Advanced chapter at Patreon.co/caleredhair
By mid-to-late November, the weather had finally turned cold. People no longer avoided the sun; instead, they began to seek it out.
After more than ten days, Lance’s new house was completed.
Lotus Community Services called Lance to inform him that all the houses had been built.
By rights, building one’s own house should be enjoyable. In the memories of many Federal citizens, building their homes with their fathers and grandfathers was a cherished childhood memory.
Most people with such memories came from middle-class families, who are well-known for their full lives.
The poor mostly bought cheap, distant apartments, while the rich lived in villas or estates, and high-end apartments in the city center were also good options.
Only the middle class pursued a “taste for life”; no one in this world was busier than them!
Besides work, they scheduled every minute of their lives and enjoyed doing things they didn’t really need to do.
They often arranged very special things for themselves, even listing them, such as reading a book every week and writing a review.
Or, they would make sure to learn a musical instrument within a certain period and demonstrate it to relatives and friends.
They always found many things that seemed to make their lives more meaningful—this was the middle class.
Taste, refinement.
And building a house happened to be one of their many life plans, and an important one at that.
Unfortunately, Lance and his group didn’t have the time or the skills. Even if they could buy all the pre-fabricated timber based on selected sample houses and simply assemble them according to the blueprints.
A single house was a huge project, let alone so many houses, so in the end, professional matters were left to professionals.
The community service company hired professional construction teams, who were the construction crews under these house production companies. For some money, they could quickly build the houses.
Lance drove there and was very satisfied with everything. The over two-meter-high vegetation wall, whose name he didn’t know, effectively blocked people’s view.
And outside the vegetation wall, there was also an iron fence about one and a half meters high.
He bought several houses at once. These terraced houses were not separated by courtyard walls, forming a unified whole.
The community service manager was very enthusiastic about a “big client” like Lance. “The roof and exterior wall colors will be completed in the next couple of days. You can already start considering your interior design style.”
“I recommend our partners at Lotus Community Services. You can take a tour of the community and also visit the model homes; they did all the decoration there.”
“If you’re not satisfied with their work after the renovation, we can also negotiate with them on your behalf…”
The manager said a lot, but it all boiled down to one thing: he hoped Lance would sign the company he recommended as the renovation company.
Renovating such a four-and-a-half-story house—a basement counted as half a story, then the first and second floors, and half an attic, hence four and a half stories.
Such a four-and-a-half-story house, totaling over three hundred square meters, would cost at least five hundred dollars to renovate well.
If he wanted a better renovation, it would cost a thousand dollars.
The manager could get a two percent commission from it. Even if Lance renovated according to the lowest standard, he could still get at least dozens of dollars in kickbacks.
And the community service company could also profit from it.
Seeing Lance’s lack of explicit refusal, the manager immediately knew he currently had no preferred choice and began promoting more vigorously, even going back to get a brochure to introduce various styles to Lance.
During this period, the most popular style in the Federation was “modern.”
Modern originally meant something fashionable, trendy, and stylish, but now it had transcended its own meaning and was becoming a phenomenon.
Modern families, modern women, modern decor, modern… everything!
Lance flipped through the brochure in his hand, then handed it to Mello. As the “head butler,” he was capable enough to handle these matters.
When the group returned to the company, everyone’s faces were filled with a peculiar happiness, because they had a home.
The sense of security a home provided could not be replaced by anything else. That feeling of curling up in bed, pulling the covers over one’s head, even though it was dark and small, yet providing an incomparable sense of security, was also irreplaceable by other things.
Those who went told those who didn’t about the beauty of their new home, as if good days had already arrived.
Lance looked around. “Where’s Ennio?”
Ennio loved to join in on the fun; it was already surprising that he hadn’t gone to see the houses today, but now he wasn’t even at the company, which was very unusual.
Morris walked over and explained, “He went to the hospital. His father was hospitalized.”
Lance had heard about the discord between Ennio and his father, and also that Ennio’s sole purpose was to move out of the house.
For him to willingly go see his father now, something must have happened.
“Do you need me to do anything?” he asked.
Morris shook his head. “He should be back soon. You know, between him and his father…” Morris shook his head.
Almost most immigrant families faced similar problems: income, expenses, savings, poverty…
At this time, Ennio didn’t know that Lance had specifically asked about him. He was standing in the hospital room, looking at his father, who was covered in bandages. Father and son looked at each other, but neither had a good expression.
No one spoke first, as if whoever spoke first would lose. They just held their breath.
After a while, a doctor, led by a nurse, walked in. He glanced at Ennio. “Are you the patient’s family?”
Ennio didn’t speak, just looked at him. “Don’t care who I am, just say what you need to say.”
The doctor glanced at the silent man, then pulled out a bill. “Your… relative’s account is empty. He currently owes the hospital seven dollars. Also, if he needs further treatment in the hospital, you’ll need to deposit at least fifty dollars into his account.”
Actually, it didn’t have to be this much, but they were afraid, so they had to ask for a bit more first.
It was easier to refund an overpayment than to collect an underpayment.
The Federal social medical insurance was not without limits in reimbursing people’s expenses. People would pay a percentage of medical expenses, and there was also a cap.
Exceeding this cap, if there was no additional commercial insurance, required paying the full medical cost oneself.
It was nothing like what it boasted; a large number of people couldn’t afford medical treatment, and many middle-class people went bankrupt every year due to medical expenses.
He handed the bill to Ennio, who took it and looked at it, not understanding.
But he could understand the numbers typed at the bottom of the bill and the two signatures.
He glanced at his father again, then, after a moment of silence, pulled a wad of money from his pocket, counted out seven dollars, and then counted out fifty more.
The doctor wasn’t encountering this situation for the first time. He took the money and counted it. “Don’t leave yet. I’ll have the accountant issue you a receipt. You can get any leftover money back when you leave the hospital with the receipt.”
He felt that the two of them still had a lot to say, and he also didn’t like getting involved in conflicts between patients and their families, so he proactively took the young nurse to get the payment receipt.
In the room, only the two of them remained.
After about ten seconds, the man suddenly asked, “Where did the money come from?”
“Did you do something illegal?”
He looked at his son. Ennio originally didn’t even want to look at him, but at this moment, he was so angry that he put his hands on his hips, turned to face his father, walked back and forth a few steps, and said in a slightly louder voice than usual, “At least I have money in my pocket, while you can’t even come up with seven dollars!”
The man kept looking at him. “Even though I’m poor, every penny I have is clean.”
“What’s the use of being clean?”
Ennio’s voice grew louder. “If being clean is so good, why did Mom leave?”
“If being clean is useful, how can you lie here unable to come up with seven dollars?”
“Listen, I don’t want to argue with you, but you need to remember, the dirty money you think is dirty, it can save you now, it can let you receive the Federal medical services you love!”
“And those clean moneys you talk about, I’ve never seen them since I can remember!”
The man still seemed to be struggling. “I will succeed…”
Ennio shook his head in disappointment. “You thought that twenty years ago!”
The man seemed to want to avoid entanglement with Ennio on this issue. He changed the subject. “The person who injured me said I hurt his family…”
“He’s already reunited with his family!”
“You…” The man’s face was shocked. He had just uttered a word when he suddenly seemed to realize something and lowered his voice. “You killed him?”
Ennio shook his head. “That’s none of your business. All you need to know is that he won’t come looking for you anymore.”
“And then, you can continue with your Federal dream!”
He raised his wrist and glanced at the time. “I have to go.”
He finished speaking and walked two steps, then came back and placed cigarettes and a ten-dollar bill on the bedside table.
“You can use it, or not.”
“Money is money, there’s no such thing as clean or dirty.”
After he finished speaking, he took a deep look at the man, turned around, and left without looking back.
He hated this man.
He hated him for inflicting all his failures on his family through domestic violence, which was also the reason Ennio wanted to escape from home.
But when he saw the man lying in bed, covered in injuries, he suddenly felt a little soft-hearted.
Some good deeds he had done in the past began to surface from the depths of his memory.
The cake he bought for his birthday when he was a child, a pair of sneakers he bought for himself, taking him out to play…
When you hate someone, you can’t find any reason to forgive them.
But when you soften, you can find many beautiful memories.
People are always contradictory, and they will continue to be contradictory.
The man looked at Ennio’s retreating back, then his gaze moved to the pack of cigarettes and the money.
The young nurse brought the receipt and told him that if he didn’t use up all the money when he was discharged, he could get the remaining money with this receipt and that he should keep it safe.
He struggled to sit up, glanced at the cigarettes on the cabinet—forty-nine cents a pack, he couldn’t afford them.
He usually smoked five-cent rolls, the kind of cigarettes ordinary people hand-rolled. There wasn’t necessarily a lot in each roll, it was just a roll, sold by private individuals who rolled their own tobacco.
Choking, burning the mouth—this was low-quality raw tobacco, and some of it didn’t even taste like tobacco.
He had many impulses to try a better brand of manufactured cigarettes, but in the end, he always gave up.
Because life was too hard.
So hard that one could overcome desire with reason—how ridiculous!
He pulled out one, took a pack of matches from the cabinet drawer, and lit it.
Then he coughed twice, but he felt great!
The feeling this cigarette gave him was much better than those ten-cent cigarettes, much better than the ones he rolled himself.
He looked at the pristine white ceiling.
Ennio was driving, his mind filled with many thoughts. As he reached a red light at an intersection, he stopped the car.
Looking at the street scene, his thoughts drifted far away.
He had money now. He had been with Lance for not long, and he already had several hundred dollars. Earning money was too easy.
He felt a bit lost again, perhaps this was a stage everyone had to go through.
Suddenly, the honking of car horns and curses brought him back to reality from his thoughts. He was at an intersection, having stopped for a red light.
He had done some thinking during the waiting time, letting his mind wander. He knew this was his own problem.
But just as he was about to start the car and leave, someone suddenly hit his car window hard.
The entire car seemed to shake.
Outside the window, a middle-aged man cursed loudly, repeatedly hitting the window and the roof, looking fiercely as if he wanted to devour someone.
The two stared at each other, and the other person showed no sign of stopping, still hitting the window and cursing Ennio.
Ennio looked back at the baseball bat protruding from under the passenger seat, and an indescribable urge to destroy instantly filled his heart!
He turned, grabbed the baseball bat, and then forcefully pushed open the car door.
The car door hit the bastard, making him step back a few paces. Immediately after, Ennio swung the bat and struck him.
The surrounding honking and cursing suddenly ceased, leaving only the man’s pleas for mercy.
The whole world seemed to enter a strange rhythm.
He didn’t know how long it had been. He panted slightly, straightened up somewhat unsteadily, looking at the groaning man and the frightened eyes of the onlookers. He wiped the blood from his face and got back into the car.
He wanted to drive away, but after venting, reason began to return, and he felt that this matter suddenly became a bit tricky.
He didn’t leave; instead, he walked to the roadside and made a call to the company.
Lance, who was counting money, answered the phone. “This is Lance.”
“I, Ennio, had a bit of an accident…”
Soon, two cars drove out of the alley behind the company. Ten minutes later, Lance saw Ennio by the roadside.
The police had also arrived, along with an ambulance. The unfortunate man had just been loaded into the ambulance, and the police were questioning Ennio.
Lance walked over. When the two police officers saw Lance approaching, they both took a step back, and one’s hand even rested on his holster.
They were all dressed in uniform, looking a bit intimidating, not like good people.
Lance raised his hands to show he was harmless. “I’m his friend. I’ve come to understand what happened.”
“Which precinct are you from?”
The two police officers exchanged glances, and one of them said, “We’re from the Empire District precinct.”
This was within the Empire District. Lance smiled slightly. “I know John… he should be the Assistant Chief now.”
The expressions of the two patrol officers immediately softened. This was one of their own.
Lance also took the opportunity to get closer, and with his back to the onlookers, he pulled twenty dollars from his pocket and slipped it into one of the patrol officer’s pockets. “I believe we can be friends too.”
The two patrol officers exchanged another glance, and their faces broke into broader smiles. “Of course, sir.”
Lance was satisfied with their reaction. “So, can I talk to my brother for a few minutes?”
The person taking notes put down his clipboard. “Why not?”
They proactively went to the front of the car, leaving them at the back.
Ennio told Lance what had happened. Lance listened attentively. “Do you think he’ll die?”
Ennio shook his head. “Although I lost my mind for a moment, I promise I didn’t want to kill him. I held back. He’s probably severely injured.”
As long as he didn’t die.
“You two had an argument. He told you to get out of the car. You were afraid he would harm you, so you got out with your baseball bat.”
“He seemed like he was going to hit you. You were too nervous, so you fought back. You heard him swear he would kill you, so you had to incapacitate him first.”
Lance patted his cheek. “Don’t talk nonsense, don’t admit anything. Even if they beat you, remember, you were very nervous, and he provoked you first.”
“I’ll arrange a lawyer for you. Everything will be fine.”
“Is there anything in the car or on you that shouldn’t appear in court?”
“A gun, or anything else?”
Ennio shook his head. “No.”
Lance patted his arm. “Remember what I said.”
He turned and walked back to the front of the car, giving each of the two patrol officers a cigarette. “My friend is a bit nervous; it’s his first time dealing with something like this. Can I see the notes he took earlier?”
One patrol officer looked a bit awkward. “That’s not exactly… in line with our working principles.”
Lance handed over a business card, his own. “I’ll treat you two to a drink after work tonight. Try to overcome the difficulties.”
The two hesitated for a moment, but eventually handed the clipboard to Lance.
On one hand, Lance knew John, and John was not just greedy but also a ruthless and malicious character. People in the precinct were a bit afraid of him, let alone these two lowest-ranking patrol officers.
On the other hand, Lance’s generosity made them very tempted.
After Lance took the clipboard, he simply made some modifications in a few places. “He was too nervous, a bit incoherent. This description is more reasonable, don’t you think?”
The two officers glanced at it. “You’ve already said it all, what else can we do?”
But they also nodded in agreement, after all, their job was to restore the truth.