The Death Knell

When Su Ming returned to the dining table, the barbecue was still hot. He rubbed his hands calmly, as if nothing had happened.

"It's really cold outside today. Actually, you don't have to wait for me. Just keep eating. Steve, come and drink."

Steve picked up the wine glass and clinked it with Su Ming without any doubt. Although he had drank a lot of gin and wine, the super soldier had a high metabolism, and alcohol had basically no effect on him.

"Did you help Howard pick out the right gift?"

He noticed that Howard didn't come back, he must have gone home.

Su Ming took a sip of red wine and nodded with a smile: "Yes, Maria was very happy when she saw the gift. She said it was the best Christmas gift she had ever received in her life."

"Don't Christmas gifts usually be opened tomorrow morning? I remember when I was a kid, my dad would always put the gifts in socks and hang them on the fireplace in my house after I fell asleep." Steve was a little dissatisfied with the Stark family's habits. I understand, it's only around eight o'clock in the evening, it's too early to open gifts.

"It's all Howard's fault. You know the kind of person he is. He likes to show off good things when he has them. He simply can't wait for a minute or a second."

Su Ming looked a little helpless, as if blaming Howard for ruining the surprise.

Steve then thought about it, and it was true. If Howard had any new inventions, he would publicize them. When playing mahjong with him, he would always talk a lot.

A new bomb was invented a few days ago, and a new weapon was developed last month. It seems that no one else in Stark Industries has any research and development capabilities, and it's like he was able to support it all by himself.

Steve is now a qualified cartoonist. His leisure activity is to go to Stark Mahjong House to "go out and collect materials". He has some ideas for his next work. He wants to draw a passionate cartoon using mahjong to fight.

The protagonist must be a beautiful girl, just called Mahjong Girl or something.

Although alcohol has no effect on Steve, he is obviously in a much better mood now. He skillfully cut a piece of meat on his plate: "Howard really should go home. I heard Fury say that Maria gave birth to Howard a few days ago. I have a son, but I haven’t bothered to see the little guy yet.”

"I just saw it. He named the child Anthony Edward Tony Stark. God, I really don't know why the name is so long, so I called him Tony." Su Ming smiled and nodded, fully agreeing with Steve. He asked her husband’s point of view: “Nick Fury is still in contact with you?”

"I was fired from the logistics department before, but then Nick Fury organized a team called the Avengers. It was a private, supernumerary system. He wanted me to lead the team, so he often harassed me." Steve shrugged and rolled his eyes: "Like sneaking into my apartment while I'm not around, sitting on the sofa in the dark. Or blatantly picking the lock to get in, and hanging on like chewing gum, he told me Quite a few things.”

"Tsk, even though I don't have much contact with Fury as a sponsor of the logistics department, I heard that he never likes lights. If you think about it carefully, it must be very scary for him to hide in the dark." Su Ming pretended to be unfamiliar. look like.

Steve nodded: "Who says otherwise? You haven't seen him for a long time, right? He lost one eye in a battle a few years ago. Have you heard?"

"No, are you seriously injured?" Su Ming looked sympathetic.

"I roughly checked and found that the eyeball was necrotic, but he said he didn't want to remove it. Who knows what he was thinking." Steve glanced at Su Ming's eyepatch secretly. As a friend, he wanted to buy Fury the same style. : "There's also that team called the Avengers. I've seen it on the news a few times. Those members... don't seem to be that decent."

Steve now also has some money himself. After all, military service fees and comic royalties are both very good figures.

"Avengers? I haven't seen their news, but if you think they are not good people, you can't agree to Fury. His heart is darker than his skin color." Su Ming patted the back of Steve's hand with concern and said He had a kind face, like an ordinary old man who didn't know anything.

In reality? The first-generation Avengers were indeed not good people, they were just people who helped Fury do his dirty work. There are only four members: a split personality, a hostile spy, a serial killer, and a green tea girl.

Among them, Kraven the Hunter is the most famous. He regards killing as hunting. He captures people first and then puts them on an isolated island to let them escape. The jungle is full of traps he has set in advance. He will wait for a few hours after the prey leaves. They then hunted them down with hounds, killed the prey, then skinned and beheaded them cruelly as a souvenir. This was the 'Kraven Game'.

In the 616 universe, Kraven, who is in his seventies, can defeat Spider-Man, and the spider sense cannot even allow Peter to escape from the old man.

"I know, Godfather." Steve nodded, and seemed very helpful to Su Ming's concern. He took the initiative to raise his glass: "Let's not talk about a dark person like Fury. I am fine as I am now."

Su Ming nodded and raised his glass in agreement: "You're right, they are too dark, don't play with them. Cheers, kid, and Merry Christmas."

Gin and Mysterio looked at each other, and both of them smiled brightly.

.............................

Winter turns to spring, and it’s that time of year when the snow melts again.

On this day, Steve was sitting in his studio outlining a new comic. He could hear the sound of water dripping on the balcony after the ice on the eaves melted. The early spring wind was still very cold, but as of now Don't worry about his physical fitness.

He opened the windows to ventilate the studio, and spent almost every day huddled in the small loft-converted studio. Empty beer cans and leftover lunch boxes from takeaways made the surrounding smell not very good.

However, for some reason, he was a little out of shape today, felt restless, and kept sneezing.

You must know that after being transformed into a super soldier, he has been insulated from things like colds. His current behavior is totally unreasonable.

"Is this what the godfather said, that someone is saying bad things about me behind my back? It must be the editor-in-chief of the Daily Bugle. He is really getting better and better at urging me to publish."

Steve smiled bitterly. The new comic was still in the stage of conception and character setting. How could it be so fast?

Come on, these editors who are chasing souls and seeking lives are simply more troublesome than Hydra. At least Steve won't be so helpless when facing Hydra.

He dropped the pen in his hand, stood up helplessly, stretched his shoulders, and walked towards the barbell in the corner, planning to do hundreds of 500-kilogram bench presses first to refresh his mind.

The army green T-shirt was bulging with muscles, and the barbell, which was heavy for ordinary people, was pushed up and down quickly by him, as if it had been pushed out of the afterimage.

While he was exercising and thinking about things, he realized that he was facing many problems, as if a belated mid-life crisis had finally come, and nothing was going well.

There was no news from Paige for another month. She seemed to regard the 'playground' base as her home and devoted herself wholeheartedly to the construction of the country. But she is British. Although she has dual nationality, she is still British.

"Ring ring ring..."

The phone rang suddenly, Steve's hand paused, he put the barbell back in place, and sat up from the fitness equipment in confusion.

He clearly remembered that he unplugged the phone line before going to bed yesterday because the editor urged him too frequently. Did he plug the phone back in when he got up today? It doesn't seem like it...it's a little strange, but since the phone rang and he heard it, there was no reason not to answer it.

He lifted the towel around his neck and wiped the sweat, then picked up the phone with one hand: "Steve."

"I'm Howard, Steve, and I have something to tell you."

Howard's tone was unusually serious. Even a person like him, who was usually extremely frivolous, became like this, which immediately gave Steve a bad feeling.

"what happens?"

"Mr. Wilson passed away last night, and today is the day of the funeral." Howard took a deep breath, and a sniffing sound came from the receiver.

Steve squeezed the microphone tightly, his face could not help but tremble, but he still had the last glimmer of hope: "Which Mr. Wilson?"

He hoped it was someone with the same last name, not the one he knew.

Howard's voice shattered his last hope: "Your godfather, Slade."

"No, it's impossible. He's in good health and he's still young." Steve kept shaking his head, and the towel in his hand was torn: "The last time we met, he was..."

"Accept the reality, Steve, listen." Howard interrupted him and raised his voice: "He just looks young. You are over 50 years old this year. What about him?"

There was a long silence on the phone, and it took a long time before Steve's dazed voice could be heard: "Where is he?"

"Trinity Church, I'm waiting for you."

.....................

Steve didn't know how he walked out of the door, and even forgot how he arrived in front of the church. He didn't react until he was pushed again and again by people.

The sky is overcast, the Gothic roof of Trinity Church points to the sky, there are bare trees in the cemetery next to the building, and the muddy land still has a little snow in the shade.

Many, many people came, not only employees of Wilson Enterprises, but also many people who had been helped by the enterprise.

For example, loyal consumers and businessmen who have done business with the company in the past few decades, Steve also saw many veterans of World War II because Wilson's iron-walled tanks allowed them to successfully survive the battlefield.

These people all came spontaneously to attend the funeral. The nearby streets were crowded, and the sound of car horns from time to time was even more shrill and desolate.

There was no way for everyone to enter the church. Many people could only wait for the burial outside the church. They were holding various flowers in their hands and were very sad.

Howard stood at the door of the church wearing a black suit, with Maria holding her child next to him. He was talking to Lorraine, who was in charge of registering guests, and did not see Steve's arrival.

Steve went over to greet him, and he just turned around and gave him a hug: "Go in, Gin is waiting for you."