Hill rested one hand on his forehead as he listened to Lin Xiao's fawning voice coming from the phone.
"Honey, really, I'm sick, very sick. I won't be going today. I need to have a minor surgery, don't worry, it's called 'resection of useless accessory tissues in the human body'."
Hill murmured, "A haircut is fine, but why talk about mass excision of useless human tissue? Natasha and I just talked on the phone, you two planned this, right? You were only gone for less than three minutes. I heard someone laughing next to you, it was Natasha, wasn't it?" There was silence on the other end, then Lin Xiao's voice came through.
"Honey, you're amazing, you even knew that, haha," Lin Xiao's voice came through the receiver, carrying a kind of resigned nonchalance after being caught. "Well, Natasha is indeed here, but she's sick, and I'm taking care of her. Really, she has a high fever right now."
Before Hill could reply, Natasha's voice came from the other end of the phone, hoarse and disdainful. "Don't listen to him, I'm perfectly fine, you're the one with the fever. He's the one who's refusing to leave."
" Natasha, give me the phone."
"No."
There was a rustling sound on the other end of the phone, followed by Lin Xiao's muffled shout, " Hill, let me explain." Hill took the phone away from her ear, looked at the call timer flashing on the screen, her lips twitched, and she pressed the hang-up button.
She stared at the two leave request emails that had arrived one after the other on the screen, one from Lin Xiao and the other from Natasha, each with its own awful wording. She sighed and typed "Approved" under both emails.
Natasha's apartment in Queens.
Lin Xiao leaned against the headboard, his back supported by Natasha's only pillow. He stared awkwardly at the phone that had been hung up on. Natasha rested her head on Lin Xiao's arm, drawing circles on his chest with her finger. Circle after circle, sometimes forgetting where she was halfway through, she would just spin around in place and start over. The TV was still on not far away, the volume turned up low. It was showing a parenting program, a group of children rolling around in the mud, with their parents beaming with joy.
Neither of them moved, just huddled together, the light filtering through the curtains changing from the bright white of midday to the warm orange of evening.
Natasha's fingers traced along Lin Xiao's chest, her voice cloying.
" Lin Xiao, isn't your arm numb?"
"Numb."
"What? You remembered?"
"Mind your own business, I'm not getting up, I'll fucking kill you, you big pervert."
Lin Xiao chuckled and tightened his grip on the television. Several programs were already playing on TV – news, variety shows, and old movies – and now a parenting program was airing. The host had invited three mothers to chat on stage, each holding a baby. One child yawned in front of the camera, clenching and unclenching his tiny fist, which drew laughter from the audience.
Lin Xiao felt Natasha's fingers stop at that moment. He looked down and found that she was watching the baby on TV with an amazing light in her eyes. The next second, she seemed to notice that Lin Xiao was watching her, looked away from the TV, yawned, and rubbed against Lin Xiao's arm.
I'm sleepy.
Lin Xiao stroked Natasha's hair, placed a kiss on her forehead, and spoke gently.
"Okay, then you should get some sleep."
"Don't move your arm, or you'll be in big trouble if you wake me up."
"Do not move."
A few minutes later, after Natasha's breathing had evened out, Lin Xiao slowly loosened his fingers from his chest, then gently moved to cover Natasha with the blanket. He closed his eyes and sank into the System Space.
" Doupao."
"Ding--Here."
There's something I want to ask you.
"Ding--Host, please ask."
Lin Xiao paused for a moment.
"Back when I first time-traveled, life was uncertain, and I asked you to lock... Can you unlock that thing?"
Doupao didn't answer immediately; she remained silent for a few seconds before replying.
"Ding-- Confirmed, the host's gene seed is in a sealed state. Does the host wish to unlock it?"
"No rush," Lin Xiao said in a low voice. "Let's deal with the Chitauri problem first. I know May isn't saying anything, but I know she wants a child. Her eyes light up every time she talks about Peter as a child, Betty's phone wallpaper is a little doll. I saw Natasha like that today... If I want Natasha to be able to have children, is there any way?"
The Doupao remained silent for even longer.
"Ding--Target is from the Red Room, and related parts have been surgically removed. Regeneration is extremely difficult. The current host has the following options available."
The panel lit up, and a row of words popped up: Ope Ope no Mi, from the world of One Piece; Holy Light, from World of Warcraft; Strength of a Hundred Technique, from Hokage Ninja; Horse Talisman, from Jackie Chan Adventures.
"Ding--All of the above possess limb regeneration and organ reconstruction capabilities, and theoretically can repair the target damaged area."
Lin Xiao's eyes lit up.
"However, there's one thing," Doupao's speech remained unchanged, "The reward pool covers countless worlds, and the probability of the host drawing any of the above items is one in a billion."
Lin Xiao's expression froze for a second. One in a billion. His lips twitched, and he closed his eyes, cursing Doupao twice in his mind. After cursing, he closed the system and fell into deep thought.
He possessed the Perfect Lizard Serum, which had healed his wounds before. However, the serum's compatibility with Natasha was unknown; if it turned her into a giant lizard, he'd have to kill himself first. He had developed the healing properties of Blue Silver Grass, but it could only provide temporary relief, not regeneration. Besides, he knew Wolverine's healing factor was strong, but the image of Deadpool's face flashed through his mind, sending a chill down his spine, and he quickly crossed that off. The Soul Stone —that was far, far away. Who knew how long it would take him to collect Infinity Stones?
There's only one safe and efficient way left.
Asgard.
Asgard's medical technology and magic are the strongest in the Nine Realms, so Thor must have a way. Lin Xiao's lips slowly curled up, and he felt more confident as he recalled the image of that blond giant swinging his hammer.
"Hey bro, what are you doing right now...?"
Asgard, the Great Palace of the Asgard.
Thor was sitting on the steps wiping Mjolnir, the cloth rubbing back and forth on the hammerhead. Halfway through, he suddenly sneezed, and the hammer almost slipped off his knee. He rubbed his nose, looked up at the ceiling, and frowned.
"Who's talking about me?"
A priest strode over from the side corridor and whispered a few words in his ear. Thor paused for a moment, the strip of cloth in his hand fell to the ground, and he stood up abruptly.
"What? I can go back to the Midgard in three months?"
The priest nodded. Thor gripped the hammer handle, his expression shifting from shock to ecstasy, then to an irrepressible sense of pride. He turned his head and glanced in a certain direction outside the hall.
Sif stood beside the temple door, her back against a pillar, gripping the butt of her spear. She heard Thor's words, her eyes lit up for a moment, then she looked down at the tips of her boots. A burning sensation spread from her cheeks down her neck, she pursed her lips, slammed the spear shaft on the ground, and pretended not to have heard anything.
Thor didn't notice her; he was striding towards the palace gates, muttering something under his breath, probably asking the priest for the latest news from Midgard.
Meanwhile, at S.H.I.E.L.D..'s secret research and development center.
The crane boom came to a stop, the welding torch went out, and in the engineering department, Reed stood beside the rotor base. He looked up at the behemoth; the propulsion system was already installed, the four rotor bases had been reinforced, and the pipeline connection slots were neatly arranged on the inner walls of the bases, each one laid out according to the optimal stress path. Reed raised his hand, his fingertip lightly tracing a line on the outer wall of the base, a slight smile playing on his lips.
"That's what art is."
He withdrew his hand and wiped it on his work pants. Footsteps sounded behind him. Susan came in through a small door next to the assembly table, holding a tablet in her hand, swiping the screen with her head down, and stood in front of her workbench. She didn't even look at Reed, and Reed didn't look at her either. There was a distance between them as if several mountains were separating them.
Reed's gaze shifted from the rotor base to Susan's back. She swiped across the tablet, then swiped again; the movements were normal, the posture was normal, everything was normal. But Reed's eyes narrowed. He noticed she was wearing baggy pants today, and she seemed to have limped a little when she walked just now.
Reed stared at her for two seconds, then turned away to continue admiring his propulsion system. The smile on his lips was still there, but a faint green light had appeared in his eyes.