Ron drove his ordinary, comfortable Mercedes sports car out of the parking lot of the Marvel Building and headed towards the Stark Industries Building.
Ron was very happy, even whistling to express his joyful mood.
This was because Tony Stark had finally swallowed his pride and called Ron, inviting him to meet.
Making such an arrogant person humble himself was quite amusing to Ron, and this unique sense of conquest made Ron feel very good, very satisfied!
Originally, Ron had wanted Tony Stark to come to his Marvel Building for the meeting, but Ron's psychic sense detected a subtle difference in the atmosphere, so he sent a message to Peter, Black Widow, and Jessica, and then let Tony Stark choose a meeting place himself.
New York isn't big, and Ron's Marvel Building isn't far from Stark Industries. Just as Ron was about to reach Stark Industries, a red R8 drove up from another road, first pulling alongside Ron's Mercedes, then immediately overtaking it, as if in a challenge.
Watching the red R8 pass him, Ron smiled, then stepped on the accelerator and quickly followed.
The person in the red R8 ahead was none other than the super genius who had invited Ron, Tony Stark.
Ron's Mercedes sports car was a 2004 Mercedes CLS comfort model, which was significantly inferior to Tony Stark's latest custom-made R8, but Ron wasn't in a hurry at all.
The CLS only needed a slight acceleration to easily overtake Tony Stark's R8, arriving at the Stark Industries Building first.
Seeing Tony Stark emerge from his car with a dejected look, Ron smiled and waved to Tony.
"Hello, great genius Tony Stark, nice to meet you for the first time! Please take care of me!"
"Alright..." Tony Stark also waved back at Ron, then his eyes scanned Ron's comfortable Mercedes, not bothering to hide his covetous gaze. Then, displaying his instincts as a business magnate, he said very naturally,
"You're Ron Brunstad, right? I admit you're very impressive, but can you tell me what your Mercedes CLS engine is made of? How did it catch up to my R8 so quickly?"
With that, Tony changed the subject, adopting the air of a rich man: "Of course, if possible, could you sell me your car? I'll pay any price!"
Ron smiled and refused: "I haven't modified the engine, and I won't sell it to you, because even if you took this car, you wouldn't be able to research anything from it."
Tony looked disdainful, "Impossible. Haven't you heard of my name, Tony Stark? A common car can stump me?"
Ron patted the car's hood: "Have you seen Transformers?"
"You mean that movie where cars can transform into big robots?" Tony Stark thought for a moment, recalling what Ron meant by Transformers, then continued dismissively,
"As a high-tech genius, why would I watch that kind of movie? I've only heard others talk about it twice. What, don't tell me your Mercedes can transform into a robot?!"
"Yes, you guessed right, it can indeed transform into a robot. Do you want to try?" Ron said with a smile.
"You're crazy." Tony rolled his eyes, then his expression gradually became serious, and he said,
"Alright, Mr. Ron Brunstad, I'm here for serious business. I hope you can keep what we discuss next confidential. Come, let's go inside to talk."
Tony pointed inside the Stark Industries Building to Ron and walked in first.
Ron didn't hesitate and followed Tony into the building.
Since it was evening, there weren't many people inside the Stark Industries Building. Tony led Ron to a reception area inside the building, poured Ron a glass of water, and then sat down in front of Ron.
Tony had a feeling that although Ron was more than ten years younger than him, after these few minutes of brief interaction, Tony felt as if he was facing someone around his own age, or even older, which was very strange.
Was it because he lost his parents at a young age that he was like this?
"Mr. Ron, I heard on the news that more than half a year ago, when you were still in high school, you once said that you just didn't like to study, and once you started studying, even I couldn't compare to you. Is that right?"
Looking at Ron, who was more than a decade younger than him in legal age, Tony said in a teasing tone.
"Something like that. But Mr. Stark, you are quite authoritative in weapon manufacturing. The Jeric missile is a very good invention, and its power is quite impressive." Ron took a sip of water, then casually brought up Tony Stark's old wound.
"..." Ron's words left Tony speechless. The reason he was injured was because he went to test his invented Jeric missile for some army. Now that Ron had reopened the wound, he was naturally very depressed, and even lost the interest in mocking Ron for overestimating himself.
He took a deep breath and then said, "Alright, what's your account number? I'll transfer a million dollars to you, and then we'll get back to the serious business we were discussing earlier."
Ron showed a victorious smile, "Don't rush. Let's finish your serious business first; talking about the million dollars later isn't too late."
"You..." Tony was completely defeated. Didn't you say I had to give you money first before we could discuss serious matters? How come you don't care about money now!
Seeing Tony's expression, Ron took another sip of water, hiding the smile that he really couldn't hold back.
Ron found that annoying people was really fun, especially an arrogant person like Tony Stark. He was simply Ron's delight; he was too easy to annoy!
Although Tony Stark had a thick skin, he had rarely met someone like Ron who could make him so frustrated that he couldn't speak with every sentence.
Tony took another deep breath, his eyes fixed on Ron, and said, "Ron, the serious business is, Pepper Potts is my person, always mine. You can't have any ideas about her, understand?"
"Oh..." Hearing Tony's words, Ron let out a soft "oh," showing an indifferent expression.
When Tony only brought him to the reception room, Ron had already guessed that the serious business Tony wanted to discuss was definitely not about his heart problem, but something else.
Now it seemed Ron was right; what Tony wanted to talk about was indeed related to Pepper Potts, whom he cared about most.
So, Ron secretly turned on his phone's recording function, wanting to see what Tony would say next.
Tony saw Ron only give a faint "oh" and thought Ron was really interested in Pepper. He became anxious and immediately said,
"Speak, Ron, you're only eighteen, still young, there are plenty of beautiful girls waiting for you. Pepper is more than ten years older than you, and she's old and ugly. Why do you have to fixate on a pile of dog poop?"
"Is that so!" Ron nodded, "Don't worry, I have no interest in Ms. Potts, it's just that I accidentally turned on my phone's recording function. Mr. Stark, what do you think about this?"
Saying that, Ron placed his phone in front of Tony and replayed the conversation he had just recorded for Tony.
"...old and ugly... ...a pile of dog poop..."
"Cough, cough!" Hearing the sound from the phone, Tony couldn't help but cough violently.
"Alright, Mr. Stark, I'll delete the recording, don't worry. But you'll have to remember to double my fee then. I have things to do, so I'll be leaving now."
Ron took back his phone, waved it in front of Tony one last time, and prepared to leave.
"Cough, cough... safe travels!"
Tony was clearly furious. He took a sip of water, trying to calm down, but he couldn't control himself and muttered dejectedly,
"I must have had eight lifetimes of bad luck to meet such an annoying guy. Why, why..."