The Forgotten

As soon as he finished speaking, Alex vanished, leaving the two women staring at each other.

Emma knew Alex had surely gone to the Floating Temple in the Savage Land to find the Watcher. Without much thought, she knocked Vivien Leigh unconscious, found a place to sit, and waited for Alex to return.

Less than five minutes later, Alex came back, his face ashen.

The moment she saw his expression, Emma knew he had not found the Watcher. Without asking, she comforted him, "Alex, maybe it was just an accident. Let’s go see your other friends!"

Hearing that, Alex stirred. He glanced at Vivien Leigh, slumped sideways on the sofa, then vanished with Emma in an instant.

"Ma’am!" Alex called softly, both hopeful and apprehensive as he looked at the familiar figure bustling about in the kitchen.

The woman seemed to be making breakfast. Upon suddenly hearing a voice behind her, she trembled and quickly turned around, panic on her face.

Seeing the unfamiliarity and fear in Ella’s eyes, Alex knew that Ella had forgotten him too.

"Mom, who’s here?" Just then, a cheerful voice came from one of the rooms. A tall girl pushed open the door and walked out, a faint smile on her delicate face.

At the sight of the girl, Alex became agitated, his voice trembling. "Audrey!" Not long after arriving in this world, Alex had cast everything aside and rushed headlong into war-torn Europe, all to save the angel in his heart. Though he had suffered countless hardships along the way, they had ultimately returned safely to America.

Audrey stared at Alex blankly. Her fine brows knit gently, and her brown eyes were full of confusion. "Who are you?"

Alex felt as though he had been struck by lightning. He was like a fallen leaf in the wind, spiraling downward, powerless to resist.

Seeing Alex’s face turn paper-white, Audrey’s heart inexplicably tightened. Her brows furrowed again as she asked with concern, "Are you all right? Do you need me to call a doctor?"

Alex stared blankly at Audrey, his heart seeming to fall into a bottomless abyss. There was not a trace of life in his eyes, as though he were dead. Even the person he cared about most had forgotten him. Alex truly did not know what to do.

"Scarlett, I’m Alex, your Rhett, your Rhett who will never leave you." Like a drowning man making one final struggle, Alex spoke again. His voice was low, almost a murmur. "After all…"

"After all, tomorrow is another day." Before Alex could finish, Audrey completed the line for him, her voice crisp and full of vitality.

Alex suddenly seemed to come back to life. The fire of life flickered in his eyes, and he looked at Audrey with blazing intensity. But her next words cast him back into a sunless abyss.

"I don’t know you." Audrey’s voice was somewhat hoarse, filled with confusion and bewilderment. "But I feel close to you, like I’m looking at an older brother."

Alex’s emotions were like a roller coaster. Yet it was also like a ray of sunlight piercing layer upon layer of darkness and shining into the abyss, bringing him the only trace of warmth he had left and allowing him to cling miserably to life.

"I’m sorry!" Alex looked at Audrey with deep sorrow. Other than bringing Angel to Hollywood too early, he did not know what else he had done. All he felt toward Audrey was boundless guilt.

Before Audrey could respond, Alex solemnly added, "Thank you!"

With that, Alex vanished directly with Emma.

"Oh, he’s a mutant!" Only then did Ella come back to her senses. She cried out and ran to Audrey, wrapping her tightly in her arms, her face full of worry. "Audrey, are you okay?"

Audrey shook her head to show that she was fine. Her beautiful eyes remained fixed on the spot where Alex had just disappeared. Somewhat surprised and somewhat expectant, she said, "This feels so familiar!"

After leaving Audrey’s home, Alex took Emma straight out of Hollywood and arrived at Stark Industries in Manhattan, New York.

Emma turned to look at the expressionless Alex beside her. She wanted to offer a few words of comfort, but when she opened her mouth, she did not know what to say. All she could do was close it again and tighten her grip on Alex’s arm.

After several successive Teleportations, Alex finally found Howard in a laboratory. He was bent over a pile of documents, seemingly studying something.

"Whoever you are, get the hell out of here right now!" Howard seemed to hear a sound. Without even turning around, he barked the order in an extremely hostile tone.

Hearing Howard’s utterly familiar tone, Alex could not help but chuckle. "Howard!"

Howard turned around angrily. He stared at the two of them in surprise for half a second, then called out in confusion, "Who are you? How did you get in here? Guards! Guards!"

The expression on Alex’s face froze, and the slight curve of his lips stiffened. After standing there in a daze for a long while, he came back to himself and pointed at the pile of documents on the floor, shouting excitedly, "Howard, I gave you those documents!" Among them, Alex saw words like magnetic levitation. They were all advanced technologies he had once used to trade for Stark Industries shares.

"You’re Alex Zhang?" Howard stopped shouting. He looked Alex up and down, then said mockingly, "Over the years, plenty of people have come pretending to be his relatives, but I never expected someone would actually come pretending to be him. What a joke!"

"Pretending to be Alex Zhang?" Alex was clearly stunned. He lowered his head to look at himself, as if he could not believe his ears.

Howard shrugged, casually picked up a sheet of paper covered in formulas from the floor, and handed it to Alex with a smile. "Since you say you’re Alex Zhang, explain this formula."

Alex took it and was completely dumbfounded. He had given Howard these advanced technologies, but he had only force-memorized them. He did not understand any of the actual principles. How was he supposed to explain it?

"Can’t explain it?" Howard snorted coldly, his expression darkening as he snarled, "Alex died years ago, and you still dare to impersonate him? Ridiculous!"

"Dead for years?" Alex staggered back several steps, all color draining from his face.

Emma was stunned as well. Unable to resist, she used telepathy to search Howard’s memories, and she quickly understood everything.

"In his memories, Alex died in 1940. These documents were sent to Stark Industries by Alex before he died," Emma rapidly explained after seeing Howard’s memories.

Focus gradually returned to Alex’s unfocused eyes. Memories of this life kept flashing through his mind, tracing all the way back to 1940. That day, when he had just crossed into this world, he had been saved by the frail Steve in that deserted alley…

The story began again from that moment.

But now, Alex’s story seemed to end at that very moment as well.

P.S. All right, this chapter was late today. Scorpion will try to catch up with the second update, but the make-up chapter may be a lost cause…