bookbashuk Chapter 4315 Body of Steel (2)
Chapter 4315 Body of Steel (2)
Chapter 4315 Body of Steel (Part 20)
"Luther Mansion was searched?!" Clark stood up from his desk, staring at his editor-in-chief in disbelief. "Why???"
"I only sent you there because I don't know why! You've taken so many days off, haven't you slacked off enough?!" the editor-in-chief of Planet Daily said irritably. "Get to the scene and grab the headlines! Hurry up!"
Seeing the editor-in-chief's unfriendly gaze, Clark didn't dare say anything more. He quickly put on his coat, grabbed his camera, and ran out the door. To be honest, he'd made the right choice in taking this job; today he could finally openly go see the excitement.
If we were to pinpoint who Clark hated most in this series of events, it would actually be Lex Luthor. Even though he already knew that Schiller had orchestrated the whole ancient Egyptian artifact incident, he still loathed Luthor the most.
Whether you say Schiller was doing it to scam money or simply wanted to see the world burn, he at least had a purpose, and it was a self-serving one. But what about Lex Luthor?
Clark couldn't understand why Luthor was targeting him. The fact that the spaceship crashed and hit Luthor Building could be a reason, but he had clearly cleaned up all the debris; not only was Luthor Building undamaged, but the asphalt was completely unscathed. Why would Luthor attack him?
And to kidnap his own mother right off the bat, what deep-seated hatred could that be? He hadn't done anything to offend him at all, yet he was determined to do something so harmful and pointless. It was utterly absurd!
However, on his way to the scene, Clark didn't just gloat. He thought about it and realized that Lex Luthor couldn't possibly be that bad.
If someone dared to force their way into Luther Mansion, it proved that Luther was definitely not there. Clark was also familiar with those legal rules; he knew that as long as Luther was inside Luther Mansion, even if he did nothing, he could stall for a long time. Why did he have to leave at this critical juncture?
After thinking it over, Clark concluded that this guy was completely mentally ill, and it was quite remarkable that he could make every single wrong choice in this series of events.
When they arrived at the entrance of Luther Building, it was already surrounded by layers of people. Clark arrived a little late and couldn't squeeze to the front. Afraid of being watched, he didn't dare leave the car and just sat inside looking out.
After watching for a while, he did notice something amiss. People in protective suits were constantly coming and going at the entrance, as if there were some kind of virus inside. Not long after, someone carried out a large box, and the truck that loaded the box happened to be not far from Clark.
As soon as the box was brought over, Clark felt unwell, like he was carsick. He quickly rolled up the window, but the feeling persisted, and he had to reverse the car to leave.
Watching a group of people in protective suits carry the box into the carriage and seal the door, Clark narrowed his eyes. He knew that it probably contained that mysterious green gemstone, which had ultimately fallen into the hands of the military.
Wait a minute. Clark suddenly realized: in Louise's assumptions, she had always assumed the military would easily obtain the Emerald, completely ignoring the possibility of Lex Luthor's victory. Was this guy so obviously stupid?
Clark instinctively felt something was wrong. Lex Luthor was definitely not stupid enough to hand over the gem; something must be manipulating him, forcing him to leave at this moment.
Somewhat puzzled, Clark didn't linger. He first went back to the office, handed over some photos to appease the editor-in-chief, and then said he was going to try and interview Luther. The editor-in-chief readily agreed, and Clark left.
Clark was actually planning to go see Luther. Although he hadn't recovered yet, Luther had lost the gem, and even if he did, it wouldn't be as effective as he thought; hitting him a few times would at most knock him unconscious for a while. So going to see Luther wasn't too risky.
He first went to Luther Manor, but although he didn't find Luther there, he did see his assistant who had come to collect supplies. Clark followed the assistant all the way to Metropolitan Hospital, and then he understood: the unfortunate fellow must have been injured and had to be hospitalized, which was why he had to leave his post.
As night deepened, most doctors and nurses had finished their shifts, and the hospital emptied out. Clark circled around to the back entrance of the hospital, carefully discerned the area with his super hearing, and then quietly flew to the fourth floor, landing on a windowsill.
He didn't go straight into the ward, but instead went to the attending physician's office on this floor. The office was empty, so he could search freely. Luther enjoyed the best medical care and was in the most prestigious single room. There weren't many patients on this floor, and Clark easily found his medical record.
"Right big toe metatarsal fracture?"
Clark thought he was mistaken because he didn't understand the technical terms, so he took out his phone to look up what the technical terms meant. The result was exactly as he guessed: his right big toe was fractured.
Clark was somewhat bewildered. He had considered all sorts of serious injuries, such as being ambushed and bleeding profusely, being shot by a sniper, being poisoned, or at the very least, being drugged. What was this broken toe? Did the military send someone all the way to his office to infiltrate it and then stomp on his foot?
Clark flipped through the pages and came across the "Patient's Self-Description" section. What does "fractured right big toe after kicking the corner of a desk in anger during a phone call" mean?
Clark swore he really didn't mean to laugh, but he really couldn't help it. He had to think through all the sad things that had happened in the first half of his life before he could stop himself from laughing out loud.
Clark took a deep breath and calmed down. He was increasingly convinced that Bruce was right; irrationality caused by anger could destroy everything.
In fact, a person with poor emotional self-control and who is easily irrational often doesn't ruin their life in any earth-shattering way. The most important turning points in their lives, the way they fail, are like a comedy starring Mr. Bean. They always try to find details in life that can go wrong, messing everything up in ways that seem absurd to ordinary people. They not only always fail, but they also always make a fool of themselves.
Clark seemed to see a reflection of his past self. When he was blinded by anger, he looked like a stupid bull, wanting to charge at anyone he could get his hands on. Bruce, who had witnessed the whole thing, didn't laugh, which was truly remarkable in his composure.
Clark calmed himself down, and without putting down the medical record, he walked into Lex Luthor's room with it in hand. Indeed, he had already heard Luthor's low groan of pain. Regardless of whether kicking a table corner and hitting your thumb was funny or not, it could actually hurt more than other serious injuries.
Clark pushed open the door but didn't go in. He just leaned against the door and coughed softly. Lex, who was already in so much pain that he couldn't sleep, turned his head and thought he was hallucinating because the pain pump was turned up too high.
Clark walked in, sat down beside him, tossed the medical record aside with a sharp "snap," cleared his throat, and read aloud in a standard news broadcast tone:
"Patient's name: Alexander Luther. Patient's age... never mind, let's skip that. Ahem, the patient's self-report: This afternoon, while on the phone, he kicked the office table in a fit of anger, ultimately resulting in the injury to his right big toe..."
"Shut up!!! You damn bastard!!! Shut up!!!"
A pillow came flying at him, but it clearly couldn't hurt Clark. Clark didn't continue reading, though. He put the medical record aside, poured himself a glass of water, and said, "You should be grateful. You got yourself into the hospital in such a stupid way that if I argued with you now, it would seem like I was bullying an idiot. My mother warned me not to do that."
“If you weren’t lying here looking so pitiful from head to toe, the kind of person I would have donated to even when I was at my poorest, I would make you pay the most terrible price for what you’ve done.”
Clark's blue eyes didn't appear dull in the darkness; instead, they seemed even brighter. His entire eyeballs looked as if they were covered with a thin layer of ice, reflecting light in all directions, reminiscent of snowfields and glaciers.
He stared at Luthor, observing his every expression, and then noticed that a brief moment of fear appeared on Lex Luthor's face. This proved that he was not an ignorant madman; he knew how dangerous it was to kidnap the foster mother of a super alien.
Immediately afterward, this fear transformed into a feeling akin to despair. For the first time, Clark witnessed firsthand what "helplessness" truly meant—first, a moment of blankness in his eyes, then a frozen expression on his face, as if his facial expression management system had crashed; upon regaining his composure, his lips moved involuntarily, pulling at the muscles of his jaw and neck, his eyes darting unconsciously to the left and right, before finally returning to that blank expression.
Then, the scattered consciousness began to return, the muscles in the face began to twitch, all the muscles were tense and exerting force in the middle, making the whole person's facial expression look particularly ferocious, and then entered the state of anger that ordinary people show.
"Make me pay the price?! You damned country bumpkin!! Who do you think you are?! You think nobody can handle you?! I should have killed you long ago!!!"
Clark saw that Luther's forehead and neck veins were bulging, and his whole body was twitching slightly, looking extremely angry.
Even after being scolded, Clark didn't feel angry; he just felt a chill because he clearly saw how anger could destroy a person.
Lex's rational mind couldn't possibly be unaware that the fact that he was able to find his way here proved that his power had recovered to some extent. Even if he had only recovered a tenth of his power, let alone half, he could easily crush him. But he seemed to have completely forgotten about this.
This momentary anger can even overshadow fear and the will to survive, as if it were some kind of underlying code engraved in human genes, making them try to make one last struggle when faced with an enemy they can't handle. It doesn't seem like an emotion, but rather an instinct.
Clark suddenly understood why Lex Luthor was targeting him so much: Clark Kent was a problem he could never solve in his life.
Before this, Lex Luthor was a peerless genius with a privileged family background that gave him a vast stage. There was little in the world he couldn't solve, and he believed he controlled the world and everything.
But then, Clark Kent appeared. This made this unparalleled genius realize that there was something he couldn't handle, and like Clark before him, he fell into helplessness. The more helpless he became, the angrier he got, and the more irrational he became, ultimately leading to his own failure through absurd methods.
Clark sighed, losing all interest in arguing with Lex Luthor, and walked towards the window without saying a word.
After flying out of the window, he re-entered the night sky of the metropolis. As his strong body disappeared on the horizon, he appeared very small, like a bird or a snowflake.
(End of this chapter)