Chapter 136: Boys Acting Out of Spite

Even though Henry was mindful of etiquette, the rapid eating still made some noise. Especially the continuous chewing sounds annoyed Tony Stark, making the young lord roll his eyes repeatedly.

So annoyed he could take no more, Tony, as if in a pout, picked up his burger and took a huge, vicious bite. Then he chewed with loud smacks, as if competing with Henry to see whose table manners were worse and noisier.

Under normal circumstances, if anyone displayed such poor dining etiquette in front of the two Lady He Bens, even if they weren't beaten, they would surely have to put down all their cutlery and listen to a lecture for over half an hour.

But today, both ladies tacitly refrained from mentioning this, letting the two boys squabble out of spite.

It was just that no matter how fast Henry ate, he faced a table full of food, while Tony had only one burger. So before long, the young master had nothing left in his hands.

Regardless of whether the food in his mouth was still being chewed, Tony directly grabbed the honey-drenched pancakes that no one had touched yet and continued stuffing them into his mouth, smacking loudly enough to drive one mad.

Seeing the pancakes snatched away, Henry did not bare his teeth and snarl at the person like a dog guarding its food. He simply raised his hand, summoned the waitress again, and said, "Bring another order of peach pie, apple pie, honey pancakes, and a large portion of fries."

This time even Audrey was shocked. Her eyes widened as she looked at the young man beside her.

Henry smiled shyly, "Seeing you two eat so happily, I want to eat too."

When the food arrived, Henry continued to devour it at lightning speed. Although Tony's movements were much slower, his mouth never stopped; he relied entirely on his hands, looking like a savage who hadn't eaten in days.

In the end, everything on the table was finished. Henry, looking about seventy percent full, picked his teeth. Tony Stark, on the other hand, was stuffed, slumped in his seat, and sucked the grease off his fingers.

Seeing Tony about to wipe his hands on his clothes, Catherine finally lost her temper. She slapped Tony's hand down and scolded, "You dirty rascal!"

Immediately, she took wet wipes from her handbag and, like scrubbing a stick, wiped each of Tony's fingers clean one by one. She looked exactly like a grandmother doting on her grandson.

But this grandson paid no mind to experiencing the warmth; instead, he stared with bulging eyes, gazing at a certain Kryptonian.

Henry believed that if Tony Stark also possessed heat vision, he would surely have blasted a hole through him right now.

But that guy didn't! So Henry enjoyed this gaze of scrutiny with a clear conscience.

They say that no talent is envied; being hated by a genius must mean one has done something right. So Henry was quite proud.

After a moment, as if realizing his gaze couldn't defeat a thick-skinned person, Tony gave up his death stare of unblinking endurance. Rubbing his bloodshot eyes, he casually mentioned, "Suppose I intend to give up Stark Industries, what do you think?"

The two Lady He Bens were shocked again! But before they could think of a good way to dissuade him, Henry casually replied, "What do I think? It's pretty good. It's just very surprising, quite different from your previous actions."

"How is it different?" Tony asked, raising his voice.

After drinking his coffee, Henry summoned the waitress to add another cup. Only then did he speak slowly and deliberately, "If Mr. Old Stark were still alive, and you gave up Stark Industries to start from scratch, the difficulty would naturally be higher than joining Stark Industries."

"But now Mr. Old Stark has passed away unexpectedly. I don't know how well prepared he was for you to take over, but the current situation is obvious: you are surrounded by jackals and tigers."

"At a time like this, you say you want to give up Stark Industries and start from scratch. I can only say that is quite wise, isn't it? Because it is obvious that the difficulty of protecting Stark Industries from a group of greedy big shots is too high."

"In comparison, giving up Stark Industries, which is seen as a target, and returning to your own garage to start from zero. It only takes another seventy years, and you can create a second Stark Industries."

"This result is almost inevitable. After all, if Mr. Old Stark could do it, how could you possibly not? It's as easy as handling a pie, right?"

"Oh, perhaps Mr. Old Stark arranged everything. You just need to step onto the stage, find a Pope or a Bishop like the heir to a king in the past, and you can be crowned."

"In that case, if you run Stark Industries well, people will say it's because Mr. Old Stark laid a good foundation. Even if a pig inherited it, it could do the same thing."

"If you mess up Stark Industries, people will surely say young Stark is not as good as old Stark, and the Stark family is regressing."

"To make everyone speechless and admit your strength and achievements is simply too difficult. Rather than that, why not cast everything aside and start over? Isn't that pretty good?"

"Let's talk about social responsibility. I don't know the total number of employees at Stark Industries, so let's assume there are two hundred thousand. Assuming everyone has a family with two children, then behind these two hundred thousand people are eight hundred thousand family members."

"Asking a person with absolutely no experience to suddenly shoulder the livelihood of eight hundred thousand people is too difficult. It's better to throw it to a bank or another big shot willing to take over."

"Although we all know how the people on Huaerjie will handle such tangible assets. It's nothing more than acting based on reports, cutting off unprofitable departments, and then packaging the rest to sell at three or four times the price."

"So how many of the two hundred thousand employees will remain? Let's assume a layoff rate of ten percent, meaning firing twenty thousand people, leaving eighteen thousand."

"For those who remain, salaries and jobs will be adjusted. The money they finally get might be more than before, or less. Let's assume another ten percent are affected and live worse than before."

"So letting Huaerjie people ruin Stark Industries only means three to four thousand people suffer, which is behind only about one hundred and sixty thousand families."

"Ah, the livelihood of over one hundred thousand people, what a heavy burden. It is truly better to cast all this aside and go back to the garage to do it yourself. Anyway, you are currently in a state where one person eats full and the whole family is not hungry. Who cares about tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people, right?"

"So I believe your choice today is absolutely not based on the difficulty of the matter, but simply that you just want to stay away from Mr. Old Stark and his career, right?"

"Thinking this way, your attitude is actually consistent with before. Accusing your actions as different from before was my stupidity; I spoke without thinking carefully. I was not thoughtful enough, and I apologize."

A string of words like crackling fire left Tony speechless. He could only pound the table desperately, pounding and cursing at the same time, "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!"

(End of this chapter)