The aroma of baked bread and beef stew drifted through the kitchen.
Night was deepening.
But the Kent family dinner was not going pleasantly.
It wasn't that Ian's second elder brother, Jordan Kent, was already implementing a plan more shocking than shocking. However, Lois's anger tonight was definitely not just because of the suspicious Clark and her overly suspicious second son.
The main flashpoint of the family conflict came from Lois's father—the grandfather of Ian and his two brothers—General Sam Lane, who wielded a certain degree of power in the country.
The warm, yellow light spilled onto the wooden dining table.
Clark, Lois, Jonathan, Jordan, and Ian sat around, and at the head of the table, the gray-haired General Sam Lane was receiving a public indictment from his daughter.
"So, you've been studying him?" Lois's voice was suppressed but sharp, like an ice pick. "Studying my husband? Like he's some kind of... lab specimen?"
This accusation
made General Sam look helpless. Clark sat next to him, his face calm, but his thumb unconsciously rubbed the rim of his water glass. Several faint cracks vaguely appeared on the glass wall.
He didn't say anything,
but he was obviously bothered. After all, with Superman's control, he could easily catch and repeatedly handle a live mosquito without damaging a single hair.
Seeing this, old Sam quickly moved his chair closer to his daughter.
"Lucy, don't assume the worst of me. I wasn't studying Clark." Sam Lane sighed, put down his dinner knife, and rested his hands folded on the table.
His eyes were steady but carried a certain military stiffness. "I'm doing this entirely to protect you and your husband, to protect your family—the most unique family on this Earth."
His words were earnest and carried a sense of solemnity.
"Protect? What kind of protection is this?" Lois sneered. "Secretly collecting his DNA, analyzing his weaknesses? Do you know what that sounds like?"
"It sounds like you're ready to take out my husband at any time! And maybe my sons too!" The lady of the house's voice was very angry, and the atmosphere at the dinner table instantly became tense.
Seeing this,
the eldest brother, Jonathan, attempted to ease the tension.
"So, am I the only one still shocked that my dad is actually Superman?" He looked at Ian and Jordan. "It seems I was the only one in the dark until tonight!"
His remark immediately prompted Jordan to chime in. Both of them wanted to help defuse the family atmosphere.
"Actually, I only found out Dad was Superman today, too. If I hadn't awakened my abilities, I think they would have kept it from me, too." Jordan displayed a rather emotional expression.
"Trust me, Jonathan, knowing is scarier than not knowing. I'm already starting to regret it." Jordan recalled a problem he suddenly realized during his routine private moment earlier.
If his dad was Superman,
then all along,
wouldn't Clark know everything that happened in this house?
Halfway through his routine private moment, having activated his underdeveloped super brain in a special way, Jordan broke out in a cold sweat, very uncharacteristically giving up halfway.
"Sigh, yeah, true. After all, I'm probably the only one in this family who is a Superman's son but just a regular guy. I feel like I'm going to be too angry to sleep tonight."
Jonathan kept poking at his food with a fork, not eating, sighing with a slightly heavy heart. Clark saw this and wanted to comfort his eldest son but didn't know how to speak.
His eyes looked worried.
After all, he had seen many classmates whose mentality had gone awry due to psychological imbalance when he was young. If it was true for classmates, Jonathan, as the only ordinary person in the family, was obviously more prone to mental imbalance.
"Maybe I should also see a psychiatrist?" Jonathan noticed his father's look, gave his father a reassuring glance, and looked at Ian with a slightly humorous expression.
"How about introducing me to your psychiatrist?"
He seemed quite optimistic and used the opportunity to tease Ian.
"I don't think that's a good idea. Dr. Lecter is very professional, but if you trigger certain mechanisms in him, the medicine he prescribes might only be rosemary, lemongrass, cinnamon powder, and chopped parsley." Ian secretly glanced at Clark. Clark, however, was only looking at the old grandfather from time to time.
He had no reaction to Ian's words.
"..."
Ian was confused. Logically speaking, the Hannibal matter shouldn't have been concealed from his father. He sensed that something was wrong, but he didn't activate his super brain right away.
"Your sense of humor is pretty strong, too."
Jonathan thought Ian was also trying to lighten the mood, just like him. "I should thank you for letting it slip, or I don't know when I would have become aware of this."
He looked meaningfully at his mother.
"Don't blame your mother. She was also considering that you're in the crucial period of preparation for the competition." Clark quickly stepped in to mediate for Lois for the sake of family harmony.
He even temporarily forgot about Sam studying him.
"Don't worry, Dad, my mindset isn't that fragile." Jonathan didn't really mean to blame anyone. Instead, he laughed open-heartedly and said, "I'm a normal person, which at least tells me that I really have a talent for football and it's not just because of your inherited super-genes."
It must be said,
Jonathan's self-adjustment ability was perhaps quite good.
"It's so good that you think that way, dear." Lois quickly praised Jonathan. However, still in the heat of the moment, she rapidly turned her attention to Ian.
"He better have really just let it slip!" Lois knew her youngest son too well, so she glared fiercely at Ian, but Ian pretended not to notice and focused on eating.
How to put it?
In fact, his excellent family wisdom was not completely unappreciated.
"Ian is the truly smart one, Lucy. Concealment is not protection, it's harm." Old Sam, their temporary grandfather, gave Ian a thumbs-up.
He was old and wise.
He indeed knew how to avoid a real family conflict.
"Shut up! I'm not done with you yet! Do you know what protection means? Stop studying my husband and my children! That's what real protection for family is!"
Lois became aggressive again because Sam spoke up. The conversation returned to the original topic. Jonathan felt a sense of futility, as if his sacrifice was in vain.
"Grandpa is indeed wrong."
Jordan didn't know whether he was fanning the flames or mediating.
Ian continued to eat.
Silent.
"My dear grandson, you shouldn't learn your mother's immaturity. She should seriously consider whether national agencies wouldn't want to study Superman, even if I wasn't involved."
"Any country, any organization, any institution, will want to control your father's power if they get the chance. No one can refuse the temptation of that kind of power."
"That is a god-like force. Whoever controls this power is qualified to unify this world. Even without me, the military and the state would spare no effort in this research."
General Sam seemed to be talking to Jordan, but in reality, he was speaking for Clark and Lois to hear. "That's why I must be involved."
"Only this way can I protect you all. I can know the progress and direction of similar research, and even interfere to a certain extent."
"This is far more beneficial to your special family than your mother's mentality of pretending everything is always fine and nothing bad will ever happen."
Old Sam spoke earnestly.
Jordan was half-understanding.
However, the words were not primarily meant for the three youngsters. Whether he understood or not was secondary, the most important thing was that Clark's furrowed brow had eased somewhat.
"Who knows if what you're saying is true? What if you have ulterior motives too?" Lois's tone had softened a lot, but she still didn't trust her politician father.
"I don't deny that I am a self-interested man, and I have always disliked alien species. However, that doesn't mean I would harm my daughter and her family."
Old Sam looked quite candid. He surveyed everyone at the table, including Ian, because the story he knew was that Lois and Clark had Ian a year after traveling abroad. The information provided by Bruce Wayne was seamless, even the General couldn't find any loopholes.
"Really? I don't believe it."
Lois remained highly wary of her old father. She had grown up following him closely, which was why she and Clark had created perfect background information for Ian back then.
"Lucy, when you get to my age, you'll understand that the greatest interest in this world is family legacy and bloodline continuity—in every sense of the word."
"I hate aliens, but that doesn't mean I hate the aliens who allow my descendants to stand above everyone." Old Sam articulated the conflicting psychology of stakeholders from another perspective.
"Grandpa, you really won't capture us for research, will you?"
Jordan also had this concern.
"Not as long as I am here."
Old Sam replied seriously.
"I hope you remember your promise, Sam."
Clark, after a period of internal struggle, spoke up. He was, after all, the research target being monitored, so only he could ultimately define the situation.
"Don't let the children down."
His statement was also an announcement that he wouldn't pursue the matter further. Clark knew for a fact that the US government was not the only one secretly studying Kryptonian genes.
Back then,
Quite a few Kryptonian corpses had mysteriously disappeared.
"Rest assured. In fact, if it weren't for what this little one discovered, I really didn't plan to let you know about the official research. We genuinely did want to artificially create soldiers comparable to you."
"However..." Seeing the atmosphere ease, Sam could finally change the subject. He pulled out a metal box—the box that was incredibly familiar to Ian.
"Our experiment gained no progress whatsoever, and no finished products leaked out." Saying this, Sam opened the metal box, revealing the empty space inside.
"Huh?"
Ian was somewhat surprised.
Clark's expression was also slightly astonished.
"What do you mean?"
He touched the box that Ian had abandoned at the scene where the thieves were tied up and asked, "Ian said he heard with his own ears that those people claimed they were from the military."
As soon as he said this,
Before others could react, Ian's eyes widened as he looked at Clark. He caught Clark lying again—he had never said such a thing to Clark!
So, who heard it with their own ears?!
"That's the problem—someone is impersonating the military, attempting to peddle this serum worldwide. However, it is not the result of our military research."
Sam hesitated for a moment but still leaked the information. "In fact, even the people you caught didn't know that they weren't actually working for the military."
At this,
Ian was also a little bewildered.
Clark frowned even more.
"Lex Luthor."
He suddenly spoke, his eyes deep.
Perhaps it was a special intuition, but the old father had guessed correctly. Sam slowly nodded. "When I investigated further, I did trace this batch of goods back to Lex Luthor."
"Based on the batches of serum we subsequently seized during surprise checks, those vials contained a lot of blood products from Kryptonians. We cannot yet determine if it originated from you."
Sam spoke solemnly,
which astonished Ian even more.
He still remembered those [Simulated Superman Serums] were marked as 100% free of Kryptonian genes.
Sh*t!
At this moment, Ian's mind was also racing. He finally realized why Hellcat car had taken him to Luthor's factory in the suburbs the second time.
Because the first surprise raid was there too!
"Luthor did collect some of my blood once, but... you said every vial contains a significant amount?" Clark glanced at Ian and then frowned at Sam.
"Yes."
Sam nodded.
"The users didn't die?"
Clark's eyes flickered.
"The reason I can still casually eat dinner with you here is because those serums were unsuccessful—the batches we seized were, without exception, failures."
"All users died instantly upon taking it. Clearly, it wasn't a successful product, so I believe Lex Luthor was hoping to cast a wide net to find a suitable recipient for the serum."
Sam didn't hide it.
He disclosed the official investigation results.
"Perhaps only a half-grown Kryptonian who drank those twelve serums could still be hopping around alive?" Saying this, Sam turned to look at Ian. Clark and Lois also looked over with strange expressions.
Jonathan and Jordan didn't know why this was happening, but to fit in, they immediately followed suit. Suddenly, everyone's gaze was focused on Ian.
"There were only ten!"
Ian was startled at first,
and then he immediately gasped. He suspected that the old grandfather, having stayed in the military for too many years, had old habits dying hard, and was now even taking kickbacks from his own descendant.
"Twelve. Those people confessed. Don't worry, I won't ask you to spit them out. You keep this secret to yourself." Sam was very certain of his source of information.
"But I really only drank ten."
Ian felt wronged.
Neither he nor the people around him noticed.
A small cat, attempting to sneak into the dining room to forage for food, quietly retreated to the living room.
And hid in a dark corner.
"Did Ian drink those terrifying serums that cause instant death?" Jordan and Jonathan finally realized what had happened. Being somewhat less academically inclined, they felt Ian was simply too reckless.
They all gathered around, wanting to check if Ian had mutated.
"Will Ian be okay?"
Lois was also worried that Ian's pica might have irreversible consequences.
"Well..."
Clark was just about to say something.
And at that moment, the true Super Brain on Earth suddenly activated. The flashes of insight from the Big Bang to the development of civilization on Earth all appeared in his mind.
Super Intelligence!
Activated!
"Hard to say."
Clark, with a low voice, silently moved behind Ian.
"However, I think that this is the reason he awakened his Kryptonian abilities so quickly." The old father spoke earnestly, staring at his wife, who had grown suspicious of him tonight.
His hands were currently pressed onto Ian's shoulders, and He emphasized the compound word "Kryptonian abilities," as if hinting at some information to Lois.
Lois was first startled.
Then,
she realized what he meant.
"..."
Ian didn't dare to speak.
His father's hands were large and warm.
He could feel it.
And the meaning of the warning to keep silent was very strong.
***
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