mtl008 Chapter 3415 Sons of Midnight (4)
Chapter 3415 Sons of Midnight (4)
Chapter 3415: Son of Midnight (XIV)
Stark got out of the car and looked at the house in front of him. This is a very typical American villa: the house is divided into two parts, the left side is the main structure, and the right side is the garage; it has a sky blue roof and white walls. Because it is just at the corner of a street, the yard is much larger than other houses.
Stark walked to the trunk of the car, took out the flight case, and walked over to ring the doorbell. Soon, the door was pushed open, and the red-haired witch in a white thin sweater and black wide-leg pants walked out.
"Oh, God, I thought you would be stuck in traffic for a while." Wanda opened the door for Stark, and Stark walked into the yard and looked around.
"Is this your first time here?" Wanda smiled and said, "We just moved here from the Bronx. The Parker family's house is just two blocks away. There are a lot of Spider-Men coming and going here. The security is much better than other places, and the house prices have gone up."
"You and Peter are neighbors?" Stark said in surprise, "They should have moved in not long ago, right?"
"How is that possible? They have lived here for two or three years." Wanda opened the door of the house and invited Stark in.
Wanda's home is also decorated in a classic style. After entering the house, there is a small corridor, followed by a living room and an open kitchen; the door on the right leads to the dining room, the other side of the living room is the bathroom, and the bedrooms are upstairs.
The house was not very big, but it was well organized. Kitchen utensils of the same color were hung on various hooks on the kitchen wall, and the dishes were neatly arranged. Stark opened the refrigerator and took a look. It was full of food.
"I'm currently preparing for the community college entrance exam." Wanda walked over to wash a basket of blackberries for Stark, then said, "Although Dr. Schiller and Dr. Strange are willing to give me letters of recommendation, I feel that even if I go to a prestigious university, I may not be able to keep up with the courses. It would be better for me to go to a community college to learn the basics first, and then do an internship at a community hospital. This way, it will be closer to home and convenient for me to take care of my two brothers."
Wanda turned on the coffee machine again, and the aroma of fresh beans wafted out.
Stark nodded and threw a blackberry into his mouth. The rich sweetness and fruity aroma rushed into his nose. The morning light shone through the plaid curtains onto the island, and the light and shadows swayed; fresh humid air came from the back door. At this moment, he seemed to understand why Wanda liked this kind of life.
"Okay, ma'am, where's your robot vacuum cleaner?"
"Robot vacuum cleaner? We don't have one at home... Oh, you mean Jarvis. This joke is not funny at all." Wanda smiled helplessly, walked out of the kitchen, picked up the airline box at the door, and said, "He is taking care of the children upstairs. Let me take a look at these little darlings first."
Wanda opened the flight case, and Stark covered his ears very skillfully. As expected, a scream came from the living room.
"Oh my god!! Oh my god! God!!!"
Wanda held out three furry kittens in one hand. The kittens lay in her arms, shaking their heads from side to side in a daze and making purring sounds.
"Oh my god, they're so cute. I thought it would be a good idea to adopt them together..."
Stark held out his hands in front of him and said, "I totally understand your love for small animals, but this thing is actually..."
"What's wrong?" Wanda asked without even looking up.
"Well, they are good at some..." Stark kept turning his hands, as if trying to find an accurate adjective. After thinking for a long time, he said, "...adult human space transfer magic."
"What are you talking about?" Wanda said, not quite understanding him. "Are you talking about me? Don't worry, I won't use magic on them casually. These little creatures are very fragile, and I can't bear to see them get hurt."
Stark was a little helpless. He walked over quickly, picked up one of them, and pointed it at Wanda.
One second passed, then two seconds passed. When Wanda's eyes gradually began to show concern for the mentally retarded child, Stark retracted his arm and gently scratched the kitten's forehead.
"Hey, what's wrong with you? Why can't you spit out your tentacles?"
The kitten gave him a look of contempt.
Stark was stunned. He was very sure that he was not mistaken. This little thing, which was about the size of his palm, just looked at him with contempt.
"Nick probably said this thing is intelligent, right?" Jarvis said as he walked down the stairs. "You can't expect anything intelligent to go crazy at Scarlet Witch."
Stark stuffed the cat back into Wanda's hands a little angrily, and Wanda looked at him in confusion.
Wanda brought the cats upstairs and placed them in the brothers' no longer used baby room. She told them to stay there and change their clothes before walking down the stairs.
"I'm going to go out and buy some pet supplies and drop off some blackberries and pancake mix for the Parkers. You guys chat first."
The sound of a door closing came from the front of the living room. Jarvis took over the coffee machine and soon made two cups of strong and fragrant coffee, placing one of them in front of Stark.
"What do you think about what happened in the Bronx?" Stark took the coffee and took a sip, marveling at the freshness of the beans but not wanting to appear too ignorant.
But Jarvis was considerate enough to answer the question he hadn't asked. He said, "Pietro brought this back from Yunnan. It was harvested less than two hours ago. It tastes good, right?"
“He went to China?”
"He found a job in Hong Kong, mainly responsible for distant star communications, traveling between Earth and Neptune Star Port."
"That suits him very well," Stark commented. "He runs fast enough. If there is an emergency such as a communication interruption, he can deliver the information immediately."
"Yes, he is doing a good job there. But he will probably go to the Andromeda Galaxy again in the second half of the year. Eric can't accept that he has three children, but only one of them works for him, and not sincerely."
"How's Polaris? Are the two of them still fighting every day?"
"She and Iceman broke up again, but her relationship with Eric is okay. They haven't fought for almost two months."
“Isn’t the standard for ‘good’ a little too low?”
"Believe me, this is already a pretty amazing breakthrough." Jarvis put the coffee cup back on the table and said, "The law and order in Queens has improved significantly, and Spider-Man has obviously contributed to this. Basically every new Spider-Man will visit Peter's house and solve crimes on the way."
"You mean we should suggest that some superhero move to the Bronx?"
Jarvis said helplessly, "Of course not. Listen to me. What I mean is that the public security problem in Queens can be solved so easily because the situation here is much simpler than that in the Bronx. Ethnicity and religious beliefs are not that complicated. Even if people are of different races, most of them do not have too much conflict because they believe in the same religion."
"But the Bronx is different," he said. "The religious situation there is more complicated than Billy's sleeping habits. Add to that the different races, ethnicities, and sects, and it's not something that can be solved by simply cracking down on crime."
"Take the previous black parade where armed conflict broke out," Jarvis said. "It started because a black single mother was discriminated against, but in the end two police officers and several innocent people were injured in the conflict. It's really hard to tell who is right and who is wrong in this matter."
“Isn’t it the racists’ fault?”
"Of course, theoretically, it was the fault of the racist ticket seller. But his mistake was attributed to all white people, triggering racial conflicts and becoming a complex social problem that cannot be solved by blaming one person."
Stark sighed, and thought of Miles' words again. Anti-racial discrimination laws have been introduced for decades, but some of the social rules that have been established by convention remain the same, without any change. The contradictions and conflicts that should have existed have never been resolved.
"It's because of the complicated situation in the Bronx that everyone who wants to cause trouble starts from here." Jarvis spread his hands and said, "This will make the situation in the Bronx worse, and then more people will mix in, forming a vicious cycle."
"Then what do you think should be done? Can we implement racial segregation?"
"Don't be angry, sir," Jarvis said. "We can't go backwards. The problems in the Bronx are easy to solve."
"Tell me how to solve it."
"Copy the homework." Jarvis took out a book from behind him and said, "This is what Pietro brought back from Hong Kong."
Stark took it. There were Chinese characters on the cover, which he could not understand very well, but there was a line of English below which read "A Century of Hong Kong".
Stark flipped through it and found it was a bilingual book. He took a quick look at the catalog and it seemed to be mainly about the history of Hong Kong.
“Do what advanced AI does,” Stark said. “Summarize the most important points in this book.”
"The whole book is the key points." Jarvis smiled and said, "You can focus on the part about law and order. As long as you can copy half of it, the problem of the Bronx will be solved."
Stark frowned and flipped through the book, seeming a little skeptical. He said, "The East and the West are always different. Do you think I don't want to be as efficient as China? The problem is that our backward hardware facilities can't support the new system at all..."
"You'll know when you see it," Jarvis said. "Hong Kong and the Bronx were actually very similar in the last century, with mixed ethnicities, numerous gangs, and all kinds of public security problems..."
Stark put away the book and said, "I'll go back and check it out."
"If necessary, you can consult Dr. Schiller." Jarvis said, "He has many friends in Hong Kong, or Dr. Strange. He is also familiar with the people in the Hong Kong Temple."
"You successfully picked the two people I least wanted to go to." Stark rolled his eyes slightly.
"Come on, sir," said Jarvis. "This is business. You can't open the box while you're doing an experiment, but if the whole building catches fire and you run out with the box, he'll have to thank you."
Stark rolled his eyes and said, "It's not a good idea to set the whole building on fire just to see if there's a cat in a box, right?"
"On the contrary," Jarvis shrugged. "That's what Dr. Schiller did before. The Bronx had to be fixed sooner or later, so why not this time?"
"Okay." Stark shook his hands, gradually clenched them into fists, then stood up and said, "What if none of us escape..."
"I won't laugh at you, sir," Jarvis said. "After all, I'm just a robot vacuum cleaner."