Chapter 184 Fat Catfish on the Ceiling
At the same time that the twin cities were plunged into a series of turmoil due to the arrival of the Noxian army.
A storm was also quietly brewing in Bilgewater.
This morning, in the open sea of the Python Islands.
The Siren was slowly approaching the harbor of the pirate city of Bilgewater.
This ship was once the flagship of the Sarah Pirates and is now the first ship of the Captain Navy. However, it still flies the black skull flag that represents pirates.
"Bilgewater is still Gangplank's territory."
"After we get ashore, everyone should keep a low profile. To the outside world, we should still call ourselves the Sarah Pirates, and don't reveal that we are the leaders. Do you understand?"
At this time, Sarah also took off the white sailor uniform she had worn for less than two months and put on her cool and bold double-breasted vest. She temporarily changed from "Leader Sarah" to the famous Miss Fortune in Bilgewater.
All of her navy soldiers who were transformed from pirates also disguised themselves as pirates again.
Because their mission this time is to return to Bilgewater.
And according to intelligence, Bilgewater... doesn't seem to be very welcoming to the Leader.
This is because, in order to test the Baru people's attitude towards Janna's ideas, Levi had exported a large amount of carefully compiled and easy-to-understand promotional materials to Bilgewater along with the products.
Now nearly two months have passed.
The seeds were planted and finally sprouted.
And this bud produced two fruits, one was a good fruit and the other was a bad fruit.
The good news is:
"The priest of the Baru people, Illaoi, has taken the initiative to extend a friendly invitation to us for a visit."
"Our mission this time back to Bilgewater is to visit the temple of the Baru people as messengers of the goddess Janna."
The coastline ahead was faintly visible in the telescope, and Sarah once again explained to everyone the mission of their trip.
The bad news is:
"That villain Planck has also noticed our leader's propaganda."
"This devil..." Sarah couldn't help but grit her teeth when she mentioned Planck.
But she also had to admit that this Pirate King did have a sharp eye and a long-term vision.
As soon as the promotional materials of the Leader appeared in Bilgewater, Gangplank realized that something was wrong.
Later, as these propaganda materials achieved some results among the fishermen in Dicheng and were sought after by some poor people, they triggered several small-scale riots...
Gangplank acted decisively and announced an order to ban the propaganda of Janna's ideology in Bilgewater.
“The anti-Janna movement in Bilgewater right now may be more serious than what happened in Piltover…” Sarah sighed.
Piltover at least has some respect for human rights towards its own citizens, but it will act ruthlessly and without scruples when facing Zaun people and Zaun immigrants.
But Planck is different.
As the king of Bilgewater, his power is unlimited.
Here he can kill whoever he wants, no one can question him, and no one can stop him.
"So, when we return to Bilgewater this time, we need to hide our identities and act carefully."
"Our first priority is to complete the visit to the Baju temple. As for Gangplank..."
Sarah clenched her fist subconsciously, then quietly loosened it in her mind: "Planck... Planck... Let's ignore him for now, let alone conflict with him, understand?"
"Understood!" The sailors stood at attention and answered.
"Don't stand at attention." Sarah reminded: "We are 'pirates' now."
"Yes!" The "pirates" saluted subconsciously.
Sarah was silent for a while, then she couldn't help laughing: "Notify the entire ship and prepare to dock."
…
Siren, inside the cabin.
As a sailing warship, although it is huge and majestic, almost all of its internal space is reserved for more than 100 old-fashioned cannons.
The living space left for the passengers is pitifully small.
The sailors generally huddled on the wobbly little hammocks and slept in the cramped crew cabins that held dozens of people.
Only middle and senior officers could be allocated a pitifully small individual cabin.
Lina and Jinx received special care because of their status as girls and were given a small cabin of their own.
Yes, they were both on this ship.
Although the Siren came to Bilgewater this time to carry out a secret mission, it had no intention of going to war with Gangplank.
But just in case, the leaders made a comprehensive renovation to the interior of the Siren, replacing all of the more than 100 cannons installed on the three gun decks with the most advanced ship-borne "Disaster-class rocket launchers."
Taking into account that the Leader has its own Janna guidance, they can actually be called "Disaster-class" ship-borne anti-ship, anti-ground, anti-air, and anti-everything missiles.
This weapon is advanced and violent enough.
However, because the sailors who were used to using old-fashioned artillery had never been exposed to such advanced weapons, the hasty replacement of equipment caused certain difficulties in the use, maintenance and repair of the weapons.
Therefore, the Leader Association specially dispatched a group of technicians to be on board to be responsible for the training on the use of weapons and maintenance and repair work.
Lina is one of them.
Jinx knew that Lina was going on a long voyage and that the mission might be dangerous, so he begged his superiors to be transferred along with Lina.
"Huh...are we there yet?" In the morning, when Captain Sarah's voice came from the loud speaker in the cabin, Lina finally woke up from her narrow bed in a daze.
As soon as she woke up, she felt as if there was a stone pressing on her chest, and she was having trouble breathing.
When she looked down, she saw Jinx wrapped around her like an octopus.
"Oh, it's like this again."
This crew cabin was half the size of the shabby rental house she had lived in before in Piltover, and it couldn't accommodate anything except a narrow bed.
And two people had to sleep together on such a broken bed.
Lina didn't even have the space to stand up straight, so she had to wake up Jinx who and let her get out of bed to make room for her.
"Wake up, wake up, Jinx?"
"We're here!" Lina patted Jinx's head.
“Hmm…” Jinx woke up: “Are we there yet?”
"Well, we're finally here!" Lina, as if she had finally escaped from some torture, took deep breaths of the turbid air that she and Jinx had "enjoyed" countless times in this narrow cabin without even a window.
The air smells bad, but what's worse is that they can't even take a shower on this boat.
After this week, Lina felt like she and Jinx were about to become a double burger, marinating each other.
As a novice who was experiencing a long-distance voyage for the first time, when she heard the ship finally docked, she felt like she had finally escaped from hell.
Jinx is also sailing for the first time, but she...
She was drowsily holding onto her sister Lina, and even after being woken up, she refused to let go: "Hey, we're here already? So fast..."
Lina: “?”
"Hmm..." Jinx also woke up completely.
She reluctantly let go of Lina and rolled off the narrow bed barefoot.
Lina finally had room to straighten up and straighten her collar, which had been messed up by Jinx in her sleep last night, and her long, smooth hair, which was difficult to manage.
"Lena, let me help you braid your hair." Jinx climbed onto the narrow bed again and sat close behind Lina.
Lina didn't refuse. She was used to it.
"After we get off the boat, I can finally take a bath tonight." Lina leaned quietly in Jinx's arms, complaining casually while waiting patiently for her clumsy sister to help her fix her hair.
The living conditions on the old sailing ship are limited, and only the captain Sarah and a few senior officers can take a bath regularly.
"Then when we get back, let Sarah arrange a large cabin for you where you can take a shower." Jinx stood up for her: "You are the president's sister after all, how can you live in such a narrow cabin?"
"Huh?" These words seemed to have triggered some radar in Lina.
She suddenly became serious: "Jinx, you are already a leader, why do you still have such privileged thoughts?"
"You won't be able to improve your ideological awareness at this rate. If you are not pious enough, you will never be able to become a cadre in the future."
"Tsk, whoever wants to be the cadre can be it!" Jinx didn't care at all.
But she cared a lot about Lina's future and treatment: "Lina, even if you don't say you are the president's sister, your contributions are enough to make you an officer or a cadre!"
"It's all because of me that you..."
Jinx was indignant: "In short, you should enjoy the treatment of an officer and live in a large cabin!"
"I made all those mistakes before. Why did they punish you so severely?"
Because she covered up her kidnapping of Kaya Firoz, Lina was stripped of all her positions by the Disciplinary Inspection Department and was also sentenced to not be promoted within two years.
“That’s two whole years!” Jinx was furious.
She had never joined the Leader before, so she didn't know what this meant.
Now that she understood the rules of the Leader, she realized how severe a blow this punishment of "removal from all positions in the association" was to Lina.
These two years will be the fastest period of development for Leader. With such a stain on Lina's resume and the fact that she cannot be promoted within these two years, it means that it is almost impossible for her to become a mid- or senior-level executive of Leader in the future.
And the corresponding...
"Your classmates, those who have made little contribution compared to you, have all been elected as permanent directors!" Jinx complained angrily, "And you? You are still in this shabby cabin, working as a small weapons technician!"
"Why?"
"Just because of the little mistakes you made?"
"Hmph, I think..." Jinx cursed, "I think your brother did it on purpose."
"He just doesn't want you to be the big boss and doesn't want you to affect his good reputation! Ha, this guy is so hypocritical!"
"Don't say that!" Lina frowned: "My brother always does things for the public good, he didn't deliberately suppress me!"
"And I...I don't think there's anything wrong with being a weapons technician."
Her expression was serious and solemn, like a mainstream movie actor.
But Jinx just hugged her from behind with concern and said, "Sister Lina, you don't have to lie to me."
Lina: “…”
She was really a little defensive.
Yes... removed from all positions, no promotion for two years... With these punishments weighing on her, how could she not care at all?
She is also a human being, and as a human being she always wants to strive for progress.
But Levi really seemed to be deliberately suppressing her development.
She worked very hard to get a position as the captain of the investigation team. Even as a captain, Levi had to remind her time and again to be cautious and not to act arrogantly just because she was the president's sister.
Oh...she's still wagging her tail?
The title of "President's Sister" was like a burden to her, making it impossible for her to even raise her head in the Leaders Association.
Because as soon as she gets promoted or holds a position, outsiders will instinctively speculate whether she has borrowed some kind of relationship from her brother.
Even if she was doing hard frontline work like in the investigation team, outsiders would wonder if she was sent by Levi to gild her resume and get promoted like a rocket after that.
"Ah..." The more Lina thought about it, the more depressed she became, and her expression became gloomy.
"Lena," Jinx said, "How about I help you?"
"You help me? How?" Lina was puzzled.
"Before I set off, Professor Victor invited me to participate in the establishment of a 'rocket power laboratory'. It is said that they are going to develop a rocket that can hit targets very far..."
Jinx stretched out his arms exaggeratedly and drew a circle:
"A high-end, ultra-high-end Death Missile that can reach the Immortal Bastion from Zaun."
“Lina, when the time comes, you will do this research with me, and I will give you the results. You may be able to end the punishment early by relying on your ‘significant meritorious performance’!”
Lina is considered a scientific genius, but her talent is far inferior to Jinx's.
So Jinx thought about using his abilities to produce some important scientific research results for Lina.
"This..." Lina was stunned for a moment.
Then she subconsciously rejected it: "No! Absolutely not!"
"Jinx!" Lina said angrily, "You are not allowed to think about these evil things anymore!"
"Okay, okay..." Jinx shut up obediently.
The air fell silent.
But Lina still felt inexplicably melancholy.
This punishment...seems to be much more difficult to endure than she had imagined...
If she wanted to get rid of the punishment early, she could only rely on making great contributions. But with her ability, how could she possibly make such great contributions?
She is not a mage, nor a warrior, and her talents as a scientist are only mediocre.
"Oh, I wish I could have extraordinary powers too." Lina suddenly thought of this.
Because she thought of Seraphine.
Seraphine is Levi's girlfriend and also a relative of the president.
But Seraphine doesn't need to avoid suspicion.
She could openly receive a high salary, become a cadre, and even live in a large villa - even with such extraordinary treatment, no one would question her or suspect that she had relied on Li Wei's connections.
Because of Seraphine's extraordinary abilities, the great contributions she has made to the Leaders' Association with these abilities can be seen by people in the Twin Cities.
In the early stages of a harmonious society where people still need to pay according to their work, people with abilities and contributions like Seraphine should be rewarded in this way.
And Lina ...
She is capable, but not outstanding and cannot convince others.
Even if one has made contributions and received a promotion, he will still be suspected and speculated by outsiders , which may bring "negative impact" to the Leaders Association.
Why can her classmates become directors, but she is destined not to be?
Just think about it... the president's sister is a permanent director. Just by saying this, outsiders will have wild thoughts and make comments, and even a series of rumors will arise among the people that maliciously slander Levi and the leader.
"If I could possess extraordinary abilities like Seraphine that are visible to others, then no one would doubt me anymore..."
Lina was thinking this when suddenly——
"Ah!!!" she screamed, as if she saw something terrible.
"What's wrong?" Jinx subconsciously took out the electromagnetic shock pistol, held Lina in his arms , and asked nervously.
"No, it's okay..." Lina came back to her senses in a daze.
She broke free from Jinx's embrace, looked at the tightly closed door and the dark ceiling, and rubbed her eyes in disbelief:
"Just now, I seemed... seemed to see..."
"A toad... a toad, or a fat catfish?"
The doors of the room were closed, so how could a fat catfish pop out of the ceiling?
This isn't a ghost story.
"It must be my eyes." Lina breathed a sigh of relief: "Don't worry, Jinx."
