"You said you were going to shut down Stark's weapons manufacturing department?" Schiller asked.
"But you shouldn't come to me to talk about this." Schiller continued.
Stark covered his forehead in distress and said, "Because of the good things you have done, Pepper has received thousands of employee complaints in the past few days. She had to redesign the entire employee benefits system and was extremely busy.
"
"Actually, that's not the point." Schiller said: "If you want to say something, she is always willing to listen."
Stark touched the bridge of his nose but didn't reply.
After a while, he said: "Okay, I know how much pressure my decision will bring to her, I know I am a damn selfish person, I know, she has helped me enough, I know I
I shouldn’t do this, but I have no choice.”
Schiller opened the notebook at hand and said as he wrote: "Let me think about it, what you want to do now is like imposing a death sentence on a gun."
"But my weapons killed many people."
"Weapons have no choice," Schiller said.
"Do you expect them all to be like Jarvis? They can speak and protest to you. Do you think they like to go to that ghost place in Afghanistan? Or do you think that once a bullet is produced, its lifetime
The ideal is to go to the battlefield and kill others?"
Stark sat across from him in silence. He said with some vulnerability: "I admit that I blame the weapons for all these mistakes because I know that I am the culprit, but I can't judge myself."
"But I also know, Mr. Stark, you can't judge yourself, not because you want to live in an ignoble way, but because you think you have the ability to make up for it. When there is a crisis, only you have this
You have the ability to save the world and turn the tide. It is out of this sense of responsibility that you do these things."
"But let me tell you frankly, have you ever thought about finding the person or thing responsible for a thing and judging them? This is actually a rather arbitrary and reckless idea."
"But the occurrence of something always has its origin."
"But the root cause is not necessarily right or wrong. You should know better than me that the world is not black and white. You found this thing that you think should be responsible, but it does not make the whole thing better. You think the weapon should be responsible
, so you want to shut down the entire weapons manufacturing department, and then make Pepper unable to sleep for several nights, making many employees unemployed, and even those on the battlefield will not appreciate you."
"Is it really worth the pain of getting to the bottom of this?"
Stark looked very painful, and almost all the features on his face were wrinkled together. If Spider-Man's transformation is like a grand fireworks, then Stark's transformation may be like a terminal star.
Collapse inwards.
Now Stark still doesn't know how he will have a dispute with Steve over the same issue, thus destroying the entire Avengers.
"My brain tells me that I can't stop thinking about right and wrong," Stark said.
"Well, if that's the case, then your brain has to be responsible for this. It doesn't want to let you go, so you should go find trouble with it. This is the theory you insist on, isn't it?"
"Ask your brain, is there a way to achieve what you want without hurting the people around you? That's the answer it should give you, because it's what's causing you so much pain."
Stark didn't feel any better. He leaned back on his chair and said, "Look, I'm a fool. I hired a devil doctor, a Satan, for $1 million an hour..."
"Your damn psychotherapy has never brought about any positive changes in me. Every time I leave you, it becomes more uncomfortable."
Stark said almost through gritted teeth.
Schiller rarely joked with him. He said: "You can use me as a catalyst. You will understand later..."
"Thinking will bring pain. No one is immune. I will give you a shot in advance and you will be much better in the future. You will thank me."
Stark crossed himself on his chest and said: "If you continue to talk so shamelessly, you will almost surpass Howard's status in my heart."
"This is the first time I heard you take the initiative to mention your father, but this is very strange. Most people prefer to call mom when they are in pain."
Stark punched the table hard. He didn't want to admit that he mentioned his father because he felt uncomfortable.
He is not a young bird in need of shelter, the eagle that flew away from the cliff and never came back, nor is he the person he should think of when he is in despair and pain.
Schiller said: "Perhaps that's why you make yourself a mecha. You wear that iron shell wherever you go. You feel that only it can protect you. Only by wearing it, you are the most powerful person."
Mighty Iron Man.
"But I have to say, if you can't learn to take it off, you will never become a real Iron Man."
Schiller had thought before that Stark and Batman were really similar. Their growth experiences and educational backgrounds were uncannily similar, and when they faced certain problems, the methods they chose were surprisingly consistent -
—
Make yourself a bunch of weapons that no one can make, and then arm yourself with them, thinking that you will be extremely powerful. Then when you find that this cannot actually solve all problems, you will fall into a painful struggle.
Schiller was writing and drawing in his notebook, and Stark said, "What are you writing?"
"Steve's psychiatric treatment is temporarily over, so Natasha put the monitor back and I had to handwrite the case for you."
Stark narrowed his eyes and said, "Did you write down everything I just said?"
"Not much else, but I remember very clearly the sentence you called daddy."
"$5 million."
Schiller threw the notebook directly in front of Stark. Stark picked up the lighter and lit it. He cursed in a low voice: "How could I believe in a damn vampire doctor?"
"It's getting late, you should go back. The quarrel with Miss Pepper cannot be solved by hiding outside," Schiller said.
Stark obviously didn't want to leave at all. He said: "That spider boy can live here with you, why can't I? I don't even dislike your shabby place. You are also lucky to be able to work for the genius Stark." A breakfast.”
"Yeah, and then Miss Pepper was working overtime alone in Stark Tower. The employees had already left. The building was dark and cold... Oh, Jarvis might accompany her. I heard that Jarvis Si also has feelings, maybe he can understand Miss Pepper's loss better than you."
Stark immediately couldn't sit still. He jumped up from his chair, put on his coat and said, "I will not be jealous of my smart butler, never."
Schiller opened the clinic door for him and said, "Yes, of course, of course, God bless Jarvis."
After Stark left the clinic, he was in a very bad mood, and all kinds of thoughts were in a mess in his mind.
He has long accepted the fact that geniuses are lonely, and this has been the case for most of his life. He has always felt that he lives a good life, is rich, smart, has enough capital to realize the value of life, and has an excessive sense of responsibility. It didn't make him feel distressed, but he had never felt that he needed someone's company as much as he did today.
He rarely called for the armor, and even turned off his mobile phone. He slowly walked through the street and came to the dilapidated bus stop. The driver of the last bus smelled heavily of cigarette smoke. , Stark felt very uncomfortable, but he still walked up and found a place to sit down.
Thanks to Schiller's reputation, no one dared to mess around in the nearby neighborhoods. Stark took the bus safely and left Hell's Kitchen. On the streets of New York, he stopped a taxi and got in.
"Stark Tower." Stark said.
The driver glanced at him in the rearview mirror. He didn't realize that this was the owner of the Stark Group. After all, when Stark appeared on TV, he was always in high spirits, but now, he looks more like a middle-aged frustrated man. The bereaved dog.
The taxi drove Stark through the cold neon lights of New York. The street scene quickly receded within his sight. The jazz music played in the taxi matched the late autumn in New York. Stark sat in the back seat with his hands on his hands. On his knees, covering his face.
He thought in his mind, okay, okay, I'm just such a fragile little boy, not a big hero at all. I just want to see Pepper now, then give her a hug, and save the world to hell.
Stark is never willing to admit his naivety, he prefers to call it childlike innocence, the innocence that belongs only to geniuses.
But I have to admit that in everyone's life, there must be someone who plays such a role, like an eagle returning to the nest, sheltering the chicks under its wings.
Pepper is just an ordinary person, not an eagle or raptor, but when Stark, a nestling waiting to be fed, feels cold, he still wants to crawl under her feathers.
After getting out of the car, Stark rushed towards the building almost impatiently. He knew that the lights in the office on the top floor must still be on, and Pepper would work there until late at night.
Stark quickly ran to the elevator. He didn't know what was wrong with him. He was like a fledgling boy. He rubbed his hands nervously in the elevator and kept walking in place. When the elevator door opened,
He rushed out quickly.
He wanted to say something to Pepper, and he should say something.
But there were no lights on the entire floor. Stark walked around in circles and couldn't see any lights on in any office. This was very unusual.
"Pepper, Pepper, are you there?" Stark shouted.
But the only answer he received was the echoes in the office. Stark hammered the glass door next to him, and then shouted: "Jarvis? Are you there? Jarvis, where have you been?"
The response to him was also silence.
Now Stark was really panicking. If Jarvis didn't respond to him, it meant that he was probably hijacked or had his energy cut off. If someone really did this, their target must be Pepper.
Stark ran quickly in the office, and he ran to the office that Pepper usually used.
But without a mecha, Stark is just an ordinary person. He has no night vision. If Jarvis does not respond, the smart lighting system in his entire office will not turn on.
As soon as Stark rushed in, he tripped over an office chair that was lying sideways. After he got up, he found that he couldn't see his surroundings at all, let alone check any details.
He opened his mouth to call out to the mecha, but without Jarvis, the mecha's smart remote control wouldn't respond.
Stark really collapsed. He suddenly discovered that everything he thought he had control over actually did not belong to him. After losing that shell, Iron Man was just a man who couldn't see in the dark.
of ordinary people.
His voice was trembling a little, and he began to rummage around on Pepper's desk in the dark. He wanted to comfort himself and whispered: "Damn, she will be fine... This is Stark Tower, no one can
Break through the defense here, I am Stark..."
Suddenly, the lights on the entire floor turned on, and Stark was blinded. He covered his eyes and turned around, only to find Pepper appearing at the door of the office holding a remote control. Stark stayed where he was.
Before Pepper could speak, Stark rushed up and hugged her. Pepper had never seen such a frightened Stark.
She heard Stark keep thinking: "I knew you would be fine... Of course you will be fine..."
Pepper sighed, this chick was almost bigger than an eagle, he was so hateful, yet so irresistible.
Now turn the time back a little, and not long after Stark left the clinic, Schiller received a call from Pepper.