As Lin Xiao walked back from the riverbank, he deliberately looked back at Banner to make sure he was gone. Then he started grimacing. It hurt, it hurt so much! His usual walking posture turned into a slow, limping gait. He cursed as he walked, not at Hulk, after all, he was his good nephew, but at himself.
"What are you showing off for? Three stacks of US dollars, that's probably over 100,000 dollars, that's going to kill me. I think I've got my brain caught in a door." He spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva, leaned against the wall to catch his breath, and continued to move forward. "But this investment was really worth it. From now on, if I shout 'Hulk' in a fight, the other side will be scared to death. It'll be great."
After walking a few more steps, he suddenly stopped, leaned against the telephone pole, and squinted.
"No, something's wrong."
He remembered something. That fight had been incredibly loud. The outer wall of the lab building had been smashed through three holes, the parking lot was riddled with craters, half of the gymnasium wall had collapsed, and the streetlights, walls, and buildings on those three streets—everything that could be demolished had been torn down. If he went back, the military would definitely get involved if the school held them accountable, and that old fox Thaddeus Ross was just looking for a reason to kick him away from Betty.
"He's still holding a grudge about the needle incident, and now there's the Hulk too." Lin Xiao counted on his fingers, "With those two charges combined, that old guy can get me a summons from a military court."
The more he thought about it, the more uneasy he felt, and his brows furrowed. He remembered that not long after he had transmigrated, when Tony was still hammering tin in some cave, he had learned one thing: sometimes, it's better to strike first, or you'll suffer the consequences if you strike later.
"Public opinion. Public opinion is the only truth." He straightened up, a slow smile playing on his lips. The smile aggravated the wound on his lip, causing him to hiss in pain, but his smile remained undiminished. "The general wants to mess with me? I'll first portray myself as a hero. If he dares to touch me, he'll be slapping the people in the face! I'll see if I can drag S.H.I.E.L.D.. down with me too, hehe."
Lin Xiao took out his phone and dialed Betty's number.
The phone rang once and she answered. Betty's voice was choked with tears, clearly she had just been crying, " Lin Xiao! Where are you? How are you? I saw you being grown up by that Banner..."
"Honey, I'm fine, it's just... I might need you to do me a favor."
"What is it? Tell me!"
"Get me some reporters. And those students from the school—yes, the ones who were taking pictures of me today. Tell them their hero has returned."
Betty paused for a second, seemingly understanding what Lin Xiao was planning.
"Okay, where are you? I'll come pick you up."
A makeshift press conference was held on the Culver University sports field.
It was called a "press conference," but it was really just a stage set up on the playground with a few folding tables and a chair. The area under the stage was packed with people—students, professors, school staff, and local residents who had rushed over after hearing the news. Betty's efficiency was astonishing; in less than two hours, she had brought in three local media outlets and a CNN intern. The school tried to stop them, but Betty shut them down with one sentence. "When that monster was still wandering outside, he shielded us from the attack with his body. Whoever can do it, go ahead."
No one dared to respond.
And that's how we ended up in this situation.
Lin Xiao sat on a folding chair in the center of the stage, his expression weary yet resolute, his eyes carrying a perfectly measured hint of pain and an even stronger sense of righteous indignation. Betty stood beside him, holding a microphone. The reporters below had already set up their cameras, their flashes going off incessantly.
"We can begin." A blonde female reporter raised her hand.
Lin Xiao nodded, took the microphone, took a deep breath, and then spoke. His voice was hoarse and deep, and his speech was neither fast nor slow. Every word seemed to be squeezed out from the depths of his chest, carrying a unique weight that came from having experienced many vicissitudes.
"This afternoon, I was just waiting for my employer to get off work at the school gate."
The audience fell silent.
"Then the lab building exploded."
He paused, raised his eyes, and his gaze swept over everyone present. His face was a mixture of bloodstains, dust, and exhaustion, but his eyes shone with an alarming intensity.
"A three-meter-tall green monster burst out of the ruins. It roared, it wreaked havoc, it destroyed everything in its path. The students screamed and ran. I could have run too." He paused, a bitter smile tugging at the corner of his mouth, "But I didn't."
A girl in the audience covered her mouth.
"Because I'm with S.H.I.E.L.D.." Lin Xiao's voice suddenly rose a half-octave, carrying an undeniable force. "When we joined, we swore an oath to protect the public, to protect the innocent. That's not an empty slogan; it's our responsibility. We were trained because we have a responsibility, not the other way around."
Betty, standing to the side, lowered her head, a faint glimmer of tears in her eyes.
"So I stepped forward." Lin Xiao's voice lowered again, as if recalling a scene he didn't want to remember. "I stood in front of that monster, using my body to block its fists. Each of its punches could smash through a wall, and I could only use my own muscles to withstand it."
He raised his left hand, revealing an arm covered in bruises, his elbow swollen like a bun.
"Its fist slammed into my left arm, and I heard my bones creaking." He raised his right hand. "Then it grabbed my ankle and slammed me to the ground. Once, twice, three times—I lost count. I only remember the ground getting closer and closer, and then—"
The audience was so quiet that only the sound of the wind could be heard.
The girl in the front row already had tears in her eyes.
"Then something occurred to me." Lin Xiao raised his head, his gaze sweeping across the room again, a look of almost reverence in his eyes. "I thought of the children at school. Those students who were taking photos with me this morning, those young people discussing where to go tomorrow in the cafeteria, those who should be spending every day safely on this campus. If I fall, that monster will rush towards them. My Betty, cough cough... my employer is in there too."
Betty's lips pressed into a thin line, her fingers gripping the microphone tightly.
"So I stood up." Lin Xiao's voice regained its strength, like a knife that had been reforged. "I stood up and continued fighting it. How long did I fight it? I can't remember. Maybe a few hours, maybe a whole day. I only remember the sky slowly getting dark, and it roaring as it charged at me, and I throwing punches at it."
An Asian male reporter in the audience suddenly raised his hand, Lin Xiao nodded, signaling him to continue asking the question.
"Sir," the Asian reporter's voice trembled slightly, "I have a question. You fought that monster for so long, how did it finally end?"
Lin Xiao glanced at him, then slowly nodded, as if confirming a secret known only to himself.
"Speaking of which," Lin Xiao's voice suddenly became very smug, "Have you ever heard a story from Dragon Country called ' Wu Song Slays the Tiger '?"
A murmur arose from the audience. A few who understood exchanged glances.
"That story is about a man named Wu Song who encountered a man-eating tiger on Jingyang Ridge. He didn't back down; he picked up his staff and fought the tiger, eventually killing it with his bare hands." Lin Xiao narrowed his eyes. "Today, I am that Wu Song."
He stood up abruptly, as if his wound had been ripped open, and hissed. Then he straightened up, placed his hands on the table, and leaned slightly forward, as if sharing a huge secret.
"It grabbed my ankle, and I endured it. It slammed me to the ground, and I endured that too. When it got tired of slamming me, I seized the opportunity to flip over and jump onto its back. Guess what I did?" His voice was extremely low. "I grabbed its scalp, like Wu Song in the story grabbing the tiger's head, and then—bang bang bang! Three punches! After three punches, the monster let out a miserable howl, threw me off, and turned to run. That green-skinned monster was beaten so badly that it ran away in a panic!"
He became more and more excited as he spoke, and spittle flew from his mouth.
The audience went from quiet to uproar, then to utter astonishment. Some started pulling out their phones to record, while others nudged each other and whispered, "Is he telling the truth?" Even the blonde girl in the front row who had just been wiping away tears was completely stunned, looking at Lin Xiao with adoration.
The Asian male reporter pushed up his glasses, his shoulders twitching suspiciously. He lowered his head, covering his mouth with his hand, trying hard not to laugh out loud. Damn. Wu Song Slays the Tiger. This guy got beaten up like a pig's head, and he still has the nerve to say he won.
Lin Xiao was clearly oblivious to the undercurrents below the stage. He sat back down in his chair, let out a long breath, and summarized, "In the end, the monster escaped, its whereabouts unknown. I won, but I won't celebrate. Because it's still roaming outside, it might come back. I will continue to stay here, to continue protecting this school, to protect each and every one of you. This is my responsibility, and my promise."
He stood up, bowed slightly, and then, supported by Betty, limped off the stage.
Flashes of light exploded behind him, like a silent fireworks display.
Meanwhile, in New York, at Stark Industries headquarters, in the rooftop press conference hall.
Tony Stark wore a burgundy haute couture suit today, paired with a matching bow tie and pocket square, standing flamboyantly in the center of the stage. Behind him was a huge LCD screen, which was scrolling through Stark Industries' new season product concept images.
A few minutes later, the screen no longer displayed clean energy products, but instead showed a blurry satellite image: a huge green figure was chasing a human whose face was not clearly visible. The two fought from the school to the riverbank, and from the riverbank to the parking lot, with buildings and vehicles along the way being torn to pieces like toys.
Tony held the remote control, a signature smile playing on his lips. He glanced at the audience—the hall was packed with reporters, and in the front row were even several military representatives, one of whom wore two general's stars on his shoulders.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I know you just saw something on the news." Tony pressed the remote control, and the screen froze on Lin Xiao dodging an oncoming Volkswagen Beetle. "Some people might ask, who was that guy who was messing with the green monster? How can he fly?"
He paused, a smug gleam in his eyes behind his sunglasses.
The answer is --
He pressed the remote control again. The screen switched to a product rendering. It was a palm-sized silver device with a streamlined casing, the Stark Industries logo printed in the center, and a striking slogan next to it. "Freedom to Fly, Price: $500,000".
A collective gasp rippled through the audience.
" Stark Industries' next-generation personal jet-powered vehicle!" Tony opened his arms as if embracing the world's spotlight. "This afternoon, my good brother, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Lin Xiao, was attacked by an unidentified creature near Culver University. He was using our Stark Industries ' latest portable thruster prototype. As you can see in the footage—it performed exceptionally well under extreme conditions. Although Mr. Lin Xiao suffered some minor injuries, he survived and even drove back the monster!"
He tilted his head, his tone suddenly becoming extremely relaxed, as if he were talking about what he had for lunch. "$500,000, and you can have it. Of course, we don't recommend you take on the green-skinned monster one-on-one, but flying a few hundred meters, dodging bullets, or even taking off in a traffic jam—perfectly no problem."
The audience erupted in cheers. The flashbulbs practically turned Tony's sunglasses white. Reporters frantically raised their hands, military representatives huddled together whispering amongst themselves, and a blonde female reporter in the front row even stood up and shouted, " Mr. Stark! Can we demonstrate live?"
"On-site demonstration?" Tony touched his chin and showed a scornful smile, "I would like to, but my good brother Lin Xiao smashed the only prototype. But don't worry - the next mass-produced machine is being assembled on the assembly line and is expected to be launched in three months."
He bowed to the audience, and as he left, his phone suddenly vibrated. He looked down and saw a news notification pop up on the screen with the headline. " Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. claims victory against unidentified creature: I rode on its back and punched it three times."
Tony's smile froze for a fraction of a second. He opened the notification and saw Lin Xiao standing in front of a folding table on the school playground, tearfully describing his heroic feat of "driving away the Hulk with three punches." In the video, his face was swollen like a pig's head, but he spoke as if he had just won a world war.
Tony's lips curled into a very slow smile. He put his phone back in his pocket, turned to Happy beside him, and said, " JARVIS, remove that 'polish it well' from my schedule—from now on, call it 'Lin's Jetpack.'"
"Sir, what about Mr. Lin—"
"Let him play by himself." Tony put his sunglasses back on. "When he finds out I made fifty million worth of merchandise by taking advantage of his miserable state, remember to remind me to give him a bonus. Half for each of us."
Happy opened his mouth, then closed it again. He really wanted to remind Tony that Lin Xiao usually resolved these kinds of "unequal profit sharing between brothers" with his fists. But after thinking about it, he decided to buy himself insurance first.
Meanwhile, in an abandoned underground bunker in Virginia, Banner, wrapped in a military blanket salvaged from an abandoned barracks, sat on the ground with a radio on his lap, broadcasting a live report from a local news station— Lin Xiao was rambling on about how he rode a monster to fight a tiger on the parade ground.
As Banner listened, the corners of his mouth couldn't help but curl upwards slightly.
"... He said he punched me three times while he was on top of me?"
The radio continued to ring, "Agent Lin Xiao stated that the whereabouts of the unidentified creature are currently unknown, and he expressed his regret—"
Banner lowered his head, looking at his hands wrapped in the blanket. After a long while, the corner of his mouth twitched.
"... Whatever makes you happy, Lin Xiao."
Deep within his heart, a deep voice suddenly resounded, carrying a childlike yet undeniably domineering quality.
" Hulk, you want candy!"
Banner paused for a moment, then gave a wry smile. He rubbed his temples and muttered under his breath, "You certainly know how to recognize relatives."
After a while, he sighed softly.
Okay. I'll buy you more candy next time.
The sound was quiet for a moment, then rose again, accompanied by a satisfied hum, before finally falling asleep.
Banner leaned against the cold wall, closed his eyes, and after a few seconds, his lips twitched, and he repeated it in a low voice.
"... Whatever makes you happy, Lin Xiao."