Chapter Two: I Want to Trade With You

"No, you can't touch this."

Peter, also known as Lin Fang, snatched a Playboy magazine from Homelander's hands with the fastest reflexes he could muster. The baby, who had been crawling on the floor, immediately burst into tears upon seeing his favorite toy taken away. Peter looked at Homelander, who had shown signs of being a little pervert from such a young age, and felt speechless.

He glanced at the woman on the magazine cover. She was curvaceous with an ample chest, radiating the aura of a mature woman. Sure enough, this guy had shown a strong inclination toward mature women since he was a baby.

"For your own health, this stuff is off-limits." Peter tossed the magazine into a cardboard box. The box made a creaking sound. He pulled the box closer and found it filled with many CDs: The Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails... they were all bands that were popular in this world, collected by his predecessor. Stacked on top of the CDs were a pile of comic books, with a Tyrannosaurus Rex staring down from above, and a Transformer wedged between the books.

Peter casually grabbed the dinosaur model and handed it to the wailing Homelander. Upon receiving the new toy, Homelander stopped crying immediately, his rolling eyes fixed unblinkingly on the dinosaur. Seeing that the baby had stopped crying, Peter let out a long sigh of relief. Neither his past self nor his current host knew the first thing about taking care of a child. After all, he had never even been married; how could he possibly have experience in childcare?

"Formula, diapers, a crib, toiletries, and so on—these are all necessities." He popped a butter candy into his mouth, letting it roll between his molars. "If I want to save the trouble, it would be best to hire a nanny or a babysitter, but unfortunately..." He shook his head slightly. All his liquid assets combined didn't even total a thousand dollars, so how could he afford a nanny? He didn't know the going rate for babysitters in the United States, but he was certain it wasn't something a thousand dollars could cover.

*Clink!*

Just as he was thinking about his future livelihood, he suddenly heard a strange "clink-clink" sound. He looked down and realized that, at some point, Homelander had gotten the butter candy into his mouth. The candy was stuck in his throat, and the baby's face was turning red from suffocation, letting out pained, choking sounds.

Seeing the baby choking on the candy, Peter was startled. He quickly scooped him up, performed the Heimlich maneuver, supported the baby's chin, and patted his back. After a few strikes, with a loud *pop*, the butter candy was spat out by Homelander, slamming heavily into the floor.

It sounded like a gunshot, tearing through the air and embedding itself deep into the floorboards. Staring at the candy embedded in the floor, Peter took a deep breath and looked in shock at Homelander, who was sucking on his fingers as if nothing had happened.

This kid had this kind of talent at such a young age?! Spitting out a candy had the effect of a bullet fired from a gun. He took out another butter candy, wanting to put it in the baby's mouth to test it again, but thinking about how irresponsible that would be—and what a disaster it would be if he actually choked the kid to death—he finally gave up.

...

In the afternoon, Peter drove his car toward the Walmart supermarket. He planned to buy some infant supplies. The old Toyota made an annoying, rattling noise as soon as it hit the road. Fortunately, the small town of Smallville, where he lived, had smooth, well-paved roads, as flat and polished as a beetle's shell.

Peter buckled Homelander into the passenger seat with a seatbelt and said, "Don't move around, or I'll confiscate your toy, understand?" Homelander toyed with the T-Rex, looked up at Peter's face, and, perhaps thinking his father wanted to snatch his toy, tucked the T-Rex behind his back. Rubbing the golden hair on the baby's head, Peter started the car.

Twenty minutes later, Peter parked the car next to the Walmart and dropped a coin into an old-fashioned parking meter. He then opened the car door, lifted Homelander out of the passenger seat, and headed toward the supermarket.

There was a downhill slope between the parking lot and the supermarket. As Peter walked to the middle of it, he suddenly heard screams from around him.

"Oh my God! My baby!"

Hearing the voice, Peter looked back and up. He saw a stroller racing toward him like a lightning bolt. Inside the out-of-control stroller lay what appeared to be a baby boy. At the top of the slope, a woman in her twenties was running down with all her might, trying to reach out and grab the stroller. Unfortunately, the distance between them kept growing, and the mother was becoming increasingly desperate.

*Bang!*

At the critical moment, Peter reached out and caught the speeding stroller. The mother, seeing the stroller stopped, ran over and excitedly scooped up the baby boy from inside.

"Oh my God! Thank you, Lord!" The mother, incoherent with excitement, hurriedly thanked Peter. "Thank you, sir. If it weren't for you, I would have made a terrible mistake. I tripped, and the stroller just slipped from my hands..."

The woman didn't even care about the dirt on her clothes as she thanked Peter repeatedly.

"It's nothing, ma'am. If it were my child, I'm sure someone would have helped as well," Peter said with a smile, holding Homelander.

The young mother felt even more that Peter was a good man. "Thank you! Thank you so much!" Not knowing how to express her gratitude, she gave Peter an excited hug and thanked him again.

"I'm Martha, Martha Kent. Sir, perhaps we could exchange contact information? I mean... my husband would surely want to thank you in person."

Martha wanted to exchange contact information with Peter. Glancing at the baby in the stroller, Peter originally wanted to refuse, but he suddenly remembered something.

"Wait... did you say your name is Martha?"

Martha Kent—wasn't she the mother of Clark Kent, Superman? That meant... He cast a look of shock at the baby in Martha's arms. Was this black-haired baby Clark?

He cleared his throat and asked in what he hoped sounded like a normal voice, "This child... may I know his name?"

Seeing Peter suddenly fix his gaze on her child, Martha felt a bit strange. "Clark. His name is Clark Kent."

The moment he heard "Clark Kent," Peter's heart skipped a beat. It really was Superman! The Kryptonian baby he had been banking on had been snatched away by the Kents!

He suddenly felt that Homelander in his arms didn't seem as appealing anymore. How could a man-made Superman compare to a "true" Superman? Besides, there was a high probability that Homelander would grow up to be twisted. He had originally thought there was a good chance he would find Superman during the next meteor shower. Now, knowing that Superman had already fallen into someone else's hands, his mentality instantly collapsed. He really wanted to ask Martha: Could we trade?