Elder brother's garrison

Page 1326

"Uh..." The security captain pointed in a direction.

"Thank you!"

"Uh……"

The security captain stared blankly as Xiaobai led the ship girls out of the security room and disappeared from his sight.

The security captain was still shaken.

Next to the security captain, the security guard named Xiao Liu walked up to him and nudged the security captain's shoulder.

"Captain, captain?"

"what?"

"Captain, what's wrong with you? Why were you spacing out?"

"...I..." The security captain smacked his lips, his gaze falling on the half-eaten cake on Xiaobai's seat, his expression becoming serious. "Hmm...I was just thinking about something."

"What's the matter?"

"It concerns whether I will lose my job."

"what?!"

"I was wondering...did we mistreat that little girl just now...?"

The security captain adopted the pose of a thinker and began to ponder.

Chapter 1700 Finance Department

The finance department is located on the sixth floor of a remote building in the ship equipment research center. With the security captain's directions, Xiaobai, Changchun, and New Jersey walked along the roadside for a while and soon found the building where the finance department was located at a lush green corner.

There were signs in front of the building indicating the facilities inside. Xiaobai looked at the signs carefully for a while and found the finance department on the sixth floor.

"Sure enough, it's here. If we go from the west entrance... take the elevator to the sixth floor and turn the corner. Changchun, New Jersey, let's go to the finance department now!"

Xiao Bai breathed a sigh of relief and greeted Changchun and New Jersey with a smile.

"Ok!"

Changchun nodded and quickly moved closer to Xiaobai. New Jersey followed silently behind Xiaobai. The three of them entered the building and took the elevator.

The building where the finance department is located is in a remote area, and the departments inside are naturally the kind that don't interact with outsiders. In addition, it is early morning, and there are very few staff members to be seen on the road. The whole floor is quiet, and the elevator is completely empty.

"Um... speaking of which, Admiral, did you scare those security guards who are so nice to us just now?" As they entered the elevator, Changchun cautiously asked Xiaobai while they were riding.

"Huh? Were you scared?"

"Yeah... Just now when I saw you say you were Yubari-neechan's admiral, the security captain's pupils shrank several sizes." Changchun covered his mouth and said softly.

"Is that right?"

"Ah."

"Uh... is it really that scary that I'm the Admiral of Yubari?" Xiaobai stood there for a while, recalling the situation. Sure enough, just as Changchun had said, the security guards reacted very strongly to her being the Admiral of Yubari. She couldn't help but mutter to herself with some curiosity.

"Could it be that Sister Yubari's identity here is even more powerful than we imagined?"

Changchun asked.

"Hmm... When I went to the artificial lake to look for her before, I saw that she had quite a few assistants..." Xiaobai muttered for a while, "Maybe it's because she got promoted? Maybe she's a manager now? Never mind... Let's ask Yubari more carefully when we have time, let's think about the finance department first."

"Okay, sure!" Changchun nodded.

“I think there’s a high chance that someone tampered with Ms. Vestal’s salary,” Xiaobai explained to Changchun. “Although we don’t know who did it yet… even small companies have finance departments that can keep detailed records of employee salaries, let alone large facilities like the Ship Equipment Research Center. We should be able to find Ms. Vestal’s salary details here.”

"In other words, can we find the person who tampered with the salary of the goddess of the hearth?"

"Uh, that's not certain..." Xiaobai said, her confidence wavering. "But since this is the only clue, we should at least take a look."

The elevator opens.

As Xiaobai and the ship girls stepped out of the elevator and were about to head towards the finance department, they bumped into a man smoking on a bench near the elevator entrance.

It was a middle-aged man with a slightly overweight belly. He was puffing out smoke while holding a thin cigarette. He was leaning on the armrest of the bench, legs crossed, leisurely gazing at the sky outside the window, looking relaxed and carefree.

As Xiaobai stepped out of the elevator, she looked at the man at the bottom of the stairs and silently glanced at the "No Smoking" sign on the wall, just a few steps away from him.

The middle-aged man smoking on the bench saw Xiao Bai and his two companions coming out of the stairs, and a look of surprise flashed across his eyes. He calmly took one last drag of his cigarette, exhaled a long puff of smoke, then pinched two fingers together, threw the cigarette butt into the trash can next to him, and stood up.

Xiao Bai stopped staring at the man and walked towards the finance department.

However, just as Xiaobai and his two companions passed by the bench where the man was, the middle-aged man standing by the bench leisurely stared at the faces of Xiaobai, Changchun, and New Jersey for a while, then raised his eyebrows.

"Ahem." The man coughed lightly and said to the young woman in the lead, "These three ladies are new faces. You don't work here, do you? Where are you from?"

"Hmm?" Xiaobai stopped and turned to look at the man behind her.

The man smiled as he straightened his appearance, pressed down on his plump belly, and casually tugged at his sleeves, subtly revealing a gold watch on his wrist. He then lightly flicked his wrist in front of Xiaobai and the other two before putting his hands behind his back.

"Um... are you asking us?" Xiaobai pointed to herself and said to the man who had spoken to her.

“That’s right.” The man nodded, giving the three of them an approving look. “There aren’t many researchers in this building, and I’ve never seen three such beautiful girls appear here before… Are you here to see the finance department?”

“…Hmm?” Xiaobai and Changchun exchanged a glance, then Xiaobai nodded in surprise at the man. “Yes…May I ask who you are…?”

"I am the Minister of Finance."

"Oh? You're the minister?"

Xiao Bai stared in surprise at the overweight middle-aged man in front of him.

"Hmm." The middle-aged man raised his chin and nodded to everyone. "The finance department is quite relaxed. There wasn't much to do this morning, so I took some time to have a smoke by the elevator."

"Ah..." Xiaobai glanced subconsciously at the trash can filled with cigarette butts of varying ages. "Good morning, Minister..."

"Good morning, good morning." The minister nodded with a smile. "You're not staff from the Ship Equipment Research Center, are you?"

"No." Xiaobai shook her head.

"Aren't you staff from the Ship Equipment Research Center? Are you here for sightseeing at the Finance Department?" the minister said half-jokingly. "The Finance Department isn't obligated to let ordinary people sightsee—if you want to go to the Finance Department, did you bring your passes?"

"Ah... I do have the pass..." Xiaobai said, quickly reaching into his pocket, but then his expression suddenly froze. "Oops..."

Shiro just remembered that he had used the pass Yubari had given him at the security room.

Xiao Bai's face began to look embarrassed.

"This... um... I'm sorry..." Xiaobai said awkwardly.

"Without a pass, I'm sorry, the finance department isn't open to ordinary people..." The minister raised his eyebrows and said meaningfully to Xiaobai and the other two.

"Please wait a moment, I... I'll go back and find someone to rewrite it for me..."

"However! Don't be in such a hurry." The minister suddenly adopted a high-profile tone, then smiled at Xiaobai and the other two, "Although the Finance Department is not open to ordinary people, well... you three are not ordinary people either, are you? You are respected ladies, right? I am the minister, so giving you three this little privilege to come and have a look is not a problem."

After saying that, the minister turned to the side, stretched an arm toward the finance department, and smiled at Xiaobai and the other two.

"Huh? Is that okay?" Xiaobai looked at the minister in surprise.

Xiao Bai wondered, "I didn't use the Admiral's Network to influence this minister this time, so why is this minister being so enthusiastic towards me, just like the security guards?"

"Of course you can. You were checked by the security guards at the entrance before being allowed in, right?" the minister replied with a smile, his gaze shifting between Xiaobai and the two ship girls behind her. "Then it's no problem for me to allow you to visit the finance department as well. After all, I'm always very generous to beautiful ladies."

"Ah... thank you..." Xiaobai nodded blankly.

Although I'm not entirely sure what happened... it seems like the outcome means I'll be able to get into the finance department?

After the minister finished speaking, he led Xiaobai and the other two towards the finance department.

"Where are you three ladies from? Are you TV interviewers? Or perhaps hosts and actresses on some variety show? Haha, I'm sorry, I don't watch TV much. If you suddenly asked me if I knew you, I wouldn't be able to answer. I'm so sorry!" The minister said with a smile as he led the way.

"TV station? Variety show? Are these kinds of people common here?" Xiao Bai's attention was drawn to the minister's speech.

"Well, you see, of course, ship girls are the most magical and mysterious beings in the world today. TV stations, which like to create hype—oh, sorry, TV stations, which like to pursue novelty, will naturally come to our ship equipment research center for interviews often. Half a year ago, we had a scene where a very popular celebrity pretended to be a lost girl and came to us asking for directions—haha!" the minister said with a laugh. "But that celebrity's acting was really bad; I saw through it immediately! In the end, the TV program turned into a visit to our finance department!"

"That's it..."

"Speaking of which, ladies, where's your camera equipment? It's more discreet than I expected," the minister said to Xiaobai. "The last group of celebrities who came to film a live program all brought bags with cameras inside. Has technology advanced that much now?"

"Uh...we're not here to film a TV show."

"Haha! What a coincidence, the previous team said the same thing!" The minister said with an unaccustomed theatrical laugh, leading everyone to the entrance of the finance department. Then, in front of Xiaobai and the other two, he opened the door of the finance department. "Alright, ladies, welcome to the finance office of the Ship Equipment Research Center!"

The door to the finance office opened.

A studio, about the size of a small playground and resembling a computer room, appeared before Xiaobai and his two companions.

Early in the morning, the finance department was filled with staff members engrossed in their work, their computer lights on and the clatter of keyboards echoing like a torrent.

This is the finance office of the Ship Equipment Research Center.

Chapter 1701 A Belated Realization

Xiao Bai initially thought that the finance department of the Ship Equipment Research Center would be no different from the offices of other small companies. However, after stepping into the finance department and seeing what it was like inside, Xiao Bai finally realized that he was wrong.

—Because the finance department of this ship equipment research center is really big.

Standing at the entrance, I looked towards the finance department's main gate.

The room, which was as big as two or three basketball courts, was filled with rows of brightly lit computers. The staff sat side by side, busy at their computers. The clatter of keyboards, the rustling of paper, the starting of printers, and the whispers of the group echoed like a symphony, constantly reverberating throughout the large office.

The scale and the busyness... this is no finance department... it's comparable to a small securities firm.

"How is it?" Seeing Xiaobai's surprised expression, the minister next to him nodded in satisfaction, proudly sticking out his slightly chubby belly. "Our ship equipment research center's finance department is completely different from the finance departments of those private companies outside. The scale is also not on the same level. Ladies, don't be surprised. After all, people who come here for the first time are always shocked by the sight of our finance department!"

"Ah... um..." Xiaobai shrank back, withdrawing her somewhat surprised gaze, and then agreed with the minister, saying, "The scale of the finance department here... is really huge."

"After all, we're responsible for the entire ship equipment research center from top to bottom, from start to finish. Think about it, the sheer number of departments and personnel within the ship equipment research center is incomparable to that of an ordinary small company. Therefore, our workload is several times, even ten times, that of an average person! Of course, ordinary space and manpower are not enough!" The minister said with considerable pride, stepping into the finance department, pointing to a narrow path that had been squeezed out, and turning back with a smile, "Ladies, please follow me, I'll show you around here!"

"..." Xiaobai and Changchun exchanged a glance.

Although I had a feeling that the minister had misunderstood my identity, since he had taken the initiative to invite my people to visit the finance department, I might as well go along with him and observe the finance department for the time being.

"Thank you, Minister," Xiaobai said, following in the minister's footsteps.

"Speaking of which, the three ladies are really beautiful. Have you ever acted in any TV series or movies?" the minister asked the three young women who had followed him.

"No works..."

"So you're newcomers." The minister sighed with empathy, muttering sadly, "Well, there's nothing we can do about it then. After all, in this world, no matter what job you do, climbing up from the bottom is the hardest thing—but with such outstanding qualities, you three ladies, there's no need to worry. You'll definitely become very popular in the future. I hope to see you in a hit TV series next time."

"Uh……"

"Let's not talk about this anymore. Since you've come all this way, I'll take you to see what's in front of us." The minister shook his head and walked down the path with his hands behind his back.

Although the finance department occupies a large area, the passageways are extremely narrow. The finance department head had to tuck his somewhat bloated belly as far as he could before he could barely squeeze through the narrow passage between the desks on either side.

"Good morning, Minister!"

"Good morning, Minister!"

"Good morning, Minister!"

……

Wherever the minister went, the busy staff members put down their work and greeted him loudly.

"Comrades, you've worked hard! Comrades, keep it up! Comrades, keep up the good work!" The minister waved to the bewildered office staff around him, as if he were a senior leader comforting a junior employee, and led Xiaobai and the other two through the path to a slightly more spacious open space.

Compared to the compact and busy first half of the finance department, this small open space unexpectedly felt jarring and out of place. There were no computers or workbenches in this space, only a small desk and an ergonomic chair that was bent over. The documents on the desk were stacked neatly like tofu blocks, and the stamps used for stamping were pressed on red ink and casually placed next to a pulled-out document.

The moment Xiaobai saw this desk, he knew just how pretentious it was.

Xiao Bai had been in the position of admiral for almost a year, and had handled tens of thousands, if not tens of thousands, of written documents. She knew very well what a desk that was actually used for processing documents should look like—the owner of such a desk must be an old hand who hardly ever put in any effort to process documents and was extremely good at slacking off and indulging in formalism.

"This is where I work." The minister said proudly to Xiaobai, who was staring at his desk without saying a word, looking lost in thought.

"Huh? Is this your desk, Minister?"

"Yes, doesn't it look different?" the minister said, gazing at his desk for a moment. "It's quite different from the desks of other employees, isn't it?"

"Uh...it is quite big." Xiaobai nodded.

The minister returned to his desk and slowly sat down. He gently tugged at his sleeve, subtly revealing the gold watch on his wrist, then crossed his arms in front of him and smiled at the three young women standing before him: "This is where our finance department staff work. As you ladies can see, our finance department staff are highly enthusiastic, efficient, and conscientious. Under my leadership, they don't waste a single second and contribute their strength to the entire ship equipment research center every moment!"

"..." Xiaobai blinked, staring blankly at the minister.

The minister maintained his posture, staring at Xiaobai and the other two.

Against the backdrop of the commotion, the minister and the three of them remained in a silent stalemate for a while, and the atmosphere gradually became awkward.

"...Aren't you going to do something?" Finally, the minister couldn't sit still any longer and asked Xiaobai with some curiosity.

"Huh? What are you doing?"

"An interview, huh?" The minister spread his hands at Xiaobai, glaring at him. "Didn't I already give you my opening remarks? Next, according to the procedure, you should first ask me some questions about the coexistence of humans and ship girls, then ask about the future changes of the ship equipment research center, and whether we, as members of the finance department, are confident in continuing to contribute to human society! After the interview, I'll take you to pick a few of the best employees in the finance department to say some nice things!"