Lex suddenly awoke from his sleep.
After waking up in a cold sweat, he saw only darkness and cold.
"Poof"!
The flame instantly ignited, filling the entire cave with light.
Wiping the cold sweat from his forehead, Lex looked at the other person by the campfire with lingering fear.
"Looks like you had another nightmare, Lex. Your malaria just recovered, and now you're in a bad state. You have a fever."
Louis, Lex's companion on the isolated island, sat on the other side, poking the campfire as he spoke.
"Where am I?"
Lex, somewhat muddled by the fever, asked the other person.
"The place you've been for the past two months, paradise."
Louis, with disheveled hair, wrapped in a few animal furs, casually said, "You just shouted that name again."
"What?"
"The bitch who left you here and framed you!"
Lex stood up and said to Louis, "Hey, listen, Louis, I'm grateful for everything you've done for me, but if you call my wife that again, I won't be polite to you."
Louis smiled, threw the stick he was using to poke the campfire aside, and stood up. "Lex, think carefully. When you woke up, Helen and the mechanic were gone, leaving only you here to fend for yourself. You should at least consider that possibility."
"No, impossible! Helen wouldn't betray me!"
Lex gasped, "You should be fixing the raft now, instead of saying useless things here."
"I won't let you go to your death. You'll drift at sea for a few days and then die. That's something I can't tolerate, Lex."
Louis stood up and shook his head.
"I just want to leave this island now and find out the truth."
Lex rushed forward angrily, roaring.
"The truth? The truth is that your father conspired to frame both of you, and Helen was lucky enough to escape, or perhaps they were accomplices all along. Why, Lex, why do you want to rush back to that twisted family?"
Louis said to him seriously, "You can stay here. There are only the two of us."
"I must go back. This place doesn't belong to me."
"You don't have to see this place as a curse. To the outside world, you are already dead. This is an unchangeable fact. You only need to stay here and adapt to a simple life. Isn't that a good thing?"
Louis tried his best to persuade Lex to stay.
"Impossible."
Lex shook his head, "Now, go fix the raft."
"Alright, whatever makes you happy."
Louis stopped arguing with him and turned to leave.
After the other person left the cave, Lex sat down, breathing slightly.
The low temperature caused by the fever made his body even weaker, and he even shivered constantly.
After sitting by the campfire, Lex warmed himself for a while, and the chill in his body gradually improved.
Picking up a branch, he poked the campfire, and suddenly noticed a soft patch of soil not far away in the cave.
It seemed to have been dug up before.
A hint of curiosity flashed in Lex's eyes, and he walked step by step towards the seemingly dug-up spot.
Looking at the softness of the soil, he tried to scratch it with the branch in his hand.
"Ah!"
After digging for a while, something suddenly appeared before him, startling him.
A skull suddenly appeared in front of him!
Lex, still shaken, took a few deep breaths to recover, then slowly used the branch to dig away the soil beneath the skull.
The skull, along with the chest bones, was exposed.
Swallowing, he suppressed his discomfort and gently picked up the skull with his hand.
A large scar appeared on the back of the skull.
And around its neck hung a metal tag, engraved with Louis's father's name.
Lex immediately broke out in a cold sweat.
This person he had met on the deserted island, who claimed to be a fellow sufferer from a shipwreck, had actually killed his own father!
Louis had clearly told him that his father had died of severe injuries when they arrived on this deserted island together.
But how could he explain what was before his eyes?
"There's nothing we can do, Lex. Only one of us can live."
Louis held a metal blade and walked in from outside, step by step, looking expressionlessly at Lex, who had discovered his secret.
"He used to be a powerful and wealthy man."
Louis walked over, bent down, picked up the skull from the ground, and brought his mouth close to it, as if speaking to it.
"He often criticized me, thinking I wasn't good enough. Gradually, I was destroyed by him, until I completely disappeared. He ruined my life, in the name of a father."
As he spoke, he used the metal blade to tap the skull's jaw, making it appear as if it were speaking.
"So I gave him a slice to the head, and shut him up for good!"
Louis put down the skull, stood up, and looked at Lex, shaking his head, "Lex, I originally thought we were the same kind of people..."
"No, I'm not. You're a psychopath!"
Lex backed away.
"Oh really? But you have to admit, everyone's a little bit twisted!"
Louis said, revealing the metal blade, and swung it at Lex.
Lex dodged the attack and immediately ran outside.
Louis, whose attack missed, sneered and continued to pursue him.
"Lex, I know this island like the back of my hand. You can't escape my grasp!"
Louis shouted as he chased after Lex.
The two chased each other and soon arrived at an open space.
Louis casually swung at the fleeing Lex, but Lex dodged, then grabbed his neck and threw him to the ground.
Snatching the metal blade from Louis's hand, Lex furiously slashed at him.
The metal blade cut into his chest, and blood instantly spurted out.
Lex was splattered with countless bloodstains.
"No one—can control me!"
Lex roared as he wildly hacked at the other person.
"Lex!"
While furiously hacking, Lex suddenly heard a familiar voice.
He turned around and saw Eric Kent standing behind him, looking at him expressionlessly.
"E-Eric!"
For Lex, who had lived on the deserted island for several months, seeing a third person, and a familiar one at that, filled him with immense shock and bewilderment.
"What are you doing?"
"I—"
Lex raised his knife, nervously explaining to Eric, "I—I didn't mean to kill him. He was chasing me first! I—I had to do this. He's crazy. He killed his own father and tried to kill me. I had no other choice!"
"What are you talking about? There's no one here."
Eric frowned and said, "There's only been you, from beginning to end."
"What?"
Lex dropped the knife in his hand and looked at the ground, finding that Louis had vanished.
All the bloodstains on his body had also disappeared.
"This—"
Lex took a step back in a daze, and the metal blade in his hand clattered to the ground.
Lex, bewildered and helpless, showed a confused and lost expression in his eyes.
"What—what did I do?"
Lex sat down on the ground and looked at Eric, "What did I go through?"
"Only you know what you went through."
Eric shook his head, "The ship is docked outside. If you don't want to leave, the ship won't wait for you."
Half an hour later, Lex sat in the cabin, wrapped in a blanket, drinking hot coffee, which he hadn't enjoyed for months.
"Eric, I must say, I'm really grateful to you. If it weren't for you, I might have been stranded on the deserted island for a long time. You saved me!"
Lex thanked Eric from the bottom of his heart.
"Don't thank me."
Eric didn't take Lex's thanks to heart, "Your father asked me to find you. We just made a deal."
"And it's not just a deal. He's also using this to test my abilities. As an old fox, he's always digging pits for others."
Eric said casually.
"Perhaps so."
Lex didn't refute Eric's words. He held his coffee and pondered for a while, then said, "I don't really care about that right now, Eric. I won't care about your abilities either. You saved me, that's a fact, and that's all I care about."
Lex was already suspicious of Eric's abilities. After a series of events, he had basically confirmed that Eric was not an ordinary person.
He used to constantly dig into the secrets of Eric and Clark, but now that Eric had rescued him from the deserted island, his thinking had changed somewhat.
If possible, he hoped that their friendship could be maintained.
It wouldn't be impossible to overlook some secrets that neither wished the other to know.
"You know what kind of person you are, Lex."
Eric looked directly at Lex, "Those hidden things behind you, although I don't know your specific plans, you must be planning something. I only have one request for you: do not harm my family, otherwise I will not pretend not to see it."
"It seems we've reached an agreement."
Lex put down his coffee cup and said, "We both overlook the secrets behind each of us, but we must ensure one thing: we will not harm each other's loved ones."
He stood up, walked over to Eric, and extended his hand, "Does this count as a solid step forward in our friendship?"
"Friendship? Do we have one?"
Eric did not shake hands with him, but shook his head and turned to walk out of the cabin.
Lex didn't mind that Eric didn't shake his hand, smiled slightly, and sat down to continue enjoying his coffee.
"You seem to be in a good mood."
Bart, who was sitting next to him, asked Lex curiously.
"Actually, it's not too bad."
"Mm."
Bart, who had witnessed the entire exchange, nodded, "Is your schizophrenia cured?"
"Yes."
Although somewhat surprised by the question, Lex was silent for a moment before saying, "I killed him!"
Luther Manor.
The sky had been gloomy.
Since the heavy rain, the entire Smallville had been shrouded in a dark sky.
Lionel was in the reception room, conversing with a representative from the military.
Wearing sunglasses and leaning on a cane, Lionel said to Amanda, "This is what we agreed upon. The Pentagon will respect my wishes regarding Smallville. The price I paid was expensive enough. If you breach the contract, then it means our credit agreement has a problem."
Lionel had always been in contact with the military. He had reached an agreement with them that they would not interfere with the town's affairs.
Now, this woman named Amanda came and immediately stated that she wanted to investigate the town, which made him very displeased.
"It's not a breach of contract. General Lane is not aware of your dealings with the military. The purpose of my visit, Mr. Lionel, is to inform you that I represent not only the military but also Tianyan Society."
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