Chapter 228: Morning and Night

In the morning, when the first ray of sunlight in New York shone through the gap in the curtains, Stark moved his arm and covered his eyes with his arm, seemingly resisting the light. Pepper opened her eyes hazily, looked at the clock on the wall in a daze, and then suddenly woke up.

"It's 9 o'clock! Damn it! I have a meeting to attend!"

Pepper grabbed her hair and sat up from the bed. Stark was awakened by her movements, but still turned over in a daze, wrapped his arm around her waist, and said: "Don't rush... baby, we can, um... we can sleep a little longer."

Pepper grabbed his arm and threw it away, then sat on the edge of the bed, gathered her hair with her hands, turned back to Stark and said: "You piece of trash who is busy with nothing! I'm not one of those models who fool around with you on a yacht. More than half of the orders signed at the expo haven't been negotiated yet..."

Pepper sat on the edge of the bed and covered her forehead. Stark finally woke up a bit. He lay on the bed, looking at the ceiling, opened his eyes a few times, and then said vaguely: "... what meeting... what orders?"

Pepper looked back at him and said as if doubting life: "How could I have believed your nonsense last night? God..."

"Don't be like this..." Stark was still muttering in his sleep. He turned over and used his arm to hug Pepper's waist.

"I remember you were very moved last night. It was the first time we talked like that. That was really good..."

Seeing Stark's constantly trembling eyelashes, Pepper sighed, turned back, and looked at the sunlight shining in from the window. The drowsiness that had been awakened had not completely dissipated. Between the hazy vision, the morning light and the sunset light were a bit indistinguishable, and the conversation from last night rang in her mind again.

After the negotiations ended, Stark's mood was very complicated. The military bowed their heads to him, Hammer Industries paid the price, and Ivan's revenge operation didn't succeed at all. Logically speaking, he should have been very happy, but that was not the case.

He always felt that his chest was a bit empty, and an indescribable sense of loss surrounded him, until he saw Pepper, and then he understood where this emotion came from.

Stark is not a person who puts longing on his lips, but he has to admit that when that sense of loss disappeared upon seeing Pepper, he discovered that he was missing her.

Pepper, who walked into the room, saw Stark standing by the floor-to-ceiling window. It was already late at night. The starry sky of New York was not as bright as imagined. After sunset, the mist obscured the moonlight and starlight, making the entire night sky look like a black curtain hanging down.

There was some faint light in the room, but it was not enough to make everything clear. Stark stood in front of the glass reflecting a faint cold light and turned to look at Pepper.

Pepper felt it was very magical, because Stark's eyes were a bit moist every moment, as if containing faint light. Even though there was no light source now, she could clearly see his emotions from Stark's eyes.

I don't know if it was this emotion called "longing" that lit up his eyes, or if the sun in his eye sockets was glowing itself, but whenever Pepper was watched by him, it was always very difficult to say words of refusal.

Pepper walked to his side and looked into his eyes. In the past, whenever this happened, Stark felt like a toddler learning to speak, with a belly full of words on the tip of his tongue, but unable to say anything.

But today, his language system seemed to have just come online. He said to Pepper: "Do you know when I was happiest today?"

Pepper had dealt with too many of Stark's whimsical questions. She knew that many times, Stark didn't need an answer, just a listener, so she thought about it simply and replied: "I think it should be when you saw the surprised expression on Hammer's face after you activated the defense facilities, right?"

"When you decided to renovate the building, I wasn't very supportive because it was a bit risky, but now it seems that this choice was correct. If you can't show enough powerful strength, then the trouble will be endless."

"That's not what I wanted to discuss."

Pepper looked up at Stark, feeling that his expression had become very focused. Stark said: "I was happiest when I saw Peter and his girlfriend shopping at the expo."

"They carried their schoolbags, walked to every product, showed surprised expressions, listened carefully to the guide's explanation, discussed in low voices, avoided the crowd, and whispered..."

"I saw them too. Youth is really good, right?" Pepper smiled and said.

"I felt happy because..." Stark looked at Pepper and said: "At that time, I was thinking, if only we could do that too."

"I go to a pre-arranged place to wait for you, and then we follow the crowd into the exhibition hall, feeling surprised and happy about every new and strange thing we see..."

"Green Gourd Sword Immortal"

Pepper shook her head, sighed, and said: "I'm afraid you would be very disappointed. That girl named Gwen is very interested in those machines. When she mentions these things, she is even more knowledgeable than Peter."

"But I don't know anything about these things, and I'm not very interested. If you want to find someone who can accompany you to visit this kind of industrial exhibition all day and be surprised from beginning to end, it definitely won't be me."

"Do you know?" Stark suddenly changed the subject, "A few days ago, I had a dream, a very real dream. You can treat it as a story that really happened..."

Pepper looked at him, hearing his somewhat hoarse voice echoing in the room:

"In the future, after experiencing many disasters, the Stark Group went bankrupt."

"When I woke up from a chaotic dream, I discovered that I had nothing left."

"I was homeless, hungry, and cold, and could only survive on food from relief stations."

"I felt very tired and humiliated. I had to move slowly on the street like a beggar, trying to find a complete cardboard box or an oil drum that hadn't gone out yet to keep warm..."

Pepper looked at Stark and saw a trace of fear appear between his brows. Pepper touched Stark's face with her hand and said: "I can't imagine, if this kind of thing really happened..."

Subsequently, she suddenly reacted and said: "... but this is impossible. You still have so many friends, how could they let you fall into this situation?"

"What if they all died?"

Pepper shook her head and said: "No matter what the reason, if they all died, then you couldn't still be alive. You would always want to protect them."

"No matter how terrible a disaster happens, you will definitely be the one rushing to the front."

Pepper touched Stark's face and looked into his eyes intently, saying: "Sometimes I don't want you to do this, but if you were to live in ignominy, then you wouldn't be Stark."

Stark turned his head away, smiled helplessly, and said: "You make it impossible for me to continue telling this story."

"Then don't tell it. It was just a dream, no need to worry about it."

"A dream?" Stark muttered to himself: "Perhaps..."

"But this story has a very important ending. You really don't want to hear it?" Staring at Stark's expectant eyes, Pepper really couldn't say words of refusal. She asked: "What ending?"

Stark opened his mouth, seemingly returning to that state of being unable to speak. After pausing for a long time, he still said: "To put it simply... when I thought I was going to die, the first person I thought of was you."

Perhaps feeling that his words were too abrupt, Stark explained: "I dreamed that I was about to die, and before dying, I was thinking, where did you go? Then I woke up and discovered it was just a dream."

"Do you know why I realized this was a dream?"

Stark stretched out a hand, paused in mid-air, and then covered the hand Pepper was using to touch his cheek, saying: "Because you wouldn't leave me, right?"

Pepper looked straight at him, then suddenly laughed out loud and said: "You took such a big detour just to say this?"

"I know I'm a bit shameless, not giving you any guarantee, but asking for this kind of answer first. But you haven't known me for just one day..." Stark also laughed: "I am just this shameless."

"Then your bankruptcy can only be said to be deserved. If you can't continue to pay me such a high salary, I will definitely turn around and leave."

Stark pulled Pepper's arm. He stood closer and said: "Before, a person who claimed to be able to read minds suggested to me that he could tell me an answer at an appropriate time."

"What answer?"

"... Do you really love me?"

Pepper just wanted to say that there was no such thing as mind-reading in this world, and then suddenly reacted. She looked at Stark in shock.

Those brown eyes were like rich honey. Pepper felt that she was like a bee bewitched at this moment, a bit dizzy.

Outside the glass curtain wall of Stark Tower, a gray mist floated at the corner of the building. Spider-Man stuck to the eaves with a spider silk, hanging upside down there, watching the scene in the room. Spider-Man turned his head and said to the gray mist: "Although I don't know what you are, peeking is wrong..."

The gray mist suddenly turned into an arrow and pointed in the direction of Stark and Pepper. Spider-Man turned his head back. He saw, behind the faintly shimmering glass curtain wall, the two kissing together.

Ending the kiss, Stark let go of Pepper. Before he could continue saying anything, in the corner of his vision, a gray mist slowly turned into a symbol—it was a checkmark.

Recalling the scene from last night, Stark, lying on the bed, covered his eyes and couldn't help laughing out loud.

Pepper, while changing clothes, turned back and said angrily: "Are you happy to see me late? What are you laughing at?"

"I'm not." Stark tried hard to sit up from the bed. He scratched his messy hair and said: "I am your boss. I can give you a day off. We..."

"Don't say such silly things. If I take a day off, what about that pile of orders? What about the meetings? What about the company?"

"It doesn't matter. I can take your place for a day. I'll handle these things."

"Yeah, then I can indeed rest for a day." Pepper said coldly: "And then spend twice the time in the next three months dealing with the losses caused by your one day."

Stark changed his clothes quickly. Since Pepper had known him, she had never seen him move so nimbly. Stark put on his coat, put on his sunglasses, and slipped out the door. Before leaving, he said: "Then I must prove to you that there is nothing in this world that Stark can't handle."

One hour later, the Sanctum Sanctorum received an unexpected call. Strange took the phone from the salesman with one hand and put his other hand on his waist, saying helplessly: "We are the cosmic hotline here. Can you call my private number for anything?"

"Find some people to help, man. Damn, I seem to have messed something up. This contract seems to be from last year, but I've already signed it..."

Strange heard Stark's somewhat collapsing voice: "Since you can provide services for so many messy people, handling this shouldn't be difficult. Come over quickly, otherwise Pepper will kill me!"

"We are the Sanctum Sanctorum here, mainly engaged in tasks related to cosmic demons..."

"I am also a cosmic demon!!! Come over quickly!!"

"For problems with the Stark Group, you should go to a professional staff team. We are all a bunch of scammers... I mean financial staff."

"I want to find financial staff!"

"Then why don't you go to Huaerjie to find them?"

"Aren't you on Huaerjie?!!!" Stark roared.

Half an hour later, Strange and the dejected Stark appeared outside the door of the Arkham Asylum. Schiller blocked the door and said: "To be admitted, pay first."

"Also, pay for the answer from yesterday."

"But you told me that yourself." Stark glared at Schiller and said.

Schiller showed a smile and said: "What gave you the illusion that I wouldn't force a sale?"

"Unscrupulous quack!"

"I'll say it again..."

——————Author's Note——————

Don't know what to say. Just a reminder about the double monthly tickets at the end of the month!

If you have tickets, remember to vote! ===== CHAPTER 229 =====