Chapter 1459: Birds and Return (IV)

As we all know, Batman and the Joker are in a dynamic balance in all aspects. When Batman is strong, the Joker is strong; when Batman is weak, the Joker is weak. When Batman leaves Gotham for something, the Joker will disappear. When Batman relaxes his vigilance, the Joker will definitely take advantage of the opportunity.

In general, this can be attributed to one rule, that is, the more serious Batman's illness is, the crazier the Joker will be.

But no matter what, the Joker's ultimate goal is just to make Batman laugh.

Now, Batman not only laughs, but also kills people, and even further kills his teacher, and even further manipulates others to kill people, and even further manipulates an eleven-year-old girl to kill people.

It is difficult to say whether he is cured or crazy beyond the Joker's judgment.

When Bruce was driving a Lamborghini tractor on a farm in Kansas, Thomas had just arrived. At that time, Jack came to collect the debt with an IOU. When Bruce came back, he was scolded by Thomas.

Then, Bruce went to Jack and told him that due to the large initial investment, the Wayne Group was short of funds and needed some time to slow down, and asked him if he could give him some time.

Bruce is also a businessman who has been in the business world for a long time. He naturally knows that when it comes to debt transactions, if you can't pay back the big money, you still have to spend the small money. So, he and Jack found a barbecue stall near Jack's truck parking lot and treated Jack to a barbecue.

The barbecue was unexpectedly delicious.

That day, Bruce went to inspect the construction site and met Killer Croc Waylon who was doing odd jobs. It happened that Waylon didn't eat, so Bruce took him to the barbecue stall. Maybe because he was hungry from working, the barbecue was unexpectedly delicious.

Jack always passed by the stall when he was driving, and Killer Croc often moved bricks less than a kilometer away from there. Bruce always went to the East District to see the construction site. After a few visits, it became a fixed gathering place.

Jack only runs cold freight in the city. Most of the cold goods are in the warehouse near the dock. When the last trip was completed and the car drove back, it happened to pass by the South District, so he could just pick up Bruce. When the two of them drove over, Killer Croc had just finished fighting.

At first, there were only three of them eating, but as the police chief of Gotham, James Gordon often went in and out of the homes of East District gangsters to mediate small matters such as a truck cutting off the road and firing 28 shots, and a fight between 37 gangs hiding drugs in a cold storage.

So one day, Gordon happened to drive by and found a few people sitting on the roadside eating barbecue. The main reason was that the image of Killer Croc was too conspicuous and could be recognized from a few hundred meters away, so he got out of the car and greeted them.

Since Gordon was here, Bruce naturally couldn't let him go back with an empty stomach, so he also joined the dinner.

Coincidentally, Thomas went back to Wayne Manor that night, and Bruce would rather spend time at the barbecue stall than go home. The remaining three people had no families, and there was nothing to do when they went back, so Gordon took out a deck of cards from his car and started playing unlimited Texas Hold'em.

Of course, the barbecue that day was still delicious, but the ending was unhappy, because Jack stole a card to make his four of a kind, which just broke Gordon's royal flush, and he was handcuffed on the spot.

Later, because all the barbecue stalls on that street basically had the same source of meat - scraps eliminated by high-end restaurants in the South and West Districts provided by Cobblepot, the taste was good, and there were many truck drivers nearby, so it developed into a barbecue street.

Several people would eat and play cards there every now and then, almost to meet the conditions that Jack needed to go out, Killer Croc finished his fight, and Gordon came to the East District to do business. As for Bruce, everyone in Gotham knew that he was an idler, and he would be there wherever there was a game.

This was almost the entire background of the barbecue stall party, but it was obvious that Damian, who had just been here for no more than 24 hours, could not know this. He turned into a statue.

The best he could do was to turn his head straight, not to look at who was driving next to him, to empty his mind, and not to think about who was holding him now.

Damian has never been held by Batman, so it is conceivable that he cannot stay in his father's arms for more than a second, but the situation is stronger than the person.

Even if we take a step back, lying in his father's arms is better than lying in the Joker's arms, right? It must be better than lying in the grave, right?

The demon boy has never been so quiet in his life. All he can do now is to forget that he has a mouth.

But Bruce seemed to have nothing happened. After closing the truck door, he rolled down the window. The night wind in Gotham blew his hair back on his forehead, and the moonlight made his eyes brighter.

"How many trips did you make today? Six trips?" Bruce turned to ask Jack.

Jack put one hand on the steering wheel and one hand out of the car window, pouted and said, "How can the market be so good? At the hottest time, there are less than six trips. Liger Street is as congested as the birth canal of Old Nord's mother, and the gold tooth at the dock always makes trouble for me."

"He doesn't let you unload the goods?"

"At least twice a day, each time takes half an hour."

Damian, sitting in Bruce's arms, finally calmed down a little, and then he began to doubt, is the person sitting in the driver's seat really the Joker? Or just a fanatical fan who imitates his makeup?

Is this topic a bit too down-to-earth?

Then he heard Bruce say, "That's because he intercepted your car full of bombs twice."

"It's bomb material." Jack corrected. He pulled the gear lever hard, looked ahead and said, "They are all good products from Wayne Group. They cost me a lot of money. They are all cheap to the gangsters at the dock."

"Don't tell me you can't get it back."

Jack snorted coldly, pressed the horn, turned the corner and said, "I originally planned to use him to give another Batman a big surprise."

"Thomas? Then why did you change your mind?"

"Because he is too boring." Jack curled his lips and said, "He is a bottle that has been filled with boring potions, you know? He has been completely solidified and is a walking behavioral template."

"He only does what Batman does, he only says what Batman says, and it's the same play a thousand times over. He'll never change, he'll never grow, he'll never let me see me. Something unexpected - he was bored."

"When I went to Wayne Manor to find him with that IOU, I had already watched a show. I really don't know how much cement went into my brain before I thought about spending two months of my life. Watch the same show again."

Jack's hands were on the steering wheel. He looked at Bruce and said, "And I only spent a hundred dollars on a show that was much better than his."

Bruce turned his head away to look out the window, and Damian looked up and was horrified to find that he saw a trace of pride on Bruce's face.

As Jack turned the steering wheel, he spoke in a low tone that was not at all crazy, but even a little rational and cold.

"Thomas Wayne is another Batman. He is like an actor, playing the same character on stage after stage. In my opinion, his lines, movements and gestures are completely traceable."

"Perhaps his performance is perfect. When you sit in the theater for the first time, you will be curious about the deep darkness displayed in him and feel shocked by his depth and seriousness."

"But soon, he changed theaters, changed stages, made the same deep and serious expression, showed the same darkness, and another group of audiences also cheered for it, but that was because they didn't love him enough."

"They don't follow Batman faithfully and watch every scene he plays, otherwise they will find that Batman remains the same."

"In an era when entertainment was scarce, this was acceptable. Shakespeare's plays were performed over and over again, and gentlemen and ladies still flocked to the theater and were still moved to tears at the end."

"But you, Batman, are a drama in your own right, a newly lit fire rather than a charred rotten wood. Your ideas are at odds with each other, and your thoughts are still changing, appearing on different stages. Different plots.”

"And when I follow you, I can see a dramatic conflict that is far more exciting than the acting skills of an actor. It is constantly growing, rising and evolving violently. It makes my heart beat fast and adrenaline bursts."

"You are not an actor, so you don't need me to act opposite you. Even if you are the only one on the stage, the performance is worth the price of admission."

"After that, the Batman appeared on stage again, but he asked me to jump on stage to play with him, so that he could perform a bit of painful vividness from the rigid seriousness. How could he not make me feel that he was superior to others? "

Damian opened his mouth wide, and the words he had formed a habit of scolding the clown were already on his lips, and the second before he spit them out, Bruce reached out to cover his mouth and turned to the clown.

"You could be more straightforward."

"You're better than Thomas Wayne!"

"Thank you for the compliment, I'll treat you today."

The truck slowly drove into the noisy street, with messy wires weaving a large net overhead. Crooked neon signs handmade by various barbecue stall owners were hung everywhere. The smoke and aroma rose together and drifted into the car windows. At that moment, Damian's stomach rumbled.

He was a child, and he was always hungry. His biological father and the Robins had said that they would send them to another universe. He was so angry that he skipped a meal, and now he was so hungry that his chest was touching his back. .

Bruce lowered his head and touched his head and said: "I guess you have never eaten barbecue, because Thomas also told me that smoked products are unhealthy. If you don't yell everywhere when you go back tonight, then I won't tell your father. ,How about it?"

Damian swallowed, and reason told him not to agree, because it was impossible for him to just keep it in his heart to eat barbecue with the clown, but he was really hungry.

Soon, the scene he saw broke down his last psychological defense - at the barbecue stall that Bruce was carrying him towards, Barbara Gordon was sitting next to Gordon secretly sprinkling chili peppers on the meat skewers.

Suddenly, Damian felt betrayed and joined everyone in an angry hunger strike. I was the last one to eat, right?

Damian had a bad temper. A burst of fire hit his forehead. He immediately grabbed Bruce's arm and climbed up, then beat his shoulder with his hand and said loudly.

"Don't invite them! Then order me the most expensive meat! Double portion! Quadruple portion!"

"It doesn't matter if you don't tell Thomas."

At this time, Barbara, who was sitting on the pony behind Gordon, looked up and saw Jack at the first glance, who was carrying a bunch of truck keys next to Bruce.

The bat girl was struck by thunder.