svetikya Page 85
Page 85
Penny didn't know why she apologized too. Mainly, both of them were still in a daze, unable to believe they'd seen a global billionaire in such a cheap apartment.
"Don't you want me to come in and sit down?"
Bruce was speechless inside, but he still smiled on the surface. Upon hearing this, Leonard and Penny nodded hurriedly and stood up in a flurry, carrying Sheldon towards the apartment door like a patient.
"Please come in!"
Penny didn't forget to peek out and speak to Bruce.
In the living room, Bruce gracefully avoided the Star Wars figurines scattered on the floor, his gaze lingering on the comic book posters covering the walls, while Leonard was as nervous as a student facing the principal.
His hands were shaking as he held the coffee.
"So, Ian Kent, my nephew, is he planning to hire the two of you?" Bruce politely accepted the coffee, placed it on the table, and got straight to the point.
His gaze shifted from Leonard to Sheldon, who was lying unconscious on the sofa.
"Am I not in this group?"
Penny couldn't help but interject. It was her first time meeting a top tycoon in person, so she looked uneasy and tried to lighten the tense atmosphere with some humor.
"No."
Bruce looked at the girl and responded earnestly.
"Forehead……"
Penny felt pressured and took a few steps back. "Really... Actually, I'm very good at cleaning. No matter how high-end a company is, it should need excellent cleaners, right?"
She gave an awkward laugh and then spoke.
"unnecessary."
Bruce's response was concise and to the point.
He didn't know why he thought of the sterilized female cleaner in Ian's other novel; he felt that he might have been really driven a bit crazy by that kind of thing lately.
"Ok."
Penny scratched her unbearably itchy scalp and awkwardly retreated to a corner. She felt somewhat humiliated and had mixed feelings, feeling like a clown in this extra room.
Thinking like this.
Penny, who noticed Bruce glancing at her a few more times, didn't think it was her charm at work; she just felt that the world was so crazy it was almost unreal.
Who would have thought?
The bragging boy that his neighbor encountered actually wasn't bragging; billionaire Bruce Wayne really did come to his door for help. The odds of that are comparable to being hit on the head by a meteorite while walking down the street.
The more Penny thought about it, the more dreamy it seemed.
And Leonard is the same.
“Yes… sir, Mr. Kent did say he was willing to offer Sheldon and me a new job, but…” Leonard, still in a daze, hadn’t finished speaking.
"very good."
Bruce nodded to interrupt him.
"Promise me, my nephew."
The old-money tycoon spoke with utmost seriousness.
"So, this is a formal employment with Wayne Corporation?" Leonard probed cautiously. Like Penny, he felt it was a dream, and even couldn't help but secretly pinch his thigh.
“You can think of this as an additional personal hire,” Bruce corrected the other person’s statement. He needed someone to keep an eye on whether the alien technology Ian might be hiding was safe enough.
"Additional hiring?"
Leonard's mind immediately conjured up a complete Mission: Impossible plot. "We're corporate spies? That's probably not the same kind of work we do at university, is it?"
He was having second thoughts. In any case, Leonard really didn't want to give up his university job; after all, scientific research wasn't just about future prospects, but also about benefiting all of humanity.
Just as Leonard felt a sense of pride rising within him.
“The average annual salary of a university professor in the United States is $200,000, while I will give you an annual salary of $500,000, not including the salary that Ian Kent will offer you.”
Bruce unleashed his most unstoppable money power on the planet.
It was just a slight intervention.
They had already smashed the poor Leonard until he was dumbfounded.
"Half a million!?"
The scientist with scientific aspirations was hit by the financial shock – his and Sheldon's salaries were not low, but their student loan repayments were by no means small.
In America.
The higher the degree, the more money you have to pay for it. That's the reality of the capital market in the free United States. Most high-paid professionals spend most of their first twenty years' income paying off student loans.
"This this……"
Leonard's resolve began to waver.
Penny, upon hearing this salary promise, also offered her support.
"My God! Leonard, you guys are going to be rich! You'll be the richest...nerds I know!" Penny's timely exclamation was like a shot in the arm.
"The richest nerd?"
Leonard seemed to feel his own masculine competitiveness. Scientific ideals, the future of humanity—all that nonsense! The most fundamental mission of humankind is to reproduce!
"Don't worry, Mr. Wayne, Sheldon and I are experts at corporate espionage!" Leonard took off his glasses and made a firm assurance to Bruce.
And right now.
"Leonard! Leonard!" Sheldon suddenly jumped up from the sofa like a frog that had been electrocuted. "I had a dream! I dreamt that I saw Bruce Wayne!"
"Then I fainted because I was too excited!" He first looked at his roommate, and then followed his roommate's gaze to Bruce, who was sitting in his blind spot to the side.
"So it wasn't a dream after all, my Groundhog Day~" With that, Sheldon fainted again, his nonsensical behavior making Leonard quite embarrassed.
"Perhaps I'm the only one who's good at it..."
Leonard coughed twice guiltily, touching his slightly embarrassed face. Bruce couldn't help but think to himself, "The abnormal Ian always seems to be looking for abnormal scientists."
"Not a corporate spy."
Of course, Bruce maintained his composure on the surface, pretending to ignore the farce. He carefully chose his words, saying, "I'm more like I'm looking for two caregivers for my nephew."
This is the truth.
After all, Batman can't keep an eye on a big boy in Metropolis all the time. That's why Bruce needs these two scientists, who are being targeted by Ian, to keep an eye on Ian and prevent situations that neither he nor Clark might want to see.
Bruce will certainly also begin preparing to place other, more reliable scientists in Ian's lap.
but.
Two more people wouldn't matter.
"Caregiver?"
Leonard was a little taken aback.
"That is, a nanny."
Penny whispered an explanation from the side. She thought the world was truly absurd; who would spend a million dollars a year just to hire a babysitter for a child to play house?
“But Mr. Wayne, Sheldon and I are both people with scientific aspirations…” Leonard, realizing what was happening, began to struggle, his last bit of stubbornness still lingering.
In this regard.
Bruce calmly took two checks from his suit pocket and casually placed them on the coffee table piled with comic books.
"This is a resettlement allowance."
Bruce stood up and straightened his suit; the sound of the fabric rubbing together exuded the quality of money. "Besides," he said, "who says you can't continue to conduct cutting-edge scientific research?"
He gave Leonard a mysterious smile.
If technology that can blow up the Earth isn't cutting-edge enough, then what truly qualifies as cutting-edge!
"There really is research on this?"
Leonard's eyes widened.
“Oh! Oh my God, Leonard, you guys can move into a big mansion... That’s the life I’ve only ever dreamed of.” The number on the check made Penny gasp.
She was simply moved by the profound shock she felt.
However, Leonard, whose heart was already fluttering with romantic feelings, felt that he had discovered the key element.
"I'll do it! I'll be a nanny!"
He became determined again.
"Your assist was good."
Bruce pulled out a few bills and stuffed them into Penny's hand as a thank you. He turned back and smiled, glancing at Sheldon, who was still unconscious on the sofa.
"Someone will come and persuade him."
Leave this sentence.
Bruce put down his coffee, which he hadn't even touched, and got up to leave.
"Are you leaving?"
Leonard and Penny quickly saw them off.
Very enthusiastic.
The Einstein statue on the living room wall is silently witnessing this scene.
Another scientist corrupted by capitalism.
as same as him.
……
The rain in Gotham always smells of rusty iron.
The rain in the metropolis smells like diluted lemon detergent.
Alfred stood downstairs at the apartment building, holding a black umbrella.
The umbrella's angled curve was just right to allow rainwater to flow down the folds of Gotham's richest man's custom-made suit without wetting the impeccably styled hair of this image-conscious tycoon.