Chapter 14

Here's the English translation:

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"When did you two become so close!"

Looking at the two embracing, Tony Stark had a face full of sourness, as if his beloved possession had been taken away.

"To talk about familiarity, I'm more familiar with you, Tony." Liu Rui'an, who had no intention of really making a move on Pepper, smiled after letting go of the embrace.

Pepper Potts, though her eyes were full of reproach when looking at her boss, still felt a sweet warmth in her heart from this act of jealousy.

"I don't think I'm very familiar with someone who can easily take a billion dollars from me. Also, I prefer to be called Mr. Iron Man." Tony Stark said, with a smug look on his face.

Faced with this ungracious remark, Liu Rui'an didn't mind much, but Pepper Potts scolded him:

"Tony!"

"Alright, alright, I'll be quiet. You talk to him."

As a seasoned womanizer, Tony Stark, who was particularly susceptible to this kind of treatment, had no choice but to sulk and sit on the sofa, then picked up the top-notch champagne offered by the beautiful secretary and started drinking.

However, his seemingly wandering eyes, which appeared to be admiring the office interior, kept landing on the two people about to have a conversation.

"Pepper, what's the matter?" Ignoring the jealous person, Liu Rui'an, a gentleman, first invited Pepper to sit down and then asked with a smile.

"It's like this, Liu. Last time you said you could cure Tony's chest wound. Is that true?" Pepper, knowing the importance of the matter, got straight to the point.

"Ha ha... To be honest, I thought you would have contacted me much earlier about this." Liu Rui'an, who had poured himself a glass of champagne, smiled and said, not directly answering the question.

Faced with this, Pepper couldn't help but throw a reproachful look at a certain playboy.

In fact, as soon as Tony Stark successfully created a new element and used it in the Arc Reactor to solve the palladium poisoning problem, Pepper had already raised this issue.

Unfortunately, whether it was out of fear that the person would again demand a huge price or for some other reason, Tony Stark kept delaying and didn't come.

"I'm sorry, Liu. Tony has been busy with the Expo recently, so he's been delayed."

To cover for her boss, Pepper had to make up an excuse.

Unfortunately, although Liu Rui'an spent most of his time on research, he wasn't oblivious to what was happening in the outside world.

Since he had a knockoff version of "Flame Empress," which wasn't as good as JARVIS but was still useful for keeping track of the news he wanted to follow.

Fortunately, Liu Rui'an didn't really want to make the atmosphere awkward, so he smoothly defused the situation with a laugh:

"Ha ha... That's true, our Mr. Iron Man is indeed very busy."

"As for the treatment, I have no problem with it."

"However, as I said before, the risks during the treatment process must be borne by Tony himself."

Seeing that the conversation was getting to the crux of the matter, Tony Stark, though he didn't interrupt, stopped sulking.

"What? Is the treatment process very risky?" Pepper asked, worried.

"There's actually no risk, but for such a critical area, I need to have confidence, and the person involved needs to have confidence too." Liu Rui'an shrugged and smiled.

Faced with this, Tony Stark, knowing this was a call for his response, said bluntly:

"Are you sure you're not joking?"

Actually, not only Tony Stark but even Pepper had similar concerns.

After all, the wound on Tony's chest wasn't a minor surgery; if it were, it would have been resolved long ago.

A problem that even top surgeons couldn't solve, a biopharmaceutical company solving it seemed highly unlikely.

"Let's put it this way, we have a saying: 'Talk is cheap, show me the action.'" Liu Rui'an, who didn't intend to refuse help, suggested:

"I see you brought a bodyguard. Why don't we use him as a test subject? That way, you can be more at ease."

"You mean Happy?" Pepper, surprised by the suggestion, asked.

"Exactly. I can't expect my people to be the test subjects."

"Even if I were willing, and someone else was willing, would the results be believable to you?" Liu Rui'an shrugged and smiled.

"How do you plan to conduct the test?" Tony Stark, putting down his glass, asked.

"Simple. Just create a similar wound and heal it." Liu Rui'an, putting down his own glass, said casually.

"What? No, no, no, that's not possible." Pepper, surprised by the suggestion, quickly shook her head.

Tony Stark, though he also wanted to heal his chest wound, wasn't one to use his bodyguard as a test subject, especially one that could easily result in a fatality.

"Alright, I'll take care of the test." Liu Rui'an, who had anticipated this reaction, feigned helplessness and then said to the playboy:

"But if I really cure our Mr. Iron Man, what are you willing to offer in exchange?"

Before coming, Tony Stark had already mentally prepared for this, so he said:

"If you want another billion dollars or those technologies, the deal is off!"

"Tony!" Pepper, more concerned about the matter, said worriedly.

"Ha ha... Don't worry, it's just a minor surgery, I won't be greedy." Liu Rui'an explained further:

"Oh, 'greedy' means being overly demanding."

Pepper visibly relaxed upon hearing this, but Tony Stark, with a suspicious look, asked:

"Then what do you want?"

Knowing that the other party wouldn't be easily fooled after being taken advantage of last time, Liu Rui'an smiled and revealed his terms:

"Simple. This time, I just need the formula for the Super Soldier Serum and a blood sample from the Hulk."

"What! That's worse than a billion dollars!"

Faced with this demand, Tony Stark, though he didn't jump up, had a sour expression.

Pepper, though she didn't know what the "Super Soldier Serum" or the Hulk's blood sample was, knew from the name that it wasn't something simple.

As for the latter, since it was mentioned alongside the former, it couldn't be much cheaper.

"Sorry, my company isn't short of money, so the billion dollars are off. I just want these two things." Liu Rui'an shrugged and continued with a slightly annoying smile:

"Besides, your father, Howard Stark, was one of the heads of the Super Soldier program."

"Even if he was just assisting Dr. Abraham Erskine, with your father's intelligence, wouldn't he have made a backup?"

"As for the Hulk's blood sample, as the country's largest weapons contractor and one of its most trusted heroes, isn't it a piece of cake for you to get it?"

Before Liu Rui'an could explain what "a piece of cake" meant, Tony Stark stood up, grabbed the surprised Pepper, and headed for the door.

Seeing that the other party was really leaving and not just trying to pressure him, Liu Rui'an could only shrug and say with a helpless look:

"Alright, alright, you win, Tony."

"You can choose one of the two, or after your wound is healed, you can give me the old Arc Reactor from your chest."

Faced with this clearly less demanding choice, Tony Stark, who had already opened the office door with Pepper, hesitated for a moment before saying with a grim face:

"Deal!"

Though Mr. Iron Man didn't confirm which of the two he would choose, it didn't matter to Liu Rui'an.

The three demands, though seemingly strict, were actually quite cheap when considered carefully.

The "Super Soldier Serum" for Captain America, which had not been successfully replicated despite years of advanced research, showed how much of a fluke Captain America's success was.

In such a case, the value of this research data wasn't particularly high.

The Hulk's blood sample, though it seemed difficult to obtain, was actually the opposite.

Liu Rui'an, in his "overclocked" state, knew that Dr. Bruce Banner, who thought he was well hidden, would be found by the military in a few days due to a radiation incident caused by contaminated soda.

After a series of chases, resistance, and cooperation with the military, Dr. Banner would be temporarily detained.

At that point, obtaining his blood sample, though not easy, wouldn't be too difficult for someone like Tony Stark.

As for the new element reactor, its value to Liu Rui'an was even lower.

Though he hadn't brought out the atomic structure diagram of the new element from "Elysium," the original version of the Arc Reactor had made significant progress in just a month of research.

Even though miniaturization still required further study, Liu Rui'an had already mastered the manufacturing technology and design principles of the Arc Reactor.

This meant that with the right equipment, the successful development of the new element reactor was just a matter of time.

Actually, for Liu Rui'an, treating Tony Stark was more about making a friend.

Of course, given Tony's personality and temper, being friends wasn't easy, but building some goodwill wasn't a bad thing.

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