Elder brother's garrison

Page 701

Under Xiaobai's surprised gaze, Ella smiled broadly, happily sniffing Xiaobai's scent as she shouted this.

Chapter 933 Money can buy anything.

After acquiring ship equipment, Xiaobai's hearing became much better than before. However, even with improved hearing, Xiaobai's hearing was not yet at the level where she could easily detect someone approaching amidst the sounds of fireworks and firecrackers.

It wasn't until Ella's footsteps were perfectly concealed by the sounds of gunfire, and she crept up behind Xiaobai, making him turn around and then hugging him tightly, that Xiaobai finally noticed her, albeit a beat too late.

"Ella?!"

Little White, being held by Ella, looked at the blond admiral in front of him with considerable surprise.

"Hmm! Little Bai, long time no see!"

"Huh?! Ella, what's wrong with you...?"

"Little Bai, I miss you so much!"

Ella hugged Little White, unable to contain her excitement, and happily rubbed her snow-white face against Little White's neck.

Ella, whom Xiaobai hadn't seen for a long time, still showed Xiaobai the same inexplicable enthusiasm she had when they last met. Like a kitten eager to be fed, she pounced on Xiaobai before they had even exchanged a few words, greedily snuggling against him and hugging him in various ways.

After a while, realizing that continuing to hold him would make communication difficult, Ella finally reluctantly let go of Little White.

"Little Bai, long time no see!"

Ella took two steps back and greeted Xiaobai with a pretty smile.

The relationship between Ella and Xiaobai is actually quite good, because they reunited during the autumn deep-sea event.

"Ella, long time no see." Xiaobai looked at Ella and smiled at her. "What are you doing here?"

"Hehehe... Xiaobai, you came because of that invitation, right? Actually, I received an application too!"

"Oh, no wonder." Xiaobai nodded.

The invitation stated that invitations would be sent to many admirals worthy of Wisconsin. Even among admirals, Ella was considered a standard "rich, beautiful, and successful" woman, so it was not surprising that she also received an invitation to the Wisconsin Ship Salvage Tournament.

—Well, so Ella and I are rivals this time.

Xiao Bai looked at Ella in front of him with a sense of helplessness.

"So Ella was also attracted by the Wisconsin application," Xiaobai said.

"No, that's not true." Ella shook her head decisively at Xiaobai's words. "I'm not interested in salvaging ships, and my parents won't let me go out because of what happened last time."

"Huh? If you're not interested, Ella, why are you here..."

"I had a feeling you'd receive an invitation, so I came here." Ella's face lit up with a bright smile. "Looks like you're here too, Bai!"

"..." Xiaobai looked at Ella and suddenly felt a little helpless.

Ella's reason for coming to Wisconsin was simply that she felt the same way about seeing him...

Doesn't that mean that in Ella's mind, she sees herself as an admiral obsessed with salvaging ships?

Wait a minute, Xiaobai isn't taking the blame for this. She's not obsessed with collecting ships and wants to grab every ship girl she sees.

I've always relied on luck to catch boats.

But why does even Ella see me that way...?

—Xiaobai, I suddenly have the urge to understand my public image from a third-party perspective.

"Little White?" Seeing Little White's tired and sad expression, Ella thought she had said something wrong and asked curiously.

"Ah, I'm fine." Xiaobai shook his head and looked Ella over in front of him.

There were no other ship girls standing next to Ella; she was all alone, standing in front of Shiro, giving her a lonely and isolated feeling.

"Ella, where are your ship girls?"

"Huh? I didn't bring any ship girls." Ella tilted her head.

"...Uh, did you come alone? Why didn't you bring any ship girls? It's too dangerous to come alone."

"Because my parents won't let me go out." Ella lowered her head, looking a little aggrieved. "If I take the ship girls out, they'll tell my mom, and then she'll send someone to drag me back."

"...Uh, could it be..."

"Yeah, she ran away from home!" Ella chuckled at Little White.

"..." Looking at Ella's innocent smile, Xiaobai suddenly didn't know what to say.

Back in the autumn deep-sea activity season, Xiaobai already knew that Ella's family was keeping a tight rein on her personal freedom.

Xiaobai also expressed his understanding, after all, Ella had been kidnapped once on Corola Island, and even the entire naval base was impersonated by Osmanthus for a few days, so it would be strange if her family wasn't nervous.

Little Bai never expected that Ella would run away from home in order to find him.

Her family must be terrified.

"...Ella, it must be dangerous for you to come all this way alone." Xiaobai thought for a long time before saying to Ella.

"It's okay, look how I got here," Ella said, hands on her hips, seemingly quite pleased with herself.

"Ella, did you come alone?"

"Yes! After taking the wallet, I secretly ran away from the naval base at night and took a boat away from Colorado Island."

"...And then what?"

“After leaving Corola Island, I wanted to go to the train station to buy a ticket, but when I got there, the staff told me that I needed my ID card to buy a train ticket!” Ella said, kicking her feet twice.

It seems Ella harbors a lot of resentment about this.

"But my ID card was always kept at the naval base. If I went back then, it would definitely be discovered. But I couldn't leave without my ID card, so I was stuck and thought about it on the street until late at night. Later, I was so tired that I just found a hotel that didn't require an ID card to rest."

"So how did Ella resolve this matter later?"

"Heh heh, after waking up from a nap, I found my ID card in the pocket of my admiral's uniform! So I happily bought a ticket and came over."

"...Didn't you say your ID card was always kept at the naval base?"

"Yeah, I guess I was just lucky. They just happened to find my ID card in my clothes that day."

"..." Xiaobai looked at Ella with a puzzled expression.

How could an ID card suddenly appear on an admiral's uniform just because of good luck?

Looking at Ella's innocent smile, Xiaobai felt something was off. Just as she was about to ask a question, she suddenly saw a group of people peeking over from a corner not far behind Ella.

It was in the shadows of a corner of the wall, quite far away, about several dozen meters away. There were several people dressed in black robes, leaning against the wall and peering over from the other side of the corner. Their hands were fair and slender, and their figures under the black robes were graceful and delicate. They seemed to be a group of girls.

Although the black robes covered their faces, they could not hide their snow-white chins and long hair that stretched down their cheeks.

The group of people had all sorts of colorful hair, and they looked like they were really good at basketball.

After Xiaobai recognized the group of people, they seemed to realize that Xiaobai had discovered their presence. In a flash, the group of girls quickly pressed down on their black hats and shrunk into the corner to hide.

Xiao Bai squinted, looking at the corner of the wall over there.

--kindness.

—Those are definitely ship girls, right? Like Ella's.

—It's 100% ship girls, right?

"Ella."

"Hmm? What's wrong with Xiaobai?"

"What kind of things happened when you came here?" Xiaobai asked Ella.

“Strange things…” Ella looked at Little White curiously, “I’ve never encountered anything strange, but I’ve had a lot of lucky things happen to me.”

"Hmm? What are they all like?"

"For example, when I went to the train station, I was so crowded that I got dizzy and lost. Then I was pushed around by the crowd. After I came to my senses, I was pushed into the waiting room."

"..."

"My wallet was knocked off by the crowd just before I boarded the train, but as soon as I got to my seat, a staff member came to me with my wallet and said that someone had hung it at the lost and found."

"..."

"Oh right, right, when I first got on the train, I hadn't eaten all day, so I was thinking of waiting for the staff to sell boxed meals. But when the food cart came over, all the boxed meals were sold out. Just when I thought I was going to go hungry that day, a staff member came over with a boxed meal and said someone had returned it, so I bought it and ate it."

Ella kept talking to Xiaobai, for example, when she was on the train, she had a stomachache and needed to go to the toilet, but found that the toilet was empty. Before getting off the train, she was going to miss her stop because she was sleepy, but the staff specially woke her up and asked her. When she got off the train and was worried about how to find the group, a kind young man volunteered to help her as a tour guide, and so on.

Ella spoke and laughed, seemingly quite pleased with her runaway.

As Ella spoke, Little White turned his head and exchanged a glance with Missouri beside him.

--well.

—Running away from home.

Xiao Bai didn't know whether to laugh or pretend not to know.

It's true that this kind of thing happens. A naive young lady thinks she's successfully run away from home, but in reality, her family members are always by her side, secretly protecting her. The many fairytale-like coincidences she encounters on her journey are basically all due to her family members doing their best to help her behind the scenes...

That's actually quite fun.

Xiao Bai looked at the satisfied expression on Ella's face and felt somewhat relieved.

Although this might create a hothouse flower, for Ella, who had been kidnapped and nearly became withdrawn, even if it's just a fake experience, letting her feel the warmth of society would be a much-needed temporary therapy for her soul.

Parents' hearts are always full of love and worry...

Chapter 934 You might not believe it, but these two big shots...

Back when he was still with the Mu family, President Er Gou had told Xiao Bai that the core components for building the device were not made by the Mu family, but by another family that was much smaller.

Considering what Ella had said before, and her resemblance to Na and Suzuran, Xiaobai now thinks that this supposedly much smaller family is probably Ella's hometown.

But how small could a family be if they possessed the core skills to build such devices? It shouldn't be difficult for them to secretly protect Ella along the way.

That's why, after understanding the truth behind Ella's "running away from home," Xiaobai was no longer worried about Ella.

"Hey, Little White." After recounting everything she'd seen and heard along the way, Ella looked at Little White, who was still giving her that ambiguous, elder-like smile, and suddenly scratched her head a little sheepishly. "Did I delay your mission...?"

"No."

"Oh, then, can I come with you?"

"Okay, sure." Xiaobai nodded readily.

When Ella saw how readily Xiaobai agreed, her eyes lit up instantly. She smiled and moved closer to Xiaobai, then smiled happily at Missouri, who was standing on the other side.

"Hello, it's great to see you again. It was the same three of us during the deep-sea activities in the fall!"

Missouri did not speak in response to Ella's greeting, but simply smiled and bowed slightly to her.

Led by Ella, the group walked toward the corner where Xiaobai had previously discovered the ship girl.

Ella explained things to Xiaobai as they walked.

"The seas here are dangerous areas that cannot be developed. The deep-sea ships on that side are extremely volatile and always block the sea. They usually defend it with these thick walls, allowing the ship girls to fight freely on that side. Because of the frequent battles, this area has a considerable amount of energy thanks to the endless supply of deep-sea metals. The economy also benefits from these deep-sea metals in various ways. So, unknowingly, more than a hundred years have passed, and the small city that was blocked by the sea and land and unable to develop its economy has inexplicably developed into what it is today."

"It's been so long..."

“Yes, this city is quite famous among the admirals. When we were at the Naval Academy, the teachers often used this city as an example to tell us that deep-sea disasters are gradually being utilized by humans as a resource. But Xiaobai, you haven’t been an admiral for very long, so it’s normal that you don’t know this.” Ella smiled at Xiaobai.

"Ha...ha..." Xiaobai said somewhat awkwardly, "Why are the deep-sea amphibious ships here so irritable?"

"Hmm, I don't know. Some people say it's because of the magnetic field, others say it's because of metaphysics, and still others say it's because of infectious diseases in the deep sea or something."

"...So, what about the combat damage over there?"

"Don't worry, although some ship girls' equipment is damaged from time to time, there have been no casualties. The defense is very solid," Ella said, adding a hint of confidence.

"…I hope so."

“Ah, back to the original topic, Xiaobai, the reception area is over there.” Ella pointed to the corner of the wall and said to Xiaobai, “Take your invitation there, there are staff there, just register and someone will arrange accommodation for us.”

"Why are you so skilled?"

"I've been here for a while now, so I've done some research. I've also looked into a lot of interesting cafes and cake shops in the city... Ah, speaking of cake shops, if you have some free time in a couple of days... would you like to..."

Ella looked at Little White with some anticipation.

Xiaobai didn't hear the second half of Ella's sentence; she had been staring at the corner of the wall, deep in thought, since the beginning.

……Um.

So that place is full of ship girls. In that case, the reception area is probably staffed by Ella's family.

—How corrupt!