Chapter 306. The Expert Appears (Part1)

"Ned, do you have time? Let's stay up all night and some new games I got."

"Sorry, Peter, I've been really busy lately. Let's talk about it when I have time."

Replied the chubby Ned, shaking his head and avoiding Peter's invitation on their way home from school.

The latest media coverage of Spider-Man made Ned afraid. Spider-Man's recent actions, as reported in the news, were beyond Ned's understanding of superheroes. It wasn't the Peter he knew.

"Oh, I just remembered. I left something in class. Sorry, Peter, you'll have to go back on your own today."

Ned said, patting his own head, pretending to have suddenly remembered something, and ran back to school with his backpack.

"But didn't you say you forgot something yesterday too?"

Peter asked, watching Ned's hurried departure. Peter knew that Ned had been avoiding him lately because of the Spider-Man situation. Peter had been trying his best to explain that he wasn't the one causing trouble all over the city, but Ned didn't seem to believe him.

After all, no matter how you look at it, the evil Spider-Man on TV looked exactly like Spider-Man.

Recently, the evil Spider-Man had become more and more reckless, and his actions had ruined the reputation of the beloved superhero. Especially with the Daily Bugle and J. Jonah Jameson personally reporting on the news about Spider-Man, they were calling him a menace. Jameson claimed that to protect the safety of the city, they needed to bring Spider-Man to justice and reveal his true identity.

In fact, some people had been influenced by Jameson and started to repeat slogans about publicly unmasking superheroes to avoid harming citizens.

Yesterday, a district councilor came forward in response and publicly called for the establishment of relevant laws and regulations regarding superheroes.

Although this was just a relatively unknown district councilor, and the topic wasn't very popular, it was still somewhat noticeable from the development of the situation. With the spark caused by the Spider-Man incident, people's attitudes toward superheroes gradually shifted from gratitude and admiration to concern.

...

"I'm back, Aunt May."

Feeling dejected, Peter greeted his aunt in a low voice.

"Hey, how was school today?"

"It's okay."

Shrugging, Peter tried not to let his aunt worry about him.

"Oh, there's a crazy car parked outside..."

Changing the subject, Peter was about to divert his aunt's worries from school to something else when he caught sight of a familiar face with a small beard sitting on the couch.

"Mr. Stark!"

"Hey, Mr. Parker."

Tony said, raising his eyebrow at the use of his name. "We meet again."

"Why are you ...why are you here, Mr. Stark?"

Peter asked, clearly confused by Tony's unexpected visit to his home.

"Well, it's about time we met. You got my emails, right?" Tony explained, noticing Peter's nervous demeanor.

"Email?"

"Yeah, you didn't forget about it, did you?"

"No, of course not. Yes, I did get the emails."

Peter admitted reluctantly, meeting Tony's gaze and the disapproving look from May, who was standing nearby, even though he had no idea what the email was about.

"Peter, you haven't told me anything about the grant."

May chastised as she listened to the conversation.

"The grant?"

"The grant from the Chen Long Foundation, named after an ancient Chinese proverb meaning 'hoping one's child will become a dragon'."

Just then, a figure emerged from the kitchen holding coffee and freshly baked cookies. It was Uncle Dragon, a containment expert for the SCP Foundation.

[Reputation points from Peter Parker +150]

[Reputation points from Tony Stark +85]

"Who are you again?"

Both Peter and Tony were surprised at the sudden appearance of the clone.

"I'm also one of the responsible persons of the Foundation, specially sent to investigate the applicant's family situation. Isn't that right, Mr. Stark?"

"Of course."

Although surprised by the unexpected visitor, Tony had to nod in agreement with the situation at hand.

"Peter, this is such an important matter and yet you didn't tell me anything. If it wasn't for Mr. Dragon and Mr. Stark coming to the house, I wouldn't have known that you had applied for the..." The clone and Tony's assurance made Aunt May firmly believe that Peter had applied for the grant but also revealed a dissatisfied expression towards Peter, who had kept it hidden from her.

"Cheng Long Foundation." The clone added helpfully when Aunt May paused.

"... Cheng Long Foundation's grant."

Thankful towards [Uncle Dragon], Aunt May continued to question Peter.

"I just wanted to surprise you, Aunt May, so I was planning on telling you later." Peter opened his mouth and explained with an embarrassed expression.

"Speaking of which, what grant did I apply for before?"

"Actually, I came here to solve this problem."

"To solve the problem?"

From Tony's answer, Peter clearly understood the hidden meaning behind it.

"This is the walnut and dates bread I made. I adjusted the proportion of the ingredients, emphasizing the taste of the dates." Uncle Dragon offered.

"Really? I'll try it next time." Aunt May took some.

"It's not difficult, as long as you get the proportion of red dates right and avoid..."

"I didn't expect that you, Mr. Dragon. You also like cooking?"

"I'm just interested in this area, and I rarely see ordinary families storing so many red dates..."

"Is that so? I really like the taste of red dates, so I specially bought some from Chinatown, intending to use them in cooking."

On this side, Tony and Peter were communicating with gestures, while on the other side, the mysterious Uncle Dragon was chatting with Aunt May.

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