Chapter 224: Full-time Househusband
Frost Shaw and Leo Colby exchanged a glance and couldn’t help but sigh. It seemed Central Command was truly in for a shake-up.
Roman Rowe didn’t join in on these deep discussions. He hurried into the kitchen—that was his battlefield!
But in the end, it became a battlefield for three.
Three tall, well-built men in the kitchen made for quite a lovely picture. Lily Hart found it very pleasing to the eye.
She subconsciously took out her Light Brain and snapped a photo of the three men from behind.
Roman Rowe had taken over the stove, stir-frying with such vigor that his hands were practically a blur as he tossed the wok.
Seth was chopping vegetables, his knife skills surprisingly good. The shredded carrots were perfectly uniform, laid out in neat, little red strips.
Meanwhile, Stan Sterling was preparing ingredients for a soup: corn segments, carrot chunks, pork ribs, and yam chunks.
The three men worked on their own tasks without disturbing one another, yet they were also secretly competing.
Finally, it was time to eat. Stan Sterling’s corn and pork rib soup was ready, its corn aroma especially rich.
Just as Lily Hart was about to get up and ladle some soup, Stan Sterling handed her a bowl. It was filled with pork ribs, corn, carrots, and yam.
Not a single ingredient was left out.
Lily Hart smiled at him and took the bowl, hearing him say, "Be careful, it’s hot."
The bowl was warm in her hands, like holding a hand warmer. She took a sip with her spoon—it was both savory and sweet.
It perfectly combined the flavors of all the ingredients, yet everything was balanced, with no single taste overpowering the others.
Lily Hart finished the entire large bowl of soup, eating every last bit of the ingredients inside, and instantly felt about half-full.
But there were still so many delicious dishes she hadn’t tried. Lily Hart stopped drinking soup and focused on the main course and rice.
Stan Sterling was so satisfied. ’Watching her drink the soup I so carefully simmered, finishing every last drop... it gives me this indescribable sense of accomplishment.’
’Now I finally understand why Roman Rowe is always fighting for the chance to cook in the kitchen.’
After the meal, Lily Hart ruefully patted her tummy and muttered, "I feel like I’ve gained so much weight..."
Frost Shaw, with his sharp hearing, caught that. He pursed his lips, thinking, ’How am I supposed to respond when a woman says she’s gained weight?’
Roman Rowe blurted out, "Gained weight? What are you talking about! Even if you gained some, you’re not as fat as..." He looked around, but all the men present were in great shape.
And as for the women, there were only Diana Sharp and Tina Jacobs, those two little kids!
He was momentarily speechless, still trying to figure out what to say, but Lily Hart had already come to her own conclusion.
"Gained weight? What are you talking about? I’m rail-thin, okay!" Lily Hart lifted her chin, speaking haughtily.
’At five-foot-eight and a hundred and thirty-two pounds, my figure is practically perfect! Fat my ass!’
But Lily Hart wasn’t really worried about that. She had plenty of other things to worry about.
For instance, the conflict happening outside her lottery shop. Most of the crowd had already started to head home.
But every day, there were always a few who were unwilling to give up, desperate to win big, who lingered until the very end.
It was these few people who had gotten into a conflict. Lily Hart, having just finished her meal, decided to get up and stretch her legs.
She heard them arguing, but they were still just at the shouting stage and hadn’t started fighting yet.
"You! We agreed to pool our Crystal Cores to buy a scratch-off! If we won, we’d split the prize! Now that we’ve won, you’re trying to take it all for yourself, aren’t you!"
The man’s voice was incredibly loud, the veins on his neck bulging. His fists were clenched tightly, and it looked like he was ready to start swinging at any moment.
The other man was just as loud, as if victory belonged to whoever could shout the loudest. "Yeah! So what! I don’t want to split it!"
"You’re asking for it!" With that, he threw a punch, tackling the other man to the ground and landing several hard blows!
The other man was no pushover, either. After taking a few punches in the initial chaos, he came to his senses and fought back, managing to pin his attacker to the ground.
And so they fought, one pinning the other, then getting pinned in return, trading blows back and forth.
The blows were heavy, but not yet lethal. ’Should I break it up?’ Lily Hart wondered.
Before she could even extend a hand to intervene, the words were already out of her mouth. "Stop fighting! Stop fighting, you two!"
’If you’re going to fight, do it somewhere else,’ she thought. ’Brawling out front is such an eyesore.’
Hearing her, the two men immediately stopped brawling and both shot a look in her direction.
One man, pinned to the ground, looked up at her with an aggrieved expression. The other, sitting on top of him, turned his head to glare at her furiously.
Lily Hart: ...She felt nothing at all.
’A pitiful expression only works on a handsome face.’
"You two, get up first," Lily Hart said, exasperated.
The two were surprisingly obedient. They immediately got up and said in unison, "Boss Hart, you have to be the judge for us!"
One of them spoke first, taking the offensive. "He clearly said we’d each put in one Crystal Core, buy the most expensive scratch-off, and split any prize evenly! But now he’s trying to take it all for himself!"
The other man, though in the wrong, acted just as belligerently. "Who said I’m taking it all! I only used half of your Crystal Core. I’ll give you a third of the prize, how about that!"
The most expensive scratch-off ticket sold for 150 points a piece, and one Level 1 Crystal Core could be exchanged for 100 points.
"No way!" the first man shouted, the veins on his temples throbbing. He was clearly furious.
"Take it or leave it! If you don’t like it, you get nothing!" the other man said arrogantly. ’The prize is in my personal space, anyway. Come and get it if you’ve got the guts!’
With that, he turned to run, but he didn’t get more than a few steps before he was caught and brutally tackled to the ground. This time, Lily Hart didn’t intervene.
’Some people are just asking for a beating.’
Since he had been tackled, he landed hard, face down. It was an awkward position to fight back from, and the other man landed several heavy punches on him.
He even grabbed him by the hair, yanked his neck up, and slapped him hard across the face a few times.
The man was beaten until he was seeing stars, his consciousness fading. He repeatedly begged for mercy, "I’ll split it! I’ll split it, okay!"
They were both survivors without superpowers. They usually valued Crystal Cores more than their own lives, but Crystal Cores were hard to come by.
Otherwise, they wouldn’t have thought to pool their Crystal Cores for a scratch-off ticket in the first place.
The attacker remained silent, his fist still clenched tightly, and roared, "The prize! Take it out!"
Seeing the man beneath him not moving, he swung again in anger, landing a punch right on his temple.
From her angle, Lily Hart could see blood gushing from his nose. His eyes glazed over, as if he had lost consciousness.
She raised her voice. "Hurry up and take out the prize! Do you really want to die here?"
Hearing this, the man’s consciousness returned slightly. He forced himself to use what little awareness he had left to take the prize out of his Space Ring.
It was a small card.
’A small card always means a good prize. No wonder he wanted to keep it for himself.’
Seeing the small card, the attacker stopped pinning him down. He scrambled to grab the card and, once he finally had it in his hands, stuffed it into the redemption machine without even looking at it.
His hands were trembling, his expression extremely tense, afraid the other man would try to pull another trick.
But the small card was spat right back out.
Lily Hart offered a friendly reminder, "The person who bought the scratch-off has to redeem it personally."
The man froze. He glanced at the half-dead person wailing in agony on the ground, then resolutely turned back.
He hauled the man up from behind, took his hand, made him grip the small card, and with great difficulty, shoved it into the machine.
WHOOSH—a beam of white light flashed... and both men’s eyes followed it.