Chapter 3431: Midnight Sons (41)

Wanda took her keys out of her handbag and poked at the keyhole for a long time, but it wouldn't open. When she came to her senses, she realized she had taken the wrong key. This was the key to her community college locker, which looked exactly like the key to the front gate, so of course, it wouldn't turn.

She sighed in frustration and took out the real front gate key to open the door. After pushing the door open, she almost tripped over the threshold, which made her so angry that she grabbed the chain of her bag and swung it backward.

She walked to the front door, and before she could open it, Jarvis opened the door for her. He was wearing an apron, and the scent of scrambled eggs wafted through the gap in the door.

Seeing Jarvis, Wanda's mood seemed to improve. She smiled at Jarvis, hung her bag on the hook nearby, and sat on the shoe bench to change her shoes.

Jarvis walked back to the kitchen, turned off the heat for the scrambled eggs, poured them out, picked up the scissors on the side, and snipped some basil leaves planted in a small flowerpot for plating. He turned his head to look at Wanda and asked, "How was today? Did you practice giving injections again?"

Wanda sat on the bench, dazed. Only when she heard Jarvis ask did she say, "Ah, yes. Today's practical class was for practicing infusion nursing, and we also learned how to identify prescriptions..."

Jarvis saw that her state was off, and his behavioral analysis module fired on all cylinders; he immediately realized what was going on.

"Did that Judy gossip about you again?"

Wanda rested her hands on either side of her body, lowering her head, trying to use her long red hair hanging down the side of her face to cover her expression so Jarvis wouldn't see.

A few seconds later, a shadow appeared beside her. Jarvis walked in front of her, crouched down, and reached out to cup her face.

"What exactly is wrong? Darling?"

"Just some small things," Wanda said. "It was just normal chatting, nothing worth paying attention to."

"But you look very sad, and a little confused."

Wanda pursed her lips, first glancing at Jarvis, then dropping her gaze, her hands gripping the edge of the shoe bench slowly tightening.

"Do you think we aren't suited to live here?"

"Why ask that suddenly?"

"We aren't very wealthy people," Wanda said. "I don't have a steady job, and I don't have much income. This whole family has to rely on you to support it."

"That's because you are still in the recovery period," Jarvis said. "You gave birth to twins, which was a very great injury to your body. Even the doctor said you should rest for double the time. If the community college courses weren't relatively easy, I would also suggest you not go."

"But Billy and Tommy are almost two years old; I don't need to rest for that long, do I?"

"But you aren't resting right now, are you? Aren't you attending classes?"

"But attending classes doesn't just fail to earn money; it costs money."

"Good heavens, Wanda, what is wrong with you? Why did you suddenly think of the matter of money?" Jarvis was truly a bit confused. He looked at Wanda from bottom to top, but he didn't see any special expression on her face.

"I feel that everything we use living here is very expensive. This house is expensive, the property taxes and management fees are very expensive, the water bills, electricity bills, internet bills, lawn maintenance fees..."

"Yes, but you forgot why we moved here? Because we can afford it. We even made a more cost-effective choice; otherwise, we would have moved to Long Island."

Wanda opened her mouth and said, "That's because you can use your skills to earn money, but I..."

Jarvis was completely baffled by her circular logic. He said, "The reason you can't earn money right now is because you still need to recuperate your body. This is out of consideration for your physical condition, not because I won't let you earn money, or because you don't have the ability to earn money. What exactly is the problem with this?"

"Don't you feel a lot of pressure?"

Jarvis opened his mouth, a series of data flashed through his mind, and then he shook his head seriously.

He took Wanda's hand, kissed her first knuckle gently, and said, "All the engineers in Silicon Valley combined couldn't finish your husband's work for a single night. The salary Stark Industries pays me is enough for us to live in the best wealthy district in Niuyuezhou. What pressure should I have?"

Wanda was a bit distracted again, looking as though she had fallen into confusion. Jarvis truly felt something was a bit wrong.

He immediately pulled up the surveillance of the community college and began searching for Wanda's figure within it, but he first saw a woman he disliked—their neighbor Judy, who would bring up Wanda's mutant identity at the drop of a hat.

Judy and her husband lived at the end of this street. Houses at both ends of this type of community street were cheaper than those in the middle, so the two of them were considered to be at the bottom of the contempt chain in this community.

In reality, their economic situation was indeed not very good. Judy's husband was an investor, but that was just a nice way of saying it; he was actually just a futures speculator.

Futures are something where you win some and lose some. When Wanda and the others first moved in, they heard from surrounding neighbors that Judy and her family had lost quite a bit, even selling their car.

Originally, Judy was a full-time housewife, but now she had to go out to work. However, she felt that jobs like supermarket cashier were too tiring, so she found an excuse to study at the community school, calling it self-improvement, so she wouldn't have to go out and work.

The reason this matter became such a big deal was that their family had previously defaulted on property management fees and had been confronted. The property management company initiated a vote among owners to decide whether to kick them out of the community.

Judy's popularity was already poor, and many owners voted in favor. But because Judy was Black, she released a video accusing them of racial discrimination, and the property management company faced great public opinion pressure, so the matter was dropped.

During the period of recuperating after giving birth, Wanda had been doing self-media. She had become popular before because of the discrimination incident, and later she and Jarvis transformed into a couple blogger. Because of their high attractiveness and special race, the two were welcomed by many people, with millions of fans across the entire internet.

Although because Wanda was unwilling to take some advertisements for maternal and infant products, her monetization ability wasn't very strong, she still had many genuine fans, and she could even occasionally meet them on the road or in the supermarket.

Judy had also been filming videos about suffering discrimination, but she just wasn't as popular as Wanda. Perhaps this was the reason Judy had always been somewhat jealous of them.

Not long after Wanda moved in, Judy shouted her mutant identity all over the community, and even the neighboring community knew about it, insisting that the property management initiate a vote so the owners in the community could unite to kick Wanda and her husband out.

However, fortunately, the gentleness in Wanda's bones left a very good impression on the neighbors. Jarvis also always appeared with a high-intellect image and had previously helped the property management company solve internet problems, so Judy didn't succeed. But this made her target Wanda even more, gossiping about Wanda at every turn.

After the two met at the community school, they were even more like fire and water. Judy formed cliques in the school to exclude Wanda; Wanda couldn't be bothered to pay her any mind, but she was also annoyed to death by their small group.

Fortunately, when Wanda signed up for the community school, she used the surname Lensherr, which happened to be seen by another student. This surname wasn't very common and happened to be exactly the same as the famous mutant leader Magneto's surname, so he guessed that Wanda was Magneto's daughter.

Several classmates who had a relatively good relationship with Wanda went to ask her, and Wanda refused to admit it. But this gossip spread more and more fiercely. From then on, Judy's small group restrained themselves a lot. Although Wanda didn't want to have too much involvement with Magneto, since it could provide her with a stable learning environment, she just bit the bullet and accepted it.

Discovering that Wanda hadn't been wronged, Jarvis didn't interfere too much in her private interpersonal relationships. After all, even between husband and wife, one must leave enough personal space for the other; excessive interference is inadvisable.

But this time it was different; Wanda was clearly stimulated by something. Fortunately, ever since she last saw Dr. Schiller, her mental state had become exceptionally stable. Otherwise, just from this, the entire community would have had to move.

Jarvis comforted Wanda while keeping a close eye on Judy in the surveillance video; his intuition told him that this woman was the one causing the trouble.

Sure enough, when eating lunch at the community college, Judy was leaning against the wall with bread, talking to a few people in her small group.

Wanda was picking up her food tray and was also talking to the little daughter of the Punk family from across the street. Jarvis remembered that the girl was a freshman who had just enrolled a few days ago and had a good relationship with Wanda before enrolling.

"... That's right, I was scared. Can you imagine? I spent a whole 200 dollars! Before, my friend told me he added half a tank of gas for me and it cost over 100, and I didn't quite believe it."

Wanda seemed to be complaining about gas prices to her friend, but it happened to be overheard by Judy. This woman crossed her arms and walked over, saying sarcastically:

"Let me hear who is worrying about 200 dollars? So it's the poor, pathetic mutant. Mrs. Maximoff can't even afford to add 200 dollars of gas; if this got out, our entire community would lose face along with her!"

Wanda was accustomed to this kind of scene, and she immediately retorted: "Your family doesn't have to worry about gas money, after all, you walk 20 minutes to school every day, strengthening your body, right."

Judy's complexion immediately turned ugly; her family didn't even have a car to this day, which was her sore spot. She also mocked back: "Only a poor ghost like you would think gas is expensive. Gas prices in Niuyuezhou are clearly already very cheap. It's one thing not to have a car, but having a car and being reluctant to drive it is what's truly pathetic!"

Wanda had already been so angry at the gas bill that her soul was about to leave her body, and hearing Judy say this, she really couldn't hold back and said: "Not expensive?! Do you know that gas prices in Niuyuezhou are already the second highest in the entire Federation?! They've risen 36% compared to last year! And they're still rising, even 2% more expensive than the last time I added gas!"

As soon as she said this, she discovered that everyone around her was looking at her with strange eyes. Even her good friend tugged on her sleeve.

"But it's not expensive at all," one person in the small group said matter-of-factly, "Living in a community like ours, if you're still worrying about money, who knows what kind of things you might do!"

"That's right, gas money is just a pittance. One trip to the beauty salon is enough to pay for gas for the car until next year."

"And gas in America is already very cheap, right? I heard that gas prices in many Asian countries are four or five times higher than here. We're already doing well enough."

Wanda looked at them in disbelief and said: "Just a pittance?! But it rose 40% in one year, and rose another 2% in just one short week, and it's still continuing to rise. Do you all think this kind of price hike is normal?!"

"And now that solar energy is so popular, all aerial equipment uses new energy, and the market for new energy vehicles is also very good, why should gasoline sell for so much?!"

What Wanda said didn't receive any agreement from anyone, and even the young lady from the Punk family felt it didn't matter. Finally, Judy added:

"You think it's expensive because you can't earn money. Poor ghost, go roll back to the community where poor ghosts live, and stop coming here to complain!"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 3432 =====