Nuo Xia rolled up the newspaper, looked at the clock tower where the New Year's bell had just rung last night, and said quietly to himself, "The times are turbulent, and the calendar waits for no one. I feel an inexplicable sense of urgency. I have to continue to work harder."
"
However, the position of general is still a bit far away for the time being.
Well, let's set a small goal first and become a lieutenant general within two years.
Returning to his long-lost office, Nuo Xia planned to clock in and sit for a while, casually handle a few official matters, and then sneak to the training ground.
After all, he holds the position of deputy base commander, so he has to do what he has to do.
As a result, at this time, the adjutant knocked on the door and respectfully delivered two letters.
Nuo Xia glanced at it, and saw that one was from Shia, and the other was somewhat surprising, it was from Kizaru.
"..."
What did this wretched uncle want to do when he sent this letter? He felt a little guilty and opened Kizaru's letter first.
I miss you so much, Nosha.
At the beginning of the letter, this sentence came to mind.
"?"
Nosha turned the letter over in confusion, and after confirming that it was indeed written by Kizaru and not Shia, the corners of his eyes suddenly twitched.
The style of writing that follows continues the flavor of the first sentence, and there is a sense of grievance between the lines.
Like a lonely empty-nest man, Kizaru lamented his longing for Nosha and blamed him for not fulfilling his promise and coming under him to help share responsibilities. Does he know how much pressure he has on his shoulders now?
How hard it is...
Nuo Xia felt a chill and almost pinched her nose before reluctantly reading.
Fortunately, after complaining for a while, Kizaru finally became more serious and mentioned the real reason why he sent this letter.
The letter stated that since this world conference was the first since the Great Pirate Age began, it had many topics and was particularly grand and grand.
Many kings who had not attended the meeting in the past few times will personally lead a large number of envoys this time.
The headquarter's guard manpower suddenly became tense due to this, and had to be transferred from the branches below.
He, Polusalino, was no exception. He was ordered by his headquarters to set off in a few days to go to the Kingdom of Beria on the Western Sea, pick up the king and his entourage, and go to the Holy Land of Mariejoia.
Then Kizaru lost his mind and remembered that Nosha was in the West Sea, so he came to ask him if he had received the escort mission.
If possible, could you bring along the Belia royal family so that he wouldn't have to go all the way to lie down...
"The relationship has been laid for so long, why should it be here?"
Nuo Xia curled her lips, thought for a while, took out the pen from the pen holder, and started writing a reply.
The content of the letter is also very simple.
The general idea is that the water is too deep for a mere nineteen-year-old major general to control it, so the headquarters did not send a mission. Even if he wanted to help Uncle Huang by the way, there is nothing he can do.
After drying the ink marks, Nuo Xia sealed the envelope and handed it to the adjutant to mail it immediately.
Then, he opened Sia's letter again.
He had expected a letter from Shia, because a few days ago, the two of them had congratulated each other on the phone for the New Year.
The girl confided her reluctance to him on the phone, and then said that she had prepared some New Year gifts and would send them with the letter, hoping that Nuo Xia could take them with her.
This will at least make her feel that she is not too far away from him.
"What kind of gift will it be..."
Nuo Xia squeezed the envelope and saw that it was bulging. After pouring it out, he discovered that there were three items.
The first one is a pearlescent necklace. The craftsman used extremely superb skills to engrave the words "king of lort" on the inside.
"King of Lot..."
Nuo Xia was slightly startled. He had heard Shia say before that this was a necklace that only the kings of the Kingdom of Lot were qualified to inherit. The original cost was more than 500 million beli. After being passed down for hundreds of years, it is even more valuable now.
Liancheng.
What was this girl thinking? She was not afraid of losing it on the road, so she just stuffed it into an envelope and mailed it to herself.
"Nonsense."
He frowned slightly and looked at the necklace in his hand.
It is estimated that the old king of Lot Kingdom had just solemnly passed down the necklace to Shia, and then the girl gave it to him, without even considering the meaning behind the necklace.
Nuo Xia shook his head slightly.
When we meet again in the future, return this necklace to Shia. This is a national treasure of Lot Kingdom and he cannot afford it.
After carefully putting away the necklace, Nuo Xia turned her attention to the second gift.
Compared to the luxurious and bright necklace, this gift is much more plain and simple, just a bracelet woven from blue cloth.
Noxia remembered that Shia mentioned on the phone that she had made a protective bracelet with her own hands, and the letters engraved on it were the ancient words of Lot Kingdom, which meant praying for peace.
It seems that the one in front of me has stopped running.
"You can wear this..."
Nuo Xia smiled and put the blue bracelet on the front of his right arm. The size was just right, the touch was soft, and it was quite comfortable to wear, but...
Does this fabric look familiar?
He rubbed it with his left hand for a while with a strange look on his face, then lowered his head and sniffed lightly, and a faint fragrance like an orchid in an empty valley came to his face.
Well, it’s unmistakable. In my memory, this is the smell of Shia’s peak protector...
Gan!
So, isn’t this the shoulder strap?
Three black lines appeared on Nuo Xia's forehead.
He put his hand on his forehead and let out a helpless sigh. Sure enough, he was still too naive. With the character and style of that girl Xia, how could there be anything normal in the gift sent from thousands of miles away!
It was definitely inappropriate to wear it. Nuo Xia shook his head and took off the blue bracelet, carefully stored it together with the necklace, and turned his attention to the third gift.
That's a thick book.
It is a bit old, but the corners have not been rolled up, so it can be seen that it has been properly stored.
"With just a notebook, there's no way you can do anything wrong."
Nuo Xia muttered, opened the book, and after a few glances, he couldn't help but be stunned, "This is... a diary?"
"The 323rd day I fell in love with Nuo Xia, Qing."
"Everyone thought he was standing on the second floor because he was blowing the sea breeze. Only I knew that he went to see Brigadier General Gion again, and I was a little angry."
"A news bird flew by in the sky. It screamed loudly and became even more angry. I wanted to snatch all the newspapers in my pocket and refused to give them back no matter how much I begged."
"I didn't understand anything at the beginning and confessed rashly. It was indeed the stupidest thing to do. I should have consulted someone with experience first.
"Also, why wasn't I the one who petted the beaver cat together that night?"
"The 345th day I fell in love with Nuo Xia, Xiao Yu."
"Noxia had a fight with that guy named Ghost Spider today and was injured. I feel so bad. I want to help him apply medicine to heal his injuries, but I'm afraid he will dislike me..."
"How about trying to look like Brigadier General Gion?"
"Well, he probably won't find out..."
"On the 351st day when I fell in love with Nosha, it was cloudy. The third telescope was also discovered by Nosha and was confiscated. So sad.
"I hate seeing and hearing."
…………
Over five hundred days and nights, from acquaintance to acquaintance, from secret love to the establishment of a relationship, tens of thousands of words were densely written on the paper, recording the girl's thoughts about him stroke by stroke.
The pain and sadness when being ruthlessly rejected, the expectations after getting the fruits of imitation, the short-term joy when practicing together, the lingering nostalgia when parting...
Nuo Xia turned over and over again, his eyes gradually glazed over.
He remained silent until he finished reading the last page, put down the thick diary, and walked to the floor-to-ceiling window.
Through the flying snow and hazy rime outside, I gazed at the distant horizon.
The sky is blue, the sea is also blue, and vaguely, the blue-haired girl who only has eyes for herself and sees him as the whole world seems to appear in front of her eyes with a full smile.
I'm so sorry.
After a long time.
As if he had made up his mind, he silently turned around, tapped his finger bones, woke up the phone bug who was napping next to his desk, and dialed the phone number of the headquarters.
"Please pick up the Warring States General."
After a moment, Warring States' surprised voice came from the other end of the phone:
"No Xia? What, what happened over there in Xihai? Why did you call the office so suddenly?"
"No, I just feel that I have nothing to do in the West Sea, and I want to take the initiative to help my department take care of some troubles."
Nuo Xia leisurely said, "Mr. Warring States, although I am only a major general for the time being, if you leave it to me to escort the monarch of a country to Mariejoia, there should be no problem, right?"
"I've told you so many times that you don't need to be so humble, kid."
Warring States' angry voice came:
"The reason why you are a major general is just because of your lack of qualifications. Everyone here in this headquarters knows that your brat's strength is enough to be at the forefront even among lieutenant generals. Is it interesting to talk to me about these nonsense?
?”
"But this time, you actually offered to take on the escort mission, which I didn't expect. It's really gratifying..."
Warring States on the other end of the phone seemed to be flipping through relevant documents, "Well, let me see which other countries on the West China Sea have not been assigned to the escort team. It seems that there are indeed one or two left..."
"They're not worth a trip myself."
Nuo Xia chuckled lightly, looked at the thick diary on the table, and said quietly:
"General, please help me check. Are there any arrangements for escorts in Lot Kingdom in the New World?"
—————
Naval Headquarters, Marineland.
After the negotiation was completed, Zeng Guo hung up the phone, a smile spread across his face, and his expression was obviously more comfortable and relaxed than before.
Being able to take the initiative to stand up and help the department bear the pressure at such a critical moment, it turns out that old men and women like them did not misjudge that brat.
"Nosha's phone number?"
Opposite the desk, a tall figure sitting on the sofa with his legs crossed raised his eyebrows and asked in a low voice.
"That's right."
Warring States picked up the tea cup and said with a smile:
"He will leave before the end of the month to pick up the royal family of the Kingdom of Lot in the New World, and go to Marigioa to attend the World Conference. Calculating the distance, he should still be at your place for supplies and rest, Sakaski."
"Is this so..."
The figure on the sofa is none other than Akainu, the commander of the G1 branch who has only come to the headquarters to participate in meetings in recent days. He narrowed his eyes slightly and said calmly:
"That's good. I've always wanted to meet this junior brother before, but unfortunately every time I came to the headquarters, I missed it and couldn't do it. Now I finally have the chance."
"Hear what you mean..." Warring States looked strange, "Don't you still want to compete with him?"
"There is indeed some interest."
Akainu said calmly, "Now almost everyone in the headquarters believes that he is the best student since the establishment of the elite camp. I just want to see if he is worthy of this evaluation."
"It's up to you." Warring States shook his head helplessly, "Be careful when the time comes. After all, we are colleagues..."
Akainu was noncommittal and nodded slightly.
————
Xihai, the first branch.
At the end of another hard day of training, Nuo Xia had just taken a shower and was about to go to the restaurant for dinner when a loud banging sound suddenly came from the pocket of his jacket.
This is a miniature phone bug he carries with him. It is a private number and not many people know about it.
Could it be that it was a call from the Warring States Period and there were changes to the escort?
Hasn't everything been settled? Nuo Xia frowned slightly, but still answered the phone immediately.
What he didn't expect was that the voice from the other end was a somewhat eager young man's voice:
"Mr. Nosha, Bako... Bako has just urgently mobilized a warship and is preparing to go to sea!"
Penn?
Nuo Xia suddenly narrowed his eyes and flashed a cold light.
After being silent for about a month, has that guy finally made any movement?
————
It's clear after the snow, with black sails fluttering, and a pirate ship is sailing on the endless sea.
A banquet was being held, and cheerful and scattered choruses echoed in the sea breeze.
"Yo ho ho ho ho, yo ho ho ho~?"
"We pirates split the waves~"
“I’m on the boat with my head resting on the waves~”
…
The drunken pirates hugged each other, singing songs and laughing loudly on the deck.
From time to time there was the sound of beer glasses clinking against each other.
corner.
Little Robin sat there with his knees in his arms, staring blankly at the singing and dancing pirates.
The breath on his body was dead and incompatible with the surrounding environment.
"Hey! Annie!"
A fat female pirate in her fifties suddenly came over, grabbed her with drunken eyes, poured the large beer cup in her hand into Robin's mouth, and grinned:
"Now that you've joined a gang, how can you be there alone? You have to have a good drink!"
Cough, cough...
Robin was caught off guard and was given a large gulp of beer, which made him cough repeatedly.
She wanted to resist, but her little strength was not enough in front of the obese female pirate, and she was eventually forced to drink a large glass of draft beer.
When the obese female pirate threw her back to the ground again, her face had turned red and she couldn't even walk steadily.
"You are such a useless brat, hahahahaha, why can't you just drink so much!"
The female pirate laughed wildly, poured herself another glass, drank to her heart's content, burped after drinking, and said drunkenly:
"But today's wine seems to be really strong. Even I feel drunk faster than usual..."
Boom!
As soon as she finished speaking, she suddenly tilted her body and fell onto the deck.