The car sped down the New Jersey highway, sending a faint cloud of smoke and dust, and the setting sun set on the brown-red earth at the end of the highway, turning the puddles on Manhattan's lead-gray pavement a dazzling golden red.

When Tony Stark, dressed in a steel suit, appeared in the café, causing a commotion, people took out their mobile phones, and the sound of the shutter was clicking, Stark waved his hand impatiently, but the crowd still gathered.

The clerk behind the bar walked out with a smile, looking at the congestion at the door of the store helplessly, he rubbed his hands and planned to step forward to persuade Stark not to be so high-profile, and then a stack of bills was slapped on the bar.

The chubby boss's golden eyes lit up in the door of the back kitchen, and with a "snap", the sign of closing the shop was hung on the door of the coffee shop.

Stark rested his hands behind his head and leaned sideways in the chair of the seat with the best view by the window, "jingle bell", the wind chimes hanging in the doorway were plucked, and the red-haired female agent's slender figure appeared around the corner, Stark whistled at Natasha.

Natasha put her handbag aside, sat down across from Stark, took off her sunglasses and raised her eyebrows slightly, saying, "Long time no see, Tony, how are you doing?" ”

"Knowingly asked." Tony glanced at her sideways, then turned his face back and said, "Pepper didn't have a lot of trouble with me after you left, if you don't come to me, I'll also go to Nick for mental damage." ”

Natasha didn't get down to business with a cold face as usual, she put her elbows on the table, straightened her pale fingers under her chin, looked at Stark from above her eyes and said, "What, Pepper doesn't agree with what I gave you?" ”

Stark immediately blew his beard and glared, "You're a complete slander!" You lowered my image in her mind, and she didn't ...... in the first place."

"Originally, she didn't complain much about your poor skills with no sense of service, but after listening to my complaints, she realized that there are many good men in this world, sorry, the genius Stark, this is the most brainless job."

Stark glared hard at the clerk who was eavesdropping at the door of the back kitchen, but he touched his nose in some embarrassment, took his foot off the side of the chair, and reluctantly sat up straight.

"I drank too much that day, my consciousness was a little unconscious, and it was understandable that I didn't play well, and besides, you didn't point out the problem on the spot and slandered me everywhere, and it didn't get much better."

"You're mistaken, I didn't tell anyone about the two of us, and if Pepper complains to you, you'll have to check out your cover models."

Stark immediately frowned suspiciously, his eyes curled as if he was thinking about who might get into trouble with Pepper, and after a while, he held out a finger and said, "I won't sign a non-disclosure agreement with you, but you must not talk to Pepper about 'good men' or anything like that." ”

Natasha's eyes immediately narrowed, like a cat seeing a fish, and she smiled at Stark and said, "I thought Pepper was just 'one of them,' did she?" Or is she not? ”

Natasha keenly grasped the hint of panic in Stark's expression, and the female agent shrugged her nose and said, "You have at least seven perfume scents mixed with it, and it's another yacht party, how many missed calls did Pepper give you?" ”

"You're listening to my phone calls?"

"God, I'm going to tell you that you're innocent like the boy who just got out of prom?" Natasha decided to kill with one blow: "You're in love with Pepper." ”

The two Starks in the café and in the Devouring Engine covered their eyes at the same time.

"You won't see it all then, will you?" Stark, who was sitting at the bar in the lobby of the Star-Swallowing Engine, looked at Nick and said, "Did I write this on my face?" Are you sure? ”

"All I can say is that Pepper is probably the only one who hasn't found out about this, and from a psychological level, you two are really what pot and what lid." Schiller said with a shrug.

Stark in the café had completely changed his position, his forearms on the coffee table, leaning forward to stare at Natasha and say, "You're." ”

Then he relaxed and leaned back, putting his hands behind his head in a comfortable gesture.

But Natasha didn't eat it at all, she took the coffee handed by the clerk, snorted and said: "You don't dare to admit your inner feelings, because you know that you are dying, you know that you can't be courted by Pepper, in case she falls in love with you too, you will experience life and death." ”

Iron Man's lips pursed white.

"You don't want to drag anyone down, you just want to find a random place to die after you're done, it's best that no one will remember you, and no one will be sad for you."

"No one would have grieved for me!" Stark pursed his lips and said, "A notorious arms dealer, a rich and unkind playboy, whoever is sad for me I will only feel that he has water in his head." ”

"And what about your father?"

"Don't mention him to me!"

The glamorous and cunning cat sees another fish, and the female agent never has the patience to carefully throw the bait, preferring to use the harpoon directly.

"You know someone who will want to save you, even if he dies, but unfortunately he dies."

"Better he's dead." Stark clenched his coffee cup tightly.

"But the death of a man is not determined by the time of his physical disappearance."

Natasha began to prepare to release a smoke bomb called philosophy, which of course was also a trick learned from Schiller, and once she began to discuss philosophy, most people's brains were not enough, and she herself was once blurred in this way.

"We often say that forgetting is the end of death, and as long as someone remembers, death never ends, and Howard Stark has been dead for a long time, but he is not dead because there are still people who remember him, and that's the only reason I'm here now."

Natasha also leaned forward to show an aggressive attacking posture, looked at Stark and said: "For your father's sake, Nick asked me to come over to persuade you, he originally wanted to come with me to recruit you, but through the window he saw that you were not in a good state, so in order to avoid pressure, he asked me to come alone, just to care about your state, and I will talk about it later." ”

"Is he taking pity on me?!"

"Of course not, he's an old friend of your father, so he doesn't want to see you get into trouble, and I'm going to say that Nick, like everyone who remembers Howard, has seen Howard's talent firsthand, so he hasn't been forgotten so long after his death."

"Nobody remembers you, not because of what a bad person you are, you know that Howard Stark was a playboy and made a lot of ridiculous jokes, but that's not what people remember."

"People only know Howard as a genius inventor and a successful businessman, and you, Tony, if you die now, the eulogy at the funeral will probably only have a 'untimely death.'"

Natasha shrugged her shoulders, took another sip of coffee and said, "After all, the company was not established by you, the weapon was not invented by you, and only the steel armor is worth talking about, but how do ordinary people know how good your suit is?" They just think it's a big toy, and the impression you leave on the world is probably that you're just a rich and fun-loving playboy. ”

"Bang!"

The clerk who delivered Stark's coffee was startled by the sound of Stark pounding the table, and Natasha stood up to help Stark take the coffee and put it in front of him.

As the coffee was put down, the water flickered, and Natasha felt as if she saw a small bright spot on the surface of the coffee, but she wasn't sure if it was a reflection of the liquid.

The cautious female agent shook her hand, and half a cup of coffee was sprinkled onto Stark's steel suit.

"Oh my gosh, I'm sorry." Natasha hurriedly apologized, and turned her head to ask the clerk for a towel, but Stark stood up suddenly, and said in a cold voice: "I received Nick's concern, let's stop here today, I'll go first." ”

Natasha didn't show any weakness, she stared at Stark and said, "Your lining should be wet, and if nothing happens, Pepper should be waiting for you anxiously right now at the spot where you often land, do you want her to see you like this?" ”

Stark started to get a little agitated, he kept biting his upper lip, looked at Natasha and said, "What then?" Do you expect this group to clean the lining of my armor? ”

"Let's go to the bathroom and wash off the coffee stains." Natasha nudged Stark and said, "You don't want to explain to Pepper how you got spilled coffee by another woman." ”

Stark walked into the bathroom slightly embarrassed, and Natasha followed him all the way until he stood in front of the mirror of the sink in the middle of the bathroom, and through the mirror, he saw Natasha put her hand on his waist.

Stark was about to speak, when Natasha lip-synced through the mirror: "Don't talk, listen to me." ”

"Someone is going to kill you." Natasha continued to lip-tune through the mirror: "A mysterious enemy, we don't know where he is or in what way, but he's around you, ready to strike at you, be careful, Tony. ”

After saying that, Natasha pretended to be flirting, hooked her hand around Stark's neck and dropped a kiss on his cheek, and walked in the direction of the women's bathroom like no one.

Frozen in place for a few seconds, Stark's eyes looked left and right, and then he went to the sink to dispose of the lining of his armor as well.

When Stark left the bathroom, he found that Natasha had already hitched a ride in Nick's car, and through the gradually rolling window, he couldn't help but show a thoughtful look when he saw Natasha's last warning look.

Could this be a S.H.I.E.L.D. trap? Create a crisis to force yourself to join Nick's superhero organization?

Stark tilted his head and touched the blue lines that were spreading on his shoulder, the countdown to his life.

If you die, will anyone take care of your descendants decades later?

Both Pepper and Obadiah were saddened by his debauchery, and perhaps they wished they were dead.

Taking out his phone, Stark saw a barrage of missed calls, Natasha's guess was very accurate, Stark had just been playing crazy on the yacht for three days, during which he didn't answer anyone's calls, he knew he was pushing them away, but he did it voluntarily.

But then, Stark suddenly thought of a name, if there was anyone who would put a bouquet of flowers in front of his tomb a hundred years from now, it might be Rod's son, because his father had told the legend of Iron Man more than once, and Rod knew that his epitaph should not just be a playboy.

Stark took a deep breath and glanced back at the coffee that had been spilled on the table, and as night fell, the golden-red meteor disappeared from the skyline.

A hand reached into the washing machine and fumbled for a long time, a curly-haired black woman pulled out a pair of pants, frowned and shouted out the door: "Hancock, go tell your father, if you dare to wash his rotten jeans and white shirt together, get out of this house!" ”

Rhodes, who was sitting on the couch reading a newspaper, looked back, touched his son's head as he ran, and saw the fire of the steel suit engine lighting up under the balcony curtains.

(End of chapter)