Chapter 24: What Must Come Cannot Be Avoided

"Lu Lu Xiusi, I heard you were in a car accident?"

Lu Lu Xiusi Fox, president and technical director of Wayne Enterprises, received this greeting early in the morning. Although the words were not very pleasant, they did make him feel slightly warm.

Because the person who said this was Bruce Wayne.

"Mr. Wayne, I am personally unharmed. Last night's incident was merely a test of the vehicle's autonomous driving technology and caused me no injury."

"That's good." The voice of Bruce Wayne on the other end of the phone seemed mixed with the engine roar of a sports car and women's laughter: "I thought my most capable CEO would be taking leave. I don't want to personally manage Wayne Enterprises. Good heavens, even staying in the office for an hour is torture."

"You need not worry, Mr. Wayne."

"Beep—beep—"

The phone hanging up directly interrupted Lu Lu Xiusi's words; such an action fit people's general impression of Bruce Wayne perfectly.

The sole heir of the Wayne family, the actual owner of Wayne Enterprises, Gotham City's playboy, an uneducated prodigal son, a pitiful orphan whose parents both died, the luckiest and unluckiest person in Gotham City.

Young Master Wayne, this is truly rude.

Lu Lu Xiusi sighed, hung up the phone, and began inspecting the wheelchair wreckage in the laboratory.

It was not that the wheelchair had any special black technology; it was just that the origin of this wheelchair was slightly strange.

After investigation, the identity of the wheelchair driver had been confirmed: a common thug from Gotham's East District with numerous prior records in the Gotham Police Department, including robbery, theft, and rape, and even one homicide. Given his own level of knowledge and economic capability, it was basically impossible for him to have manufactured such a thing himself.

And interestingly, this obviously illegal high-speed wheelchair had never appeared in Gotham before. According to Gotham surveillance intelligence, it could only be confirmed that it appeared on a fixed street route every night between 10:00 and 10:20 for a continuous week, with the starting point seemingly being a certain block in the Ace Chemicals District.

As for how it ended up in the hands of this thug, and how it directly crashed into Lu Lu Xiusi's vehicle which was conducting a full-path scan and autonomous driving test in Gotham, this left Lu Lu Xiusi completely baffled.

Furthermore, to verify the possibility of drunk driving and drug driving, Lu Lu Xiusi also conducted a test on the thug who had been pieced back together. The results showed a strange drug component in his body. It was very strange; this component was different from any drug currently known.

And there was also a deformed thermos cup at the scene. Inside the cup wall remained a few strange blue flower petals. The components inside were exactly the same as the drug components in the thug's body. According to current experimental results on white mice, it seemed to be a new type of stimulant.

This mouse had been in a state of high activity for ten hours, and currently showed not the slightest sign of drowsiness; its physical condition also seemed to remain healthy.

Regardless of whether this is a new type of health supplement or a new type of drug, as long as there is a possibility of it flowing into Gotham City on a large scale, then for Lu Lu Xiusi, it has already become an important matter worthy of his attention.

Although, according to the current situation, there were already countless things even more heavyweight than this, such as the Riddler, Scarecrow, Penguin, Joker, and a bunch of other super-criminals, plus the Roman that Batman was recently investigating, which is the Falcone crime family.

The ruthless acts this group can pull off are not limited to poison gas bombs that poison the whole city, nuclear warheads that level the whole city, gunfight riots covering the whole city, and so on. Everyone is very puzzled as to why the city of Gotham has not gone under yet.

And in Lu Lu Xiusi's view, this might be because there is always Batman to back them up; anyway, he can always catch all these people and throw them back in prison overnight.

Returning to the current situation, he has already extracted the DNA from inside that cup rim. Currently, there are only two human samples: one belongs to that wheelchair-driving thug, while the other was not found to match in the police department's DNA database.

"Perhaps, I should find an opportunity to ask around the area nearby. If luck is good, maybe this matter won't require Batman to investigate personally." Lu Lu Xiusi looked at that lively little white mouse thoughtfully.

"Hey, Ma Ma Zhaodi."

Ma Ma Zhaodi, who had just gotten off a taxi and wanted to walk into the restaurant, heard the newspaper stand owner next door tease: "Why didn't you come riding your precious wheelchair today?"

"It was stolen." He sighed and walked forward: "Give me a newspaper. Do you sell anything for self-defense?"

"New stock, Beretta, Colt, and P229. You actually didn't bring a gun when you went out today? That's not very wise."

"I brought one, but suddenly thought buying another one would be good for backup—wait, P229? German-made?"

"Gotham-made." The newsstand owner chuckled: "Don't you want something with more kick?"

"I don't want to die from a crudely made counterfeit pistol. Also, I don't have much money on me right now."

"You are underestimating Gotham, kid." The newsstand owner grinned: "Locally made Colt Python, pick any accessories you want. Just bring the money tomorrow. If the gun has problems, I'll compensate you three times over."

"If I have the life to come back and find you, can three times buy back your life?"

"Hehehe, genuine ones are available too, but they aren't cheap. How about we play a game—my gun has a minimum price and a maximum price, you can choose one yourself." The owner handed the gun in his hand over: "If the gun has a major problem that could cost you your head right on the spot, like an explosion or falling apart, I'll give you the money immediately; the bullet cost is separate."

Damn, so this is his main business.

"The rules are like this: mutual consent. Once agreed, money and goods are exchanged, and don't come looking for me if problems arise later. How about it?"

Ma Ma Zhaodi raised an eyebrow and shouted to the food cart vendor next door: "Hey! Val!"

The cart owner kept working, looked up and asked: "What's wrong?"

"How many years has he been doing this?"

"Huh? At least two years."

Ma Ma Zhaodi turned his head: "Give me a Beretta and a Colt revolver."

"Hehe, thank you for your patronage."

"Ding ding ding—"

Ma Ma Zhaodi, who was eating lunch at noon, instinctively picked up his phone. The number displayed was unfamiliar. After thinking for a few seconds and confirming that he hadn't leaked his phone number to anyone other than his boss, supervisor, and the Drake couple recently, a sense of ominous foreboding instinctively rose in his heart.

Rather than believing in the coincidence of "Drake changed his phone number," he was more inclined to believe that he had been targeted by someone.

Could it be Clinton? But how did he get my phone number? Just on his own, he probably couldn't find out, right?

Could it be that the stolen wheelchair caused trouble, and the investigation led back to me?

Is the Gotham Police Department that efficient?

He casually picked up the phone.

(End of Chapter)