Page 50
Pepper Potts, with red eyes, sat next to Stark.
She took a tissue and wiped the tears from her face. She didn't respond to what Stark said, but lowered her head, thinking about something.
The air was quiet for more than ten seconds. She suddenly raised her head and looked at Stark with a serious face, with the last hope and calmness in her eyes.
"When were you poisoned? How serious is it now? Is there any hope of recovery? What did the doctor say?"
She didn't believe there was no hope, there must still be a chance.
……
There was another uncomfortable silence in the air.
After an unknown amount of time, the silent Stark suddenly shrugged his shoulders, spread his hands indifferently, and forced a smile, "A few months... maybe in a few months I can go to see God, and I don't know if he welcomes me or not."
"I'm probably, possibly, maybe... there's no hope of saving me."
Lai Mu curled his lips as he watched the two people experiencing a life-and-death farewell.
"Let me explain... Palladium poisoning is a type of heavy metal poisoning. The source of the poison is the Ark reactor in Tony's chest. Chlorophyll and lithium dioxide can cure it, provided he is willing to take off the palladium reactor and never touch it again."
"I'm not one to fan the flames, but Pepper, I have to say something."
Lemu looked at Pepper sincerely.
"Tony just wants to die. He just wants to leave you alone and go to heaven to see God irresponsibly."
You still care about my girlfriend? You should take care of your own girlfriend first, you iron coffin.
Moreover, palladium poisoning is such a serious matter, but you kept it to yourself and didn't tell anyone. You deserve to be scolded.
Pepper didn't blame Stark. Instead, her dead eyes had a little more life in them. "Is what Lemu said true, Tony?"
Stark began to hesitate again. He rolled his eyes and looked at the ceiling, not daring to meet Pepper's eyes. "I... I can't leave the reactor. You know, it's sustaining my life. There's shrapnel in my heart."
"I can't... I can't do it. I can't live without it..."
He shook his head uncomfortably, and said "no" three times weakly and resolutely. He tried to force a smile on his face, but found that he couldn't do it no matter what.
There was something else Stark said, but Pepper didn't care about that at the moment. She only knew that as long as she paid the money, there were not many problems that modern medical technology could not handle.
"We can perform surgery to remove the shrapnel! Even if we really can't remove it, we can still use other methods to absorb it..."
"Now, I'm going to contact the hospital. You come with me and we'll go right away..."
Pepper stood up anxiously and tried to pull Stark to make a phone call, but was pulled back by the other party.
"Wait a minute...Pepper...listen to me..."
Pepper turned her head and was about to yell angrily, "What are you thinking about?", but seeing the dejection and sadness on the other person's face, she couldn't say a word.
Stark pushed Pepper down to sit beside him.
He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, with a look of relief on his face. "Didn't I say at the hearing a few days ago that my iron suit and I are one?"
He stated again, "Iron Man and I are one."
"If one day I had to choose between myself and Iron Man to die, I would choose Tony Stark."
Stark pulled the corner of his mouth sarcastically, as if mocking his own incompetence, "It's not a question of whether to remove the reactor or not... Even if I remove the reactor, as long as I am still using the Iron Man suit, the palladium element will take me away one day."
As long as the reactor is still working, it will continue to scatter palladium atoms outward. If an isolation layer is added in the small space of the armor, it will seriously interfere with the operation of the reactor.
With Stark's current technology, it is almost impossible to solve.
Another method is to use other safer elements as reactants, but Stark tried the periodic table and still couldn't find the ideal element - perhaps it doesn't exist at all.
"It's just a matter of dying one day earlier or later... But I can't leave it. I can't give up my ideal..."
He tried to speak calmly as possible and not bring too much emotion to others, but his voice became more and more suppressed unconsciously.
These days, Stark thought a lot alone. He had everything: wealth, money, beauty, status, fame and honor.
But the closer Stark gets to death, the more he realizes what he cares about most...
...home, country...world peace...a better future for mankind...heroism...
The only person he felt a little guilty about was Pepper.
These days, he has been pretending to be calm, and no one can see that he is facing the double oppression of death and shattered ideals. Because there is this woman beside him who has been accompanying him and supporting him silently.
Even though she knew nothing about the real situation, she still used her tenderness and consideration to nourish his increasingly dry heart.
Without Pepper, Stark is sure that he would do a lot of crazy and ridiculous things.
Pepper couldn't stop crying, covering her face and sobbing, "But, but, we don't have children yet... We just got together... We promised to be together forever..."
"Listen to me...Pepper."
Stark held Pepper's face with a wry smile on his face, his red eyes full of guilt and self-blame, but his words were unwaveringly firm.
"'Animals may reproduce, but only humans are capable of honor, virtue, and great deeds.'"
This quote comes from Francis Bacon.
"I've thought about it for a long time... I can't give up my true self. I'd rather die as a hero than live as a loser."
Pepper held down Stark's hand that was touching her face with one hand, and her tears soaked both palms at the same time.
Lai Mu looked at the two of them, frowning uncomfortably.
He just came to deliver a new energy reactor, but he was moved by this guy's confession.
It makes me feel really bad.
Things had come to this point and he felt like he couldn't say a word at all.
Forget it... In order to fulfill Iron Man's righteousness and integrity, I won't give him the new energy reactor and just throw it away later.
……
Chapter 64. Fighting, I'm just average
"actually……"
"Your father left you something."
The slime cleared his cough and like magic took out... a grenade.
I took the wrong one, so I put it back... and took out a reactor that was glowing blue.
Two equally confused faces looked over.
"what?"
"Whose father?"
"A reactor with a new element structure... something that can save your life."
"I analyzed a very interesting atomic structure from the city model left by your father Howard. I used it to make a new Ark reactor. It has no risk of palladium poisoning and no harmful radiation."
Slime tossed the round lump in his hand and said, "To put it simply, you don't have to die."
"Shouldn't you say thank you to your father?"
Tony Stark took one look at him and guessed his bad intentions, but he didn't have the time or mood to argue with him at this moment...
Stark took the reactor that Lemu threw to him, held it in his hand and looked at it carefully. The new reactor looked no different from the old model.
He still found it a little unbelievable. He looked at the reactor and then at Lai Mu with suspicion.
How could such a thing be hidden in the rubbish left by the old man?
That piece of junk was almost thrown away...Which means, my life was almost thrown away?
Moreover, the new element that I have been researching for so long and still haven’t figured out was discovered by that old guy decades ago?
Am I... such a bad person?
The blow to Stark's heart was no less than an eight-magnitude tsunami.
Pepper didn't care about that. When she heard that Stark could be saved, she burst into tears of joy. She hugged Stark tightly and cried silently.
In just over ten minutes, she experienced the tenderness and sweetness with her lover, and then her lover died tragically the next second, and then her lover was resurrected on the spot due to a false alarm. She felt mixed emotions, like riding a roller coaster.
"Hmm? You guys...what are you doing?"
At this moment, a mature and hoarse female voice suddenly sounded.
A beautiful and sexy female secretary pushed the door open and walked in. She was wearing a light yellow top and black trousers, holding a stack of documents in her arms.
She is the Black Widow Natasha Romanoff, a senior agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., who infiltrated Stark Industries under the alias of Natalie on the orders of Nick Fury.
When Pepper was promoted to vice president not long ago, he hired Natasha as his assistant... This can't be considered the conclusion of the timeline.
After all, Natasha came with the mission of observing Stark, and this was almost the best way of approach she could find.
Natasha looked at the scene in surprise, not knowing what to do.
His boss cried and buried his head in the arms of his big boss, who coaxed him with sweet words and ignored him.
There was also a cute and well-behaved little girl next to her who was eating snacks with relish.
What's going on?
"Hi, who are you looking for?"
Slime raised his hand and waved to Natasha, then walked over. There was a hint of harmlessness in his curious eyes.
Natasha smiled and nodded, then asked quietly, "What's going on? I'm looking for Ms. Potts, and she asked me to bring some documents over for signature."
"As you can see, something bad has happened. I'm afraid Ms. Potts is temporarily unable to handle her official duties... Let's go over there and talk without disturbing them."
Slime pointed outside and led Natasha to the exercise room.
There is a ring here.
He jumped, grabbed the rope beside the ring, leaned on it, and looked at Natasha swayingly.
Natasha stood three steps away, "So, what's going on?"