Kapitel 31: Restart, Spider-Man! [31]
Hearing this, Xia Luo couldn't help but feel relieved.
Thankfully, Harry wasn't completely outclassing him in terms of intelligence—something Xia Luo had been particularly concerned about.
However, when Harry mentioned Xia Luo, a trace of worry flashed across his face.
"Actually, I've been meaning to ask you for a favor," Harry continued, his voice pleading. "My good friend Xia Luo has gone missing recently. You're always active in the shadows of this city—you must be able to find him, right?"
Xia Luo was momentarily speechless.
"Uh, so your good friend Xia Luo has gone missing, huh? I should be able to find him... I guess," Xia Luo coughed, "I'm sure his family is really worried about him."
"No, not really. I lied to Uncle Ben and Aunt May," Harry sighed. "I told them that Xia Luo went on a trip."
Xia Luo: "???"
A trip? Again with the trip excuse?
Was the world really getting so big that everyone just assumes he's constantly off on some random vacation?
Like father, like son.
Cough, cough. Xia Luo awkwardly cleared his throat, giving Harry a thumbs-up. "You handled that well. He'll definitely be grateful for your cover story."
With that, Xia Luo stood up and patted the dust off his pants.
"Alright, I'll go look for your friend now."
"Wait," Harry called out as he quickly stood up, his face filled with another plea. "If you do find Xia Luo, please don't tell him about my current situation."
"Why not?"
Harry's face grew bitter. "If he finds out my father was the evil Green Goblin, he'll surely... he'll surely..."
"Surely what?" Xia Luo asked, placing a hand on Harry's shoulder and smiling. "Trust in your friend, just like he trusts you."
"What?" Harry was puzzled by Xia Luo's words, but before he could ask further, Xia Luo had already leaped off the rooftop.
"Wait, where's Tony?" Xia Luo suddenly stopped mid-air, shooting a web to swing back onto the roof. He almost forgot about this little detail.
Harry blinked. "Uh... he's in Afghanistan, I think. He's off to close a big business deal."
Xia Luo facepalmed. Looks like Tony's going to get kidnapped again.
"Alright, I'll come back for you later," Xia Luo said as he leaped off the building once more, extending his glider wings and disappearing into the night.
After Xia Luo left, Pepper Potts emerged from a nearby room.
"You just let him leave?" she asked.
Harry turned back to face her. "He's my friend. I wouldn't betray him."
Pepper smiled slightly. "Yes, you wouldn't betray a friend. But do you plan on becoming friends with Tony?"
"I need to make sure he didn't do it first."
"He wouldn't do something like that," Pepper said with confidence. "Just because Stark Industries' weapons were found at the scene doesn't mean anything. Tony doesn't care about Spider-Man, and he's not dumb enough to use his own company's weapons if he did."
"I believe that too, but I still need to find him," Harry replied.
"He'll be back soon enough," Pepper assured him.
———
"I'm back."
As Xia Luo opened the door, he found Uncle Ben and Aunt May cuddled together on the living room sofa, watching a TV show. Even after hearing him, they barely reacted.
"Dinner's in the fridge. Heat it up yourself," Uncle Ben said without looking away from the TV.
"Oh, and don't forget to leave the gifts in our room," Aunt May added casually.
Xia Luo rolled his eyes as he placed the gifts he'd bought into their bedroom.
Good thing he had prepared ahead of time.
But seriously, after being away for so long, they didn't seem to miss him at all.
Was he really adopted or something?
"Hey, Xia Luo, did you really go on a trip this time?" Aunt May suddenly asked, her tone laced with curiosity.
"What do you mean?" Xia Luo asked, his expression blank.
Aunt May glanced toward the neighbors. "Mary Jane has been looking for you a lot lately. Are you avoiding her? Is that why you stayed away from home?" She smiled, clearly pleased.
"You're all grown up now, but you should still have some self-control when it counts. That girl can be quite persistent," Uncle Ben chimed in, offering fatherly advice.
At this, Aunt May gave Uncle Ben a stern look.
"What do you know? It just shows that our Xia Luo has some charm!"
"Yeah, yeah. I haven't heard him nagging lately, and he's looking better these days. Must be that charm of his," Uncle Ben replied in a half-hearted manner.
"I'm tired. I've got classes tomorrow. Goodnight."
"Goodnight, Xia Luo."
"Goodnight."
Xia Luo headed to his room. Not long after the lights came on, he heard the sound of small pebbles tapping against his window.
"What now?" he muttered, opening the window only to find Mary Jane standing outside, holding a rock she hadn't yet thrown. She looked sheepish.
Quickly tossing the rock aside, Mary Jane awkwardly smoothed out her red hair. But the awkwardness didn't last long. She soon rested her arms on the windowsill, smiling.
"Xia Luo, where have you been lately? I haven't seen you around for a while."
Leaning on the windowsill himself, Xia Luo replied, "I got blown up, then won a resurrection match, so now I'm back." He said it as if it were the most casual thing in the world.
"Really? When are you going to take me along for a match?" Mary Jane's eyes lit up with excitement.
Xia Luo blinked. "I didn't think you'd actually believe that."
Mary Jane reached out playfully. "I always believe you—just like I believed you when you promised to get me that lipstick," she teased with a sly grin.
Xia Luo sighed. "If I told you it wasn't me who promised you that, would you believe that too?"
"What do you think?" Mary Jane shot him a sidelong glance, her tone annoyed. "Did you forget why you promised me a gift in the first place?"
"Why?"
"Because of this!" she said, pulling out her phone and scrolling to their chat history, her grin becoming mischievous.
"You begged me to go on a date with you and promised to buy me a gift. You wouldn't want Uncle Ben and Aunt May finding out about that, would you?"
"What?" Xia Luo's face turned dark.
When Norman had impersonated him, he'd sent flirtatious messages to several girls, but Xia Luo hadn't had the patience to review all the chat logs—clearly, he'd missed Mary Jane.
"Fine. I'll get you the lipstick. What shade do you want?" Xia Luo asked through gritted teeth.
Seeing Xia Luo so flustered, Mary Jane lifted her chin proudly.
"Hmph, after waiting so long for you, a lipstick isn't going to cut it anymore."
"What do you want, then?"
"I want..."
Before she could finish, she suddenly felt her phone disappear from her hand. Turning around, she saw Xia Luo holding it.
"Give it back!" she demanded.
"Alright, here you go," Xia Luo replied, tossing the phone back after deleting the chat logs, looking as relaxed as ever.
"A friendly tip: Don't be fooled by a man's weakness. You'll regret it someday," he said with a smirk.
"I'm already regretting it."
"Let me treat you to dinner tomorrow. Bring Harry along."
"Sounds good!" Mary Jane replied cheerfully.
———
The next morning, Xia Luo headed to school.
He hadn't attended class in eleven days, but fortunately, Harry had covered for him, so there weren't many problems to deal with.
As time passed, even the girls Norman had flirted with while posing as Xia Luo began to forget about the incident.
At least, as long as they didn't see his face.
Just then, a familiar classmate walked up to him.
"Hey, Selfie King! Perfect timing—Professor Kurt is looking for you. You should head to his lab," the classmate said.
"Jenny, I hate that nickname," Xia Luo replied with a scowl.
Jenny just grinned mischievously. "Who cares?" he retorted before walking off.
Suddenly, Jenny felt a draft.
"Ah, crap! My pants... Who did this?" he yelled in panic, hastily pulling up his trousers.
Xia Luo retracted his webbing, having snapped a quick photo with his new phone.
"Who cares?" he repeated, uploading the embarrassing photo to the campus network before making his way to Professor Kurt Connors' lab.
He could use Connors' lab equipment to synthesize some artificial web fluid.
A few chapters of daily life content should be a nice change of pace, right?
...
Right?
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If there are any mistakes let me know!
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