Stark's Fan

Stark's Fan

Ever since Ginny arrived, Alvin had one more task every day: teaching the child to read and count.

Poor Ginny happily dove headfirst into the trap Alvin had woven with tenderness.

"Look, Ginny, this character is 'Dad.'"

"Look, Ginny, this character is 'Daughter.'"

"Look, Ginny, these are numbers: 1, 2... 9."

Thank God, Ginny was a smart, studious little darling. Alvin's chubby son in his previous life had still needed his fingers to do addition and subtraction within ten in first grade, and sometimes even needed to borrow his old man's fingers.

For three days straight, he had been in such a good mood that he even put off hitting up Kingpin for money to buy a school bus.

That day, Peace Hotel opened as usual at noon.

Frank's appointment letter had arrived, and he started work that day as the head of the Community School's Disciplinary Division. JJ had gone to the school to work as a school bus driver and security guard. Only Alvin, Jessica, and little Princess Ginny remained in the restaurant.

Alvin cooked the steaks, Jessica served the food and collected the money, while little Princess Ginny acted as the supervisor.

By twelve thirty, all fifty steaks had sold out. Alvin held Ginny, dressed in a tiny waiter's uniform, and whispered bad things about Jessica to her.

"I bet Jessie will give someone the wrong change again today. That's the price of not learning math properly. My little Ginny can't be like that. You have to study math seriously," Alvin whispered into Ginny's ear.

Ginny felt ticklish and nodded happily. "Ginny is smart. Ginny won't calculate wrong. Jessie is stupid. Nick said so." The little girl was so honest! But couldn't she say it a little quieter? Didn't she see Jessica's eyes were practically ready to kill someone?

Just as Alvin, Ginny, and Jessica were laughing and fooling around, the restaurant door was pushed open. A highly punchable voice said, "Wow, such a huge dog. I've never seen one before. Happy, ask how much it costs. I want to buy it to guard my house. It'll be more useful than you!"

Alvin looked toward the door. Director George walked in with a middle-aged man with curly hair, dressed in an outrageously flashy manner. Behind them was a capable-looking blonde beauty in her thirties. She did not look to be in very good spirits, as if something had been troubling her, leaving her a little haggard. There was also a tall, fat white man, probably some kind of bodyguard.

The flashy man wore amber-tinted sunglasses and brazenly surveyed the restaurant. Finally, he followed Director George to a seat at the bar.

Ignoring the flashy man, Jessica served glasses of lemonade to Director George and the blonde woman at the bar. The large bodyguard wore black sunglasses and stood behind the flashy man with his hands folded in front of him. It seemed he did not need serving either.

The flashy man did not get angry over Jessica's neglect. Instead, he stroked his little mustache and said thoughtfully, "Have I been getting too little publicity lately? This girl actually treats me like this!"

Director George was clearly annoyed by the flashy man as well. He said to Alvin, "Buddy, this is Miss Pepper Potts, a witness to the Vampire incident. She is Mr. Tony Stark's assistant. Mr. Stark is very concerned about Miss Pepper and insisted on coming here with us."

Of course Alvin knew Tony Stark—the beginning of the Marvel movie world, Iron Man! He had no idea what Stark was supposed to be in this world. Especially since Vampires had appeared here, Alvin had begun to wonder whether this was still the same world as the movies he had watched in his previous life.

Alvin smiled. "It seems Mr. Stark cares deeply about his beautiful assistant." To be fair, Alvin had really liked Stark as a character in his previous life. But when that character appeared alive and breathing before him, Alvin had the urge to punch him in the nose and set the dogs on him.

Because Mr. Stark was currently staring at Jessica, saying, "Stark Industries invites you to work in the chairman's office. The position will be assistant to the assistant, with an annual salary of five hundred thousand dollars."

Not only was he harassing my waitress with his eyes, he was trying to poach her too. That was unacceptable.

Alvin's expression turned cold. Looking at Pepper, he said teasingly, "Hey, beautiful, I'm Alvin. Does your boss usually use assistant positions and five-hundred-thousand-dollar salaries to pick up girls, or does he usually pick up assistants with five-hundred-thousand-dollar salaries?"

The somewhat aloof Pepper did not answer Alvin's rather rude question. Slightly impatient, she said, "Director George asked me to come here to answer your questions. Please don't waste my time."

Stark had clearly heard Alvin's sarcasm. Curling his lip, he said in an extremely punchable tone, "Pepper, just treat this as a chance to relax. There's no such thing as Vampires in this world. You're just too tired."

Stark turned to Alvin. "You should tell this, uh... exorcist gentleman about the things you imagined. Maybe we can watch an interesting magic show! Consider it a way to relax."

Director George covered his face in despair. He felt that bringing Stark along had been an extremely wrong decision. He had a feeling things were about to get very bad.

Alvin was so irritated he laughed. Glancing at the embarrassed Director George, he said, "How has this guy stayed alive with a mouth like that?"

"Because I'm a billionaire, a genius inventor, and the chairman of Stark Industries." Stark checked his watch, then looked at Jessica. "We don't have much time. Miss, what do you think about my offer?"

Jessica did not particularly want to deal with Stark. She simply could not bring herself to like a guy who seemed eager to tattoo the words "I'm rich" across his face.

But seeing Alvin's unhappy expression, her mood inexplicably improved. So he does care about me!

Feeling mischievous, Jessica pressed her lips together, smiled shyly, and said, "Mr. Stark, thank you for your invitation." As she spoke, she extended her hand and shook Stark's.

Stark shot Alvin a smug glance and took Jessica's hand. Just as he was about to say something witty, he discovered that the girl's hand was like a pair of locking pliers, clamping down on his right hand and gradually tightening.

Realizing something was wrong, Stark struggled to maintain the smile on his face while desperately trying to pull free from Jessica's grip.

Without looking at Stark's expression, he looked exactly like some pervert taking advantage of a girl, gripping her hand and refusing to let go.

Apparently, both his bodyguard and Miss Pepper thought the same, while Director George simply did not want to look at him at all.

Amused, Alvin watched Stark stubbornly keep up appearances, endure the pain for all he was worth, and desperately shake his right hand in an attempt to escape Jessica's clamp. When he could no longer endure it, he finally shouted, "Happy!"

Only then did his bodyguard react. Seeing that his boss's face was covered in sweat from the pain, he reached for Jessica's shoulder—only to feel his pant leg being lifted. Then his body went airborne, and his face got to test the hardness of Alvin's restaurant floor.

The teeth-grinding crack made it clear that Happy's face had lost badly.

The culprits, Thor and Dom, sat on the floor, each wolf holding one of Happy's pant legs in its mouth.

No matter how Happy struggled on the floor, with his feet unable to touch the ground and exert any force, he looked more like a fat worm constantly wriggling around.

Seeing his bodyguard taken down by two dogs, Stark sensibly raised his left hand and said painfully, "Okay, okay, I surrender. I apologize for my rudeness!"

Alvin motioned for Jessica to release Stark, then said with a smile, "Nice to meet you, Mr. Stark. I used to be your fan."