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Annie's feelings for Kevin, from Kevin's perspective, were somewhat inexplicable.
It wasn't that Kevin disliked Annie; after all, as a man, as long as a woman was beautiful, he would have some good feelings for her, no matter who she was.
Otherwise, Kevin wouldn't have agreed to be a screen couple with Annie, nor would he have accepted Annie's 'reverse push'.
But to say he liked her enough for her to become his girlfriend, Kevin felt it wasn't quite there yet.
However, now that he had slept with her, he couldn't just turn around and dump her, saying 'I don't like you'.
Kevin felt he couldn't do something that scummy.
If it really didn't work, they could get on the bus first and buy the ticket later, Kevin thought.
Feelings aren't something that happen overnight; they slowly develop over time.
He went downstairs and bought Starlight Annie a new outfit, and also went to a lingerie store to buy Annie new underwear.
It was his first time entering a women's lingerie store alone to buy underwear, and Kevin was genuinely a little embarrassed.
Although seeing a man buying women's underwear, everyone could probably guess that Kevin was buying it for his girlfriend, perhaps it was psychological, but Kevin still felt that the surrounding passersby were looking at him strangely.
It was also fortunate that he was wearing glasses and a hat, well disguised.
Otherwise, if it were known that The Deep was frequenting a women's lingerie store alone, leading to some strange rumors, Kevin's celebrity career would probably be over!
"Blue stripes? So that's your taste?"
Back home, he handed the purchased underwear to Annie, who laughed and teased.
Kevin blushed slightly:
"No, the salesperson recommended these to me. I don't know anything."
"Mhm, I understand."
"I really didn't..."
"Then do you prefer black stockings or nude stockings?"
"Black stockings! Uh..."
Kevin blurted it out, and then when he saw Annie's teasing expression, Kevin knew he had been tricked.
Fetish exposed!
Hearing Kevin's unhesitating answer, Annie laughed happily.
She stopped teasing Kevin, picked up the two pairs of stockings Kevin bought her, held the black ones in her hand, threw the nude ones aside, and put on her clothes right in front of Kevin.
Kevin stared at her for a while, feeling a certain urge stirring within him. He took a deep breath, averted his gaze, and asked again:
"Are you sure you're okay now?"
When she learned about Compound V and her long-held beliefs were shattered, Annie's performance was truly terrible.
Kevin didn't think Annie could get over it in such a short time; she needed more time to think calmly.
"Hmm... while you were out, I thought about it a bit. Anyway, it can't get any worse than this, right?"
After getting dressed, Annie came and sat next to Kevin:
"No matter what, I'm still in this company. I thought, since there's no goal anyway, I might as well just live according to their arrangements."
Annie might have truly thought that, which is why she changed her mind and decided to attend today's expo.
She wouldn't bother with Compound V anymore, nor would she aspire to be a Superhero. She would simply stay in The Seven, enjoying the benefits and treatment The Seven offered.
She would do her work when it came, and ignore everything after work.
Annie seemed to have become a second Maeve.
Before this, Kevin had actually always wanted Annie to do this. Isn't it good to just earn money honestly? Why must she go against Vought?
But when Annie genuinely planned to give up everything, Kevin, on the contrary, felt a bit uncomfortable.
"Annie..." After thinking for a moment, Kevin held Annie's hand: "What I want to say is... no matter what, never give up on yourself."
"Are you comforting me?"
"Uh..."
"Thanks, but we should go."
Annie smiled. Kevin couldn't discern the meaning of her smile, but it didn't seem fake.
She squeezed Kevin's hand back, gently, before letting go.
Feeling the warmth from Annie's hand, Kevin said no more.
In any case, Annie didn't seem very sad now, although there was definitely something in her heart that she hadn't expressed.
But Kevin believed that time would slowly smooth everything over.
...
Somewhat different from what Kevin had expected, he and Annie received a call from Madelyn asking him to come over before they even arrived at the expo.
Originally, Kevin also had his own activities at the expo, but Madelyn didn't seem to want Kevin to participate in the activities.
He didn't know what had changed.
An unexpected incident occurred midway, and Kevin could only let Annie go to the venue alone.
However, Annie was very considerate and didn't complain to Kevin. After asking Kevin for a kiss to reassure her, she parted ways with Kevin and went to the venue alone.
Kevin, on the other hand, rushed to Madelyn's office.
"Boss, you called me?"
Entering the office, Kevin saw Madelyn sitting in her office, taking care of her child.
That was Madelyn's child conceived through artificial insemination, with no father, only Madelyn as a mother, named Teddy.
Of course, all of this information came from The Deep's original knowledge, and Kevin's conclusions drawn from the plot.
The truth, for now, no one knew.
In any case, Kevin had never seen the child's father.
Madelyn gently patted baby Teddy's body, helping him fall into a sound sleep. Seeing Kevin arrive, she casually turned on the TV and played a recording from that afternoon.
"See what your captain did when you weren't around."
Madelyn said, selecting the recording to play.
Kevin looked at the TV, which was playing Homelander's speech from the expo that afternoon.
He portrayed himself as chosen by God, believing that as Favored child, what he did was to save the world, not to obey the orders of those high-and-mighty officials.
Blah, blah, blah...
Anyway, it was that kind of talk.
Kevin immediately knew that this was inconsistent with Vought's current soft publicity strategy, but Homelander's fans and church followers below just loved to hear this kind of thing.
Kevin watched the live recording carefully, and Madelyn's voice was very soft:
"Currently, our strategy is to persuade Congressmen to agree to Superheroes joining national defense, and his rigid attitude is unacceptable, absolutely unacceptable."
She said, turning to look at Kevin:
"Mr. Edgar specifically wrote speeches for you, but one of you didn't follow the script, and the other simply didn't show up. Honestly, The Deep, Mr. Edgar is very disappointed about this."
"I thought I was just a foil, and even if I was there, I couldn't persuade the captain to change his mind."
Kevin defended himself.
He didn't know that staying at the venue had such an important role. Besides, with a stubborn guy like Homelander, even if Kevin had stayed there, could he have persuaded him not to give that speech?
Impossible.
"But you can salvage the damage he caused. You can use a softer approach to win over those wavering Congressmen."
Madelyn walked over to Kevin, explaining Kevin's current role.
After Edgar's conversation with Kevin that day, Kevin's status had indeed undergone an extraordinary change.
It wasn't a change in position, but a change in other aspects.
Kevin gained the right to know more and began to be cultivated by the group to become a member of The Seven who could contend with Homelander.
If Homelander acted too aggressively, Kevin needed to appear gentle and friendly.
If Homelander stood against the Congressmen, Kevin needed to stand with the Congressmen, to win over allies for The Seven and Vought.
As for the reason Kevin was now so highly valued...
"Do you know, The Deep, that many people in Congress are actually your 'fans'? Because on that plane you saved, Flight 37, many people had connections with some Congressmen. You need to leverage your advantage, even if it means going against your captain."
Madelyn was very good at induction.
Madelyn was very skilled at playing the game of saying one thing to your face and another behind your back.
Kevin didn't know what Madelyn had told Homelander, but it certainly wasn't what she was telling Kevin now.
But Kevin finally understood why the company had suddenly started paying attention to him.
Not everyone on that Flight 37 was an ordinary person.
Rather, most people who could take a transoceanic flight would not be ordinary.
Among them were doctors, company CEOs, government officials, and even relatives of some members of Congress.
So it wasn't hard to understand that some of them could connect with Congress.
These were Kevin's current 'connections'.
He was no longer the same The Deep as before; his 'energy' was worth the group's investment.
Kevin pondered silently. Madelyn, having said all this, didn't seem to expect an immediate answer from Kevin.
She turned her head and switched the recording to a live broadcast, which happened to be Starlight Annie's speech.
Thankfully, Starlight Annie did not make rebellious remarks as she did in the original work.
She very skillfully read the script given by the company, concluding this not-so-perfect expo.
Madelyn also breathed a sigh of relief at this:
"It seems your little girlfriend is still quite obedient."
She finished speaking, turned off the TV, and sat back in her office chair with her child, then suddenly said to Kevin:
"That's enough for today's matters for now. I think you haven't forgotten that The Seven will have a promotional video to shoot in a few days."
"Yes, 'Superheroes in America', I remember that name?"
"Yes, originally your personal chapter was set for you to go to the beach and call on people to pay attention to environmental protection... but Mr. Edgar had a different opinion on that."
Madelyn said, taking out a new folder from the table and handing it to The Deep.
That was the script for the new promotional video.
Kevin took it casually and joked:
"So my filming location has changed?"
"Of course, and I think you'll really like the new filming location."
"Where is it?"
Kevin asked, puzzled.
Madelyn leaned back in her chair with her child, smiling as she said:
"Your alma mater."
"Godolkin University."
She said so.
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