Shipgirls and Salted Fish Commander, Port Survival Guide

However, Yixian didn't care. She was now worried about whether she had put too much pressure on Jingsu, and had even prepared for a major hemorrhage.

Then, something happened that left Yi Xian speechless.

"A food competition? What kind of announcement is this? Oh, Haitian suggested it. This literary girl can cook too? Let me check her information. Hehe, Mapo Tofu, approved! Taobao, please write it in the reply to tell Haitian that I'm really looking forward to her food."

In terms of resources, participants are asked to bring their own ingredients, while the organizers provide the venue, thus keeping costs to a minimum.

Then there's the matter of time and personnel arrangements. It's unrealistic to let Haitan handle this; they're unavailable in Zhenhai. As for the venue, I remember there's a vacant lot on the back hill that we could use. I'll think about the specific arrangements and plans.

About ten minutes later, a plan was completed. Yixian took a look at it and found no major problems. If she had to nitpick, there were some flaws in the format, but the flaws did not detract from its overall quality, and it could be used directly without any changes.

Yi Xian was very surprised. Just a moment ago, Jing Su was having a headache over everything. How could she suddenly be so capable? You see, once Yi Xian approves the application documents for this kind of activity, she doesn't care anymore. Her principle is that whoever applies is responsible for processing them.

But Jing Su has not only approved the application, but also helped to create a plan and even took into account resource reserves. In other words, Jing Su has at least some knowledge of the faction's resource reserves.

"When did you see that? Wasn't the Commander scratching his head the whole time?" Yi Xian's eyes widened. "No, wait, I think I was just too busy watching the Commander. I have no recollection of what he was doing!"

It was only then that Yixian noticed that Jingsu had somehow completed half of her workload from the past two weeks.

"Commander, isn't it a bit too much to finish a plan in just ten minutes..." Realizing she might have been swooning, Yi Xian blushed slightly and looked at Jing Su somewhat guiltily. Seeing Jing Su deep in thought with the next document in hand, she asked the question to try and distract herself.

"Ten minutes? It's alright. Back in college, I planned a stage play. Compared to that, this is just a simple arrangement of the process, nothing difficult." Jing Su replied with a smile. Many of the previous documents were completed with the help of TB, but this time she completed a plan entirely on her own, which made her a little happy.

"Commander, your potential is beyond your imagination~" Yi Xian sighed, speechless.

"?"

Chapter 41 Getting into Trouble

"Waaah, Commander, are you leaving now?" Fei Yun cried out, sobbing and sniffling, nestled in Jing Su's arms.

"Cough cough, it's not like it won't come back." Jing Su tried to pull Fei Yun off her body, but after several attempts, she failed and had to give up.

Looking around, Fushun was squatting behind a tree with red eyes, and there were many other ship girls standing far away. No one spoke, but they all silently watched Jing Su.

Jing Su naturally knew why this situation had arisen, but she was helpless and could only turn to Yi Xian for help.

"Alright, alright, everyone disperse. The Commander is on a business trip this time, he'll be back when he's done. Feiyun, if you're worried, you can pinky swear with the Commander." Yixian smiled as she walked to Jingsu's side, grabbed Feiyun by the neck, and lifted him up.

Clearly, the only one who could stop the little ship girl was another ship girl, Feiyun, whom Jing Su couldn't pull off earlier, but she had no ability to resist Yixian at all.

"Commander, let's pinky swear." Fei Yun, who was swaying in the air, broke free with a little effort and ran to Jing Su again. However, this time she did not lie on Jing Su's lap, but instead extended her little finger to Jing Su.

"Okay, pinky promise." Jing Su squatted down, stretched out her hand, and pulled back and forth a few times.

When she stood up again, the ship girls standing around her had already left, clearly driven away by Yi Xian.

"Commander, we made a pinky promise, you have to come back soon~" Fei Yun looked back every few steps as she left Jing Su's sight.

"Commander, so we have to sneak away, right?" Yi Xian's gentle voice came through.

“It’s not good to sneak around. If I leave openly now, they’ll worry. If I sneak away, who knows what might happen,” Jing Su shook her head and explained.

"That's true." Yi Xian nodded. If she hadn't been a member of the entourage herself, she would have been worried when she learned that Jing Su was leaving.

The concern is simple: they are afraid that Jing Su will disappear again, just like before. Not only the Donghuang faction, but all the ship girls in the port area will not be able to accept Jing Su disappearing again. If this really happens, the ship girls will go crazy.

It's unclear at which meeting Yixian learned about the existence of META. The specifics are unclear, but all that's known is that the ship girls need to experience despair, and it's said that the more desperate they are, the stronger they will become after META transformation.

'If the commander disappears again, a few monsters might appear.'

Yi Xian thought to himself.

"When shall we set off?" Jing Su asked when no one was around.

"About half an hour more, they're still checking." Yi Xian glanced at her tablet and replied.

Actually, according to the old standards, they could have set off long ago, but things are different now. Jing Su is going to take their cruise ship. Even if the ship girls don't take the cruise ship, they can still sail at sea. Taking a ship is just to make the journey more comfortable.

After all, who wouldn't want to have hot water for showers, delicious food, and a comfortable bed to sleep in at any time while traveling for work?

However, given the combat power of the ship girls and their ability to sail on the sea, in the past, when going on expeditions, the inspection of the ships was not particularly thorough, and many things were just good enough.

That won't work now. Aside from the fact that Jing Su needs to accompany him, the more important thing is that this trip is more about going to other factions to resolve some issues. To put it more officially, this is an exchange between factions, and it involves explaining the cards.

Therefore, both the specifications and the level of resource reserves must be in accordance with the highest standards.

"Actually, it doesn't need to be that complicated. We've already checked it three times."

"How can that be? This is your first trip, Commander. We can't be stingy. If word gets out, won't other factions laugh at our Eastern Empire? Don't worry, Commander. We Eastern Empire may not have much else, but we have plenty of resources. For thousands of years, we Eastern Empire have maxed out our hoarding skills."

Sigh, to be honest, the time was too short. Otherwise, I would have definitely set up a few plots of land on the ship and grown some vegetables. Although there's cold storage, it's always better to eat fresh fruits and vegetables. Before, it was just a means of transportation, so I never thought about doing anything with it. I guess I wasn't mature enough.

"Ahem, whatever makes you happy~" Jing Su wanted to say something, but had no choice but to follow Yi Xian's lead.

Fortunately, just as Yixian had said, Jingsu was notified that she could board the ship and depart in just half an hour.

Jing Su's hasty departure stemmed from an urgent notice received three days prior.

In fact, after the news of Jing Su's return spread, the undercurrents between the factions never stopped. Even when Jing Su issued a special message telling others not to act rashly, it had little effect.

The reason why no one has come looking for us yet is simple—we can't find them.

After the port area split, each faction, led by its own leader, found a place to develop. From the beginning, the faction leaders agreed that unless in an emergency, they would not disturb or interfere with each other.

Even the White Eagle camp, which has the closest cooperation with the military, has its own base that it does not disclose to the public.

Therefore, different factions do not actually know the specific locations of other positions, and they will not specifically ask about them during meetings.

The maritime bureau's resources are first transported to the port area, and then the leaders of each camp transport them back to their own bases.

According to the original plan, Jing Su intended to stay in the Donghuang camp until the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. After all, in terms of culture, he was quite used to staying here, and every morning when he woke up, many cute little guys would come to play with him.

After spending this time together, he has become quite familiar with Feiyun and the other little girls. Every morning he handles official business, plays with the girls in the afternoon, and after dinner in the evening, he drinks and makes merry with some of the more mature girls.

Of course, the time spent with other people at night is usually not very long, because every time it gets to nine o'clock, no matter which ship girl Jing Su is with, Binjiang will drag her to the room.

Try all sorts of exciting games.

There's one game that Jing Su remembers vividly: taking off your clothes and drinking.

It's basically a game of rock-paper-scissors, where the loser has to either drink alcohol or take off a piece of clothing.

As they played, Jing Su got drunk, and Bin Jiang was completely drunk. After Jing Su found out that Bin Jiang had deliberately lost, she said that if you're going to play a game, you should play it seriously. If you're going to do something like that on purpose, then Jing Su carried Bin Jiang to the bed, saying that she would punish him severely.

The next day, Jing Su walked unsteadily, her eyes lifeless.

As for Binjiang, he was chased for three blocks by Yixian, who rushed over upon hearing the news.

The bittersweet life was soon brought to an end by an urgent secret order.

"Commander, we can depart now."

Everything was ready, and a person standing on the deck waved to Jing Su.

"Okay, I'll be right there," Jing Su replied, and walked towards the elevator platform.

'The Maritime Safety Administration, oh the Maritime Safety Administration, they really know how to cause trouble!'

Chapter Forty-Two: Indifferent

"Nearly 40% less, are you sure there's no mistake in the statistics?" Jing Su fell into deep thought as she looked at the documents handed to her.

"I've checked the numbers more than three times, and they're all the same. The data should be fine." Yi Xian pulled out a few documents and handed them over again.

"Let me see... wow, my god, each document is more outrageous than the last. Seriously, is the Maritime Safety Administration really this blatantly embezzling resources?" Jing Su was completely stunned after quickly glancing at the newly delivered documents.

"It's not necessarily the Maritime Safety Administration that did it. Resources are just small profits for them. Even if they wanted to embezzle, they wouldn't do it at the transportation point. They would usually tamper with the contracts. This shortfall is probably due to the transportation unit misappropriating the resources," Yi Xian said after a moment's thought.

Although Yi Xian disliked the Maritime Bureau's attitude towards them, the relationship between the two was one of both cooperation and competition. The Maritime Bureau had indeed fulfilled the requirements of the contract, and if they suffered losses, they could only blame their own incompetence and not others.

“I wouldn’t say anything if it were a 5% or 6% shortfall. No matter how exaggerated the losses in ocean shipping are, it’s usually only a few per thousand. Considering that this is a dangerous route, it’s understandable for the transport officer to sneak a little money. But this is more than 40%, almost half of the total amount. If this is all attributed to losses, then it’s really just deliberately bullying people. Have we ever had such a large shortfall before?”

"Is the loss during ocean shipping normally this low? I'm so ignorant. Commander, you're amazing to know this." Yi Xian's eyes crinkled with a smile.

"No, they don't care about losing so many resources?" Jing Su sighed, feeling that Yi Xian and she were not focusing on the same thing.

"To say that I don't care at all would be a lie, but it's really not something that's particularly important."

"Huh!?" Jing Su was taken aback. 'If it's not something important,' then what is she doing right now?

Jing Su looked at the mountain of documents beside her and fell into deep thought.

It turns out that the reason Jing Su left the Donghuang camp in such a hurry and launched an emergency attack was because he received an urgent report that something had happened in the port area. Upon closer inspection, it turned out that there was a big problem with the transported resources. Several camps that came to collect resources did not receive their share of resources and were causing trouble there.

Judging from the urgent report, the argument seems to be quite heated and needs to be dealt with as soon as possible. The report mentions that if it is delayed for even a few days, a fight may break out.

Therefore, Jing Su had no choice but to crawl out of her comfort zone. Since she had decided to bring laughter and joy back to the port area, she had to step up when things happened.

Just as he was worrying about what might happen next, Yi Xian's words completely baffled him. If it wasn't important, then why were they arguing? It couldn't be that they were arguing because they felt resentful for not getting the resources they wanted.

According to Yi Xian, there were never any arguments when resources were misappropriated in the past, otherwise there would definitely be a solution. It wouldn't be so exaggerated that he would have to personally go and appease them.

"Silly boy~" Looking at Jing Su's bewildered face, Yi Xian gave a wry smile, but he was reluctant to tell her the details. If he did, she would lose her fascination and the fun would be greatly diminished.

Actually, the argument wasn't about resources at all. It was just that other factions wanted to see Jing Su, so they found a pretext to get him out of the Donghuang faction.

As Yixian said, they really didn't care much about the resources they owed. Not to mention that each of their factions had basically achieved self-sufficiency in resources for their attacks, the quality of the resources transported by the Maritime Bureau was also terrible. They had to undergo secondary refining when they returned to their bases. Sometimes, if they were unlucky, the resources spent on refining would be more than the resources they received, which was not worth it.

Basically, if the quality of resources is too poor, the faction will have someone specifically looking for them on the black market to resell them in exchange for something else.

Do you really think they can't see the Ministry of Transport's little tricks over such a long time?

It's simply that they don't care.

Hu Teng, who was staying in port, noticed the first time the Transport Department misappropriated resources, but he didn't mention it. Even when the ship girls took turns on duty, they all turned a blind eye to the Transport Department's little tricks. Even Yi Xian, who was the most thrifty and hardworking, quickly understood the meaning after seeing everyone's choice and also chose to acquiesce.

After all, what better excuse to cause trouble than misappropriating resources?

Once this information is exposed, no matter how the Maritime Safety Administration handles it, it will have to give the port area an explanation.

However, the girls didn't really care what the Maritime Bureau would say; what they cared about was that it was a perfect excuse to cause trouble.

If Jing Su were to return one day, she would most likely be taken away by the first faction to discover her. Given the ship girls' feelings for Jing Su, she would be well taken care of no matter which faction she went to. What if Jing Su became attached to her and didn't want to leave? For the ship girls of other factions, this was something they absolutely could not accept.

If they don't want Jing Su to stay in one camp for too long, they need to come up with a reason that everyone can accept for Jing Su to leave, otherwise the camp that wants to keep her will definitely not let her go.

Therefore, the issue of the Department of Transportation misappropriating resources has remained unresolved until now.

It's normal to argue because of insufficient resources and not getting one's share. If the argument escalates and emotions get the better of them, it's not impossible for it to turn into a physical fight. If it gets to the point of physical violence, then someone with enough prestige must step in to resolve it. In this standoff between factions, let alone the person in charge, even the secretary ship's words are useless.

So, who else but Jing Su could be the person who steps forward to solve this problem at this moment?

In that case, wouldn't Jing Su be transferred out?

Because she understood this, even the most thrifty Yi Xian chose to acquiesce to the misappropriation of resources by the Transportation Department. After all, no one could be sure who would be the first to find Jing Su, so it was a last resort.

However, unexpectedly, Jing Su was found by Changchun from his own camp and brought back to the Donghuang base. Now, the ultimate move that was originally intended as a backup plan has instead become a source of trouble for him.

In fact, the moment the news of Jing Su's return spread, discussions about the future development of the port area had already begun.

There are two main viewpoints: one is to directly reunify, like before, and live happily in one port area; the other is to maintain the current state, with each person having their own independent residence, and in case of emergencies, they can communicate remotely through meetings.

Chapter 43 gave it a breakthrough.

Whether the factions are separated or not, there are reasons for both.

It's not that everyone intentionally wants to remain independent. For the ship girls, wherever Jing Su is, that's their base. In fact, if Jing Su is willing, the divided port districts can be reunited in no time.

However, for individual ship girls, sometimes, separate factions are much better than unified ports.

the reason is simple.

There are too many monks and not enough meat!

The port currently has nearly 700 ship girls, and new members may join in the future. With such a large number, there is only one commander.

In other words, even if Jing Su were a womanizer, if he dated two women a day, he would only go through one cycle in a whole year.

Even if you exclude destroyers and ship girls like Jiajia who look like little girls, and you have one of the remaining companions every day, a year wouldn't be enough.

The growing need for commanders among the ship girls, coupled with the fact that there is only one commander, has led to a heated debate in the port about whether to gather everyone together in one port.

If everyone is in the same port, who is most likely to have more opportunities to spend time with the commander?

It's obviously those ship girls who are tough, strong, and have great figures.

Ship girls will eventually have to fight the Sirens, and once battles are involved, combat power becomes an unavoidable topic. Among the many ship girls in the port, the difference in combat power is very large.

Therefore, factions with weaker overall combat strength are naturally less willing to have everyone in the same port area, as this would reduce the time their faction and commander spend together.

The separate proposals are less likely to be accepted by factions with strong overall combat power, or more specifically, a large number of ship girls.