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The scattered cheers from Spectator died down as the few still shouting saw no one join them.
Even the surrounding reporters stopped rapidly pressing their shutters due to this sudden turn of events.
In an instant, the entire appreciation event became terrifyingly quiet, a heavy atmosphere pressing down on everyone.
Maeve, who had walked out with him, watched Homelander's back, her eyes flickering.
Homelander still had a smile on his face, and he asked in a seemingly casual tone:
"What's wrong? Do you all not welcome me?"
"Ahem, perhaps everyone is too excited to speak after seeing Homelander."
Kevin tried to change the subject and intended to skip the welcome, moving directly into the appreciation segment.
But Homelander raised his hand to him, wagging his index finger, signaling Kevin not to speak.
Seeing this, Kevin could only close his mouth, frowning slightly as he watched Homelander perform.
"Everyone really likes Kevin, I can tell, but I can also tell that you all seem to have some… opinions about me."
During the plane crash that day, although no one knew what happened, some people did see the surging water outside the cabin.
And after the water was controlled and withdrawn by Kevin, and Kevin personally boarded the plane to comfort everyone, everyone understood that it wasn't just Homelander and Maeve who saved them.
Kevin was also there.
And Kevin was the main force among them.
Not to mention that someone even recorded Kevin's process of saving the plane under those circumstances and posted it online, which was why everyone kept cheering 'Kevin' at first.
So Homelander was right, everyone really liked Kevin now, and many people even came for Kevin; they wanted to know when Kevin gained the ability to control water.
But Homelander's other statement was also true.
Everyone had… some opinions about Homelander.
Kevin had heard from Maeve about what happened that day; although Homelander didn't insult the survivors with overly aggressive language like in the original work, he did express his intention to leave.
This attitude was very obvious; anyone who wasn't a fool could see it.
And so, apart from a few fanatical fans, some of the people here now had very complex feelings about Homelander.
Some smart people probably already had ideas in their minds about whether Homelander truly intended to abandon everyone that day, and what exactly caused the plane accident that day.
"Homelander! Were you trying to abandon us that day?"
Suddenly, a slightly overweight middle-aged white man stood up, speaking on behalf of everyone to question Homelander.
In that instant, both on and off the stage, there was dead silence.
"!?'"
Holy crap!?
Seeing someone stand up to question Homelander, Kevin's eyes widened even further.
No, are the people of America really this brave? Daring to expose Homelander in front of him?
And Vought, what's going on with you?
Isn't it common sense to conduct surveys before organizing an appreciation event?! Why is someone jumping out now to ask questions that shouldn't be asked?!
How exactly is your public relations department doing its job?!
Kevin instantly looked at Ashley, only to see Ashley also in a state of panic, shaking her head repeatedly when she met Kevin's gaze, indicating that she had no idea this would happen.
And what made Ashley's vision go black even more was that after the middle-aged man stood up, there was a lot more quiet whispering in Spectator.
"Yeah, I remember… he seemed to want to abandon us with Maeve at the time…"
"If it weren't for Kevin, we would definitely have been abandoned…"
"Did Homelander really want to save us at that time?"
The survivors spoke in a jumble, their voices not loud, but when combined, they could be heard clearly.
Especially with Homelander's hearing, he heard every word these people said with perfect clarity.
Kevin could see that Homelander's smile seemed to be faltering a bit.
Vought's arranged reporters smartly stopped filming, and some even planned to turn off their live broadcasts.
Reporters from other TV stations, however, frantically photographed the man who had stood up.
The coldness in Homelander's eyes gradually deepened, even as he smiled.
However, years of acting allowed him to maintain his composure; he still smiled and said to the man who had stood up:
"How could that be? I would never abandon any innocent person, never!"
"But, I have here…"
The man who had stood up reached into his waist pocket.
Both Kevin and Homelander could tell it was a camera.
At this moment, Homelander's expression finally changed, and Kevin instantly shouted, interrupting the man's action:
"Homelander never thought of abandoning you!"
One shout made the man stop, and everyone's gaze gathered on Kevin.
Homelander, beside Kevin, looked at this member of The Seven, whom he usually didn't pay much attention to, with a slight surprise.
He pondered for a moment, then said nothing, closing his mouth and watching Kevin perform.
On stage, after shouting one sentence, Kevin repeated again:
"Homelander, that day, never thought of abandoning you. If he really wanted to abandon you, why would I have appeared there? And why would he risk injury to hold up the plane and prevent it from falling?
"Think about it, everyone! I wasn't the only one who saved you; the one who got rid of the hijackers wasn't me, who stayed outside the whole time, but Maeve and Homelander. They were saving you, so how could they abandon you!"
Kevin's words made the crowd below fall into deep thought.
Just as it seemed the commotion was about to pass, a clear girl's voice suddenly came from among the now quiet crowd.
"But that day, he really did abandon me and my mom…"
The girl's voice was not loud, but in the quiet scene of everyone pondering, it was very clear.
Maeve looked at the girl with a hint of apology in her eyes, but it quickly disappeared, and her gaze shifted elsewhere.
Kevin took a deep breath, carefully observing the girl.
Maeve had told him that before calling him that day, when she learned that Homelander was going to abandon everyone on the plane, she had tried to leave with this girl and the woman next to her.
The idea was that even saving one person would be good; as long as one innocent life was saved, their efforts wouldn't be in vain.
But how could Homelander, who had already given up on saving, leave with 'witnesses'?
So Homelander abandoned them.
And that's why, unlike everyone else who hadn't heard Homelander talking to Maeve, this mother and daughter clearly heard the fact that Homelander was going to abandon them.
However, Kevin remembered that he should have reminded Ashley to calm this mother and daughter down…
Kevin's gaze shifted to the girl's mother.
The girl's mother, a woman with a slightly haggard face, quickly covered the girl's mouth as soon as the girl finished speaking, but it was clearly a bit too late.
Homelander's eye twitched.
Maeve, beside him, stood with her hands on her hips, maintaining her heroic pose, and after seeing this scene, she turned her head slightly, showing no intention of defending him.
Kevin, noticing all of this, slowly inhaled and then exhaled a long breath.
He quickly came before the girl and asked:
"What's your name?"
"Maya… My name is Maya…"
The girl answered softly.
"Okay, Maya, perhaps you might think Homelander wanted to abandon you and didn't care about you, but have you ever considered that perhaps Homelander deliberately acted like a villain because he didn't want you to cause trouble?"
Okay, let's start with a bit of concept-swapping here, and erase the little girl's bad impression of Homelander first.
Kevin organized his thoughts, and without waiting for the little girl to answer, he continued:
"Maya, you're in elementary school now, right?"
"Mm, fifth grade."
"Then in class, there must have been times when a teacher got angry at a student and said something like 'I don't want to deal with you anymore,' right?"
To be fair, Kevin wasn't sure if American elementary school teachers would be like Chinese teachers, constantly saying things like 'You're the worst class.'
But he figured that when annoyed by children, there should be instances of loud reprimands.
Fortunately, Kevin guessed correctly; Maya nodded gently.
Kevin relaxed inwardly and continued:
"Then you should be very clear that when a teacher says 'I don't want to deal with you anymore,' it's just a fit of pique at the moment, and they don't really mean to abandon their students, right?
"Homelander is the same."
Kevin finished speaking and stood up, addressing the crowd:
"I don't know much about the situation on the plane that day, but I imagine everyone must have felt helpless and terrified. In such circumstances, everyone was actually unable to think rationally.
"Seeing Homelander and Maeve about to leave, you thought they were abandoning you, but have you ever considered that they just wanted to go out and call for help, to find a way to save you?
"You didn't think that way; you only thought Homelander was abandoning you, so you panicked and crowded in front of Homelander, wanting him to take you away. And in that situation, every second of delay was delaying precious rescue time.
"How could Homelander not be angry with you?
"So Homelander was like a teacher in school, yelling at you 'I'm not dealing with you anymore!' and then turning and leaving, but what was the actual result? As you all saw, he saved you."
Nonsense.
Kevin was completely talking nonsense now, and Kevin himself knew it.
But Kevin also knew that the situation that day was critical, and people's minds are chaotic in danger; except for a very few calm individuals, few people can recall what happened to them when they encountered danger.
So as long as there was no absolute evidence, everyone would beautify Homelander based on what Kevin said.
Their memories would automatically align with Kevin's current nonsense.
Even if they realized later that it wasn't how it happened at the time, the appreciation event would already be over, the news would have already been broadcast, so where would they go to speak up?
In the end, with enough people saying it, even those who were skeptical would probably think, 'That's probably how it was,' and it would all fizzle out.
After giving everyone a little time to digest these words, Kevin immediately continued:
"It was Homelander who forcefully held up the plane that day and saved you, and it was Homelander who comforted you immediately after the plane stabilized!"
In fact, although Homelander did enter the cabin to comfort everyone, it was probably because Kevin had gotten a lot of water on him during the plane rescue.
Being concerned about his image, he specifically flew around in the sky until the water on him dried before rushing back.
It's just that by that time, the international rescue team had already arrived…
But that wasn't important; what was important was that Homelander did enter the cabin and comfort everyone, and that was enough.
So after saying all this, Kevin walked towards the man who had raised the question and said to him very earnestly:
"Sir, I know you were very scared that day, and I understand your anger that day when you thought Homelander was going to abandon you, but no matter what, Homelander saved you, didn't he?
"Can you bear to let our hero suffer undeserved grievances?"
Kevin said this and looked at Homelander.
Homelander's eyes met his, and in an instant, he understood Kevin's meaning, immediately looked up at the sky, blinked a few times, and seemed to have red eyes.
…You're quite the actor, you bastard.
Kevin muttered inwardly, but on the surface, he spoke with sincerity and solemnity:
"Sir, please do not let our hero's heart grow cold."
"I'm… I'm sorry, Homelander… I'm sorry! I remembered it wrong, you wanted to save us, it was you and Maeve and Kevin who saved us! You are our hero!"
Under Kevin's string of absurdities, the middle-aged man selectively ignored the 'evidence' in the camera at his waist.
He said to Homelander with great remorse.
Homelander shook his head, walked forward, patted Kevin's shoulder, and also patted the man's shoulder, then faced the camera and said:
"That day, I overlooked your feelings and said things I shouldn't have said. Such a person as myself doesn't deserve the title of hero. The true heroes are you—"
Homelander pointed at the camera, pointing at all the survivors present:
"You, who never gave up hope until the very end! You are the true heroes!"
After this sentence, the survivors finally cheered, and they finally began to call out Maeve's and Homelander's names.
And Kevin, standing by, finally let out a long sigh of relief.
The moment he heard that famous line, Kevin knew that this incident was now in the past.
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