After the night in New York became dark, the lights of the entire city began to gradually go out. Only a few floors at the top of the Stark Building had faint lights. Pepper, who had been busy all day, walked up to the elevator. When the elevator indicator lights lit up, she took a deep breath, but did not completely relax.

The elevator door opened, and the ceiling lights lit up with her steps, guiding her to Stark's laboratory that had not been here for a long time.

The door of the laboratory slowly opened without making any sound. The whole laboratory was pitch black, only the lights of the experimental instruments were on faintly. Stark lay on the laboratory bench, as if he was asleep.

Jarvis turned on a little soft light, enough for Pepper to see clearly without waking Stark up. Stark was sleeping well, and after Pepper walked over, he found his brows furrowed.

She saw a bunch of data on his laboratory bench. In the past, there were experimental data that Pepper couldn't understand, but today, Pepper saw several books on the laboratory bench that shouldn't have appeared here.

Pepper even saw several textbooks from his university, including social engineering, game theory, political science, international relations, etc., where there were traces of flipping, and even several books were opened and buckled on the desktop. It was obvious that Stark had not finished reading it.

She walked a little closer and picked up the information, which was mostly related to the military, Congress and S.H.E.L.D., and especially some information about their personnel.

Pepper was about to walk around the lab table to Stark. Stark moved for a while, and he coughed dryly, then woke up. In the hazy light, he saw Pepper standing in front of him, thinking he was dreaming.

Stark shook his head and blinked his eyes hard, looking very confused. Pepper often saw his expression, often after drinking or staying up late to do experiments.

"Oh, you're here, are you done? How are you doing recently?" Stark seemed a little helpless, as if he hadn't seen Peto so many days ago, and he greeted in an embarrassing tone.

Pepper, however, was not influenced by him, and she walked over and said, "What's wrong with you? Why did you start reading these books?"

Stark looked back at his desktop. His expression was a bit like a child who was discovered by his parents by secretly playing with a game console. He twisted his neck unnaturally, and then said: "A friend recommended it to me. He said I should read more books like this, otherwise I will not be able to deal with those troubles."

Stark paused for a moment, then lowered his head, his voice seemed a little low, with the seriousness that was rarely seen in the past.

"SHIELD, the military and Congress have basically got what they want, and the next will be the last negotiation of this incident."

"I represent the Stark Group. I know that no one will deal with these troubles for me this time. I have to learn to handle all this myself."

"I have never participated in any decent negotiations. Sometimes even if I go, I just need to sit there and wait for Uncle Obadaiya to finish everything. I am just a symbol. Everyone knows that I am a genius, so even if I show impatience or leave early, no one dares to say anything..."

"I know, I'm really terrible. I've made a lot of messes and troubles. I once mocked the representative on the other side as a mentally retarded, or deliberately made the coffee all over the table, just to leave early."

"I can't remember how many times I've done such stupid things, but I know that I can only come by myself this time."

Stark rubbed his eyes, then rubbed his face with his hands, trying to take back the sad and lost expression. He said: "No one will do these things for me, no one will solve these troubles for me, and no one will even see my inventions, listen to me about my genius creativity..."

Pepper must admit that it was the first time she saw Stark's expression so sad. In the past, those sad expressions he made were used to make funny or deliberately find people to be happy, but now, he is really sad.

After Stark slowed down for a while, he patted his palm and said, "Okay, then that's it, I can do it all, right?"

"I'm Stark, why can't I do it? How difficult is these things to do than making mechas? Look, as long as I read all these materials and books, I can still defeat them alone in the negotiations in those few days..."

Pepper felt sad. Before that, whenever Stark was cheating and didn't want to do anything, she felt a headache. She felt that she was wasting too much time on coaxing this older child, hoping that Stark would mature soon.

But now, when Stark calmly accepted to do what he didn't want to do, Pepper suddenly hoped that he would be as willful as before.

She didn't know what was wrong with her. Stark became mature. This should be a good thing, but Pepper knew very well that such growth must be accompanied by severe pain and sorrow. She would rather Stark not experience this pain and live in a utopia forever.

Petto swallowed even more. Just as she was about to say something, the phone in her pocket rang again. She had no choice but to leave to answer the phone. She didn't even bother to chat with Stark, so she had to deal with the seemingly endless work.

Stark looked at Pepper's back as he left, his pain and helplessness reached its peak. He supported one hand on the lab and then covered his eyes. He never felt that the night in New York was so long.

When he devoted himself to the experiment, one night was like a blink of an eye. Before he could finish a small part of the experiment, it was dawn. At that time, he would always complain that this pure and happy time was short.

But today's night seems to be endless, as if he is suffering here for how long, and the sun will not rise.

In a dull and dark room, Stark thought that what the book said makes sense. Not everything in this world can be worn by mechas and gone by. Humans cannot survive without social rules. As long as they still live in this society, they must follow some social rules.

Before, Stark felt that he didn't have to obey anything at all, and lived as he wanted every day, but now he found that someone had paid the price of following the rules for him.

It was just that they paid the price first, so that Stark could always live in this warm eggshell and think of nothing.

Stark actually knew that in order to deal with the romantic news for him, Pepper was busy until midnight every day, and Obadaiah cleaned up all kinds of messes for him more than once.

But since the kidnapping case, reality has been like a heavy hammer, directly smashing the shell of the chick, allowing the cold wind of reality to blow on his ungrown feathers, causing him to turn over a few moments and get covered in mud, and he still has to struggle to get up.

After the warm wings that made him greedy leave him, he had to face the rest himself. The cold wind was howling in the nest on the cliff, but Stark had to learn to fly by himself.

After a while, Stark seemed to have accepted this fact. He slowly sorted out the scattered information on the table, then put the bookmarks on various books aside, picked up one of them and continued to read.

In fact, Stark didn't know if it was useful to do this. When he learned from Schiller that the chips of several parties were almost ready and there was only one last step left to negotiate to divide all the interests, Stark never felt so anxious and panic.

He had never thought about these things in the past many years, but at least he knew that if he did nothing, it would be equivalent to giving up the entire Stark group, giving up his father, his uncle and all his efforts.

If he couldn't take this step, the Stark Group would just retreat again and again until they were knocked on the bone and sucked the marrow and completely divided up.

And now, no one will turn the situation around in this situation and turn the tide, except Stark himself.

In his life for many years, he had no need to consider the feelings of anyone else. Now he is about to participate in a negotiation that may be the highest level of this country. There are members of parliamentarians who have been in politics for many years, those who dominate the political arena, those who are hidden behind the scenes and are strategizing, and those who are aggressive and greedy military leaders.

Stark, in this situation, was like a primary school student who suddenly participated in the doctoral forum. He had no theoretical knowledge or practical experience, and he could not even look at people's faces. Stark could already imagine that the nonsense he used in the past would have no effect except that he would make these evil wolves make a big fuss and bite another piece of meat.

He must learn to be calm, learn to remain calm, learn to use wisdom and skills to complete a war without gunfire on a battlefield without gunfire.

It's not easy, nor is it easier than launching a real war.

Stark is like a newborn baby. At Schiller's suggestion, he can only start with theory.

Not all of those politicians can do these things, but relatively speaking, they have rich practical experience.

But Stark is just a blank piece of paper in this regard, but fortunately, he is a genius Stark. His brain allows him to write down all the knowledge in it in a very short time. Even if he has no time to practice and integrate it, it is better to have this knowledge in his mind than not.

Stark felt that what Schiller said made sense. Since he had decided to bow his head and decided to learn these theories that he had not despised and thought were empty talk, he had to finish them as quickly as possible and try to understand them.

The former is not difficult. Stark's genius brain made him memorize several books almost in one night. When his brain reaches its peak, he can never forget it.

But after reading it, memorizing it and understanding it is completely different. After Stark memorizing it, he still has to compare the popularity and relationship information to think about how to act.

Which of them reacts to certain topics? What complex subdivisions are there in the same force? What relationships can be used? Why do some people have lower bottom lines than others? Why do some people’s willingness to give higher chips than others?

These questions almost drown Stark, and even though he was a super genius, he could not learn the essence of human knowledge overnight.

More importantly, sometimes game theory and psychology look more like mysticism, because human nature is always mysterious and unpredictable. Using all theories to analyze will only lead to increasingly wrong answers, and everything depends on on-site reactions, which really puts huge pressure on Stark.

Finally, in the deep dark night in New York, Stark muttered: "You are a genius... Stark, you are a super genius... No one in this world is smarter than you, of course you have no problem..."
Chapter completed!