Chapter 1443: Flying Birds and Returning (IV)

It is well known that Batman and the Joker are in a dynamic balance in every aspect. If Batman is strong, the Joker is strong; if Batman is weak, the Joker is weak. If Batman leaves Cat Getan, the Joker will also disappear. If Batman relaxes his vigilance, the Joker will definitely take advantage of the situation.

In general, this can all be attributed to one rule: the sicker Batman is, the crazier the Joker is.

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

Now, Batman not only laughed, but also killed, and went further to kill his teacher, and went further to manipulate others to kill, and went further to manipulate an eleven-year-old girl to kill.

It's hard to say whether he is cured, or if his madness has exceeded the Joker's judgment range.

When Bruce was driving a Lamborghini tractor on a farm in Kansas, Thomas hadn't been there long. At that time, Jack came to the door with an IOU to collect debts. After Bruce returned, he was scolded by Thomas.

Then, Bruce went to find Jack and indicated to him that due to the large upfront investment, the Wei En Group's funds were tight and they needed a period of time to slow down, asking if he could grant a period of time.

Bruce could be considered a businessman who had been floating in the business sea, so naturally, he knew that when dealing with debt, if you couldn't pay the big money, you still had to spend the small money. So, he and Jack found a barbecue stall near Jack's truck parking lot nearby and treated Jack to a barbecue.

That barbecue was unexpectedly delicious.

That day, Bruce went to inspect the construction site and ran into Killer Croc Wei Lun, who was working part-time. Wei Lun happened not to have eaten, so Bruce took him to that barbecue stall. Perhaps because he was hungry from working, that barbecue was also unexpectedly delicious.

Jack would always pass by that stall when he went out for a trip, and Killer Croc often moved bricks less than a kilometer away from there, and Bruce always went to the East End to check the construction site. After coming and going, that place became a fixed gathering point.

Jack only ran cold-chain freight within the city. Most of the cold-chain goods were in warehouses near the pier. When he finished the last trip and drove back, he would happen to pass by the South District, so he could just pick up Bruce. When the two of them drove over, Killer Croc happened to finish pouring concrete.

Initially, only the three of them ate, but James Gordon, as the police chief of Cat Getan, inevitably often entered and exited the home of the East End gang boss, mediating some minor matters like trucks fighting for the road and firing twenty-eight shots, or thirty-seven gang shootouts in cold storage.

So one day, Gordon happened to pass by in his car and discovered the group eating barbecue on the side of the road. Mainly, Killer Croc's image was too conspicuous and could be recognized from hundreds of meters away, so he got out of the car and greeted the group.

Since Gordon had come, Bruce naturally couldn't let him go back on an empty stomach, so he also joined the meal.

Coincidentally, Thomas stayed at Wei En Manor that night. Bruce would rather spend time at the barbecue stall than go home. The remaining three people had no family and nothing to do when they went back, so Gordon flipped a deck of cards out of his car, and the group started playing Texas Hold'em with unlimited bets.

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

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

The group would eat and play cards there every few days. It was basically when Jack needed to go out for a trip, Killer Croc finished pouring concrete, and Gordon came to the East End to handle affairs. As for Bruce, all of Cat Getan knew he was an idler, and wherever there was a game, there was him.

This was basically the entire background of the barbecue stall gathering, but obviously, Damian, who hadn't been here for more than twenty-four hours, couldn't possibly know this. He became a statue.

The greatest effort he could make was to turn his head straight, not look at who was driving beside him, empty his brain, and not think about who was holding him.

Damian hadn't been held by Batman. It was imaginable that he couldn't stay in his biological father's arms for more than a second, but the situation was stronger than the person.

Taking a step back, lying in his father's arms was better than lying in the Joker's arms, right? And it had to be better than lying in a grave, right?

The demon boy had never been so quiet in his life. All he could do now was forget that he had a mouth.

But Bruce seemed as if nothing had happened. After he closed the truck door, he rolled down the car window. Cat Getan's night wind blew the hair on his forehead back, and the moonlight also made his eyes brighter.

"How many trips did you run today? Six?" Bruce turned his head and asked Jack.

Jack rested one hand on the steering wheel, stretched the other out the car window, pouted, and said: "Where is there such a good market? Even at the hottest time, I can't run six trips. The Leaguer's Style Avenue is blocked like old Nord's mother's birth canal, and that gold-toothed guy at the pier always finds trouble for me."

"He doesn't let you unload again?"

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

Damian, who was in Bruce's arms, finally recovered a little, and then he began to suspect, is the person sitting in the driver's seat really the Joker? Or just a fanatical fan imitating his makeup?

Is this topic a bit too grounded?

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

"It was bomb raw materials." Jack corrected. He pulled the gear lever hard, looked ahead, and said: "They were all good goods from the Wei En Group. They cost me a lot of money, and they were all cheap for the gangs at the pier."

"Don't tell me you can't grab them back."

Jack snorted coldly, pressed the horn, turned after the bend, and said: "I originally planned to take 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 already filled with boring potion, you know? He has completely solidified and is a walking behavioral template."

"He only does what Batman does, only says what Batman says, and even if he repeats it a thousand times, it's the same show. He will never change, will never have growth, will never let me see anything beyond my expectations—he is boring to death."

"When I went to Wei En Manor to find him with that IOU, I had already finished watching a performance. I really don't know how much cement was in my brain at that time to spend two months' salary to watch the same show again."

Jack pressed both hands on the steering wheel. He looked at Bruce and said: "And the performance that is far more exciting than him, I only spent one hundred dollars."

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

Jack turned the steering wheel while speaking in a low, not even half-crazy, even somewhat rational to cold tone.

"Thomas Wei En, that is, another Batman, he is like an actor, playing the same role on one stage after another. In my opinion, his lines, actions, 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 heavy darkness he shows, and feel shocked by his depth and seriousness."

"But soon, he changed theaters, changed stages, making the same deep and serious expressions, showing the same heavy darkness. Another group of audiences cheered for it, but that's because they don't love him enough."

"They didn't faithfully follow Batman, watching every play he acted in, otherwise they would find that Batman never changes."

"In an era of entertainment scarcity, this is acceptable. Shakespeare's plays are performed over and over again, and the gentlemen and ladies still flock to them, still moved to tears at the end."

"But you, Batman, you are a play yourself, a flame just ignited rather than rotten wood already charred. Your concepts argue with each other, your thoughts are still transforming, presenting different plots on different stages."

"And when I follow you, I can see dramatic conflicts far more exciting than what an actor can present. It is constantly growing, rising, and changing violently. It makes my heart beat wildly and adrenaline burst."

"You are not an actor, so you don't need me to act against you, and even if there is only you on the stage, the performance is enough to be worth the ticket price."

"And after that, that Batman went on stage again, but instead wanted me to jump on stage and act with him, so that he could perform a little painful vividness from the rigid seriousness. How could it not make me feel that the high and low are judged?"

Damian opened his mouth wide. The words he was used to scolding the Joker had reached his lips, and in the second before spitting them out, Bruce reached out and covered his mouth, turning to the Joker and saying.

"You can be more straightforward."

"You're fucking much better than Thomas Wei En!"

"Thanks for the compliment, I'll treat today."

The truck slowly drove into the noisy street. Messy wires wove a big net overhead. The crooked neon signs made by various barbecue stall owners were hung everywhere. Smoke and fragrance rose together. The moment they drifted into the car window, Damian's stomach growled.

He was a child, originally hungry quickly. Before, his biological father and the Robins said they were going to send them to another universe, and he was so angry that he missed a meal. By now, he was already hungry to the point of being back-to-back.

Bruce lowered his head and touched his head and said: "I guess you shouldn't have eaten barbecue, because Thomas also told me that smoked products are unhealthy. If you don't go around shouting after you go back tonight, then I won't tell your father, how about it?"

Damian swallowed, reason told him not to agree, because eating barbecue with the Joker was something that made it impossible for him to just keep it in his heart, but he was really hungry.

Soon, the scene he saw defeated his last line of psychological defense—at the barbecue stall Bruce was carrying him toward, Barbara Gordon was sitting next to Gordon, secretly sprinkling chili on the meat skewers.

Instantly, Damian had a feeling of being betrayed. So everyone was angry and fasting together, and I was the last one to eat, right?

Damian's temper was not good. A fire topped his brain. He immediately grabbed Bruce's arm and climbed up, then hammered his shoulder and said loudly.

"Don't treat them! And give me some of the most expensive meat! Double portion! Four portions!"

"It's fine as long as you don't tell Thomas."

And at this moment, Barbara, who was sitting on a small stool behind Gordon, looked up and saw Jack, who was carrying a bunch of truck keys beside Bruce, at first glance.

Batgirl was struck by lightning. ===== CHAPTER 1444 =====