George Daisy took a rare day off today, something extremely uncommon in his career. The last time he took a day off was for Gwen Stacy's elementary school graduation, and before that, it was when Helen gave birth to Gwen Stacy. When the New York Police Department officers saw the chief carrying two large bags of ribbons out of his office, their eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.
Several policemen who were close to George, led by Sige Lin, chased after him and asked if he needed help. George glared at them and said, "Do your jobs first." Then he added, "You can come to my house this afternoon after you finish what you're doing." Amid the cheers of the policemen, George shook his head and went out the door.
He went to a party supply store and bought three hundred balloons, pink and white, Gwen Stacy's favorite colors when she was little. He also ordered a three-tiered cake with a little figure standing on top, blond with blue eyes, wearing a white Spider-Man suit, looking exactly like the Ghost-Spider poster. The cake decorator asked who it was, and George said it was his daughter, that she loved Ghost-Spider, but his tone couldn't hide his pride.
At 2 PM, five colleagues came to help set up the scene. Black Detective Sige Lin, dressed as a clown with a crooked red nose, was blowing up balloons. Three others were hanging ribbons, and one was setting up tables. George stepped back to look, feeling something was missing. He went to the garage and found a drawing Gwen Stacy had made when she was seven. He framed it and placed it in the center of the main table. The drawing depicted a tall man in a police uniform leading a blonde little girl, with the words "Daddy & Gwen" scrawled beside it.
At 3 PM, after everything was arranged, George dialed Gwen Stacy's cell phone, but to his surprise, Gwen Stacy was off. George frowned but didn't think too much about it and waited a while.
He called Ginny, Ginny didn't know. He then called Katie, Katie said she hadn't seen her since her exam the day before.
George stood in the middle of the living room, phone clutched in his hand, his face gradually darkening. Sige Lin, with a balloon in his mouth, walked over and asked what was wrong, but George didn't answer. He dialed Gwen Stacy's number again, but it was still switched off.
"She should go find that bastard," George said through gritted teeth.
"Which bastard?" Sige Lin spat out the balloon.
George didn't answer. He stood on the balcony, gazing at Queens gray Queens skyline, his mind replaying only one image: his daughter, whom he had raised with such care for eighteen years, fair-skinned, beautiful, and with a smile like a flower. Now, she was being tossed around by a giant wild boar, over two meters tall, muscular, and spouting nonsense, grunting as it did so. And he couldn't do anything about it. "Just wait and see," he thought, "After this day, I'll lock Gwen Stacy up at home."
It was 9:30 PM. Everyone had arrived.
Gwen Stacy's girlfriends were huddled on the sofa, chattering away. Two colleagues were heating up food in the kitchen. Sige Lin, his clown makeup half-smudged, sat on the carpet playing cards with Gwen Stacy's cousin. Helen came out of the kitchen, wiped her hands, and asked George, "Hasn't Gwen Stacy come back yet?"
George stood on the balcony, his knuckles white as he gripped his phone. He stared at the screen for a long time before finally dialing a number.
The phone rang four times before it was answered.
"Hello, Uncle." Lin Xiao's voice was quite cheerful on the other end, " Gwen Stacy and I are together, so don't worry."
George's temples throbbed twice. "Relax?" he thought. His daughter would be an adult in just a few hours, and that was his biggest worry. " Lin Xiao, let me tell you, if you dare Gwen Stacy, I'll..."
Suddenly, another number rang on his phone. It was the duty room phone. George glanced down, suppressed his anger, and switched to the number. The voice on the other end was urgent and trembling. " John Compson Bank on Fifth Avenue, New York! A strange man in a rhinoceros suit has broken into the underground vault! He calls himself the Rhino, and he's currently smashing down the vault door; he's already broken through two layers!"
George closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened them again, his face was expressionless. "Notify all officers to assemble at the police station within ten minutes. I'll be there immediately."
He hung up the phone, turned and went inside, glancing at the girls on the sofa, then at Helen. "Something came up at the station, I have to go."
Helen opened her mouth as if to say something, but in the end she just nodded. As George passed through the entryway, he casually grabbed his coat from the hanger, and the door closed behind him, the sound a few decibels louder than usual.
At 12:30 a. m., Lin Xiao's car was parked in front of Gwen Stacy.
Gwen Stacy jumped out of the passenger seat, her backpack strap slipping down to her elbow, her hair a little messy from the wind. Just as she reached for the door, it was pulled open from the inside.
Helen stood in the doorway, one hand on the doorframe, the other holding her phone. Her gaze shifted from Gwen Stacy's face to Lin Xiao's Lin Xiao, then back to Gwen Stacy's, her expression incredibly complex. To be honest, she didn't object to Lin Xiao as a person, but her daughter was turning 18 today, and they were together, going crazy all day long, never seeing each other again—this was outrageous. Helen suppressed her emotions and said...
"Honey, you're back! Did you have fun today?"
Gwen Stacy's eyes crinkled with laughter.
"I'm so happy, Mom! This is the coolest day I've had in my seventeenth or eighteenth year."
Gwen Stacy peeked into the house and saw her best friend sitting on the sofa. She reached out to greet them, but when she looked at the painting she had drawn as a child in the center of the room, she paused for a moment and her eyes immediately welled up with tears.
"I'm sorry, Mom. I was probably too willful. I was out all day. Where's Dad?"
Helen opened her mouth. "He went to handle official business."
Gwen Stacy stopped in her tracks. "What?"
"Over on Fifth Avenue, some Rhino, smashing up a bank vault." Helen leaned against the doorframe, her tone weary, yet strangely calm. "He waited until 9:30, but you didn't come back, then the station called."
Gwen Stacy's Spider-Sense activated almost simultaneously. A tingling sensation shot up her spine from the back of her neck, and her temples throbbed. She instinctively raised her hand to press against the back of her head, her brows furrowing.
Lin Xiao walked up behind her and stood beside her. He didn't rush to speak, but first bowed slightly to Helen, his expression unusually serious.
"Auntie, it's my fault tonight. Gwen Stacy, and I wanted to give her a nice birthday celebration, but I didn't expect it to interfere with important matters. I'm really sorry."
Helen looked at him, her lips pursed. This man, over two meters tall, stood at her doorstep, his attitude sincere, without any frivolous smiles or excuses. She recalled the way George gritted his teeth every time he mentioned this man, and then looked at her daughter standing beside him, leaning unabashedly on his arm.
"Alright," Helen sighed, "Don't stand at the door, come in."
"Mom," Gwen Stacy interrupted her, glancing at Lin Xiao, "We have to go."
Helen's expression froze for a moment.
Lin Xiao met Gwen Stacy's gaze, and a slow smile curved his lips. "Let's go together; we can help my father-in-law."
Gwen Stacy rolled her eyes at him. "Who are you calling father-in-law?" But the smile on her lips was unmistakable. She raised her hand, pressed a button on the Web-Shooter, and gestured with her chin towards Lin Xiao. "Then don't embarrass me. I'm quite popular now."
Lin Xiao gave a peace sign. "Yes, yes, my Gwen Stacy."
Gwen Stacy ignored him and turned to run a few steps toward the street corner. The nanotech suit emerged from her backpack, climbing up her arms and waist, its pink, white, and black colors gleaming coldly under the streetlights. She pulled up her hood and covered her face with a mask.
Lin Xiao completed his transformation at the same time. A red battle suit covered his entire body, and a cape spread out behind him, with the five-clawed golden dragon on it flickering in the streetlights. He tapped his toes, and his whole body floated in mid-air.
"Can you keep up?" Gwen Stacy looked up at him.
"Of course, how about we have a speed contest?"
What are we comparing?
Twenty spanks.
"You..."
Gwen Stacy stomped her foot in frustration, kicking the ground. Silk shot out and stuck to the edge of the opposite rooftop, launching her into the air. She somersaulted in the air and glanced back at him. Lin Xiao smiled, leaping after her. Two figures, one in red and one in white, swept across the rooftops of New York in the dead of night, flying towards Fifth Avenue.
Helen stood at the doorway, looking up at the two beams of light disappearing between the buildings. She stood there for a long while, then sighed softly.
Fifth Avenue, John Compson Bank.
The police cordon had been set up two blocks away. Red and blue police lights flashed in the night fog, illuminating the entire street intermittently. George stood next to the command vehicle, a walkie-talkie in his hand, watching as the over three-meter-tall, greyish-white figure in the bank lobby punched through the third-floor vault door, sending metal and concrete fragments flying in all directions.
"Everyone stay still." George pressed the button on the walkie-talkie. "The heavy firepower hasn't arrived yet, don't go in and get yourself killed."
"Chief! There are still hostages inside!"
"I know," George said in a low voice, "Just wait patiently..."
Just then, a red shadow swept overhead. George looked up, but before he could see clearly, a white figure swung down from the rooftop to the side, its Silk drawing a silver line under the streetlights. The two landed in front of the bank.
George's pupils contracted slightly. That white battle suit, that figure, that posture of swinging on the Silk.
" Gwen Stacy," he whispered, almost gritting his teeth as he said it.
Sige Lin leaned closer, the clown's nose crooked, his face filled with shock. "Chief, that's... that's Ghost-Spider? And who's that guy in the red combat suit?"
George didn't answer. He saw the girl in the white battle suit glance back at the cloaked man beside her, and then the two of them moved at the same time. Gwen Stacy's Silk shot out from her wrist, wrapped around the beam above the bank's main entrance, and she used the momentum to propel herself inside. The red figure flew up and slipped through the broken window on the second floor.
George stood there, the walkie-talkie in his hand creaking under his grip. He stared at the bank door, his expression shifting repeatedly before settling into a complex silence.
"Chief?" Sige Lin asked cautiously.
"Keep an eye on the back door," George forced out through clenched teeth. "Don't let that rhinoceros get away."
Sige Lin ran off at the sound of his voice. George stood alone beside the command vehicle, looking up at the dark window on the second floor. A muffled thud came from inside, like something heavy hitting the wall, and the whole building shook.
He took a deep breath and pressed his temples.
"That girl," he said in a low voice, "I'll settle the score with you when we get home."