After-Sales Service for the Iron Can and S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Invitation

The afternoon sunlight generously flooded the terrace of Stark Villa. The sea breeze carried a salty, humid scent, stirring the loose strands of hair across Xiao Han's forehead.

His left hand steadily held up the red-and-gold Mark IV armor, which weighed several tons, while his right hand still held a family-sized tub of ice cream.

Inside the armor's cockpit, Tony Stark felt as though he had been stuffed into a high-speed spinning washing machine, then forcibly hit with the pause button.

The alarms inside the helmet shrieked harshly as red warnings of system failures flashed wildly before his eyes. Through the visor, all he could see was Xiao Han's face below, calm to the point of boredom, and that utterly ordinary-looking palm supporting his entire weight and the momentum of his fall.

An immense sense of absurdity and crushing frustration instantly drowned Tony. His crowning technological achievement, the pinnacle of human intelligence, was as fragile as a child's toy before a power that truly transcended the mundane.

"J-JARVIS! Damage report!" Tony's voice was dry and hoarse, trembling with the aftershock of narrowly escaping death.

"Sir, the external armor is ninety-nine percent intact. Due to an instantaneous overload from the energy core, seventy percent of the internal circuits have melted or short-circuited. Propulsion, navigation, life support, and weapons systems are all offline. The energy core's output has fallen to zero and entered a forced dormant cooling state.

In short, Sir, we have become an expensive... metal sculpture." There was a trace of helplessness in JARVIS's voice.

A metal sculpture? Tony looked at the face below and felt that the term could not have been more fitting.

"Bearded uncle, how was the experience? Emergency-stop freefall service, plus a panoramic skylight view. Exciting enough?"

Tony's face flushed red beneath the visor, humiliated and furious. He wanted to retort, wanted to roar, but his throat seemed blocked, and he could not force out a single word.

The terror of losing control and plummeting to his death just moments ago, combined with the humiliation of being held up like a giant figurine, shattered his genius's pride into pieces.

"Looks like he's scared stupid." Xiao Han shrugged, lightly raising the arm that held the armor before slowly lowering it again. The multi-ton metal creation was weightless in his hand as he set it soundlessly and steadily in the center of the terrace without so much as a tremor.

The armor's foot-thruster nozzles still carried a faint scorched smell as they hung limply toward the ground.

"All right, the 'sculpture' has landed safely." Xiao Han clapped his hands as though dusting them off. "Remember to pay for the 'emergency rescue' and 'rooftop fright compensation.' Let's convert that into... unlimited premium doughnuts for the next three months." He shook the half-empty ice cream tub. "Buy more of this brand too."

With that, he ignored the petrified Tony in the cockpit, carried the ice cream tub inside, humming an off-key tune as he went looking for the refrigerator.

Only the massive red-and-gold armor remained on the terrace, reflecting a cold gleam beneath the sunlight like a huge symbol of mockery.

"Sir? Your vital signs indicate..." JARVIS began cautiously.

"Shut up!" Tony snarled, his voice thick with suppressed anger and frustration. He slammed the helmet-release button, and the faceplate sprang open, revealing a pale, sweat-soaked face filled with unwillingness.

He struggled to climb out of the cockpit, but the powerless armor was incredibly heavy, its joints locked tight. He was like a trapped beast locked inside an iron cage.

Just then, Pepper and Happy rushed onto the terrace, panting heavily. The laboratory's suddenly opening ceiling and the thunderous engine roar had alerted them.

"Tony! Oh God! Are you all right?" Pepper's face went pale when she saw Tony awkwardly stuck inside the armor.

"Boss! What happened?" Happy warily scanned the surroundings. At last, his gaze fell on the clearly stalled armor in the center of the terrace, then on Tony's embarrassing predicament inside it. His expression became complicated.

"I'm fine!" Tony gritted his teeth, unwilling to embarrass himself in front of Pepper and Happy. "It was just... a minor system compatibility test! There was a little accident! Happy! Get over here and help me out!"

Happy and Pepper had to exert every ounce of strength before they finally managed to "pull" Tony out of the deadweight armor. Tony dropped onto the scorching terrace tiles and gasped for air, his expensive custom vest drenched in sweat and stuck tightly to his body.

"A compatibility test?" Pepper looked at Tony's sorry state, then at the Mark IV beside him, which resembled a pile of scrap metal. Her anger flared. "Tony Stark! You almost turned yourself into a meat pancake! What kind of test was that?"

"An accident! I said it was an accident!" Tony irritably raked a hand through his hair, his eyes darting away. "The coupling between the New Element Core and the armor systems still needs optimization! JARVIS, analyze the overload data immediately! I need to know..."

"It was because of the sunlight, right?" a leisurely voice came from the terrace entrance.

The three turned around and saw that Xiao Han had somehow returned. He held a freshly scooped, towering mound of chocolate ice cream and leaned against the doorframe, eating with obvious relish.

"Sunlight?" Tony frowned.

"Mm-hm." Xiao Han licked his spoon. "The energy core in that iron can of yours basically absorbs and converts external energy to power itself, right? Solar energy is one kind of energy. Unfortunately, when you flew out just now, the sunlight happened to shine directly onto that glittery little thing on your chest."

Seeing Tony's expression instantly change, he continued his explanation at an unhurried pace. "The New Element Core is powerful, but its requirements for energy-input thresholds and stability are higher too.

Your energy-management system clearly never accounted for the core going crazy and absorbing excessive solar energy in bright conditions, like a wild dog that hadn't eaten for three days spotting a meaty bone. And the result..." He pointed his spoon at the silent armor. "Indigestion. It ate itself to death."

Tony's face went from white to red, then from red to green. He wanted to argue, but Xiao Han's analysis was as precise as a scalpel, cutting straight to the heart of the issue!

When he had burst out of the laboratory and into the blazing sunlight, his HUD had indeed flashed an instant warning that the energy input was surging abnormally. But it had happened too quickly—so quickly that he had no time to react at all!

"How... how did you know?!" Tony's voice was filled with disbelief.

"Guessed." Xiao Han looked completely matter-of-fact. "After all, I'm a professional 'solar panel.' I know a little more than you about sunlight and energy."

He scooped up a huge bite of ice cream. "I suggest you give your iron can an 'umbrella' function next time, or... just don't fly on sunny days? Oh, right. Don't forget to add the repair bill to my doughnut budget."

Watching Xiao Han's swaying figure leave once more, Tony nearly ground his teeth to pieces in anger. Pepper rubbed her forehead with a sigh, while Happy looked from the expensive "scrap metal" to Tony. His eyes were full of sympathy, as well as awe at Xiao Han's unfathomable knowledge.

Over the next few days, the atmosphere in the villa became somewhat strange. Tony buried himself in the laboratory and began frantically modifying the Mark IV's energy-management system with almost obsessive determination. He added all sorts of energy dampeners and light-blocking coatings, swearing to wash away his shame. The laboratory was once again filled with the shriek of welding torches and Tony's furious roars.

Pepper, meanwhile, was troubled by Xiao Han's bill for "unlimited premium doughnuts for three months." Tony's credit-card bills were already terrifyingly high due to the expensive experimental materials and equipment he had bought—not to mention the instruments Xiao Han had damaged during his "tests." Now there was an additional astronomical dessert expense.

She could only try her best to balance the budget while praying that Tony's new armor would not cause any more trouble.

Happy, meanwhile, gained a new task—serving as Xiao Han's sparring partner. It had started with Xiao Han casually saying, "Paid instruction," while watching him hit a punching bag one day.

Happy had initially refused, but Tony's "Go! Figure out what he's capable of! That's an order!" combined with Xiao Han's straightforward price of "one box of strawberry-frosted doughnuts per session" made him grit his teeth and agree.

The lawn in the villa's backyard became a temporary training ground. The process was brutally miserable and completely overturned Happy's understanding of the world.

"Left leg! Too slow!"

Happy threw a powerful right hook, but Xiao Han's figure vanished from before his eyes in an instant. Then a finger lightly tapped the bend of his left knee. An irresistible wave of numb soreness swept through his body, and he lost his balance, pitching forward like a clumsy rag doll and landing face-first in the grass.

"How many times do I have to tell you? Keep your center of gravity steady, drive your force through, and stop moving like a drunk bear." Xiao Han's voice came from above, carrying a hint of disdain.

He did not need to use any superhuman strength or speed. With nothing more than his terrifying insight into muscular force and human anatomy, along with reaction nerves precise to the extreme, he could toy with Happy, a former professional boxer, as easily as he pleased.

Every one of his "pointers" landed precisely on flaws in Happy's movements and weak spots left by old injuries, making him wince in pain while leaving him unable to resist.

"Get up. Again." Xiao Han lazily beckoned with one hand, a lollipop between his lips.

Happy struggled to his feet and wiped grass clippings and dirt from his mouth. The initial reluctance in his eyes had vanished, replaced by a complicated gleam of pain, admiration, and the desire to grow stronger. He knew that this seemingly lazy guy's mastery of combat had long surpassed the limits of human understanding.

After every training session, Happy felt as though he had been taken apart and reassembled. His entire body ached, but certain bottlenecks in his technique that had plagued him for years seemed to be genuinely loosening.

One evening, Tony finally emerged from the laboratory with heavy dark circles beneath his eyes and an exhausted yet excited expression. The Mark IV's energy-management system had undergone hellish modifications, with multiple redundant safeguards and adaptive solar-energy dampeners installed. He could not wait to take to the sky again and prove himself.

However, as soon as he entered the living room, he saw Pepper holding a solemn-looking black envelope with an antique design and no markings whatsoever.

"Tony, this just arrived. There's no postmark and no sender. Happy found it in the mailbox by the front door." Pepper handed him the envelope.

Tony frowned as he took it. The envelope felt cold and heavy in his hand. He tore it open and found only a simple white card inside, with a single line printed on it:

Mr. Stark, and your special guest:

Tomorrow at noon, Manhattan, Stark Tower's top-floor restaurant.

Nick Fury cordially invites you.

(Please be punctual. The fate of Earth depends on it.)

Beneath the card was a familiar emblem of a spread-winged eagle—S.H.I.E.L.D.

"Fury?" Tony scoffed. "That guy finally couldn't sit still? And 'the fate of Earth depends on it'? What a tired old line." He casually tossed the card onto the coffee table.

But Pepper looked deeply worried. "Tony, he mentioned a 'special guest'... He's obviously referring to Xiao. What does Fury want? Coulson came to deliver a warning last time, and now there's a direct invitation? At a time like this?"

"Who cares what he wants?" Tony's mind was entirely on testing his armor. "I don't have time to play house with him. JARVIS, notify Fury that I'm busy saving the world... in my own way."

"Sir, Director Fury is using a one-way encrypted communication channel. A reply cannot be sent," JARVIS answered.

Just then, Xiao Han appeared at the staircase like a ghost, holding a plate of freshly baked chocolate cookies. He had obviously come downstairs after catching the scent. He glanced at the black card on the coffee table.

"Fury's dinner invitation?" He stuffed a cookie into his mouth and asked indistinctly.

"What? You want to go?" Tony raised an eyebrow, a hint of provocation in his voice. "I hear S.H.I.E.L.D.'s cafeteria food is pretty mediocre. It definitely won't be as good as Pepper's cookies."

Xiao Han chewed his cookie, his gaze passing over the words "the fate of Earth depends on it" on the card. A playful curve appeared at the corner of his lips.

"The food doesn't matter." He spoke slowly and picked up another cookie. "But watching that one-eyed guy seriously say the world is doomed..."

He paused, tossed the cookie into his mouth, and bit down with a crisp crunch.

"Should go pretty well with a meal."