New York Park.
A thin layer of transparent ice floated on the surface of the central lake, glittering beneath the sunlight.
On a wooden bench by the lake, a young white man and a Chinese teenage boy sat side by side.
Captain America Steve Rogers tilted his head toward Xi Nian and said teasingly, "Thanks for not shouting just now. Otherwise, we might have gotten surrounded by onlookers again."
"That wasn't something I wanted to see either. I don't like attracting too much attention." Xi Nian shrugged, then asked curiously, "Captain, you weren't actually dead?"
"I was dug out of an iceberg in the Arctic not long ago." Steve spread his hands.
Perhaps neither Steve nor Xi Nian considered the other particularly extraordinary, so they naturally struck up a casual conversation.
"You said you didn't like attracting too much attention." Steve remarked, "In my era, everyone wished people would focus all their attention on them. Have young people of this generation changed?"
"Times have changed, Captain."
Xi Nian really wanted to mock that line, but in the end, he merely said, "Actually, people chase attention far more fiercely now than they did in your time."
"I don't want attention. It's just because I prefer a peaceful, quiet everyday life."
Upon hearing Xi Nian's words, Steve's young, handsome face visibly froze for a moment.
"Captain, there's a question I've personally wanted to ask you." Xi Nian asked curiously, "If you were given another chance, would you want to be an ordinary person or a superhero?"
"This..."
Steve paused, seemingly stumped by Xi Nian's question.
After a moment, Steve said softly, "I think I'd want to become an ordinary person after being a hero. Unfortunately, it's all too late now."
He clearly looked like a young man barely over twenty, yet the helplessness and loneliness on his face made him look exactly like a centenarian.
Still, calling him a "centenarian" didn't seem wrong.
Xi Nian vaguely understood what Steve was trying to say.
As a superhero, it was most likely for the sake of the world; as an ordinary person, it had to be for the sake of someone.
And when the world was still there but that person was gone, many things lost their meaning.
"Why would you think of such a question?" Steve looked at Xi Nian in confusion.
"Nothing. It just occurred to me." Xi Nian shook his head.
That question would also be the greatest one he would need to face in his future life.
The choice his aunt had mentioned stemmed from this as well.
Extraordinary, ordinary person.
The difference of a single thought.
"Xi Nian!" "Senior!"
Two calls suddenly came from behind him. Xi Nian turned around, and sure enough, it was Gwen and Kara.
How had they found him?
"Kid." Steve suddenly patted Xi Nian on the shoulder and said meaningfully, "As someone who's been there, I need to remind you to cherish the present. And also, take care of your body."
"Captain, you've misunderstood."
Xi Nian's mouth twitched. Why was Captain America being so improper?
"Captain, see you around." He waved, rose from the bench, and headed toward Gwen and Kara with his backpack in his arms.
Steve gave him an OK gesture.
"Xi Nian, who were you talking to just now?" Gwen curiously looked toward the distant bench.
Xi Nian looked back as well. By then, Captain America had already vanished from the wooden bench by the lake.
Xi Nian casually said, "Someone I ran into. We just chatted for a bit."
"Really?" Gwen blinked, half-believing him, but she did not press the matter.
Kara, meanwhile, wore a thoughtful expression.
Xi Nian and the others continued shopping and having fun. By the time they came back to their senses, it was already dark.
After night fell, New York, the city that never slept, brimmed with even greater vitality.
For young men and women in the first bloom of love, nighttime was the best time to create miracles.
Especially when traveling, they had the perfect excuse to spend a night away from home.
The perfect time and place!
New York, Queens, inside a local hotel.
"What? There's only one room left?" Xi Nian frowned after asking at the front desk. After thinking it over, he decisively pulled out his bank card and slapped it on the counter. "Then book it!"
"Xi Nian, isn't that a little inappropriate?" Behind him, Gwen's ears had turned completely red. This was still far too bold and exciting for her.
"Senior." Kara clasped her hands nervously, looking as though she wanted to say something but could not bring herself to.
"What are you two thinking?" Xi Nian scratched his head and arranged, "The two of you can stay here tonight. I'll look for another hotel on a nearby street."
The two beautiful girls were dumbfounded once again by a route and ending they had never anticipated.
The hotel receptionist saw this scene, opened her mouth wide, and had no idea what to say.
Please, be a decent person!
After settling his childhood friend Gwen and junior Kara into their accommodations, Xi Nian finally let out a breath of relief. With a backpack that occasionally revealed Little Orange Cat's head on his back, he searched for lodging along the street outside the hotel entrance.
Beneath the night sky, neon lights flickered.
Traffic flowed endlessly along the bustling street.
Xi Nian blended into the crowd and walked on. At the same time, in a corner of that very street.
Inside a dark alley without any lighting, damp and reeking of decay, an unidentified puddle of stagnant water on the ground suddenly wriggled on its own. The viscous black gelatin-like fluid seemed alive as it rolled and silently moved to a pitch-black corner, as though lying in wait and spying on pedestrians passing along the street outside.
"Is there really no human body suitable for parasitizing?"
"I can't hold on much longer..."
The unknown creature muttered hoarsely and irritably. It had no tangible limbs or brain, only a mass of black fluid. It was impossible to tell where even its voice came from.
Just then, the boy carrying a backpack passed by the street outside the alley.
The black liquid creature suddenly jerked violently, then raced crazily and swiftly along the alley wall in pursuit of Xi Nian.
Splat!
Xi Nian staggered as he walked down the street. He turned back in surprise and glanced behind him, feeling as if someone had lightly pushed his back.
Yet there was no one behind him.
"Was that an illusion?" Xi Nian muttered. He did not notice that inside his backpack, a pair of cat eyes had suddenly fixed themselves tightly on a certain part of his body.
Very soon.
Xi Nian found a second hotel not far from the one where Gwen and Kara were staying. Its entrance featured revolving doors. Xi Nian stepped forward and reached out to push the revolving door, but as he entered one of its enclosed compartments, his body suddenly shook violently.
A strange sensation surged from within, filling his heart.
"What's going on?" Xi Nian widened his eyes in confusion. He looked down at his hands in shock, only to see his body and clothes rapidly melting together like a snowman in summer! Countless drops of black liquid dripped downward, while sticky strands stretched out and connected them to the main body.
Gurgle, gurgle!
In an instant, Xi Nian's entire body dissolved into a puddle of black liquid, falling to the ground together with the backpack he was carrying!
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