Listening to these words full of longing and love, Butcher's hand holding the phone tightened slightly.
There was a brief silence in the room.
His eyes crossed the coffee table and fell again on the wall covered with photos of Homelander.
The holes dug with daggers were watching him silently.
Vought International.
The devil's cave that killed all his brothers and built it up with lies and blood.
But the woman he loved most was desperately trying to climb up there.
"Becca..."
Butcher's Adam's apple rolled up and down, and there was a trace of struggle in his voice, "Can you really not leave Vought? I know you are very strong and you want to prove yourself, but Vought is really..."
"Oh, okay, okay."
Before Butcher could say the warning, Becca interrupted him with a smile, "Director is still calling me here and has to go to a PR draft. Stop saying so many depressing words. Let's meet in the evening and have a detailed chat!"
Beep... beep... beep...
The phone was hung up.
Butcher held up the mobile phone, listening to the blind tone coming from inside, and did not move for a long time in the dark room.
He lowered his head, glanced at the ferocious dark red scar on his chest, and then looked at the dimmed name on the screen.
After a long time, Butcher slowly let out a breath.
He casually put his cell phone into his pocket, stood up, grabbed the dirty black windbreaker next to him and put it on his shoulders.
It's almost time and he has to go see her.
Before going out, Butcher seemed to have thought of something and took out a small red velvet box from the drawer.
Manhattan, Vought Tower top floor President’s Office office.
Through the large floor-to-ceiling windows, you can have a panoramic view of the prosperity of New York.
Legend is sitting behind the desk that originally belonged to Edgar, holding a cigar in his hand.
He put the cigar to the tip of his nose and took a deep sniff. He rubbed the sterling silver customized lighter with his thumb, but did not press it for a long time.
It's not like he suddenly quit smoking.
But he still remembered that Lynn pulled out the cigarette from his mouth and scolded him not to give John second-hand smoke.
Damn Lynn... Obviously with John's physique, smoking a thousand cigars a day will be fine.
Although he was complaining like this in his heart, even if that man hadn't appeared in this building for a long time, Legend still didn't dare to go too far.
Opposite Legend, John was leaning on the sofa casually, crossing his legs and looking calmly out the window.
Behind John, the young intern secretary Ashley was holding a stack of documents tightly, standing tremblingly, like a quail ready to be frightened at any time, with its ears pricked up desperately.
"As for the next step of comprehensively improving the public relations plan for Vought International and your personal image in All-America, I have already made preliminary plans."
Legend turned the unlit cigar twice between his fingers and reported in a hoarse voice:
"Tomorrow morning, Public Relations Department will arrange for you to go to Manhattan Central Hospital to visit several terminally ill children. In the afternoon, you will go to the orphanage of New Jersey to donate a batch of living materials and education funds on behalf of Vought International. Godolkin University also gave a speech recently. The students there all admire you."
John looked away from the window, his expression showed no emotion at all, he just nodded lightly. "Okay."
Seeing that John agreed to these routine procedures, Legend leaned forward slightly and lowered his voice:
"In addition, there is another important event."
"Our behind-the-scenes report is that the two most powerful gangs in Brooklyn district are going to have a fight tonight."
Legend looked at John and laid out the script in an orderly manner:
"I hope you can do less of those little good deeds of 'helping the old lady cross the road' tonight, and focus your main energy on Brooklyn. When the time comes, our photography team will set up Video Camera at the commanding heights in advance."
"As long as you come as the Chosen One at this perfect time, not only will it greatly deter criminals, but your personal image and support rate will soar again. At the same time, these two groups of evil gangs will completely disappear under your Heat Vision. By tomorrow morning, the stock price of Vought will rise by at least another three percentage points."
Legend put the cigar on the table and concluded. "Kill three birds with one stone, perfect public relations."
John After listening to this public relations show, there was still no unnecessary expression on his face. He just nodded silently without saying a word.
Ashley on the side broke into a cold sweat when she heard this. She desperately recorded all this in her notebook.
After dealing with these troublesome public relations affairs, Legend seemed to have been drained of all his strength.
He rubbed his aching temples painfully, leaned back on the chair with a tired face, and let out a long sigh.
"John, to be honest... I really want to retire."
Legend's voice revealed a deep sense of powerlessness.
"For the past ten years, I have had to deal with this mess every day to maintain the operation of this huge empire. My old bones are really tired."
After hearing these words, a faint smile finally appeared on John's cold, sculpture-like face.
"You are the most powerful person in Vought International, the capital giant of the entire America."
John said in a relaxed tone, even with a bit of ridicule, "How can you retire?"
"Why do you want me to be the fucking person in charge?!"
Legend complained with a painful look on his face, "I'm just an outsider writing PR drafts from the beginning to the end! Why don't you let Lynn do this kind of thing?"
Legend felt more and more aggrieved the more he talked, and complained angrily:
"Lynn doesn't come to the company once a month now! How old is he? He is so young, and he just retires and enjoys life hiding in Long Island Estate? Why should he put the entire company's burden on me alone!"
In the eyes of Legend and all Vought senior officials, Lynn just retired and became a behind-the-scenes emperor who did not care about worldly affairs.
Faced with Legend's complaints, John smiled.
He didn't explain or speak.
But that smile looked unusually deep under the backlight of the floor-to-ceiling windows.
Looking at John's silent smile, Legend sighed helplessly.
He knows that John will not let him retire no matter what.
At least, he will never leave this desk until the frightened intern Ashley next to him is thoroughly taught that he can stand alone.
"Okay, let's not talk about retirement."
Legend took a deep breath, the decadence on his face was wiped away, and his eyes returned to seriousness and sharpness.
He opened a top-secret red folder on the desktop and looked at John.
"Now we have completely dominated the North America market... but the international situation is very bad. In addition to the Americas, Europe, Asia and other countries have extremely strong resistance to Vought."
Legend frowned tightly, "Not only did they completely ban any non-super products of Vought, they even issued an absolute ban prohibiting the entry of any Supe. Our overseas markets were almost uprooted, and all Vought branches became empty shells."
"Have you thought of a solution?"
Legend looked directly into John's eyes.
John sat on the sofa, eyes lowered, still silent.
Seeing that John did not express his position, Legend gritted his teeth and tentatively made an extremely bold, even dangerous proposal:
"How about... let's resume overseas exports of Compound V?"
Legend stared closely at John's reaction and quickly analyzed,
"As long as we are willing to let go and sell this drug that can create super soldiers to the military of those countries, they will definitely open their doors to Vought again for the sake of profit and power. In this case, our international isolation will be much better..."
John shook his head, "I don't need wealth, and I'm not afraid of their isolation."
Legend took a deep look at John, and then spoke slowly for a long time, "John, I can't understand you, what do you want..."