Chapter 76: Cat Getan 1987 (Part I)

The slightly cold morning breeze made the tree branches outside the window rustle, and the orange morning light shone through the layers of thick curtains, illuminating the dim room.

The bedroom door was knocked. Shiler turned over, and the manservant outside said: "Sir, ten minutes ago, a Mr. Gordon called you. I told him you would return his call after you got up."

Shiler said slowly with a slightly hoarse voice: "... Understood."

He sat up from the bed, woke up from his still-drowsy sleepiness, then walked to the window and pulled aside one side of the curtain with one hand. He saw the milkman riding a bicycle ringing the bell at the gate, and soon someone went out to take the milk bottle from his hand.

This was a manor in the West District of Cat Getan, and also Shiler's new home in Cat Getan.

Although the teacher's apartment at Cat Getan University was not bad, he really should buy a house of his own.

This was the old city area of Cat Getan. Unlike the rich area in the south, this was an area established by a group of British aristocrats when European immigrants first arrived in the Americas. Therefore, most of the buildings here were traditional British manors. Later, because of the tilt in urban planning and the more superior geographical location in the south, the rich area moved from the west to the south.

The old manors left here mostly carried a classical English style. However, because the descendants of those aristocrats rarely continued to stay here, most of these manors were uninhabited. Shiler bought one of the best-maintained ones with a decoration style he liked most at a very good price.

He didn't buy a house in the southern rich area, not because he couldn't afford it, but because of a very realistic reason—the manor located in the west was closer to his workplace, Cat Getan University.

And to go to work from the southern rich area, he would have to drive thousands of miles, crossing most of Cat Getan City.

The most fatal thing was that he also had to cross the center city area, which was the most congested during peak hours.

Therefore, no matter how luxurious the villas in the southern rich area were, they were absolutely not within Shiler's range of choice. He was not Bruce Wei En; once there was a traffic jam, he would just take a helicopter. He didn't want to spend most of his day on the road.

Choosing an old-fashioned manor in the West District had another advantage: there were fewer people here, it was relatively quiet, and there wouldn't be cars coming and going early in the morning. On his days off, Shiler could have a good sleep.

Most importantly, this place was very far from Wei En Manor and very far from the mountain where Bruce wanted to build the Batcave in the future. In the future, if Batman encountered the Joker, the area-of-effect attack wouldn't reach him here.

After a while, the manservant walked in, opened the curtains and tied them up, then said: "Breakfast is ready, sir."

Shiler nodded, took the glasses case he handed over, put on his glasses, looked down at his watch and said: "When did Gordon call?"

"About 25 minutes ago."

Shiler looked back at the window again, then went downstairs for breakfast.

Following the wooden stairs downward, passing through a somewhat dark corridor, the dining room was at the westernmost end of the manor building. Walking into the corridor, it was a semicircular dining room with tall arched windows. Dark green silk curtains hung on both sides of the windows. On the mahogany dining table, silver tableware shimmered with a mysterious luster in the faint morning light.

The morning light shining in from the arched windows fell on the dining table. The grid projected by the windows and the round tableware formed a painting of light and shadow. Shiler picked up the ironed newspaper from his right hand.

The ink on the printed newspaper was a bit smudged. The top line read: "January 25, 1987, cloudy, rain in the afternoon, Cat Getan Daily."

While eating breakfast, Shiler looked for the information he needed from the newspaper. The font of newspapers in this era was often printed very small, and the ink was easy to blur into a ball. He had to use a magnifying glass.

After a while, the manservant walked in and said: "Mr. Gordon is here."

Shiler put down the magnifying glass in his hand and looked up. Gordon was wearing a brown trench coat and a beret. When he walked into the dining room, he still carried the unscattered chill. Seeing Shiler reading the newspaper, Gordon said: "Have you seen the news today? The Godfather is angry. He doesn't allow ships from Metropolis to dock at the eastern pier."

"I'm just reading this part." Shiler pushed his glasses and said: "I stayed up late writing a paper last night and just missed your call this morning."

Gordon took off his trench coat and said: "I don't have anything urgent either. You know, my work hasn't been busy lately. I just wanted to call to congratulate you on your move to a new home. Oh, by the way, my gift is still in the car..."

"No rush. Have you had breakfast? Why don't you sit down and eat something?"

Gordon handed the coat he took off to the manservant and said: "I went to the bureau first this morning and have already eaten. I brought you the information you asked me to find."

As he spoke, he put a black briefcase on the table and started searching, then took out a document from it and handed it to Shiler.

Shiler said: "Thank you for your hard work. Even if you've eaten, have a cup of hot milk."

Gordon didn't refuse. He sat down at the dining table and said: "At first, you said you wanted to take over Viscount Bernard's manor, and I was a bit strange. After all, there aren't many people who like this kind of old-fashioned manor now."

"Now the rich people in Cat Getan still prefer that kind of vertical villa, preferably with a large garage, so they can park all their luxury cars in it."

Gordon looked around. The decoration here was the most typical British style: silk curtains, knitted carpets, wooden furniture, paired with a stone fireplace, the fire inside crackling. Even without getting close, one could feel a warmth.

The dining room of the old manor was not too big, and the corridor was relatively narrow. On the wall, one could even see vintage metal wall-mounted candle holders. The atmosphere in the whole building seemed to have traveled back to the Victorian era.

Gordon withdrew his gaze and said: "But now it looks like it suits you very well."

"It's not that I have a special fondness for British manors, it's just that if I bought a house in the south, it would be too far from my workplace. Cat Getan's terrible traffic conditions might make me miss all my morning classes."

Gordon picked up the cup and took a sip of milk and said: "Who isn't? Every time I go to the police station to work, I get blocked by that group of damn people at the central roundabout. You know, I got first place in the driving class at the police training school!"

"This damn ghost place, everyone is a desperado. They never consider that in a roundabout where hundreds of cars are moving at the same time, stepping on the accelerator to the end might make them be suffocated by the popped-out airbag!" Gordon said quite angrily.

"It can be seen that you should have been blocked for a while just now." Shiler said while laughing.

"On my way here, I saw at least ten genius racing drivers who could win the F1 championship." Gordon said somewhat depressed.

"Speaking of which, this is also to blame on our new chief. The police station doesn't have enough manpower, so we can't transfer all the traffic police away, right? In the past few days, several newcomers have been transferred to my group. They don't understand anything and want to rush up with guns."

Gordon shook his head and said: "It would be better to go back and direct their traffic!"

"The police's days are better, and it has something to do with this chief. Just bear with it."

Gordon put down the cup and rubbed his hands, somewhat excitedly saying: "But I'll soon be able to buy an apartment next to the police station."

"Have you saved enough money?"

"Almost. Can you imagine? Last week I earned 80,000 dollars. Even if there isn't such a high income next week, as long as I save a bit more, I can buy an apartment in full."

"How come there is so much? The cases last week shouldn't be too many, at most only 50,000 dollars, right?" Shiler turned to ask him while eating.

Gordon raised his eyebrows and said: "Oh, I forgot, you are not a local. No matter where you go in Cat Getan, you have to pay protection money, and the police are the same. I am now the head of the field team, and all the police under me have to pay 15% of their income to me."

"So you just accepted it? Like a gang boss?" Shiler joked.

"You don't understand this place. If you don't accept it, they will be afraid, because in Cat Getan, if you accept their money, it means you are willing to lead them to continue working. If you don't accept it, they will worry that this business will be gone tomorrow."

"I heard you are going to marry your fiancée? Is she in Cat Getan now? When do you plan to hold the wedding?"

Gordon coughed and said: "She is going through the procedures for job transfer. The company in Metropolis is particularly troublesome to hand over, at least it will take a week. But that's fine, I can have some time to buy the apartment I've been eyeing, and I can also give her a surprise."

Shiler shook the newspaper in his hand, then looked and said: "Have you thought about what wedding gift you want? I'm very rich now."

"Really? Richer than Wei En?"

Shiler rolled his eyes and said: "If I were richer than him, you wouldn't see me here."

"Actually, if I hadn't earned so much money, I wouldn't have wanted to get engaged so quickly. Maybe I would be on vacation in Hawaii by now."

"I thought you worked all year round."

"Forget it, then I would go crazy. I have to have a good body and a good mood to live long in this damn city."

Shiler took a cigar from the cigar box on the table, picked up the scissors to cut it, and handed it to Gordon. Gordon took it, and Shiler took the matches handed over by the manservant, struck one, and lit the cigar for Gordon.

Then he also took one and lit it. He exhaled a puff of smoke and said: "The Godfather has been in a very bad mood recently. Some bold people want to come to his territory to act wild."

Gordon stretched out the hand holding the cigar, changed his posture, leaned on the armrest of the chair, sighed comfortably, and said: "Why do you want me to check the information on Cat Getan's floating population? Is there something wrong with Metropolis? I heard that the group of people who angered the Godfather came from Metropolis."

"If I say this is trouble that followed me, would you feel a bit surprised?"

"Of course not." Gordon denied it almost without thinking.

"When I first met you, I had a feeling that you must be someone who can cause big trouble."

"Why?"

"You can take it as a detective's intuition."

"Interesting, can you elaborate?"

"I've seen many criminals, they are different..." Gordon straightened up, supported his wrists on the table, and said: "... completely different. Those stupid thieves are completely different from real major criminals."

"I've never heard any serial killer yell at a judge or be disrespectful. They have a temperament different from ordinary people..."

"When you face Batman, I always feel like you are looking in a mirror."

"You think I'm very similar to him? Are you serious?"

"Some places are completely different, but some places are surprisingly consistent."

Shiler looked at Gordon and said: "Keep this sharpness, and you will become the savior of Cat Getan."

Gordon knocked the ash on the silver dinner plate and said: "The Godfather is in a difficult situation this time. The group of people who mixed in seems to have some tricks. They killed two bartenders of the Falcone family. If the Godfather doesn't catch them in a short time, losing face in Cat Getan is more serious than anything else."

"The gangs shouldn't dare to provoke the Godfather in a short time, right?" Shiler put down the newspaper and leaned back on the chair.

"It's hard to say, don't underestimate those people. Don't forget, Ma Luoni is not dead yet. He made a fortune in the conflict in the East District, and perhaps he is planning to challenge the Godfather."

"He is looking for death." The smoke fell with the words. Shiler stretched his hand out, flicked the cigar with his fingertips, and fine dust slowly drifted down.

"Not necessarily. The Godfather somehow bypassed him and had the old chief Victor killed. I heard he also wanted to get involved in Arkham Hospital, but was kicked out by the Godfather. Ma Luoni can't swallow this breath."

"The East District is not peaceful. Ma Luoni is eager to suppress the forces he has incorporated. He needs a victory to establish his prestige and completely gather the fresh blood he has just absorbed."

"He dares to use the Godfather to establish his prestige, Falcone will let him learn." Shiler leaned back on the chair, tugged at the collar of his sweater, and looked very relaxed.

Gordon coughed twice more. He squinted his eyes through the smoke from the tip of the cigar, staring at the reflection on the silver dinner plate, and said: "Ma Luoni is a formidable person, and the Godfather is already old."

"You are more optimistic about him?"

"No, I hope the old Godfather can win. As long as Falcone is still there, Cat Getan won't be too chaotic. Once he is gone, it's hard to say."

Soon, Gordon left. After all, he still had work to do. Recently, it was his peak season. If he worked hard for another month, buying a villa wouldn't be a problem.

After Gordon left, Shiler leaned on the chair and finished the whole cigar. The smoke lingered at his fingertips. He hadn't thought so relaxedly for a long time.

In this city full of crises, if safety wasn't confirmed, he didn't even have the time to rest for a cigarette.

Before this, Shiler had never thought about buying a house, nor did he need a home, because he was not a Gothamite. He came from the safest country of order in the world.

Accompanied by the burning of the cigar, the smoke, which was several times richer than cigarettes, drifted into various elusive abstract shapes, making people have countless associations. In that psychedelic and sweet smell, Shiler began to recall.

He couldn't quite remember, after leaving his hometown, when he first encountered a shooting in Chicago, what was the first emotion that arose—was it shock or excitement?

He only remembered that when the plane fell, in the life memories that came with weightlessness and hypoxia, the strange waves he participated in for half his life blurred into a fog. Just as they wished, when these memories dissipated with death, countless secrets were buried forever.

If there really is a God in this world, Shiler thought, then this great existence that can give people a second life really knows him well enough.

Cat Getan is the sewer of the world's sins, and good people will not be flushed into the sewer.

Shiler looked at the tip of the cigar at his fingertips. The fire there gradually extinguished, the smoke began to become thin, and the patterns it turned into began to slowly dissipate.

He knew that when he regained consciousness and learned from the original owner's memory that this was Cat Getan City, the excitement that filled his brain for the first time would eventually destroy all his wild hopes for a peaceful life.

Or rather, the enjoyment of the boring and mediocre ordinary daily life was from beginning to end just the self-deception of a madman who was proficient in self-hypnosis, until he saw the appearance of Batman.

Accompanied by the dissipation of the smoke, Shiler recalled the feeling when he first used his weak mind-reading ability to contact Batman's heart.

Just like what Gordon said, he felt like he was looking in a mirror.

So, he gave Batman the answer he most wanted to hear, and then, almost impatiently, put a period to that boring, desperate, plain life.

And now, he finally became a Cat Getan citizen, on this winter of Cat Getan 1987, on the day of his first birthday of his second life. ===== CHAPTER 77 =====