[Zhongyingmei] The clown is actually me

One thing Batman has to admit is, how slack he has been for the past two years.

Thanks to Jack's appearance, the clown has never stopped. Occasionally, Jack will help Arkham riots and other situations. The frequency of his old friends breaking out to commit crimes has plummeted. He finally doesn't have to spend all day in Gotham Patrolling the streets and alleys, the daily sleep time exceeded 5.5 hours in one fell swoop.This is already a qualitative improvement.You know, before Jack appeared, Batman only had a measly 3 hours of sleep per night on average, and the rest was made up by dozing off on the board of the Wayne Group.If the situation is serious, this hour of good dreams will be compressed. Sometimes—for example, when Bane first appeared, it is normal to be sleepless for a few days.

In the past two years, he had more time to stay with Jason and others, to face up to himself again, and to rebuild a broken family.

The happiness brought by his family dispelled his hostility and made him lazy. He was no longer cold, but became gentler, easier to communicate, and more considerate of others.At the same time, his movements slowed down, and the strength of his fist strikes became lighter.He gradually forgot about his old friends,? Forgot their logic, their preferences,? Their modus operandi,? And how to deal with them.A happy, ordinary family life slowly dismembers Batman from the inside.

He has never forgotten the existence of the clown,? He has always been on guard against the clown's recovery,? But when the clown really appeared in front of him, he was caught off guard, and then he had to admit: Because of Jack, he really began to forget the clown.

"You have to thank Jack, who not only let you rest for two years, but also told you a fairy tale. In the story, Batman and the Joker made peace and everyone was happy. But now you have to face reality, That is, we will never have the option of reconciliation." The clown said with a sneer.

Immediately, he kicked Batman in the abdomen, and a short blade popped out from the toe of the black and white leather shoes, directly poking at the wound left by Batman in the decisive battle with Bane, without causing any damage through the heavy and solid armor. But the severe pain of tearing flesh made Batman grunt, and let go of his grip.

The clown wiped the blood from his face, and fled towards the depths of the corridor. Because he had just been punched a few times, his running posture was a bit ridiculous, like a mouse running around, but his speed was not to be underestimated. The figure was like a loach slipping into the water, and disappeared at the corner of the corridor in the blink of an eye.

Batman managed to recover from the pain, and limped towards the direction the Joker left.As expected, the clown had already disappeared, and at the end of the corridor was a dark single cell, with a door made of iron bars shaking in the wind.

The cell was narrow and rectangular, with only a single bed, a small wooden table beside the bed, and a toilet in the corner.All the utensils are outdated and seem to have been used for many years, and the edge is covered with a layer of glossy coating left by long-term handling.Batman walked into the cell slowly, the smell of dust and moisture mixed with the smell of a shroud.

Over the cell door was a gold plaque with a name engraved on it: Joe Chell.

The gangster who killed the Wayne couple.

Batman seemed to have stepped into the last century. He slowly looked at everything around him. There was a "Bible" on the wooden table, which was turned so that the edges were frayed.He didn't bother to understand the prison conditions of Joe Chell, who probably, knowing that he had liver cancer and his time was numbered, turned the fear of death to the comfort of religion and converted to Christianity.He picked up the Bible, under which lay a stack of written letters.None of the envelopes had stamps or red stamps on them, and they were clearly unissued.

Batman picked them up, and he clearly saw the same line written on all the envelopes: To Bruce Wayne.

"To Bruce Wayne:

Sorry to write to you.

This letter was dictated by me and written by Reverend Evans.Sorry for not being able to write in person, I have a learning disability, a primary school dropout, and limited literacy.

You know who I am. I am the murderer who took away your parents when you were eight years old.Thank you for opening this letter and giving me a chance.I am not writing to ask for your forgiveness in order to reduce my sentence. I deserve to be locked up in prison for the rest of my life.I just want to say to you: I'm sorry.

Maybe you will ask me why I took away your parents, what I can answer you is: I don't know.

I was dizzy from hunger and wanted to drink. When I saw a couple walking towards me, I wanted to grab some money.Swear to God, I didn't mean to murder them, but when I recognized them as the Waynes, wealthy Gotham people, I shot them out of nowhere.Thinking about it now, I don't know why I shot. Your parents didn't resist. The only action was that the father took a step forward and protected the child and mother behind him.They were not threatening, there were children there, why would I shoot?

That's the darkness inside of me.A kind of jealousy.I envy your parents being rich, living in a big house, wearing nice clothes, surrounded by servants, always have hot water for bath, can drink the best wine, eat steak in fancy restaurants.I feel like they have everything, and people like me, like me, are killed by them, and their money is taken away by them.Just because of that, I fired.

Robbery and murder, life imprisonment.

I suffered a lot in Blackgate, but I also met someone.Reverend Evans.He preached to me, led me to good, and I began to understand what I had done.He also told me that the Waynes are not for the rich and unkind. They have done a lot of charity work and helped many poor people. They have tried their best to help Gotham.I killed the couple, took his parents with two bullets in front of the child, just to get a purse.What an evil thing, only the devil would do it!

I have committed the work of satan, it is a heinous crime, they should shoot me, I am alive because the Lord gave me time to repent.So I started thinking, I started regretting, what would happen to that child, the child I left behind?What will he become?His life, and mine, had been changed forever when, with a fleeting moment of evil, I pulled the trigger with the flick of a finger.

I am really sorry.sorry.

I don't know whether this letter should be given to you. I hope this late apology will make you feel better, but I am afraid that talking about it after many years will expose your scars.After so many years, I don't know how to tell you.

I ask the help of Reverend Evans, who will deliver this letter to you after my death.At the end of this letter, I do not ask for your forgiveness. I cannot make up for the wounds I have caused you, and I am not qualified to ask for forgiveness.Evil deeds without reason cannot be forgiven. If I fall into the lake of fire after death and be burned forever and ever, I deserve what I deserve.

April 8

Joseph Chell"

Batman held the letter silently, as if the thin sheet of paper weighed a thousand pounds.He read the stack of letters one by one, and all the contents were similar, nothing more than the confession of a decayed old man. Apologize for the bullet.Batman put the letter back in silence. He couldn't forgive Joe Chell, and probably never could forgive the man who took his parents away.

Between the lines, he saw tears from his eight-year-old self, and blood from his parents.

The letter at the bottom was unexpectedly light, and Batman picked it up, with a smiley face bent up, and another addressee different from "Bruce Wayne" written next to it: to Batman Xia.

Batman opened it, and inside the envelope were only two shoddy movie tickets, drawn by the Joker himself with colored pencils:

"The Mask of Zorro is now in theaters!

Screening location: ACE Chemical Factory

Special note: Please do not bring dogs, small birds, and parents into”

ACE Chemical Plant, the starting point of everything.

Batman came to the ACE chemical factory, pushed open the iron door, and the pungent smell of chemicals came to his face. It was a dead smell, like old mint, wine that had been fermented for too long, mixed with rotten Orange peel, when inhaled and touched the taste buds, there is a hint of salty bitterness, as long as you smell it once, you will never forget it.He knows exactly what is in that pot of chemical waste liquid, 11% sodium hydroxide, 34% sulfuric acid, 5% chromium solution, zinc sulfide, and a little copper ion doped to make this waste liquid green glow.He had tried to find the secret ingredient that made the Joker, but there was nothing, there was only death in that vat of waste, and the Joker should have died when he fell.

Batman came to a high place along the road he had walked, and as expected, the clown was standing on the high wire bridge, wearing that clean and spotless purple dress, if the bright color of purple eggplant was ignored, he Looks like a real gentleman.Next to him was Joe Chell, an old man with liver cancer who had only a few weeks to live, strapped to a wooden chair, suspended in the air, with a rope dangling from his back and the other Connected to this heavy safe.Pale green smoke curled up, and a pot of chemical liquid that once shaped the clown into such a shape was boiling under his feet, with bubbles popping out.

"That's right, Bat, you know the rules very well, and you didn't bring annoying children to disturb my memories of the past with you." The clown made a gesture

Nightwing, Barbara, Catherine, Damian, they're all gone, no money to help Batman.Batman stared at his green eyes, eyeballs as green as chemical liquid, and said coldly, "They're going to foil your plot."

"conspiracy?"

"I know you're always prepared, you're pretending you want the chemical plant to fight me to the death, but you're actually doing the same thing we did when we first met - dumping tons of poison into the reservoir and poisoning everyone in Gotham .You pretend to be only Harry and Johnny around, but you have already recruited gangsters to do your dirty work for you." Batman said, "They have already set off to the reservoir, and soon there will be failures from your men news. Tell me now: where is Jason?"

The clown smiled and looked to the side. At the end of another wire bridge, lay a man in a black and red Robin uniform. He was tightly bound by a rope, with his back facing Batman, lying curled up in a corner , with dried blood on his body.Just as Batman was about to rush up, the Joker blew his whistle and flashed the remote control in his hand: "Don't act rashly, or your Robin will fall into the waste liquid bucket immediately and become a green little zhi More birds."

Batman looked at him for a while: "Jack."

"It's not Jack, it's the clown."

"I know, I'm waking him up. Clown, if you don't stop, you know what Jack will face when he wakes up. Don't you love him?"

The clown raised his eyebrows: "Yes, I love him. I love him as much as I love life. But do you know what I like to do most? I like to make him suffer. I like to stab him, make him cry, make him He doubted himself, denied himself, I deceived him around, made him innocent but was imprisoned, forced him to almost commit suicide by swallowing a gun. In the end, my love can only be like this, if it doesn’t hurt you and him, I can’t even do it live."

"You could have done otherwise."

"You think I don't want to? You think I'm willing to love him like a madman? It's all because of you, Batman, if you don't aspire to be a caped-tight freak flying around the streets, I And it wouldn't be what it is now. I'd fall into that vat of chemical waste, my body would sink, dead at the bottom of the pool, but you'd wake me up, because the noblest hero must wear a cloak and a sword, and walk through Go to the mountains and the wilderness to kill the most evil devil, so that the story will be interesting." The clown showed a cruel sneer, "Do you understand, I live for fun. You should cry on your parents' dead body, and then Forget about it and be a carefree rich kid. But you want to change Gotham, and you don't think that all your actions are bringing Gotham a deeper curse. At the end of the day, there is hope That's what's wrong."