9: Chapter 9 Awkward

Hu Jian soon felt the pain of being a teacher.

Li Ming lacked too much knowledge, from mathematics to logical thinking; without understanding these, many foundational subjects were impossible to teach.

Out of necessity, she abandoned her original lesson plan and switched to tutoring him in math first.

He hadn't even figured out linear equations in two variables yet, so what else was there to say...

Li Ming occasionally showed signs of spacing out, but under the intensity of one-on-one instruction from a master teacher, he managed to listen attentively.

"Alright, alright... that's enough for today..." She put down the textbook and rubbed her temples.

Li Ming tilted his head back and stretched. When he turned his head back, he saw Hu Jian performing the exact same action, with even the small details being very similar.

"What should we eat tonight..." she seemed to ask herself under her breath.

"Let's go to the ecology pod and pick something..." Li Ming said. "We can blast some fish on the way. I refuse to believe I can't cook them right."

"...Fine... No, no, you go rest for a bit, I'll handle it..." Hu Jian finally snapped out of it and wanted Li Ming to rest, but he refused.

"You know as well as I do that our skill levels are about the same." He gathered the materials. "Let's go, we'll check it out together."

Fujian was convinced and could only obediently follow him toward the cultivation pods.

They picked some vegetables, but were still lacking meat, so Li Ming took an explosive and planned to go blast some fish.

"Wait a second, Commander... have you really used that thing before?" Fujian looked suspiciously at Li Ming as he clumsily fumbled with the explosive.

"No."

"..." Fujian facepalmed and snatched the explosive from Li Ming's hand. "I'd better do it. Commander, stay back from the shore for a moment."

"Oh..." Li Ming listened to her and followed her toward the seaside.

Arriving at the shore, she deployed her rigging and leaped into the water. She glanced back to confirm the Commander had indeed listened to her and was staying safely back, revealing a satisfied smile.

Although it was already dark and Li Ming couldn't see her expression, he still waved to signal he was in position.

Seeing this, Fujian nodded. It was lucky that it was night and her Commander couldn't see her rigging clearly, otherwise...

She looked left and right at her nearly scrapped rigging. It had been severely damaged while resisting spatial turbulence during the crossing; not only were her carrier-based aircraft lost, but she had also lost almost all combat capability.

Based on her understanding of Li Ming, if he knew, he would focus more of his energy on repairing her rigging. This would be detrimental to his development; he should focus his energy on more important things...

Thinking this, Fujian expertly activated the explosive, threw it into the water over ten meters away, and then turned tail and ran.

BOOM—

She turned back again and used a searchlight to scoop up the fish. Seeing Li Ming call over a Yellow Chicken master to drive a small boat to collect them all, she retreated to the shore. Looking at her clothes, she saw they were soaked through by the spray again.

I'll have to wear the Commander's clothes again, she thought, stowing her rigging and returning to Li Ming's side.

"Are you planning to braise them or make soup?"

"I don't know, we'll see..." Li Ming shook his head, then fixed his gaze on her clothes. "What's going on with your rigging?"

Fujian froze. It seemed that while she was scooping fish under the light just now, he had seen everything clearly...

"It's not a big deal, it doesn't affect my daily life. Alright, let's go~ otherwise it'll be midnight by the time we finish cooking..."

Seeing Fujian change the subject, Li Ming opened his mouth but ultimately swallowed his words.

Fujian didn't notice the change in Li Ming's mood; she just took his arm and pestered him to go back and cook.

The engineering drones watched the two of them leave together, then quietly departed to command the speedboat back to port and prepare to send someone to deliver the fish.

——————

Dinner time.

Fujian was somewhat restless because Li Ming kept staring at her.

He took a bite of rice, chewed slowly, and then looked at her—a style completely different from his wolfing down food yesterday.

She felt very uncomfortable being stared at, but a sudden, inexplicable fear forced her to keep her mouth shut. The last time she felt this much fear was when she had just been born and made her first mistake, fearing the Commander's criticism.

Thus, in a psychological battle that never actually existed, Li Ming completely defeated Fujian. Although Li Ming was simply a bit worried, his personality made it so he wouldn't often take the initiative to ask about her condition.

Trust is a good thing, but excessive trust needs to be tested.

But truth be told, he really hadn't seen a Ship Girl's rigging up close in reality before.

Thinking this, Li Ming reached his chopsticks into his bowl, only to find it was already empty.

Finished already? Seeing that Fujian still had two-thirds left in her bowl and looked absent-minded, Li Ming's sluggish brain began to analyze.

"Fujian?"

"Eh? Commander, what's wrong?"

"Aren't you going to eat?"

"Oh, oh, I was thinking about how to supplement the Commander's knowledge next."

Li Ming's face instantly soured like a bitter melon.

Is studying the Commander's weakness? Fujian thought to herself. That won't do; otherwise, how will I cram all this information into him later...

"Just eat." Li Ming lowered his head and stopped talking.

Fujian also quickly lowered her head and shoveled a few bites to hide her internal awkwardness. If he discovered she had let her rigging get into that state, he would surely be very worried.

Maintaining this rigging and replacing the equipment would require shutting down the base's production for at least half a month to provide maintenance, and it still wouldn't replace her original equipment and aircraft. But if she confessed, her Commander would most likely do exactly that, which would be extremely detrimental to the base's development.

However... the occasional glances from Li Ming as he washed the dishes still made her feel like she was sitting on pins and needles, always feeling that his next sentence would be a criticism...

"Fujian..."

"Ah, yes!"

"Let me see your rigging, okay?"

"Okay, Commander... wait, no, deploy it here?" Fujian reacted a beat late.

"We'll deploy it at the research center in a bit. I want to study it properly." Li Ming answered tentatively, "Or are you hiding something from me?"

Li Ming startled himself when he said that; he shouldn't have been so aggressive...

Unpleasant memories from the past flooded his mind—memories of being scolded and beaten for saying the wrong thing—making his hands feel weak.

"No! Of course not!" Fujian showed a flash of panic. "If you want to see it... then see it..."

The two of them fell into a strange silence.

It wasn't until Li Ming turned off the faucet and dried his hands that the awkward atmosphere gradually dissipated.

"Shall we go?"

"...Okay."

...

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