in drawing line art, Hu Teng kept a close eye on Jing Su's movements. He had initially breathed a sigh of relief when he learned that the Goddess of the Kitchen God had calmed Jing Su down, but the comments in the group chat were going in increasingly skewed.

"The goddess of the hearth said she's taking the commander for a medical checkup~"

"The Commander has been kidnapped by the goddess Vestal!"

The examination includes a physical examination.

"The Commander's clothes were ripped off by the goddess of the hearth!"

"Commander's physical condition is low."

"The goddess of the hearth says the commander hasn't been eating enough!"

"The commander is experiencing gastrointestinal fatigue."

"The goddess of the hearth says the commander is terminally ill!"

Looking at the rapidly scrolling comments in the group, Hu Teng felt a pain in his eyes. After a great deal of effort, Hu Teng distilled this sentence.

'Jing Su's clothes were stripped off by the female Kitchen Goddess!?'

No, what happened to the promised reassurance? Why are we in the infirmary? What kind of examination requires taking off clothes?

Since the infirmary is considered the private territory of the Goddess of the Hearth, according to the unspoken rules of the port, no surveillance equipment can be installed in the private territory of non-commanders. Therefore, the scenes of the Goddess of the Hearth talking to Jing Su were actually monitored by some cameras outside the window. No one really knows what they said or did.

But just from these pictures, it's clear that the Goddess of the Kitchen Goddess definitely made a move against Jing Su!

This is why Hu Teng insisted that Jing Su do planks while drawing.

Regardless of the circumstances, it's already been confirmed that it's me tonight, and you still went out and messed around with other ship girls. Don't you even respect me?!

Hu Teng is known for being cold on the outside but warm on the inside, but this also means that she can be very ruthless in certain situations. If you piss me off, you'd better take the punishment!

"Boom~"

Finally, Jing Su could no longer hold on and collapsed onto the bed, groaning like a salted fish.

"Only half an hour, Commander, your physical condition is really not good~" Hu Teng chuckled as he glanced at the wall clock.

"Wow, you?! Hu Teng, do you know what you mean by that? An ordinary person who has never been trained can't hold a plank for more than a minute under normal circumstances. Fifty seconds is the level of most people. I've been able to hold it for half an hour, which is already terrifying!" Men can't stand it when others say they can't do it, let alone that Jing Su's result is already quite good.

"Hehe, Commander, in the port area, many ship girls do an hour of planking as part of their daily training. When I trained before, I would warm up for an hour and a half. As a boy, Commander, are you even worse than us girls?" Hu Teng said softly.

“In a way, you guys aren’t normal either,” Jing Su muttered, but then her eyes lit up as if she had just thought of something, and she asked, “Hu Teng, I didn’t realize that you could do that for so long with your small frame.”

"Of course, don't look down on me... my small frame!?" Hu Teng was originally quite proud and wanted to talk about his strength, but he quickly realized that Jing Su's words had a hidden meaning.

"Indeed, in terms of scale, Hu Teng, you have it easier than many ship girls. Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch!"

As she was speaking, Jing Su suddenly bent over and cried out in pain. It turned out that Hu Teng's bare hand, painted with black nail polish, was pinching Jing Su's slender waist hard.

"It seems, Commander, you want to do another half hour of planking~" Hu Teng said softly as he prepared ink, his eyes sharp.

"Spare me~" Jing Su wailed. Her back was so sore that she couldn't even straighten up for 30 seconds, let alone 30 minutes.

"Hehe~" Hu Teng ignored him, started the machine, and painted Jing Su again.

However, this time, Hu Teng didn't let Jing Su do anything. After all, if he really exhausted Jing Su, and she couldn't straighten her back when they did other things that night, wouldn't all his careful planning for today be wasted?

"Commander, speaking of which, you've changed quite a bit since you first came back." Drawing is physically demanding, and it's easy to get distracted if you don't find something else to divert your attention.

"Hmm? Really? I don't feel that way." Jing Su briefly reviewed her experience of spending time with the ship girls over the past few days. Apart from feeling more natural, she didn't feel anything. She was still the same person she always was.

"Putting everything else aside, you've certainly become much bolder."

“Isn’t that because it’s you I’m chatting with? I wouldn’t do that with anyone else,” Jing Su said matter-of-factly.

"Hehe, really? You weren't like this when we first met~" Hu Teng rolled her eyes at Jing Su. Don't think she'd forgotten. When she first met Jing Su, this jerk actually thought she was a performer, talking about cosplay!? She was a cosplayer? What a load of rubbish!

"Ahem, well, you just got back and don't know anything, right?" Jing Su naturally knew what Hu Teng was talking about, and her face turned red with embarrassment. By this time, Jing Su already knew how the ship girls viewed her. Thinking back, she realized that she had treated Hu Teng like a stranger, and Hu Teng hadn't slapped her away, which was truly a sign of her gentleness.

"So you've become so unruly now? If you ask me, we should have taken you back to the Ironblood base and locked you up back then, so you wouldn't go around harming the other sisters."

“Haha, Hu Teng, you wouldn’t do that~” Jing Su said confidently.

"Oh, how do you know I can't?"

“Because you are Hu Teng~ I know you, you are not that kind of person. As long as you are here, I will not make any serious mistakes, so why shouldn’t I be unrestrained? With you here, I can do whatever I want. Hu Teng, you are the reason why I feel safe to be unrestrained~” Jing Su said seriously.

After Jing Su said this, Hu Teng remained silent, leaving her with no way to continue the conversation.

'This bastard, I'm really scared of you. What did I do to deserve this? To run into such a bastard like you.'

I know perfectly well that I hate being trusted the most; trust is the most poisonous poison in the world.

But so be it, poison it is, what can I do when I'm already terminally ill?

You bastard, you've poisoned me beyond redemption with the poison called trust!

I'm sticking with you for life!

Commander~

my sweetheart!'

......

"Alright, it's finished. Do you want to look in the mirror to see if it's successful?" Time passed slowly, and just as Jing Su was about to fall asleep, Hu Teng's gentle voice rang out.

"Huh!? Is it over?" Jing Su opened her groggy eyes, about to ask what time it was, when she saw Hu Teng twisting her wrists and neck. It was clear that even for a ship girl, maintaining one position for a long time would be uncomfortable.

"Hmm, more or less. It's not a particularly complicated pattern. Once the fog is applied, it'll be about done. But it's amazing that you could fall asleep in this state. Have you been too tired lately?" Hu Teng stretched casually, revealing her beautiful figure, and then began to pack up the props.

Jing Su then found a mirror, and at that moment, a black spider appeared on her back, flying through the air, lifelike and exuding a chilling aura.

After examining it carefully for a while, Jing Su felt that she had seen this spider somewhere before.

'There's no mistake, isn't that the spider on Hu Teng's back? No, are they making a matching couple's version of this?'

"Ahem, speaking of which, Hu Teng, was the pattern Z46 initially gave you really like this?" Thinking of this, Jing Su suddenly realized that she hadn't paid attention to what pattern Z46 actually wanted to draw on her. From the time she learned about it until it was completely settled, it had all been Hu Teng's one-sided story. She hadn't even asked Z46 once. Who knows what the original pattern was, or even if it even existed at all?

“The painting is finished, what was Z46 thinking? What’s the point now? Stand still, let’s take a picture to remember this moment~” Hu Teng pulled out a camera from somewhere, and even dragged out a backdrop for the photo.

"Is this necessary? If I want to see it later, I can just take off my shirt and see it anytime~" Jing Su's body trembled slightly. For some reason, he felt a strange sense of shame about taking pictures. He had lived for so many years and had very few photos left in the world. Even when he went on trips with his relatives and friends, he would only take pictures of the famous historical sites at most. As for his own image, he would try not to leave any.

“That’s different. These things only look vibrant at the very beginning. After a few days, they won’t look as good.” Hu Teng raised the camera and started looking for a pose. “By the way, Commander, just wipe your back with a towel after showering these days. Although the pattern isn’t very big, it’s still the first one, so it’s still meaningful.”

If possible, let it stay as vibrant as possible~

"Okay~" Seeing Hu Teng busy, Jing Su chuckled and agreed.

'If I remember correctly, this is the first time Hu Teng has ever made a request of me. I really didn't expect Hu Teng to make this request. Couldn't he have asked for something else?'

But no matter what, is my wife's suggestion really just a suggestion? It's a military order that I absolutely must fulfill!

Jing Su has decided that for the next week, well, three days, she will not get her back wet!

Being by the sea, especially in the middle of summer, as a southerner, I feel really uncomfortable if I don't take a shower twice a day in this environment.

As Hu Teng said, at this point, it's pointless to dwell on what pattern Z46 initially wanted to draw for Jing Su. Even if Z46 hadn't suggested it, it wouldn't matter. The fact that this pattern makes Hu Teng happy is enough!

‘Click~’

As Jing Su pondered, a flash of white light appeared, and Hu Teng's white hair rose without wind, creating a beautiful picture in the room, along with his slightly upturned lips.