87 Smallville: Lightly Broken
95.
Clark Kent picked up a puppy during the night.
When everyone's living space is squeezed, the completely destroyed order becomes like a broken awning, and the complexity and chaos of human nature mixed with years of accumulated garbage leaks out.
It's usually not a good thing for children to gather together. They are not old enough to cover up their words and actions with mature lies. Once an adult like Clark Kent approaches, this small alliance built on bullying the weak will fall apart.
"What happened?" Clark asked the most honest-looking child in the crowd. He was very thin, and Clark squatted down to relieve the pressure on him. In the child's intermittent narration, the whole process of the incident finally came to light:
A group of idle children met a lost puppy on the street. Someone suggested playing a game, which received widespread response. The children picked up some broken stones and tiles on the ground and used the dog as a target, competing to see who could throw the most accurately.
"I... I'm done." The child hesitantly finished speaking and then stared at him nervously, his eyes full of fear of adults - the food transported by Superman temporarily guaranteed the food supply in this area, but the shadow left by the war was indelible - it made the children learn the law of the jungle too early, and they couldn't wait to impose it on other creatures.
He used X-rays to check the puppy for internal and external injuries. Fortunately, the children had poor aim and little strength, so apart from making the dog look dusty, they didn't cause any further damage.
Clark held the dirty little dog in his arms without caring whether it would stain his clothes, and removed the dust that had gotten into its eyes. The children who had been in the lead came over holding the corners of their clothes and apologized.
"I'm sorry." Clark knew the child who was speaking, and he could even call most of them by name - whether it was Clark Kent or Superman, he had already known these children when they were picking up trash on the streets or going barefoot to receive relief.
However, today he still needs to fulfill his responsibilities as an adult and correct the mistakes of these children.
"You apologized to me only because I looked stronger than you, a 'difficult adult.'" When Clark Kent became serious, the reporter's deliberate silliness faded, and his words were gentle yet powerful. "But you must know that there will always be people stronger than you and me in this world. If we always believe in the law of the jungle and the big bullying the small, people will always live in fear."
"—Because there will always be the strong who bully the weak."
Clark picked up the puppy. He had rescued these little animals before and knew what techniques would make it feel comfortable and safe. He asked the children to look at the dog again - teaching them to touch it in a different way, guiding them to gently remove the dust from the puppy: "But when you try to protect a puppy, a new rule is formed."
"Under these rules, the weak are protected, and they can also do things appropriately—even things that the strong can't do." The puppy returned to his arms, as if it had found a place to rest for the first time. "For example, when it grows up, it can guard the house, or become your loyal friend... I'm afraid it's hard to find someone with such patience and listening these days, right?"
"..." The last bit of rebelliousness in the children's eyes disappeared. They looked at Clark, then at the dog, and turned their heads to the side: "...We can't keep it, and we can't feed it."
"But you can do it without hurting it." Clark's eyes under the framed glasses were as blue as a lake that could not bear to be desecrated: "Can we make a pact? Or, can I trust you?"
…
"Here's what happened," Superman said, his earlobes tinged with color as the setting sun shone. He briefly recounted the story of how he found the dog, glancing quickly at the farmer. Aria was listening intently, but it was difficult to discern her opinion from her serious expression. "Clark Kent asked me to bring this puppy to you to see if you'd like to have it."
"He said you had a farm," Superman smiled, a faint dimple on his cheek. He "repeated" Clark Kent's words as if he were standing in front of her: "If you want to keep it, you would be a good owner."
Aria didn't say anything. Kal-El was rarely so unsure about something, but finally he couldn't help but listen to the other person's heartbeat.
Batman once pointed out quite sharply that Superman has a strong desire for control beneath his gentleness - he listens to the heartbeats of those he cares about to judge whether they are in danger, but he also understands the need for Kal-El to do so.
Criminals spend their entire lives searching for the chance to destroy them once and for all. If the vigilantes let their guard down for even a moment, the glass wall separating ordinary people from the lives of superheroes could shatter, and everything could be gone forever.
So Batman wears a lead-based suit to isolate himself from the overly concerned concerns of his comrades, but that doesn't stop Superman from doing the same to others.
...And Aria's heart continued to beat regularly. It didn't jump into the "excited" range because of seeing Superman, nor did its heart beat faster because it thought the puppy was cute. It consistently performed the duties of a heart, mechanically pumping blood throughout the body.
Just like what Clark Kent heard every night when he was organizing interview materials, the farmer's heart always remained in a fixed range, beating at a frequency of "dong, dong, dong", making it difficult for him to even guess what the other person was doing based on his heartbeat.
Perhaps it was because life on the farm was so comfortable and ordinary? This was what Clark thought when he wrote the letter, but when he really appeared in front of Aria and her heart still maintained the same rhythm, Superman felt a little confused.
Fortunately, the puppy in his arms barked again. After a short journey, it regained its mischievous energy and spirit, and turned over a big circle in Superman's arms.
The farmer's eyes widened, and he wanted to bury his head in the puppy's belly and suck it hard. "Can I hold it for a minute?"
For some reason, Superman looked relieved. He loosened his arms slightly and, with a polite and gentle gesture, gestured for Aria to take it from his arms.
Physical contact is inevitable during the handover, and when the farmer's hand accidentally touched him, even through his uniform, Clark Kent felt himself tense up instantly. He tried to relax his tense muscles so that he would look less like a stone.
However, the farmer only had eyes for the white puppy. She lifted it above her head like Rafiki lifted Simba, against the perfect sunset, and felt like she was about to sing.
"From now on, you will be my princess," the farmer nodded with satisfaction. "You and your sister will inherit my authority in the future, and you will manage this land of sunshine together!"
"Woof!" The puppy didn't know whether he understood or not, but he kept shouting.
Aria turned to Superman, her eyes full of solemn gratitude: "Thank you, Superman, for sending my crown prince to me."
Clark, while not entirely understanding the farmer's often bizarre train of thought, was at least able to handle it with ease. Apparently forgetting he was Superman, not Clark Kent, and that he had only met the farmer once, he deftly took over the conversation, "My pleasure, Your Majesty."
"...Ahem." Playing the meme yourself is one thing, having the NPC pick up on it is another. If the farmer had previously had some doubts about why Superman was so popular with the public, now she had completely solved the mystery—this guy was a very approachable person who was not annoying.
"So, what are you going to name it?" Superman asked. Without the responsibility of protecting the dog, his red cape fluttered casually behind him, as if ready to take him skyward, breaking free from gravity at any moment. "...I think Clark Kent would be very interested in the answer, too."
Clark guessed that since the farmer was playing with the Lion King joke, he would probably give the puppy a name based on it, maybe something like Leon, implying that the puppy could be as brave and fearless as a little lion.
But Clark Kent was dead wrong—he overestimated the farmer's naming skills, or rather, underestimated her naming skills.
"I'm going to call it Forty Thousand." Although Aria felt a little pained by the cost of adopting a second pet, the farmer felt it was all worth it when he saw Forty Thousand's face. "Forty Thousand and Selina, aren't they a pair of matching sister names?"
Wait, how does this fit?
Clark Kent felt a bit of a headache: this headache was not the headache of having his manuscript returned by Perry and being told that it could not be published, nor was it the headache of having to face politicians' perfunctory responses during interviews. It was the headache caused by the small part of Clark Kent, a writer, banging his head and wondering how it matched, while the rest of Kal-El and the small town boy Clark held up signs saying that the name was cute. The two different ideas collided with each other. Of course, after a second of not-so-intense competition, the latter won the mental debate with an obvious majority.
Superman briefly violated his conscience: "I think it's cute too."
"Isn't that right?" The farmer was delighted to receive the other person's approval. She looked up at her remaining balance. Although it wasn't even 40,000, Superman was so kind. Shouldn't he be able to pay a deposit first, like Susan did, and then pay the rest later?
Aria took out the remaining money from her wallet and handed it to him with a smile: "Although I know this is definitely not enough forty thousand, I can pay it back in a few days. Don't worry about him defaulting on the debt..."
Superman didn't answer.
He didn't even smile anymore, and his little curly hair was visibly wilting, without any of the perfect elasticity and curves he had when they first met.
The farmer was most afraid of encountering such a situation, so he said anxiously, "If you are in a hurry, I still have some crops on my farm. You can use them as collateral!"
Now even Superman's cape stopped fluttering. The red cape hung down dejectedly in the wind and followed behind him, and also flakes lightly.
————————
Chao: The farmer must be enjoying the pastoral life.
Aria: She's been between life and death several times in Gotham's chaos
*After having one pet, you need to pay for a second pet in Xingogu. For a dog, it costs 40,000, which fully demonstrates the poor naming skills of the farmer.
*Superman delivering relief food is mentioned in Superman: Peace on Earth. The style of this book is relatively old-fashioned, but Superman is very divine in it. If you are interested, you can find it and take a look.
Please don't worry about Selena the cat, she will become a human soon (I just hate that my hand speed is not fast enough...
It seems that now I can write a separate ending? If I can, I will write a separate ending x
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