CHAPTER 543: CHAPTER 478: RENOVATION

New Industry News: "Rumor of the Princess’s Upcoming Marriage Causes Royal Capital’s Decoration Prices to Skyrocket"

Financial Times: "Princess’s Stable Relationship; Ryan Armaments Counseled for Long-Term Hold"

The Sun News: "Exclusive Interview - Princess: The Best Partner is a Soul Friend"

Dance Entertainment News: "New Show at Central Cross Theatre—’I Fell in Love with a Lion’"

"..."

What the... is all this?

Though he had already mentally prepared himself, after getting off the bus, Leon couldn’t help but feel a toothache as he walked home and saw the promotional posters at the newsstand.

Ever since the "Palace Incident," Princess Veronica had been busy stabilizing the situation, working hard to suppress the old nobility and trying to smoothly take power from the old King, so busy that her feet could hardly touch the ground, leaving no time to bother Leon.

But even though she wasn’t there in person, her people were constantly "confessing their love" while working, seizing every chance to chat about it, and hiring people to spread news, frantically hyping up the romance.

Even though in the past week they hadn’t even seen each other once, it was as if they were in a scandalous love affair, making the majority of the Royal Capital believe they were about to marry...

It’s just absurd.

Letting out an extremely disdainful ’tsk’, Leon turned the corner towards Happy Apartments, where an old burly man who hadn’t been seen for a while emerged from the small garden beside the building, holding his exceedingly long garden shears.

"Good evening."

Leon politely greeted the old man and then walked into the apartment lobby under the man’s watchful eyes.

After two months of back and forth, and experiences of being bound with wool and hung out overnight whenever he laid a hand on Leon, the old man’s not-so-bright mind finally managed to remember the new rules of Happy Apartments—

No bad guys allowed in, but a certain "wicked little demon" is the only exception, free to come and go as he pleases.

Even though he still worried about the residents’ safety, occasionally passing behind Leon or hiding outside his window at night with shiny garden shears, he hadn’t directly laid a hand on him anymore.

"Hmm?"

Seeing Leon entering the building through the large window of the manager’s office, the manager lady stopped knitting her wool, raised her head, and asked in surprise:

"Why are you back so early today? You usually don’t come home until nighttime!"

"Haha, today’s circumstances are special... This is a gift for you."

Opening the small window of the manager’s office, Leon handed over a set of deluxe yarn he bought on the way, smiling as he explained:

"Recently, work has been going well, and I’m about to go on a business trip for a while, so the bureau gave me a few days off to relax, and spend time with family... By the way, where are Anna and the others?"

"They should be back soon."

The manager lady took the yarn in surprise, saying:

"It’s school dismissal time, Anna should have picked up the two kids and is on her way back... Oh dear, this yarn isn’t cheap! I can’t accept it!"

"It’s actually not that expensive, just a little gift, please accept it."

Returning the yarn offered by the manager lady, Leon expressed sincere gratitude:

"My job keeps me busy, often away from home, so Anna has to take care of William and Melanie by herself, and you and Uncle John have helped a lot with that, I remember all these acts of kindness.

Compared to the care you and Uncle John have given our family, this is just a small token, it wasn’t even specially bought, just something I saw on the way back that I thought you might like... Oh, and there’s something for Uncle John too."

While talking, Leon reached into his cufflinks to take out two large whetstones and a packet of select flower seeds from his mirrored world, pushing them back with the yarn, insisting earnestly:

"Aunt Mary, please accept them, the pay from the Clean-up Bureau is quite good, these are really nothing to me."

"Well... okay then."

Seeing Leon’s insistence, the manager lady did not continue to refuse; instead, she accepted the yarn packets, planning to knit two pairs of gloves and hats for the Ryan family’s two children to repay the favor.

After accepting the gifts, as if suddenly remembering something, she voiced a bit worriedly:

"By the way, city officials came by recently, saying they’re preparing to renovate Happy Apartments and expand its area, did you know about this?"

Renovating Happy Apartments?

Hearing the manager lady’s question, Leon couldn’t help but be slightly stunned.

Indeed... though it’s meticulously managed by the manager lady and the old man, the predecessor of Happy Apartments was after all a Charitable Asylum from over ninety years ago, making it essentially a century-old building now.

According to the Kingdom’s "Building Repair Law," any mid to high-rise building facing the street in the Royal Capital should be inspected every ten years, repainted, and extensively renovated every fifty years, and it seems that Happy Apartments is due for such a renovation.

However, there are always counters to policies, wherever they may be an inviolable truth.

Although the Kingdom’s regulations are meticulously crafted, both inspections and renovations require money and manpower.

Given the Kingdom’s recent financial constraints, even cutting down the pensions for military families, the municipal department is naturally reluctant to undertake such labor-intensive and unprofitable tasks, and only buildings in the affluent and noble areas might receive proper maintenance.

After all, if a building collapses and injures someone, it’s the contractor’s responsibility, and the municipal department at most is guilty of negligent maintenance; considering the truly limited funds, of eating off the project’s leftovers is already the limit.

But if such regulations were strictly enforced, conducting street-wide inspections and renovations frequently, not only promotions but maintaining even a modest career might be at risk for the person in charge, as they’d presumably be relegated to scrubbing toilets at the municipal office for the rest of their career.

So forget painting and renovating, even the once-every-decade inspections rarely happened, with staff barely glancing around, frivolously filling out repair claims, and pocketing some maintenance funds to finish the task.

While the municipal department was inactive, the residents couldn’t disregard it, since their safety was their concern, thus Happy Apartments’ renovations over the years had been funded and managed by the manager lady, leaving both her and the old man working for nearly a century without significant savings.

However, with their meager salaries, they only managed the most basic maintenance, leaving many parts of Happy Apartments extremely worn-out, barely maintaining functionality, with even the banisters in the stairwell missing several segments.

If the old man’s impressive repair skills, honed over nearly a century, weren’t in play, the continued existence of the Happy Apartments might even be in question.

...

"This is great news!"

Recalling the condition of Happy Apartments, Leon expressed his congratulations with pleasant surprise:

"The apartments really need some repairs. If the municipal department is willing to handle the renovation, you and Uncle John will have much less to worry about."

"That certainly is the case..."

The manager lady nodded in agreement but couldn’t help voicing some concerns:

"But John and I are essentially part of this apartment, if the Happy Apartments are renovated and expanded... will we still have a place here?"