Chapter 2476: The Cape War (43)

Jason was startled awake, but his head was dizzy, and after being forcibly awakened, he had a splitting headache. He felt some clues appearing in his mind, but he couldn't concentrate at all to look at them.

Jason hadn't been this seriously ill for a long time. When he was Robin, his body was always strong, and colds and flu basically only needed one night of rest to be fine. For most of the time after that, the discomfort in his body was basically external injuries.

Jason had a strong tolerance for pain, so he was even more afraid of this situation where he felt uncomfortable everywhere but couldn't say where it was uncomfortable. What consumed his energy more than a headache was dizziness, sacroiliac joint pain, and what he couldn't stand even more was muscle weakness. The torture brought by this all-around weakness was no less than being covered in injuries.

Jason felt his throat swell up at a speed visible to the naked eye. Within a few minutes, he couldn't speak, his nose was completely blocked, his eyes were sore and swollen, and his eyeballs felt like they were going to roll out of their sockets.

Ben Parker and Aunt May immediately realized that this was a severe cold. Don't think that a cold is a minor illness; if it gets serious, it's just as fatal.

So they spent some effort to lift Jason onto the sofa in the living room, found an ice pack for physical cooling, and then began to rummage through the medicine box at home, using alcohol to wipe his back and arms.

Spider-Man soon returned, bringing fever-reducing medicine and syrup, and by the way, bought pancake mix, chocolate, and electrolyte drinks.

Jason could only vaguely see a few figures constantly turning around him, and the remaining consciousness was always sinking. When it was about to sink to the bottom, he recalled a serious illness he experienced when he was very young.

It was the same old story of getting caught in the rain. This was a problem that was hard to avoid in Cat Getan. It wasn't that you could solve it by holding an umbrella anytime, anywhere, because if you wanted to make a living on the street, it was hard to have the leisure to walk the streets with an umbrella. Most of the time, you were running.

Once the wind blew, the space an umbrella could cover was really limited. Cat Getan's children basically wore cheap raincoats, but raincoats didn't keep warm. If it was in a torrential rain, the washed-down rainwater would quickly take away body temperature until the whole body was cold.

That day Jason was also very anxious. A friend of his caused trouble and was beaten half to death at the back door of a gang nightclub. He was anxious to save the person, so he hurriedly put on his raincoat and rushed out the door.

It happened that the rain in Cat Getan was very heavy that day, bean-sized raindrops kept falling, and a small figure had no time to walk along the gap under the eaves, but was running wildly in the middle of the road.

How the matter was solved that day, Jason couldn't remember very clearly. He only remembered that after returning to the cellar where he often stayed, he began to feel hot all over, cold as if falling into an ice cave, and his whole body ached so much that he couldn't move.

At that time, Jason clearly realized that he was about to die.

Almost no child in Cat Getan could survive a serious illness, because they were often alone, had no relatives to take care of them, lacked medicine, and their nutrition couldn't keep up. The immune system was really unable to make a meal without rice. Let alone a severe cold, even if there was a small cut on the body, or even if the feet were worn out by running too much, it was possible to die from wound infection.

But Jason was different from them. He always didn't want to give up. Even if he knew he was likely not to survive, he had to hold on hard. He never had the thought of "since it's so miserable, why not just die."

During the whole process of fighting against the illness, he didn't want to give up for a moment. His mind was full of "live, live, live."

He had the foresight to store some food, which was the key to his survival. So even if his throat was so painful that swallowing was difficult, he still bit down on the food fiercely, chewed hard, and swallowed it in one breath, like a vicious wolf frantically tearing at the prey's internal organs.

The clean water was gone, and the rainwater flowing down from the cellar door wasn't impossible to drink. It was too cold, so Jason dug a flue from the brick seam on one side of the cellar to make a fire for himself.

This cold dragged on from severe to mild for a full month. Just the continuous fever lasted for more than ten days, but in the end, Jason defeated the illness. When he walked out of the cramped underground space again, Cat Getan happened to have a bright night.

From then on, he wanted to live even more, because he had survived such a predicament, so what difficulties couldn't be overcome? If he gave up later, wouldn't the previous suffering be in vain?

After being picked up by Batman, wealth gave Jason more room to think. He began to have time to think about why he wanted to live.

Batman gave him a goal, which was that fighting crime was upholding justice. For a long time, this was Jason's purpose for living. He wanted to make this city better, so that more people like him wouldn't have to suffer like this again.

But things were unpredictable. Jason was kidnapped by the Joker again. In the endless torture, he began to try his best just to survive, until that extreme pain completely distorted his original goal. He was no longer for justice, but for revenge.

After that long night, Jason's spirit was restarted by Schiller's treatment. Those distorted extreme thoughts were about to dissipate, and he returned to a wealthy and peaceful life again, which gave him leisure to reflect.

What could extreme violent behavior bring? Jason thought of Spider-Man standing alone at the entrance of the alley. He paid the price for Jason's momentary anger.

Ordinary people didn't have so much leisure to take revenge. They had to spend more time and energy on survival. Once they did something beyond their ability to bear, it meant there would inevitably be losses, which would only make them face more difficulties.

Batman could take revenge on criminals unscrupulously because he was Batman, and even more so Bruce Wayne. His genius wisdom and wealth that could rival a country made him have no worries, but ordinary people couldn't.

Ordinary people would make mistakes and have to spend time paying for their mistakes. Ordinary people would be conflicted and have to spend more energy to make up for the evil consequences of their hesitation. Ordinary people didn't have such strong willpower and needed longer entertainment and relaxation to maintain mental stability. They almost had no time or ability to engage in any ethereal revenge. If they insisted on doing it, they would either go crazy or die.

He should know this better than others, Jason thought, because he was an ordinary person, a poor little guy who climbed up from the very bottom of society.

Since that was the case, perhaps he should learn to live like an ordinary person, instead of doing some ethereal things completely unrelated to survival like now, making himself incomparably uncomfortable and dragging others down.

The most critical point was the last one. Spider-Man had told him that the Parker family's arrangement this afternoon should have been Uncle Ben going to fix the car, and Aunt May doing a big cleaning. After Peter finished his homework, he was going to move the Christmas tree into the house with Uncle Ben who came back.

But Jason got sick like this, and their plan was completely disrupted. Jason couldn't be left alone here, so at least Spider-Man and another person had to stay, because Spider-Man didn't know how to take care of a patient, but only he could move Jason. The only remaining person couldn't leave to take care of the food and daily life of these three people.

Their Christmas preparations were all ruined. Jason blinked slowly and thought, originally tonight they would have a decorated Christmas tree, Christmas dinner ingredients filling the refrigerator, and perhaps some happy topics at a family gathering. This was a rare relaxing time for them in a year, but it was all ruined by himself.

Because he regarded himself as a great detective, he had to figure out what was going on with that Bruce. Because he regarded himself as a thinker, he had to run to the river to blow the cold wind in the middle of the night.

Jason couldn't even say for sure whether Batman, after taking revenge for so many years, had also thought about the life of an ordinary person like him in the process, or he didn't dare to think about this question, because he had the answer in his heart.

Extending to all superheroes, it was the same. A small episode in the process of their fighting crime might be a disaster for ordinary people. The destroyed cars and shattered glass might all be bought by ordinary people at a high price. Because traffic was affected, fire trucks, ambulances, and employees rushing to send documents might all change the fate of many people because of this traffic jam.

Is their contribution to this society really greater than the destruction? Or rather, can this contribution and destruction compensate for each other? Can the fate trajectory of a specific person who slipped because of them be so easily hidden under the success of the grand narrative perspective?

Jason thought not. This couldn't be interconnected, and could never be offset. The development of the times and the replacement of social conditions were sometimes indeed not affected by the general public, but if everyone didn't pursue this and never took people's livelihood seriously, then the macro level would never develop in a good direction.

Jason's brain, which had been stirred into a paste by the high fever, kept recalling these thoughts, and then he reached a conclusion: this world needs heroes, but it doesn't need so many heroes. Living well as an ordinary person, isn't that also Batman's way of escaping reality?

Since that was the case, it was more important to solve his own predicament first. Jason finally relaxed the muscles of his back, curled up in the soft sofa, swallowed the medicine with some effort, drank a large glass of warm water, and then fell asleep.

The sleeping Jason was awakened by the smell of pancakes. He smelled the aroma of eggs, cream, and flour, and there seemed to be some sweetness of maple syrup. Clearly his nose was completely blocked, but these breaths just lingered around him.

Jason opened his eyes slowly and saw Spider-Man holding a pancake and shaking it over his head. Jason had just woken up, and Spider-Man showed a big smile and said, "You're awake? I said the Parker family's pancakes are a special medicine for colds. Want to eat some?"

Jason propped up his body with some effort, let his upper body stand upright slightly, and said with a dry breath, "Can you give me some water first?"

"Gladly." Spider-Man immediately handed the large glass of warm water at hand to Jason. Jason drank two sips, didn't feel anything, but soon tasted the sweetness and saltiness in the water.

"I put a little glucose syrup and salt." Spider-Man said, "You sweated a lot when you were sleeping just now. I helped you wipe it several times, and you seemed to be having nightmares, always muttering something about Batman. How do you feel now?"

"I... not bad."

Jason wasn't being stubborn. When he realized that if he wasn't a Robin now, nor a superhero, but just an ordinary person, he found that he had nothing to do.

And now all he could do was quietly be a patient and rest with peace of mind. ===== CHAPTER 2477 =====