When Peter opened the door, he felt something was off.
He couldn't quite put his finger on what was wrong. Several pairs of shoes were missing from the shoe cabinet in the entryway, the bunch of daisies on the coffee table in the living room was gone, and the photo of him and Aunt May hanging on the wall had been taken down. He stood in the middle of the living room and walked around, feeling as if the house had become bigger—no, it felt emptier.
He didn't think much of it. Aunt May was in a good mood lately, so she was probably doing some kind of deep cleaning again. Ever since Lin Xiao moved in from across the hall, her obsession with cleanliness had skyrocketed; she practically wanted to scrub the floor until it was a mirror. Peter tossed his schoolbag onto the sofa, went to the kitchen to pour himself a glass of water, drank it, and then went back to his room to do his homework.
Today's physics homework consisted of six mechanics problems. Peter finished them in forty minutes. The Fool floated out from behind him twice during the assignment, once to hand him an eraser, and once to perch on the windowsill watching the pigeons outside. Peter pressed it back down, saying, "Don't let the neighbors see you." The Fool expressed its displeasure with its eight legs—who could see a substitute like that?—but still obediently retreated.
By the time I finished my homework, it was already completely dark.
Peter glanced at his phone: 6:47. Usually at this time, Aunt May would be busy in the kitchen, the sounds of spatulas hitting pots and pans, the hum of the range hood, and her calling out, " Peter, go wash your hands!" coming from the kitchen. But today, there was nothing. The kitchen was dark, the living room was quiet, and even the fluorescent light in the hallway, which always flickered, was silent.
Peter frowned, picked up his phone, and dialed May's number.
It's turned off!
He dialed Lin Xiao's number again.
It's also turned off!
Peter's brow furrowed even more. He placed his phone on the table, telling himself not to panic. Aunt May was a nurse, and sometimes she had to work overtime when there were hospital emergencies, so it was common for her phone to run out of battery. Uncle Lin worked for S.H.I.E.L.D.., so it was perfectly normal for him to turn off his phone when he was on a mission. For both of them to turn off their phones at the same time was probably a coincidence. Yes, a coincidence.
He waited for another half hour.
Still no one has returned, and I still can't get through.
Peter started to panic.
He hurried downstairs, the Fool appeared behind him, its eight legs slightly spread apart, and two points of yellow light shining from the eye sockets of the face pattern on its back.
"Help me find the Fool," Peter's voice was a little tense. "Search separately, go as far as you can."
The Fool did not hesitate. The large, sandy-yellow spider silently disintegrated in the air, from one to ten, from ten to hundreds, each only the size of a fingernail, its eye sockets gleaming with a faint yellow light. They surged out of Peter's room like a sandy tide, crawling up the windowsill to the outside wall, running down the fire escape, and scattering into the street.
This is a new application that Peter recently developed. After the Fool is broken down, each Spider-Man becomes its eyes and ears, and the search range can cover several city blocks. Although the precision is not quite there yet, it is sufficient for finding people.
Peter closed his eyes, and hundreds of perspectives flooded his consciousness at the same time. Mei was not at the convenience store on the street corner, nor at the subway station entrance, nor at the community hospital. There were only a few nurses chatting behind the duty desk. Mei was not there.
Peter jogged all the way to the community hospital. He pushed open the glass door of the emergency room and rushed breathlessly to the duty desk. The head nurse on duty was Mei's old colleague, and she was startled when she saw Peter's appearance.
"Mei? She took the day off today." The head nurse flipped through the shift schedule. "She took the morning off, saying she's moving."
"Moving?" Peter's voice trailed off.
"Oh yeah, you didn't know?" The head nurse pushed up her glasses. "She called this morning to say she'd taken three days off. I thought you already knew—"
Peter didn't hear the rest of the conversation. He turned and ran out, plunging into the alley. He pulled out his phone and dialed Mei's number again—it was off. He dialed Lin Xiao's —it was off too. He tried a dozen times, each time hearing the same cold, electronic message.
Peter was completely dumbfounded. He leaned against the telephone pole, feeling a mix of emotions. Had Mei and Lin Xiao abandoned him? Impossible, impossible. He was just scaring himself.
Just then, his phone rang.
Caller ID: Lin Xiao.
Peter answered the phone, but before he could speak, the person on the other end spoke first.
"Hey nephew! Sorry, sorry, my phone died and I just plugged it in. Where are you?"
Peter opened his mouth, his lips trembling several times before he managed to squeeze out a sound, "Where are you?"
"We're in a new place," Lin Xiao said confidently. "We decided to move today, and we're moving to Manhattan now."
"Moving?" Peter's voice changed. "Moving to Manhattan?"
"Yeah, didn't I mention it to you before? The apartment Tony gave me is all renovated."
Peter's mind was buzzing, and after some hesitation, he finally spoke:
"You moved away, and nobody told me," Peter said, his voice strained and deliberate. "I came home from school to find the house empty, Aunt May was gone, and you were gone too. I called countless times, but the phones were all off. I searched the entire neighborhood like the Fool, even went to the hospital to ask, and the head nurse said she had taken leave and moved away. Moved away, and nobody told me."
There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone. Then, Lin Xiao's voice carried a rare hint of embarrassment.
"My dear nephew, about the move, your Aunt May wanted to tell you after school to surprise you, but this morning when we were moving things, well... you know what I mean."
Peter really didn't want to understand.
"So, you moved away without me, right?"
"Ahem... Let's not talk about that. You know what? I picked out a fantastic top-floor room for you! It has a private bathroom and a rooftop terrace! It's at least five times bigger than your current cramped pigeonhole! Your Aunt May picked it out especially for you."
"Then why didn't anyone tell me?" Peter's voice was muffled, as if he were talking to himself.
There was another silence on the other end of the phone. Then a rustling sound came from the receiver, and Mei's voice came through.
" Peter? Baby? I'm so sorry, Aunt May was wrong." Mei's voice was hoarse from just waking up, and there was a hint of barely suppressed guilt. "I was planning to pick you up from school at noon, but I was too tired from packing, so I... took a nap... and while I was napping..."
" Aunt May, are you guys doing it again—"
"No!" Mei's voice suddenly rose, then quickly fell back down. "No, I'm just tired from moving. Really. Honey, where are you now? I'll have your Uncle Lin pick you up."
Peter stood under a streetlamp, phone in hand, while the Fool slowly curled into a ball behind him. He took a deep breath, looked up at the New York night sky, then down at his muddy canvas shoes.
"In Manhattan." His voice finally returned to normal, though it still carried a hint of listlessness and despair.
"I'll send you the address!" Lin Xiao's voice interrupted again, clearly having snatched the phone back. "Good nephew, the room is really nice. If you think the rooftop is too far from us, your Aunt May and I can reserve a room for you on the first floor too. I don't mind."
"No."
Peter hung up the phone.
He stood under the streetlamp, silent for a long while. Then he turned to the Fool floating behind him and said, "We have been abandoned."
The Fool closed his eyes, and the face pattern on his back made a remarkably human expression of confusion.
" Aunt May, you've changed. Now you only have Uncle Lin in your eyes... Aunt May, please love me one more time."
Meanwhile, in their new Manhattan home, in the luxurious king-size bed room, Mei leaned against Lin Xiao's chest, her fingers tracing circles on his chest, a trace of lingering guilt still on her face.
Will he be angry with us?
"No." Lin Xiao tossed his phone onto the bedside table, his tone confident. "That kid's all bark and no bite. Give him a good meal when he gets here, and he'll be fine. By the way, is that grouper in the kitchen still alive?"
"I had the moving company put it in the sink; it should still be alive."
"That's good. I'll steam a fish for him and stir-fry a couple of dishes later, and he'll be all forgiven."
Mei didn't speak, but buried her face in his chest. After a long while, she sighed softly.
"You can't do that again. Moving without telling him was too much."
"Yes, yes, I'll definitely take him with me when I move next time." Lin Xiao kissed her on the head. "Next time, give him a week's notice so he has plenty of time to pack."
"There will be a next time?"
"I was just giving an example." Lin Xiao grinned and reached out to turn off the bedside lamp. "Go to sleep. I have to get up early tomorrow to pick him up. No, he'll arrive tonight. I sent him his location. You should get some sleep. I'll have to get up and make his bed when he gets here."
"Here we go again, you bastard..."
The Triskelion, Director's Office.
Nick Fury sat behind his desk, his hands clasped on the table, his face ashen. Before him lay a document, a military intelligence-sharing request he had personally signed, stamped with a bright red seal below the title: Rejected.
It was expected that the military wouldn't give him face. Fury's expression didn't change; he simply flipped the document over and placed it face down on the table, gesturing for Hill to continue.
"According to our intelligence sources, General Ross has indeed been conducting independent research on a peculiar superalloy, but so far, the research has not progressed smoothly." Hill flipped open his tablet, his tone as calm as if he were giving a weather forecast. "The reasons are as follows: First, the material is a kind of superalloy composite fiber, and the military's cutting and replication experiments have all failed. Second, General Ross is dissatisfied with the research progress and has suspended the mechanical replication direction, transferring the team's resources to biochemical research. Third, Betty Ross, as the head of the biochemical department, is in charge of the research but refuses to have military protection during the research process, hiring a private security team instead."
Fury leaned back in his chair, remaining silent for a long while, a barely perceptible glint flashing in his single eye.
"Have you already hired bodyguards?"
"She found him. She found him herself through Culver University's connections, on a private security contract." Hill pulled a photo from the documents and pushed it over. "The person originally scheduled to start was a Mexico named Carlos Mendes, an employee of the Hidreleven Group, with a military background, a clean resume, and he passed Betty's interview."
" The Hidreleven Group? Hmm, they're closely related to us." Fury repeated the name, his lips twitching almost imperceptibly. "Go ask Pierce; he's one of the shareholders in that security company."
A few minutes later, Hill came back in.
" Mr. Pierce said he would give them face, but he needed a reason. After all, they were employees of his company, and he couldn't just remove them without cause."
"The reason is simple." Fury leaned forward, tapping his fingers lightly on the table. "Give him a better candidate than Mendes. Young, capable, impressive resume, and cheap."
Hill's eyebrows twitched very slightly, but she didn't speak. Having followed Fury for so many years, she knew all too well what that expression meant: the director was brewing a less-than-honorable idea.
"Chief, who do you plan to send? Our field agents have recently..."
Fury interrupted her.
"What's that brat been up to lately?"
Hill paused for a moment, then looked down at the mission log. " Agent Lin Xiao has been on leave since the last Flying Arab incident. Yesterday, he submitted an operation report, saying that he single-handedly stormed Kingpin's lair Kingpin persuaded Kingpin to stop the infiltration plan of Midtown High School. The report also included a Hummer transfer application, saying it was a seizure from the operation, and requesting the department to reimburse the fuel costs."
Hill's lips twitched, but he quickly regained his professional expression. "I've rejected your request for gas money."
"No, reimburse him," Fury said, his tone unusually calm. "And add another condition—full reimbursement, plus a bonus."
Hill paused, his pen still.
"Chief, are you planning to send him to Culver University?"
"Didn't he always complain about wanting a peaceful life? Being a bodyguard in a university lab, sitting at the door all day drinking tea and reading newspapers, occasionally swatting flies—sounds peaceful enough, right?" Fury flipped the rejected application over on the table, staring at the red "Rejected" stamp. "If the military won't let me touch it, I'll use another hand. Nobody would expect me to throw a Level 6 agent to be a university professor's bodyguard. Especially since he happens to be that brat."
"Chief," Hill's voice trailed off with a perfectly timed pause, " Betty Thaddeus Ross's father is General Ross Thaddeus Ross. As far as I know, she's currently conducting gamma-ray experiments with Bruce Dr. Banner Dr. Banner, and the two are in a Betty collaboration. According to intelligence—"
"I know." Fury raised a hand to stop her. "I know all of that. That's why I let him go."
Hill paused for a moment, then his lips curled up in an extremely subtle way.
"Let me contact the Hidreleven Group and Mendes to his place." Hill stood up, walked to the door, then turned back. "What kind of status should I give him?"
"Anything is fine, just make up a compelling resume, not too exaggerated, not too modest. Let him improvise."
Hill nodded, pushed open the door, and went out.
After the office door closed again, Fury rubbed his head and a slight smile appeared on his lips.