Jessica

When Peter Parker first stepped into the Daily Bugle and presented the photos he had taken to his boss, J. Jonah Jameson, Jameson picked through them and selected a few. In the end, he paid Peter only fifty dollars. It was not much, but it was a good start for Peter.

But over the next few days, Jameson did not like a single photo Peter took. He even told Peter to his face, "These are all crap. They're worthless." Naturally, Peter was unconvinced, and he could not help arguing with Jameson.

Eventually, Jameson grew tired of Peter and said, "Kid, aren't you trying to earn tuition money for college? I heard there's some guy called Spider-Man running around New York lately. If you can get photos of him, I'll pay for them."

Peter's eyes immediately lit up. Taking pictures of himself! How had he not thought of such a brilliant move?

Peter agreed to Jameson's request without another word. Watching Peter leave with such confidence, Jameson disdainfully returned to his executive chair and resumed his work. He had only said it to get Peter out of his office. If Spider-Man were that easy to photograph, someone would have gotten pictures of him long ago.

But to his surprise, Peter Parker really brought him photos of Spider-Man the very next day. Some of them even showed Spider-Man striking rather flashy poses. Looking at the photos, Jameson asked Peter, "Kid, how did you get these?"

Peter smiled. "Trade secret."

"Fine. These photos are all garbage, but since I already said I'd buy them yesterday, I'll give you two hundred dollars for them."

Though Jameson called the pictures garbage, he was only trying to drive down the price.

The moment Peter heard it was only two hundred dollars, he said, "That's too low."

"Then go find someone else."

Jameson directly handed the photos back to Peter. Just as Peter put them away, packed them up, and stood to leave, Jameson immediately called out, "Sit down. Let me see them again."

Peter handed the photos back to Jameson. To hide his embarrassment, Jameson flipped through them carelessly. "Three hundred dollars. That's the standard rate."

This time, Peter had no objections to the price and happily sold the Spider-Man photos to Jameson.

The next day, the Daily Bugle featured Spider-Man on its front page. This let many people in New York know that, besides Iron Man, a second superhero had appeared. From then on, Peter also became bolder. He had previously fought crime only at night, but now he began appearing during the day as well.

Meng Zu stared expressionlessly at Peter Parker, though inwardly he sighed at having run into him. He had encountered Spider-Man twice during the day while the latter was playing hero. Meng Zu did not know whether it was because Peter's skintight suit hid his face, but whenever he subdued criminals, he loved provoking them with endless trash talk until they lost control before finally taking them down.

Seeing Meng Zu staring silently at him, Peter could not help trash-talking, "Hey, buddy, why are you staring at me without saying anything? Don't tell me you're interested in me too, besides this drunk girl?"

Hearing that, Meng Zu's eyelid twitched. To avoid listening to any more of Peter's nonsense, he said, "FBI. Spider-Man, since you like meddling in other people's business, you can take this drunk girl to the police station yourself."

As he spoke, Meng Zu pulled an FBI badge from his pocket and showed it to Peter. Coulson had arranged the FBI credentials for Meng Zu. When S.H.I.E.L.D. operated outside, it liked to impersonate government agencies such as the FBI, CIA, NSA, and sometimes even the IRS.

Coulson had given Meng Zu the badge so he could handle things more easily if he encountered police officers while carrying out missions.

After speaking, Meng Zu ignored Peter and turned to walk out of the alley. Peter scratched his head as he watched Meng Zu leave. He could not tell whether the FBI badge was real, but what if it was? It would be troublesome if he attacked Meng Zu. Besides, the drunk girl was in his arms right now, and Meng Zu had not done anything to her.

Forget it, he would treat it as real. With that thought, Peter held the drunk girl with one arm and raised his wrist toward the rooftop. A white web shot from his web-shooter onto the roof above. Then Peter yanked hard on the web and jumped, soaring ten meters into the air and landing on the roof in an instant. Carrying the drunk girl, he ran toward the police station.

(PS: The spider that bit Peter Parker was set as a spider infected by radiation in the comics. The spider in the older Spider-Man version came from genetic modification, so this Peter Parker could not secrete webs from his body like the older version. Both his web fluid and web-shooters were developed by himself.)

Meng Zu returned home in a pleasant mood and made himself dinner. What had originally been one mission had turned into two, and he had gained an extra two hundred Contract Points. The previous mission investigating the cult organization had given him eighty Contract Points.

After washing the dishes, Meng Zu took a shower and went to sleep. Early the next morning, he drove to the company. As he passed a commercial plaza, he saw Jameson, the owner of the Daily Bugle, on a large screen in the square. Onscreen, Jameson declared righteously, "Spider-Man is a pest to this city! He spends all day acting as an unlawful vigilante, doing whatever he wants and causing enormous harm to the public! Even that tight suit wrapped around him cannot hide his ugly nature! Revealing the truth has always been our newspaper's mission. Sooner or later, I'll expose his hideous true face and find out who this irritating web-slinging freak really is!"

Meng Zu immediately gave Jameson a mental thumbs-up. After Spider-Man was reported by the Daily Bugle, Jameson was basically either cursing Spider-Man in the newspaper every day or cursing him on television. He truly was Spider-Man's number one hater. Tony Stark was also acting as a vigilante, yet Jameson never cursed Tony Stark. Well, probably because Tony was too rich.

At eleven in the morning, Meng Zu was sorting through recent commissions with Yang Hai when the sound of footsteps climbing the stairs rang out. "Tap, tap, tap!" A young, thin-looking white woman with black hair under a baseball cap staggered up to the second floor with a bottle of liquor in her hand.

As she approached, Meng Zu and Yang Hai immediately smelled the pungent odor of alcohol. Yang Hai pinched his nose and said, "Oh my God, Jessica, didn't you promise my dad you'd quit drinking? Why are you drinking again?"

This woman was Jessica Jones. She was eighteen years old and a private detective—or, more accurately, a rookie detective who had not even been in the business for a month. A few days earlier, Uncle Yang had encountered her while doing a commission in Hell's Kitchen, New York. At the time, several street punks had been harassing her. Uncle Yang drove them away, and after learning about her situation, he recruited her into the company as a private detective.

From what Uncle Yang had told him, Meng Zu learned that Jessica's family had been in a car accident a year ago. Her parents and younger brother had all died in the crash, leaving only her alive. Jessica remained unconscious in the hospital for several months before finally waking up. She was then adopted by the Jones family. After graduating from high school that summer and failing to get into college, Jessica found work at a detective agency, until she met Uncle Yang.

Whenever Jessica missed her family, she blamed herself. If she had not argued with her younger brother, her father would not have been distracted while driving and gotten into the accident. To forget those painful memories, Jessica used alcohol to numb herself.