My Name Is Red Scarf

Three days passed quickly. Kraft brought the gift he had prepared for Aunt May and took a ride to Queens.

"Aunt May, happy birthday."

Walking into the Parkers' yard, Kraft handed the gift in his hand to Peter Parker beside him, stepped forward to give Aunt May a hug, then greeted the middle-aged man beside her.

"Uncle Ben, long time no see."

"Hello, Kraft."

Benjamin Parker stepped forward and patted his shoulder, saying with a smile, "I saw the news about you on TV a while back. It really gave me a fright."

Kraft curled his lip. "Isn't it all because Stark had to stir up trouble for no reason? I'm sick to death of it."

"Hey! How can you talk about Mr. Stark like that?!"

Peter Parker immediately stood up for his idol.

"Why can't I? He's not my idol. To me, he's just a huge nuisance. That's all."

"But your products only sold so much because Mr. Stark promoted them!"

Peter Parker argued with perfect confidence.

"Oh? Do you think my family is short on that little bit of money?"

Kraft lifted his chin, his face full of disdain.

"You look so annoying right now, Kraft! You've become the kind of person you used to hate most!"

"Yes, because I was just copying Tony Stark's usual behavior."

Kraft shrugged mockingly.

"See? Once you take off the fan filter, you actually find Tony Stark pretty annoying too."

"Th... that's completely different!"

Peter Parker stubbornly retorted.

Just then, Aunt May came over to smooth things over. She held Kraft by the shoulders and pushed him toward the house.

"All right, all right, stop bullying Peter. Come try the apple pie I made."

"Oh, fine. A seventh grade kid bullying an Eleventh Grade big kid really is a little unbecoming."

Kraft spread his hands and let Aunt May guide him inside.

"Come on, Peter. Help me bring out the grill."

Uncle Ben patted Peter on the back in consolation, then pulled him inside.

"Oh! Look who it is! Our little genius, Kraft Lee!"

The moment they entered, chubby Ned Leeds came waddling over, his whole body jiggling as he shouted in an exaggerated tone.

Kraft was fairly friendly toward this fellow Asian chubby guy. He reached out and high-fived Ned, then said modestly, "Oh, come on, Ned. The stuff I make isn't that technical. Haven't a bunch of imitation products already come out?"

America's copyright laws were already fairly strict, but capitalists could always find loopholes. After Stark made Mechanical Locks popular, all sorts of similar yet slightly different puzzle locks quickly appeared, along with compulsory fitness equipment resembling the Break the Cauldrons and Sink the Boats Treadmill.

"But none of them got invited by the famous Tony Stark, did they?"

"Oh, don't joke around..." Kraft rolled his eyes. "Do you really think Tony Stark sees me differently? He just said it casually."

Without the fan filter, Kraft remained clearheaded. With Tony Stark's unreliable personality, he might have forgotten Kraft's name the moment the interview ended.

Chatting and laughing with Ned as they entered the living room, Kraft picked up a piece of Aunt May's homemade apple pie and looked over the other people in the room while eating.

A few familiar faces were probably staff from the shelter. There were also two or three people he didn't recognize, perhaps Uncle Ben's friends. Other than that, no one else was there.

"Doesn't seem like there are many people."

After swallowing the apple pie in his hand, Kraft looked at Ned in puzzlement. With Aunt May and Uncle Ben's kindhearted personalities, they should have had far more friends than this. Martin had held Aunt May's birthday parties at the shelter twice before, and every time they had been packed to the rafters.

Ned answered irritably, "The Parkers' house is this tiny. Where would all those people even stand?"

"All right, that was stupid of me."

Kraft smacked his forehead, then looked around.

"What about Mary? Why didn't she come either?"

Mary's full name was Mary Jane Watson. Besides being Peter's neighbor, classmate, and secret crush, she was also the niece of Aunt May's friend Anna Watson, so logically, she should have attended Aunt May's birthday party too.

"I heard Aunt May left inviting Mary to Peter, and then... you know."

Ned shrugged helplessly.

"Ho ho~"

Kraft narrowed his eyes and revealed a foxlike, cunning smile.

"There's a Chinese saying: a close neighbor is better than a distant relative. Isn't it rude not to invite Mary to Aunt May's birthday?"

"Go tell Peter that."

Ned shook his head and picked up his fourth piece of apple pie. That was only the number Kraft had seen since coming in; Ned had definitely eaten plenty before then.

Kraft reached out and patted Ned's huge belly. "When I look at you, I can practically see David's future."

"David? Oh, the one whose family owns a restaurant!" Ned licked his lips, quickly recalling Fatty Liao. "Their food is really delicious! It's just too expensive!"

"Wait! Weren't we talking about Mary Jane? Why are we talking about my figure again?"

Ned slapped away Kraft's hand, which had been harassing his belly, then took a deep breath in an attempt to make it look less round. Unfortunately, he failed.

"What Mary Jane?"

Hearing the name he cared about, Peter, who had been busy working, rushed over at top speed and stared at Kraft warily.

"Don't do anything crazy, Kraft!"

"How am I doing anything crazy?" Kraft retorted righteously. "Is asking Mary to come to the party considered crazy?"

"Uh..." Peter's face instantly turned red. He fidgeted as he said, "But wouldn't it be too late to tell her now?"

Kraft looked at the coward who wanted it more than anything but still couldn't make up his mind with contempt. "And whose fault is it that it's this late, huh?"

Peter Parker covered his face in shame and fled.

Ned shook his head and sighed helplessly. His friend's personality really was a little too weak. He was actually being bullied into submission by a kid four or five years younger than him.

"Come on."

Kraft tugged Ned's arm.

"Let's go get Mary."

"If you're going to get Mary, can't you go by yourself? She's right next door anyway..."

As Ned spoke, he kept glancing at Uncle Ben, who was carrying raw steaks and hot dogs outside, swallowing now and then.

You're going to eat yourself to death!

Kraft said with dark lines across his forehead, "You're really not coming? Don't complain later that I didn't include you."

"Huh? Are you planning to mess with Peter again?"

Ned tore his attention away from the barbecue and looked at Kraft with a serious expression.

As Peter's friend, Ned had seen more than once how this brat found all kinds of ways to bully Peter. Thinking of Peter getting set up by Kraft again, he drew a deep breath.

"Please, you have to bring me along!"

Kraft craned his neck to look around. Peter was currently caught by Uncle Ben and helping him, paying no attention to this side. Then Kraft grabbed Ned's arm and quickly ran outside.

The two ran out of the Parkers' house, circled around the back, and arrived below Mary's home.

Ned watched as Kraft pulled a palm-sized electric megaphone from his pocket, fiddled with it for a moment, then held it to his mouth.

"Hey~ Ned, it's me, Peter Parker, your best friend!"

But Peter Parker's voice came out of the megaphone.

"Holy shit--!!!"

Ned's chubby face twisted into an exaggerated expression. He snatched the megaphone from Kraft's hand and brought it to his own mouth, trying out a few lines.

"I, Peter Parker, am Ned Leeds's most loyal little brother."

"Whoa! This thing is incredible! Kraft, you're seriously a genius!"

Ned fondly played with the electric megaphone in his hand and gave Kraft a thumbs-up.

Kraft took the voice-mimicking megaphone back from Ned, turned the volume all the way up, then aimed it at Mary Jane's house and shouted in Peter's voice, "Mary! I miss you! Mary! I miss you so much I can't sleep!!!"

After shouting, Kraft quickly put away the voice mimic and bolted. Ned froze for a moment before hurriedly running off with him.

The amplified voice not only startled Mary Jane, who had been resting inside the house, but also Peter Parker, who had been helping Uncle Ben and Aunt May.

"Who is that? Confessing to Mary!"

Peter Parker's heart tightened. When people spoke, the voice they heard themselves differed somewhat from what others heard, so he hadn't realized that the voice just now was actually his own.

But Uncle Ben and Aunt May were far more familiar with Peter's voice than anyone.

"Peter, wasn't that just now... your voice?"

Uncle Ben scratched his head in confusion and instinctively reached out to touch Peter in front of him. He still had not figured out what was going on.

"My voice?"

Though young Peter was cowardly, there was nothing wrong with his intelligence. In fact, he was considerably smarter than most people, so he quickly figured out the chain of events.

"Kraft!!!"

Peter Parker dropped what he was doing and sprinted toward Mary Jane's house.

He then happened to run into Mary Jane, who had pushed open her window and leaned out to see what was happening.

"Peter?"

Red-haired Mary Jane raised an eyebrow, her expression half amused and half teasing.

She and Peter Parker were neighbors and classmates, while their elders were best friends, so they knew each other quite well. Mary could naturally sense Peter's affection for her. Usually, he could barely squeeze out a word after half a day, yet today he was suddenly this bold?

"N-no, it's not like that... I... um..."

At that moment, Peter Parker seemed to have fallen into the greatest crisis of his more than ten years of life.