Innocent Caesar

The rest were no one Lu Qi knew, just unfamiliar business tycoons. He was a little disappointed; he had thought there would be commercial giants like Hammer or Osborn.

There was food and drink in the venue, and Lu Qi was happy to linger there until evening, when the award ceremony was about to begin.

The venue gradually filled with people. Lu Qi saw Obadiah enter with a rather unpleasant expression and knew Tony had stood him up.

Obadiah was already irritated by Tony breaking his promise, wondering how he was supposed to clean up Tony's mess later.

Damn it! I've been cleaning up after the Starks, father and son, for decades. Am I supposed to keep cleaning up after them forever?

An idea sprouted in Obadiah's heart and continued to grow. He looked at the hen that laid golden eggs for the family. He had not wanted to do this, but Stark Industries needed a new name.

Will this world really be destroyed just because there's no Tony Stark? I refuse to believe it!

Watching Obadiah's expression, Lu Qi secretly snapped two photos. Releasing these anytime soon might get him a lawyer's letter, so he might as well wait until Obadiah was finished a month from now.

"As Stark Industries' liaison, I have been especially honored to work alongside a true patriot..."

Rhodey had already begun his speech. Lu Qi wondered how awkward it would be if no one went up to accept the award later.

"Ladies and gentlemen, it is my honor to present this year's Pinnacle Award to Mr. Tony Stark." Rhodey looked eagerly into the audience, waiting for his friend to come up and accept the award, only to see Obadiah shake his head at him.

Seeing the empty seat beside Obadiah, Rhodey cursed internally. Fuck.

I finally got excited about something for once, and you had to let me down this completely!

Tony Stark, you're definitely not getting off easy later!

Rhodey's expression gradually turned awkward. At that moment, Obadiah stepped onto the stage and gave Rhodey a meaningful look.

Rhodey promptly put the Pinnacle Award into Obadiah's hand, then went off to the side to stand in the corner and reflect.

He had actually still held expectations for Tony Stark!

Looking at Rhodey's awkward expression in his camera, Lu Qi felt that this photo would definitely make War Machine leave a comment under his blog someday, as long as the account name was not something like "War Machine Is Cool as Hell."

Lu Qi headed toward the balcony and saw Kingpin suddenly look his way. Within Kingpin's line of sight, Lu Qi walked onto the balcony, gave a slight bow, then turned into a shadow and sank into the ground, disappearing.

Kingpin withdrew his gaze and relaxed slightly. Still, who had taught that guy to bow? It was so improper.

Shaking his head, Kingpin looked toward the comedy playing out onstage.

Lu Qi arrived at the entertainment center Tony had mentioned. When he entered, he saw a large crowd gathered around one spot, with several of Tony's bodyguards standing helplessly nearby.

It seemed Tony had given them another round of job training. Lu Qi greeted them and headed inside.

Tony had an arm around each of two girls. "Come on, baby, blow on it for me. Lend me some luck."

He tossed the dice, sending three million dollars away.

Lu Qi shook his head. Even some millionaires could not handle this kind of game. Only someone like Tony, who did not treat money as money, dared to play like this.

"Looks like it's a good thing I didn't come with you. Otherwise, I might've lost money too." Lu Qi walked up behind Tony and spoke.

"Oh, who are you?"

Tony spoke as he turned around.

Then Lu Qi took a photo of him with the two girls.

Tony frowned. "Why is it you, you little sneak photographer?"

But Tony did not care much. "You're going to turn into a paparazzo at this rate."

"Maybe I will someday." Lu Qi looked over the photo and tapped save.

If he pulled out this photo after Tony's trip to Afghanistan, Tony would definitely willingly hand over ten million dollars to keep him from showing it to Pepper. But deleting it would cost thirty million dollars.

Having settled on a blackmail plan, Lu Qi walked over to the table and looked at the huge pile of chips in front of Tony.

"Hey, kid, I'll give you a chance. Let's roll dice. If your number is higher than mine, this whole pile of chips is yours."

Tony suddenly said this while looking at Lu Qi. Lu Qi raised an eyebrow. "Why do you like giving away money so much?"

Tony put an arm around each girl. "Money is the most useless thing to me. Compared to that, I like these two little beauties more."

The two girls appropriately displayed their shock and delight, but Lu Qi knew Tony would not take either of them away later. Instead, he would pick up a reporter outside and take her away.

"Then I'll go first." Lu Qi took the dice and casually threw them.

One and two.

"Well, kid, looks like you won't be taking these chips home today."

Tony added insult to injury. After fooling around chest-to-chest with one of the girls for a while, Rhodey suddenly appeared.

"You are unbelievable!" Rhodey said fiercely.

Tony seemed to have only just realized Rhodey had presented the award. "Oh no, did they send you here?"

Rhodey gave him a smile that did not reach his eyes. "No one sent me, but someone told me that if I presented the award, you'd be deeply honored."

"Of course. If you're presenting it, that's wonderful!"

Tony said earnestly, "When do we collect it?"

"Right now." Rhodey's anger vanished just like that, and he handed the trophy to Tony.

Tony took one look at it and said, "Look, isn't this special?" Then he handed the trophy to one of the girls beside him.

Leaning over to retrieve the two dice, Tony had the girl blow on them, then asked Rhodey to do the same.

"I'm not blowing on someone else's dice." Rhodey looked at the trophy in the girl's hand and grew annoyed again.

"Come on, Honey Bear. Just one blow."

Rhodey pushed away Tony's outstretched hand, and the dice flew out in the process.

"Okay, Colonel Rhodey rolled the dice... a beautiful two!"

Rhodey tilted his head to the side. His luck seemed a little bad.

"All right, you successfully lost to this kid's three points with your two. These thirty million in chips go to him."

Rhodey looked at the innocent Lu Qi. Well, that really was unlucky.

"I've seen worse," Tony comforted Rhodey, then looked at Lu Qi as well.

The two walked out without another word.

Lu Qi said to the waiter beside him, "Help me sort out the chips. I'm going to take a photo."

Outside, Tony said goodbye to Rhodey.

"Give Caesar what belongs to Caesar."

At that moment, Lu Qi took a photo. Tony, flanked by bodyguards, showed only his back as he handed the trophy to the innocent-looking Caesar beside him.

Lu Qi looked at the photo and felt that it was a perfect summary of Tony's life up to that point.

After turning back to exchange the chips for numbers in his bank account, Lu Qi thought that thirty million dollars could count as payment for that photo. He would not show it to Pepper, but he could still use it to annoy Tony.

Lu Qi thought happily.