Chapter 68 A Limited-Time Romance: Let me spend a little more time with you, okay...?
Lilith yawned, sat down at the small wooden table in the kitchen, cut a piece of wax-sealed dry cheese with a knife, then cut the cheese into small triangular pieces, put them in her mouth and chewed them with white wine, her cheeks bulging like a little hamster stealing snacks.
Heinrich stood beside her wearing a Balta mask. Although Lilith had said she didn't mind seeing his scars, he didn't want to face himself like that. Wearing the mask made him feel a little better.
He put the whole-wheat pasta into the pot of boiling water and stirred it slowly with a wooden spoon. The kitchen cupboard contained canned anchovies in oil, and he also chopped some onions to sauté with olive oil, which he would later pour over the cooked pasta for flavor and color.
"How come you can cook these?" Lilith was quite surprised by his culinary skills. She had unknowingly eaten a large piece of cheese, so she put down her knife and curiously went to Heinrich's side, hugged him from behind, and leaned against his warm back.
"I wouldn't call myself a good cook... I can just mix cooked noodles with sauce made according to the recipe. Do you remember the night we made ravioli together? That was the first time I ever stepped into a kitchen."
"...Are you sure you want to cook?"
“After that, I would voluntarily go to the kitchen to help Ivanka and Cecilia after finishing Sherlock’s accounts, and that’s how I learned. At that time, I always thought that one day I would take you back to Frankfurt. You definitely wouldn’t like the food from my hometown, so I had to learn how to cater to your appetite.” Heinrich turned around, his hands covered in food, making it inconvenient to hug her back, so he could only smile and wink at her.
“Sherlock…his death couldn’t be related to you, could it?” Lilith suddenly released her arms from his embrace upon hearing the familiar name. She had sent Heinrich to investigate Sherlock’s death…and although his findings and much of the subsequent evidence did indeed point to Lorenzo, Lilith was now beginning to doubt everything she had previously believed to be the truth. Even though she had just spent a very pleasant night with Heinrich, because they were sexually compatible…it didn’t mean she would abandon her reason and unconditionally trust him. She forced herself to calm down.
“That’s why you’re accusing me.” Heinrich felt a little wronged when Lilith immediately withdrew her hand, so he had no choice but to continue his work while explaining, “I admit that I’ve done a lot of terrible things in order to get revenge… but I assure you that I didn’t do this.”
“If you kill him, you can frame Lorenzo and also seize the position of chief accountant…”
“To be honest,” Heinrich sighed, unsure how to convince her, “I was busy with other things at the time, and my primary goal had nothing to do with him. Working two jobs at the same time was already exhausting, and Sherlock’s departure added a huge amount of work to my workload, which was a heavy blow to me.”
"Then tell me in detail what bad things you've done." Lilith frowned and pouted, her tone aggressive, but her expression betrayed a hint of disappointment. She sat back down in the chair in front of the kitchen table, slumping weakly against the backrest.
“Then let me start from the very beginning, and we’ll go through everything from start to finish,” Heinrich said while stirring the spaghetti. “It started when you sent people to kill me. Obviously, they failed. I fell into the sea and swam for a very long time. I was pulled out of the sea by slave traders before I drowned from exhaustion.”
"Then I bought it, by your fiancée."
"Yes. You bought me. Do you remember what the first task you gave me was?"
Lilith took a moment to process it; it was all so long ago. She had assigned Heinrich so many tasks that she couldn't remember them anymore.
"The first task you gave me was to kill that pockmarked bandit who was ordered to kill me. He recognized me, so I learned the truth from him: you were the culprit who killed all my confidants and made me a slave."
"And then you started plotting your revenge against me, didn't you..."
"Not yet. My initial mission wasn't even revenge... just to survive. I hoped to gain your trust and then pass a message to the Schmidl family, at least to get them to send some more people to pick me up. My safety was the priority."
What was I doing at that time?
"You are facing Mauro's provocation and Maria's sneak attack."
"Then you saved me, in front of Mauro, and when facing those bandits... and finally when confronting Mauro, you brought the casino owner."
“Because I fell in love with you from that time on.” Heinrich lowered his head and used his fork to arrange the softened noodles into a beautiful ceramic plate. “Feelings are a terrible thing; I couldn’t control them at all. Even though I knew rationally that I should take revenge on you, I just liked you emotionally. So during that time, I was always helping you and never did anything to harm you.”
"When did that change begin?"
“It was that night in the kitchen when we were making dumplings together after what happened with Mauro. You probably don’t remember what you said to me. You said you would never allow someone who had ever threatened you to swagger in front of you. That woke me up.” Heinrich poured the baked sauce over the noodles, sprinkled a pinch of ground black pepper on top, and placed it in front of Lilith.
Lilith suddenly felt a chill run down her spine. He had remembered her careless remark for so long… she was now unsure whether she should eat the food in front of her.
"But this was not the final trigger. What made me make up my mind was William's arrival. I originally thought he would bring me family assistance and hope, but who knew it was the news of my father's death."
"Please accept my condolences... but I want to say that this matter really has nothing to do with me..."
“I understand. I believe you.” Heinrich handed Lilith a clean knife and fork, and pulled out a chair to sit opposite her. “But at the time, due to some unforeseen circumstances, I mistakenly believed that you were also the one who caused my father’s death, so I decided to cooperate with William to take revenge.”
"So you started giving me terrible advice, telling me to burn down the Condalini's warehouse?"
"That is indeed part of it. My original purpose in having you do these things was to gain some leverage over you, but at the time I didn't know that Tata had already been sending messages to the Condalini family. But that's another story. My main task at the time was not to trip you up, but to cultivate my own power so that I could contend with you in the future."
"So you went and found the Fugger family, right?" Lilith blinked, quickly recalling what had happened in the past, and suddenly remembered that she had heard the name of the Fugger family mentioned together with "a man wearing a mask".
“Yes.” Heinrich nodded. “This is a steel family that has long been an enemy of the Schmidl family in the German region. In order to compete with the Schmidl family for trade share in Venice, they sent their eldest son here to study accounting, trying to establish their bank here. However, the Fugger family, who are unfamiliar with Venice, have no idea how to run a bank.”
“But you know, because you actually worked in a bank,” Lilith said, her brow furrowing as she put a noodle in her mouth, “so you stole my bank’s entire business logic and had them copy it?”
“Yes,” Heinrich lowered his head with some guilt, “I negotiated with them, getting them a substantial share in the bank and making me the de facto manager to help me reclaim the family fortune and title from my uncle. In exchange, I needed to help them build a team from scratch, teach everyone on the team basic accounting, and sometimes even tutor them in Italian… So you can understand how busy I was back then. Sherlock’s death did me no good at all, and I didn’t need the so-called honorary title of chief.”
Lilith was speechless, not knowing what to say, and could only continue eating her noodles in silence.
"Then we encountered pressure from Lorenzo's side and began our journey to Zurich. Because it was so sudden, I persuaded the Fugger family to allow me to meet with their agents in Zurich and set up an office there. But Zurich is not like Venice; it is full of Helmut Schmidl's henchmen."
"So you put on the Balta mask to hide your identity. Then you violently knocked me unconscious when I was about to take off your mask."
“...Yes,” Heinrich admitted.
"So, the death of that translator..."
“It was me too.” Heinrich sighed and rubbed his forehead. “I admit I went too far. But when I saw him standing next to you, I was insanely jealous… I hadn’t seen you for so, so long… I missed you so, so much…”
"Stop," Lilith calmly interrupted him. "Go on, stop with the nonsense. What happened next?"
"Then we returned to Venice. While I was traveling with you, William was helping me with the final preparations for the opening of the Fugger Bank. You could even say that although the bank was in the Fugger family's name, it was actually completely controlled by us. The heads of the Fugger family were more like clients who provided us with funds. But the bank did not open as scheduled because we encountered war shortly after returning to Venice, and then Lorenzo exposed Tata's betrayal."
“Actually,” Lilith thought for a moment, then decided to speak. Since Heinrich seemed to be being very honest with her, she had no reason to hide it anymore, especially since she had just eaten the birthday cake Heinrich had made for her, “before I realized Tata had also betrayed me, I suspected you were the one who harmed me. Do you remember the birthday cake you didn't eat…”
"My God." Heinrich gasped. "Was it actually poisoned?"
“Yes,” Lilith said, stroking her chin somewhat shyly. “You could say that Lorenzo’s appearance actually saved your life. At that time, I was so confused that I cleared all suspicions about you, which is why you didn’t eat the cake.”
"I thought you trusted me completely by then."
"Almost. But doing too many bad things will always leave traces, and I'm not that stupid... although I'm still stupid, I've been almost completely fooled by you. So all that understanding, all that protection, all those promises to stay with me forever, were just lies to make you believe me, just playing along."
“Lilith…”
“Heinrich,” her voice suddenly turned icy cold, like a sharp blade, tears welling in her eyes, “I’m warning you, don’t think that what I just did with you means I’ve changed my mind, don’t imagine that accepting your gift means I’ve compromised and am willing to accept your proposal. You’ve lied to me for so long, this is the compensation I deserve! Don’t think that just because I’ve heard all this I’ll forgive you… I don’t need you and you can live perfectly well.”
“Yes, you’re right,” Heinrich replied calmly. “You’re so outstanding, so smart, so strong, of course you can live well without me. The one who truly can’t live without you is me. I plagiarized your business ideas, deceived you, hid things from you, and even forced you to marry me… all because I was too incompetent and too cowardly. I only now realize I was wrong. So please rest assured, once the pandemic is over, I will leave here immediately and will never bother you again. I still have unfinished business to attend to. Cecilia and Ivanka will come back to take care of you, and you will recruit more caring and loyal subordinates, and you won’t encounter such a terrible person as me again.”
Lilith stared at him blankly, not knowing what to say. Her chest felt tight and painful.
"But before that... let me stay with you for a few more days, okay? Lilith, the days I spent with you were the happiest time of my entire life."
“...Shouldn’t this be when you’re with your parents and siblings?” Lilith asked incredulously.
"I'm just as happy with them, but only with you can I feel myself growing rapidly every moment. Even if you cut me with your sharpness, new flesh grows from the wounds to fill the void. So please let me spend a few more days with you, okay? Please..."
-----------------------
Author's note: So sweet! [Thumbs up] Hope you enjoy reading it, hahaha
The next update will be on Wednesday! Things got a bit angsty before, so we'll continue with some sweet moments for a while longer [starry eyes]!
Let me recommend another pre-order. I've changed the name to "Demon? Let's Get One and See How It Is." It's a fantasy novel set in the 19th century. The initial synopsis may be changed at any time. I'll refine it after I finish writing this book!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
