Elder brother's garrison

Page 1308

"Admiral? What's wrong?"

Xiao Bai stared at the entrance of the Ship Equipment Research Center, his gaze lingering on the security room inside the entrance for a while before his eyes suddenly lit up.

"I know how to find the goddess of the hearth!"

"Ah? Admiral, you already knew that?"

"Okay! Changchun, come with me!" Xiaobai grabbed Changchun's hand, and the two ran towards the security room of the Ship Equipment Research Center. "Since Miss Vestal works as a security guard at the Ship Equipment Research Center, even if she's not officially part of the center's staff, she must have left some information in the security room! Besides, Miss Vestal has worked here for twenty years, so there must be people in the security room who know her well! We should be able to find Miss Vestal's address!"

"Eh... I see... No wonder you're the Admiral!" Changchun's eyes sparkled, and he quickly clapped for Xiaobai.

"It's just a normal association... nothing serious..." Xiaobai said shyly.

“But the Admiral’s reaction is so fast! I definitely couldn’t react that fast!” Changchun didn’t hold back her praise for Xiaobai. Her big eyes were fixed on Xiaobai. After a while, as if she remembered something, a hint of doubt flashed across her face. “Ah…but, Admiral, I have a question.”

"Hmm? What's the problem?"

"It's...a weekend? Is there really anyone in the security room?"

"..."

Little White's steps gradually came to a stop.

This... touches on a bit of a blind spot for a novice.

Chapter 1672 That girl looks familiar.

The ship equipment research center remains open on weekends, allowing workaholics like Yubari to come and work overtime and conduct scientific research at any time.

Therefore.

Although the number of people at the ship equipment research center is significantly less on weekends compared to weekdays, it is still open. Therefore, the security room still needs to have a minimum number of security personnel on duty to deal with emergencies.

When Xiaobai and Changchun arrived at the security room with bated breath, although the security room was much emptier than yesterday, there were still two young male security guards sitting inside, holding teacups, chatting and on duty.

Before Xiaobai and Changchun could greet each other, one of the security guards, who was holding a red teacup, quickly noticed them coming to the window of the security room. Curious, he went to the window, opened it, and asked Xiaobai and Changchun a question.

"Hello, ladies, is there anything I can help you with?"

"Hello... security guard brother." Xiaobai swallowed and said to the security guard with the red tea mug.

Girls like Xiaobai and Changchun naturally give off a good impression. Coupled with Xiaobai's friendly greeting, the older brother with the red teacup subconsciously narrowed his eyes and revealed a comfortable expression.

"Hey! Little sister! Don't hesitate to ask me anything! I'll do everything I can to help you!" The older brother with the red teacup gave Xiaobai and Changchun a refreshing smile. "But if you want to come in, you'll have to follow the rules and get a pass. Without a pass, little sister, I really can't help you."

"Ah, that's great..." Seeing that this older brother was so easy to talk to, Xiaobai breathed a sigh of relief. She and Changchun moved closer to the window and said to the security guard with the red tea mug, "Um... I didn't mean to come in. Actually, I have a friend who works here. I don't know if you know her..."

"Oh ho, so you're looking for someone?" The security guard with the red tea mug exchanged a glance with the person next to him, revealing an interested expression. "Who else in our security office is so lucky as to know two pretty young ladies like you?"

"Haha..." Xiaobai laughed awkwardly, "Um... her name is the Goddess of the Hearth."

After Xiaobai finished speaking.

Something unexpected happened.

The security guard with the red teacup who had been smiling just a second ago suddenly froze, and even the way he was looking at Xiaobai became strange.

"...Huh? W-what's wrong?"

"...Little sister, are you also a ship girl?" The security guard with the red teacup looked at Xiaobai with a puzzled expression.

"Uh... well..." Xiaobai scratched his cheek, "Do you two older brothers also know the Goddess of the Hearth?"

"We know her... of course we know her." The security guards nodded deeply and shrugged at Xiaobai. "After all, we've heard from our seniors that she's the only ship girl in our security office for over twenty years."

"Ah... are you two on good terms?" Xiaobai asked after hearing this.

"The female Stove Goddess..." The security guard with the red tea mug breathed a deep sigh of relief upon hearing this. "Well... that female Stove Goddess usually patrols her assigned area. Even if she goes back to the security room once, she leaves immediately. So we basically don't have any interaction with her. We just nod to her when we see her at work."

"Uh..." Xiaobai blinked, "I see..."

"Little sister, what do you want with the goddess of the hearth?" Perhaps because the topic concerned his colleagues in the security room, the security guard with the red teacup also became somewhat interested in gossip and asked Xiaobai.

"Uh...I..."

“We are friends of the Kitchen Goddess and came to Kyoto to find her, but we can’t get in touch with her because she doesn’t have a phone.”

Changchun picked up where Xiaobai left off and addressed the security guard.

"Oh... I see. That makes sense. I've known the Kitchen Goddess for so long, and I've never seen her use her phone." The security guard with the red teacup nodded thoughtfully, then looked up and smiled kindly at Xiaobai and Changchun. "It's like this, actually today is the weekend, and the Kitchen Goddess is off today. It's just the two of us on duty in the whole security room, so she'll come to work here on Monday the day after tomorrow. You'll see her then."

"Um... then it'll be the day after tomorrow," Xiaobai said pitifully to the security guard with the red teacup. "Excuse me... is there any other way to see her sooner...?"

"Uh...this..."

The security guard with the red teacup looked troubled.

It seems that this security guard does indeed know how to contact the goddess of the hearth.

However, since addresses and such are the private information of the female Stove Goddess, even if Xiaobai and Changchun claim to be her friends, the security guard at the red tea jar was not keen to tell Xiaobai the information about the female Stove Goddess directly without concrete evidence.

However, this is no problem for a novice.

Upon seeing the security guard with the red teacup looking troubled, Xiaobai immediately released his Admiral Network.

The Admiral Network, when used on humans who are not connected to the network, does not exert the same suppressive effect as it does on ship girls, but it can soothe and influence human emotions to a certain extent.

Just after Xiaobai released the Admiral Network.

The two security guards standing at the window looked at Xiaobai and Changchun. For some reason, they suddenly felt that the two pretty young girls leaning against the window were pleasing to the eye, seemed harmless, and were quite pitiful...

"Uh... what do we do?" The security guard with the red tea mug exchanged a glance with the person next to him.

“These two young girls…it’s not easy for them to come all this way to find a relative…besides, they’re both ship girls, so they should be practically family. How about we…” another security guard said in a low voice.

“…Okay, fine.” The security guard with the red tea mug nodded upon hearing this. He looked at Xiaobai and said, “Then…I’ll make an exception and tell you where the female hearth goddess lives.”

"Thank you, big brother!" Xiaobai nodded happily.

"Oh, it's no problem." The security guard with the red tea mug put down the tea mug he was holding, then walked to a table, picked up a thick duty manual, and said to Xiaobai, "Our security guards actually fill out some basic information when they are on duty, including not only their names and surnames, but also their place of residence and address. It's quite easy to find. Let me find it for you."

The security guard with the red teacup flipped to the front of the thick procurement manual and turned a few pages in front of Xiaobai.

"Ah, found it." The security guard sat back down with his duty manual in hand and said to Xiaobai, "Young lady, I'll only say this once, the goddess of the hearth lives there..."

The security guard rattled off a list of names: xx street, xx road, xx residential area, xx building.

"Thank you! I'll remember that!"

Xiao Bai bowed sincerely to the two security guards to express his gratitude.

"Oh, it's nothing. But you two little sisters, remember to say hello to us after you find the Goddess of the Hearth." The two security guards waved and smiled at Xiaobai and Changchun, looking satisfied as if they had done a good deed.

"You want what you want."

Xiao Bai and Chang Chun smiled at the security guard, bowed in gratitude, exchanged a smile, and hurried toward the address of the Goddess of the Kitchen God.

Inside the security room.

The two security guards watched Xiaobai and Changchun leave, and only after they could no longer see Xiaobai and Changchun's backs did they let out a long sigh.

"Sigh...they're such lovely girls." The security guard with the red tea mug picked up the mug, took a sip of hot water, and said, "They're making my girlish heart flutter."

"What, you want to have a daughter?"

"Go away, I need to find a girlfriend first."

"Hahaha."

"It's quite strange. I've been a security guard here for so long, and I've seen plenty of cute girls every day. I've always upheld the law, but why do I feel a little guilty when I see these two?" The security guard with the red tea mug frowned, looking puzzled. "Hmm... Come to think of it, the girl walking in front just now looked kind of familiar."

"Friend, you have a problem."

"Ah? What's the problem?"

"I suspect you have a lolicon complex."

"..."

"Hello? Is this 110? Same place, same person."

"No, I'm serious." The security guard with the red tea mug tapped his temple. "I'm thinking... I think I saw her somewhere before, on TV, on a computer, or in a comic book magazine on the street..."

"..."

"Hey, why did you suddenly pick up your phone?"

"Depending on what you do next, I might really have to call the police."

"...Stop joking, I'm serious." The security guard with the red tea mug helplessly pressed the button on his friend's phone, then squinted, staring at the direction Xiaobai and Changchun had left in, frowning with a strange look on his face. "Hmm...I feel like I really have seen her before...As for...when was it, I've kind of forgotten...Hiss...when was it?"

-

The goddess of the hearth lives quite far from the ship equipment research center, and in a rather secluded and remote place in Kyoto. To use a more data-driven approach, it's located outside the Eighth Ring Road.

When Xiaobai and Changchun arrived at the dwelling of the Kitchen Goddess based on the information provided by the enthusiastic security guard, what they saw was a small, dilapidated city gate that looked rather run-down compared to the bustling city center of Kyoto. Below the gate was a narrow alleyway with single-story houses. It was already close to afternoon, and there were many vendors with handcarts and carts hawking their wares under the sun at the entrance of the alley.

"Sharpening scissors~ Sharpen the kitchen knife~"

"Candied hawthorn berries~ Candied hawthorn berries~"

"Mom, I want to eat roasted yams—yes, big ones, are two enough?—Thank you, Mom!"

……

The way the vendors called out their wares was quite unique.

Chapter 1673 The Divine Artifact of the Female Stove Goddess (4000 words)

Compared to the developed and bustling city center, the architecture in the small town where the goddess of the hearth lives is noticeably more ordinary.

There are no bustling crowds like in the city center, no towering skyscrapers, and the roads are narrow with yellow earth covering the ground. Few vehicles pass by, and most of the pedestrians here are not dressed in bright clothes, but their faces and expressions are quite pleasant.

Xiaobai and Changchun walked along the roadside. What they saw were large stretches of single-story houses connected by alleyways. The red tiles and gray cement were the most distinctive colors in this small town. Outside the alley entrances, small carts passed by with vendors calling out their wares. Whenever a cart passed an alley entrance, several children would excitedly run out and surround the cart. Clutching a few yuan in bills, they would rest their chins on their hands, their bright eyes carefully choosing between candied fruits, candied hawthorns, and other snacks, chattering and discussing their opinions from time to time.

Compared to the high speed and hectic pace of the city center, the pace of life in the smaller towns seems much slower and more humane.

"So Kyoto has such quaint places too..." Changchun looked at the scene by the roadside, especially at the children surrounding the snack vendors, and couldn't help but smile, murmuring softly, "I used to think Kyoto was a developed city where everyone was working at full speed and had no time to care about anything else..."

"After all, Kyoto is a very, very big city... Although I'm being wise after the event, the area of ​​Kyoto is actually more than ten times that of our city." Xiaobai turned to Changchun and said after hearing Changchun's mutterings.

"Huh? More than ten times? That's huge?" Changchun looked surprised.

“Yes.” Xiaobai smiled. “As you know, Changchun is developing at an unprecedented pace. In cities like Kyoto, which cover a large area, it is inevitable that some smaller districts will develop at a slower pace during rapid development. Over time, as Kyoto’s urban area develops rapidly, these smaller districts will gradually show a completely different landscape from Kyoto’s urban area. But even so, these areas are actually places with some folk customs and a long history.”

"Oh..." Changchun listened blankly to Xiaobai's words, then clapped his hands in admiration. "So that's how it is... Thank you for the explanation, Admiral!"

"This isn't my opinion, it's all from the tourist guides in Kyoto..." Xiaobai said to Changchun with an embarrassed smile, "Anyway, now that we're here, let's hurry up and find the goddess of the hearth."

"Okay!" Changchun nodded, but his gaze suddenly softened, and he said to Xiaobai with some worry, "Um... speaking of which, Admiral..."

What happened in Changchun?

"Admiral, have you figured out how we're going to explain to Miss Stove that we stood her up today after we meet her..."

Changchun asked somewhat awkwardly.

"Uh, of course I'm telling the truth."

Xiaobai replied.

"...Do you really want to tell the truth?" Changchun lowered her head, her face flushed, and looked at Xiaobai cautiously, as if she had something on her mind but didn't know whether she should say it or not.

Xiao Bai looked at Changchun, blinked in confusion for a moment, and then suddenly realized.

what.

Yes!

If I were to tell the truth to the goddess of the hearth...

When the female kitchen goddess asked her why she and Changchun had stood her up today, was she supposed to answer, "I'm so sorry, I was so intimate with the ship girl last night that I overslept"?

I have a feeling that once I said that, the goddess of the hearth would be furious enough to go berserk on the spot.

“Oh…right…” Xiaobai covered her forehead and said to Changchun, “It seems we really can’t tell the truth to Miss Stove Goddess…”

"Yes..." Changchun nodded, blushing, looking conflicted.

True.

Xiaobai and Changchun did not want to deceive the female Kitchen Goddess.

But there's no way around it; sometimes, for your own good and for the other person's good, you have to tell some white lies.

"Let me think..." Xiao Bai covered his temples with both hands, pondering how to explain things to the Goddess of the Kitchen God.

"Admiral, keep it up!" Changchun cheered for Xiaobai.