Fifteen 'encounters' into the same person in less than a week, no matter how much West didn't eat the fireworks of the world, he had to be forced to make room in his brain to remember that characterless, ordinary face.

“Hi！ What a coincidence, West, we actually met again!! ”

With lunch in hand, I stood in front of the bar expressionlessly. He stared at the blonde boy who greeted him with surprise on his face not far away, and he really couldn't understand why he had watched the other party get off the bus at the other end of the city half an hour ago, and he had already fled to the restaurant farthest away from their academy, but he still couldn't escape the sad fate of meeting Colin Burrens, the spirit behind him.

…… Ah, even if you get lost, you will end up getting lost, what a coincidence.

"Hello, Colin." Try to speak calmly, lest you can't resist breaking this guy's neck with your bare hands. He sat on the only remaining seat in the dining room with his arms crossed, didn't even eat, and looked straight up at the man's sincere and innocent eyes: "Say, what are you following me for what I want to do?" ”

"Huh?"

With a puzzled look of 'oh what are you talking about, how could such a cute baby like me do such a thing', the blonde boy unhurriedly sent a brisket into his mouth, pretending to be quite like that:

"I've only happened to meet you a few times...... Well, although the number of times may be a bit much...... But this shows that there must be a wonderful bond between us! Seriously, do you want to make friends with each other? I think we're quite fated. ”

“……”

- Do you still think I look like a ×?

Nearly slamming the entire plate of shiitake pasta on Colin's head, West took a deep breath, his expression must have been twisted by now. In order to prevent himself from being like this, or blowing this guy away with the entire restaurant, he decided to put it another way.

"Well, listen to you, we've been bumping into each other—" Colin swore he had seen West's hand on the knife move dangerously, "then, Mr. Burns, please answer me, what do you want to do with it?" ”

"It's really nothing ......" the aggrieved flattened his mouth, and the boy's eyes were as wet as a fawn, as if he was accusing his companion of unwarranted harsh accusations, which made people no longer have the heart to get angry. But obviously, this trick is useless for the 'hermits' who are used to seeing the wind and waves - in fact, he has learned enough in the mutant school over the years to sell cuteness and coquettish things to avoid homework or review.

Leaning back in the chair with his arms folded, listening to this kid's nonsense. West hesitated for a moment, but shook his head and rejected his idea of using telepathy to find the answer. After all, he had kept Charles' teachings in mind for many years, and he was not willing to spy on other people's ** in this way, and he also believed that Colin had no malicious intent. Otherwise, as early as the second time they met, he had already completely brainwashed him by unconventional means to ensure safety.

However, this does not mean that there is no limit to his tolerance.

“…… Colin. Interrupting the chatter of the boy opposite. West looked at his pale gray eyes, as clear as the sky after the rain, and sighed helplessly.

"I want you to be honest. For some personal reasons, I can't let my guard down against anyone who deliberately approaches me. If you insist on hiding it and refuse to give me a reason to reassure me......"

He stretched out his index finger and tapped his temple, "Then I'm afraid I'm going to have to take something that you and I don't want to see." ”

As a verbal threat, West didn't expect the boy to fully understand what the 'mutual unwanted measures' were. But Colin seemed to know this very well, and before he could further elaborate, he immediately closed his mouth, looking a little distressed.

"Well, I'm just afraid you'll laugh at me." After being silent for a long time, seeing that he was really confused today, Colin finally raised his hand and surrendered:

"Because you're a lot like someone I know, really. He...... I looked for him for a long, long time, walked a lot, and almost despaired, but let me see his shadow in you again. ”

"I'm sorry, West. I didn't mean to bother you...... I just miss him too much. ”

This is a reasonable and unexpected answer.

Carefully observe every change in the boy's expression to make sure he is not lying. West hesitated for a moment to ask if he wanted to risk revealing someone else's scar, but finally decided to continue. After all, as a mutant who is familiar with combat all year round, caution is already a habit ingrained in his bones.

"Who's that man?" Therefore, he also followed the doubts in his heart and asked so. And decided that if he got standard pick-up lines like "my ex-boyfriend", he would crush the kid into a.

And yet—

"It's my ex-boyfriend." Squinting happily, Colin Silly Sweet Burns replied so happily.

"He also has blue eyes as attractive as summer, short brown silky hair, and although his temper is not too good, he is still ...... Hey, I'm not done yet, where are you going, Williams? ”

“……”

West felt like he was literally beeping a dog.

＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊

So, after many unsuccessful attempts to throw the boy off the Bridge of Sighs, West, who is said to look 'exactly like his ex-boyfriend', is also tired today, Xavier silently accepts the reality that some people have been involved in their lives since then.

That's not to say that West really hates being around Colin. In fact, he quite likes this big boy who doesn't have any scheming and stupid heads. For a mutant who has been forced to stay away from family and friends, and who may be surrounded by strong enemies, a genuine friendship can be comforting even though it is impossible to be honest with each other. However, these are all based on the premise that he really just came to Oxford to study, and even if he is living a comfortable life now, West will eventually come with a blood debt and a mission. Until he finds his old enemy and completely destroys his ambitions, all the years of stability have nothing to do with him.

Twenty years of nightmares continue, and twenty years of dead souls are still at rest. No one knew that he would wake up from his sleep almost every night. That damp and gloomy room, with its blood-stained scalpel, filled the entire underground base with screams and cries...... There are too many unbearable memories that fill every corner of the body, lingering in the depths of the heart as the blood flows all the way. For West, in fact, what he hated was not only the scar that left him with nearly a hundred truths, but also the small self who had been humbly crushed with all his pride, so angry but powerless to save anyone.

At the very least, he couldn't stop his revenge before dragging that madman into hell together.

"Hey! Hi? Williams, are you okay? ”

But I don't know that I have passed by the fate of being brainwashed countless times, and now I can still sit here with a sound mind and flirt with a man because of West's thoughts. The blonde boy leaned half of his body against the windowsill, looking at the young man who was choking on tears in the archive room, and couldn't help but wave his hand in disgust: "This place hasn't been cleaned for many years, and it's a shame that you can make up your mind to come in." ”

"You think I want to?"

Shaking the file in his hand, unsurprisingly raised a puff of dust. West pouted in displeasure, cursing frantically in his mind Tony Stark, who had tricked him into looking for information, while carefully flipping through the yellowed documents.

…… F**K。

His expressionless face stared at the cockroach piece in the page for five seconds, and he snapped his grip and threw it to the bottom of the bookshelf with a sympathetic gaze.

"So, you still won't tell me what you're looking for? Maybe I can help you out. ”

With an expression that was somewhere between worried and gloating, the boy said in a tone that didn't look like he was sad because of the distrust of his peers - everyone had ** who didn't want to be snooped on, and he had a lot of secrets to hide from West. If you can't have a clear conscience yourself, what right do you have to ask others to be completely honest?

"No, it's not." One glance at Colin knew what he was thinking. Casually picking up another heavy document, West rarely opened his mouth to explain: "There are some things that I don't want to sue you, but I can't ...... For your safety, the less you know about this matter, the better—"

At least not dead.

silently added the last sentence in his heart. If it weren't for the fact that Colin couldn't be denied, and that access to these old records required the presence of more than two people at the same time, West wouldn't even let him into the archives. After all, the reason why he was in this kind of ghost place now was that Tony called at noon, saying that he had found a clue about Dr. Yi, and that he had to check the actual records of the Oxford Department of Biology and ask him what else to talk about him, which confused West. But in any case, it's a matter between superheroes, and it's not appropriate for Colin to be mixed in as an ordinary person. Otherwise, if their enemies come to trouble this boy in his absence, his sin will be great.

“…… But I'm not that weak...... I've saved you many times before. Hearing this, the blonde boy grumbled in a low voice, and his voice became smaller and quieter, and it was almost a whisper.

"It's a bad habit not to face up to your weaknesses, Colin."

Ten lines at a glance browsed the dense records in his hand, and replied casually. West certainly didn't hear Colin's last words, and thus missed the only chance to reveal his true identity - it wasn't until later, when the dark-haired, high-cheeked boy confessed his identity to him, that it dawned on him that they had missed each other so much. And the so-called puzzle of fate, until the mystery is finally revealed, you will never know what it will bring you.

It's just that that will be a long, long time later.

"Ah, I found it."

I don't know how long I was in a daze on the dusty windowsill, but when Colin came back to his senses, he heard West whistle excitedly - of course, the end of the wave was to accidentally eat another mouthful of ash.

'Phew' a few times, but his eyes never left the page, and the brown-haired boy's gaze kept jumping between the somewhat faded black ink. Tony was right, it was at Oxford that he was teaching, and the real yàn records he borrowed from West were not entirely readable, but he could read a few of them about a certain genetic engineering. What's more, it may be here that he preliminarily simulated and analyzed his own gene number...... It wasn't of much value to him, but it could be a very useful reference for Dr. Tony and Banner, who were also researching.

Thinking so, he opened the phone specially modified by Stark, West scanned all the records and sent them to Jarvis's number jù curry, and was about to send a message to Tony to remind him to check, when he glanced at it by chance, but found that there seemed to be some blurred handwriting behind these documents.

'On April 13th, I received the professor's analysis report today, which is different from my actual yàn, and I have been informed. ’

'The professor has newly discovered a change in a pair of new base pairs in the sample, and the structure is roughly ......'

‘…… The aberrations and point mutations in the existing genetic samples are not clear, and I need more real materials. ’

At first glance, these sloppy and illogical sentences should be notes that Dr. Yi scribbled down in the real yàn. But West found something important to note in this—it seems that when Elizhe was studying his genetic structure, there was a person he called 'Professor' who was also doing research at the same time, and they may have been in academic communication before.

He frowned slightly.

Speaking of 'professor', West's first reaction was, of course, Charles. While Charles did have a lot of achievements in the life sciences, it was impossible for him to join forces with Elizhe and help the madman study his DNA...... This so-called professor must have someone else. After all, it's just a public title, and if everything is put on Charles, he may not be enough to grow three heads and six arms.

Shaking his head, he secretly laughed at the 'three-headed and six-armed' Charles he imagined. West retracted his thoughts and was about to continue rummaging through the other texts to find out who this mysterious 'professor' was, when a burst of metallic rock music suddenly sounded in the quiet room, which frightened him and almost knocked over the tall filing cabinet in front of him.

"Colin ......" subconsciously looked back at his companion, and West's face could not be considered very good.

"It's not me this time." The boy who had been sitting honestly with an aggrieved expression raised his black screen mobile phone: "I never set such loud music as a ringtone." ”

…… The problem is, I've never done rock 'n' roll.

I was stunned, and then realized that this song seemed a little familiar. West was silent and scooped up his phone. Sure enough, the flashing name on it gave him the answer to a qiē question—

'Tony Stark'

…… Hehe, he knows that this is the only bastard in the world who can be so bored that he can set an exclusive ringtone for himself in someone else's mobile phone without authorization.

Press the call button hard. Although he knew that Iron Man couldn't see, West rolled his eyes at the ceiling:

“Hello？ ……”