Chapter Ninety-Two: Gwyn’s Heart’s Burden

Knock, knock.

Jinsha came upstairs and rapped lightly on Gwen’s bedroom door twice.

Gwen did not answer. The room beyond the door was utterly still, as though no sound lived within it at all.

Seeing that, Jinsha naturally pushed the door open without ceremony. With the relationship she had with Gwen, there was nothing improper in that.

The wallpaper in Gwen’s room was not the usual childish cartoon fare, nor some little-princess style. Its foundation was white, adorned with delicate black rose patterns.

The whole room gave off a mature, cool, and rather distant air.

And yet the furnishings inside were all exceedingly cute: the white wooden bed was covered in all manner of adorable plush toys, an incongruity that struck the eye at once and brought one back to oneself.

This was the bedroom of a ten-year-old little girl.

Gwen, looking like a delicate porcelain doll, lay quietly on the bed. Her steady breathing made it seem as if she had sunk into a deep sleep.

But Jinsha merely glanced at her and said, somewhat irritably, “Stop pretending.”

When little Gwen still did not move, Jinsha immediately began walking toward her, deliberately making her steps a little heavy.

As the distance closed bit by bit...

Suddenly!

Gwen could not keep up the act any longer. She sprang upright from the bed in a rush, clutching the quilt, her large pale-blue eyes gazing at Jinsha with pitiful innocence. There was not the slightest trace of sleepiness in them.

“Auntie, why are you here?”

Seeing Gwen give in, Jinsha nodded in satisfaction, then sat down on the edge of the bed and said, “Your father said you’ve been locking yourself in your room a lot lately, so I wanted to come see you. But you look perfectly energetic to me. Come on, what’s really going on?”

At first Jinsha had thought Gwen had truly been frightened by that terrorist attack from Osborne.

But from the fact that she still had the mood to joke and put on a performance, Jinsha understood that there was more to it.

Hearing Jinsha ask so directly, Gwen still had no intention of answering. She flopped her little face down into the bedding, looking very much like she was being shy.

As the saying goes, no one understands a woman better than another woman. The moment Jinsha saw that bashful expression, a great many possibilities flashed through her mind.

Gwen was ten now, after all. Could it be that at summer camp she had met some boy she liked?

So Jinsha instantly put on an auntie’s knowing smile and said, “What is it, my little Gwen? Which boy has swept you off your feet? Tell your auntie—I’ll help you take a look.”

Gwen still did not speak, only kept her head down and made soft, muffled noises.

Seeing her like that, Jinsha felt even more certain that her guess was right.

So she went on slowly, “Don’t worry, I’m not as old-fashioned as your father. Having someone you like is perfectly normal. Your auntie supports you.

“Still, I’m curious—what does that boy look like?

“Compared with Zhong Shenxiu... I don’t know if you remember him, the handsome mixed-race guy we ran into two months ago in front of Delma’s delicatessen.

“How does he compare?” Jinsha asked with a gossipy look.

Little Gwen still did not answer, head buried and making those little sobbing sounds.

“All right, all right, I won’t tease you anymore. If you like him, then go after him. Your aunt supports you.”

“But there are still a few things you should pay attention to. You should talk more with your parents and not let them worry... and also...” Jinsha was just about to mention taking proper precautions, but then she thought of Gwen’s age and stopped herself.

After giving several more reminders, and seeing Gwen keeping her head down in shy little noises all the while, Jinsha finally left with a smile.

But the instant Jinsha closed the bedroom door—

Gwen lifted her head at once.

On that exquisite and lovely little face, there was not the slightest trace of shyness.

Everything from earlier had been an act.

As for why she had staged such a scene, it was mainly to mislead Jinsha, who had come to check on her.

Gwen had long understood that if this continued, her parents would certainly find a time to call Aunt Jinsha over and ask about her condition. And what had just happened was the false move she had carefully prepared in advance to mislead Jinsha.

During this past month, Gwen certainly had not wanted to keep herself locked in her room every single day.

But she had no better way.

Because... she could not control herself!

Every time she thought back on the past month, Gwen still had the feeling that she was dreaming, as if she had been cut off from the world and sent somewhere beyond reality.

She had mutated.

Even now Gwen could not be sure what exactly had caused the mutation, though she suspected it was the spider in the Osborn ecosystem simulator that day—the one that had bitten her, whatever species it had been.

And as a result, she had gained abilities like wall-crawling, tremendous strength, extraordinary eyesight, and remarkable stamina, all of which had improved her bodily functions by who knew how many times.

This sudden acquisition of superhuman powers was also the chief reason Gwen had chosen, for the past month, to lock herself away in her room:

Her strength had increased too abruptly, and she could not quite control it.

At the very beginning, she could even lightly grip a stone and tear off a chunk of it with ease.

As for the spider-like wall-crawling ability, Gwen discovered that it was not some kind of barbed growth on her hands at all, but rather a kind of bioelectrostatic field constantly distributed through her limbs, which allowed her to stick to walls.

But in the beginning she could not control that power either.

She would always end up sticking her hand to something by accident, unable to shake it loose no matter how hard she tried. Sometimes, while she was climbing a wall, those electromagnetic fields would suddenly disappear, sending her crashing down at once.

So in order not to expose her changes or cause her family to worry, Gwen chose to hide the fact that she had mutated. Whenever she returned home, she locked herself in her room and kept her interactions with her parents to a minimum, so as not to arouse suspicion.

That was to continue until she had fully mastered her powers.

Now, nearly a month had passed. Gwen was much stronger than before, though she still had not fully gained control. Even so, she was preparing to return once more to ordinary life, to continue living day by day with her parents, laughing and talking as before.

Not because of Jinsha’s words.

But because...

This afternoon at school, Gwen had seen something.

What she witnessed had dealt her quite a blow, and it had also made her finally make up her mind to seek change.

There were two very extreme people in Gwen’s class.

One was Thompson, spoiled from childhood and born into an American middle-class family that had found success. He was flashy by nature and liked nothing better than making fun of others. For that reason, he had given most of the students in the class some kind of ridiculous nickname, more or less.

The other was Peter Parker, who had lost both parents and been raised from childhood by his aunt and uncle.

He was timid by nature and, even when humiliated, did not dare to resist.

So when these two collided, it naturally became Thompson’s habit to mock Peter for amusement, while Peter always swallowed his anger in silence.

But this afternoon was different.

Peter had actually fought back.

With one punch, he had sent the towering Thompson sprawling to the ground.