Chapter 5817: Chapter 4840: Home Alone (20)
Among these two, Bucky’s conditions were slightly better, be it in terms of family economic status or personal appearance. He even had some spare capacity to assist Steve. Their strong relationship was largely attributed to the help Bucky gave Steve back then.
However, young Bucky was not someone with much perseverance. He was like all American adolescents from the slums, full of energy but lacking patience, always working short-term jobs, taking three days off after working two, the same was true when he worked in Hampton.
Thanks to his relatively good looks, he could easily find a job, but never stayed long in any. Either he felt the job didn’t suit him after a few days and left, or he had conflicts with colleagues or the boss, or simply didn’t feel like going due to being late. Every job was only a brief experience for him, leaving no deep impression of his working days.
But Steve was different. Perhaps out of necessity, he was quite patient with work. Yet, back then, he was a frail young man, and America’s golden age aesthetic didn’t appreciate this kind of appearance, which led to frequent difficulties in job hunting. Because of this, he cherished every job he found, even if it was just serving tables in a bar.
Serving tables was actually much harder than many people imagined, especially in a bar. Often, he had to carry dozens of glasses of beer at once without spilling any, while maintaining a steady walk. Furthermore, Steve encountered a bad-tempered boss, and was frequently scolded.
Steve often complained to Bucky about the hardships at work, difficult customers, the boss who seemed crazy, and some things that, even in the present era, couldn’t be openly discussed.
Bucky keenly sensed that the latter might be the key aspect. He remembered clearly that Steve once told him that in just a month, all his colleagues had been replaced. Everyone else had moved on, but he was still serving tables.
It’s easy to imagine that in the debauchery of the upper-class fame and fortune playground, there were few who wouldn’t be dazzled by it. Steve Rogers was one of them, and Captain America did not suddenly become a hero at the moment of receiving the serum injection.
Thinking of this, Bucky felt somewhat emotional. But he continued to wonder why Steve brought this up suddenly. Just then, he heard Natasha beside him say, "Speaking of which, I’ve also been here quite a few times."
Natasha forked a slice of bacon into her mouth and said, "That was when I first arrived in America, just joined S.H.I.E.L.D., and was getting familiar with the job, and they were getting familiar with me."
"Back then, they had heard of Black Widow but hadn’t seen her firsthand, assuming I was no different from a regular female agent, even mistaking me for a socialite extracting information through looks. Of course, I can manage that too. They often sent me to attend upper-class parties, many of which were in Hampton."
"Oh, right, did I ever tell you?" Natasha put down her fork, looked at Stark, and said, "In 1977, or maybe it was 1979, I once met your father and you at a lawn party at Pixar Manor. But you probably don’t remember."
Stark almost spat out his porridge. He gaped at Natasha, searching his mind for any memory of a lawn party, but found none.
So, he turned to look at Greed. Greed shrugged and mouthed, "Rolls-Royce..."
Suddenly enlightened, Stark remembered: there was indeed such a party. The problem was, at the time, Ade had brought an exquisite Rolls-Royce, and in that era, owning a Rolls-Royce was quite prestigious, requiring a background check on buyers. Therefore, Ade’s little group went wild, causing a series of conflicts with Stark’s group, even involving Howard.
At that time, Stark was preoccupied with overthrowing those people, with no thoughts to spare for the female accompanists at the party. To him, those socialites in long dresses all looked similar. Stark had no interest in them whatsoever, thus missing the chance to meet Black Widow for the first time at age nine.
"The world is truly strange," Hawkeye sighed, "I never expected you all had connections from such an early time."
"That’s because they’re all New Yorkers," Greed said, "or at least active in New York since the last century. You came late, so you couldn’t participate in it."
This universe’s Hawkeye follows the comic settings, thus considered new generation. He decided to become a superhero after seeing Iron Man, which is to say Tony Stark had already become Iron Man, and he hadn’t entered the field, oblivious to the old generation’s love and hate saga.
"Have you all seen those movies?" Stark asked, "where people gather in a place for different reasons, and after a series of shocking events, they realize they had long ties to that place."
"It seems like us," Steve joked, "just that there’s no telling what kind of events would shock us."
But he quickly thought of the girl reflected in the mirror and stopped short. Bucky noticed his odd behavior and looked at him with concern. Steve gave him a "I’ll tell you later" look.
After breakfast, they started moving. The moving process went smoothly; they rented a space train, applied for the route in advance, moved everything from the sanatorium onto the train, completing it in one go.
However, organizing the stuff was the most troublesome part. Steve looked at the pile of bizarre collectibles in the living room, somewhat helplessly said, "What are all these? Where should we put them?"
"They’re all souvenirs," Greed said. He casually picked up a golden cup next to him and then said, "This was bought at the Centaurus market. And this one, this was bought on the commercial street near the Great Teleportation Portal..."
"Ow!" Stark had just picked up a fish specimen when he was slapped by the fish’s tail. Shocked, he looked at the bouncing fish on the ground, "How is this thing alive?!"
"If you don’t touch it, it’s dead." Greed helplessly walked over, picked up the struggling fish, and tossed it aside.
"Where did you find all these bizarre things?" Natasha marveled, "Are you putting them all on the shelf? Or sending some to the study room?"
Greed was somewhat conflicted, picking and choosing, leaving some in the living room, others moved to the study, and some to the bedroom. And it was at that moment that Greed and the others saw the coffin Dracula left in the master bedroom.
Good guy, this fellow doesn’t take a loss. Everyone thought his coffin was like a human’s, small, dark, and hard. Who knew, this guy’s coffin was nearly the size of a human double bed. Inside, it not only had a springy mattress and rubber pillow but also luxurious burgundy silk sheets. The outer side and lid of the coffin had many mysterious decorative patterns, all inlaid with gold.
"This looks like some sort of... item from a themed love hotel," Stark objectively commented, "the kind of room that vampire enthusiast couples would choose for Valentine’s Day..."
Hearing him say this, the others also agreed. Although the estate’s decor was already luxurious, the coffin wasn’t too out of place, but it was still a coffin-shaped object. Placed in an ordinary room, it looked strange no matter how you saw it, the more luxurious and comfortable it was, the stranger it felt, as if the dead had some special obsession during their life.
"Put it away first," Greed transformed into gray mist and stored the luxurious large-bed coffin, which might be used later to bribe some vampire. However, living in it was out of the question; it was too inauspicious.
It seemed that the master bedroom was designed large to accommodate the coffin. Without it, the room seemed somewhat empty. Stark turned to him and asked, "Have you ordered your furniture yet?"
"Not yet. I originally planned to move the beds from the sanatorium here, but they seem a bit small now, not very harmonious."
Although they’re all double beds, double beds come in different sizes, and the styles aren’t quite the same. Some beds with outer frames and canopies appear larger. Many vintage estates use such beds to match the elaborate and luxurious decor.
"There’s a bed in the gray mist," Arrogant said to Greed, "I moved a few beds from Viscount Manor; see if there’s one you can use."
Greed was a bit surprised, but he started checking, then transformed into mist again, and spat out a bed. It was a luxurious large bed with an external frame, silk, and sheer canopies. The moment it was placed, all discord disappeared.
"Truly Gotham," Greed marveled, "I’m a bit curious now, what kind of person would build a Gotham City house in New York."
But this seemed to spark an idea for Arrogant. He looked at Steve and asked, "When you first came to Hampton, did you see this estate?"
Steve was slightly taken aback. He hadn’t really thought about it. After a brief recollection, he said, "Back then, the layout of the South Fork was completely different from now. The bar I worked at wasn’t by the sea, I might not have come here... No, the terrain here is high, theoretically, I should’ve been able to see it. I don’t remember seeing it, but I can’t be sure..."
"I remember it wasn’t there," Bucky said more confidently, "I often wandered around the South Fork and North Fork; if there had been such an odd house, I would’ve remembered, but there was nothing."
"It was already there for me," Natasha said, "I remember passing by a few times and asking my date who owned the house, but they never answered."
"This house existed when I was a child," Stark added, "At least in my memory, it was always here."
Arrogant began to deduce: Steve Rogers was born in 1918, and after the Pearl Harbor incident in 1941, he went to enlist. His working time in New York must have been before 1941, and Bucky was similar.
If he hadn’t seen the estate back then, it proves that it didn’t exist before 1941. The estate must have been built after 1941.
The Iron Man of their universe aligns more with the movie setting, born relatively late, around 1970, and by then, the estate already existed.
So, the estate must have been built between the 40s to 70s. But the 30-year time span is a bit wide, too many events could’ve occurred, making it hard to pinpoint the key event. It would be best to find a witness to help narrow down the range.
