Chapter 1915

Superman's super-brain possesses not only super-intelligence but also super-memory; although he doesn't usually use it, this is actually a passive skill — Superman can perfectly remember everything he has ever seen, and every single detail is crystal clear.

When he isn't accessing that part of his memory, he notices nothing unusual, but the moment he wants to recall, he can summon every detail of everything that has happened since he first had memory.

When Lord Superman focused his attention on certain possible anomalies in Batman, he immediately recalled certain fragments.

Batman indeed had not only recently begun showing anomalies.

Lord Superman's memory began tracing back continuously until it stopped at a quite special point in time — the night they had finally finished managing Earth's public security and held a celebration banquet.

The party and revelry were as usual, Batman's silence was as usual, but he unusually did not leave early; instead, he stood in a corner of the party dance floor, quietly watching it all.

Lord Superman could sense he was happy — because of his own far-beyond-ordinary observational ability, and because of his familiarity with Batman; although Batman wasn't smiling, this posture was already the happiest expression he could make.

So where did the turning point occur?

Lord Superman remembered that that night he had drunk some wine and, unprecedentedly, allowed himself to become a little tipsy; so he put his arm around Batman's shoulder, and the two went up to the roof to catch the breeze.

He waved his arm in high spirits, saying he would definitely bring this kind of peace to every universe, so that from then on people would no longer be troubled by criminals and would definitely live orderly, happy lives.

Then what else was said? Lord Superman pushed aside the illusory fog brought by alcohol; he heard Batman say that although there was no longer the threat of criminals, people's lives could not be called happy either.

Lord Superman expressed incomprehension, because he felt Batman had always wanted to build a society without criminals — wasn't that a perfect society?

But Batman said there are many people in this world living in underdeveloped regions, places that are often remote and backward with harsh natural conditions; they have been poor for generations and simply cannot enjoy the conveniences of modern urban life.

Or rather, the people in this world who can simultaneously enjoy both safety and convenience are a minority; the vast majority always lack something, and Batman felt he should fill that gap.

Lord Superman vaguely remembered Batman seeming to have spoken a lot about urban construction, technological development, and even visions of space colonization, but that night he simply hadn't listened seriously.

What he enjoyed was the continuous elimination of criminals, watching the people living on Earth look up at the sky with relieved expressions — that made him feel the meaning of his existence, made him feel what he was doing now was right.

He began to crave this feeling more and more; that night, he was almost impatient to have Batman make him a portal so he could go to other Earths and continue doing the same thing.

Batman did not refuse, but Lord Superman sensed his disappointment.

Perhaps from that moment everything changed; Batman closed the heart that had been slightly ajar, he no longer felt that a certain someone in this team was his kind, and Lord Superman wasn't either.

Recalling this, Lord Superman felt both angry and wronged; he instinctively said, "I only wanted justice to spread farther, I only wanted to save more people."

"What do you think counts as being saved?" Constantine suddenly spoke up; he took a drag of his cigarette, blew a smoke ring, and looked at the half-air with a slightly blank gaze: "Do you think a society without criminals is the ultimate form of human society?"

Lord Superman's eyes suddenly widened slowly; he had never told anyone about his universe's situation, so how did this Constantine know?

"No need to wonder — I come from the same universe as you, but when you went mad and ran amok on Earth, I hid in the Phantom Zone; I haven't been back to Earth in a long time."

Constantine coughed heavily a few times, sniffed, and then said: "I know I'd definitely be classified by you as a criminal and have my brain burned, but sorry, I still have things to do, so let me keep my brain."

Red light flickered in Lord Superman's eyes, and at this moment Joker Arthur spoke up: "What do you think a criminal is? Is a killer a criminal?"

"Of course — he violated the law."

"Then what if he kills that person to save more people?" Joker Arthur gave a low chuckle and said: "Isn't that the same as what you do?"

"And if causing suffering counts as crime, then why are the merchants and politicians who displaced us and left us with no food still alive?"

Joker Arthur lowered his eyes and said: "The law protects their interests, and you uphold the law — that is your justice."

If it were before, Lord Superman's heat vision would already have fired, but Batman's words to him kept circling in Lord Superman's mind — Batman had once told him, "Eliminating criminals on Earth is not the end, it is the beginning."

Back then Lord Superman had interpreted this sentence as agreement with his vision — eliminating criminals on one Earth is naturally not the end; they still had to save more universe Earths.

But had he misunderstood?

Lord Superman felt his head starting to hurt.

After hesitating a moment, Lord Superman still looked at the young Bruce beside him and said: "Our universe..."

He briefly described his Earth's situation, then said: "And that night Batman told me, 'Eliminating criminals on Earth is not the end, it is the beginning' — what do you think he meant?"

Bruce froze for a moment, then said: "'I hope you'll stay and build our Earth with me' — that's what he meant."

Lord Superman completely froze.

Then he reached up to cover his eyes, feeling his brain buzzing.

How on earth could the sentence above be translated into the one below? Do those two sentences have even the slightest connection?!

At this point Bruce added: "But what he actually wanted to express was, 'Our lives will have a new beginning, and so will the feelings between us.'"

Then Bruce asked with some curiosity: "So how did you reply at the time?"

Lord Superman covered his eyes with one hand, braced the other on the table in front of him, and said: "At the time I said, 'Yeah, if your portal gets built fast enough, we can indeed start dispensing justice in more universes.'"

The rest of those present, even Owen on the stage, all let out a "boo" at Lord Superman.

"Your reply was basically the equivalent of saying on a date, 'If the car picking you up to go home could come earlier, we could get home sooner and chat online.'" Bruce shrugged and said.

"I didn't... but why couldn't he just speak plainly? Why couldn't he just say, 'We got along very well before, I hope we can continue being together,' or simply say, 'I don't want to build a portal, we should stay on Earth together' — why not?"

"Because he's Batman."

In Shiler's ward, by noon his hands had already been released, so he could hold the oatmeal porridge himself.

And Batman came in again; he raised one eyebrow slightly at Shiler and asked: "How is it?"

"I was just about to tell you about this." Shiler gestured with his chin at the chair beside him; Batman sat down.

Batman had just sat down when Shiler said: "I've reached an extremely shocking conclusion."

"What?"

"This Batman isn't sick."

Batman showed the biggest change in expression since joining the game — in short, he couldn't keep his composure.

"I know you're surprised, but don't be surprised yet." Shiler stirred the porridge in his hand with a spoon and said: "This is a conclusion I reached after deep consideration for several hours; although it is indeed shocking and I myself find it a bit hard to believe, this universe's Batman is almost not sick."

"Almost not sick means there still is some?"

Shiler shook his head lightly and said: "He shows some mild depressive manifestations, but they don't amount to clinical depression; there's also a bit of perfectly normal work anxiety, but still not anxiety disorder."

Batman's hand froze completely.

And Shiler, looking at him, delivered an even more shocking piece of news: "He wasn't cured — he was never sick to begin with."

Batman fell into deep thought.

"But the current result still isn't definitive." Shiler recalled after taking a sip of porridge: "You know what you care about most — how he views his parents' death is the standard that determines whether his mental state is normal, and that's not a topic that can be easily touched."

"How do you want me to do?" Batman looked straight at Shiler and asked, then he said: "I will cooperate with you as much as possible."

Shiler looked at him without speaking, and after a while Batman spoke: "You know me, us, Thomas and Martha saw every Batman, the state we displayed made them feel extremely guilty."

"He thought their deaths completely shaped us, shaped a suffering patient, or at least someone who once suffered, this is a truly devastating fact, I am sure they have been trying hard to accept it, but still not fully succeeded."

"And you want them to see at least one Bruce who made it through strong, relying on his own effort walked out of the shadow, even almost left no aftereffects."

"Will there be?" Batman asked.

Shiler's hand stirring the oatmeal porridge stopped, he said: "Most like you, the scars have already been carved into personality, a small part like my students, barely healed, and another part..."

Shiler shook his head without speaking, but Batman could understand his meaning, and another part uncontrollably sliding toward deeper abyss, until becoming unrecognizable.

Shiler paused for a moment and then said: "Help me find a consultation room, ensure no one is there all night, I will finish the rest."

Batman nodded and immediately left.

When Shiler turned his head to look at the window, he found Bebian playing basketball downstairs in the court with the male orderly, he jumped high and dunked, black hair falling from his temples.

Shiler closed his eyes, and in his mind began to flash the classic scenes from the Batman movie trilogy.