Chapter 2184: Battle of the Two Cities! (Part 62)

Batman couldn't cook.

The definition of "can't" is roughly as follows:

"Alfred, I think we need measuring instruments more precise than an electronic scale. Considering the size of the kitchen, I think a balance scale would be good. What do you think?"

"No, sir, we don't need a balance scale."

"But I think the last failure was caused by insufficient weight of the starch. Updating equipment in a timely manner is conducive to reversing my mistakes in cooking."

"The mistake is not there, sir."

"Then where do you think it is? I'd be very happy to hear your advice."

"I cannot presumptuously express your mistake, because this way of describing it must be very unpleasant to you, and it is also very impolite and disrespectful. I suggest we skip this step."

"And then?"

"You can temporarily leave the kitchen. In short, go wait for the food."

This was the conversation that happened the last time Batman wanted to cook—incidentally, Batman was at least 30 years old at the time—this was basically his cooking level.

Chefs always say that cooking requires a certain amount of inspiration, but if Batman's rigor couldn't make the most basic dishes, then why couldn't he cook? I'm afraid one can only ask God. Some people just don't get along with the kitchen, which is why Alfred would say this answer wouldn't be liked by Batman.

Batman certainly wouldn't like it, because deep down he knew that if God really answered him, He would definitely point at his nose and scold, "If you only see eating as a process of ingesting nutrients necessary to maintain life, then you will never be able to make any delicious food."

This was the fundamental reason why Batman wasn't good at cooking. He felt from the bottom of his heart that both cooking and eating were a waste of time.

But the next morning, he was awakened by a burst of fragrance. Because he had been eating food made by Alfred for half his life, his brain instinctively identified that this wasn't Alfred cooking.

Actually, it was also because Alfred generally wouldn't cook curry in the morning. He believed that one should eat lighter in the morning; his butler had always disliked dishes with too many spices.

But curry was a dish composed of spices, so how could it not be fragrant? Thus, everyone in Wei En Manor got up at 7:30 in the morning for the first time in history and rushed to the kitchen.

"God, I just dreamed that I was chasing a Thanksgiving turkey and gnawing on it for ten miles." Jason, who was sleeping groggily, walked down shivering, like a cartoon character whose soul had been hooked, walking to the kitchen.

He saw Bruce standing in front of the stove stirring something. The fragrance was emanating from the pot. He walked to Bruce's side yawning and looked into the pot, seeing a lump of sticky stuff.

"Is this curry?"

"Of course. You can go wait for a while; it'll be ready in about half an hour."

"God, why does it still take so long!!" Tim behind him let out a wail, and then turned his head to add: "Of course, I don't mean the breakfast you make isn't good, Alfred, it's just that this is really too fragrant, I'm too hungry."

Thomas, wearing a nightcap, was also sleepy-eyed and poked his head out of the bedroom with a puzzled face, shouting: "Alfred, Alfred, what's the situation? Did we hire an Indian cook?"

Martha had already tidied up and walked out. She gently rubbed her wrists, walked to the kitchen, patted Bruce on the shoulder and said: "Are there enough spices? If not, we can send someone to Indian Street to buy some now."

"Of course there are enough, Mom, just right."

"I'm not sure I can eat these sticky things." Red Hood just opened his mouth, and Nightwing glared at him. Red Hood shrugged and said: "I'm not trying to spoil the fun, but the last time I went to an Indian restaurant, I almost threw up."

When Batman walked down, he saw Bruce's busy figure in the kitchen, and a circle of people surrounded the kitchen. Even Thomas was craning his neck to see what Bruce was doing.

But Bruce put down the spatula, walked to the door, blocked it, and said: "Why don't you go sit down?"

"What are you doing? Bruce." Thomas asked somewhat puzzled, "You can actually cook?"

"A little, not much, but I think if we're going to play soccer later, cold sandwiches and peanut butter won't provide enough energy. The mornings are getting colder and colder now."

Thomas swallowed the words questioning whether eating such heavy-flavored food in the morning would be a bit unhealthy. He turned around and drove the others to sit at the dining table.

And Batman had already sat at the dining table long ago. Could he not know himself? It would be a miracle if this stuff could be eaten.

As a result, to everyone's surprise, what Bruce served wasn't sticky curry with rice, but a pastry that looked like a large Italian dumpling.

"Wrapping curry in puff pastry makes the texture drier and it tastes more fragrant." Bruce shrugged and said: "I learned it from a chef in Hong Kong."

Everyone looked at the large dumplings one by one with some doubt. Jason picked one up first and took a bite. The rich curry soup immediately flowed out, containing chicken, potatoes, and an unknown vegetable.

Jason stuffed the remaining large half into his mouth, gave a thumbs up while chewing. Alfred served them hot milk, coffee, and tea. Jason picked up a cup of milk and poured it down, letting out a long "Ah—".

Of course, the main force of breakfast was still toasted toast, fried eggs, and ham, but the curry dumplings still became the dish most favored by everyone. A plate of seven or eight would be snatched up as soon as it was served.

"I really didn't expect you to have such good cooking skills, Bruce." Martha looked at Bruce with a smile and said: "Fortunately, you didn't inherit this from your father. You don't know how many things he messed up in the kitchen."

"Not that many, your mother is used to exaggerating."

Batman, who had finished his toast and fried eggs at the fastest speed, stood up, wiped his mouth, took off his napkin, put it back on the table, and walked back upstairs without a word.

His movements were light and carried no emotion, but his departure still brought at least 20 seconds of silence, until Thomas deliberately made a sound to break this silence.

"Hurry up, boys, you need time to digest before you can play soccer."

Martha also finished the food on her plate quickly. After tidying up, she stood up, nodded to Thomas, and walked upstairs.

She gently pushed open the door of Batman's room and saw him standing by the table tidying things up. Martha reached out and gently patted his back and said: "You ate a bit too little. Shall I have Alfred send some more up?"

Batman shook his head. Martha looked out the window and said: "Then at least go watch the soccer match. The children are all looking forward to it. They will be happier if you go."

"I'll watch from here." Batman turned around to look at Martha and said: "I'll go to the company after it's over. I'll have someone send the recent reports to you."

Before Martha left, she sighed helplessly, stood by the door frame, and shook her head. Thomas, who had already changed his clothes, hung his suit jacket on his forearm and waited for her at the top of the stairs.

"I know this isn't his fault, but I'm still very worried." Martha said while holding the stair railing and walking down: "He doesn't look happy, Thomas, but the most terrible thing is that he has become accustomed to this unhappiness."

"This is his choice." Thomas still looked angry. He turned and strode down the stairs, but finally paused and said: "Perhaps we are just unwilling to accept that we missed too much."

Later, Dick's friends arrived. They walked in groups toward the lawn in the back garden, where there was a large open space enough for them to play soccer.

The participants, besides Dick, Jason, and Tim, included Damian. Although Damian was young, he wasn't an ordinary person after all, and not holding back a bit would be considered bullying them.

And the older ones couldn't play anymore, so they became tactical guides for Jason's team. Bruce was the coach, Thomas acted as the referee, Alfred was responsible for logistics, and Martha was the only spectator.

Of course, perhaps not the only one. Batman stood in front of the bedroom window on the second floor, quietly observing the match.

In fact, it was very difficult for children of this age to execute tactics. They weren't young enough to be that obedient, had their own ideas and judgment abilities for various things, and were always whimsical, more willing to follow their own ideas.

They weren't old enough to understand the important influence of teamwork on the situation, only feeling that if everyone performed their best, victory would be within reach, inevitably complaining about teammates who made mistakes.

Because they had communicated tactics the night before, they initially achieved an overwhelming advantage. From Batman's perspective, the turning point appeared in the disconnection between the front and back positions, with the rear players failing to run in time, giving the opponent an opportunity.

But the children only saw the surface phenomenon, which was that Jason didn't defend against the opponent's flank attack, leading to them losing the most important first goal. The conflict broke out just like that.

The atmosphere on the field seemed a bit tense because this group of children were Dick's friends and didn't know Jason. They were also slightly older than Jason and felt they should have more say, but Dick, as a forward, defended Jason more, so they felt they had been betrayed.

During halftime, the atmosphere on the field was already very wrong. They were all silent, holding their breath, and the three older Robins sitting on the coaching bench couldn't help it either, because they could see better that this wasn't Jason's problem.

Bruce stepped forward first to stop them, and then pulled the participating team members together. When one of the team members started to talk about Jason's problem, he stopped Dick and Jason from refuting and let the other party finish speaking.

The other party had a lot of momentum at first, analyzed a lot, and felt the problem was that Jason didn't defend against the opposite side. However, he was speaking fluently there alone, and others couldn't interject, while Jason and the others were stopped by Bruce and didn't talk back. In the end, only he was speaking among the group.

Many people would encounter this situation. When they were speaking, the field would become quiet as they spoke, and then they would inevitably suspect if they had said something wrong.

That child's momentum weakened. Only then did Bruce let Jason speak, while letting Dick stand with his friends. Halfway through Jason's speech, the other party wanted to interject and refute, but was stopped by Dick again.

After a few rounds, only one person was speaking on the field at a time, so they couldn't argue. In the end, they also realized that being a backseat driver here was useless because they had already lost a point, and thinking about how to equalize the score next was the most important thing.

Bruce gathered them together again, and then let the three Robins on the coaching bench start to analyze the situation. Among them, Dick and Damian played an extremely important role, because Damian looked like Bruce, and Dick's surname was Wei En. They were playing soccer in the Wei En family garden, so no matter how big the anger was, it would be extinguished by these two basins of cold water.

Soon they finalized the tactics again and made personnel adjustments. The anger that hadn't been vented on their teammates was all vented on the competition field. They were all holding their breath, wanting to prove it wasn't their problem, and finally successfully equalized two points and won the match.

After the match, Batman saw Bruce and Martha walk together. Martha smiled at Bruce and said: "You play soccer much better than your father, and more importantly, you understand what the children are thinking better than him."

"Maybe it's because I became a father at a younger age, which is a very lucky thing." Bruce said: "I am closer to them, so I can understand their thoughts better, because the era when I thought like this wasn't long ago."

Martha immediately laughed backward and forward, saying: "It's really hard to imagine you arguing with others because of playing soccer. In my impression, you weren't a child who was easily excited."

"People always change." Bruce lowered his head and smiled and said: "The same goes for children. Jason's temper is worse because he once had a long period of street life with no one to rely on. His bad temper is his armor and weapon."

"If you lose some things, you have to grow more things to defend the parts where you are missing."

Martha's eyes dimmed slightly. She gently stroked Bruce's face and said: "I am very glad that we haven't missed too much. I think it's very good now."

"Because you are back, yes." ===== CHAPTER 2185 =====