254: Chapter 254 Conversation

"Sigh..." Li Ming wiped the water from his forehead, changed into his clothes, and walked out of the bathroom.

Although Ship Girls usually don't need bathrooms, Kuznetsov's room still had one as part of the standard equipment.

Because of this, Li Ming was able to take a shower and wash off all that stinky sweat.

It was a Li Ming specialty to wear a tank top in the middle of winter, though this was only possible because there was heating in the room.

If nothing else, the Rus region certainly had plenty of energy.

"Yo, finished washing?"

Ushakov squeezed his arm. "Why are you so thin? This arm of yours looks awfully weak."

Li Ming took a step back; those two squeezes of hers were actually a bit ticklish. "Should I squeeze yours too?"

Ushakov held out her arm. "Go ahead, squeeze."

Li Ming hesitated for a moment, then reached out and gave it a gentle squeeze. "It's quite fleshy."

"That's where the strength comes from." Ushakov flexed her arm, showing off her muscles. "Too bad my endurance isn't great."

"Endurance..." Li Ming pondered. For a Ship Girl, endurance corresponded to... the power system.

"Ah, it's nothing important." Ushakov pulled her arm back and looked at the clock. "It's almost ten o'clock already..."

"We ate late to begin with," Li Ming said. "It was already seven-thirty by the time I finished cooking, and you two were messing around for quite a while."

"Haha, who knew Kuzna still had such a... childish side? Besides, your cooking is delicious, hehe!"

The two of them had spent a long time at the dinner table bickering with their forks. If Li Ming hadn't been watching them, things probably would have escalated into potatoes and eggplants being fired at each other.

Li Ming sighed, then suddenly thought of something. "Ushakov."

"Hmm?"

"Speaking of the Marshal's physical condition, does she ever take a shower?"

"Uh..." Ushakov thought for a moment. "I don't know..."

"Go and give her a sniff." Li Ming tossed this spur-of-the-moment idea to Ushakov.

"Me... me?"

“Of course. Do you expect me to go and sniff her? Haven't you heard that men and women should maintain a proper distance?"

"Oh, the Northern Union isn't that conservative..."

"Gender-open?" Li Ming's mouth twitched.

"Cough, cough... well, it's not that exaggerated..." Ushakov quickly waved her hands. "But giving her a sniff really isn't as offensive as you think. She probably wouldn't mind too much."

"I mind." A few black lines appeared on Li Ming's forehead. "How about I give you a couple of sniffs?"

"Huh? What does that have to do with me?"

Li Ming took two steps forward and proactively leaned his head toward Ushakov's neck.

She was startled and quickly backed away two steps. "What are you doing?!"

"There's an old saying in Eastern Radiance: Do not do to others what you would not have them do to you." A curve appeared at the corner of Li Ming's mouth. "See, you don't want it yourself, so why do you think your Kuzna wouldn't care?"

"...Fine, you're right." Ushakov was left speechless. She turned around and went upstairs to Kuznetsov's room.

Li Ming stood at the bottom of the stairs, pricking up his ears to listen for any movement.

"Usha? Is something wrong?"

"Kuzna, I've come to sniff you..."

"Huh? You want to... Hey?! What are you doing?"

"...It seems like you haven't showered in a long time. Let me sniff again!"

"Ushakov! You're going too far!"

Thud!

"Waaah?! It hurts, it hurts, it hurts..." Ushakov wailed.

"Suka, you stupid Blyat!" Kuznetsov cursed.

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[Commander, I have taken over this phone's system. Based on the information you mentioned, I have identified your requirements. The relevant information has been transferred to the Carpathian Mountains Outpost. Ms. Vestal Meta has already begun researching this content.]

Li Ming turned off his phone screen. The sound of trickling water was coming from the bathroom, along with the faint conversation between Kuznetsov and Ushakov.

"Usha... what do you think of this kid?"

"Kuzna, you seem to care about him quite a lot."

"Yeah... after all, he, well. He just inexplicably fell into my yard. I can't exactly just ignore him."

"But if that's all it was, you could have just contacted the Eastern Radiance embassy directly, couldn't you?"

"True."

"What are you really thinking?"

"There are some things I don't really intend to let him know."

"Eh?"

Silence...

She found me out.

Li Ming's mouth twitched. He picked up a nearby broom and went upstairs.

Hearing the sound of him coming upstairs, Kuznetsov sat in the bathtub and shook her head. "He really is... helping me, sincerely. I can feel it."

"If he wasn't sincere, do you think I would have let him live until now?" Ushakov smiled.

"Usha... these things can't be solved with force. Rus is terminally ill right now. If we offend Eastern Radiance because of this, then..."

"You know, Kuzna. I've already retired. At worst, I'll just end up in prison. I might not even live to see the day I get out."

"Usha, you can't be like that."

"Oh, you're always like this... but I care about you, Kuzna."

"There's no need, Usha. You'll always be able to outlive me by a long time."

"Kuzna."

"..."

"Just like Varyag, Yekaterinburg, Shensi, Zhouquan, and Yongheng—they are all doing well, and I don't need to worry about them. But you... Kuzna, I care more about whether you are well right now. You can take it as a drunkard talking nonsense, but I'm serious."

"...You've worked hard all these years too."

"Don't worry about me, I'm still pretty sturdy. Now, can you continue?"

"Yeah. When I was introducing myself, he didn't have any... no, although he was surprised, he didn't show any more emotion. He didn't have the trepidation an ordinary person has when meeting a high official, the panic when seeing the military, or any fawning or restraint. He didn't have any of it."

"How... surprising."

"Furthermore, he's just so blatantly... well, managing me, and he's not afraid of me trying to intimidate him at all."

"That's not surprising. You really don't have much of a deterrent factor in this state."

"But I had a gun hidden then. I'm sure he realized I was a threat, but he didn't do anything and wasn't afraid. At that moment, I realized he wasn't an ordinary person."

"Ah..."

"Most importantly, for some reason, I feel that having an extra person in the house is better than being alone." Kuznetsov looked up at the white tiles. "And he saved me once on the very first day."

"..."

"Tell me, Usha. Do you know what he does?"

"Uh... I didn't ask, you know?"

"You habitually look away when you lie, Usha."

"Hmm..."

"What does he do? The feeling he gives me is very special."

"A Commander. A Commander who manages Ship Girls."

"...I see..."

...

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