Chapter 267: Li Wei And Kenny Arriving At The Main Ship
Li Wei and Xiang Qi’s acquaintance was purely by chance.
Time rewinds to shortly after the students from Nongda Affiliated High School and Caida Affiliated High School left the Third Military Escort Ship.
After obtaining approval from Captain Noah, the members of the Third Pioneer Force of the Eleventh Fleet entered the Third Fleet Main Ship.
Although the troop members had psychological expectations for ancient food becoming popular on the Third Fleet Main Ship after connecting to the Third Fleet Local Area Network and seeing the discussions on SNS, Kenny and Li Wei still couldn’t suppress their shock when they arrived on the main ship and saw a Yue Xiang Restaurant in almost every street district.
Moreover, there were long lines in front of almost every store, reminding the two of the scene they saw at the First Canteen on the Third Military Escort Ship.
Herd mentality has existed since ancient times, and modern people can’t escape it either.
Kenny and Li Wei took off their military uniforms and changed into casual clothes, randomly picked a Yue Xiang Restaurant in the commercial district, ordered fried rice, beef noodles, and a steak bun; as soon as the gourmet food entered their mouths, it made the two feel like their tongues were about to melt.
By the time they came back to their senses, there were suddenly six empty serving plates in front of them.
Ancient food is terrifyingly good!
However, after overeating, they inevitably had to go to a nearby pharmacy to buy some digestive health supplements; the on-duty employee at the pharmacy shook their head and sighed seeing the two staggering into the store supporting themselves against the wall.
After the pharmacy staff skillfully diagnosed the two, they instructed the AI robot to fetch the medicine according to the prescription, while nagging nonstop:
“Sigh, young people nowadays really don’t know moderation; no matter how delicious it is, you can’t eat too much. Yue Xiang’s stuff is delicious, no doubt, but it won’t grow legs and run away. Moreover, even if those foods are taken off the shelves, the Agriculture Bureau will replenish them for everyone through different channels, let alone the absurd notion of them selling out. We’re the Third Fleet; as long as it’s not seafood, we can always supply the ingredients we need ourselves, right?”
Kenny and Li Wei swallowed the stomach medicine compressed into a tablet, feeling a mix of emotions while listening to the employee’s nagging.
——
After leaving the pharmacy, the two strolled around the commercial district; when leaving, Kenny couldn’t resist buying two portions of french fries and two hot milks from the takeout window of the Yue Xiang Restaurant.
It was midsummer now, and elementary school was on summer vacation, so there were many pedestrians with kids on the street; they were holding either buns, or french fries and potato wedges, with pure milk or sweet milk in the beverage cups they carried, and after eating, they casually threw the packaging paper and disposable cleaning gel into the trash cans on the street side.
The AI robots responsible for street sanitation work were constantly busy just with garbage recycling.
Kenny and Li Wei had never seen such a scene, at least not in the Eleventh Fleet.
“Captain Noah’s move is really ruthless.” Kenny smiled wryly as he swallowed the french fries from the disposable insulated cup, “Even we couldn’t resist getting lost in these ancient foods all over the streets; don’t even mention others.”
“We’ve at least had the experience on the Third Military Escort Ship; others have never seen a scene like this?”
Li Wei also smiled wryly and shook his head.
“Thinking positively, at least during our ‘stationing’ here, we don’t have to worry about meal quality. Unless they choose to serve us with the highest-grade solid food and liquid food.”
Kenny shrugged.
“After these few meals, whose tongue could still tolerate the taste of liquid food?”
Li Wei took a sip of milk; the warm milk carried a hint of sweetness, no wonder it was so popular.
“Ha, don’t mention it; the meal we had in our canteen yesterday was already somewhat torturous for me.”
Kenny scratched his head; recalling the feeling of the solid food and liquid food served by their troop’s chef last night when they entered his mouth, he shuddered a bit.
A tongue that has tasted delicious food, how could it tolerate bland solid food and liquid food that tastes like fresh food? So today’s meal was almost soul-purifying for the two.
The two sat silently on the bench by the commercial street, watching the passing pedestrians, unable to say any words of complaint for the moment.
Actually, from the situation these past few days, aside from the unethical injection of nanomachines and the inability to use the space-time network, the Third Fleet Military Department or even other government departments hadn’t interfered much with their entire troop.
Not only that, after arriving on the Third Fleet Main Ship, the government personnel responsible for receiving them thoughtfully issued three months’ wages to the entire team according to each member’s military rank based on the Exploration Force’s salary standard as mental compensation for this time, and arranged a high-class hotel as their temporary lodging.
If not for the overly frustrating start, it might really have been a pretty good Third Fleet experience trip for the members of the Third Pioneer Force.
——
After sitting dazedly for a while, Kenny spoke up and asked:
“The people from the Third Fleet said they can arrange our accommodations; do you have any ideas?”
Li Wei shook his head.
“No plan yet, but the first thing we can rule out is the Military Escort Ship. Not to mention how many people would be watching us with guns if we stationed there long-term, just the food supply and demand issue could cause divisions within the team.”
Kenny scratched his head.
“Ha, after all, none of our troop has seen a scene like this. There’s not even a bun to eat on the Third Military Escort Ship; if it were me, I wouldn’t want to go either.”
“At least pretend on the surface, Captain.” Li Wei looked at him helplessly, “Moreover, there are benefits to being on the main ship; we can observe the Third Fleet’s new developments firsthand here, and if there’s a chance to contact diplomatic personnel from other fleets, maybe we can get us out of the current predicament early.”
“Though I don’t think Captain Noah and the others would let us contact people from other fleets so easily… but I agree with the first part.” Saying that, Kenny opened his personal terminal light screen, looking at the hot discussions on SNS about the mysterious trailer newly released by the Agriculture Bureau.
“Not talking about policies or anything, just the catering and that little girl’s new developments are things we can see right away only on the main ship side. If we’re holed up on the escort ship, by the time they start messing with new staple foods here, we’ll finally be eating buns just like those poor escort ship residents. Honestly, for the First Fleet and our fleet, instead of wasting effort on information turbulence which is mostly useless, they might as well properly address the issues between the escort ships and the main ship; these aren’t things that can be settled just by posting a new policy or message on the space-time network.”
Hearing Kenny’s words, Li Wei opened his mouth to speak but ultimately fell silent.
The issues between escort ships and the main ship have nothing to do with policies or information gaps; it’s simply that they can’t enjoy the main ship’s newly issued policy benefits right away, involving complex matters like site selection, logistics, and personnel flow. This delay isn’t even a month, which isn’t much time for modern people with long lifespans.
But for the researchers on escort ships, especially production escort ships, let alone a month—even a day feels like a year.
And now, the ancient food covering all social discussion topics on the Third Fleet Main Ship has spread this phenomenon to the Military Escort Ship; just look at those soldiers and officers eagerly awaiting branch stores of Yue Xiang Restaurant and canteen recipe authorizations.
Even Kenny and Li Wei, who had briefly enjoyed Xiang Chuan-led freshly made catering on the Military Escort Ship, couldn’t stand returning to gnawing on solid food and liquid food; let alone those soldiers and officers who had already run to the main ship during holidays or weekends to enjoy it?
Will this become a new topic during this Fleet Exchange Period? This doubt flashed through Li Wei’s mind, then he smiled wryly and shook his head. Even if it does, it has nothing to do with him.
“It’s still early; I want to wander around other areas. Captain, do you have any arrangements?” Li Wei asked.
“Me—?” Kenny glanced at the time on his terminal, “I’ll go to the Third Fleet government side to say hello, and by the way, solicit opinions from the team and Captain Noah’s side on the accommodation issue.”
“How about I also…”
“Go play.” Kenny waved his hand, “Just treat it as the Third Fleet taking charge and giving us a vacation. Besides, if you were normally pursuing further education, you’d be preparing to enjoy summer vacation right now, right?”
After saying that, Kenny ignored Li Wei’s somewhat complicated expression, turned around, and walked toward the roadside car rental point.
Li Wei sighed lightly and walked toward the car rental point.
