Chapter 55: Chapter Fifty-Four: Storm Before the Rain

“Alright, next, I’ll go over the key points for this semester’s final exam. Please open your textbooks to page one, and we’ll start from the table of contents, going through every section from Chapter 1 to the final section of Chapter 10—all of it is essential…”

“Flip forward—the first fifty pages of this book must be memorized, every conceptual statement will appear as a fill-in-the-blank question on the exam. After the end of Section 3 in Chapter 2 on page 60, the remaining content will include essay and short-answer questions…”

“Additionally, I’ll select key portions from the material after Chapter 7 to use as prompts for your final papers. The paper is still 3,000 words. The exam and paper are weighted 7:3, and the exam and class participation are weighted 6:4.”

“In other words, if you don’t score well on the exam, you will fail.”

“Also, following Gotham University’s longstanding tradition, starting next academic year, I will be organizing and launching an additional psychology elective course. To enroll, you must score above 85 on this final exam. Related clubs and societies are also being planned—students interested in becoming lead organizers or club presidents may come to my office after class.”

“That’s all for today. Dismissed.”

Shi Le closed his book and walked out of the classroom; only then did the students relax and burst into groans.

“My God! This book is thicker than my fist—I’m supposed to memorize all of it?!”

“Do you think if I fail, he’ll shoot me?”

“I’ve never seen him with any pistol or revolver—I bet he uses cold weapons, like a combat knife or a blade.”

“Who remembers what Chapter 3 even said? Where do the essay questions start?”

“Help! Wensi! Wensi! Are you here? Do you have notes? Quick, let me see—damn it, I’ve spent half this semester showing up only after I’ve smoked, and I didn’t hear a thing!”

“If my dad knew how hard I’m studying in college, he’d cry with pride!”

Bruce sat among the crowd, but he wasn’t as panicked as the others—for him, memorizing a book wasn’t difficult.

He wanted to discuss something with Shi Le—about building a private prison—but he could tell Shi Le was in a terrible mood, so Bruce hesitated and didn’t follow him out.

A while later, Wensi approached him and asked, “Did you hear what the professor said about clubs and societies? I really want to be the lead organizer—you know, I’ve been handling class discipline and assignments for this course, but I’d like your opinion on the society. Are you planning to join?”

Bruce understood Wensi’s meaning: at Gotham University, there weren’t just interest clubs, but study societies too. Popular courses often formed their own study societies—essentially extra tutoring provided by the professor. But any society involved funding, and many clubs tried to recruit Bruce because he was a billionaire.

Yet Bruce had never joined any serious society—he hated the administrative work and didn’t want people chasing him for money.

But the psychology society was different—he thought he might gain some useful insights there. So he told Wensi, “I’ll ask the professor if he can give me the position of club president. As for the club, I’m not interested—you can handle both the course and the club as lead organizer.”

Bruce knew Wensi was Falcone’s son, but such family backgrounds were common in Gotham—there were at least six or seven sons of crime bosses in this very class; Wensi’s father was just the strongest.

The people Bruce usually hung out with were mostly nephews or sons of major crime lords—in a sense, Batman’s other identity was already deep undercover.

As for why Shi Le was in such a bad mood, it started this morning.

In the Marvel universe, Obadiah had been revived, but he remained extremely weak. His heart functioned well enough, but as Strange said, he was simply too old—his bodily functions were too degraded, and he still needed intensive care. Stark had been staying by his side constantly—he was Obadiah’s only living relative, and even Pepper couldn’t interrupt their bond.

Rhodes had temporarily left the military, saying he hadn’t taken a vacation in years. So, just before Shi Le’s departure, he joined Dr. Ison on an Antarctic research expedition and left New York for now.

Although many mysteries surrounding Iron Man remained unsolved, everything had temporarily calmed down.

So Shi Le returned to Gotham.

This morning, he found Gotham’s weather unusually good—though a thin fog still lingered, faint sunlight managed to pierce through and fall on the ground. It was rare.

So he decided to take advantage of this rare opportunity and use one of his random chat opportunities. After the Iron Man incident, he’d gained another chat chance—but he still had one left from last time—so now he had two.

But as expected, Gotham, that cursed land of genius and madness, lived up to its reputation. Shi Le opened the chat panel, clicked “random chat.”

The profile picture that appeared showed a man with black hair and a green eye patch.

Shi Le nearly slammed the system shut in panic.

Green Lantern!

Yes—it was the Green Lantern played by the same actor as Deadpool!

Deadpool hadn’t appeared, yet he was everywhere. Shi Le had never met Deadpool, but he was already surrounded by him.

“I have to ask you—have you ever seen any strange flying objects? I mean, the traditional kind—flying saucers…”

Soon, Green Lantern sent a message.

From the text, Shi Le deduced that Hal, the Green Lantern, was likely encountering a crashed alien spacecraft—the very event through which he’d received the alien’s orphaned green lantern ring.

Shi Le clicked the profile—sure enough, Hal’s power couldn’t yet be replicated, because he hadn’t yet become Green Lantern.

So Shi Le replied: “I vaguely remember seeing a few. Why? Did you spot a UFO? I can recommend a website—it’s full of such records. You can browse through them carefully.”

“I’ve checked them all—including every UFO database worldwide—but what they recorded were things flying in the sky.”

“Then what did you see? If it’s not flying in the sky, how is it a UFO?”

“Oh, it… of course! It certainly flew in the sky once. No, no, never mind… forget it…”

Hal had realized he shouldn’t reveal so much to a stranger he’d just met on a forum—if the other person learned he’d found a crashed alien craft, he might be targeted by the military.

Shi Le sighed. Regardless of what abilities the Green Lantern ring might grant him, the fact that Green Lantern was another Deadpool was already unbearable. He hoped Green Lantern followed the comic book version—please, not another chatterbox.

In the afternoon, Shi Le’s mood improved slightly. Then Gordon came to see him and asked, “Have you seen Falcone recently?”

“Yes, why?”

In Gotham, dealing with crime families wasn’t shameful—or rather, no one could avoid it.

In Gotham, being able to exchange a few words with the Don was something to be proud of.

Gordon said, “Our new police chief seems to be one of the Don’s men. Of course, that’s not surprising—but I want to know how he plans to handle this mess.”

“I know Falcone was once an aggressive hawk, but recently he’s seemed to shift toward conservatism. I just want to know in advance—where is Gotham PD heading?”

A police chief who’s a crime boss’s man sounded absurd—but in Gotham, it was normal. Gordon was a righteous cop, but he understood Gotham’s ecosystem better than anyone—he wouldn’t be a reckless fool trying to overthrow all order alone.

On the contrary, he sought a unique path within complex power struggles, which meant he had to maintain relationships with all factions.

“I became the Don’s tutor, teaching his son. You’re right—he’s grown increasingly conservative lately, probably because he’s getting old.”

“You don’t need to worry he’ll take drastic actions. On the contrary, in a way, he might help you crack down on troublemakers.”

Shi Le sat down and poured Gordon a cup of coffee. “Last time I visited his home, several family heads were in a meeting. I heard the eastern docks have been unstable lately…”

Gordon sighed. “I just found out—the Edward family, who’ve controlled five eastern docks for years, had an internal upheaval. Young Edward killed his father and quarreled with his uncle.”

“You know how vital those docks are—sixty percent of Gotham’s smuggling comes through them.”

“I heard the Edward family is ancient—a native Gotham clan, even older than Falcone.”

“I can’t say for sure. I just dealt with a shootout there yesterday. The new chief has already been invited by Young Edward. I came to ask you because I want to know—does Falcone plan to intervene? And if he does, will he side with Young Edward?”

“If Young Edward really takes over the Edward family…” Gordon sighed, “he’s a complete radical. Unlike Old Edward, he won’t restrict dangerous goods. Gotham will descend into chaos again.”

“When has Gotham ever been anything but this mess? Don’t worry—right now, the police can’t do anything about it. Worst case, you just run more cleanup ops.”

“As for the Don…” Shi Le shook his head, “I can only say that, compared to enemies, Falcone is now more like your friend and ally.”

“He wants Gotham stable even more than you do.”