248: Chapter 248 Murmansk Bar

"Yo, good afternoon, Ushakov... and this is?"

"Good afternoon. Give me a bottle of vodka. As for him..." Ushakov looked at Li Ming, who was wrapped up like a rice dumpling, "He's Admiral Kuznetsov's guest."

"Plain water is fine, milk or cola works too." Li Ming stepped forward. "I don't drink, thank you."

The Ship Girl behind the bar raised an eyebrow, then pushed a bottle of Pepsi toward him.

"Oh, come on, you're an adult now, you should know how to drink!"

Ushakov pulled Li Ming closer. "Pamir, give him a bottle of brandy. It's on me."

"B-B-Brandy?!"

Li Ming's face, which had been flushed red from the cold, instantly turned pale with fright.

"Uh..." The Ship Girl named Pamir hesitated for a moment before finally taking out a relatively low-alcohol dark beer and pushing it over along with the vodka.

"Alright, alright, that works too."

Dragging Li Ming to a corner table and plopping him into a seat, Ushakov sat down boisterously. "Try it; you should have at least a little."

Although Li Ming had actually drunk before, he had always been quite restrained, whether in his original world or when drinking with the Ship Girls.

This was his first time drinking with a stranger.

He recalled when his older cousin brought her husband to his home. To entertain them, his father brought out some homemade bayberry wine. The two of them drank half a giant glass jar, and his brother-in-law—a man from the Northeast—was knocked unconscious on the spot.

He was taken to get his stomach pumped the next day, and they even used his father's medical insurance.

Li Ming had a bad feeling that he was about to follow in his brother-in-law's footsteps.

But seeing the look in Ushakov's eyes and noticing the casual glances from others, Li Ming opened the tab of the dark beer and took a sip.

Hmm... it was similar to when he drank with Royal Fortune, though she was technically just pretending to drink.

Li Ming felt relieved and boldly took two large gulps.

"See? You can drink after all, can't you?"

"A little, I guess," Li Ming said after some consideration.

"Then come on, cheers!"

"Cheers."

The glass bottle clinked against the aluminum can, and then Ushakov began to chug it down with a stereotypical "glug-glug-glug."

Li Ming felt cold sweat break out on his forehead and had no choice but to honestly take large gulps of the beer to avoid appearing impolite.

He didn't like drinking culture.

"Hah..."

Ushakov set the glass bottle on the table. "So, your name is... Li Ming, right?"

"Uh, yeah."

"What do you plan to do next? If you're looking for clues, there probably won't be any way to find them in the short term."

"I don't have any plans for now," Li Ming replied. "I don't know where I can go either."

"Then stay here for the time being," Ushakov shrugged. "But first we need to get your daily necessities sorted out, and I should probably get you a temporary ID... or something."

"True."

"We'll go get your documents in a bit. Well? Aren't you going to thank me?"

"...I'm eternally grateful," Li Ming said in a deadpan voice.

"Sigh, so insincere." Ushakov leaned over and patted his head again. "But you seem like an honest person... probably."

What do you mean 'probably'? Li Ming's lip twitched. He finished the rest of the brewed wheat juice in the can and looked at her.

"Good, straightforward."

She also picked up the vodka and chugged down the entire contents of the glass bottle.

"Hah... Pamir, another bottle!" she wiped her mouth. "And bring some snacks! For two!"

"Coming!" Pamir hurried to prepare.

"See, she's still as clumsy as ever," Ushakov smiled. "Hey, Li Ming, what do you think of Kuzna?"

"Kuzna... To be honest, the Admiral's condition is worse than I imagined."

"Oh? You've looked into it?"

No kidding. As a quasi-military geek, how could Li Ming not know which Aircraft Carrier had the most scandals, besides the neighbor's third brother and the current Royal Navy?

"Yeah, her spirit doesn't seem very good," Li Ming said. "And her physical strength seems very poor."

Her smile vanished.

"Yesterday, while I was asleep, she tried to go to the second floor to get a charger, but it seems that... due to physical exhaustion, she fell down the stairs."

"Is she alright then?"

"She asked me to put her on the sofa then and told me to help her get the charger. When I came back, she was already asleep... or more accurately, it was more like she had fainted."

"Tsk, blyat..."

Her expression darkened but quickly smoothed over. She shook her head. "Never mind. Li Ming, keep talking."

"Uh, talk about what?"

"What you think of her."

"Uh..."

"Just say it. What's the big deal? It's not like you're afraid of her, are you?"

"Is it really a question of being afraid or not?"

In the end, Li Ming couldn't win against an interested Ushakov. "Although she seems very weak, her actions are surprisingly well-organized. She's also very reliable, though... to be honest, I don't know why she agreed to let me stay."

"Well... maybe she's just bored."

Ushakov shook her head. "I used to be busy with patrols, and now I'm busy with retirement procedures. If she hadn't called me out, I wouldn't have had much time anyway..."

"And my health hasn't been great since I retired," she thought to herself.

"Sigh, I'll see if I can talk to Peter later." Ushakov sighed again, snatched the vodka from Pamir, who was walking over, pried off the cap, and continued to chug it down.

Li Ming looked at Pamir. The somewhat inexperienced Supply Ship girl gave him a helpless yet slightly comforting smile, then pushed the hot milk she had brought over to him.

"Спасибо," Li Ming said somewhat awkwardly.

"Oh? You speak Russian?" Ushakov threw the empty bottle into a trash can over ten meters away, startling a few small Corvettes sitting nearby. "I didn't see that coming."

"Just a little," Li Ming shook his head. "I used to watch some cartoons back home."

"If I remember correctly, there aren't many famous cartoons from our side, are there?"

"Old G, Gerand."

"Oh, the one who draws tanks." Ushakov realized. "You actually like that kind?"

"Yeah, I watched it before, and as the plot and visuals got richer, I watched more."

"That's pretty good..." Li Ming saw several resentful little ones standing behind Ushakov.

The next second.

"Ushakov..."

Ushakov turned around. "Hmm? What... Waaaaah?!"

A group of little ones pounced on her, meting out their judgment.

Li Ming's lip twitched.

Isn't this just ridiculous?

"Miss Pamir?"

"I'll go get some candy." Pamir winked at him and then turned to leave, leaving Ushakov to face the loli onslaught alone.

Li Ming pressed a hand to his forehead. What is even happening...

...

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