I'm Doing This for Your Own Good, Clark

After Clark and David left.

Whitney and several football team players who had been beaten to the ground struggled to get back up after a while.

Several of them had ganged up on one person and had not even touched his clothes. Amid the crowd's laughter, they helped each other away in embarrassment.

Not long after they left the bar, a lean figure emerged and stared coldly at the group in baseball uniforms as they departed.

"No rush. There's plenty of time."

He murmured and returned to the bar to continue sipping his drink. His gaze occasionally swept over a burly Black man picking up girls in a corner of the bar. His face remained expressionless, as if he were looking at a dead man.

The original plan could not be disrupted.

As for those equally vile high school athletes.

He remembered that tomorrow night was the Spring Dance at the town high school.

"I never drew anyone's attention at dances before, but this time will be different." Jeremy sneered.

He would be the most dazzling person at the dance.

"Put me down, David."

Clark weakly woke up and struggled to get down from David's shoulder.

"I don't want to go back."

He had not yet figured out how to face his parents when he returned.

"What, eighteen-year-old Clark wants to run away from home?"

David felt there was a very simple solution to this problem. There was no need for all this melodramatic back-and-forth.

He raised his hand and chopped down.

Smack!

After being struck on the back of his neck, Clark turned back in confusion and looked at his younger brother, not understanding what he was trying to do.

"Didn't use enough strength."

Seeing that, David clicked his tongue.

Now that he was out of the Kryptonite radiation, Clark was gradually recovering, even without sunlight at the moment.

Thud!

He followed up with another strike.

The terrifying force was enough to split a tank apart with one chop. The shockwave spread more than ten meters, like a gale sweeping through, violently rustling the weeds on both sides of the road.

Clark's eyes rolled back, and he passed out cold.

"Done."

His complexion had recovered on the dim road by the time David carried the unconscious Clark back to Farms.

Inside the house, the couple was still waiting for their two children to return. At the entrance of the warmly lit home.

Before going in, he took out the glowing green Kryptonite necklace and waved it around Clark's face, putting a layer of "makeup" on him.

After suffering Kryptonite radiation, Clark, who had nearly recovered, once again wore a pained expression even in his unconscious state. His face turned weak and pale, as though he were seriously ill.

Once he felt it was about right, David put away the Kryptonite with satisfaction.

"A Kryptonian would need to be exposed to Kryptonite for at least months, even years, before their life was in danger."

A short time was no problem, especially since Clark was no ordinary Kryptonian.

"Of course, I'm doing this for your own good too, Clark."

He definitely was not doing it for some notification saying Clark's pain +3, +2, or anything like that.

David smiled and carried Clark inside.

"Oh my God, David, what happened to your brother?"

Martha covered her mouth in fright when she saw this.

"Clark, why did he pass out?"

Jonathan looked incredulous. Clark had been stronger than an ox since childhood and had never been sick or injured. This was the first time the couple had seen him like this, pale-faced and unconscious.

"I'm not sure either. It looks like something went wrong with Clark's superhuman physique."

David said it without batting an eye.

"Quick, lay him down."

Jonathan carefully took Clark from his younger son's shoulder and laid him flat on the sofa.

Martha hurriedly poured a glass of water and came to the sofa, anxiously calling her son's name.

"Clark?"

The couple was both somewhat flustered.

After all, although they were already middle-aged, they had never encountered a situation where their son fell ill.

"Mmph."

Feeling himself being shaken, Clark groggily woke up.

His parents stood anxiously around him, their eyes filled with deep, unshakeable concern. They were so careful that they did not dare shake him too hard.

"Father, Mother..."

Back in his warm, familiar home, looking at his parents gathered before him, he felt dazed.

He had nearly forgotten when gray hairs had appeared among his father's hair, when his face had grown weathered, when his body had stopped being so strong; when the passage of time had carved wrinkles into the corners of his mother's eyes, when her skin had begun to slacken. It all stabbed into his eyes like knives.

He only remembered how, as a child, he loved riding on his father's shoulders and making him run around. He had no interest at all in the ball-tossing games other fathers and sons liked to play, leaving his father helpless and able to play only with David.

Right, and there had been a time when he loved corn dogs and constantly pestered his mother to make them for him... Scene after scene from the past surfaced before his eyes.

Clark's nose stung uncontrollably, as if he had been punched. He had drained away his parents' youth.

"My parents found me in the meteor shower and painstakingly raised me as their own son. They even cared more about my mental state and emotions than they did about David.

"They never demanded anything from me, never thought of getting anything from me."

They could have easily exploited his abilities, packaged him as a promising young football or soccer star, and made a fortune. They would not have had to spend every day buried in endless work at Farms, yet they had never done so.

"They even kept making me hide my abilities, all to protect me, yet I grew tired of it..."

"Clark, what's wrong?" Martha became even more worried when her son remained dazed and silent for so long, afraid something was wrong with him.

"Mother!"

Clark's eyes reddened. Filled with guilt, he suddenly stood up, spread his arms, and tightly embraced the couple who loved him most in the world.

"I was wrong, Father.

"No matter what my identity is, it can't change the fact that I'm your son."

How foolish he had been. His parents had clearly never cared about his identity. For more than ten years, they had treated him as their own son, giving him the best of everything and the warmest love in the world.

Yet after learning the truth, he had become tangled up over it.

"As long as you've come back, Clark."

The weight in Jonathan's heart finally lifted. A faint smile appeared on his face as he exchanged a relieved look with Martha, then embraced his son as well.

"Looks like someone gave up on running away from home?"

Leaning against the doorframe, David lightly clapped his hands with an amused expression. Remembering what had happened earlier, Clark felt somewhat embarrassed as he said to his younger brother.

Clark's happiness +14, gratitude +7, embarrassment +5...

"You always understand things better than I do, David."

Jonathan and Martha agreed with that as well. Their younger son was smart and mature and had never given them cause to worry.

"Clark, are you all right?"

The warm family atmosphere returned to normal. Martha remembered her son's pale face earlier. "Why did you look as though you were sick?"

"I'm fine, except for the back of my head... Hiss!"

Clark touched the back of his head. It felt as though a rocket had fallen from the sky and struck him there, making him suck in a sharp breath. Confused, he looked up at David.

"David, you...?"

Had Lana's necklace weakened him so much that his younger brother could actually hit him hard enough to hurt this badly?

That should not have been possible...

"Looks like that hit was a little too hard again."

The thought flashed through David's mind, but he calmly changed the subject.

"Maybe Clark was hurt by Whitney and the others."

"Hurt? Clark, someone beat you up?"

Just as Clark was about to ask David what was going on, Jonathan and Martha immediately questioned him with confusion and concern, leaving him no chance to ask David again.

Under the star-filled sky stood the massive warehouse at Farms where machinery and tools were stored.

On the open second-floor window, Clark explained the whole story to his parents. It took him a long time to finally reassure them that he had not suffered any injuries.

At least, not from Whitney and the others...

A gentle breeze passed through, making the wheat fields on Farms rustle softly. It was peaceful and pleasant, as though everything were the same as before.

Clark sat by the window and gazed through the astronomical telescope at a spot one kilometer away that was completely clear to him, an unconscious smile appearing at the corner of his lips.

In the telescope, a beautiful black-haired figure sat on the front steps of a house, enjoying the evening breeze while writing an English report.

Most importantly, the green necklace was no longer around her neck, and he could not help but start imagining things...

Suddenly, a figure sneaked toward Lana's house. After secretly taking several photos of Lana from behind the bushes, he put away his camera, deliberately shook the bushes, nervously and shyly set down a gift box, then turned and ran away.

Lana walked over in confusion and opened the gift box.

Several butterflies with beautiful, colorful wings and green glowing dust fluttered out, like something from a fairy tale.

She covered her mouth in surprise and looked toward the street, wanting to find the person who had given her the gift.

"A suitor?"

Clark felt a little sour inside. Lana's charm truly was extraordinary.

He prepared to see who had sent the gift and whether he knew him.

"I remember someone asking Mom for three hundred dollars, saying he was very interested in astronomy?"

Suddenly, a voice sounded. Clark jumped in fright and turned around.

David slowly came up the stairs, his expression strange and surprised.

"Seriously, when I first saw you using this thing to look outside, I thought that after learning about your origins, you were lonely and sorrowful among the stars, searching for your hometown."

"But the result..."

Looking at the astronomical telescope aimed directly at a certain house, he raised an eyebrow.