Free Web NovelChapter 5: No More Making Do
Shortly after dinner, Cici rubbed her eyes.
"Daddy, I want to sleep for a little while."
She had curled up against Lucas again, but her voice was much softer than it had been a minute ago.
"Wanna go night-night."
Lucas was about to carry her to the bedroom when Cici suddenly grabbed the hem of his shirt. She lifted her head and looked at him, worry written all over her little face.
"When I go to sleep... Daddy, you won’t leave, right?"
Something tightened in Lucas’s chest.
She had only just gotten her father back. Of course she was afraid that if she closed her eyes for one nap, he might be gone when she woke up.
"No," Lucas said at once. "I’m not going anywhere."
He crouched in front of her and looked her in the eyes.
"Daddy will stay right here at home with you."
Cici stared at him for a few seconds, as if trying to decide whether he really meant it. At last, her fingers slowly loosened.
Lucas carried her into his bedroom.
He had changed the sheets only yesterday, so he left them as they were. Once Cici was tucked in, she looked even smaller than usual, swallowed up by the big bed and the blanket pulled snugly around her.
"Daddy. Kiss."
Lucas leaned down.
Cici kissed him on the cheek. Only then did she close her eyes, satisfied enough to take her nap.
Her lashes lowered. Her breathing slowly evened out.
Lucas sat on the edge of the bed and watched her for a while. Something in his heart shifted.
No matter how he looked at her, she was impossibly cute.
His baby girl.
Once Cici was sleeping soundly, Lucas quietly left the bedroom and went to the kitchen to deal with the dishes. He filled the sink with water and let the grease and bits of food loosen while he remembered the system notification from earlier. frёewebnoѵēl.com
"System, do I get chef experience from washing dishes?"
The system replied immediately.
[It counts.]
Lucas let out a quiet laugh.
That meant he could level up even faster.
"System, thumbs up."
He washed every dish, wiped down the counter, and put the kitchen back in order. By the time he finished, he could clearly feel it: his understanding of seasoning, heat, and ingredients had grown a little.
It was nothing dramatic.
But it was real.
After that, he looked around the apartment.
When he had lived alone, it had never mattered much if the place was messy. A little dust? Some clutter? Who cared? Once he started working, he barely had time to eat, let alone keep the apartment spotless.
But now it was different.
"I need to clean," Lucas muttered.
"I can be sloppy by myself. But if the apartment is dirty, Cici could get sick."
Once that thought hit him, he did not hesitate. He grabbed the broom and mop and got to work.
He cleared the living room bit by bit, wiped the coffee table, and mopped the floor more than once. Whenever he passed the bedroom door, he slowed down and moved as quietly as possible so he would not wake Cici.
Sunlight filtered through the window. The dust on the floor gradually disappeared, and the cramped little rental finally started to look like a place someone could actually live in.
An hour later, the system spoke again.
[Host, you have completed one hour of work. Constitution +1.]
[The constitution of an average adult male is 60.]
Lucas stopped in the living room, both hands resting on the mop handle.
He could feel the change in his body.
It was not the kind of change that would let him punch through a wall. His breathing just felt easier, and the soreness in his shoulders, waist, and back had eased. He was still tired after an hour of housework, but the exhaustion no longer felt so crushing.
He lowered his gaze and clenched his fist.
"System, about how high is a top boxer’s constitution?"
The system’s voice sounded in his mind.
[A top boxer’s physique is roughly three times that of an average adult male. With a higher Constitution, combat power increases by more than simple addition.]
Lucas’s eyes sharpened.
"System, what’s my constitution now?"
[Host’s initial Constitution was 60. After the increase, it is now 61.]
[Constitution can increase by up to 3 points per day.]
[Labor and exercise can improve Constitution.]
Lucas nodded.
Three points a day did not sound like much, but it would add up quickly.
That was ninety points in a month.
Added to his original sixty, he could reach one hundred and fifty in thirty days. A top boxer was roughly three times an average adult male, which meant about one hundred and eighty.
If he kept hitting the daily limit, day after day, then in a couple of months...
His constitution would surpass even a world-class boxer.
Maybe I should check whether The Grove has any units available.
Lucas leaned back against the couch, his phone lighting his face as he scrolled through rental listings with one thumb. His other hand rested unconsciously toward the bedroom door, ready to react to the slightest sound from Cici.
The Grove was a luxury apartment complex nearby, with a landscaped courtyard, a small playground, and even an indoor playroom for young children.
Lucas had walked past it once before.
At the time, he had only glanced at it from outside the fence: clean walking paths, trimmed lawns, parents pushing strollers, little kids running around the playground. It looked quiet. Safe. Like another world compared with his old rental in an aging building.
Back then, Lucas had thought it looked nice.
Just... nice.
The Grove Apartments was not the kind of place he had ever seriously considered. Even thinking about it had felt pointless.
But now, he opened the rental page.
Before long, his brows drew together.
"So expensive."
The numbers on the screen were worse than he had expected.
The smallest units he could find were two-bedrooms. Even the cheapest two-bedroom was over four thousand dollars a month.
The cheaper ones in the photos looked dated: dark floors, old finishes, kitchens he did not really want Cici using. Anything renovated was closer to fifty-five hundred. Some listings even went up to six thousand.
Lucas scrolled through a few more pages.
Same story.
This was Brooklyn, New York. Rent was already painful enough. Anything clean, safe, and kid-friendly cost even more.
He stared at the screen for a long moment.
Should I really rent a place like this?
If it were just him, he would never even consider it. Even back when he still had a job, that rent would have hurt.
But now, it was not just him.
Now he had Cici.
And he also had the Super Dad System.
Lucas lowered his phone and looked around the living room.
The small sofa. The beat-up coffee table. Storage bins lined against the wall. Even the dining table had been shoved into a corner, as if apologizing for taking up space.
For one adult, it was enough.
But Cici was going to live here.
She would eat here, play here, sleep here. She would turn this place into her home with a father who had appeared out of nowhere.
This apartment was too small.
If he rented a renovated unit at The Grove for $5,500 a month, then first month’s rent plus the security deposit alone would be $11,000. Add moving costs, basic furniture, a booster seat, a bed for Cici, and all the little things a child needed, and the total could easily climb close to fifteen grand.
He had a little over twenty thousand dollars in his bank account.
That number used to sound solid.
But weighed against everything Cici needed, it suddenly did not feel reassuring at all.
Lucas thought of the $20,000 Evelyn had prepared for Cici’s living expenses.
That money was still in the System Space.
Evelyn must have done the math. She knew he was not working right now. She had given him about three months of expenses because she knew Cici would put pressure on his life.
Lucas tapped the side of his phone with one finger.
He had the system. If he could start earning money again, paying Evelyn back would not be impossible. freewёbn૦νeɭ.com
"I’ve got a little over twenty thousand myself," he murmured. "Even if I don’t touch much of Evelyn’s money..."
He slowly reread the listing details.
The longer he looked, the tighter his chest felt.
Finally, he made up his mind.
He would rent at The Grove.
With the system, his situation could change fast. If he chose a cheaper place now, they might have to move again once his income improved.
Cici was not luggage.
She was not something he could pick up and move around whenever it was convenient.
Once Cici settled somewhere, she would make friends. She would get used to the rooms, the corners, the routines, maybe even the route they took every day. He could not make her start over again so soon just because he had been trying to save money.
Lucas could suffer.
He could make do.
He could survive on very little.
But Cici should not have to make do with him.
"Waaah—"
A sudden cry came from the bedroom.
