Chapter 411: Who Has Bad Luck, I Won't Say (Part 1)

An English folk song drifted from the counter of a dimly lit bar. Along with the "hiss" of the cassette tape, the music cut out. A hand pressed on the radio, and the long-haired bartender patted the malfunctioning radio, shaking his head helplessly.

A customer's bell at the bar called him over. As soon as he turned, he saw a blond man drunk at the table. The bartender sighed helplessly, walked up, pushed the man's shoulder, and said: "Mr. Constantine, are you alright?"

"The radio... why isn't it playing?" Constantine mumbled. The bartender took a glass from the shelf and said while wiping it: "That old radio was left by the boss's father. It's too old, so it breaks often."

Constantine did not look up, just slowly raised a hand. The bartender saw his fingers under the light—distinct knuckles, slender and elegant, somewhat different from his decadent temperament.

He snapped his fingers lightly. With a "crack," the radio sparked, and the music played again.

The bartender was startled and took two steps back, but not because of this magical phenomenon. Constantine was a regular here, and everyone here knew this decadent man had some special powers.

The bartender placed the wiped glass on the bar and asked: "The usual?"

"Yes, and an extra ginger juice."

"Ginger juice?" After hearing this word, the bartender revealed a difficult expression and said: "You mean that medicine used to treat colds? But we only have alcohol here..."

"Give me a glass."

Constantine finally straightened up from the bar, covering his head. The dizziness from the drug's euphoria had not yet dissipated. His vision was a bit blurry. He saw a glass reflecting shining light placed on the bar. He pointed at it lightly with his hand, and it filled with ginger juice.

Just after he finished all this, a black shadow appeared in the corner of the bar. Constantine did not turn back; he just moved his body to the side, as if leaving a seat for someone.

The shadow walked up. He wore black armor, a black cape on his back, and two pointed ears on his head. Constantine leaned his head on his hand, tilted his head to look at him, and said: "If I were designing a uniform, I would definitely choose to expose the chin, otherwise I wouldn't be able to drink... *cough cough*..."

Batman picked up the glass. He could already smell the strong scent of ginger. Constantine watched his expression and chuckled: "Don't you like using ginger juice instead of alcohol? Don't you plan to take a sip?"

Batman put the glass down again. Constantine took the real alcohol handed over by the bartender, took a sip, and bared his teeth, seemingly frozen by it. He said: "... It's truly magical. I've never drunk alcohol as cold as this in a Cat Getan bar anywhere else..."

"Do you have any secret?" Constantine asked the bartender.

"Cat Getan's cold chain is very famous now," the bartender continued wiping the glass and said: "At the beginning of this year, four large ice-making factories were built. The quality of our ice cubes here is very good; not only is the temperature very low, but they don't melt easily."

Constantine took another sip of alcohol. Batman looked at him. Constantine shook his head and said: "I know what you want to ask. Magic... magic..."

He seemed drunk, tilted his head to the side again, leaned on his arm, and said: "You've been following me for these past few days just to get an answer from me. But I told you long ago, kid, don't think about using magic to resurrect anyone..."

Batman stared at him silently. Constantine said again like a prophet: "I know, people like you are all like this. If you don't figure out the principle, you won't completely deny the possibility of a thing."

"However, in the process of you trying to figure out the principle, the price you have to pay is far more than you imagine."

Constantine picked up the glass but didn't drink; instead, he pressed the glass against his face, as if that coldness could make his brain clearer. He said: "I was once like you, full of curiosity about these things. I thought, if I hadn't truly pursued it, how could I know it wasn't my way out?"

"But this is magic. It seduces you to explore, to verify, and then lets you lose everything in this process. Finally, you discover that the process of losing everything is magic itself."

"This is not equivalent exchange," Constantine shook his head and continued: "It's not that you pay something and can resurrect someone, but that in the process of resurrecting someone, you have already lost everything."

That English folk tune kept playing. Batman's hand holding the glass looked younger. Although his physique had grown to be indistinguishable from an adult's, from the knuckles of his fingers, one could see he was still a teenager.

Seeing his hand, Constantine recalled his former self—that young, naive, healthy self, like a summer oak.

He thought, fortunately, he met the young Batman at this time. If the two ages were swapped, or if they met at the same age, it would really cause a huge mess.

Batman stayed in the Cat Getan bar for the longest time ever. That tune kept echoing in his mind, making him think of the English countryside. He didn't remember when he had also heard such a tune from Alfred's mouth.

When the old butler's face appeared before Batman, he stood up from the bar chair, put down the glass, and turned to leave.

On the way back to Wei En Manor, Batman keenly felt that this winter was exceptionally cold, so much so that when he saw the familiar architecture of Wei En Manor, he felt a hint of warmth in his heart.

However, Batman's movement of opening his own front door was exceptionally careful. Even when passing through the courtyard, he didn't have his usual wind-like posture; instead, he lightened his steps and walked inside slowly.

Coming to the manor's staircase, Batman looked at the grappling hook fixed on his arm. In the past, he would have fired the grappling hook directly to the balcony, then leaped up and returned to his room.

But he still chose to take the stairs.

Expecting Batman to walk the stairs properly was actually a very difficult thing, because he was always good at using all kinds of methods to appear in all kinds of places he shouldn't appear, regardless of whether there was a path up or not.

Therefore, just as he was walking up the stairs quite carefully, he didn't notice that the somewhat old stair railing of Wei En Manor had loosened. Just as he reached the third floor and intended to take the last step, he instinctively reached out to steady himself on the railing, and then, the wooden railing made an extremely slight "creak" under his hand.

Batman's heart suddenly skipped a beat. He turned his head quickly and indeed saw a small black shadow rushing over from the end of the second-floor corridor like the wind.

It was a little girl with black hair and blue eyes, looking very much like him. At this moment, she was wearing pajamas, rubbing her eyes in confusion, and then looking at Batman in the dark night with those glowing eyes.

Logically speaking, in this situation, Batman's first action should be to reach directly for the Batarang at his waist, followed immediately by turning on his night-vision goggles to gain a visual advantage.

But this time, his first action was to stretch out a hand, fold down the other four fingers, leaving only one index finger, and place it by his mouth, making a "shh" gesture to the little girl.

The little girl frowned, sniffed hard, and revealed a somewhat confused expression. Then she ran up the stairs "thump, thump, thump," came to Batman's side, and sniffed hard twice more.

Batman shook his head at her. Just as he reached out to cover her mouth, the little girl opened her big mouth full of sharp teeth and let out an earth-shattering "Wah!"

Instantly, Wei En Manor was brightly lit.

A few minutes later, Batman, holding Aisha, appeared on the sofa in the manor's hall. Aisha was biting Batman's bracer with her sharp teeth. Batman kept a straight face and said to Alfred opposite him: "No, I didn't drink."

The old butler's gaze fell on Aisha. Aisha, who couldn't understand human speech very well, seemed to have suddenly awakened with infinite wisdom. She let go, jumped to the other side of the sofa, and while jumping up and down, pointed at Batman, constantly "wah-wah-wah-ing."

Dick walked out from upstairs with his eyes closed, holding the railing and staggering down the stairs, clearly very sleepy.

After walking down, he stretched and yawned. Alfred walked over first, patted his back, and said to him: "Go back to sleep, Young Master. There won't be any more noise to disturb you."

Dick kept his eyes closed, but he shook his head, walked to Batman's side, pulled his arm, and said: "You didn't go to that kind of place again, did you?"

"I didn't," Batman denied immediately, but Aisha continued to raise her volume, screaming constantly. Batman walked over helplessly, picked her up. Dick rubbed his eyes and said: "Aisha says you smell like alcohol. Did you go to a bar?"

Batman remained silent. He looked down at Aisha. Aisha's mouth could still only emit meaningless screams.

Batman glanced at Aisha, then at Dick, then at Alfred, who was staring at him. He wondered if these three people had some secret language they could use to communicate. He couldn't hear any syllables in Aisha's screams that could be analyzed for information.

Aisha struggled hard to jump out of Batman's arms, then ran to Alfred's side, tugged on his pant leg, and pointed at Batman, constantly "wah-wah-wah-ing."

After Alfred picked her up, she immediately stopped screaming. Alfred held Aisha and said to Batman: "Master, although you are now the father of two children, in reality, you have not yet reached adulthood."

"Always going to places that are not conducive to the physical and mental health of minors, I'm afraid it's very difficult to set an example for two children."

I don't know if it was Batman's hallucination, but he felt he heard murderous intent in Alfred's tone. He heard the old butler say:

【Book: *Deceiving Kangxi*】

"I don't know how that scumbag from London named Constantine seduced you, but I hope that in his remaining time, he will not tarnish the reputation of his hometown again."

"Otherwise, as his fellow countryman, I feel I have the necessity to teach him the etiquette of a gentleman."

At this moment, Constantine, still dead drunk in the bar, didn't know why, but felt a bone-chilling coldness rise up his back. He shivered violently, sensed the situation around him, but found no danger.

This coldness was like a shadow, but its source was unknown. Constantine turned his head left and right helplessly. Suddenly, he saw the ginger juice he had conjured. He reached out to pick up the glass, pinched his nose, and drank it in one gulp.

That spiciness finally made him feel warmth. He coughed hard twice, sneezed again, and broke into a cold sweat. ===== CHAPTER 412 =====