I Think That's Pretty Scientific

Chapter 10: 010: My Name Is Red Scarf

The three days passed quickly. Kraft packed the gift he’d prepared for Aunt Mei and took a ride to Queens. “Aunt May, happy birthday.” Stepping into the Parker family’s yard, he handed the gift to Peter Parker, who was standing nearby. Kraft walked over to give Aunt May a hug, then greeted the middle-aged man standing beside her. “Uncle Ben, it’s been a long time.” “Hello, Kraft.” Benjamin Parker stepped forward, patted him on the shoulder, and said with a smile, “I saw the news about you on TV a while back—it really gave me a start.” Kraft pursed his lips. “It’s all because of that troublemaker Stark. He’s driving me crazy.” “Hey! How dare you talk about Mr. Stark like that?!” Peter Parker spoke up from the side, defending his idol. “Why can’t I? He’s not my idol. To me, he’s just a huge hassle—that’s all.” “But your products sold so well precisely because of Mr. Stark’s promotion!” Peter Parker argued forcefully. “Oh? You think our family is short on money?” Kraft lifted his chin, a look of disdain on his face. “You’re being so annoying right now, Kraft! You’ve turned into the very person you used to hate the most!” “Yes, because I was just imitating Tony Stark’s usual mannerisms.” Kraft shrugged, saying mockingly. “See? Once you take off your fanboy glasses, you actually hate Tony Stark too.” “That… that’s completely different!” Peter Parker retorted stubbornly. Just then, Aunt Mei stepped in to smooth things over. She put her hand on Kraft’s shoulder and guided him toward the house. “All right, all right, stop picking on Pi. Come on over and try some of my apple pie.” “Oh, all right. It’s true that it’s a bit unbecoming for a seventh grader like me to pick on a twelfth grader.” Kraft shrugged and followed Aunt Mei’s lead into the house. “Come on, Peter, let’s go get the grill out.” Uncle Ben patted Peter on the back in a gesture of comfort, then pulled him along as they headed inside. “Oh! Look who it is! Our little genius, Kraft Lee!” As soon as they stepped inside, the chubby Ned Leeds came running over, his flabby body jiggling, and shouted in an exaggerated tone. Kraft was fairly friendly toward this chubby guy, who was also of Asian descent. He held out his hand to high-five Ned, then said modestly, “Come on, Ned, the stuff I make isn’t exactly high-tech. Haven’t there already been plenty of knockoffs?” U. S. copyright laws are already quite strict, but capitalists always manage to find loopholes. After Stark popularized the mechanical locks, various similar yet slightly different puzzle locks quickly appeared on the market, along with coercive exercise machines like the “Burn the Ships” treadmill. “But none of them were recruited by the legendary Tony Stark, were they?” “Oh, give me a break…” Kraft rolled her eyes. “Do you really think Tony Stark sees me in a special light? He was just saying that off the cuff.” Without the rose-colored glasses of fandom, Kraft remained level-headed. Given Tony Stark’s flighty personality, he’d probably have forgotten Kraft’s name the moment the interview ended. Chatting and laughing with Ned as they walked into the living room, Kraft picked up a slice of Aunt May’s homemade apple pie and began to survey the other people in the room while she ate. A few familiar faces—likely staff from the shelter—and two or three strangers, perhaps Uncle Ben’s friends; other than that, there was no one else. “There doesn’t seem to be very many people here.” Kraft swallowed the bite of apple pie in his mouth and looked at Ned with some puzzlement. Given Aunt May and Uncle Ben’s easygoing personalities, they should have had more friends than this. Martin had thrown two birthday parties for Aunt May at the shelter before—and hadn’t each one been a huge celebration, with loud music, firecrackers going off, red flags flying, and a sea of people? Ned replied irritably, “Peter’s place is only this big—how could we possibly fit that many people in there?” “All right, I was being silly.” Kraft tapped his forehead, then looked around. “What about Mary? Why didn’t she come?” Mary’s full name was Mary Jane Watson. Besides being Peter’s neighbor, classmate, and secret crush, she was also the niece of Aunt May’s good friend, Anna Watson, so logically, she should have been at Aunt May’s birthday party too. “Apparently, Aunt May put Peter in charge of inviting Mary, and then… well, you know how it goes.” Ned shrugged, looking helpless. “Heh heh~” Kraft narrowed his eyes and flashed a sly, fox-like grin. “There’s a Chinese proverb that says, ‘A distant relative is not as good as a close neighbor.’ Isn’t it a bit rude not to invite Mary to Aunt May’s birthday party?” “Go tell that to Peter.” Ned shook his head and picked up his fourth slice of apple pie—and that was just the number Kraft had seen since he walked in; he’d surely eaten plenty before that. Patting Ned’s big belly, Kraft mused, “Looking at you, I feel like I’m seeing David’s future.” “David? Oh, you mean the guy whose family runs a restaurant!” Ned licked his lips, quickly recalling who Fat Liao was. “Their food is really delicious! It’s just way too expensive!” “Wait a minute! Weren’t we just talking about Mary Jane? Why are we suddenly talking about my figure?” Ned swatted away Kraft’s hand as it groped his belly, took a deep breath, and tried to make his stomach look less round—but unfortunately, he failed. “What about Mary Jane?” Hearing the name he cared about, Peter, who had been busy working, rushed over and fixed Kraft with a wary glare. “Don’t go messing around, Kraft!” “How am I messing around?” Kraft retorted with a straight face. “Is asking Mary to come to the party considered messing around?” “Uh…” Peter’s face flushed instantly, and he said hesitantly, “But… isn’t it too late to invite her now?” Kraft looked down on the wimp who was a million times eager but still hesitating. “Who’s to blame for it being so late? Huh?” Peter Parker, overcome with shame, covered his face and ran away. Ned shook his head in exasperation and sighed. His best friend really was a bit of a pushover—to be completely bullied by a kid four or five years younger than him. “Let’s go.” Kraft tugged at Ned’s arm. “Let’s go get Mary.” “If you’re going to get Mary, can’t you just go by yourself? She lives right next door anyway…” As he spoke, Ned kept glancing at Uncle Ben, who was walking out with raw steaks and hot dogs in his hands, and swallowed hard every now and then. “You’ll just end up getting fat!” Kraft said, a vein throbbing on his forehead: “You really aren’t coming? Well, don’t say I didn’t let you join in later.” “Huh? Are you planning to screw Peter over again?” Ned tore his attention away from the barbecue and looked at Kraft with a serious expression. As Peter’s close friend, Ned had seen this little rascal find all sorts of ways to pick on Peter more than once. Thinking about Peter getting tricked by Kraft again, he took a deep breath. “You absolutely have to take me with you!” Kraft craned his neck to look around; Peter was currently being held by Uncle Ben and helping out, so he wasn’t paying attention to them. Kraft then grabbed Ned’s arm and quickly ran outside. The two ran out of the Parker house, circled around to the back, and arrived at the bottom of Mary’s building. Ned watched as Kraft pulled a palm-sized megaphone out of his pocket, fiddled with it a few times, and then held it up to his mouth. “Hey, Ned, it’s me, Peter Parker—your best friend!” But the voice coming from the megaphone was Peter Parker’s. “Holy crap—!!!” Ned’s chubby face contorted into an exaggerated expression. He snatched the megaphone from Kraft’s hand, held it to his own mouth, and tried saying a few words into it. “I, Peter Parker, am Ned Leeds’ most loyal sidekick.” “Wow! This thing is amazing! Kraft, you’re a genius!” Ned couldn’t put the megaphone down, giving Kraft a thumbs-up. Reaching out to take the sound-imitating megaphone back from Ned, Kraft turned the volume all the way up, then aimed the megaphone at Mary Jane’s house and shouted in Peter’s voice, “Mary! I miss you! Mary! I miss you so much I can’t sleep!!!” After shouting, Kraft quickly tucked the sound amplifier away and took off running. Ned froze for a moment, then hurriedly followed him. The amplified voice not only startled Mary Jane, who was resting inside the house, but also Peter Parker, who was helping Uncle Ben and Aunt May with their chores. “Who is that? Actually confessing his feelings to Mary!” Peter Parker felt a surge of anxiety. When a person speaks, the sound they hear differs slightly from what others hear, so he didn’t realize that the voice he’d just heard was actually his own. However, Uncle Ben and Aunt May knew Peter’s voice all too well. “Peter, that just now—that sounded like you, didn’t it?” Uncle Ben scratched his head in confusion and instinctively reached out to touch Peter standing right in front of him; he still hadn’t figured out what was going on. “My voice?” Young Peter might be timid, but he was by no means lacking in intelligence—in fact, his intellect far exceeded that of the average person—so he quickly pieced together what had happened. “Kraft!!!” Peter Parker dropped what he was working on and sprinted toward Mary Jane’s house. Just then, he bumped right into Mary Jane, who was pushing open the window to peek out and see what was going on. “Peter?” Mary Jane, with her red hair, raised an eyebrow, a faint smile playing on her lips. She and Peter Parker weren’t just neighbors—they were also classmates, and their parents were close friends—so they knew each other quite well. Mary could naturally sense Peter’s feelings for her, but this guy usually couldn’t get a word out of his mouth—so why was he being so bold today? “No… it’s not like that… I… um…” At that moment, Peter Parker felt as if he were facing the greatest crisis of his ten-plus years of life. The Peter Parker in the comics isn’t this timid. My version of Spider-Man is a hybrid—the early setup is closer to the Maguire version, though perhaps even a tiny bit more timid than that one. Personally, I prefer the early plot of the Maguire version; the character design in the Tom Holland version is more interesting, but in terms of character depth, it still falls a bit short of the Maguire version. As for the Garfield version… it had such a low profile that I barely remember it… Also, thanks to 【My Cousin Who Let Me Borrow His Watch】 for the tip—it seems like it was sent the day before yesterday, but I’m just seeing it now… Mainly, as a failed author, I never expected to receive any tips, so I usually don’t pay much attention to them… Though I don’t think I had the habit of mentioning tip donors by name in my previous book either… From now on, I’ll mention it if I see one; if I don’t, never mind—let’s just go with the flow. ╮（╯▽╰）╭