Chapter 66: About the Past (2)
The air in the rehearsal room fell rigidly silent for several seconds because of Gwen's words just now.
The White incandescent lamp overhead emitted a faint buzzing sound, making the people in the room slow their breathing by half a beat.
"Wait, pause for a second."
Mary Jane suddenly raised her hand, interrupting Gwen's storytelling, which sounded like she was reading a list of transactions.
She had been holding a paper cup and drinking water, but now she stopped drinking water, her eyes wide open, her face full of disbelief.
"What do you mean... you of this World are already dead? Did you say that just now?"
The several band girls nearby also nodded repeatedly, all putting down their instruments and staring wide-eyed at Gwen sitting in the middle.
Although everyone had just reluctantly accepted the absurd premise of "parallel Universe travel", suddenly hearing her good friend casually say things like "I of this World am already a dead person" still made goosebumps rise all over their bodies.
Facing everyone's ghost-like gazes, Gwen appeared quite calm instead.
She even shrugged somewhat helplessly, spreading her hands in front of her chest in a gesture of utter helplessness.
"You ask me, how would I know?"
Gwen's voice sounded very casual, even carrying a hint of self-mockery.
"At that time, I had just traveled over, unfamiliar with the place, and plunged headfirst into that stinking alley like a garbage dump, only to see her... meaning 'me' of that Universe, already lying there lifeless."
"Judging by the scene, it was just a very ordinary street robbery, stabbed with a knife. You all know the security of this place; it's inherently unsafe, and encountering a robbery walking down the street at night is just too normal."
Gwen paused slightly at this point, her gaze dropping to stare at the wood grain on the tabletop.
"To be honest, it's fortunate she died. I know saying this sounds exceptionally cold-blooded and selfish, but in a strange Universe where I didn't even know who I was or have a legal identity, her death happened to allow me to logically impersonate her and survive."
"People disappear in this place every day, and when a nobody on the street dies, absolutely no one goes digging deep to investigate her specific identity."
"But that is after all your..." Mary Jane still felt a bit hard to accept, opening her mouth to try to say something.
"Aiya, don't interrupt, don't interrupt!"
Gwen hurriedly waved her hand, cutting Mary Jane's words right back.
"My story isn't finished yet, and my train of thought is about to be interrupted by you guys. I'm going to continue now, just listen carefully."
Seeing Mary Jane obediently shut her mouth, Gwen then readjusted her sitting posture, took a deep breath, and let her thoughts slowly walk back along the dim memory path in her mind.
Memories returned to that cold, heavy rainy day.
Holding the ID card with the home address searched from the corpse, Gwen dragged her body, which felt like it could fall apart at any moment, and groped around for a long time in Brooklyn's intricate streets.
Fortunately, no matter how the Universe changed, Brooklyn's general street layouts and landmark buildings were largely similar.
Following the address on the ID, she actually found the familiar neighborhood and that somewhat aged old apartment building from her memory amidst the wind and rain.
Standing in front of the apartment door, Gwen's hands were shaking violently at that time.
She stood in front of that somewhat mottled wooden door, took the key out of her wallet, aimed at the keyhole, and carefully inserted it.
With a soft "click", the lock cylinder turned.
This sound appeared especially clear in the empty hallway. Gwen took a deep breath, her palms covered in cold sweat.
She didn't push the door open all at once, but very cautiously pushed it open a small gap, then quietly poked her head into the gap, like a vigilant kitten, quickly sizing up the situation inside the house with her eyes.
The light inside the house was very dim. She reached out and felt for the switch by the wall and pressed it. The living room lights lit up.
The layout of the house before her was almost identical to that home in her original World.
Where the sofa was placed, where the TV cabinet was put, and even the nearly withered green plant in the corner of the wall differed not a bit from their positions in her memory.
However, after Gwen carefully looked around, the faint expectation in her heart slowly grew cold.
A lot of things were missing.
Missing were the traces that could prove her father's existence.
In her Universe, as soon as one stepped through the door, one would definitely see a pair of wide leather shoes belonging to Captain George Stacy next to the shoe cabinet, a man's tweed jacket would usually be tossed casually on the sofa, or the chipped old Mark mug he often drank from would be placed on the coffee table. But here, none of them were present.
Gwen looked down at the entryway at her feet. On the shoe rack by the door, only a mess of women's canvas shoes, boots, and sandals were haphazardly arranged, with not a single pair of shoes belonging to an adult male.
She pressed her lips tightly together and tiptoed in.
She took off her shoes outside the door—shoes that had long been soaked in muddy water and were filthy beyond recognition—and did not dare go into the shoe cabinet to change into the slippers that should have originally belonged here.
She just went barefoot like that, tiptoeing on the floor, slowly walking into the house, and then turned around to gently close and lock the front door.
After locking it, Gwen began to gather information in this somewhat frighteningly quiet house.
She looked through the letters on the living room coffee table, looked at the photos on the wall, and even opened several drawers to look at the payment receipts inside.
There was no name related to George Stacy, and in the photos, there was only the solitary figure of that dead Gwen.
Finally, leaning against the living room wall, she completely confirmed one thing — in this damn World, there truly was no father by her side.
"It couldn't be that I'm an orphan, right?" Gwen gave a bitter smile in her heart at that time.
This discovery left her heart with an empty and aching discomfort, but she really didn't have excess energy right now to care about so many joys and sorrows of reunions and separations. She couldn't even manage to survive.
Gwen brought over all the useful things she had scavenged while searching the house just now.
Some scattered cash banknotes and a few bank cards were all piled up by her on the table in one go.
Looking at those bank cards, Gwen was a bit worried at first, knowing she definitely couldn't withdraw money without the PIN.
But when she flipped the card over, she was stunned. On the back of one of the bank cards, a six-digit number was scribbled crookedly with a black signature pen.
Clearly, because the owner of the card was always scatterbrained and afraid of forgetting the password, they simply wrote it directly on it.
Seeing this string of numbers, Gwen's tense face finally couldn't help but gently pull a smile, muttering softly in her mouth,
"I didn't expect that my own bad habit of being scatterbrained would end up benefiting an impostor like me."
She carefully put away these life-saving money and cards. After doing this, she turned her head and saw that oversized men's work jacket that she had taken off when entering and casually draped over a chair on the side, as well as that large black umbrella.
The clothes still retained the moisture of rainwater, and she could faintly smell the scent belonging to that strange boy.
Looking at this clothes, Gwen's mind instantly recalled that wretched look of that boy in the heavy rain, complaining "Why are you so similar", "So annoying", while brutally throwing the clothes onto her head, and then running away hugging his head in the rain.
Thinking of this, Gwen gave another helpless, bitter smile.
In this malicious, unfamiliar World, she really was quite lucky, encountering such a kind-hearted person right at the start.
However, holding someone else's things and owing such a huge favor, how could she return it to him?
She didn't even know his name, and with Brooklyn being so big, where was she supposed to find him?
Gwen stood in place, touching her chin and thinking.
Since that person was wearing such a somewhat old work jacket in the heavy rain and hurrying along, he definitely had a regular job to go to work for.
Ordinary people's daily schedules are generally relatively fixed; if she returned to that intersection tomorrow at today's time point to stake out, there would definitely be a high probability of meeting him again.
Having made up her mind, Gwen felt much more grounded in her heart.
Having rushed around all day, time-traveling, getting rained on, and seeing a dead person, she now felt like she was about to fall apart.
Dragging her heavy steps into the bathroom, she turned on the showerhead and took a thoroughly comfortable hot bath.
The hot water washed over her body, washing away the rainwater, mud, and the pain left by time-traveling bit by bit.
After showering, she casually found a set of clean pajamas to slip into and came to the bedroom belonging to the original Gwen.
Standing in front of the single bed spread with soft sheets, Gwen hesitated for a good while. Looking at the clean pillow, she softly said,
"I'm sorry, I'm taking it first, I'm very sorry..."
After finishing, she gently climbed onto the bed and burrowed herself deeply into the quilt.
A strong sense of exhaustion instantly overwhelmed her like a tsunami, and she didn't even have time to dream a complete sound dream before quickly falling fast asleep.
The next day.
At dusk, the sky gradually darkened, still somewhat gloomy. The air was filled with that unique dampness after the rain, mixed with the smell of soil and asphalt pavement.
Still the same time, still that familiar intersection from yesterday.
Gwen was wearing an oversized hoodie and jeans found from the original owner's wardrobe, holding in her hand that work jacket that had been washed clean and folded neatly and squarely, with that black long-handled umbrella placed squarely on top of the jacket.
She just stood quietly under the streetlight by the road, her eyes staring at the end of the road waiting.
After waiting for not long, Gwen's eyes lit up. Soon, she saw that familiar figure.
Arthur still walked over slowly along the sidewalk from the intersection with a pace not too hurried nor too slow, similar to yesterday.
As he walked closer and closer, Gwen took a deep breath, proactively greeted him from under the streetlight, and blocked his path.
"Hello, sir."
Gwen tried hard to make her tone sound polite and peaceful, handing forward the things she was holding in her arms,
"This is the umbrella you lent me yesterday, and your clothes. I've already washed the clothes clean."
Suddenly being blocked, Arthur was obviously stunned for a moment.
He stopped his footsteps, his gaze first scanning the things Gwen handed over.
The clothes were folded neatly without a single wrinkle, and the umbrella placed on top was also neatly gathered, looking even cleaner than the one he used himself.
Subsequently, Arthur's gaze slowly moved upward, scanning Gwen's face.
At this time yesterday, because of the pouring rain, Gwenwas covered in mud, her hair stuck wetly to her face, looking utterly wretched and disheveled, making it impossible to see her specific appearance clearly.
But now, she stood cleanly under the streetlight, her pink-gold gradient short hair gently fluttering in the wind, her facial features clearly exposed in front of Arthur.
The moment he clearly saw Gwen's appearance, Arthur's brows immediately furrowed slightly, and a very obvious trace of astonishment flashed in his eyes.
He stood there, seemingly carefully distinguishing something, muttering in an extremely small voice,
"How can they be so similar?... It couldn't really be the same person, right?"
[Arthur's perspective: Still somewhat hard to believe. Marvel's group of writers are really making things fatal; why must different Universes have different hair colors! Is the one in front of me actually Spider-Man Gwen or not! Haven't heard any news about Spider-Man recently either, shouldn't be, right? But what if it is? Whatever, I'm going to be late for work, let's just cope with it for now]
Gwen was standing right in front of him, the distance between the two was very close, and no matter how small Arthur's muttering voice was, this sentence still clearly fell into Gwen's ears.
Before Gwen could open her mouth to ask, Arthur had already reached out and grabbed the clothes and umbrella.
He seemed not to want to dwell much on this topic, his expression quickly returning to normal, and he casually said,
"Thanks. But I need to rush to work, otherwise my boss will dock my pay."
Just as he was about to take a step with the things, he turned his head to look at Gwen again, adding a sentence with that typical, purely polite tone,
"I'll treat you to dinner sometime when I'm free."
After speaking, Arthur tucked the clothes under his arm, took the umbrella, accelerated his pace to twice as fast as before, quickly walked away with the things, and soon blended into the crowd on the street ahead.
Gwen did not leave immediately, but stood in place, keeping her eyes on his departing figure until it completely disappeared.
A gentle breeze blew past, rolling the fallen leaves on the ground to Gwen's feet.
Her brows, however, slowly locked tight, and her mind kept replaying the muttering that Arthur blurted out when he stood in front of her just now.
"Similar?"
Gwen stood under the streetlight, her heart churning like stormy seas.
"Similar to whom? Gwen of this World?"
This was the only explanation. In this completely unfamiliar World, if someone thought she looked like someone else, high probability it was that original "Gwen Stacy" who had already been replaced by her and died in that gloomy alley.
Thinking of this, Gwen's heart tightened abruptly.
Could that man possibly know the original owner of this World?! If the two of them really knew each other, or might even be acquaintances of some sort, wouldn't her attitude just now of completely not knowing him and even respectfully calling him "sir" be strange to the extreme?
Just thinking about it slightly, one could discover how huge the flaw in this was!
She gently ground the small puddle on the ground with the sole of her shoe, various thoughts spinning rapidly in her mind.
No, this hidden danger was too big; she absolutely could not just leave it unattended like this.
Since that man lived near this neighborhood and worked around here, there might still be many chances to meet in the future.
How could she bring this matter to light?
"It seems..." Gwen stared at the direction where Arthurdisappeared, making a decision silently in her heart,
"I have to come back again tomorrow night. I must confirm whether he knows this original Gwen or not."
If he knew her, then no matter how awkward she felt later, for the sake of this newly acquired identity, she would have to pretend to know him and strike up a conversation;
If he didn't know her, then it was purely a beautiful misunderstanding, which could also allow her hanging heart to finally settle down completely and continue acting out this ordinary girl's identity.
No matter what, tomorrow's stakeout was imperative.
Chapter 67: About the Past (3)
Gwen sat in her somewhat dim bedroom, holding a thin sewing needle in her hand.
By the faint light of the desk lamp, she was stitching up the tears in her suit bit by bit.
This suit was the symbol of her identity. A white main body, accented with pink and blue on the arms and lining.
Although it had gotten a bit dirty from all the chaos lately, and even had several tears, after a night of patient mending, it was finally restored to its original state.
Tying a final knot and biting off the thread, Gwen looked at her handiwork with satisfaction.
She pushed the sewing box aside, stood up, and agilely slipped out of the oversized hoodie that belonged to the original owner of the room, changing into her tight-fitting spider suit.
The fabric hugged her skin, bringing a familiar sense of being enveloped.
She zipped it up, pulled the hood over her head, and finally put on the featureless mask with holographic capabilities.
Standing in this bedroom that didn't originally belong to her, Gwen stretched her wrists and shoulders slightly.
Her bones popped softly as a sense of strength returned to her entire body.
In this completely unfamiliar new World, although she was an imposter borrowing a dead person's identity, the evil in this city was the same. This new World needed a hero just the same.
She pushed open the bedroom window. The cool night wind rushed in instantly, rustling the edges of her hood.
Gwen took a deep breath, raised her wrist toward a nearby building, and with a 'thwip', a strand of Web-slingingprecisely adhered to the concrete wall.
With her legs slightly bent, she leaped out of the window with a sudden burst of power. Her body traced a smooth arc in midair, and pulling on the Web-slinging, she began swinging back and forth among the skyscrapers of Brooklyn.
The night wind howled in her ears; this weightless sensation of high-speed movement always allowed her to briefly forget all the messy troubles.
Before she had been swinging for long, her Spider-Sensesuddenly tingled in her mind—an instinct warning her of danger.
Gwen immediately released her Web-slinging and landed lightly on the red brick wall of an old apartment building.
Like a real gecko, she clung silently to the wall and looked down into the pitch-black alleyway below.
It was a dead end cluttered with trash cans and discarded cardboard boxes.
A few thugs in leather jackets and ear studs had someone cornered tightly against the wall.
The thugs all held folding knives, their blades glinting coldly under the dim moonlight. The cornered person, however, gripped only a broken red brick scooped up from the ground, pointing it at the group.
Gwen was in no hurry to jump down and resolve the situation. It wasn't that she had suddenly developed a taste for watching drama, but because the person cornered in the alley looked far too familiar.
It was none other than the boy who had thrown his jacket to her on that rainy day, and whom she had later staked out to return it to—Arthur.
Below, the leading thug took a step forward, brandishing his pocket knife with a fierce tone.
"Hand over your money if you don't want to die, or else we're going to turn you into a honeycomb today!"
Arthur held the brick with both hands, his back already pressed against the moss-covered brick wall.
As he backed away, he forced himself to sound brave to bolster his courage, shouting at the top of his lungs: "Don't come any closer! If anyone dares to come over, I'll smash this brick right onto his head! I'm very strong, I'm telling you!"
His voice clearly lacked confidence, and the brick looked both clumsy and comical in his hands. The local thugs, who were well-accustomed to this neighborhood, weren't intimidated at all. Their leader sneered and waved his hand, shouting:
"Go! Slice his tendons, let's see what he smashes with then!"
[Arthur's POV: Holy crap! I just transmigrated a few days ago, and I'm already about to be stabbed to death? Where is my system?! Where are my transmigration benefits?! Who skimped on me?!]
Hearing the command, the thugs swarmed forward all at once.
Seeing this, Arthur simply closed his eyes and began flailing the brick wildly in front of him without any technique, looking just like a cornered duck flapping its wings blindly.
Gwen knew she couldn't keep watching. Any longer, and this guy would really end up full of holes.
With a flick of her wrist, several strands of white Web-slinging shot out with a 'thwip', plastering precisely onto the thugs' faces, while also tightly wrapping around the leader's pocket knife and pulling it flying into the air.
Immediately after, Gwen let go of the wall and descended from the sky like a nimble swallow.
The moment she landed, she swept her leg, tripping the front two thugs instantly.
Before the remaining thugs could react to what was happening, they saw a weirdo in a white suit with pink and blue accents appear before them.
Gwen didn't need to use much strength at all. She used just a few clean, efficient street-fighting moves, combined with the pulling of her Web-slinging.
In no time, she easily stuck all of these thugs to the alley's trash cans and walls, wrapping them up like cocoons so they couldn't move a muscle.
Having resolved the trouble, Gwen clapped the dust off her hands and turned to look at Arthur, who was still standing there dazed, holding the brick.
Beneath her mask, she raised an eyebrow and teased in a deliberately lowered voice:
"Not bad, pretty brave of you. Actually trying to take on five or six guys with knives using just a brick."
Only then did Arthur snap out of it. He quickly threw the brick aside and panted heavily.
Gwen pointed at the struggling thugs on the wall and continued:
"You should call the Police and have these thugs locked up. Assault and attempted robbery—bad guys like them deserve to spend a few days in jail."
To her surprise, the moment Arthur heard the word "Police," he reacted as if he had been electrocuted. His panting body tensed up instantly, and goosebumps visibly broke out all over his arms.
He even took half a step back, waving his hands repeatedly, and urgently cried out: "No! There's really no need to call the Police!"
[Arthur's POV: Call the Police? Me, an undocumented resident without ID, calling the Police? Are you kidding me? Wouldn't I just be delivering myself on a silver platter?]
Beneath her mask, Gwen's brow furrowed as she looked at him in confusion.
Arthur stammered in explanation:
"Uh... I won't waste the Police officers' time. Policeresources are very precious, right? Besides... after the lesson you just taught them, I'm sure they'll deeply reflect on their mistakes. Yes, absolutely. So there's no need to trouble the Police."
After giving this extremely forced explanation, to cover his awkwardness, Arthur even let out a couple of dry, hollow laughs. He then began to slip out of the alley along the wall, saying as he walked:
"If you're all good, I'll head out first. I have an urgent matter. Bye!"
Before he had even finished speaking, he bolted out of the alley like a startled rabbit, disappearing without a trace.
Gwen stood where she was, silently staring at his departing back as a massive wave of doubt rose in her heart.
This guy's reaction was too strange.
A normal person who was almost robbed and finally got rescued shouldn't react with such sheer panic and avoidance upon hearing about calling the Police.
Could he be afraid of the Police?
Gwen stroked her chin. In this city, what kind of people were most afraid of the Police?
Naturally, it would be criminals with active warrants, illegal immigrants without legal status, or people lying low after getting into trouble they shouldn't have.
Looking at the corner where Arthur had disappeared, she thought to herself with a sigh:
"He looks so soft-skinned and delicate, not like some arsonist or murderer. Could he have some kind of hidden trouble?"
Unable to suppress her curiosity, Gwen ultimately couldn't help herself.
With a flick of her wrist, she shot a line of Web-slinging to fly up to the rooftops, stealthily tailing him under the cover of the night.
She wanted to see what kind of shady business this guy, full of strange secrets, was in such a hurry to do that he wouldn't even call the Police after being mugged in the middle of the night.
However, when she finally saw, she was stunned.
Arthur hadn't gone to some gang transaction site, nor had he slipped into any shady underground casino.
He jogged all the way and finally stopped at the entrance of a construction site that was working through the night.
Gwen crouched on the high arm of a tower crane, quietly watching below.
Arthur walked over to the foreman to check in, then put on a slightly worn safety helmet and walked over to a large pile of cement bags.
He rolled up his sleeves and began carrying bricks and hauling cement bags.
Dust swirled across the construction site, and the roar of machinery was deafening.
Arthur's build was on the slender side, completely incomparable to those broad-shouldered, thick-waisted construction workers.
While others could easily shoulder two bags of cement at a time, he could only grit his teeth and laboriously drag one. When he hoisted it onto his shoulder, his entire waist bent under the weight.
He couldn't carry many bricks at a time either. After every trip, he had to stand to the side and pant heavily for a long time.
But he didn't stop. Wiping the sweat and dust from his face, he turned around to carry more.
[Arthur's POV: Being undocumented is so miserable. Just eating and drinking is a struggle, let alone going to an internet cafe to search for info. I must be the most pathetic transmigrator ever, right? Thankfully, the boss is a good person who's willing to take me in.]
Crouching up high, Gwen smelled the pungent dust from the construction site blown into her nose by the night wind.
She looked at the figure below, exhausted like a dog under the dim yellow searchlight, and the doubt in her heart was instantly overshadowed by a different, complex emotion.
With just this single glance, she was absolutely certain that someone living this kind of life could never be a criminal.
AI Model: gemini-3.1-flash-lite
Criminals wouldn't run to a construction site in the middle of the night, working themselves to death for that pathetic bit of manual labor money.
The reason he didn't dare call the Police was likely just because he lacked money, or lacked the identification that would allow him to stand openly before the Police.
This was an ordinary person even more destitute than she was, struggling desperately just to keep his life in this city.
Gwen silently withdrew her gaze and didn't look any further.
She turned and shot out a line of Web-slinging, leaving the noisy construction site to continue her patrol under the night sky as Spider-Woman.
Soon, it was the dead of night. Gwen finished her heroics, dragging her exhausted body back home through the window.
She took off her suit, changed into pajamas, and collapsed like a puddle of mud onto the soft bed in her bedroom. The scent of laundry detergent on the quilt made her feel somewhat at ease.
She closed her eyes, wanting to fall asleep quickly, but images of Arthur from today uncontrollably flashed through her mind.
In the alley, he was clearly scared to death, his hands shaking, yet he still gripped a broken brick, pretending to be tough to scare off those thugs;
On the construction site, he couldn't straighten his back under the weight of the cement bags, his face covered in dust, yet he was still gritting his teeth and persisting in his work.
These two completely different images intertwined, leaving her with an indescribable feeling of tightness in her chest.
Perhaps it was because, in this completely strange World, aside from the local Gwen who had already died, the person closest to her and the one she had known the longest was this strange boy who didn't really qualify as a friend.
They had had one somewhat peculiar encounter, and now, she found that his situation in this World seemed even more difficult than her own—an imposter living in the shell of a dead person.
Perhaps that was why she subconsciously thought of him.
Gwen frowned, buried her face in the pillow, and shook her head vigorously, trying to shake that thin figure carrying cement out of her mind.
"Sleep, sleep. I can't even take care of myself, so why do I have the free time to worry about others?" She pulled the quilt over her head and forced herself to fall asleep.
The next day at noon, Gwen sat at home and went through the wallet left behind by the original owner.
There wasn't much cash left, and the balance on those bank cards would be spent sooner or later. Without a source of income in this place, she would starve to death sooner or later.
"How about… I go find a place to work nearby and try my luck?" Gwen sighed, put on her casual loose hoodie and jeans, and went out.
She wandered along the block and saw a faded recruitment notice posted on the door of a 24-hour convenience store at the intersection.
She pushed open the glass door, and accompanied by a mechanical "Ding-dong" welcome chime, she walked into the somewhat desolate convenience store.
She had just walked up to the checkout counter to ask about the job opening when she looked up and froze completely.
The clerk standing behind the register, wearing a green vest uniform, was none other than Arthur.
He looked miserable.
There were obvious dark circles under his eyes, and his complexion was pale from staying up late and fatigue.
Hearing the doorbell, he didn't even fully lift his head, his mouth wide open in a long yawn.
His eyelids were drooping, and he looked at the person in front of the counter listlessly, reciting the standard line like an emotionless robot: "Hello, what would you like?"
When his gaze finally focused on Gwen's face, he froze, and the yawn he was in the middle of was abruptly stifled.
Gwen looked at how he seemed ready to collapse onto the counter at any moment and couldn't help but shake her head, her tone carrying a hint of reproach she didn't even notice:
"Aren't you supposed to be working at the construction site at night? Why are you here working as a cashier during the day too?"
Arthur rubbed his sore eyes and replied in a voice thick with nasal congestion:
"I work during the day and at night. I have no money, so to survive, I have to work multiple jobs. Otherwise, next month, I won't even have the right to sleep on the streets."
Just then, a middle-aged man carrying a briefcase walked up to the checkout counter with a bottle of cola and a sandwich.
In that second, Arthur seemed like a different person. His drooping shoulders instantly straightened, and he immediately forced a standard, somewhat stiff business smile onto his face.
He picked up the scanner and efficiently scanned the barcode.
With a soft "beep."
"Hello, sir. That will be 7 U.S. dollars," Arthur said with a smile.
After the man slapped some change on the table, grabbed his items, and pushed the door open to leave, the fake smile on Arthur's face instantly collapsed. He deflated like a balloon with its plug pulled, returning to his listless state, looking as if he were about to fall asleep while standing.
He tossed the money into the register, not even bothering to spare Gwen another glance.
Gwen stood at the counter, watching him teeter on the edge of survival, and the strange feeling in her heart intensified.
"You're working non-stop. Don't you feel tired?" Gwenasked, frowning, her voice softening.
Arthur braced himself against the counter, his tone airy, as if his voice were being forced out from the depths of his throat:
"Tired? How could I not be tired? But to survive, I have to endure it, no matter how tired I am. So, look at me... I probably don't have any spare cash to treat you to that meal anytime soon. Sorry about that. Right now, in this city, just trying to catch my breath and stay alive is already feeling a bit difficult."
His voice was very soft, devoid of any complaint, just the fatigue of someone stating facts.
For some reason, as she looked at this boy before her—who forced a smile for 7 U.S. dollars and was pushing himself to the brink of death, yet remained so calm—Gwenfelt as if her heart had been gently squeezed by an invisible hand.
A bit of sympathy, even... a bit of heartache? What was going on?
She had originally intended to naturally follow up with, "I'm looking for a job too; is this place still hiring?" But when the words reached her lips, she looked at Arthur's bloodshot eyes and forced them back down.
Gwen turned around and walked quickly to the refrigerated cabinet nearby. She opened the door, grabbed two cans of freshly heated hot coffee, then walked to the shelf to pick up two sandwiches stuffed with thick ham and fried eggs.
She returned to the checkout counter, pushed the four items onto it, and reached into her pocket to pull out a ten-dollar bill, which she handed over.
"Check me out," she said, deliberately turning her face away so as not to look at Arthur.
Arthur froze for a moment, then used the scanner to scan each item one by one. After giving her the change, he packed the items into a bag and handed it to Gwen.
Gwen, however, didn't reach for the plastic bag. Instead, she reached inside, took out one can of coffee and one sandwich, and pushed the rest of the bag directly toward Arthur.
"What are you doing?" Arthur asked, looking at the steaming coffee can with hesitation.
"It's on me."
Gwen's tone was stiff—a classic case of saying one thing while meaning another.
"Consider it… repayment for the favor of you lending me your umbrella and clothes the other day. I don't like owing people anything, especially favors from a poor guy like you. So, drink this coffee and eat this sandwich, and we'll be even. You won't owe me, and I won't owe you."
Arthur looked at her, then at the can of coffee. His Adam's apple bobbed; it seemed he was truly starving.
He didn't decline again. He reached out with hands still dusted with residue from the construction site, picked up the sandwich, tore open the packaging, and took a huge, hungry bite.
"Thanks," he mumbled, his mouth full.
Gwen pulled the tab on her own coffee can, leaned against an empty shelf nearby, and took a sip.
The warm liquid flowed down her esophagus into her stomach, dispelling some of the morning chill.
"Next time you run into thugs like the ones in the alley yesterday,"
Gwen turned her head to look at Arthur, who was wolfing down his food, and couldn't help but add a word of advice:
"Even if you don't dare call the Police, for heaven's sake, don't stand there like an idiot holding a broken brick. Dropping your things and running away is the sensible thing to do. You won't always have some weird superhero just passing by to save you."
Arthur almost choked on his sandwich. He quickly took a gulp of coffee to wash it down, a strange gleam flashing in his eyes, though it was quickly masked by his exhaustion.
[Arthur's Perspective: Holy crap! How does she know that? I didn't see her last night! Could she be that Spider-Woman? Gwen Spider-Universe? Holy crap! Holy crap! Holy crap! Did I farm the favorability points correctly?]
He nodded and said obediently, "Got it. Next time I run into them, I'll run."
He stuffed the last bite of the sandwich into his mouth and sighed softly, "One day, when I have money, I'll definitely treat you to this breakfast."
"Whatever," Gwen snorted.
Although she spoke casually and her attitude remained cold, seeing Arthur wolf down his food caused her heart, which had been tense from loneliness and confusion, to relax significantly without her realizing it.
In this cruel city that could swallow a person whole at any moment, seeing someone struggling even harder than she was, yet still fighting desperately to live, became her only source of comfort.
Chapter 68: About the Past (4) (Will definitely finish within ten chapters)
Swallowing the last sip of hot coffee and casually tossing the wrapper into the nearby trash can, Gwen took a deep breath and turned toward the wooden door at the back of the convenience store, which bore an "Employees Only" sign.
Pushing the door open, she found a cramped office piled high with cardboard boxes and clutter.
The convenience store owner was a middle-aged man with a beer gut, currently leaning back in a peeling leather office chair and flipping through an invoice list.
Gwen stepped forward and straightforwardly asked the owner for a part-time job there.
The owner stopped his pen, lifted his eyelids, and sized Gwen up from head to toe.
Looking at her rebellious pink-and-blonde short hair, baggy hoodie, and ripped jeans, the owner frowned slightly and asked in a clearly skeptical tone,
"Can you handle it? This job requires back-to-back shifts. Whether it's stocking shelves or pulling all-nighters at the register, none of it is easy."
What she needed most right now was money to survive, leaving Gwen no room for hesitation. She immediately nodded vigorously, meeting the owner's scrutiny with a determined gaze.
Tossing his ballpoint pen onto the desk, the owner muttered something under his breath and stood up. "Fine, follow me."
Thinking the owner was going to assign her a station or explain the workflow, Gwen obediently followed him out of the office and all the way to the front checkout counter.
At this moment, Arthur was still forcing himself to stand behind the cash register, his heavy eyelids drooping, his entire state of mind on the verge of collapse.
The owner walked up to the counter. Without any prelude or hesitation, he tapped his chubby finger on the cash register counter and coldly threw a sentence at Arthur:
"You're fired. I'll settle your wages for the past two days in a bit, and then you can pack your things and leave."
These words were like a heavy blow, crashing down in front of the checkout counter.
Gwen froze on the spot, her mind going completely blank for a moment.
She had originally just wanted to find a job in this convenience store to make some extra money to survive. She had never intended to replace anyone, let alone take away the livelihood of the utterly exhausted person standing before her.
Arthur, behind the register, was also completely stunned.
In that instant, his bloodshot, blurry eyes snapped wide open, and what little sleepiness remained was shattered by this sudden, terrible news.
His gaze bypassed the owner's stout shoulders and landed squarely on Gwen, who was standing behind him.
It was a look that made one's heart clench at first glance.
The look Arthur gave Gwen was filled with shock, despair, and undisguised questioning, as if his eyes were silently screaming:
"You buy something and then immediately turn around to steal my job? You're cutting off my livelihood and driving me to my death!"
[Arthur's perspective: I treated you like a goddess! And you're screwing me over like this?!]
Reading the desperate accusation in Arthur's eyes, Gwenpanicked inside.
She instinctively took a small step forward, waving her hands frantically in front of her and shaking her head vigorously, trying to use body language to explain to Arthur:
"It's not like that. I really didn't know the owner would fire you just to hire me. I never meant to steal your job."
However, the owner paid no attention to the silent clash of glances between the two young people.
He glanced back at Gwen, then turned back to Arthur, adding in a harsh tone,
"Don't look at her. Whether she came looking for work today or not, I've been planning to fire you for a while now."
The owner sighed and explained the real reason with some impatience.
"You know your own situation. After all, you're an undocumented immigrant with no ID. Having you work under the table here is really bad for my shop's reputation."
"More importantly, if I get unlucky and the Police do a spot check, finding out I'm employing someone illegally, I'll be hit with a heavy fine. I can't take that risk. Today, there just happens to be a suitable new hire to take over, which gives me a perfect excuse to let you go."
Hearing this brutally realistic explanation, the struggle and questioning in Arthur's eyes instantly vanished without a trace.
In its place was a deep grayness and dead silence.
His back, which had been straight with tension, slumped visibly, as if the last ounce of strength keeping him upright had been drained.
Life hadn't even left him a chance to explain.
"I understand," Arthur said, bowing his head and staring at the barcode scanner on the counter, his voice dry like sandpaper. "I'll leave right away."
He slowly unbuttoned the green convenience store employee vest he was wearing, folded it, placed it on the counter, and turned to drag his heavy steps away.
"Hey, wait a minute!" the owner suddenly called out to stop him.
Hearing the owner's voice, a sudden surge of hope rose in Gwen's heart, and Arthur's departing steps paused as well.
At that moment, both of them simultaneously had the same thought: Had the owner softened his heart and changed his mind?
But reality was clearly not so warm and tender.
The owner merely pulled open the cash register drawer, rummaged through a pile of change, and pulled out a few crumpled bills of small denominations.
He reached across the counter and handed the thin bills to Arthur. "Your pay, the balance for the past two days. That's all there is. Take it."
The tiny spark of hope that had just begun to kindle in Arthur's eyes when he turned around was instantly doused and extinguished by the sight of those few pitiful bills.
He didn't say a word, only silently reaching out his dusty hands to take the money, stuffing it haphazardly into his pocket.
Standing to the side, Gwen looked at Arthur's dull, lifeless face, feeling as though a ball of cotton were stuck in her throat.
She took a step forward, opening her mouth, an "I'm sorry" right on the tip of her tongue.
But Arthur didn't give her any time to apologize, nor did he spare her another glance.
After pocketing his meager life-saving money, he kept his head down and quickened his pace, walking straight toward the convenience store's exit.
"Ding-dong—" The convenience store's automatic sensor door let out a cold electronic chime.
Arthur's slender figure pushed open the glass door and completely vanished into the blinding sunlight and the bustling streets outside.
The door slowly closed in front of Gwen, trapping the surging guilt inside her. It felt like a sponge constantly absorbing water, swelling larger and larger in her chest, making it hard for her to breathe.
If she hadn't rashly come looking for a job today, at least for this brief moment, he would have still had a place to shelter from the elements and barely scrape by.
Biting her lower lip, Gwen forced down the uncomfortable, bitter feeling in her chest.
She silently walked forward, stepping into the station where Arthur had just been standing.
After staring at the folded green vest for a couple of seconds, she ultimately couldn't help but look up at the owner, who was about to return to his office, and asked softly:
"Excuse me, sir... what was the deal with that boy just now? Why did you say he was undocumented?"
The owner turned out to be a chatty and warm-hearted person. Since he had already kicked the boy out, he didn't mind filling the new employee in.
Leaning against the counter, he sorted through the receipts while sighing as he explained,
"That kid, Arthur, sounded like he came over from China to visit relatives. Originally, he just had a normal short-term visa, but the poor guy was incredibly unlucky. Not long after leaving the airport, he ran into muggers on the street who target newcomers."
The owner shook his head, his tone tinged with a mix of pity and helplessness.
"Just think about it, in a split second, his passport, visa, ID cards, wallet, credit cards, and even all his luggage were completely wiped out by those robbers."
"They stripped him clean, short of taking the clothes off his back. In the end, he was left standing on the street with absolutely nothing."
Listening to this, Gwen's pupils contracted slightly.
Not noticing Gwen's reaction, the owner continued to ramble on,
"He's a foreigner in a strange land, without a single penny to his name, and he couldn't even afford the fees to replace his documents. As the days dragged on, his short-term visa quickly expired, turning him into an illegal overstayer. In his situation, buying a plane ticket home is completely out of the question, and he can't contact his family. Other than working under the table to scrape together a meal, what other choice did he have?"
The owner tapped the sorted receipts against the desk to align them, offering his final summary,
"But in his current state, he has no legal residency status, and his visa became scrap paper long ago. He can't produce any personal identification. Around here, someone with no protection can only be treated as an undocumented worker. What decent establishment would dare hire him? If they get caught, it's a huge headache."
Gwen had originally thought that, as someone who had lost everything and ended up in this parallel Universe, she was miserable enough.
But she never expected that this ordinary boy's situation would be even more hopeless than hers.
At least she had her Spider Superpowers brought from another world to protect herself, but what about Arthur?
He was just a defenseless, ordinary person, stripped of everything, struggling desperately in the mire of a foreign land.
If she hadn't come looking for a job today, Arthur might have been able to hold out in this run-down convenience store for a few more days, saving up even just a dozen more dollars of life-saving money.
Guilt wound around Gwen's heart like a barbed vine, squeezing it even tighter.
After explaining Arthur's miserable plight, the owner didn't dwell on his sympathy for long.
He turned to look at Gwen, who was still standing in a daze at her station, his tone returning to the calculating demeanor of a businessman.
"Looking at you, I can tell you kids are tight on cash and only wandering around looking for work because you're desperate. Let me make the shop's rules clear first: daily pay, you get paid for the day you work, but the wages aren't high—only ten dollars an hour. You in?"
Hearing the figure 'ten dollars an hour,' Gwen gasped inwardly.
In a city like New York, where the cost of living was ridiculously high, ten dollars an hour was practically exploiting cheap labor.
A strong wave of resentment surged within her, and she instinctively wanted to complain. But as her hand brushed against her flat wallet in her pocket, the harsh reality instantly crushed her pride.
She was currently in dire need of funds to sustain her daily life; without some income, even filling her stomach would be a problem.
Gwen could only swallow her resentment and nod vigorously with a sullen expression.
"Alright, go change your clothes and get to work." Seeing Gwen agree, the owner waved his hand in satisfaction and turned back to his cramped office.
...
"Wow! Was Arthur really that miserable back then?"
In an underground music rehearsal room in Brooklyn.
Suddenly pulled back to reality from her dim, depressing memories, Gwen's vision refocused.
Her surroundings were no longer the run-down convenience store smelling of preservatives, but the familiar and secure band rehearsal Base.
Warm light shone on the soundproof walls, and a faint scent of incense drifted through the air.
More importantly, no matter how far away he was now, as long as that man was around, she could sit here peacefully chatting with her friends, never again having to experience that feeling of constantly bordering on the abyss of despair.
At this moment, Mary Jane, who was sitting across from her on the sofa listening to the story, couldn't help but let out a surprised exclamation.
She was currently holding a cup of hot water, looking at Gwen with an expression of disbelief.
Having survived a brush with death, Jane actually possessed a sort of post-disaster open-mindedness. At this moment, she was listening to her best friend's love history with a relatively relaxed, gossipy mindset.
Hearing Jane's exclamation, Gwen shed her usual cold, cool rock-girl disguise.
Pursing her lips, a mix of heartbreaking self-reproach and softness appeared on her face.
"Yeah."
Gwen nodded gently, frankly admitting her helplessness back then.
"It was directly because of me that he lost a job that was already hard to come by. Watching him walk out the door of the shop that day, I felt so incredibly guilty..."
As she spoke, Gwen reached out a slender finger and gently poked a Dragon Li Cat currently lying spread-eagled right in the middle of the rehearsal room table.
This cat, with its extremely symmetrical coat, was snoring loudly in its sleep. Its round belly rose and fell with its breathing, making it look like a completely harmless, cute little creature.
Gwen poked the cat's belly several times, but other than smacking its lips and switching to a more comfortable position, the Dragon Li Cat slept like a log, not waking up at all from the disturbance.
Looking at the cat, Jane felt the atmosphere in the room lighten up quite a bit.
She leaned closer to Gwen, her eyes sparkling with curiosity, and pressed further,
"Then what? Since it started so awkwardly, how did you two eventually end up together? Quickly, tell me the details so I can learn from it!"
Withdrawing her hand from poking the cat's belly, a slightly mischievous grin suddenly appeared on Gwen's previously guilt-ridden face.
She flicked her iconic pink-and-blonde hair tips, her gaze sweeping over Jane's flushed face, and teased in a drawl,
"Learn what? You're having me pour my heart out here just because you want to learn... how to win over that Parker you're always thinking about, using the same method I used to get Arthur, right?"
As soon as she spoke, Jane's cheeks flushed bright red at a speed visible to the naked eye, even her earlobes turning a deep crimson.
She reached out in annoyance, giving Gwen's shoulder a gentle punch, and complained with a pout,
"You brat! How did listening to a story end up turning the heat on me? You always tease me about this! And... and that blockhead and I are nowhere near that stage yet. That wooden head is busy being a friendly neighborhood hero all day long; he has absolutely no idea I like him."
Although Jane was hastily denying it, the girlish shyness and expectation in her eyes had long since betrayed her true feelings. This only deepened the smile on Gwen's face.
"Alright, alright, I'll stop teasing you." Jane rubbed her burning cheeks, quickly took a tactical sip of water from her cup, and forced the conversation back on track.
"Hurry up and continue your story. Stop keeping me in suspense, my ears are wide open."
The atmosphere in the rehearsal room quieted down once again.
Leaning against the back of the sofa, Gwen recalled her boyfriend—slender and upright, with a slight mischievous streak, always able to easily resolve any fatal crisis.
The memory of meeting him while wandering the streets in the past overlapped with the present where she was completely cherished, filling her blue eyes with deep affection.
She cleared her throat, putting aside her playful mood, and her tone became serious again. The sense of conflict unique to that helpless moment crept back into her heart.
"After watching him walk away that day, because of me, Arthur lost that hard-won job at the convenience store... For a long time after that, I felt incredibly guilty. My mind was completely filled with thoughts of how I could make it up to him, since I was the one who ruined things for him..."
Chapter 69: About the Past (5)
After work that day, the sky had already turned completely dark. The early autumn evening wind of New York swept up the fallen leaves on the streets, bringing a bone-chilling chill.
Gwen shoved her hands deep into her hoodie pockets and kept her head down, her eyes fixed on the road as she paced aimlessly back and forth under the traffic lights at the intersection.
Although she had applied for and gotten her job at the convenience store fair and square, the guilt of indirectly taking someone else's livelihood and driving them into a corner still weighed heavily on her chest like a lump of pig iron.
Being a newcomer, she had no idea where Arthur would end up after losing the job he relied on to survive.
The only thing she could do was rely on her observations of Arthur's movements over the past two days and wait stubbornly at this street corner, which he was bound to pass, treating it as a clumsy way to make amends.
After standing for nearly an hour, Gwen felt her ankles grow sore and numb.
Just as her heart began to waver, wondering if that guy had broken down and hidden himself in some corner tonight, a thin figure with slightly unsteady steps walked out from under the streetlights on the other side of the street.
He was still wearing the same cheap casual clothes of an unidentifiable brand.
However, compared to his groggy, near-Death state in the convenience store during the day, Arthur's complexion looked slightly better now.
Gwen took a deep breath, bit her lower lip, and quickly quickened her pace to meet him.
"Um... hello."
Two steps away from Arthur, Gwen stopped.
The usual rock-girl confidence she displayed behind a drum kit was completely gone; her voice was muffled, carrying a clear lack of confidence.
Arthur stopped when he heard the voice. He looked up, and after seeing clearly who was blocking his path, he was visibly stunned.
He probably never expected that the girl who had witnessed him being kicked out by the boss at the convenience store during the day, instead of going home to rest late at night, would block him at this intersection.
"About what happened during the day... that caused you to get fired by the boss, I'm really sorry."
Gwen hung her head low, her eyes fixed on Arthur's worn-out old shoes, not daring to look up and meet his eyes. She was truly afraid that if she looked up, she would encounter that heartbreaking look of despair from earlier today.
However, the expected angry accusations or venting of grievances did not happen.
Just as Gwen prepared herself for a scolding, a warm palm gently rested on top of her head.
This sudden touch made Gwen freeze instantly, as if someone had pressed the pause button on her.
Arthur didn't take advantage of the situation; he simply rubbed Gwen's prominent strawberry-blonde short hair casually, like comforting a little sister.
There wasn't a trace of anger in his tone; instead, he sounded exceptionally generous.
"Alright, it's no big deal. Actually, I saw through the boss's little scheme long ago. This has nothing to do with you. I knew I'd get fired sooner or later, I just didn't expect this day to come so quickly."
Gwen looked up in surprise and met Arthur's gaze.
Arthur withdrew his hand and shoved it into his pocket.
Looking at Gwen's face, which was full of self-reproach, he actually grinned and showed a carefree smile, continuing to comfort her.
"It really doesn't matter. And look on the bright side—since I got fired right away, I couldn't find a suitable job during the day anyway, so I just went back to the Underground Room and had a good, long sleep. Now I'm fully rested and feel completely refreshed!"
Looking at his somewhat exaggerated, optimistic smiling face, Gwen's azure eyes were filled with confusion.
Frowning slightly, her mouth moved faster than her brain as she blurted out the confusion in her heart: "Why... why do you still work so hard to live when things are like this?"
The moment the words left her mouth, Gwen wanted to slap herself.
What on earth was she saying?! She flushed as she waved her hands in a hurry, trying to salvage her words.
"No, I mean... your life is clearly so hard and hopeless, and you constantly have to worry about where your next meal is coming from, so how can you still stay so happy and keep smiling?"
Watching her flustered explanation, the smile on Arthur's face only widened.
He shrugged casually and spread his hands, saying as if it were the most natural thing in the world:
"Well, I can't just jump off a bridge and die every time I run into some trouble, right? A bad life is still better than a good Death."
[Arthur's Perspective: Motherf**ker, this dog transmigrating life. I refuse to believe it. There are tens of thousands of transmigrators, and I'm the only one without a transmigration cheat?]
Before Gwen could argue, Arthur reined in his joking attitude slightly, a look of steadfast determination appearing in his eyes.
Looking at the flashing headlights of the cars in the distance down the street, he responded earnestly:
"Because the future is full of uncertainty. A person's fate isn't a fixed script written in advance by someone else. As long as I'm still breathing today, I believe that I'll make it through one day, and things will get better."
[Arthur's Perspective: Just wait until I get my transmigration cheat. See if I don't flex like crazy and take back everything I've lost.]
The future is full of uncertainty, and fate is not fixed.
These simple, straightforward words were like a probe, stabbing directly into the softest part of Gwen's heart.
The suffocating gloom that had been weighing on her chest due to losing her best friend and being stranded in a foreign world seemed to be torn open with a tiny crack by these words.
She stood frozen on the spot, her gaze falling on Arthur's face, which was reasonably handsome but currently filled with exhaustion.
Looking at this man who was clearly being ground into the mud by life, yet was still desperately clawing at the dirt to stand up, an extremely special feeling suddenly welled up in her chest.
It was a warm feeling, and even she couldn't tell if it was empathy for a fellow sufferer or some other indescribable emotion.
Just as the atmosphere grew somewhat profound, Arthursuddenly slapped his forehead, once again ruining the brief silence by grinning with his white teeth.
"So, when I make it big in the future, I'll definitely treat you to a feast! You can order whatever seafood or steak you want then. Don't you dare forget!"
Gwen, whose heart had been welling with emotion, was instantly amused and exasperated by his completely illogical empty promises.
Relaxing her tense nerves, she regained a bit of her usual tsundere side and rolled her eyes at him in irritation.
"You're still obsessed with that meal? Your pockets are cleaner than your face. Take care of your own life first, dummy."
Just as Arthur was about to talk back, his gaze drifted past Gwen's shoulder and caught a glimpse of the LED digital clock on the outer wall of the shop across the street.
With just one look, the smile on Arthur's face froze.
"Holy crap! I'm going to be late! They're going to dock my pay!"
Arthur cried out in panic, jumping up and down in anxiety. He waved his hand frantically to say goodbye to Gwen.
"I'm running out of time, I'll head off first!"
[Arthur's Perspective: My money! My wages are going to be docked! I have to hurry!]
Before he could even finish his sentence, he had already spun around and sprinted down the uneven streets of New York, his speed comparable to a hundred-meter dash.
After a short while, his thin but resilient figure merged into the shadows of the night buildings and completely vanished.
Gwen stood on the spot, looking in the direction where he had bolted out of sight. She couldn't help but burst into laughter, softly murmuring, "What a dummy."
She reflected on the words she had just heard. "The uncertainty of the future, huh..."
Gwen looked up at the night sky above, which was so polluted by city lights that no stars could be seen.
Tonight, for her soul which had just been shackled by the heavy burdens of life, things seemed a bit lighter.
Therefore, Ghost Spider was in a very good mood tonight.
If she ran into any mugging scum in the alleys later, she would hold back her strength a bit, only breaking their arms instead of throwing them off the buildings.
...
Returning to her cramped, tiny rented room, Gwen quickly took off her hoodie and changed into her suit.
She flipped out of the window, her pure white figure swinging at high speed between the forest of office buildings and concrete structures with the help of strands of tough Web-slinging.
The city's evils did not subside because of tonight's evening breeze, but this white ghost used agility and strength far beyond ordinary people to smoothly subdue the thugs who attempted to commit crimes in the dark.
Just as she had promised herself, Spider-Woman's strikes tonight were extremely measured. When she plastered the criminals to the entrance of the police station with thick webs, she was even considerate enough not to break their teeth.
A long time later, the clock hand quietly slipped past midnight.
Having finished her patrol, Gwen originally planned to swing straight back to her apartment to sleep.
But as the wind direction shifted in mid-air, the image of Arthur sprinting to work suddenly flashed through her mind. An inexplicable concern from the bottom of her heart drove her wrist to change the direction of her web shooter.
Taking a long detour, she made her way to the construction site where Arthur was currently working under the table.
Finding a relatively high, unfinished building across the street with an excellent view, Gwen squatted on the cold concrete edge, quietly looking down at the brightly lit construction site.
Under the illumination of several high-power searchlights, the dust kicked up on the construction site was clearly visible.
With almost no effort, Gwen spotted Arthur among the crowd of burly workers.
The guy who had boasted about treating her to a feast was currently covered in dust and mud. His hands tightly gripped a cement bag weighing dozens of pounds as he hoisted it onto his shoulder with a flushed face, then moved step by step onto the scaffolding.
During the gaps between carrying cement, he ran without a moment's pause to clean up the scrap steel bars and broken bricks on the ground. Even though he was too tired to straighten his back, he didn't stop for even a single minute.
The night was very cold, but his short-sleeved shirt was completely soaked a dark color by sweat.
Gwen watched all of this from afar. Even from a great distance, she could clearly see the sheer grit in Arthur's eyes, gritting his teeth and absolutely refusing to admit defeat.
In that almost self-torturing labor, there was no depression of "accepting fate" or "giving up"—only the most primitive, persistent passion and hope for survival.
[Arthur's Perspective: Accept fate? Accept my ass! If you've got the guts, don't let me make a comeback!]
The cold wind brushed against the edge of her spider mask. Gwen hugged her legs, resting her chin on her knees.
"He's just an ordinary person with no superpowers, yet he hasn't given up hope after suffering so much..."
Gwen murmured to herself, her voice sounding incredibly firm in the night wind. "Then why should I, who possesses this power, admit defeat?"
The shadows of Death and loneliness that had been suffocating her were completely shattered by the scene before her.
"I will definitely survive, and I will definitely find a way to return to my original Universe!"
After watching silently from the rooftop for a long time until she made sure Arthur below had safely finished his shift, Gwen shot a strand of Web-slinging and returned to her simple single bed with peace of mind.
For a long time after that, life maintained a strange yet tacit cycle for the two of them.
During the day, Gwen wore that ugly convenience store vest, standing behind the cash register to endure the boredom and stocktaking.
When night fell, she would put on her suit and ruthlessly beat down the street scum as "Ghost Spider," whose fame was growing in this city.
And every time before she went to sleep, she would always take a detour to check on that guy who was still sweating away at the construction site.
The coverage of "Spider-Woman" in the Daily Bugle grew larger and larger.
Everything seemed to be sliding onto a more stable track. Until one ordinary morning, when Gwen was about to wash her face and head out to take over the day shift.
The landline telephone in the living room, which usually went untouched, suddenly let out a sharp, piercing ring.
Gwen walked over with a frown and casually picked up the receiver. "Hello?"
There was no greeting over the phone; instead, a cold, angry middle-aged female voice blasted through:
"Gwen Stacy!! School started several days ago, and all the classes are rushing through the curriculum. Where on earth are you?! Are you planning to just drop out?!"
The instant she heard these words, Gwen's brain completely shut down, and her eyes, which were still groggy from sleep, suddenly widened.
School?
What school?
I've transmigrated across Universes and fallen so low that I'm working as a cashier, so why do I still have to go to school?!
In this Universe... does Gwen still have to go to high school?
Wait.
Gwen swallowed hard. This was that damn senior year!
At her age, she was supposed to be studying in high school anyway! What was so strange about that!
Her instinct as an ordinary student suppressed her pride as a superhero.
Gwen instantly chickened out, bowing repeatedly to the empty air, her tone humble to the extreme:
"I'm sorry, Teacher! I'm truly, deeply sorry! I've been working all over the place lately to cover my living expenses. I was just too busy and exhausted, and my brain got so muddled that I completely forgot about school starting! I'm so sorry!"
Hearing Gwen's flustered and miserable explanation, the dean of students on the other end of the line seemed to have long been aware of Gwen's struggles living alone.
After a few seconds of silence, the tone on the other end wasn't as harsh as before, softening quite a bit.
"I also understand the difficulties of you living alone and needing to work because of your family's poor financial situation. But Gwen, as long as you still have the chance, studying is the only asset you can hold onto. Since you haven't been here for the past few days, you've missed a lot of the core review courses for senior year."
The teacher sighed and made a decision on the spot:
"How about this: stay behind for a bit after evening self-study tonight, and I'll personally tutor you on what you missed over the past few days. Let's not let your grades slip."
"O-okay, Teacher! I'll definitely be there!"
With a click, she hung up the phone. Gwen looked at the simple furniture filling the room and gasped.
Any thoughts of going to work were completely squeezed out of her mind by the overwhelming pressure of senior year.
At the fastest speed of her life, she ripped off her pajamas, threw on a loose hoodie and ripped jeans, and grabbed her canvas shoes from the corner, hastily stepping into them.
Rushing out of the apartment door, Gwen sprinted down the main street against the cold morning wind.
Now, she could only pray frantically in her heart: she hoped that in this unlucky parallel Universe, the location of this high school's gate hadn't shifted from her memory. Otherwise, if she couldn't find her way when the bell rang for the first class, it would be absolutely disastrous!
Chapter 70 About the Past (6)
The lights in the Underground Room were somewhat dim, and the air in the rehearsal room still retained the reverberations of the instrument roaring just now.
Gwen sat casually on that somewhat peeling old sofa, habitually toying with two wooden drumsticks in her hands.
"Oh, actually, there is not much to talk about going back to school for classes, it is nothing more than rushing through progress, doing test papers, and then listening to the teacher hypnotize us on the podium."
Gwen shrugged, glossing over this experience in a relaxed tone.
She turned her head to look at Mary Jane, who was leaning against the speaker drinking Water.
"Anyway, you guys just need to know that during that time, while dealing with that headache-inducing school, I still kept in touch with him. Whenever I had free time, I would run over to stake out the place where he worked part-time, or sneak onto the rooftop in the middle of the night to watch him move bricks."
Jane put down the Water bottle, glanced at Gwen, and couldn't help chiming in.
"Yeah, it was also during that time that our band was just missing a drummer. Rumors were everywhere in school that there was a freak classmate who kept her hoodie hood pulled over her head all day, acting aloof and ignoring everyone. If it hadn't been for you happening to come by for an audition and joining us later, we wouldn't have known that you, this seemingly unapproachable person, are actually completely sharp-tongued with a soft heart deep down."
Gwen pouted, casting her gaze back to the flickering incandescent lamp on the ceiling. Instead of refuting Jane's words, she let her thoughts drift backward along the trajectory of her memories.
At that time, having just taken over the identity of her counterpart, her own life was a complete mess, but she still subconsciously classified Arthur into the circle of people she needed to pay attention to.
"And then..." Gwen's voice lowered. The hustle and bustle of the rehearsal room seemed to be isolated outside, and the scene before her cut back to the somewhat brisk streets of New York in early autumn.
In those half a month, Gwen's life formed a somewhat strange routine.
Whenever the convenience store changed shifts, or school let out, she would always buy two cans of the cheapest hot coffee, stuff them into her pockets, and run to wait for him outside the construction site where Arthur worked part-time or at the back door of a small restaurant.
At first, she told herself that this was purely because she felt bad about causing him to lose that relatively easy cashier job, and went to chat with him as compensation, afraid that this unlucky fellow with no relatives or friends in this big city would do something foolish.
But as the days passed day by day, things slowly changed flavor.
Arthur's tenacious vitality, as if he could never be crushed to death no matter how much he was stepped on, along with that carefree smile whenever he saw her, became the only breathing hole in Gwen's days filled with trauma and confusion.
The two sat side by side on the somewhat dirty curbside, drinking cheap coffee priced at two cans for ten bucks, chatting about everything under the sun.
Gwen found that she had actually started looking forward to these brief daily meetings.
I do not know since which day that polite "Arthur" slipped past her tongue and was replaced by a shorter and more intimate moniker.
"What is wrong, Yu? Looking at your expression today, it is like you won the lottery."
One evening half a month later, Gwen intercepted Arthuras usual on his inevitable route home from work.
The evening wind was very strong that day, causing Gwento involuntarily pull up the zipper of her hoodie.
But Arthur was uncharacteristically different. He wasn't too tired to straighten his back like usual; instead, he puffed out his chest, the smile on his face was somewhat exaggeratedly big, and even his old clothes stained with dust seemed to be acting cocky right along with him.
Arthur fumbled around in his pants pocket for a long time, pulled out a brass key with somewhat rusted edges, and shook it vigorously in front of Gwen's eyes, accompanied by two crisp chuckles.
"I finally don't have to hole up in that moldy Underground Room acting like a rat! Working my life away for these past half months, I can finally afford to rent a small place in this district!"
[Arthur's Perspective: Fuck your mother, a crappy house sells for so much, are you robbing people? Seeing that I don't look like a local, you're trying to fleece me to death, right? If it weren't for the fact that you were the cheapest one, I'd smash you to death right here on the spot]
Gwen was stunned for a moment, and then a bright light welled up in those azure blue eyes.
She was truly and genuinely happy for the person in front of her, her mouth corners unable to be pressed down as they curled upward.
"Really? Congratulations! Then in the future, you finally won't have to live that miserable life where the walls peel off whenever it rains a little!"
"That's a must!"
Arthur wore a proud expression, gripping the key tightly in the palm of his hand.
"However... actually it's just renting a shell. There is nothing inside, completely empty, let alone a bed, not even a stool to sit on can be found. And to save money, the Water and electricity are still cut off and haven't been applied to be turned on yet. After all, I've only been doing short-term work for half a month, and I still have to pay a deposit. Being able to rent a place like this is already considered a miracle."
"It's fine."
Gwen stepped forward and raised her hand to gently pat his dust-covered shoulder.
Her movements were somewhat clumsy, but her tone was unusually gentle.
"Didn't you say before that the future is full of uncertainties? As long as a person is still striving, maybe if you work a bit harder, everything will be in that house in the future. A bed, a sofa, a television... sooner or later they will all be there."
Arthur nodded vigorously, and the two stood at the street corner, daydreaming for a while about that currently non-existent cozy little nest facing a battered key.
Seeing that the time was about right and Arthur had to catch his next evening shift, he stuffed the key back into his pocket and prepared to leave.
Before taking two steps, he stopped again, turned half his body, and shouted at Gwen.
"Come earlier tomorrow to the intersection where we meet! I've received part of my wages, and tomorrow I must treat you to a good meal to celebrate!"
Gwen stood in the wind, put her hands back into her hoodie pockets, and nodded firmly at him: "It's a deal, then I'll wait for you!"
Until Arthur's thin back gradually melted into the dim yellow street lamp halo at the end of the street, the smile on Gwen's face slowly faded.
She lowered her head to look at her own toes, and complained softly: "Idiot, you're already this poor and you're still thinking about treating me to dinner. You don't owe me anything... Clearly, I owe you too much."
It was also that night that Gwen threw the ill-fitting convenience store vest onto the bench in the lounge, and resigned without nostalgia to the sighing store manager.
Because she had to balance the heavy academic burden of her senior year of high school, she had delayed too much time in donning that White battle suit and fulfilling the duties of Ghost Spider.
Now having found a certain emotional anchor in this strange Universe, she decided to rediscover her superhero rhythm of life.
The next evening, the sky was just beginning to darken.
Gwen specially changed into a clean light gray hoodie and arrived early at the intersection agreed upon by the two.
She leaned against a lamp post, kicking a small pebble at her feet absentmindedly, raising her head from time to time to look toward the other end of the street.
Five minutes passed. Twenty minutes passed.
Until the shops along the street successively lit up with neon signs, Arthur's familiar figure still did not appear.
Gwen frowned, and before her inner murmuring could fully form, a premonition she was all too familiar with suddenly darted up to the back of her head.
It wasn't the Spider-Sense sounding the alarm, but rather from a dilapidated dead-end alley in the distance, chaotic sounds of fighting faintly drifted over, mixed with a few muffled grunts and screams.
That kind of sound was too common in the back alleys of Brooklyn, but this time, Gwen's heart tightened inexplicably, and her eyelids jumped wildly.
Without hesitation, she immediately took off running wildly in the direction of the sound.
The lighting in the alley was dim, emitting a mixed odor of urine and rotting garbage.
As soon as Gwen rushed to the entrance of the alley, the scene before her made her breathing suddenly hitch.
Five or six punkish hooligans were surrounding the corner. Gwen recognized at a glance the baseball bats and switchblades in their hands—they were the exact group of ruffians who had been frightened by Arthur with a brick nearby last time.
And this time, the ones rolling on the ground clutching their heads and wailing were no longer just the one-sided weaklings; several hooligans had been knocked to the ground, still cursing profanities from their mouths.
But the price was painful.
Arthur leaned his back against that dirty wall covered in graffiti, gripping tightly in his hand half a broken brick stained with mud and bloodstains.
He was panting heavily, his chest rising and falling violently, and the old T-shirt on his body was torn open with quite a few large slits.
What made Gwen's heart palpitate the most were those obvious scratches on his forearms and cheeks. Although it seemed they missed vital points and weren't too deep, bright red blood was dripping down his skin drop by drop, even causing his fingertips to tremble.
Arthur gritted his teeth, staring fixedly at the remaining few hooligans who were eager to make a move in front of him, without the slightest intention of backing down or begging for mercy.
But his forced support appearance, ready to collapse at any moment, plunged straight into Gwen's heart like a rusted knife.
Gwen panicked completely. The calmness and rationality belonging to Spider-Woman were thrown to the winds the moment she saw Arthur bleeding.
She didn't dare to imagine if she had arrived a few minutes later, whether he would have directly ended up in this sewer-like alley.
"I have already called the police!"
Gwen took a sharp deep breath, placed her hands on her hips, and roared at that group of people, her voice so loud it echoed in the alley.
"If you guys don't leave, the police car will arrive in two minutes, and all of you will be hauled off to eat prison food, see what you do!"
The few punks who were just preparing to go up and deliver a finishing blow were startled by this sudden roar.
Although there were many of them, they were ultimately low-level street scum, and deep down they still feared those wearing uniforms.
The leader pointed at Arthur with a baseball bat, spat a bloody mouthful of saliva fiercely: "You're in luck today, just you wait!"
Supporting each other and dragging their still-wailing companion on the ground, the few people cursed and ran away completely from the other end of the alley.
As soon as the footsteps walked far away, Arthur's whole body seemed as if his bones had been hollowed out. The life-saving half-brick in his hand smashed onto the ground with a clang, and his body slid down along the wall.
Gwen rushed forward quickly, grabbed his arm, and managed to steady him just in time.
"Hiss—" Arthur gasped a breath of cold air, subconsciously wanting to pull back his hand.
Gwen only then realized that she had been too anxious just now, grabbing right onto the scratched area of his arm.
She hurriedly loosened her fingers, her gaze scanning quickly over Arthur's body. Seeing that those wounds were indeed just superficial skin injuries without damaging tendons or bones, the heart that had been raised to her throat finally settled down a bit.
"Can't you not push yourself so hard?"
Gwen bit her lower lip, heart pain and lingering fear intertwined, making her habitually put on a somewhat angry tsundere face, but the anxiety in her tone could not be covered up no matter what.
"Where is your home? Or where is that newly rented house of yours? I'll send you back, we must treat the wound immediately, otherwise if it gets infected, you'll be in for it."
Arthur barely squeezed out an ugly smile, waving his hand wanting to stand straight: "Don't bother, I can walk myself, just a minor injury, it will scab over by itself in a couple of days."
[Arthur's Perspective: So this is what a fight feels like? With the adrenaline rushing up, it feels like my strength has grown a lot, pain seems to be reduced, and even reaction capabilities have improved quite a bit, adrenaline is really fucking awesome]
"Cut the crap!" Gwen's temper flared up too. Without a word, she slid under Arthur's armpit, firmly supporting him with her shoulders that didn't look sturdy but actually contained astonishing power.
She turned her head, her azure blue eyes staring unblinkingly at Arthur, her tone unquestionable: "Hurry up, tell me the address. If you don't let me send you back today, I'll carry you across the street!"
Feeling the irresistible stubbornness coming from her side, along with the faint fragrance belonging to a young girl, Arthur knew he couldn't win against her this time.
He sighed helplessly and reported the address of that shabby house he had just rented, where even Water hadn't been connected yet.
Gwen didn't say anything more, and just like that, supporting this scarred guy, she walked step by step toward that empty "new home".