Chapter 1605 Fireside Chat (Part 1)

The air in Brooklyn on a winter morning was crystal clear. The last snowflake had fallen two hours ago, highlighting the footprints on the street. You could still see the solid traces of the falling snow under your feet.

Behind the brown wooden window frame and the slightly cold glass, a burst of hot air rose above the cup, spun in the air deftly, and then disappeared. Then the aroma of coffee filled the whole house, and the feet that were frozen stiff from walking through the snow on the street also warmed up.

Stark and Steve sat side by side on the sofa in the Hell's Kitchen Psychological Clinic. Steve was turning the charcoal in the fireplace with tongs, while Stark turned over the heated cookies on the grill above the fireplace with his hand with a mecha arm.

He glanced back at the kitchen, where Schiller was busy making coffee with a moka pot. Stark turned his head back, raised his eyebrows at Steve, and said, "I'm sure Schiller has been much more normal recently."

"Do you remember how long it has been since we had coffee here?" Steve lowered his head to adjust the position of the charcoal, and the firelight reflected on his face. Captain America's blue eyes can always clearly reflect all the light, whether it is the morning sun, the sunset, or the firelight. When he looks at those flames, it is always like lighting a lamp in a piece of ice.

"He hasn't been this patient for a long time." Stark said in a nostalgic tone while turning over the cookies: "He didn't even have time to stop and make himself a cup of coffee."

"That's always a good thing, Tony." Steve spoke with a little southern accent and tone when he was relaxed, perhaps from his mother, and he said just like people of that era: "Let's go ice fishing on the lake on Sunday afternoon."

"Ice fishing? Ha, old man." Stark laughed brightly, shrugging his shoulders, almost laughing, he looked at Steve with his smiling eyes and said: "I guess Nick will go too, and maybe Natasha, you must be five hundred years old in total?"

"You said too little." Steve began to add new firewood to the fireplace, and said: "The Russian scientist who has a grudge against you will also go. He just returned recently. New York, just when we were about to get drunk in the lab, Banner announced that no alcohol could appear on his floor. The poor Russian lost three bottles of vodka and could only come to us old guys to find some comfort. "

"I guess you didn't plan to invite me."

"Of course, because we don't want to offend Pepper." Steve raised his eyelids slightly, looked at the dry firewood in his hand and said, "And your uncle Obadiah, he called each of us to ask when you plan to get married."

Stark started laughing again, he pressed his upper lip down hard until the stubble began to turn white, but he still couldn't close his grin. Anyone who saw this expression would be surprised to find that behind the seemingly mature middle-aged man's overjoyed smile, he could still see some of the cute shyness of a teenager.

"Let's talk about Schiller." Stark brought the topic back to the starting point and said, "The mysterious voice told us that the doctor who had a profound influence on Schiller might still be alive. I thought he would rush to find his trace, but he suddenly became quiet, like a clipper suddenly dropped anchor."

"Everyone has his own anchor." Steve pursed his lips and tilted his head and said, "This is not what I said, but what I heard in the emotional channel. There is a lot of nonsense there, but there are occasional golden sentences."

"I still underestimated your old-fashionedness. I hope you didn't hear it from the radio in the second-hand store. It doesn't matter if it is. Anyway, you are older than it... I mean, maybe Schiller remembered something."

"Remembered what?"

"Do you think that person Why does the doctor want him to be an ordinary person? "Stark retracted his hand, propped his chin with the base of his palm, and quietly watched the heated biscuits cracking fine lines from the top, and then he added: "What do you think is good about ordinary people?"

"When I was an ordinary person, I didn't feel that there was anything good about being an ordinary person, but when I became Captain America, I often missed those peaceful days. "

"I got some teaching materials from Natasha." Stark's expression was a little strange, as if he wanted to laugh but didn't dare to laugh. He lowered his voice and continued: "I didn't let anyone know, but I know that I am the hope of many people."

"What do you mean? What teaching materials?" Steve looked up at him.

"The Soviet Union at that time." Stark bared his teeth and deliberately made a fierce expression. I don't know if he was warning Steve or warning those who could observe and spy from a distant space.

"Because Professor X said that the doctor who cured Schiller was from the former Soviet Union, I just want to see why the doctor wants Schiller to be an ordinary person."

"You know what? Tony, your expression now is like a boy in adolescence and his father broke into the room to explain that the pornographic magazines under your bed are just for studying physiological structures."

"God, this must be something you did. I will tell Howard directly that I just like beautiful girls with curvy bodies."

"I hope he won't say he likes it too. Oh, God, he would have liked it when he was young. Can you imagine? The most serious person in our team at that time was Nick Fury."

"Don't change the subject. The adjectives you just used to describe the pile of books can't be heard by Schiller. They take this matter very seriously, but I think I did understand something."

"About ordinary people?"

"Maybe." Stark flipped the cookie closest to him with his gauntleted hand again, but it wasn't because he cared about the heat, it was just like he wanted to find something to do.

"One of the most interesting and inspiring viewpoints is that they regard the development of the group and each individual in the group as equally important, and they want both social progress and people's happiness."

"It sounds very idealistic."

Stark looked up at Steve in surprise, and then said, "I thought you were also an idealistic person."

"I am, so I made this comment." Steve smiled and said, "When you are an idealist, you can understand who is truly idealistic and who is exaggerating."

"It seems that Schiller is the beneficiary of this idea." Stark lowered his head slightly, letting his eyelashes cover his eyes and cover the contemplation in them, and then said, "I guess the doctor is holding this idea, so he has to save him no matter what."

"Is he also holding this idea to save us?" Steve didn't sound like asking, but more like giving a hint.

"That's what I guessed too. Perhaps the doctor's performance is the reason why Schiller chose to be a psychologist, using the same ideas and knowledge to save others."

"He succeeded." Steve nodded and said.

"...but it's still a little short." Stark changed his hand to support his chin and said, "What comforted me when I felt anxious and confused?"

"Maybe it was some of Schiller's plans to push me and the environment around me forward, but more of it was the power Schiller showed as a doctor."

"...a calm power." Steve continued, "What can comfort others is never irritability, madness or eagerness, but the sense of security brought by calmness and strength."

"He was calmer than all of us at that time." Stark shook his head slightly with a very small amplitude and said, "It seemed that he had the answers to all the problems we couldn't understand."

"At that time he was more like a doctor. Have you heard Professor X's argument that psychiatrists must keep a distance from patients?" Stark then raised his eyebrows on both sides, so that there were grooves on his forehead.

Steve shook his head, but still said: "But it is true that as we get more familiar with him, we can see his madness more and more, and then we want to cure this madness, and from then on, he has become more like a patient."

"But it seems that now he wants to be a doctor again." Stark clasped his hands together, one hand stroked the back of the other hand, and said: "Because he remembered the doctor who cured him. The key is not whether the doctor is alive or where he is now, but what he taught Schiller, and why Schiller resolutely embarked on the same path as him."

"For the things in those textbooks?" Steve lowered his head but raised his eyes and asked.

"Maybe it is also to make more idealists in this world." Stark's face was rarely soft, without the mockery that he often hung on his eyebrows, and the impatience that was often deep in the ravines of his face. He looked into Steve's blue eyes and said.

"The doctor cured him and made him realize how much beneficial changes people can make to the world with sufficient spiritual power and ideals, so he cured us and gave us more room to think about more things about all mankind."

"And we should have continued to pass this on, but the madness he showed forced us to focus more on him to prevent him from hurting himself, so that we actually did not cure the anxiety and confusion of the people around us."

"So he returned to normal?" Steve looked up at Schiller behind the island counter and said, "In order to allow this transmission to continue?"

"More like pretending to be normal." Stark was not so optimistic. He said, "He changed from a patient to a doctor, once again."

"Then should we continue to find ways to treat him?"

"I think it's better to leave it to Professor X." Stark sighed softly and said, "Let professionals do professional things."

"Professor X is a little too professional." Steve exhaled as if he suddenly relaxed.

He suddenly laughed deeply, and the muscles in his strong arms contracted and trembled. He added the last piece of firewood to the fireplace and said, "Our doctor is coming back, right?"

"Yes, this also means that we have to conduct professional psychological evaluations on time, and I have to pay a lot of mental health management fees for this."

"Thank you for your generosity, Tony. This Sunday afternoon, I should see Nick showing off his new fishing rod proudly."

A hand passed over Stark's shoulder and placed a cup of coffee in front of him. As soon as Stark turned around, Schiller had already walked past the fireplace and placed another cup of coffee in front of Steve.

Schiller walked back to the island, took the last cup of coffee in his hand, sat down on the single sofa next to the fireplace, relaxed his waist, let his back completely against the back of the sofa, took a sip of hot coffee, and sighed with satisfaction.

"What were you two talking about just now?" Schiller asked.

"Nick's new fishing rod." Steve picked up the biscuits and put them on the plate, and then said, "It comes from the generous sponsorship of the wealthy Tony Stark."

"And the old saying, us." Stark added.

"You guys?" Schiller took a sip of coffee, turned his head to look at the snowflakes falling again outside the window, and said.

"I'm sorry, but I don't provide emotional counseling here, especially about Iron Man and Captain America."