"I'm a professional, of course," Venom said, popping his head out. He was now wearing a very sophisticated pair of glasses, with a pen and a sheet of A4 paper curled in his tentacles.
Venom pushed up his glasses with a tentacle, the large white eyes behind the lenses shining with scholarly light:
"As long as the budget is sufficient, forget a fifty-thousand-word essay. Even if I were asked to translate the 'Feasibility Report on Environmentally Friendly Chocolate Explosives' into Ancient Greek and write it in sonnet form, it would be no problem."
Is it really no problem? Seeing Venom, who had been just as crazy as Victor earlier, now acting like a professional scholar, Enid didn't know if she was crazy or the world was crazy.
"Hey, don't worry," Victor assured, patting his chest. "Venom is fluent in all academic jargon! Guaranteed to produce a perfect piece that even the Nobel Prize committee couldn't fault!"
He changed the subject, his face instantly switching to an expression of heartbreak:
"As payment, I've given seventy percent of this month's chocolate quota to Venom! And that Golden Ticket Collector's Edition... just talking about it makes my heart ache."
"Waaaah, Enid, my heart hurts so much," Victor grabbed Enid's hand, looking at her with teary eyes like a large dog whose bone had been stolen.
"Seventy percent! Do you know how many limited edition chocolates that is! And that Golden Ticket edition, I sleep hugging it every night."
Enid watched this absurd scene—a manic boy holding her hand crying about chocolate loss, while the black symbiote on his shoulder adjusted his glasses and began writing Latin words furiously on paper, sparks practically flying from the pen tip.
"Wait," Enid suddenly realized something, her azure eyes widening. "Venom is writing the essay for you? Doesn't that basically mean you're writing it yourself?"
"Of course not!" Victor retorted immediately, his expression as serious as if discussing academia.
"It's completely different! Venom is an independent individual! He has his own thought patterns and knowledge base! I just... er... provided a creative platform and funding support!"
To prove his point, he turned to Venom: "Hey, old buddy, use Aristotelian syllogism to demonstrate the environmental friendliness of chocolate explosions."
Venom didn't even look up, his tentacles writing even faster, his low voice carrying an academic tone:
"Major premise: All cocoa products are derived from natural plants; Minor premise: An explosion is a rapid oxidation reaction; Conclusion: Therefore, chocolate explosions are a form of green energy release."
He even pushed up his glasses with another tentacle:
"Do you need me to add references? I can cite at least five papers from Nature, although I just made them up, the plagiarism checker definitely won't detect it."
Victor looked at Enid triumphantly: "See! Completely independent thinking! This is professional outsourcing!"
Enid opened her mouth to say this was basically cheating, but seeing Victor's smug "I'm such a genius" face and Venom's professional scholar look, all words stuck in her throat.
She suddenly felt that perhaps in this crazy world, this solution was the normal one.
"Fine," Enid finally sighed, helplessly accepting this reality. "So... when will this essay be finished?"
Venom raised a tentacle in a "wait a moment" gesture, while other tentacles continued writing at a speed barely visible to the naked eye.
Dense letters covered the A4 paper like flowing water; even complex chemical structures and citation notes were written in the margins.
"Basically..." Venom said without looking up, "give me three more minutes to finish the discussion section, two minutes to check citations, and one final minute to make the whole paper look like it went through a long and arduous research process."
He suddenly stopped writing, pointing a tentacle at a paragraph in the paper: "Need a bit of 'experimental data' here. Victor, make up some numbers that look reasonable but are unverifiable."
Victor leaned in immediately, looking at the paper seriously:
"Hmm... explosion yield equivalent to... 0.37 Standard Chocolate Energy Units? Residue biodegradability... 99.8%? Just write 'Verified by experiment, see supplementary materials for details'—no one will actually verify it anyway."
"Perfect." Venom continued writing with satisfaction.
Enid watched this tacit "academic duo" and suddenly felt a twinge of sympathy for Principal Weems—she probably would never imagine how an essay was created.
Three minutes later, Venom put down the pen, carefully organized the full twelve pages of the essay, and even pulled out a stapler, stapling them neatly with a ka-chunk.
"Done," he handed the essay to Victor. The glasses disappeared, and he reverted to his usual greedy appearance. "I'll take that seventy percent chocolate quota when we get back tonight. Now, give me the Collector's Edition. I know you're hiding it on you."
Victor fished a glittering gold limited edition chocolate bar out of his pocket with heartbreak, moving as slowly as if bidding farewell to a lover: "Here... the agreed 'Golden Ticket' Collector's Edition..."
Venom snatched the chocolate swiftly, retracting instantly into Victor's body. A satisfied purr resonated in Victor's mind.
Victor looked at Enid pitifully, his eyes wet:
"Enid... I... I seem to have fallen into a financial crisis. For at least the next two weeks, I might... might not be able to eat a single piece of chocolate..."
For Victor Black, this was undoubtedly news comparable to the end of the world.
He looked at the half-eaten brownie in front of him, his eyes filled with deep attachment and reluctance, as if looking at a lover he would never see again.
"This might be the last chocolate I taste for a very long time..."
He said sadly, even carefully dipping his fingertip into the last bit of chocolate sauce on the plate and licking it cherishingly.
Enid watched him act as if the sky was falling. At first, she found it funny, but then her heart softened completely.
She thought for a moment, then her eyes lit up. She rummaged through her cute bag printed with small paw prints.
Soon, she pulled out several exquisitely packaged, expensive-looking chocolate bars and shoved them all into Victor's hands.
"Here! For you!" Her cheeks flushed slightly, her voice light. "I usually carry some spares with me too! You take these for now!"
Victor stared at the pile of chocolate suddenly in his hands, stunned. His eyes widened as if seeing a savior.
"Enid! You are truly my angel! My savior! My goddess of chocolate!" He was so excited he almost jumped up, wishing he could give Enid a big hug.
But he restrained himself quickly, just hugging the chocolates tightly, his face radiating the immense happiness of regaining something lost.
"That's great... I'm alive again..." He muttered to himself, impatiently tearing open a bar and taking a huge, happy bite.
Enid watched his satisfied look, feeling sweet inside too, happier than eating rainbow fudge.
Her eyes curved into crescents. Resting her chin on her hand, looking at Victor, she said softly: "It's okay. From now on, you can have half of my chocolate."
She said this naturally and sincerely, with a young girl's unreserved gentleness.
Victor's chewing paused.
He looked up at the blonde girl smiling brilliantly across from him. Her words were like a stone thrown into a calm lake, rippling out strange, subtle waves in his heart.
That feeling... was completely different from the scorching impulse to get close, to tear, to fall into madness together that he felt when facing Wednesday.
This was a warm, soft, and even slightly bewildering kindness.
He was silent for a few seconds, rarely not responding immediately with a manic joke or exaggerated performance.
He just looked at her, then slowly, very seriously, smiled.
This smile lacked the usual cynicism and madness; it appeared exceptionally clean and... sincere.
"Thanks, Enid," he said, his voice much lower and softer than usual. "You're really good."
Under the spotlight, the madman temporarily shed his disguise, revealing a real, caught-off-guard smile—a reward sweeter than any chocolate.
Enid looked at this rare, undisguised smile, feeling her heart skip a beat.