I'll Bring Clark Back

"A game?"

Jeremy acted as if he had heard a joke and raised his palm.

A horrifying scar from a steel nail piercing through it marked his hand.

"After Jesus was nailed to the cross, he took on all the sins of mankind and ascended to Heaven."

Crackle!

As he spoke, violent, dazzling currents coiled around his palm, making the worker's eyes widen in terror.

"Seventeen years later, I returned to this world. God granted me these powers so I could cleanse you of your sins!"

"Since you like games so much.

Now, let's play another game!"

Jeremy stepped toward him one step at a time, like Death closing in.

"Ahhh!"

Lightning lit up the windows, accompanied by bloodcurdling screams.

More than ten minutes later, a thin figure pulled up his hood and coldly departed.

Inside the repair shop, a corpse that had been tortured and electrocuted into charcoal lay quietly on the floor. No longer arrogant or disdainful, it was curled into a ball, like an infant returned to its earliest state.

Creak.

Jonathan pulled open the barn doors.

The stale scent of rot and damp straw washed over them.

A classic scene. David already knew what was about to happen.

"Clark is about to learn the truth about his identity."

For once, he put away his casual expression. Looking at the bewildered Clark beside him, a trace of worry surfaced in his heart. He was not sure whether Clark could accept this truth.

Because David existed, especially since he had just been born, Jonathan and Martha no longer had a suitable reason to adopt another child.

The couple had secretly adopted Clark and told others that the two were biological brothers.

"What are you talking about, Father?"

An inexplicable panic gripped Clark's heart. He began to regret losing his temper with his parents earlier.

Father and Mother had only meant well. They wanted to protect him.

He knew all of that. So why had he failed to control himself just now, Clark?

"This is something your parents left for you, Clark."

Jonathan took an object from an inconspicuous, battered old box. His expression was grave and faintly sorrowful as he turned and handed it to Clark in a dull voice.

It was an object resembling a long stone seal, pitch-black in color, with an embossed S at its tip.

"Parents?"

Clark could not believe what he had heard. His face went pale as he stared at the long black object, not daring to reach out and touch it. It was like facing a fragile bubble, fearing that one touch would burst it and leave some things forever beyond repair.

"Father, this joke isn't funny."

Why? Why was Father obviously lying, yet his heartbeat had not quickened?

"The key to the Fortress of Solitude?"

David frowned and withdrew his gaze from the key.

Seeing Clark's reaction, he worried that this sudden news would crush him.

For an ordinary person, learning in a single day that the loving parents who had raised them were not their biological parents and shared no blood relation with them was already difficult enough to bear.

"If he then learns that he's an alien..."

David suddenly remembered something said by a pale-skinned madman.

To drive someone insane, all you needed was to give him one bad day—the Joker.

"That probably won't happen, right?" His eyelid twitched.

If they really ended up with a Joker Superman, that would be a deadly joke.

Creak.

Jonathan opened the cellar again and led his two sons down, pulling aside something covered by a tarp.

As dust flew into the air, a small spaceship appeared before the three of them. It was streamlined, about the size of a cradle, and looked as though it could only carry a baby.

"No."

Staring at the spaceship that should never have appeared on the farms, Clark looked as if he had been struck by lightning and staggered back two steps.

"Father, don't do this to me."

His expression stiffened as he looked at Jonathan with a near-pleading gaze, like a child about to be abandoned.

"Clark, you are actually the son Martha and I adopted."

Seeing his son's reaction tore at his heart, but now that things had reached this point, Jonathan could not stop. Better a short pain than a long one. Gritting his teeth, he revealed the truth.

"You came from outer space. We found you during that meteor shower more than ten years ago."

Clark felt as if he were walking on clouds. His head spun, and everything before his eyes seemed to be slipping away.

"What about David?"

Suddenly seeing David, he grabbed onto him like a lifeline and hurriedly asked.

Please don't tell me...

"David... is Martha's and my biological son."

Seeing almost no shock on David's face, Jonathan was confused. He thought David still believed this was all fake, but he could not spare any attention for him now. After hesitating, he spoke the cruel, hurtful truth.

"No, no!"

"This is all fake. I refuse to accept it."

Gritting his teeth, Clark roared like a wounded beast. His eyes bloodshot, he turned and fled in near madness.

He wanted to escape this lie, escape this heartbreaking reality.

Whoosh!

Moving at far beyond the speed of sound, Clark fled the cellar as if for his life and vanished.

"Son!"

Jonathan anxiously wanted to chase after him, but how could a mortal father possibly catch up to the Son of Krypton? He could only stop helplessly beside the cellar entrance, staring at the empty barn, just as empty as his heart.

"Clark will figure it out, Father."

Seeing his father's devastated appearance, David could not help but feel moved. He had never seen Jonathan, so stubborn and unyielding, reveal such an expression.

He stepped forward, supported his father, and comforted him.

"I don't believe he'll abandon this family."

"David, why aren't you surprised at all?"

Jonathan turned back wearily.

"Our family only has a few houses, and Clark has always been so unusual..."

In truth, David did not understand why Clark had never discovered the spaceship in the cellar over the past decade, especially when he had been a curious child who loved exploring and climbing everywhere.

David himself had secretly slipped in to take a look when he was only a few years old.

"After all, it's a real spaceship."

"I understand." Jonathan looked as though he had aged several years. Doubting whether what he had just done was right, he let David help him sit on the stairs and unexpectedly patted his son on the shoulder.

"David, my son, you did very well."

His voice was hoarse as he looked appreciatively at the son who had been exceptionally sensible since childhood and had not shown him any strange looks because of this.

"Where Clark comes from and whether he is an alien don't matter. What matters is that he is our family, the brother who grew up with you."

"Don't blame him for reacting so fiercely. He just can't accept it for the moment..."

"I'll go bring him back." Seeing his father ramble on in such a dazed state, David frowned and rose to leave.

"If, and I mean if..." Jonathan paused before instructing him, "If Clark doesn't want to come back for now, don't force him."

Learning two devastating pieces of news in a single day had negated the life he had built upon being a Kent son. Jonathan could imagine the impact this would have on his eldest son.

"I will."

David nodded to his father.

But that was not what he thought in his heart. He secretly said to himself.

If I can't talk Clark around.

Given the situation, I'll have to give him a face-correcting punch to make him calm down.

The contract has been signed. Starting today, Purple Sweet Potato will update twice a day. Thank you all for your support.