But Ye Ming was worried. He was afraid Laffey would go wild if she got drunk. If she turned into a destroyer over a hundred meters tall and started firing wildly while drunk, that would be terrifying.
But Laffey was so adorable that Ye Ming did not want to disappoint her.
After thinking it over, Ye Ming decided to pretend he had not seen it. Once they got home, he would hide the wine so Laffey could not find it.
He put on a show of staring at his phone for quite a while. Only after Laffey had successfully tucked the red wine at the very bottom of the cart did Ye Ming clear his throat and put away his phone.
Having done something naughty, Laffey gave a guilty little shiver. She hurriedly backed two steps away from the cart and pretended to calmly examine the laundry detergent on the nearby shelf, though her little face had turned slightly red.
Pretending not to know anything, Ye Ming called for Laffey to follow him. They made a round of the supermarket, where he bought her a toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and other daily necessities. He also had Laffey pick out a pillow herself. After paying and leaving the supermarket, they went next door to buy her dresses and shoes. Finally, at the clerk's recommendation, he bought two sets of pajamas and underwear for her to change into before they returned home.
It was already past nine at night when they got home. Ordinarily, this was when Ye Ming played games, but sleepy Laffey's little head kept bobbing as her upper and lower eyelids fought nonstop. She was already half asleep.
Ye Ming tossed the bags into the living room, went into the bathroom to run Laffey a bath, tested the temperature, then came back out and vigorously shook her shoulders. "Wake up, Laffey! Take a bath first, then sleep!"
"Mm~"
Laffey gave Ye Ming a bleary look, closed her eyes, and spread her arms. "Laffey is so sleepy. Commander, help Laffey wash up."
Ye Ming was not some perverted lolicon, so of course he could not agree.
"Laffey is a girl. Girls cannot casually have boys help them bathe."
Ye Ming kept a blank expression, his tone stern.
"Mm~ But Laffey is Commander's Oath Ship. Laffey is Commander's wife." Laffey pouted in dissatisfaction.
"That still won't do!" Ye Ming answered firmly. "Laffey is still little. There are some things you'll only understand after you grow up a bit more. Anyway, you need to do your own things yourself."
"But when Commander was in the Port District before, Commander clearly had the Royal Maid Corps do all of Commander's own things." Laffey softly retorted.
"Did I?" Ye Ming really wanted to say he refused to take the blame, but seeing Laffey sprawled on the sofa like a big lazy cat, ready to sleep, he quickly pulled her back up.
"Bathe before sleeping. An Oath Ship who doesn't bathe won't be welcomed by her Commander."
"Mm~ Such a hassle."
Laffey rubbed her eyes. "Then, Commander, help Laffey wash Laffey's hair. Laffey's hair is super troublesome to wash."
As she spoke, Laffey seemed to recall her old life in the Port District and became a little sad. "Before, Belfast and Newcastle always helped Laffey wash Laffey's hair. Little Belfast helped Laffey a lot too."
Hearing those two familiar names, Ye Ming froze for a moment.
Belfast, the all-purpose maid proficient in every skill and head maid of the Royal Maid Corps, was Ye Ming's third Oath Ship. Since Belfast and Enterprise both wore white Wedding Dresses and both had long white hair, Ye Ming mischievously renamed them and put them in the exercise arena. Belfast became Entrepreneur's Belfast, while Enterprise became Belfast's Enterprise. He even put in a Little Belfast, specifically oathed and renamed Daughter of Belfast and Enterprise.
As for Newcastle, Ye Ming remembered that she seemed to be a light cruiser released not long after the game's launch. She had been the former head maid of the Royal Maid Corps and Belfast's older sister. Since she was fairly strong, he had leveled her to the maximum early on, but as more and more powerful ships appeared, Ye Ming had relegated her to warehouse duty. As for whether he had oathed her, he could not remember.
Since Laffey had put it that way, Ye Ming naturally could not keep refusing.
Besides, compared with bathing, helping a little girl wash her hair was perfectly normal.
"Then how about this? Commander will wash Laffey's hair first, and then Laffey can bathe by herself, okay?"
"Mm."
Laffey nodded in agreement.
The Commander's Skills Were Awful
Little Laffey might receive a ring and become an Oath Ship in the game, and he could occasionally tease her with a few jokes and memes, but in real life, he still had to mind the boundaries.
Since Laffey's clothes would need washing after she took them off anyway, Ye Ming did not have her change into a bath towel. He simply dragged the half-asleep Laffey into the bathroom and seated her on a small stool.
Laffey obediently sat on the stool, legs together and arms resting on her knees. She lowered her little head onto her arms, and within seconds, her breathing became even.
Seeing this, Ye Ming sighed helplessly. He crouched beside Laffey and fumbled around until he removed her two rabbit-ear hair clips. Her adorable ponytail immediately fell loose, turning into a gorgeous cascade of white hair over her shoulders.
Ye Ming set the hair clips aside, turned on the showerhead and tested the temperature, then slowly dampened Laffey's hair from top to bottom.
"Mm~?"
Drenched by the warm water, Laffey made an adorable, drowsy sound, but her body did not move at all.
After wetting the little girl's hair, Ye Ming turned off the showerhead, poured shampoo into his palm, and began washing Laffey's hair.
An awkward situation arose.
As a boy, Ye Ming had kept his hair short all year round. Usually, washing his hair meant wetting it, applying shampoo, rubbing it a couple of times, and rinsing it clean. But that experience was not particularly useful for someone with long hair like Laffey.
As a normal human, everyone underwent metabolism every day. Normally, the first time someone washed their hair, the oils and dust on their hair and scalp meant the shampoo had to carry those away, so it would not foam very much. But the second time, even a small amount of shampoo would produce plenty of lather.
Considering Laffey's hair was rather long, Ye Ming had deliberately poured out a little extra shampoo. Who could have expected Laffey's hair to be even cleaner than that of someone who had just washed it? He had barely rubbed the shampoo over her head twice before he worked up huge piles of foam. A great deal of foam dripped down from Laffey's head, covering her hair, clothes, and the floor in milky-white suds. Ye Ming panicked and hurriedly rinsed it with water.
The result was that he washed the foam onto Laffey's face. Half-asleep, Laffey sneezed, lifted her head, and blinked dazedly for a while before her eyes slowly focused. The little girl looked at Ye Ming's hands full of milky-white foam, then at her own foam-covered reflection in the mirror. She wiped the foam off her face and looked at Ye Ming.
"Commander's skills are awful~"
"Sorry, Laffey." Ye Ming apologized.
"Giggle!"
Yet the little girl was not angry at all. Instead, she laughed.
"Commander doesn't need to apologize. Laffey is very happy. This is the first time Commander has washed Laffey's hair. It feels really fun."
"It's definitely not as good as Belfast, the head maid of the Royal Maid Corps, but Commander will work hard from now on." Thus spoke Ye Ming, who had unexpectedly been comforted by a little girl.
"Laffey will always believe in Commander." Laffey sat back down on the little stool. "Then, Laffey will leave the rest to Commander too, okay?"
"Okay."
Ye Ming rinsed the foam from his hands and picked up the showerhead again.
Though there were still a few stumbles afterward, he more or less managed to finish washing Laffey's hair. Ye Ming turned off the showerhead, wrapped Laffey's coiled hair in a dry towel, then rinsed the foam from the floor and prepared to leave.
"A new memory, Commander."
When he reached the bathroom door, Ye Ming suddenly heard that voice from within. It was somewhat different from Laffey's lazy, drowsy tone from earlier in the day.
"Hmm?"
Ye Ming turned back in surprise and happened to see Laffey taking off her clothes. He quickly turned his head away again.
"Commander said Commander doesn't remember the past, but Laffey thinks that's okay. Commander is still Commander, Laffey's favorite Commander. As long as we're together, we can create new memories every day from now on, just like today. Maybe things won't go as smoothly as they did in the game before, but it doesn't matter if we run into a few setbacks. As long as Laffey is with Commander, we'll definitely create the happiest future and have the most wonderful memories."
My Laffey, you're way too good at flirting.
Ye Ming closed the bathroom door, leaned against it, and let out a long breath.
During the day, Laffey's appearance had set his mind wandering. He had wondered whether he might meet more Ship-Girls in the future, whether he might encounter girls from other games. But now, his somewhat restless heart had settled down.
Commander will work hard from now on too, my adorable Laffey.
She Was Too Flat
After Laffey finished bathing, Ye Ming helped dry her hair with a hairdryer. He firmly refused Laffey's request to "sleep with Commander," pushed her into the guest bedroom to sleep, then threw her changed clothes into the washing machine. Once they were washed, he hung them out on the balcony. Only then did he finally have some free time.
After hiding Laffey's two bottles of red wine beneath the bed in his own bedroom, Ye Ming sat by the bedside, staring blankly at the wall.
Although he had resolved to work hard and make money, work was not something that would necessarily give positive results just because he made a decision and was willing to act. Sometimes, excessive effort could even backfire.
As for work, he needed to make proper plans and proceed steadily. That meant the only way to increase his income in the short term was to start a side hustle.
The first thing Ye Ming thought of was becoming a content creator.
As someone who had registered on Bilibili fairly early, Ye Ming had a rare five-digit UID. After carefully maintaining his account for all these years, it now had a grand total of six followers. If he wanted to make money from that... well, he still had to work much harder.
His second option was writing novels. Embarrassingly enough, as a veteran webnovel reader, Ye Ming had published a crossover novel on a website called Happy Pigeon House during university. In its first month after going premium, it had even earned him several thousand yuan in royalties. Back then, brimming with excitement and facing his readers' worries, he had sworn he would definitely finish it and write at least two million words.
But reality was always cruel. Once the initial enthusiasm faded, declining subscriptions gradually battered Ye Ming's confidence day after day. The joy of agonizing over his keyboard every day eventually could not compare to playing games with his roommates or reading other people's novels. In less than two months, he had gone from author back to reader. Like every other reader, whenever a book he liked got dropped, he wanted nothing more than to catch the author and lock him in a little dark room.
Maybe he could try writing another novel?
No combat story, no hot-blooded story, no dark story, and no gender-bender story. Just a simple, cozy, slice-of-life novel with a single heroine, recording his everyday life with Laffey?
With that thought, Ye Ming turned on his computer and entered Ciweimao's website.
He had long forgotten the account and password for his old author account, so he simply registered a new alt and entered the work creation page. In the title field, he typed "Laffey Wife Loves Me." After considering it, he felt that title might fail review. After a brief moment of thought, he simply changed it to "Mobile Game Wife Comes Knocking."
With the title decided, everything else went much more smoothly. Ye Ming roughly wrote a chapter about what had happened today and uploaded it. Before publishing, he thought it over and added an author's note at the end of the chapter: "PS: Newbie writer here. I hope all you esteemed readers who've made it this far will leave more comments and votes, and give this newbie some motivation to keep writing. Thank you very much!"
"Will anyone read it?"
After all, it had been a long time since he had written a novel, and this was a cozy slice-of-life genre he had never tried before. Ye Ming had no confidence in how well he had written it.
I hope I can make some money to buy Laffey clothes.
Bzz~ Bzz~
The phone on the desk suddenly vibrated twice. Ye Ming opened it and saw a WeChat message from his mother.
"How's work been lately? Have you found a girlfriend?"
The message was concise and straight to the point.
"Not bad. No."
Ye Ming typed those three words in reply. For the time being, he did not want to tell his family about Laffey.
Before you continue