Chapter 2629: Mayflies in the World (Part 30)

"Touch the side of your waist," Schiller said. "There is a protruding bone on both the left and right sides; that is the anterior superior iliac spine."

Clark couldn't help but reach out and touch the front of his waist. Just slightly above the top of his leg, he could feel a hard, forward-protruding bone.

The term was a bit complex, and Clark had never heard it before, but he knew this matter likely had something to do with this bone.

"The injury is located right here," Schiller said. "This is below the spinous process of the fourth lumbar vertebra. There is no spinal cord here, only the cauda equina."

There were too many technical terms. Clark felt like he understood, yet he didn't. He asked, "What difference does that make?"

"The spinal cord is a single mass," Schiller said. "Its texture is similar to an unbaked pudding, whereas the cauda equina is loose, like a bunch of weeds pinched together."

"If a bullet hits the spinal cord directly, it could indeed cause paralysis. But if it only enters the cauda equina, the nerves affected are limited. Judging from the angle of the bullet's entry, the harm isn't that great. It might cause some difficulty in moving the right leg, but it couldn't cause direct paralysis."

Clark's mouth, which had been hanging open, didn't close. He said, "You mean Professor Xavier isn't paralyzed because of this?"

"He isn't paralyzed."

After Schiller finished this sentence, his expression gradually became more animated. He looked at Clark and asked, "Well? Did you find any clues?"

Clark hesitated, wanting to speak but stopping. He said, "What is really going on here? If Professor X isn't paralyzed because of this incident, then what is it because of?"

"Perhaps he was never paralyzed to begin with." Schiller smiled and proposed an absurd possibility. He said, "He has sat in that wheelchair for decades simply because Erik believed back then that he wouldn't come."

"Ah????????"

The expression on Clark's face could no longer be described as complex; it was the precursor to a worldview collapse. He seemed to be desperately trying to stop Schiller from saying any more mentally polluting words, while simultaneously being extremely curious to hear them.

"No, don't say any more." Clark's strong willpower overcame his curiosity. He said, "I'll go ask him myself. I'll go ask Erik."

Clark went up, and Clark came down with a dazed expression.

"How was it?" Schiller blew on the coffee in his hand and asked.

"He said he knew," Clark sat on the sofa, dazed. "He said he knew Professor X was never paralyzed."

"And then?"

"He said some things that I cannot call human language."

"Specifically, what?"

"I don't know, I really don't know." Clark shook his head, looking at Schiller as if grasping at a straw. "It's not what I think, is it?"

"If you continue to investigate, you will find that even earlier, Charles had an incident where his powers went out of control." Schiller rubbed the handle of his cup, recalling what Charles had said when they went ice fishing together.

"That could be called the starting point of their twisted fate, but it wasn't a loss of control at all; it was intentional on Charles's part."

"Because only by revealing his own power and making Erik feel threatened would he focus his attention on Charles. And only by constantly tugging at the other's attention could he possibly manipulate him."

"So, it wasn't Erik who was crazy, but Charles???" Clark said, unable to believe it.

"I told you, there are only two outcomes for studying psychology. Since Charles isn't dead yet, he must be crazy."

Clark couldn't understand it at all. Whether from the data he researched or what he saw with his own eyes, Erik was the one who occupied the initiative in their relationship, even the infringing party, because he was always very irritable and wouldn't listen to reason.

From the facts, this was also true. The whole world felt that Magneto was causing trouble for mutants, while Professor X was constantly cleaning up his messes.

But the truth is very likely not like that; the true manipulator is Charles, and he was the one who made the move from the very beginning.

"If you were to investigate Charles Xavier's early years, you would find that Charles and Professor X seem like two different people," Schiller said. "The Charles of the early years was by no means a good person; reports of his promiscuity and carousing were everywhere."

Clark really didn't know this. He recalled the image in his mind of the old man sitting in a wheelchair and said, "He doesn't look like that kind of person. He looks gentle, steady, and kind—a good teacher and a good elder."

"He was never that kind of person to begin with."

"But perhaps he grew? Perhaps some major accident changed him..." Clark stopped speaking here, because if there were a major accident, it would have to be the paralysis, but if he had never been paralyzed, could he really have undergone such a thorough transformation?

"Charles was never a saint, or rather, he is the one among the two of them who is more severely ill; it's just that his talent allowed him to weave a very perfect human skin, just like me."

"Just like you..." Clark couldn't help but sit a little further away; he still remembered the business between Schiller and Batman back then.

In essence, the biggest reason why no one stopped Schiller and Batman from tormenting each other for four years was that Schiller appeared to be a good teacher and a world-renowned psychologist; he possessed a very perfect human skin.

"So is this the same?" Clark frowned deeply and said, "So whether it was the power outburst or the paralysis, they were all tricks Charles used to manipulate Erik? Then why doesn't Erik... oh, I understand, he actually can't..."

As he spoke, Clark stood up, rushed upstairs, and after a while, came back down with a dazed expression.

"What did he say?"

"He said he knows; he said he knows these are all Charles's tricks, and he also said he knows how the two of them developed to where they are today, as well as how he became what he is today."

Clark sat straight down on the sofa again. His super-brain was almost smoking, yet he still couldn't figure out what was going on.

"You can completely compare him to me and Batman; I mean my other personality traits and Batman."

"The only difference is that Charles didn't want to save Erik; he just wanted to drag him into the water so that the two of them would forever be soulmates and never be lonely, and he succeeded."

"If I hadn't pushed Bruce onto another path back then, perhaps the two of us would also be like this—manipulating and being manipulated, owing and being owed, until dragged into countless unsettled old scores that, in the eyes of the world, could never be discussed separately; and how could that not be considered lifelong soulmates?"

Clark fell silent and said, "This is too pathological."

"Then do you think Erik is completely innocent? Did he not enjoy any warmth from indulging in it? And did he not know he might drown yet struggle not at all because he indulged in this warmth?"

"Is this really worth it?"

"It is difficult for outsiders to judge whether it is worth it, because you have not lost and regained, have not had desires satisfied, have not been abandoned and then picked up again. You do not have such great pressure, so you can never understand that there are many people in this world who do not care about health; they only want to enjoy themselves."

"They are also clear in their hearts about what damage certain pathological relationships will cause them, just like cigarettes and alcohol that can never be quit, but this gives them comfort, allowing them to spend a moment of relaxation in a long, hopeless life—why not?"

Schiller looked into Clark's eyes and said, "Since you can understand their basic need to be fed, you must also understand that they are not low-level creatures who only want to eat. Human emotional needs are far higher than those of beasts; they can even give up the last ear of wheat they are clutching for the sake of emotion."

"They are fragile and crazy, crazy because they are fragile; fragility makes them lose too much, so they desperately want to take it back, want to make up for it, and it is not strange to risk their lives for this."

"Then why did you push Bruce onto another path? Professor?"

"I am not a professor, but standing from the perspective of a bystander, perhaps it is because someone once pushed me onto another path."

"Who?... Your parents?"

"No, my doctor."

Schiller smiled as he looked at Clark and said, "You see, this world is just like this; it treats people the way they treat it, just as you imagined, and people also treat others the way society treats them."

"It is not only you in this world who is like a mirror; we are also reflecting everything we have experienced in education to the surrounding society and other people. Such connections are the sturdiest pillars in an anthill."

"But good will reflect good, and bad will also reflect bad," Clark said. "If Charles could do what you do, then Magneto wouldn't..."

"Good or bad is not important," Schiller said. "What is important is the connection brought by this reflection. As long as a person has such a connection with this society and other people in society, then he can never escape this little world, even if he is already powerful enough to completely transcend the category of ants; he will eventually have to return here."

"Some people are born lonely, more like a star lost among the stars, because of the huge difference between themselves and weak creatures like humans, they simply cannot establish solid connections."

"But as long as one person reflects him, whether it is good or bad, whether it is to push him onto another path or to drag him into the water, as long as there is this kind of connection, then this person can become his channel for connecting with the world."

"He will no longer be lonely, no longer floating above the anthill quietly watching the stars rotate, but will be able to participate in it and personally experience the bustle of this civilization."

Clark saw Magneto walk out of the room and stand by the door, quietly listening to Schiller speak.

"For such powerful people, how they live is not important; just because they have a sufficiently solid connection with the person who reflects them, they will inevitably deepen their connection with this society step by step until they are no longer lonely."

"Rather than saying it is for the bustle, it is better to say it is for the people themselves who have worked hard for him, for the connection itself; how they live is not important at all."

"So they will not feel self-pity or pain because of this, nor do they need others to take pains to correct them."

"Walking to the end, after all is said and done, all grand goals and ideals are forgotten, and all efforts made are just to be like the people who once had connections with them, to establish the same connections with others to reflect them, and to establish new connections of their own."

"Turning from a test-taker into a test-setter, this is the law of how this world operates. We have walked to this day relying on these connections. I think the test paper of the other me has already been mostly written, but some people... seem to have not yet conceived the questions."

Schiller and Clark turned their heads together, only to see Magneto's back as he turned and left.