PFC Chapter 2601 Mayfly World (1)
Chapter 2601 Mayfly World (1)
Chapter 2601 Mayfly World (I)
The mood in the Stark Tower office was serious.
Obadiah sat in the first seat with a hesitant look on his face. Howard sat opposite him, also looking as if he wanted to say something but was hesitant.
Stark and Pepper sat on the left and right sides, facing each other, and the expressions on their faces were quite interesting.
But not surprisingly, everyone's eyes were focused on Stark. The atmosphere was stagnant for a long time. Finally, Obadiah spoke up and said, "Tony, I understand your concerns, but I'm afraid that your current state is not suitable for participating in the group's management. You can't withdraw your project report for the nineteenth time. The patience of the group's shareholders is limited."
Pepper was more direct. She stared at Stark's face and said, "Tony Stark, I'll say this one last time. All your personal doctors and Dr. Rodriguez believe that you have a relapse of anxiety disorder and need to rest now."
Howard cleared his throat and said, "It's not a good idea for Tony to stay in the lab all the time. Continuing to escape will only make the situation worse. You see, the conflict between you and Pepper could have been avoided."
"So what do you want me to do? Waste my precious time lying in the hospital?" Stark raised his voice and said, "I'm living just fine without you!"
Pepper certainly knew how hurtful these words were, especially to Howard, so she immediately interrupted Stark and said, "Don't say that, Tony. We don't want to leave you with a mess that you can't solve when you wake up. This kind of indulgence is harmful to you."
"I don't understand why you care about me!" Stark almost roared, "I'm just staying in the lab doing experiments as usual, but you insist on saying that I'm sick!"
"You haven't submitted a project proposal and withdrawn it a dozen times before." Obadiah sighed and said, "You put too much pressure on yourself."
"That's because some details are not perfect..."
"There is no such thing as perfect detail," Howard said. "You should strive for balance, not perfection."
"I don't need you to guide me yet!"
Pepper quickly interrupted the conversation between the father and son and said, "Tony, the solar system development plan has put too much pressure on you. I know you don't want to miss this important moment for mankind, but if you continue like this, you will regret it."
"We are gathered here today to avoid this situation." Obadiah said, "You need to rest and relax, adjust your mental state, instead of pushing yourself again and again..."
Suddenly there was a knock on the door and the others frowned. They had clearly informed everyone not to disturb them, but when that figure appeared in front of the door, they all relaxed.
Schiller came in.
Schiller was also stunned when he saw the serious atmosphere in the room. He first observed the expressions of the people and then said, "Uh, I have something I want to talk to Tony about. It's okay, you guys chat first, I'll come over later."
"You're here just in time, doctor. We know you've been very busy recently, so we didn't dare disturb you." Pepper immediately stood up and welcomed Schiller in, saying, "We are discussing Tony's mental problems now."
“There’s nothing wrong with my mind!”
"Think about it again," Schiller said.
Stark rolled his eyes in anger.
Schiller sat where Pepper had originally sat, opposite Stark. Stark was about to say something when Schiller said, "I was too busy some time ago and didn't have time to pay attention to your condition. Have you missed two psychological assessments?"
"Yeah, some people are so busy that they want to do psychological evaluations on other Starks twice a day." Stark's attention was completely diverted. He said, "Where are those two guys? Are they still following you around?"
"They all went back to their hometowns. I asked them to go back." Schiller rubbed his temple and said, "After all, the world doesn't need so many super geniuses. The original one is better."
Stark was subtly coaxed, but soon snorted and said, "Hurry up and tell them that I'm not sick. I've recovered from my anxiety disorder a long time ago. It was you who issued the recovery notice."
"Yes, but based on your recent behavior, you may indeed have some mental problems."
Stark opened his mouth but was interrupted by Schiller, who looked him in the eye and said, "You have created a perfect image for yourself in your mind. Perfection is in the context of the current era. In short, it is the greatest scientist of all time."
"At some point, you are in awe of the famous scientists in history, but soon you begin to want to surpass them. For a long time, you worry that you may never have the opportunity to be equal to them because you are different from their times and you will never be a pioneer."
"You hate the possibility that someone will call you a person standing on the shoulders of giants in the future. That is not what you want at all. You don't want to bask in the sun on a calm sea, you just want to brave the rapids and ride the waves."
"But during that time, you knew you didn't have this opportunity because you were born too late, and humanity was like a stagnant well. Scientific research had entered the era of exhaustive methods, and your brilliant ideas were more like icing on the cake, rather than timely help."
"How can you possibly accept that? You want to be a pioneer without precedent, not a transitional figure."
"Now the opportunity has come. Human technology has begun to explode again, and you are the core of the explosion, the eye of the storm. You finally have the opportunity to realize your long-cherished ambition. You must do your best and do better."
"Since you have the opportunity to leave a significant mark in history, you should also be determined to make future historians write about you until their wrists ache. As long as you do a little more, a little more, one more person will be saved, and the human race, a baby that has just stepped out of the cradle, will walk more steadily and faster."
"You start to overdraw your brain like crazy, running it at an extremely unhealthy speed, just to squeeze out the potential of the future. You think of these ideas that I will think of sooner or later, so why not now? Isn't it the same to do ten things in a quarter of an hour and one minute in ten quarters of an hour in the future?"
"But your mind is telling you that this is not okay. Your body is sending you danger signals from all parts of your body. You know that there is no limit to exploration and transcendence. It's like a sea with no end. No matter how fast you rush, you can never see the shore."
"The feeling of drifting and struggling in an endless sea is a typical feeling of anxiety disorder."
Schiller paused for a moment and continued, "Contrary to what many people imagine, the root cause of depression is having no expectations. Regardless of whether the ship will actually come, they think the ship will never come, so they let go of their hands and sink, embracing death with joy."
"The root of anxiety is anticipation. They know that the boat may not come, but they still feel the suffocation pain on the edge of drowning for the sake of that glimmer of hope, and they cling to the only piece of driftwood and never let go."
"So I always say that you are a typical anxiety patient." Schiller looked at Stark and said, "Soaking in the laboratory to do scientific research is your driftwood. You will think that as long as you continue like this, you will be able to get relief one day, one day you will get relief."
"But the sea water is rising and falling above your head. In the middle of the night, you are powerless to lift your head. You can only feel the sea water choking your mouth and nose, pouring into your trachea, until it fills every alveolus in your lungs."
"Suffocation makes you drowsy, coldness makes you tremble, exhaustion makes your body stiff, you want to let go, but in the dim light you see the ship's lights, you want to continue waiting, but what is lit is the moonlight far away at the end of the sky."
"enough!"
But it was not Stark who spoke. Pepper slammed the table, stood up and said, "You must leave your damn laboratory right now and go home to sleep."
As Stark was about to speak, Pepper roared at him: "If I see you in any corner of Stark Tower again, we're both done for! Anthony Stark!!!"
Stark was kicked out of the office by Pepper in a rage. He stood at the door with his hands on his hips, looked at Schiller and said, "I'm fired. Are you satisfied?"
"Don't worry, even if you are fired, you still have to pay the medical bills for this quarter."
"Do you have to irritate Pepper like this? Quack!"
"This just proves that I'm not a quack." Schiller and Stark said as they walked outside, "Only Pepper can cure you. Don't you think this is solved?"
"What was solved?!" Stark raised his voice and said, "She kicked me out of the Stark Tower system. I can't even enter the lab!"
"You know you can, but you don't want to because you don't want to bet on how long Pepper will tolerate you."
"Turn off your damn mind-reading ability!"
"Okay." Schiller looked down at his watch and said, "I haven't eaten in the cafeteria at Stark Tower in a while. Let's go."
Stark looked at him warily and said, "Your food storage has run out again, hasn't it? I must tell you that after I lose my authority, I won't have free cafeteria credits anymore. You have to pay for your meals yourself."
"Then do you have money?"
"Yes, there is, but why should I ask you?"
"Because I'm going to introduce you to a big business." Schiller smiled and said, "Believe me, this meal is definitely worth the money."
Stark curled his lips and didn't take it seriously.
They soon arrived at the cafeteria. After such a long time, the cafeteria had not changed much. It was still full of technology and filled with the strong aroma of food.
Although some familiar-looking chefs looked at Schiller as if he had seen a dinosaur, Schiller's strong psychological quality allowed him to completely ignore such looks and he found a place to sit down with Stark.
"Hello, gentlemen, what can I do for you?"
"I want a burger and a glass of ice water." Stark waved his hand. He was obviously in no mood to eat and planned to just have a quick meal.
"I want a salmon tartare, Provencal spinach cream roll, and this, popolo ham, buffalo mozzarella sandwich, red stew and roasted artichokes, fresh raspberry pie, handmade traditional spiral pasta..."
"Do you want to starve yourself to death?" Stark asked.
"Trust me, it's not much." Schiller handed the menu back to the waiter and said, "Another soda with some blueberry jam, please, thank you."
After the waiter left, Schiller fiddled with his cell phone. Stark was a little curious, so he stretched his neck to look over there.
The dishes arrived quickly, filling the table. Compared with the sumptuous scene on Schiller's side, Stark's was a bit shabby. A small hamburger was placed alone in the middle of the plate with an American Stars and Stripes on it.