[Zhongyingmei] The clown is actually me

Batman Returns: Does Gotham Still Need a Dark Knight? "

In last week's Arkham Riot, Batman reappeared after disappearing for six months.For most citizens, this is undoubtedly good news, which means that the rising crime rate is finally coming to an end.We can't deny that Batman's departure means the resurgence of criminal forces, but Gotham City has not been crushed by the raging wave of crime,? This city is more resilient than anyone estimated.So we have to think,? Gotham isn't so bad that it needs to be saved by the caped heroes,? We don't need the Dark Knight as much as we think.

Jason slammed the "Gotham Daily Morning News" on the desk.

The two are in a small villa on the outskirts of Gotham City. This villa is built on the edge of a quiet lake, next to the tall and beautiful birch forest. The cold wind in winter is mixed with distant and long, wooden Made of fragrance.The black cherry wood windows were vibrated by the wind, and the gravel-like fine snow crackled and hit the glass, making a series of trivial noises.

The pine branches burning in the fireplace brought a burst of heat wrapped in rosin.The room is brightly illuminated. The wall lamp is in the shape of a beautiful and exquisite lotus flower, and the warm yellow lights falling from it are also like blooming flowers.

This small villa has been around for some years, but it is elegant and elegant. All kinds of exquisite porcelain furniture are available, and it is full of the British legacy of the Victorian era.It's just a bit far from downtown Gotham,? Living here is like a seclusion.If the weather is too cold, there is a risk of the gas pipes being frozen. After winter, dry firewood should be prepared in the basement.

Winter in Gotham is wet and cold, ? The snow is mixed with raindrops, making everything drenched.In such a ghostly weather, if you go outside and blow the peak, the moisture in the bones will be frozen into ice slag.Jack was holding a hot water bottle,? Wrapped in a blanket,? Sitting cross-legged on the bed,? Drinking the hot broth slowly.He was startled by Jason's action, and swallowed the minced shrimp meat.Then he asked, "What's wrong with you?"

"Batman has found a new Robin."

Jason sat down angrily. He knew that Damian might succeed him, and he had already made mental preparations on the way, but the newspaper published a picture of Batman, and the Robin next to him was obviously not Damian.Batman had scrambled to find a new assistant less than a year after he'd left, making Jason wonder if he'd taken the time to mourn for himself.

"Your tone seems to have seen Papa Bat marry a new mother, and that new mother has cat ears and can meow." Jack curled his lips.

He picked up the newspaper and took a look. New Robin looked like a boy about 15 years old, with a slender and beautiful figure, with long and straight legs, like a young cheetah.He knew who he was, the red Robin Tim Drake, with just one glance. He didn't expect the plot to change so much because of his arrival, but the truly iconic event hardly changed.Although Damian and Bruce met earlier, it is about what happened when he and Jason left, Damian left Bruce, and the third Robin was still played by Tim.

"You just bought cat ear headphones two days ago."

"That's the Bat Headphones, a special commemorative edition issued by the Wayne Group to commemorate the return of Batman." Jack put down the soup bowl, "Why don't you go back to Wayne Manor and go with your Bat Dad?"

Jason didn't answer right away. He has always been a clean and resolute person, but when facing Batman, he would become... awkward, especially after seeing Batman find a new assistant.He flipped through the newspaper pretending not to care, and suddenly glanced at the photo published on the second page, and stopped for a moment. Jack found that his expression was wrong, and stretched his neck to read the contents of the newspaper. It was a masked A photo of a woman with a black veil and a blurry face, next to a headline in bold capitals: "After 24 years, the famous serial killer Mrs. Shrike commits another crime."

"Ms. Shrike?" Jack searched his memory, only to find that this "Ms. Shrike" is not a villain from the Batman era, but a serial killer more than 20 years ago. When she was active, the Wayne couple were still alive.

Mrs. Shrike killed 12 people one after another in one year. The victims were all between 20 and 35 years old, all of them were women of marriageable and childbearing age, and the modus operandi was basically the same, stabbing to death with a long sharp weapon. , cut many knives and threw the corpse, because the corpse was horrible, like the prey that the shrike inserted on the branches and thorns and tore the prey, so this serial murder case was named the Shrike murder by the media.

The portrait of the woman in black veil that Jack sees now was drawn by the police station at that time based on the testimony of eyewitnesses.There were two eyewitnesses, and the testimonies were slightly different, but there was no doubt about one thing: Mrs. Shrike was a woman.According to them, the murderer was a tall, thin woman in a black dress like a mourning dress, with a black veil of mourning over her face.

But when the Gotham Police Department was overwhelmed by the Shrike murder case, Mrs. Shrike seemed to disappear overnight, stopped committing crimes, stopped killing, and stopped as suddenly as when she appeared.Jack calculated the time, wondering if it was a coincidence that Mrs. Shrike disappeared in the same year as the Wayne couple died.

"You want to catch this serial killer before New Robin, to prove that Batman has a bad eye for selection?" Jack didn't take this matter to heart.

Jason seemed to be stuck in the past, with obvious hesitation on his face. It took a while to recover, and he said to Jack, "Jack, this Mrs. Shrike has something to do with me."

"What origin?"

"My poisonous father who died in prison was one of the witnesses to the Shrike's murder." Jason turned his head away and said, "However, there is a difference. He told me clearly that the Mrs. Shrike he saw— It's male."

Jack immediately became interested, and sat up straight wrapped in a blanket: "Male? Go ahead and talk in detail."

"My father used to tell me this as a bedtime story. He said he witnessed the murder before he met my mother. He went to pee in the alley and found a suspicious man. While dragging the corpse, he knocked down the suspicious man and went to the police station to report the case, but when he and the police arrived, the man had already run away, leaving only the corpse. Because the property was searched again , my father was the first eyewitness, so he was accused of theft by the police and served two weeks in prison."

"I later went through the files of the year. My father was indeed a witness, but he didn't rush up like a hero at all. He didn't even realize that it was a dead body. He thought the murderer picked up a drunk woman from a bar, so he At that time, he didn’t look closely at all. Later, he saw it again on the way back, and when he got closer, he found that it was a dead person. He called the police, and on the way the police pulled out the rings, earrings and bracelets from the dead body. All the clues were destroyed by him, and his testimony was not used by the police because he took drugs at the time." Speaking of this, Jason rubbed his temples, sighed, and said in a low voice: "I once believed that This story, I believe he is a hero."

Until he went to jail.

Jason rarely thinks about his real father, or his family of origin.

His father was a gangster, his mother was a drug addict, and they were both too young to know how to be parents.

In Jason's memory, violent behaviors such as swearing at each other, punching and kicking, and smashing things are almost commonplace in their family.He learned at an early age to hide under the table when these things happened to avoid the adult wrath.They were undoubtedly bad parents, but it was hard for Jason to call them downright bad.They were angry with their poverty and their everyday pettiness, but they loved him too.For the poor, love can't solve anything. His family is a tragedy. His father will take him to the amusement park, tell him bedtime stories, and play football with him, but he still leaves the mother and son.After he went to prison, Jason became the only man in the family. He used to warn everyone he knew, telling them not to sell drugs to his mother, but his mother still died of drug use.

"What's wrong with a father wanting to be a hero in front of his son? Besides, he doesn't have to be lying. After all, you also know that Gotham before Batman appeared was a cesspit, and the police still have a lot of fake files." Jack shot Patting him on the shoulder, he comforted him, "Anyway, you are quite free, do you want to investigate this case? I read in the newspaper that New Robin is involved in the investigation."

Jason withdrew from the memory and pondered for a while: "Okay, you go with me too."

"I'm going too?!" Jack turned his head to look at the rain and snow on the glass window, his face pulled down instantly, and he replied with difficulty: "...Okay, little red bird, I'll make some preparations."

Meanwhile, Wayne Manor.

Alfred regularly cleans up the mailbox hanging at the door. As the heir to Wayne Enterprises, Bruce Wayne receives a lot of mail every day. This cheats some money.Most of these are useless information, and the rest are basically investment advertisements and harassing emails, and even a lot of money to ask for a child.Alfred sorted out the newly received letters one by one, and took the junk mail to fill the fireplace. Suddenly, a colorful postcard sandwiched in the advertisement slipped out.

There is a beautiful nightingale printed on the postcard. The nightingale is standing on a thorn and singing, and there is a line of small golden words printed below: She said that as long as I give her some red roses, she is willing to dance with me.

Alfred turned over the postcard. The postcard smelled faintly of perfume, and there were only two lines of handwritten English on the blank space on the back: "This is what I dedicate to you".

The handwriting is beautiful and beautiful, and the person who wrote the letter is obviously a woman.Perhaps some woman whose heart was stolen by Bruce wrote a love letter full of resentment and sent it. Alfred has seen such a thing before. Yes, a flower seems to be flying out of the winding trail:

"--Shrike".