Chapter 44: Father's Legacy
"How is it? Did you get it?" Tony asked, emerging from the kitchen shortly after Lan Xingyu had left.
"Yeah! This one is ordinary, and according to Xingyu, this one still contains energy." Pepper Potts handed the two strands of hair on the table to Tony.
"Nice! Jarvis!" Tony said excitedly.
"I am always here, sir!" Jarvis's voice rang out.
"Start hacking into the population gene banks of every country. Once we get back, we'll start looking for a father for our Flash boy," Tony said.
"Since that's settled, can you come out of the kitchen now? I think Xingyu's suggestion is excellent. From now on, the kitchen is a restricted area for you and the Creature. Hehe," Pepper Potts said.
"No way! I think I did a pretty good job!" Tony argued defensively.
"Xingyu gave me the original version before," Pepper replied with a dark, mischievous glint.
Indeed, if you spend time with someone, you will unconsciously pick up their habits.
Apparently, Pepper had been influenced by our dark-bellied Lan Xingyu.
However, Lan Xingyu probably wouldn't take the blame for this. "I wasn't dark-bellied to begin with, so why blame me? If you want to blame someone, blame the source!"
Meanwhile, at Kamar-Taj, the Ancient One sneezed...
A voice woke Lan Xingyu up. Waking up, Lan Xingyu stretched and thought, "Although I haven't had the Little Loli's company for a while, it feels pretty good not to have to study."
Still feeling a bit groggy, he walked out of the room, grabbed a bottle of water, and went to the dining table. That's right, Lan Xingyu had slept for the entire afternoon. It was Pepper Potts who had just woken him up.
Looking at the dinner, which looked a bit amateurish but quite exquisite, Lan Xingyu would bet Tony's future daughter that today's dinner was definitely not made by Tony.
"Wow! Sister Potts, your airplane meal is amazing. My suggestion was definitely correct," Lan Xingyu said affirmatively.
"Hey! Don't you even consider the possibility? Do you know how awkward it would be if you guessed wrong?" Tony said from the side, unconvinced.
"So, did I guess wrong?" Although it was a question, the confident tone proved the speaker's certainty.
Tony didn't want to talk anymore; he was annoyed.
Pepper Potts watched the two bickering happily. No one wouldn't be happy after being complimented.
It was already night when they got home. But just as they entered the house, they saw a black figure...
Hanging upside down from the house—yes, this person was none other than Director Nick, who had the passive ability to be invisible in the dark.
Director Nick was likely trying to make a cool entrance like last time, but he didn't know that Lan Xingyu had placed magic on the house. After instantly stripping him of all his electronic devices, it turned him upside down and spun him around until he passed out.
And since those monitoring devices didn't transmit any sound, the S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents outside all thought their director was still happily showing off! Little did they know, he had already been knocked unconscious.
At first, seeing someone hanging upside down in the house gave Tony and Pepper Potts a fright, but after seeing who it was, Tony laughed.
"Hahaha, that's for acting mysterious last time. Now you've hit a wall with Vibranium, haven't you?"
"Hey, Xingyu, he's from S.H.I.E.L.D. Let him down!" Tony thought about it; after all, the guy was here to deliver something to him, and it wasn't good to keep him hanging. So, he asked Lan Xingyu to let him down.
Hearing Tony's words, he went ahead and took Nick Fury down.
Fury had been knocked out by Lan Xingyu's magic earlier, and it wasn't until Lan Xingyu took him down that he was woken up. Just waking up, Nick Fury immediately performed a professional maneuver to get up and stand guard.
Then it became awkward; only Tony and his group were in front of him. He awkwardly put away his stance. However, our Director Nick was thick-skinned. He stubbornly sat down on the sofa as if nothing had happened.
"Let's talk, Stark!" Nick said, suppressing his embarrassment.
Pepper immediately understood the situation and consciously went to pour them some water.
Lan Xingyu was a bit curious about what they would say, so he went over with Tony.
Tony didn't mind Lan Xingyu coming along, and he felt more at ease with Xingyu there. If this passive-aggressive guy wanted to cause trouble, Xingyu could instantly show him what a beating from society felt like.
The two arrived at the sofa, and Nick spoke first: "That thing in your chest was made using incomplete technology."
"No, it was completed. Before I shrunk it and put it in my chest, its effects weren't obvious," Tony denied.
"No, Howard said that the reactor was a prelude to some greater discovery. It was about to open a new era of energy competition, making today's arms race look insignificant. His research was huge—so huge that, in comparison, the reactor was nothing more than a small battery," Nick said.
"Was it just him? There should have been another person, right?" Tony asked, wanting to get to the bottom of the guy with the whips.
"You want to know about the person who attacked you, right? His name is Ivan Vanko, the son of Anton Vanko, and this Anton Vanko is that other person." After finishing, Nick paused to let Tony process the information.
"Anton Vanko was like the other side of the coin; he saw this as a way to get rich. After your father found out, he found a way to deport him. Once the Russians realized he had no value, they sent him to Siberia. For the next twenty years, he spent his time in drunkenness and resentment," Nick continued.
"That kind of environment isn't good for a child's upbringing, which is why that scene in Monaco happened. Just asking, do you know who that golden figure is? He made you, a lone wolf Iron Man, become very... weak." Nick thought for a moment before finding a word to describe it.
Hearing this, Tony's face turned black. He couldn't help but glance at Lan Xingyu beside him and said, "I don't know!"
But Tony didn't know that this single glance let Nick know that the golden figure might be related to the child sitting next to him. However, he didn't show anything.
"Also, have you tried making a new reactor yourself?" Nick changed the subject calmly; one of his goals had already been achieved.
"Of course, I'm an expert in this field. I've been looking for a substitute for palladium. I've tried every single element and combination," Tony said with a lack of interest.
"Then let me tell you, you haven't tried them all," Nick said coolly.
"What did I miss?" Tony was a bit curious. He had used Jarvis, a powerful artificial intelligence, to calculate it.
"He said that only you have enough knowledge and means to complete his unfinished business."
"He said that?" Tony didn't quite believe it.
"Yes!" Nick affirmed. He then asked, "Are you not that person? Because if you are, then you can unravel the mystery in your heart."
"I don't know where you got your information, but he didn't like me," Tony said with some disappointment.
"How much of an impression of your dad do you still have?" Nick asked.
"He was cold and calculating. He never said he loved me, or even that he liked me. So, it's hard for me to believe what you said—that he pinned the future entirely on me and left his business to me. I can't understand it," Tony said indignantly.
"You should know that the happiest day for that man was the day he sent me to boarding school," Tony continued.
"That is not a fact," Nick replied.
"Then you must know my dad better than I do," Tony said dismissively.
"In fact, that is true. Just as this little friend deduced, he was a high-ranking official in S.H.I.E.L.D. In fact, he was one of the founders of S.H.I.E.L.D.," Nick said.
"It really is true?" Tony was surprised. Xingyu was pretty impressive. He actually got it all right.
He turned to look at the proud Xingyu. Tony had to admit that Lan Xingyu's brain was indeed quite good.
"Everything is here. I'll leave the rest to you. I believe you can handle it. Right?" With that, Nick got up, ready to leave.
"Hey, wait, I haven't figured out what I can handle yet!" Seeing Nick stand up, Tony immediately stood up and said.
"No, you can. By the way, Tony, remember that I will be watching you," Nick said, looking at Tony very seriously. It made Tony feel awkward about asking further, but...
"Are you looking with your normal eye, or with the one that should have been scratched blind by a cat?" A childish voice rang out. Instantly, the serious and cool atmosphere Nick had worked hard to create became comical.
Tony and Nick were both surprised and looked at Xingyu with confusion.
Seeing them look over, Xingyu took out those large-framed glasses again and put them on.
"This is simple! There are three neat scars on your eye. Because there are three, it rules out being cut by a Sharp Weapon like a knife. And because they are neat, it rules out them being cut one after another. So, there is only one explanation. These three scars were produced at the same time." Lan Xingyu found an angle to make his glasses reflect light again and used his Lan-style deduction method.
"Next is the size. Judging by the scars, they are the size of those from a pet cat or a small dog. Dogs rarely scratch people. On the contrary, some people who don't pet cats properly are often scratched by them. The wounds are the same as yours. It's just that yours happened to be on your eye." Lan Xingyu felt it was about time to wrap it up.
"So, there is only one truth. You were scratched by a cat because your cat-petting technique was improper." Lan Xingyu concluded his Lan-style deduction.
Under the surprised gazes of the two, Lan Xingyu tossed his hair. He narcissistically thought, "I'm too amazing. This is simply the showmanship of Xiuqin, the wife of Independent Regiment Commander Li Yunlong."
Nick's evaluation of Lan Xingyu in his mind was even higher. This powerful logical reasoning ability, and the possibility that he was the golden man or at least related to him, made him have to take Lan Xingyu seriously. It seemed he would need to raise the security clearance of this child's file when he got back.
In the end, Nick left, and he left quickly. After all, this was the most failed attempt at acting cool since he started.
After he left, Tony and Lan Xingyu looked at the box on the ground.
"How about we take a look now?" Lan Xingyu asked for Tony's opinion. After all, this was something left to him by his father.
At this moment, Tony's mood was somewhat complicated. Did my father really love me? What kind of person was he really? What exactly was he carrying behind his back? For the first time, Tony felt how little he understood his own father.
The recommendation votes have passed one hundred; this is the promised second update. Brothers, let's work hard together. You vote, I write. Let's get hyped, everyone.