Chapter 1569

The air on a winter morning in Brooklyn had a crystal-like transparency. The snow that had dropped its last flake two hours ago highlighted the footprints on the street, and one could still see the solid traces of the falling snow being stepped on underfoot.

Behind the brown wooden window frame and the slightly cold glass, a burst of heat rose above the cup, spun nimbly in the air, and then disappeared. Afterward, the aroma of coffee permeated the entire room, and the feet that had been frozen stiff from walking through the street in the snow also warmed up.

Stark and Steve sat side-by-side on the sofa of the Hell's Kitchen psychological clinic. Steve was using iron tongs to turn the charcoal in the fireplace, while Stark used his mechanical arm to flip the cookies heating on the grill above the fireplace.

He glanced back at the kitchen; Shiler was busy there using a moka pot to brew coffee. Stark turned his head back again, raised an eyebrow at Steve, and said: "I can be sure, Shiler has been much more normal lately."

"Do you remember how long it's been since we drank coffee here?" Steve looked down, adjusting the position of the charcoal. The firelight reflected on his face. Captain America's blue eyes could always clearly reflect all light, whether it was the morning sun, the sunset, or the firelight. When he looked at those flames, it was always as if he had lit a lamp in a block of ice.

"He hasn't been this patient for a very long time," Stark said, flipping the cookies with a tone of recollection: "He didn't even have time to stop and make himself a cup of coffee."

"That's always a good thing, Tony." Stark spoke with a bit of a Southern accent and tone when he was relaxed, perhaps from his mother. He also spoke just like people of that era: "We're scheduled to go ice fishing on the lake on Sunday morning."

"Ice fishing? Heh, old man." Stark laughed, his shoulders shaking, almost laughing until he leaned back. He looked at Stark with those eyes full of smiles and said: "I guess Nick is going too, maybe Seeing Natasha. You all add up to be four hundred years old, right?"

"You underestimated," Stark added new firewood to the fireplace and said: "That Russian scientist who has a grudge against you is going too. He just returned to New York recently. Just as he was about to get dead drunk in the lab, Banner announced that no alcohol could appear on his floor. That poor Russian guy lost three bottles of vodka and can only come among you old guys to find some comfort."

"I guess you didn't plan to invite me."

"Then should we continue to find ways to treat him?"

"Sounds very idealistic."

"Let's talk about Shiler again." Stark pulled the topic back to the starting point and said: "That mysterious voice told us that the doctor who had a profound influence on Shiler back then might still be alive. I thought he would rush to find his trail, but he suddenly quieted down, like a slow boat that had suddenly dropped its anchor."

"One of the most interesting and inspiring points is that they view the development of the group and every individual within the group as equally important. One must have both social progress and people's happiness."

"I also guess so. Perhaps that doctor's performance is the reason Shiler chose to be a psychologist—to use the same ideas and knowledge to save others."

"You know what? Tony, your expression right now is like a teenage boy explaining to his dad who barged into his room that the porn magazine on his bed was just for studying physiological structures."

Shiler walked back to the island, held the last cup of coffee in his hand, came to the single sofa by the fireplace, sat down, relaxed his waist, let his back stick completely to the sofa back, took a sip of the boiling hot coffee, and let out a satisfied sigh.

"He was calmer than us at that time." Steve shook his head slightly with a great amplitude and said: "It seemed like he had the answers to all the problems we couldn't understand."

"Is he also coming to save us with that kind of idea?" Stark didn't sound like he was asking, more like he was prompting.

"That doctor healed him, making him realize how much beneficial change sufficient spiritual power and ideals can prompt a person to make to this world. So he healed us, making us also have more leeway to think about more things concerning all of humanity."

"When I was an ordinary person, I didn't feel there was anything good about being an ordinary person. But after I became Captain America, I often missed those calm days."

"Remembered something?"

"But it looks like now he wants to be a doctor again." Steve clasped his hands together, stroked the back of one hand with the other, and said: "Because I remembered the doctor who once healed me. The key isn't whether that doctor is alive or where he is now, but what he once taught Shiler, and why Shiler is walking the same path as him without hesitation."

A hand reached over Steve's shoulder and placed a cup of coffee in front of him. Just as Steve turned his head, Shiler had already walked past the fireplace and placed another cup of coffee in front of Stark.

"He was more like a doctor at that time. Have you heard Professor X's theory that a psychologist must keep a distance from the patient?" Stark raised both eyebrows, causing furrows to appear on his forehead.

"Because Professor X said the doctor who cured Shiler was a former Soviet citizen. I just wanted to see why that doctor wanted Shiler to be an ordinary person."

He suddenly laughed deeply, the muscles of his strong arms contracting and trembling. He added the last piece of firewood to the fireplace and said: "Our doctor is coming back, right?"

"Good God, that must be something you've done. I would just tell Howard directly that I like curvy beauties."

"Don't change the subject. The adjectives you used to describe that pile of books just now couldn't let Shiler hear. We are very serious about this matter, but I think I have understood something."

"Perhaps it's also to let there be more idealists in this world." Steve's face softened rarely. He didn't have the sarcasm he often wore on his brow, nor the impatience often buried in the furrows of his face. He looked at Stark's blue eyes and said.

"And we should have continued to pass this on, but the madness he displayed forced us to put more attention on him to prevent him from hurting himself, so much so that we actually didn't go to heal the anxiety and confusion of the people around us."

"Of course, because we don't want to offend Pepper." Stark raised his eyelids slightly, looking at the damp firewood in his hand and said: "And your uncle Obadiah. He calls every one of us to ask when you plan to get married."

"He succeeded." Stark nodded and said.

"…But it's still a bit off." Steve supported his chin with his other hand and said: "When I felt anxious and confused, what soothed me?"

"I still underestimated your old-fashionedness. I hope you didn't hear it from a radio in a second-hand shop. It doesn't matter anyway, you're older than it... I mean, perhaps Shiler remembered something."

"Thanks for your generosity, Tony. This Sunday morning, I should see Nick showing off his new fishing rod with his head held high."

"I hope he won't say he likes it too. Oh, God, the young me definitely would. Can you imagine? At that time, the most serious and earnest person in our team was Nick Fury."

"About ordinary people?"

"Do you think, why did that doctor want him to be an ordinary person?" Steve withdrew his hand, supported his chin with the root of his palm, and quietly watched the heated cookies crack with fine lines from the top. Then he added: "Do you think there's anything good about being an ordinary person?"

"I got some teaching materials from Seeing Natasha." Steve's expression looked a bit strange, like he wanted to laugh but didn't dare to. He lowered his voice and continued: "Didn't let anyone know. I know I'm the hope of many people."

"I am, so I made that evaluation." Stark showed a smile and then said: "When you are an idealist, you can understand who is a true idealist and who is exaggerating."

Stark raised his eyes in surprise and looked at Stark, then said: "I thought you were also an idealistic person."

"Perhaps." Stark flipped the cookie closest to him with his gauntleted hand, but it wasn't because he cared about the heat, just like he wanted to find something to do for himself.

"What are you referring to? What teaching materials?" Stark looked up at him.

Stark shook his head, but still said: "But it is true that as we got closer to him, we could see his madness more clearly. Then we wanted to heal that madness. From then on, he became more like a patient."

"You two?" Shiler drank a sip of coffee, turned his head to look at the snowflakes falling again outside the window, and said.

"…A calm power." Stark continued: "What can soothe others is never violence, madness, or impatience, but the sense of security brought by calmness and strength."

"Nick's new fishing rod." Stark picked up the cookies into a plate, placed the plate on the table, and said: "Generously sponsored by the billionaire Tony Stark."

"Yes, and that also means we have to undergo professional psychological evaluations on time again, and I have to pay a large mental health management fee for this."

"And the old cliché, us." Steve added.

"I'm sorry, but I don't provide emotional counseling here, especially regarding Iron Man and Captain America."

"Professor X is a bit too professional." Stark let out a breath as if he had suddenly relaxed.

"Perhaps it's some of Shiler's plans to push me and the surrounding environment forward, but more of it is a kind of power Shiler displayed when he was a doctor."

Stark laughed again. He pressed his upper lip down hard until the area with stubble turned white, yet he still couldn't close his grinning mouth. Anyone who saw this expression would be surprised to find that behind the smile of this seemingly mature middle-aged man, one could still see a few traces of youthful shyness.

"Everyone has their own anchor." Stark pursed his lips and tilted his head, saying: "That's not what I said, but what I heard on the emotional channel. It's full of nonsense, but occasionally has golden sentences."

"From the Soviet era." Stark bared his teeth, deliberately making a fierce expression, not knowing whether he was warning Stark or warning those gazes that could be cast from across the distant space.

"Because of what was said in those materials?" Stark lowered his head but looked up and asked.

"It seems Shiler is a beneficiary of this kind of thinking." Steve lowered his head slightly, letting his eyelashes cover his eyes, also covering the contemplation within. He continued: "I guess that doctor was holding such an idea, which is why he had to save him no matter what."

"It looks more like a disguise as normal." Steve wasn't that optimistic. He said: "He changed from a patient to a doctor, once again."

"I think it's better to leave this to Professor X." Steve sighed softly and said: "Let professional people do professional things."

"So he returned to normal?" Stark looked up at Shiler behind the island again and said: "In order for this kind of transmission to continue?"

"What were you two just talking about?" Shiler asked.