Rodney shook his head casually to indicate that he didn't care. "The commander doesn't really care about gifts. He prefers - well... let's not talk about this. Shall I take you around our port area first?"
Tiancheng did not ask any more questions. After all, he knew at a glance that Rodney would not be as easy to fool as Maryland. Asking too many questions rashly might arouse Rodney's vigilance and suspicion.
"This is the store, the road next to it leads to the cafeteria, the building on the left is where everyone works, and the building in front with yellow paint is our dormitory. We are planning to expand it because we have more people.
establish…"
Helena looked at the buildings around her that didn't quite match her memory, and suddenly felt at ease with her unfamiliarity. She had nothing to do with this place now.
Tiancheng actually had no interest in the layout of this port area, but in order to familiarize herself with the terrain and lower Rodney's vigilance, she still led everyone to walk around.
After they finished touring the main buildings, Tian Cheng said at the right time: "Thank you, Rodney, for taking us around for so long. It took you a lot of effort."
"No, no, this is what I should do." Rodney smiled and stopped walking. "Then do you need me to arrange accommodation for you? Although the number of people is a bit unexpected, we still have more than enough rooms in our port area.
quantity.”
Tiancheng shook his head. "Not for now. When we got here, we realized that there seemed to be many places worth seeing here, so we will go around in the next few days. It might be more convenient to live outside."
"I see... That's a shame. Do you want me to make a travel plan for you?"
"Thank you. I won't bother you with these little things. Commander Liu is hosting a birthday party. You should also be responsible for entertaining the other invited commanders, right?"
Rodney was stunned. "Well... that's not necessary. As far as I know, the commander seems to have only invited Commander Su, and no other commanders were invited... Aren't the commander and Commander Su from Guigang friends?"
Tiancheng was somewhat surprised to hear this, so he asked tentatively: "Excuse me, but your construction age should not be very old, right?"
"Yes, I was built by Commander Cai about half a year ago... Is there any problem?"
"Of course not." Tiancheng glanced at Helena who shook her head imperceptibly and skipped the topic. "Actually, we came here for another purpose."
"Well, please tell me."
"We heard that Nelson was not feeling well and had not been out for a while, so we thought we'd come and see her. If possible, Ming could help her find out what the problem is."
"Sister? Do you know her?"
Rodney was somewhat skeptical of the truthfulness of Amagi's statement. After all, from what Amagi said, he could infer that the relationship between the two ports might not be as good as he imagined.
Therefore, Rodney decided to find a reason to refuse without much thought, "Well... maybe I need to ask my sister first to see if it's convenient for her..."
Helena, who had been silent the whole time, interrupted at this time, "She will definitely say something like 'I don't need them to visit me, they come so late'. After all, she is a tsundere."
When Rodney heard this, his expression immediately relaxed a lot, and his attitude was no longer as vigilant as before, "Ah... It seems that this is really my sister's friend. I'm so sorry..."
Helena shook her head, and Tiancheng continued to negotiate: "Can we go see her? Everyone is worried about her.
“Hmm…” Rodney seemed a little hesitant, but after thinking for a moment, he agreed to Tiancheng’s request and took them straight to the dormitory.
Along the way, the ship girls were able to see many little yellow chickens. Although they looked no different from the ones in their own port area, they could tell from the softness and glossiness of their fur that their lives were probably not as good as those of the chicks at home.
Occasionally, they would meet some ship girls. Some of them were curious about their arrival, while others looked unhappy when they saw Helena. They were probably the ship girls that Helena had worked with in the past.
Rodney was not in a hurry when he led them into the dormitory building, but when he reached the fourth floor, his pace obviously quickened. As if he was afraid of being seen by someone, he hurriedly led the ship girls to the room at the end of the corridor and knocked gently.
Knock on the door.
"Knock knock."
"elder sister?"
"Your friends are here to see you, can I bring them in?"
"Knock knock."
"elder sister?"
No one answered in the room. Rodney would be too big a target if he crowded the corridor with so many people, so he thought better of turning the handle and pushing the door open.
"Excuse me, sister. Shall I bring them in first?"
The ship girls followed Rodney into the room and saw Nelson, who was sitting silently on the edge of the bed.
Rodney took two steps forward with some concern and asked, "Sister? Do you feel better today? I still don't know what's wrong with you..."
“…..
"Ah... I... I brought my sister's friends to see you?"
"..."
"Sister..." Rodney bit her lip. The looks from the crowd behind her made her feel a little aggrieved, but she still breathed a sigh of relief and helped Nelson straighten out the wrinkled quilt. "Well... I'll get busy first, okay?"
Nelson still didn't answer until Rodney walked out of the room, looking back every few steps. Then she seemed to come to her senses and looked at Helena with a complicated expression.
"...Didn't I tell you not to come back?"
Chapter 350: All at a Glance
"...Didn't I tell you not to come back?"
Helena looked at Nelson, whose expression was no longer as proud as before, and felt a little sympathy in her heart, but she couldn't show this emotion, so she sat opposite Nelson as if nothing had happened.
Since Helena and Nelson were old acquaintances, the task of communication naturally fell on her. "I came here because of you."
Nelson was stunned when he heard this, then he reacted, "Did he threaten you with me?"
"It can't be called a threat. All I mentioned from beginning to end was that you were sick and asked us to come over here to see you."
"Tsk." Nelson said with disdain, "Only he can do such a rubbish. But you are really stupid. You come when I ask you to. What can he do to a ship girl?"
Helena glanced at Nelson, who looked a little depressed, and retorted: "You don't look well either..."
Nelson opened her mouth, but couldn't utter a word of rebuttal. After all, given her current condition, it was absolutely impossible for her to do well.
Helena looked at the awkward Nelson, sighed, and asked about the cause and effect, "So what happened?"
"...Isn't that the same thing?" Nelson frowned in disgust. "If you have set your eyes on something, you will do whatever it takes to get it."
"I saw that your young commander had great achievements before, so I felt that my promotion was threatened, so I tried every means to improve the strength of the port area to help him achieve his goal."
"Didn't your port area become popular for selling equipment in [Tidecaller] some time ago?" Nelson glanced at Ming Miao, who had a question mark on her face among the ship girls, "At that time, he was planning to get you back."
"Eh..." Ming Miao shuddered, "I don't want it, meow..."
"Later, it was rumored that you were the ship girl of your young commander, so he gave up the idea. Unexpectedly, your store has been opened again recently, and it is very popular among the ship girl community, so he had another idea."
Hearing this, Helena probably understood what Liu Jun's purpose was, but there was still one question she didn't understand, "How can he ensure that he can buy equipment from Ming?"
"Why not try to salvage the ship first? Aren't there a few reasons? Money, atmosphere, sister ship. If you can't salvage it, he will probably spend money to buy it. Anyway, he has a lot of money, and you businessmen will most likely not refuse the supplies, right?"
Ming Miao, who is essentially a profiteer and a sideline ship girl, hesitated for a long time, and finally nodded a little embarrassedly, "Doing... doing business... it's not shabby, meow..."
Helena looked at Nelson, who did not hide his dislike for Liu Jun, and was puzzled. "When did you become like this? Didn't you want to force me back for him before?"
"That was because I was blind." Nelson sighed and explained the whole story. "I followed your advice and secretly placed a monitoring device in the wall of his office."
"But after more than half a year, I didn't find any problems. I thought you were lying to me."
"Then you went to Tidecaller and picked up that famous researcher. You opened an equipment store for a while, and he noticed you."
Nelson clenched his fist and paused for a moment, then gritted his teeth and cursed: "This bastard... suddenly approached Rodney who was just built not long ago."
"Chatting, sending flowers, going on dates, I've never seen Rodney so happy."
"In less than half a month, they established a relationship. Rodney even came to me to ask about his food preferences, and they got along very well afterwards."
"I thought that the person I was monitoring my sister was not a good person, and I was thinking about when to remove the small device from the wall. As a result, I overheard the conversation he had with someone else one day."
[Hmm? Ah... You mean Rodney? No, I must have my reasons for being nice to her, so don't ask so many questions.]
[I didn't betray you. Of course, you are still the most important thing in my heart. It's just that I have reasons to do this now.]
[…Okay, okay, I established a relationship with her because I needed her identity. Her sister knows Helena, and I need her to act as a bridge for me and find a way to bring the repair ship back.]
[Still don't understand? How could her sister refuse her brother-in-law's favor?]
【Despicable? Are you talking about me? Come on, power only belongs to those who do whatever it takes (Note 1). This is not a fairy tale, where truth, goodness and beauty are endless every day.】
[Okay, okay, okay, just wait for me patiently at home. I will come back to see you when I am done with this busy period.]
【…】
Nelson still remembers that when he heard these words, all that came to his mind was his sister Rodney's happy smile and her sweet complaints.
"...I didn't think much about it at the time and went to see him with the recording." Nelson seemed quite regretful. "I didn't expect that he actually admitted it, and he was so confident about it."
"I wanted to tell Rodney the truth, but he said I would ruin Rodney's happiness."
Nelson suddenly felt a little confused when she talked about this. As a ship girl, she had never encountered such a thing. "If I tell Rodney the truth, she will definitely be very painful, and I will never see that expression on her face again..."
"But if I don't tell her, I'm just condoning that scumbag. Rodney will always be kept in the dark, but... at least she is happy..."
Helena frowned when she heard this. She knew that some ship girls had never seen the dark side of human beings, so their ability to deal with problems was relatively low, but she didn't expect Nelson's brain to be so useless.
"...Is the tsundere's brain as visible as her breasts?"
Nelson was stunned when he heard this, and then he straightened his front armor angrily, "What nonsense are you talking about?!"
"Have you ever thought that if you, Rodney, find out the truth in the end, she will find out that her life for so long was all fake. Isn't that something that is even more difficult to accept?"
Nelson paused for a moment. She hadn't really thought about this aspect of the question. Helena added, "How long have they been married?"
"No... not married yet, I just got engaged a while ago..."
"Then what are you still doing here? It is said that a short pain is worse than a long one. Instead of dwelling on it, you might as well tell Rodney the truth before things become irreversible."
Helena glanced at this stupid teammate and stretched out her hand worriedly, "Where's the recording file? Did you lose it?"
"Eh? Ah... in the USB drive..."
"That's good. Give it to me."
Nelson was suddenly pushed to make a choice to escape from the predicament. He was still confused, so he handed over the USB drive and asked stupidly: "What are you going to do..."
"Of course, I want to bring him disgrace and at the same time clear my own name."
"Well... I'm sorry for misunderstanding you before..." Nelson apologized quietly, then took out a stack of documents, "This may be of some use. I'll give it to you too. I need to go meet Rodney."
Helena looked at the contents of the document, carefully recalled what happened last year, then breathed a sigh of relief and finally smiled.
"...it's over."
ps: Note 1 I seem to have heard that sentence by chance when I was watching the trailer of the League of Legends anime movie. It left a little impression on me, so I'd like to mention the source here; since no one wants to watch such a bad plot, then I
I'll speed up the process, things may seem a bit abrupt, just have fun~
Chapter 351: Ruining the Scene
There was actually still a day or two before the banquet began. Before that, accommodation for the ten ship girls was also a problem. Liu Jun was very polite about this and repeatedly invited the ship girls to stay in his port area.
But putting aside Liu Jun's already exposed thoughts, just the small number of ship girls in the port area who looked at Helena with strange eyes were enough for them to refuse.
After all, in the eyes of those ship girls, Helena was a ship girl who abandoned the port area without permission to find another home, and she even made their commander stay in the detention center for a few days.
Now that the commander has been able to invite Helena regardless of past grudges, the other ship girls have nothing to say. However, it is impossible to expect these ship girls who are on Liu Jun's side to be nice to Helena.
Of course Helena knew the situation, but she had no evidence and no identity, so she couldn't explain it one by one. Besides, she didn't care about the looks of her former teammates anymore.
Fortunately, this city is a tourist destination. Helena had stayed there for some time before and was familiar with the area, so the ship girls spontaneously organized a tour group.
Traveling is always more fun when accompanied by close people, and there is no need to say much about the relationship between the ship girls. Even if the types of ships are slightly different, they definitely have a lot in common.
It stands to reason that in such a popular place, with so many people visiting, it might be hard to find a suitable hotel. Unfortunately, there was a very wealthy profiteer in their group who took them directly to stay in a high-star hotel.
"Wow... you're treating? Really? It's rare to see you being so generous..." Phoenix looked at Ming Miao paying the five-digit bill, and was a little bit incredulous, "You're not going to ask us for it in the end, are you?"
"How is that possible? Am I that kind of person?" Ming Miao looked unhappy because her sisters questioned her. "We are a family after all. Besides, I have made a lot of money recently."
"P, then we won't be polite then?" Phoenix smiled happily, took the room card and took Helena away, making Cleveland feel a little amused.
Yixian looked at it and asked, "Not yet?"
"Hmm? Ah..." Cleveland understood what Yixian was talking about after a moment's thought. He felt a little embarrassed, but he was still calm and honest. "Well, I'm afraid it's too sudden... Don't you have any objections?"
"What are you against?" Yixian smiled softly. "Those who are interested are all busy fighting for Su Su. They just want to have fewer competitors. How could they oppose you?"
"...I'm just afraid that the commander will not agree. I heard that some ports strictly prohibit such things from happening." Cleveland scratched his head and whispered his concerns to Yixian.
What do you mean by inexperience or not understanding girls' minds? Sister Phoenix is always on guard against her. These are all trivial matters, but Yixian finds these family matters very interesting.
After Cleveland finished speaking, Yixian smiled and said casually: "Actually... this is a good opportunity. Sometimes being impulsive may not be a bad thing."
Cleveland was stunned. Before he could ask, Ming Miao, who had received the receipt, came over with a card. "Um... can you two stay in the same room, meow?"
