Chapter 1496: Renovation and Dispute
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
It was already the middle of December, and only ten days to Christmas.
Luke had been lucky that his place hadn’t been blown up, crushed, or riddled with holes in the Battle of New York.
It was only a little over two kilometers away from Stark Tower, where the Chitauri soldiers had run amok.
It was a miracle that his place was still intact. However, there was a lot of junk and stains on the building.
Who the h.e.l.l knew what the Chitauri fliers had done? In any case, the outer walls were a mix of gray, black, yellow and red hues, which looked a little like abstract graffiti.
If it were any other time, Luke could’ve called for the renovation company to help him with this.
But the renovation company was too busy at the moment, so he and Selina could only do it themselves.
Luke was now painting the left side while Selina was painting the right.
After a while, she couldn’t help but ask, “Hey, can we really not use another color? White or brick red would be fine. Why gray?”
As he painted, Luke said casually, “Which do you think is more eye-catching: white or red, or gray? We’re surrounded by gray houses. What happens if we’re targeted for sticking out too much?”
Selina had nothing to say.
This reason sounded like nonsense, but it was actually very possible.
Most of the time, people were subconsciously drawn by eye-catching things.
If the color of this building stood out, it really might be dangerous.
In particular, the apartment buildings here were around the same height, and there were no skysc.r.a.pers to draw attention.
The renovations to Stark Tower cost 30 million, which had made the headlines.
Thanks to their dexterity and Luke’s automated hanging platform, the two of them were pretty much done in an hour.
Suddenly, they heard loud cursing. They turned around and looked.
Dozens of meters away, two groups of people were confronting each other.
After Luke took a few glances, the hanging platform dropped to the second floor and he jumped down.
Selina hurriedly put down her paint bucket and brush and jumped down as well. “Wait for me.”
She caught up with Luke and asked, “What’s wrong?”
Luke said, “Do you know about Tony Stark’s disaster control department? That woman is the person-in-charge.”
Selina gave an “oh” of understanding.
Luke said, “I’ve met one of the people they’re quarreling with. Hm, he’s quite a nice guy.”
Selina asked, “Who is it?”
Luke said, “That middle-aged white man leading the group is called… Adrian? When the criminals attacked the L.A. prison during the California earthquake last time, I hitched a ride off him to the prison that night.”
Selina nodded and didn’t say anything else.
Luke was a person who placed a lot of value on favors and didn’t accept help from others easily, even if it was just a free ride.
Since this had happened, he would definitely take care of it.
They had already taken out their badges.
Luke didn’t waste time. He simply squeezed through the crowd and shouted, “NYPD. What’s happening here?”
The two groups looked at him in surprise. NYPD was so busy now; did they actually have the time to take care of such a petty quarrel?
The middle-aged man, Adrian, was stumped for a moment when he saw Luke.
Luke walked to stand between Adrian and the fat middle-aged woman. “What’s wrong?”
The woman shook her head calmly. “No, we’re done.”
Luke nodded and looked at Adrian. “Sir, is there a problem?”
Adrian had already recalled who Luke was.
In fact, if it wasn’t for Luke, he wouldn’t have come to New York, and he wouldn’t be in this predicament.
Of course, he couldn’t blame Luke for what happened. He could only say that the G.o.ddess of fortune wasn’t on his side.
Seeing Luke wink at him, he said, “I have a problem. It’s like this…”
Adrian’s explanation was simple and clear.
He had been contracted by the New York authorities to clean up the trash, which mainly comprised building wreckage caused by the Battle of New York. During the cleanup, all Chitauri equipment he collected would be sent to the authorities.
In the end, the fat middle-aged woman, Annie Hogg, took out an official doc.u.ment and said that the munic.i.p.al department had already transferred this job to Stark Industries’ disaster control department.
It seemed Annie knew this was going to happen. She simply waved her hand, and one of her personnel gave Luke the doc.u.ment.
Luke flipped through a few pages and confirmed that there was nothing wrong with the procedure.
Coupled with the middle-aged men cursing behind Adrian, he roughly understood what was going on.
“It’s no use seeking her out. She’s just the errand boy.” He nodded and said to Adrian, “Let’s go. I happen to know a law firm over there. I’ll help you ask them what to do.”
Adrian hesitated for a moment before he followed Luke.
He actually knew that it was useless.
The disaster control department was under Stark Industries. How was he supposed to compete with that?
It was just that he and his old fellows couldn’t take it lying down.
He took a few steps forward, only to see that n.o.body was following him. He turned around and glanced at his group. “Let’s go. Didn’t you hear that? This Miss Hogg is only the errand boy. It’s useless for us to talk so much.”
The eight middle-aged men looked at each other in bewilderment, before they burst out laughing and nodded, and started mocking Annie.
“That’s right, she can only wave around papers from those politicians.”
“Be careful with what you say; maybe she had ill.u.s.trious ancestors.”
“That’s right, she’s a department ‘head.’ We can’t afford to offend her.”
They deliberately raised their voices and laughed as they walked away.
The people behind Annie had strange expressions on their faces. Only the man who had handed over the doc.u.ment stepped forward. “Chief, we…”
Annie raised her hand. “It’s fine, we’re busy. Let’s go.”
She then turned around and walked to her car.
Although Luke’s words didn’t sound nice, he had solved the problem in a practical way. At the very least, that brainless team left of their own accord and didn’t waste any more of her time.
In any case, the other party was out of a job – cursing her out a little was no big deal.
Stark Industries was paying her handsomely; describing her as an errand boy was not wrong.
This was nothing more than a way to resolve the dispute.
On the surface, the detective was on their side.
In fact, he didn’t try to fight for any benefits on their behalf. Instead, he led them away.
This guy is quite capable! Annie thought to herself. It was a pity he was still a little immature. If a certain someone who cared about dignity had heard that, he would hold this grudge for a long time.
In the car, the personnel secretly observed their boss’s reaction, and were surprised to see that she was smiling.