Chapter 2157: Battle of the Two Cities! (Part 35)

In the reception hall of Wei En Manor, when Alfred placed the teacup on the table, he tilted his head and glanced at the young man sitting on the sofa.

It was truly incredible. He was exactly the same as Bruce Wei En. Alfred recalled the entire process of his meeting and parting with Thomas Wei En in his mind, but he couldn't find half a possibility that he had an illegitimate child.

Martha had only given birth to one child back then, and there was no possibility that one of the twins was lost. How could this Bruce who suddenly popped out be exactly the same as young master Bruce?

After Alfred sat down opposite, he examined Bruce again in detail. He discovered that if one observed carefully enough, some subtle differences could still be found.

For example, this Bruce's body shape was slightly thinner, especially the muscles in the neck and shoulder parts, which were not as swollen as the Bruce he was familiar with. His eyes were also bluer, and most importantly, his expressions were more vivid, and his temperament was more lively, making him look younger than the Bruce Alfred knew.

Alfred had served in the British Navy when he was young. He could judge a person's basic age from their bones. He believed that this Bruce and the Bruce sleeping upstairs were exactly the same age, and their growth and development stages were also the same. So the differences in age revealed by them should stem from the differences in temperament.

Alfred narrowed his eyes. He of course knew why Bruce Wei En's temperament appeared relatively gloomy. A child who lost his parents at a young age and spent half his life in loneliness and despair—how could he be cheerful?

So if this Bruce was really from another universe as he said, why was he so sunny and cheerful?

Bruce picked up the tea and took a sip, looked at Alfred with his azure eyes, and said: "I was entrusted by someone to solve the trouble in this city. Perhaps you have already discovered that a group of lunatics who don't belong here have descended."

This happened to hit Alfred's heart. The green-haired lunatic who appeared on the big screen that day gave him a very bad feeling. The crisis intuition from many years of being a soldier made him understand that this wasn't the end at all, but just a beginning.

The pity was that Bruce Wei En didn't have the ability to deal with such trouble.

As Bruce's butler, Alfred knew better than anyone that his young master's ambition was too big and his ability too small, with too much anger and too little reason.

A cruel fact was that even if Martha and Thomas were still alive, they could only cultivate Bruce into the kind of person who was relatively excellent at the public level—that is, a standard ordinary person who received elite education from a wealthy family.

Such a person could hold onto the Wei En Group and then put energy into the education of the next generation. But if one hoped for them to go one step further, then this step was as difficult as a natural chasm.

Alfred knew better than anyone how talent determined the upper limit of a person in the social hierarchy. A good background gave a high starting point, but mediocrity was like a calm water surface. A fish that couldn't swim to the front of the school of fish in the sea tried hard to break through the calm water surface and jump into the air. The ending was only being suffocated.

So Alfred didn't think at all that Bruce Wei En could fight crime as Batman. He had always opposed this. He thought the several setbacks Bruce suffered before could let him see reality clearly, accept the fact of his mediocrity, and not have meaningless delusions.

But after this green-haired lunatic appeared, Alfred knew that the tree wanted to be quiet but the wind wouldn't stop. Even if Bruce wanted to give up, someone would force him into a dead end.

This made Alfred feel desperate, because he understood that even if a sufficiently mediocre person was forced into a dead end, they couldn't stimulate any potential. Those movements of struggling instinctively due to the desire to survive were just prolonging the pain of death.

"You think you can solve these troubles?" Alfred asked tentatively. He actually hoped so in his heart, but didn't hold any hope.

There wouldn't be a case where the Bruce Wei En from another universe happened to be a genius, right?

"I watched the news." Bruce changed the subject while holding the teacup and said: "Now all the news media are playing negative news about Bruce Wei En, which is very regrettable."

"But before I make a judgment on this situation, I hope you can promise me one thing."

Alfred's forearms supported his knees, his palms clasped and groped for a while. He looked up at Bruce, remained silent for a long time, and then said: "Tell me."

He thought Bruce wanted a reward, but this was also very reasonable. Even if he did nothing, sitting here as a scapegoat was worth it. This face exactly the same as Bruce Wei En was enough for him to open an extremely high condition.

"I hope you can treat me as Bruce Wei En, say so to everyone, I am the little Wei En you are familiar with, and project everything you said and did to him onto me."

"I don't understand." Alfred shook his head. He didn't know why Bruce wanted him to do this. He continued: "Your appearance is more convincing than my words. If I say you are not, no one will believe it."

"I just hope you can help me solve part of the trouble in life." Bruce looked at Alfred with sincere eyes and said: "I might be very busy for a period of time, and there are many things in life I can't take care of. Although it sounds childish, I hope I can eat some hot meals after I'm busy."

Alfred widened his eyes. He had never heard Bruce say this before. Whenever he asked Bruce what he wanted to eat, Bruce was answering "I'm very busy, Alf, you decide," or even "Don't do anything, Alf, I'm not hungry, and I have no time to eat."

Although Alfred would still make it for him in the end, Bruce almost never showed his need for food, as if as long as he completely gave up the enjoyment of material life and carried out that kind of ascetic-like effort, he could definitely get a return.

And from the perspective of a bystander, Alfred knew he couldn't. Even he could see that most of the efforts Bruce made were useless. He was busy, but he wasn't busy on the point at all.

Or rather, the process of pretending he was busy had already exhausted all his time and energy. He didn't even have the strength to stop and review the phased results and test the direction of his efforts. The courage to bury his head and rush forward was all he could do.

And Alfred looked at the Bruce in front of him, seeing a kind of great confidence from him, as if he could play at will, enjoy life, handle the things that should be handled by the way, and definitely handle them very quickly and very well, making everyone satisfied.

Where did he get such confidence?

Alfred soon knew, because he nodded and said: "If you don't mind, I'll go prepare afternoon tea now, sir."

"No, just call me young master." Bruce replied.

Bruce's correction made Alfred frown. This actually didn't conform to etiquette, because now Bruce was the head of the Wei En family, how could he still be called young master?

But he didn't think much, turned and walked toward the kitchen. What surprised him was that Bruce actually followed him to the kitchen, sat on the high stool in front of the bar, and pulled the bucket containing finger biscuits over.

He reached out and took a finger biscuit, broke it, stuffed it into his mouth, and said somewhat vaguely: "Then I think you can listen to my opinion on this matter."

"On those news reports?" Alfred said without looking back while checking the refrigerator. He felt that this Bruce wouldn't care much about those negative news. He wasn't gloomy and depressed enough, and didn't look like he was good at self-denial.

"You know this is not the point. Reporters are hyenas that move when they smell wind. Their views are not unimportant, just that reversing the media wind direction and manipulating public opinion is too simple. This is not the point of dealing with trouble."

Alfred hadn't had time to mock Bruce's arrogance when he heard Bruce say something shocking.

"I dare to bet that the real Andkin is not dead. Not only is he alive and well, but he must be witnessing all this under the Joker's supervision."

"I know this guy called Joker too well." Bruce broke another piece of finger biscuit, sighed, and said: "He will create a very obvious trap, bring you enough damage, and make you feel that this is all."

"When you want to hide back in the nest to lick your wounds, you will discover that his greatest malice doesn't lie in this. His torture of a person is endless, to anyone."

"If Andkin was really the only ray of light in little Bruce's difficult years, the Joker couldn't treat him as a one-time consumable and let him die so easily."

Bruce revealed a cold smile and said: "He knows the value of judging life better than anyone. He can cruelly and coldly let anyone die, but they must die in the place they should be."

"This is a kind of arrogance based on madness. If this society is completely disordered in my eyes, then I have the right to re-adjudicate any person and thing here according to my will."

"And he is also a genius at the same time, calm, rational, and pursuing perfectionism, so in the process of adjudication, he wants everyone to fall into the bag according to the process he preset, without any difference."

"Being treated as an insignificant consumable to stimulate Batman and dying in full view of everyone is clearly not the ending the Joker wants to give Andkin, this important figure, so he must still be alive."

"The brilliance of the Joker lies exactly here. He wants Andkin to see that the child he once tried to help still doesn't trust him, is still complaining about him, and even at the critical moment of life and death, won't save him."

"Is Bruce letting go on purpose? This actually doesn't matter. The Joker will make Andkin feel that if he was really hung up, he would also die incomparably miserably like this consumable."

"Human beings can never avoid the fear of death. The Joker can easily use this fear to guide Andkin, making him think that Bruce let go on purpose to take revenge on him, Bruce wants to kill him, if Bruce knows he is not dead, he will definitely use other ways to kill him, Bruce wants to kill him, wants to kill him..."

Alfred stood still in the kitchen, the plate holding lettuce leaves fell to the ground with a "pat" and shattered into pieces.

He followed his instinct and bent down to pick it up, but felt a hand supporting him. Looking up again, he saw Bruce's concerned expression. Bruce looked at the lettuce that fell to the ground with some regret, shook his head, and said.

"The Joker is good at breaking others like this, and then piecing them together according to his own will, so that they can walk to the position he designed in the posture he wants."

Bruce looked at Alfred, who was close at hand, and said: "Fighting with such a lunatic is destined to be long and difficult. I need your help, Alfred."

Looking at those azure eyes close at hand, the sea of emotions surging violently inside rushed into the blood flowing in that old and gray heart through the intersection of eyes.

At this moment, Alfred felt a kind of dizziness of being top-heavy. ===== CHAPTER 2158 =====