"Peter, you don't seem very happy?" Ben Parker approached Peter after dinner.
Peter immediately shook his head and waved his hands. "How could that be? I'm very happy!"
"Are you injured?" Ben Parker didn't answer, but sat on Peter's bed and asked.
"Injured?" Peter's heart skipped a beat, and he stammered, "You mean the wound on my back? It's almost healed."
"Alright then, take off your shirt and let me see," Ben Parker said.
Peter was at a loss for words, completely thrown off by Ben Parker's statement.
Ben Parker stood up and said, "It's fine. If you don't want to show me, that's alright too. I was just worried your injury hadn't healed. I'm leaving now."
"Okay, Uncle Ben." Peter breathed a sigh of relief as Ben Parker dropped the subject.
The Room Next Door
Silas was playing Go with Little Black. It was Little Black's idea.
"Don't say I'm bullying you. I was a Go master in my past life!" Silas chuckled. In his past life, he was the champion of Go in his class.
He ranked tenth in the entire grade-level competition. Since each class sent one representative, he was nominated by his class, only to lose narrowly in the very first round.
Ten minutes later...
"Wait! Let's start over!" Silas saw that he had lost and, unwilling to accept defeat, asked for a rematch.
Little Black nodded, collected the pieces, and began a new game.
Five minutes later...
"..." Silas stared at his white stones surrounded by black ones, deep in thought.
Little Black looked at Silas, waiting for his next move.
"Whose board are you betting on? You know it's not good to steal things," Silas suddenly realized where Little Black got the board.
Little Black pulled a stack of cash from his clothes and motioned to Silas in sign language: I earned this money gambling online, but since I can't convert it to cash, I temporarily borrowed your money. But I can give you the money I won in my account.
"Fine, you're impressive," Silas was speechless. He called out Big Black. "You play Little Black. I'm going to rest."
Big Black glared at Little Black and sat down in the chair.
"So it was Connors..." Norman murmured.
Through the clues gathered by his subordinates, he finally understood why the Lizard had come for him. It was Connors, which explained everything.
The reason he was so sure it was Connors was that Connors had set up automatic recording for all his experiments, documenting every attempt.
The Lizard took the notebook but forgot to take the recording equipment next to it.
"He's turned into this ghost-like thing," Norman turned to his subordinate and sneered. "Look at our Connors, tsk tsk tsk~ He's become a monster."
"But he also proved that the gene serum seems feasible, although he appears to have made a mistake somewhere," the subordinate said.
Was Connors' experiment a complete failure? No! At least his arm grew back, and he gained monstrous strength.
"Who is that Spider-Man?" Norman was more interested in Spider-Man.
The subordinate shook his head. "Unclear."
"Keep investigating." Norman then asked, "How's our experiment going? The press conference is in two days."
"The white mouse experiments have been successful, but the human trials..." The subordinate paused here. After all, who would be the first subject for the human trial?
"There are so many homeless people on the street. Isn't it our duty as philanthropists to help someone change their life?"
Norman said this with a smile to his subordinate, but the smile sent a shiver down the subordinate's spine.
"I understand." The subordinate left.
Morning
BEEP! BEEP!
"The Parker family is ready to go." Ben Parker had parked the rental car in front of the house.
Aunt May put the supplies they were taking in the trunk and sat in the front passenger seat. Peter and Silas sat in the back.
"Let's go!" Ben Parker started the car and drove toward their destination.
Peter lay comfortably in the back. Thanks to his tenacious constitution, his wound had scabbed over after a night's rest.
As long as the activity wasn't too strenuous, he wouldn't aggravate the wound.
Peter picked up the camera from his backpack and took photos out the window.
Ben Parker noticed Peter. "Haven't you returned your classmate's camera yet?"
"Uh... he's not in a hurry," Peter replied.
Seeing this, Silas wondered how much longer he and Peter would have to keep things hidden.
He just hoped the day would be calm, or Peter would likely get restless, move his wound, and be in for a rough time.
Silas really hoped the clue he got this time was for the Horse Talisman, so he could conveniently heal Peter's injury.
After a half-hour drive, they finally arrived at the forest. Breathing the fresh air, Ben Parker parked the car in the designated area.
"Looks like there aren't many people today," Ben Parker noted, looking at the few cars in the parking lot.
Aunt May reminded Ben Parker, "That's even better. But open the trunk first, we still have things to take out."
"Mhm. Peter! Silas! Come grab some things," Ben Parker called out.
Peter and Silas quickly got out of the car to help Aunt May. They didn't have much—just lunch supplies, a barbecue grill, and fishing rods.
"Kids, your Uncle Ben was a master fisherman when he was young," Ben Parker boasted, waving a fishing rod.
"Alright then, your lunch will be fish. If you don't catch any, you won't have any lunch," Aunt May teased.
Ben Parker snorted, confidently stating, "Then I apologize, but I'm afraid the smell of the fish will make you all envious."
"Then I apologize too, Ben. You might go hungry," Aunt May laughed.
"Go get 'em, Uncle Ben!" Silas cheered him on.
Ben Parker smiled, finally having someone on his side. "Haha! Of course! Don't worry, kid, lunch is on me!"
"Thank you," Silas replied.
The family happily walked into the forest.
Along the way, they met a family who was finishing up their camping trip. After chatting for a bit, the other family left.
"Listening to that person's description, I can't wait to camp here myself," Ben Parker said as they walked.
Aunt May rolled her eyes. "Of course you can, unless you're not planning on going to work tomorrow."
"You're right. It's fine to wait until you two boys are grown up and I retire. We can go then," Ben Parker said.
Their family's only income came from Ben Parker alone. Aunt May occasionally did some odd jobs for tips.
Since both boys were still in school, he would work as much as possible.
Ben Parker didn't know that Silas was already carrying a large sum of money, and even Peter had $5,000 in savings.
A few minutes later...
"We're here!" Ben Parker led the family to a small river, their destination for the day.
"Alright, boys, watch your Uncle Ben reel in a big one for you." Ben Parker put away the forest map and started baiting the hooks.
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