"Will we get to play with guns today?" In the beat-up car, Carl, having patiently held his tongue for a while, finally couldn't resist asking Mickey.
Hearing this, Mickey exhaled a long plume of smoke and laughed. "You wanna play with guns?"
Carl nodded repeatedly, his tender face full of anticipation. "I wanna shoot stuff! It feels awesome!"
"Oh?" Mickey responded with interest. "You kid, you don't act like a Gallagher. Got some guts."
Carl grinned smugly. "Heh heh. So, do we have guns?"
"No," Mickey denied it cheerfully and decisively.
"..." Carl froze, disappointed. "Then what are we doing today?"
"Scouting locations. Looking around," Mickey replied.
"That's it?" Carl was even more disappointed.
"That's it. Otherwise, what did you think we'd be doing?" Mickey asked.
Carl scratched his head. "I thought we'd need to beat people up, break stuff."
Mickey turned his head and looked at Carl with a smile. "Did Dexter tell you that?"
Carl shook his head. "He didn't say."
Working at Dex Restaurant for so long, Mickey had seen clearly how Dexter treated Carl. He had roughly guessed Dexter's purpose in arranging for Carl to follow him. He thought for a moment. "Don't think about beating people up or breaking stuff. It's boring, understand?"
"But it feels great," Carl didn't understand. "I beat people up at school all the time. It feels great."
Mickey was pretty much the same back in school. Hearing this, he couldn't help but recall the past and chuckled. "It does feel great. Until you meet someone tougher than you, and you get beaten down, or even shot dead."
Mickey put away his smile and stared fiercely at Carl. "You wanna shoot stuff, right? Ever thought about how much it hurts if someone shoots you?"
Carl's intelligence was limited; he genuinely hadn't thought about it. Thinking about it now, his face changed, and he got scared.
That was the effect Mickey wanted. He was quite satisfied. "What? Never thought about it?"
Scared, Carl didn't dare speak and shook his head.
"Then think about it," Mickey said with a smile returning to his face.
Carl looked thoughtful.
---
Peggy needed to go to the bank today. She had planned to have Carl push her there, but Carl had gone to work.
Looking around, Peggy's gaze landed on Debbie. "Debbie, do you have anything to do today? How about accompanying grandma to the bank?"
Debbie refused without hesitation. "No way. The daycare starts today. Parents will be coming to sign up and pay soon. I can't leave."
"Daycare?" Peggy asked, puzzled.
Debbie explained the whole thing.
Peggy was amused listening to it. It felt absurd.
Those parents were sending their kids to this pigsty of a place for a child like Debbie to take care of?
They really had big hearts.
The fact was, this whole thing was indeed absurd.
Those parents thought Fiona was the one taking care of the kids, but in reality, Fiona just showed her face. The one actually responsible for care was Debbie.
Then, if a kid was naughty, Debbie would lock the naughty kid in a dog cage...
Fiona turned a blind eye and slept peacefully upstairs.
Tsk tsk.
Describing this as merely "shameless" wasn't enough anymore.
It was pretty disgusting.
Peggy didn't comment. She looked at Fiona and the other two in the dining room again. After thinking for a moment, she didn't ask them. Deciding to call a cab herself, she took out the phone she bought yesterday and made a call.
In the dining room.
Fiona and the other two took out all their money and laid it on the dining table.
There was only a total of a little over eleven hundred dollars. They were still over three hundred dollars short for the rent.
After what happened earlier, Fiona truly hated Dexter and didn't want to have any unnecessary interaction with him. So, facing the shortage of money, she was very irritable.
"What do we do?" Fiona scratched her hair. "Drag it out a few more days? Or just pay two months' rent first?"
Ian didn't think there was anything wrong with Dexter and had no problem with him. He asked Fiona, feeling a bit strange, "I remember we definitely saved the rent money before. How come it's not enough now?"
Fiona managed the money. Faced with this question, she was somewhat embarrassed.
She had indeed saved enough rent money before...
But seeing Dexter hadn't returned for so long, she felt there was no need to rush. So she used some of the money—going out dancing, hitting bars, drinking coffee to relax, and so on...
"I thought Dexter wouldn't be back for months, so I used the money when it was needed," Fiona replied with a half-lie.
Ian was a bit suspicious but didn't pursue it. "Then let's pay two months first. The daycare will bring in some income today, and I get paid in a few days. We'll give the rest a few days later."
The daycare income wasn't much, totaling only a few dozen dollars a day, far from enough to fill the hole of over three hundred dollars.
Lip took a drag of his cigarette, seeing through Fiona's thoughts. "You want to pay it all today?"
Fiona frowned slightly and nodded at Lip. "Yeah, I don't want to deal with him anymore."
Lip smiled. "I said a long time ago that guy is a bastard! You finally see it."
Fiona gave a helpless smile. "Yeah."
Lip took another drag, confident. "Then we'll pay it all today. I'll go out right now and find a way to get some money. Fiona, later when those people bring their kids, try to get them to pay for a week upfront. Give a discount if you have to."
"I'll borrow a little more from Karen."
"That way, it should be enough."
Karen...
Hearing that name, Fiona's eyebrows twitched instantly.
Fiona genuinely looked down on and disliked Karen. Over the past three months or so, she had gotten incredibly annoyed seeing Karen.
"Okay," Fiona gritted her teeth. She wanted to say something about Karen but held back in the end, nodding in agreement.
"Then it's settled. I'm going out to get money," knowing Fiona finally hated Dexter put Lip in a good mood. Saying that, he got up and walked out.
"I'm going to work too. I'll ask Linda if I can get an advance on my wages," Ian said.
Fiona gathered the money on the table, feeling truly irritable.
Seeing that the rent could probably be scraped together, what about life afterward?
Irritability took over.
Fiona thought of the club where she worked last summer.
Flash a bit, wear a little less, let those rich bastards take some advantage... it really did bring in good money.
After thinking for only a short while, Fiona decided that after settling the daycare matters, she would go find the manager of that club.
Decision made, Fiona's irritability lessened somewhat.
But just then.
A certain area suddenly itched fiercely.
Instantly.
Irritability doubled.
"Fxxk!!" Fiona couldn't help cursing.
---
The Gallagher House Front Door.
Peggy finally shuffled slowly to the roadside, lit a cigarette, and waited for the taxi.
Dexter had rested on the sofa for a while. Seeing it was about time to go to the restaurant, he went out and saw Peggy.
"Peggy," Dexter greeted.
Dexter held no ill will toward Peggy, even though Peggy wasn't exactly a saint either.
Hearing him, Peggy turned to look at Dexter, not standing on ceremony. "How about giving me a ride?"
Dexter smiled.
This old thing really was a shameless person, but the kind of shameless person who was tough.
"Sure. Where to?" Dexter thought about it briefly. Considering Carl, he smiled and agreed.
"XX Bank," Peggy replied, walking toward Dexter's G-Wagon.
Not long after.
Dexter was driving Peggy toward the bank.
"You like that little guy Carl a lot?" Peggy looked around the car slightly and asked.
"Yeah, I believe Carl will have a bright future," Dexter replied.
Peggy's eyes rolled. "What about the others? Fiona, Lip, Ian, Debbie?"
Dexter smiled. "I'm not close to them."
Peggy sneered. "Dexter, I'm old, and I'm pretty good at reading people. You don't like Fiona and the others. It's okay, I don't like them either."
"They're a bunch of pussies. Just like my son Frank."
Heh.
This conversation was getting a bit weird.
Dexter glanced at Peggy with a smile. "Is that so? I really don't know them well, haven't interacted much. Just heard some things."
"Not good things, right?" Peggy asked.
Dexter nodded. "All pretty absurd things. Frank is very impressive in that regard."
Peggy truly looked down on Frank and laughed. "Countless times in my life, I've hoped the hospital would call me and say I took the wrong baby, that Frank isn't actually my son. Unfortunately, I never got that call."
"I really can't figure out why a piece of shit like Frank is my son."
Dexter was amused listening but didn't chime in.
Peggy didn't mind and stopped mentioning that piece of shit Frank. She asked again, "How do you think Carl will turn out?"
"Carl's future will be very good. He'll probably be the one living the best life in that family," Dexter smiled back.
"That kid has Frank for a father, yet he has that ruthlessness. It's indeed rare," Peggy said.
"Indeed," Dexter agreed.
"Help look after him a bit. Meeting you is his luck."
Dexter gave a faint smile. "How much time do you have left?"
Hearing this, Peggy was startled. "You know?"
"My girlfriend, the one sitting next to me last night," Dexter replied calmly. "She's a doctor."
"Plus, you look like you're seriously ill."
"You're really interesting. If I had gotten out a few years earlier, maybe we could have done something big together." After listening, Peggy couldn't help but chuckle, then sighed with emotion. "You've only seen me once, and you can tell I don't have much time. My son, my grandkids... none of them noticed anything."
"Family is always overrated. No need to care too much," Dexter responded faintly.
Peggy was pleasantly surprised. "Well said."
"So how much time do you have?" Dexter asked again.
"Not much. The doctor said maybe a few months," Peggy replied very calmly. "I won't wait until the end. When the time is about right, I'll end it myself."
"Cancer?" Dexter asked.
"Pancreatic cancer, late stage," Peggy answered.
"Bad luck," Dexter said. "You probably won't feel much family warmth from Fiona and the other four. Try Carl. Maybe the last stretch of the road will be a bit more comfortable."
"I'll try," Peggy looked thoughtful, then asked, "How do you think I should end it?"
"A bullet is a good choice. Ends quickly, no suffering."
Peggy smiled slightly.
To be this calm in the face of such things.
This Dexter... truly a ruthless character.
They chatted casually like this until they arrived at the bank.
"I still have to go open the restaurant, so I won't drive you back. Bye," Dexter said goodbye and left.
Peggy didn't say anything. She slowly walked into the bank and asked to open the safe deposit box she had left here before going to prison.
It didn't take long.
The safe deposit box, which should have contained two hundred thousand dollars, now lay empty before Peggy's eyes.
Peggy immediately gritted her teeth in rage. Without wasting a second, she decided to find Noah Pitts and get the money back.
With this decision, Peggy left the bank, hailed a taxi, and headed straight for Sheila's house to find Frank.
---
Karen had driven to the side of the road next to Dex Restaurant early. She didn't get out, waiting for Dexter.
Seeing Dexter's car approaching, Karen smiled and quickly got out.
Karen was quite conspicuous. Dexter saw her at a glance, nodded to her, drove the car forward a bit, parked by the roadside, and beckoned Karen to get in.
Karen trotted over cheerfully and sat in the passenger seat. "Dexter, your car is really nice. I have to buy one later too."
"With your skills, it won't be long before you can afford it," Dexter replied with a smile.
This was a sincere statement.
Dexter truly believed that with Karen's looks and body, as long as she continued to speed down the path of a "green tea bitch," making money would be really easy.
"Really? That's great," Karen said in her tea-like manner.
Dexter felt nothing for her act and didn't buy it. He cut straight to the chase, decisively taking the checkbook out of the glove box. "I think I still owe you a payment. Tell me about the progress first."
This was Karen's purpose in finding Dexter. She didn't delay and bluntly recounted what happened over the past three months.
Lip didn't suspect anything about the accidental loss of the baby.
It didn't take a few days for the two to reconcile.
After that, Karen didn't torment Lip directly or intensely anymore. She played the role of a good girlfriend well, trapping Lip with sex as much as possible—on one hand leaving Lip no time to study, and on the other hand making Lip find time to earn money...
Besides that, Karen also frequently went to the Gallagher house, occasionally picking fights with Fiona and Ian.
Every time there was a conflict, Lip naturally stood on Karen's side.
So much so that, as of today, Karen had basically become a forbidden zone between Lip, Fiona, and Ian.
Additionally, the most important point was:
Karen successfully got Lip to promise to marry her.
"He said he'll try to earn more money and marry me next summer," Karen said.
Dexter listened quietly, then immediately gave Karen a thumbs up.
No doubt about it.
Karen truly had talent in this area.
"Well done," Dexter praised with a smile.
Karen was happy too. "As long as you're satisfied. So how much do I get?"
"Forty thousand dollars," Dexter said as he opened the checkbook, scribbled out a cash check, tore it off, and handed it to Karen.
Karen wasn't extremely satisfied with this amount, but satisfied enough. She immediately took the check with a beaming smile. "Thank you, Mr. King."
"You're welcome. You earned it," Dexter replied.
"So, Mr. King, what should I do next?" Karen blinked and asked with a smile.
Dexter thought for a moment. "Next step... two aspects. One, intensify the friction between Lip and Fiona. Two, get Lip to marry you as soon as possible."
"Settlement in the fall. Guaranteed thirty thousand dollars, exact amount depends on the situation."
"Okay!!" Hearing this, Karen agreed excitedly.
With that.
Business was concluded.
But Karen didn't leave. Instead, she glanced between Dexter's legs and suddenly whispered in a seductive tone, "Mr. King, I can service you. I promise not to tell anyone."
Dexter was amused. "If you're smart enough, don't say things like that to me again."
Hearing this, Karen's heart skipped a beat, and she felt inexplicably scared. She hurriedly giggled and said, "Just joking, don't take it seriously. I won't mention it again. Then, Mr. King, I'm leaving."
Dexter smiled silently.