[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-i-m-the-cleanup-crew":3,"chapter-i-m-the-cleanup-crew-i-m-the-cleanup-crew-chapter-969":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","I'm the Cleanup Crew!",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2286805,4472,"Chapter 969","i-m-the-cleanup-crew-chapter-969",969,"\u003Cp>“Philia.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mmm…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Philia, wake up quickly.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Who? Who’s calling me?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Philia, don’t sleep anymore, it’s time to wake up.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Stop bothering me, stop bothering me, I’m getting up now!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the familiar voice’s call, the emerald-eyed girl unconsciously rubbed her eyes, sat up from the ground, and looked around with a dazed expression.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lawn, fountain, pond, terrace… moss-covered engraved brick paths, sculptures with chipped corners, neglected greenery turned yellow and withered, weeds thriving wildly in the dilapidated garden—everything looked so strange, yet so familiar…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Is this… the old garden behind the Wang Gong?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You’ve finally woken up.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Watching Philia, her hair messy, sitting dazedly on the yellowed grass, Prince Andre let out a soft laugh, then continued setting up his easel, his expression tinged with nostalgia:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You always loved sleeping on the lawn, especially when summer hadn’t grown too hot yet—you’d beg me to bring an umbrella and take you to this garden to play.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After you got tired, you wouldn’t even wipe the sweat off, just set up the umbrella, lie down on the ground, and start snoring. You’d roll around in your sleep, your little face smeared with dirt like a mud monkey—I got scolded by Mother so many times because of you…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Brother Andre…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing the gentle expression on Prince Andre’s face, Philia’s previously anxious heart unconsciously relaxed, and she couldn’t help asking:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Just now…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Just now I contained that troublesome cleaner and rescued you from his hands—you’re safe now.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Ah… that’s good…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Watching the emerald-eyed girl who, after asking one question, stood frozen in place without coming closer, Prince Andre blinked in surprise, then seemed to understand, frowning:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Did he say something to you?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Mm…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Philia knew perfectly well who “he” was in Andre’s words. Recalling Leon’s earlier words, the emerald-eyed girl bit her lip, but finally chose to speak plainly:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“That man told me… you’ve tried to kill me at least twice.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When you attacked the Chief of the Scorpio Division, you didn’t know I’d already been taken by Leon—but to prevent me from being taken away by the Scorpio Chief, you still directly ordered the bombardment of Administrative District 38, where the Cleaner Bureau was located.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And you replaced me with Atifi 00, giving her control over the entire kingdom’s long-range weapons, ordering immediate saturation bombardment whenever a suspicious target left the capital… are these true?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After hearing the emerald-eyed girl’s questions, Prince Andre fell silent, then gave a slight nod.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Mm… I did issue those two orders.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“But you know I had no choice.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing the disappointed look on his beloved sister’s face, Prince Andre sighed, his tone earnest as he explained:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Philia, you’re a recognized member of the Kill-King Society—you know their conditions. Both you and I are bound by constraints: we must ensure the extinction of the Korok royal bloodline. I had only one chance to ambush the Scorpio Chief.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If I’d held back during the attack because of you and failed to eliminate him, and if he’d escaped with other cleaners and forcibly taken you out of the Korok Kingdom, both of us would be executed by the ‘constraint.’”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Mm… I know.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The emerald-eyed girl nodded, murmuring softly:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I don’t blame you. After all, this mess is my fault—if I hadn’t let curiosity get the better of me and risked approaching Leon, you wouldn’t have had to make this choice. I was too selfish.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“It’s not your fault.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hearing this, Prince Andre shook his head, looking exasperated:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I approved your going. After all, my previous actions left no trace—Cleaner Bureau agents still believed the entire royal family was alive. They had no reason to target you.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But that Leon…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Recalling the man in “The Wang Gong Banquet,” who, even turned into a clown, had ruthlessly exploited Andre’s weaknesses, Prince Andre’s lips twitched twice, then he said helplessly:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“He’s not normal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Philia, after you were taken by him, I thought and thought, but I still couldn’t understand why he’d grab you without knowing anything—”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After hearing her brother’s complaint, the emerald-eyed girl unconsciously raised her hand and touched the back of her skull, where Leon had cut her, falling silent as well.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Indeed, that pervert was utterly insane.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Before deciding to approach him, she’d used the AI core to run countless calculations—and every single result concluded he wouldn’t touch her. Yet that pervert had done it anyway: after chatting with her for two sentences, he grabbed her without a word.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As for how to describe that man… after thinking long and hard, only one word fit: “not normal.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Alright, let’s drop this for now.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After a long silence, both siblings exhausted by Leon’s “abnormal behavior,” Prince Andre broke the quiet, lowering his head to adjust the easel as he comforted her:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“At the time, the trap against the Scorpio Chief hadn’t been triggered yet. My goal was to stabilize them, so one of us had to approach Leon.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If you hadn’t volunteered, it would’ve been me he captured—and the outcome would’ve been worse than this. So being taken isn’t your fault.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Mm…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After nodding in acceptance of the comfort, the emerald-eyed girl looked at the easel before Andre and hesitantly asked:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Brother Andre, are you going to paint me again?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Yes.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After stretching the canvas on the easel, Prince Andre nodded, then, cleaning his brushes with turpentine, replied with focused eyes:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“In the past, whenever I painted you, I only captured your likeness. My technique was flawless, but I could never catch that hazy feeling. Now it’s different—I’m confident I can paint the most complete version of you.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“That’s good…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hearing this, the emerald-eyed girl nodded, then slightly pursed her lips and asked:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Brother Andre, can I know why you could never paint me well before, but now you’re confident you can?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hearing Philia’s question, Prince Andre, who had been sketching lines, froze slightly, then lifted his head to look at the emerald-eyed girl, frowning:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Why are you asking that?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I just want to know the answer…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Philia clenched her small fist, raised her head, and met Andre’s gaze directly, asking softly:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Brother Andre… the person you’ve been painting all along—is it really me?”\u003C\u002Fp>",1029,"2026-06-20T03:18:35.371Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","27ca673dbaf231b8ad4421ca4765c90c8e4678c05784b9c3fb86334e779e94c7","i-m-the-cleanup-crew-chapter-970","i-m-the-cleanup-crew-chapter-968",1000,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fi-m-the-cleanup-crew-cover.jpg"]