"Obviously, Mr. Howard, you have discovered the problem - when Tony was growing up, the turning point in your relationship did not occur during the stage of your alcohol addiction, but occurred earlier.
.”
Schiller concluded that when Howard looked at him again, his expression seemed a little distracted and he was no longer as focused as before, as if he was listening to him while being immersed in memories.
Schiller did not pull him out of his memories, but instead asked: "So, please think carefully about the length of time between you and Tony, and when was the first cliff-hanger?"
"Cliff fall?" Howard seemed to not understand the word, and Schiller explained it carefully:
"As you said, Tony has been your spiritual sustenance for a long time. You hope that the happy time spent with him will never end. But when did you first take the initiative to end this time?
?”
Howard was stunned for a moment, and then his eyes gradually regained their clarity. Apparently thinking of a specific scene, he slowly said: "...the first time we played marbles."
Howard sighed slightly and said, "That day, all his toys were packed away by his mother. We had nothing to play with, so we found a few marbles in the corner under the bed."
"That was actually something I played with when I was a kid. I didn't think Tony would like it, so I just taught him how to play marbles. He did very well and hit every shot."
"But what surprised me was that he was not satisfied with the simple straight-line playing method. He arranged a dozen ordinary marbles in a complex pattern and let them hit one by one until the last marble rolled to the target.
Place."
"I was really shocked. You have no idea how complicated the pattern he designed was, and he succeeded on the first try without any practice at all!"
Howard's tone was still filled with wonder: "In other words, he calculated in his mind the interaction force and kinetic energy attenuation generated by each marble collision, and then made each marble at the most extreme distance.
Completed his mission."
"Then, what did you do?" Schiller suddenly leaned forward and stared into Howard's eyes, showing an aggressive attitude.
Obviously, this put a certain amount of pressure on Howard, so he instinctively said: "I thought there was nothing more to play with, so I put the marbles away and promised him to play again another day."
"Why do you think there's nothing more to do?"
"Having already achieved this step, can it be done better? In other words, this is actually not the way to play marbles, but his own innovation."
"We only have a dozen marbles in total, and he has already played the most complicated game." Howard made a gesture and said, "We have reached the end."
"Is this the end of the marbles game?" Schiller leaned further forward and looked directly at Howard, forcing him to answer.
"Of course." Howard replied instinctively.
"Why do you make such a judgment?" Schiller asked very quickly.
"Of course because I played it."
"Because of your experience?" Schiller interrupted and asked.
"That's right." Howard started to look a little flustered. He picked up the cup and covered his mouth, and Schiller looked at Howard and said:
"Don't you believe that Tony can innovate the gameplay? Don't you believe that he can break through your experience? Or, do you think he can break through, but you are not willing to let him break through?"
"How could I not be willing to let him..."
As soon as Howard said this, Schiller suddenly stood up, came to the back of the sofa where Howard was sitting, put his hands on the sofa behind him, leaned forward, and pressed his head on top of Howard's head.
He said quickly and fluently:
"I guess you put away the marbles in a panic. Your posture was very embarrassing, and your words were rude. Rather than saying that it was your father who took the initiative to end the game, it was more like the police confiscating the criminal's crime props."
"What drives you is not boredom and impatience, but panic... You are feeling fear."
Schiller bit the last word emphatically. From his perspective, he could clearly see that when the word landed, Howard froze instantly.
"You are afraid that your son, with his genius and wisdom, will acquire knowledge other than what you taught him. You are afraid that he will explore the world outside of your arms. You are also afraid that he will surpass you.
"
"Nonsense! Why should I be afraid that my son will surpass me?" Howard raised his voice and his arms began to shake. He said, "I should be proud of this!"
"Many parents are proud of their children, not because they really appreciate their personality and character, but because they believe that their children have inherited their life experience and achieved success. What they are proud of is their own experience and
Teaching, not the success of your children.”
Just as Howard was about to retort, Schiller slapped the back of the chair behind him hard, making a loud noise, and said in a higher tone: "In your memory, what impresses you most is not Tony's learning process, but
It was his first innovation."
"But obviously, his learning period should be longer, and his creation is just a flash in the pan, but you remember this moment. The essence is that your shock at his talent overwhelms your sense of accomplishment in passing on your own experience.
.”
Schiller stood up straight, raised his head, looked forward, and said:
"And to further infer, at that moment, you discovered for the first time that Tony Stark would surpass your lifetime accumulation and experience with his amazing talent... You felt unwilling."
"This is why the focus time between you is getting less and less, because you can teach him less and less, and the more he innovates, the more impatient you are."
"And the overwhelming negative emotion you felt that night when you returned was that you discovered that there was no shadow of you in the beautiful future created by Tony Stark."
Schiller's strong and fast tone suddenly stopped. The silence came suddenly, but became more violent. The silence in the room was terrifying.
A few minutes later, Howard's trembling fingers were attached to his face. He kept pursing his lips and blinking his eyes, but he still felt tears sliding down his nose from the inner corners of his eyes. He breathed with a trembling voice.
explain:
"I am his father..."
"We used to be very good friends. No matter what I taught him, he was willing to learn it and learned it all. He really learned quickly."
"I can no longer hold him in my arms and teach him to read numbers and do calculations, and he no longer has to learn any experience or knowledge from me."
"The moment I got on the car with the information, I thought that even though I died, the knowledge, experience and good times I left to him would always be with him, so I stepped on it.
Turn on the accelerator."
"But when I came back, I realized that resurrection is the cruelest punishment for a person, because you will see how the world has forgotten you."
Howard lowered his head and cried silently, while Schiller slowly walked back to sit opposite him, took a sip of water from the wine glass, and said:
"You will leave the earth and come to the Andromeda Galaxy, not because you don't want to see Tony, but because you don't want to see his creations."
"You're afraid that you can't help but rush forward like crazy, looking for the traces you left in Tony's life. You feel that he shouldn't have such a father who is not broad-minded and even seems a little crazy."
Schiller's tone became very slow, at least much slower than when he questioned Howard before. It sounded like he was reading a poem.
"Parents hope to turn their children into another version of themselves, and they also hope that their children will surpass themselves. Parents hope that their children can inherit all their experiences, and they hope that they can break through and innovate without being constrained by dogma."
"Parents want their children to fly higher and higher, but they don't want their children to be too far away from them. Parents want their children to have their own lives, but they don't want them to focus on their own lives and forget about their parents."
"Parents are always contradictory, suffering from contradictions, and contradictory from pain."
Howard slowly raised his head and looked at Schiller with tear-filled eyes. Schiller looked at him with wrinkled eyes and said:
"You are really too focused on the inheritance of knowledge and life experience, and you have neglected an extremely important point, which is personality."
"You are disappointed that you don't see more of yourself in Tony, but I lament that I see too much of you in him."
"Did you know? In this world, there are not many people who own tens of thousands of transmission parts. They have a huge machine installed in their hearts, and they are dealing with small things that others may not even notice at all times.
mood."
"Mr. Howard..." Schiller looked into his eyes and said, "It seems that you have admitted that I am better than you in judging emotions."
Howard was just a little dull when he saw Schiller pouring water into the wine glass from the kettle. The thick spout of the cold water spout was much larger than the rim of the champagne glass, so Schiller could only slowly pour it in. The scene looked very strange.
funny.
"Aren't you a psychiatrist? Shouldn't you comfort me?" Howard said in a hoarse voice.
"The important thing is that I won." Schiller raised his head slightly and said, "And the one I defeated was a genius. Let me be happy for a while."
"Oh, no, I made a mistake." Schiller suddenly shook his head and said, "Actually, there's nothing to be happy about. I'm a psychiatrist and you're a scientist. I've beaten you in psychological reasoning. That's it.
Like a cheetah outrunning a tortoise.”
Howard's face turned red, as if he was angry at Schiller's rude words, but Schiller calmly picked up the wine glass, took a sip of water, and said:
"However, next, we can have a fairer competition, which is to compare who knows Tony Stark better."
"I am his friend, and you are his father. You have taught him for a long time, and I have not known him for a long time. From all aspects, this is a fairer game than before, so
,Mr. Howard, do you want to compete with me?"
Howard raised his eyelids and stared at Schiller with light-colored pupils. He blinked slowly and said, "...how do you plan to compete?"
"It's very simple." Schiller stood up from the sofa, walked to his desk with a wine glass, and said: "Right now, both of us are far away from the Earth in the Andromeda Galaxy, and neither of us is monitoring it."
"Then let us guess how Tony is doing now. Let's each come up with a conclusion first, and then call him. Whoever guesses it right will win."
Schiller reached out and poured the water in his glass into another glass, then opened a bottle of champagne, poured it into the glass, and took a sip.
But the smell of wine at this time made Howard frown. He felt his chest shaking and his heart shouting that he must not lose this battle. What he knew about his son was that a father could never
A losing battle.
So he also stood up, walked to the opposite side of the desk, stared into Schiller's eyes and said, "Well, let me guess first."
"Please." Schiller raised his glass and said.
"Right now, it should be late at night in New York. Tony Stark is staying up late in the laboratory to conduct research, and he is studying the hardest part of a certain project. At this moment, he is holding his hands on the experimental table and staring intently.
Data on paper, not a word..."
Howard described it in detail because he had to force Schiller to describe it in as much detail as he did, but Schiller said nothing. He dialed the phone, and a second before the call was connected, Schiller suddenly spoke:
"...He's crying."
The next second, Stark's hoarse voice came from the other end of the phone:
"……Hello?"
In an instant, the muscles in Howard's arms tightened because he could no longer support himself standing there. He clearly heard Stark's first breath before he spoke, which was a sob.
Schiller hung up the phone with a bang, but Howard ran over from the other side of the table like a madman, raised the phone with trembling arms, and shouted: "Call! ... Call!
!”
"I'm sorry, I don't have any phone credit. I didn't know Magneto was so stingy. Although long distance is expensive, it's not like I'm in arrears for just one phone call, right?" Schiller turned his back to the desk and put his hands on the table.
Look up at the ceiling.
Before Howard could roar again, Schiller suddenly said "Oh" and then continued: "Look, how could I forget? Magneto can open a wormhole through space, and he can return to Earth at any time.
Why do you have to pay the phone bill?"
Howard threw away the phone and rushed out of the door in a panic. Schiller, who was standing in front of the table, shook his head and smiled.
But at this time, the phone on the table rang again. After Schiller picked it up, a deep voice came from the other side:
"Hello, I'm Odin. I want to chat with you. Are you free now?"