At eight o'clock in the morning Lin Xiao returned to his doghouse. As soon as he pushed open the door, a familiar stench hit him. Lin Xiao paused, frowned, and then relaxed. He sniffed twice, and the smell rushed up to the top of his head through his nasal cavity.
"This smells amazing! Who touched my Wang Zhitai stinky tofu?"
As soon as he entered the room, he saw Tony sitting in the middle of the sofa. Tony was holding a sliced steamed bun in his left hand and a pair of chopsticks in his right hand, and he was putting two pieces of dark, stinky tofu into the steamed bun.
Lin Xiao's face darkened. "What are you doing here, you wasteful wretch? One piece is enough, add some soup!"
"You're here?" Tony didn't even look up. He brought the steamed bun he had picked up to his mouth, took a bite, chewed it a couple of times, then his brows furrowed, his expression incredibly interesting.
Tony swallowed what was in his mouth, his expression softening slightly, but still far from pleasant. "I'm truly amazed by your taste. Don't you know what it smells like?"
"Smells awful but tastes delicious." Lin Xiao plopped down on the single sofa next to him, putting his feet up on the armrest. "You came all the way to my house this morning just to try this?"
"You think I wanted to come?" Tony tossed the remaining half of the bun back onto the plate, picked up a bottle of mineral water, unscrewed it, and took a swig, as if rinsing his mouth. "I was woken up at three in the morning and haven't slept a wink since."
Lin Xiao turned his head to look at him. Tony did indeed have two dark circles under his eyes, his hair was unkempt, and his shirt collar was open, indicating that he really hadn't slept well. He bent down to pick up the box of stinky tofu, picked up a piece and put it in his mouth, chewing while waiting for Tony to speak.
"After you fought the Rhino last night and took Gwen Stacy home, where did you go?" Tony asked.
Texas.
"I know you went to Texas. S.P.E.A.R.. has already filed a report with Fury, saying that S.P.E.A.R.. has a cross-border operation within the America States, and they gave you advance notice." Tony leaned back on the sofa, rubbing his temples with his fingers. "That's not what I meant."
Lin Xiao, chewing on stinky tofu, didn't reply.
"At 2 AM, the CCTV footage outside the New York Police Department was intercepted. Homelander and Ghost-Spider walked out of the vault hand-in-hand. The image quality is high-definition, the angle is tricky, even the lines on your cuffs are clearly visible." Tony pulled his phone out of his pocket, flipped it a couple of times, and tossed it onto Lin Xiao's lap. "It's all over the internet now. Three out of the top five trending topics are related to you."
Lin Xiao glanced down at the screen. The first trending topic was followed by a red "hot" sign. " Homelander Ghost-Spider's Relationship Exposed." The second was " Beast Live-Action." He scrolled down the third one and saw a screenshot of him holding Gwen Stacy's hand as they walked out of the vault last night, accompanied by the caption. "Rhino tearfully accuses them of being inhuman, showing off their love in front of me."
He handed the phone back to Tony, his expression unchanged.
"What about Gwen Stacy? Has she been affected?"
" George chased all the reporters away from the police station, but he couldn't stop the online speculation." Tony took another sip of his mineral water, his tone faster than usual, carrying a hint of restlessness from not having slept enough. "Her identity hasn't been revealed yet, but several independent media outlets are already speculating."
Lin Xiao leaned back. The living room was quiet for a few seconds.
"Where are May and Betty?"
"They went to Vought. Jane went with them," Tony said. "I called at three in the morning, and the three of them arrived at the company at four-thirty. May was in charge of media relations, Betty was handling the legal aspects, and Jane was organizing the timeline, checking every post that might expose Ghost-Spider's identity. When I came out, they were still in the conference room, and the table was covered with printed screenshots."
Lin Xiao looked at the picture and frowned. "Tell me what you plan to do."
Tony placed the water bottle on the coffee table, leaned forward, rested his elbows on his knees, and turned to look at Lin Xiao. His expression was more serious than usual.
"I don't have any plans. I'm just here to make things clear: Vought is in charge of this now, so you just need to mind your own business. George will be watching Gwen Stacy, so don't go to see her for the next couple of days. You handle May and Betty yourself; Jane and I will take care of the PR. All you need to do is one thing: stop going out and partying. You can go to S.H.I.E.L.D.., just don't appear in public anymore."
Lin Xiao looked at him for two seconds, then suddenly smiled.
"You're doing it wrong; leveraging the opportunity for marketing is the key."
Tony looked at Lin Xiao, somewhat puzzled.
Lin Xiao continued, "What era are we living in?"
Tony frowned. "Stop talking nonsense."
Lin Xiao shrugged. "We live in an era of advanced internet and entertainment to the point of death. Think about it, if Gwen Stacy and I were to become such a hot topic online, what would it bring Vought besides trouble?"
Tony's eyes lit up. "A staggering amount of data!"
Lin Xiao nodded, looking like he knew the boy well.
"So, to ensure Gwen Stacy's identity remains hidden, Vought should increase the publicity. I'll give you a few themes to consider: [Superheroes Need to Fall in Love Too], [The Untold Stories of Our Homelander ], [Shocking! Ghost-Spider Actually Shines for Him.] If the traffic continues, we can get commercial contracts for Gwen Stacy. And maybe we can also launch a [ Beast ] couple rental service? A price of $5.2 million will do."
Tony stood up, looking excited.
"You're a genius, no, you're a prodigy..."
After discussing for half an hour, the two finally decided on their next target, and Tony left happily.
The door closed.
Lin Xiao sat alone in the living room, putting the last piece of stinky tofu into his mouth. He turned on the TV, and soon the news on the screen had switched to another story. "[Superheroes Need to Fall in Love Too!]" A smile crept onto Lin Xiao's lips. Tony had really put in the effort; he shouldn't be idle either, he should go find some fun at S.H.I.E.L.D..
As Lin Xiao was changing his shoes in the entryway, his phone rang again. An unfamiliar number appeared on the screen. He answered it.
" Lin Xiao." It was a flickering voice, slightly weary than usual, with a short, abrupt ending. " Dr. Wu's surgery is scheduled for tomorrow morning. Heartfire's condition has stabilized for now, but Doctor Li says it can't be delayed any longer."
"Knew."
"There's one more thing." Flash paused. "Hans Kruger contacted his connections in Washington last night and is investigating this matter. If you... have any trouble, let me know."
Lin Xiao leaned against the shoe cabinet, draping his coat over his shoulders.
"Not for now," he said. "You keep an eye on the surgery; I'll handle everything else."
After hanging up the phone, Lin Xiao sighed softly and walked towards the garage.
In the corridor of the S.H.I.E.L.D.. engineering department.
Susan stood in front of the vending machine, a coin clutched in her hand. Her gaze passed over the vending machine's glass and landed on the laboratory door at the end of the corridor. Reed was standing inside, his back to her, looking down at a tablet.
Reed has changed. These past few days, she's felt something's off about Reed. He's lost his usual gentleness, becoming cold and distant. He's lost his usual impulsiveness, becoming methodical in handling things. He used to consult her about problems, but now it's like he's a different person. Things he handles are resolved quickly, which is a good thing, but Susan still finds it strange. Yesterday, she even saw a green light in Reed's eyes... Susan, Susan, you can't think like that. Maybe it's your imagination.
Susan glanced at Reed for a few seconds, stuffed the coin back into her pocket, and turned to walk in another direction. Her steps were light, but she couldn't help but look back when she reached the corner. Reed was still standing in the same spot, and on the tablet screen in his hand was a molecular structure diagram. Susan recognized it; it was the core formula for the Cosmic Rays experiment, the version that Reed had spent three whole months calculating to derive.
But now the formula on the screen has been changed. Several key coefficients have changed, and the order of the structural formula has also changed. Susan's eyes lingered on those lines of text for a moment, her breathing became shallow, and her fingers clenched tightly in her pocket.
She didn't go over to ask. She turned around and walked towards the elevator, each step steady.
At the end of the corridor, behind the glass doors of the laboratory, Reed looked up. He turned his head, shifting his gaze from the tablet screen to the vending machine where Susan had just stood. A face was reflected in the glass of the vending machine: brown eyes, clean features, seemingly nothing unusual.
He stared at the face for two seconds, then looked down at the tablet again, swiped his finger across the screen, and deleted the modified formula.