Forge a path to success.

Chapter 288 A Girl as Soft as Velvet (The End)
Back in New York, the mission ended smoothly. Violet returned to her mansion as the last emperor, while Chu Heng went back to the pizzeria to continue running errands. The two, who had no connection whatsoever, returned to their parallel lives, never to intersect again.

But the task still had a loose end, because Chu Hengkong hadn't decided on the payment. He initially planned to pay him by the hour, but then felt he might be losing out. Besides, those two boxes of gold were still gathering dust in his closet, and he certainly wasn't short of money.

Unable to think of anything right now, he decided to deal with it later. So, Chu Shao completely forgot about it, even though Violet texted him several times to remind him, he just brushed them off. Two weeks later, the girl's patience finally reached its limit. She called to tell him that he had dragged it out from when she was ten to eleven, and if he still couldn't figure it out, she would fill his room with cash.

The icy, ultimatum-like tone made Young Master Chu involuntarily move his phone further away. He glanced around the rather messy room, a cigarette dangling from his lips, and a sudden inspiration struck him—a reward he desperately needed.

"Then please clean my room," he said.

Half an hour later, Miss Vilbert Velus stood in the doorway, dressed in plain black, her smooth black hair tied back with a white headscarf.

Chu Hengkong burst out laughing when he opened the door.

"What are you doing, Miss?" He chuckled, leaning on the threshold. "I meant, you could have just found someone to help me clean, why did you come here yourself?"

“I don’t think you would be happy to let a stranger into your room,” Wilbert said. “Besides, you’re protecting me, not one of Verus’s servants.”

Chu Hengkong laughed for a while, then started closing the door: "Okay, okay, thank you very much, but I'll trouble you to send a Filipino maid or an English butler instead. I absolutely will not hire an eleven-year-old girl to do the cleaning..."

"Get out of my way, twelve-year-old boy," Vilbert said coldly. "You haven't received your payment yet, so the commission isn't over. I'm still your boss."

"I'm just unlucky. I have to follow the rules; whatever you say goes."

Chu Hengkong shrugged and stepped aside from the door. Even though she had prepared herself mentally, the faintly unpleasant smell still startled Vilbert.

Visibility inside the room was extremely low; thick smoke from hundreds of cigarettes had burned out filled the air, carrying a pungent smell of fermenting alcohol and rotting food. Dampness from the leak added a musty odor to the already poor environment, and the timely backflow of moisture from the sewers made the room feel even more oppressive.

Wilbert bravely took a step forward, followed by a groan that threatened to break her. She had never imagined that entering someone's home would require such courage.

"How could you live in something like this...something like this..." She struggled for a long time to find a suitable adjective, but finally gave up completely, "In a pigsty?"

Chu Hengkong was not very happy: "Language, Miss. My roof is a bit small, but it's still quite comfortable to live in."

This rented room, even by New York's standards of expensive real estate, is considered luxurious. At approximately 20 square meters, it includes a kitchen and a bathroom, and after placing a desk and a single bed, there's still a small space to accommodate a large suitcase laid out. However, someone's unbelievable lifestyle maximizes the use of this 20 square meters: the kitchen is used as a storage room, crammed with various unopened bags; the desk, besides a laptop, is piled high with beer bottles; the ashtray is overflowing with cigarette butts like a peacock's tail; and due to this person's severe smoking habit, the room is covered in grayish-white ash.

Even Chu Hengkong himself realized this, so he bought two more ashtrays and placed them by his bedside and the window, so that he would have more places to store cigarette butts.

Wilbert remained silent, only shaking her head repeatedly. After a long while, she finally reached out her hand: "Please give me a broom and a mop."

Chu Hengkong smiled awkwardly: "No."

Vilbert's eyes were icy: "What, you call it, nothing?"

"Look, you just lack life experience. When you rent a place, the landlord won't provide any furniture; you even have to buy the toilet seat yourself." Chu Hengkong tried to regain his composure by relying on his experience. "But back then, I didn't have much money, so I only bought the necessities, and things like brooms..."

Vilbert's eyes even held a sinister glint, and her terrifying aura silenced Chu Hengkong. She took out her phone and ordered, "Give me a complete set of cleaning supplies, garbage bags, a desk, and a chair."

"Hey, my desk is still okay! It's just a little dirty!"

“…light bulb, tissues.” Violet walked to the bedside, picked up someone’s blanket, and put it down in despair. “Pillow, blanket…no, just change the bed.”

"Did my bed offend you?" Chu Hengkong stared in disbelief. "I just asked you to clean up, don't use this as an excuse to tear my house down!"

“I will never allow you to live in a place like this,” Wilbert said firmly.

·
Despite Chu Hengkong's staunch opposition, he managed to keep his bed and desk. However, all the bedding was replaced, and the desk, after persistent cleaning, revealed its original appearance—it was originally a white desk, but it was a dark yellow color when Violet entered the room.

Violet piled countless pieces of trash and expired bottles and jars in the hallway, forcing him to go downstairs to throw out the garbage three times. Only then could she finally begin to clean normally, bustling about like a Victorian maid, making Chu Hengkong very uncomfortable.

"I really didn't expect that someone from a wealthy family like you would know how to do housework."

“My father believed that the most important skill a person should have is how to take care of themselves,” Wilbert said, her anger evident in her scrubbing motion. “So I know how to tidy up a room.”

"Good upbringing."

Chu Hengkong felt increasingly uncomfortable; he simply couldn't bear to let a girl younger than himself face this terrible mess. He tried to dissuade her: "Just listen to me, I think the room is already very clean, and it's okay if we do this much."

Wilbert, wielding the mop like a sword, forced him to shut up once again with her stern gaze.

“Your room is far from tidy, and you only say that because your pride and empathy can’t tolerate me continuing to do things for you,” Wilbert said. “But after I stop and leave, will you continue cleaning?”

"If I have some free time—"

“You won’t. You’ll continue with the status quo until it becomes something you can’t stand again.” Vilbert turned around. “Then I’ll continue. At least it’ll allow you to maintain a respectable life for a few more days.”

Chu Heng was at a loss for words and simply lay down on the bed: "Then good luck."

"I will, after all, I'm different from you."

"You'd be so cute if you spoke nicer..." she heard the boy mutter.

Violet should have seized the opportunity to further ridicule Chu Hengkong. But inexplicably, she leaned on the mop, turned her head, and said, "Am I not cute right now?"

Chu Hengkong rolled over and chuckled, "No, not at all. You need to be wary of Vilbert. You're only 11 years old and you're already a complete housekeeper."

Vilbert accidentally kicked the bucket, splashing dirty water onto Chu Hengkong's trouser leg.

·
After three and a half hours of cleaning, the pigsty finally looked somewhat habitable. Wilbert took his chair, wiping away sweat as he rested listlessly.

Chu Hengkong could tell that the girl was in a bad mood. Although he didn't understand why she was unhappy again—she was the one who cleaned the house and then got angry—he still decided to try his best to make amends.

"Thank you so much for your hard work. I'll treat you to dinner." He took out his phone to dial a number. "There's a pretty good Chinese restaurant nearby."

Violet was about to agree, but seeing his practiced movements, she frowned instead: "Do you eat takeout every day?"

"What else would I eat if not takeout?" Chu Hengkong laughed. "I'm not some rich young master; nobody cooks for me." Naturally, she should have expected this. Before entering this room, she had harbored many fantasies about Chu Hengkong, guessing he might be from another ancient organization, an heir cultivated by some extraordinary individuals, an ace trained by members of the Blood Alliance…

But in reality, he lived in a filthy rented room and made a living delivering packages. In battle, he was inhumanly powerful, but behind closed doors, he was still just a boy adrift alone. He lacked patience and interest, and hadn't learned many skills to take care of himself, so he inevitably relied on fast food and junk food for his daily meals. He didn't think there was anything wrong with it; it was all perfectly normal.

She absolutely could not let Chu Hengkong continue living like this.

“Go buy pasta, eggs, black pepper, and…” Vilbert shook her head, he definitely didn’t understand. “Never mind, I’ll go down with you.”

"Huh?" Chu Hengkong was baffled.

"Go buy some food, I'll make lunch."

They bought black pepper, eggs, various cheeses with different names but similar appearances, bacon made from pork cheek, and thick spaghettoni. Vilbert cleaned the kitchen utensils that had never been used after purchase and magically transformed the miscellaneous ingredients into two fragrant servings of spaghettoni.

“This is Carbonara, pasta with bacon and egg sauce,” Vilbert told him. “It’s high in calories and quite oily, but you should like it.”

He really liked it. The egg and cheese sauce clung to the pasta, giving it an enticing golden color, and paired with fried pork cheek chunks, it tasted quite like Western-style lard noodles. He wolfed down a whole plate, also finishing off the portion that Violet couldn't finish.

“You know what, Violet,” he said with a smile, “if you ever don’t want to be in the underworld anymore, you can still be a very good cook.”

"And what about you?" Vilbert countered. "If you weren't a deliveryman someday, what would you do?"

"There's so much to be done in this vast world. What can't I do with my skills?" Chu Hengkong was optimistic. "Maybe I can work as a porter at the docks or maybe I can fight in underground boxing matches."

Vilbert suddenly lost her appetite.

"This is what you want to do?" she asked incredulously. "You have that kind of strength and skill, yet you're willing to live in a house like this, making a living by manual labor?!"

Chu Hengkong calmly looked back at her, showing no sign of anything amiss.

"You, on the other hand, have lived in a large family for too long, always feeling that everyone must be put to the best use of their talents, and that capable people should always be in high positions. But what can I do with my skills in the 21st century?"

"you can--"

Vilbert cut him off abruptly, and Chu Hengkong smiled and said, "What can you do? You can beat people up, you can kill people, you can find a family like ABCD to collect money and become a powerful thug? Or you can go to the military camp, suffer for a few years, and become a military leader? Or you can become an athlete and perform for money."

That kind of life could probably earn a lot of money, but it wouldn't be satisfying for me. So forget it! A person's circumstances are ultimately constrained by their environment; living in the 21st century, no matter how capable you are, it's still the same.

His analysis was so objective and logical that it was enough to convince any girl with illusions, but Vilbert just shook her head.

"These are the words you said to me; you wouldn't tell yourself that."

What would I say to myself?

The girl lowered her eyes and did not answer the question. She put down her knife and fork.

“You won’t live like this forever,” she told Chu Hengkong. “Right now you’re willing to pretend to be content with the status quo, but you won’t be in the future. I will change you, change your personality, your mindset, and your lifestyle. I mean what I say.”

Chu Hengkong was lighting a new cigarette when he heard this and slammed his hand on the table, laughing loudly: "Are you kidding me, little girl? Change? I'm living a carefree life, why should I change myself because of your thoughts? What can you possibly change about me?"

Vilbert stared at the cigarette butt: "I'll make you quit smoking."

Chu Heng flicked his cigarette ash, treating it all as a joke.

“Absolutely not,” he said dismissively. “Don’t even think about it.”

·
“I quit smoking later,” Chu Hengkong said. “Although it was several years later, she really did it.”

He took a sip of water to moisten his dry lips. Memories flowed like a floodgate opening, once started, they were hard to stop. He started from meeting Violet and continued until the topic of quitting smoking came up, omitting all the personal details about her—such as her crying, her tantrums in the bathroom, and her fear of thunderstorms.

He didn't want anyone to know about these things; they were memories that belonged only to him and Violet.

Therefore, when he recounted the story, he only retained the best aspects of the girl from his memories: her strength, intelligence, and the kind of care she had never been good at expressing since childhood. After the story was finished, the bookstore was silent; everyone watched him quietly. He wanted to say something, to ask if this information was sufficient.

"I miss her very much," Chu Hengkong said.

But what came out of his mouth was this.

“Don’t worry, buddy,” Van Der told him. “You’ll find it. You two are such good friends… everyone will help you.”

“We will definitely help,” said the poison otter.

Sriel stopped writing: "I'll finish the music first, and I might ask you to fill in the details later—but I'll do my best, Inspector Chu. Rest assured, this is my promise."

Everyone expressed their support and hoped he would succeed, which made Chu Hengkong feel much better. The gloom that came with his memories faded away with everyone's kindness.

Ji Huaisu encouraged him for a while, and he and Fan De secretly slipped out of the bookstore, feeling somewhat dejected.

“Vander, I didn’t mean to cause trouble, but…” she sighed, “you may never be able to become his best friend. You know, Vilbert came too early, and he influenced Akong too much.”

Vande looked back at her in astonishment: "My God."

“Right, I was shocked too. It’s just that it’s very obvious…” Ji Huaisu hesitated several times before continuing, “His boss might have feelings for him that go beyond friendship, not just simple brotherhood, but… sigh, they’re so close, I don’t know how to tell A Kong.”

“I’m honestly not sure how to tell you this,” Van der said, shocked.

"There will always be a way to solve it by the time he realizes it, right?"

“When we realize it,” Van der nodded vigorously, “I think there will always be a way.”

(End of this chapter)