"You talk like it's real. Is there really a Hulk?"
Lily looked at Arthur, with a half-amused, half-annoyed expression on her face before speaking. "Come on, that's impossible."
"Probably."
Arthur hoped it wasn't, too, but if the Hulk suddenly appeared in front of you, he really hoped that the girl in front of him could stay as calm as she is being today.
All right, this kind of scenario shouldn't happen!
Definitely not!
Arthur suddenly wasn't so sure. Even though he wanted to stay calm, he always felt that some great cosmic force was preventing him from doing so.
"I'm going to take a bath!"
Lily suddenly stood up. "Let me tell you, we have a gentleman's agreement. You live here, but you'd better not get any funny ideas. You see this?"
As she spoke, Lily pulled a pair of scissors from behind her back.
She made a threatening gesture, and the scissors snapped open and closed with a sharp sound.
Arthur looked at the scissors in surprise, wondering where she had conjured them from.
He couldn't help but laugh and waved his hand. "Go ahead, I have no interest in you. I like women with big butts…"
"What the hell!"
Lily was angry to the point of fainting. What did that mean? Did he mean that her figure wasn't good enough?
After giving Arthur a fierce glare, Lily grabbed her change of clothes and rushed into the bathroom.
Arthur sat on the sofa in puzzled silence, muttering after a while, "I like women with big butts… That's just something someone else said about me, why did I just accept it?"
…
When Lily came out of the bathroom, Arthur had already gone back to his room.
This also made Lily feel relieved.
Taking Arthur in took a lot of determination, and the risk she had to take was no less dangerous than the threat from those hooligans.
Her father always said to be a good person.
Would she really get a good result if she listened to him?
So last night she had used all her strength to carry Arthur back.
Today's decision, though partly due to pressure from the hooligans, also gave her a reason to keep Arthur around.
"With such impure thoughts, how could I expect a good outcome?"
Lily blinked and hummed as she returned to her room.
…
Sitting on his bed, Arthur looked at the bedside table.
On it was a set of tattered clothes, the ones he was wearing when Lily found him.
They were now completely unrecognizable.
He clearly remembered that when he had fought Schmidt, these clothes had still been intact.
He even had a Hydra uniform over them.
But now they could hardly be called clothes.
God only knew what he had gone through to get them in such a state.
The watch, gun, and other items he had been carrying were also gone.
In the silence, perhaps because he had slept for so long, Arthur found that he wasn't sleepy at all.
He couldn't help but remember the night before the battle when Agent Carter had come to see him…
Nothing had happened that night.
The two of them just sat quietly in the room, not saying a word until it was time to leave.
When Steve boarded the Valkyrie, he said that Agent Carter was waiting to dance with him.
"Dance… Is that some kind of curse?"
Arthur chuckled bitterly, "In the movie, as soon as Steve asked a date to dance, he turned into a popsicle. And when she said it to me, I disappeared from the world. That definitely counts as… a strategic weapon, right?"
After his self-mockery, Arthur's thoughts shifted back to today's news.
The Hulk… He really showed up!
This didn't really surprise him, since this was the Marvel Universe… It just helped him better understand the timeline he was in.
…
…
Midnight!
Arthur, who had been sleeping, suddenly opened his eyes.
Frowning slightly, he got out of bed and went to the window.
He lifted the curtain to look outside. The night was quiet, the street almost empty, but there were a few sneaky figures at the front door, looking like they were up to no good.
With a sigh, Arthur opened the window and jumped down barefoot from the second floor.
Amusingly, the group was completely unaware of Arthur's arrival.
"Ahem!"
Arthur cleared his throat.
The group ignored him, shaking their spray cans.
They were discussing how to make their graffiti scarier…
They seemed completely engrossed in their 'artistic creation'.
Seeing the intensity of their discussion, Arthur couldn't resist joining in. "I tell you, drawing a skull is the best! A big skull is really scary."
"Skulls are outdated, buddy!"
A young black man said to Arthur, "If you want to scare people now, you need something more abstract. You can't tell what it is, but the strong color contrast makes it really scary. That's the best!"
Arthur was stunned. "You have some good ideas! Are you an artist?"
"Used to study it, then changed careers…"
As he said this, the black man realized something was wrong and turned to look at Arthur. "Who are you?"
Then he quickly called to his companions, "Hey guys, is there a strange person among us?"
Everyone turned to look at Arthur and saw that he was shirtless, barefoot, and wearing only a loose, comfortable-looking pair of gray shorts.
Arthur grinned, "Hey, working late, huh? Tough job!"
"Kid, mind your own business!"
A freckled youth pointed at Arthur, "Or we'll have to teach you a lesson!"
Arthur looked down at the spray can in his hand. "I think I've seen it before."
"If you've seen it, why don't you leave?"
The black man asked, "Are you planning to join us?"
"…"
The question was so simple that Arthur didn't know how to answer it.
Seeing the sincerity in his question, Arthur almost felt like joining them.
"Hit him!"
Suddenly, the freckled guy shouted at Arthur.
The scream echoed down the street, the words "hit him, hit him, hit him" echoing.
But before the echo died down, Arthur had already knocked the group to the ground, leaving them all grimacing in pain.
Arthur scratched his head, crouched down, and looked at the black man who was wincing in pain. "You seem the most reasonable person here. Tell me, who sent you?"
"Our boss… You're dead, man. Our boss is ruthless, he'll definitely kill you!"
"Who is your boss?"
"Don't tell him!"
The freckled guy interrupted hastily.
"I know!"
The black guy shouted back, "Like I'd ever tell him our boss is Randolph."
"Right, don't tell him that!"
The freckle-faced guy nodded in agreement.