[Zhongyingmei] The clown is actually me

The Knightfall event ended with Baine's disastrous defeat.

After completing the task, Jack went back to Arkham Asylum at night, hid the sniper gun and coat in his box, and then returned to Harley, who was arrested by the belated police in his arms.There was no resistance during the period, and the only request was "Be gentle with Harry, she is poisoned".

Harley burst into tears with gratitude when she heard this. She was poisoned by the Scarecrow and damaged her vocal cords. Quinn just came back from Batman, and it felt like a philandering husband gave his wife what his little lover disliked, and the wife was so grateful that she didn't doubt her husband's sincerity.

Jack unconsciously associated the sweet word "little lover" with the two-hundred-pound Batman, and then felt a chill.

Stop.

Jack was escorted back to the deepest part of Arkham to enjoy his special single-room treatment. Based on the recent stabilization of his mental state and the testimony of the two guards he rescued, he can have more free time, but only so much.After all, no matter how well behaved, the Joker is still the most feared criminal in Arkham Asylum.

On the third day when Bane's time calmed down and the order of Gotham was gradually restored, Jack saw Batman again.

Summer is the best season for this gloomy city. The perennial dust and haze will always dissipate for a period of time in June. At this time, the people living in Arkham are fortunate to be able to see through a small door Through the bars, one can see the high blue sky and the dark mountains stretching far into the distance.The white birch forest guards the pale lake in the depths, and the random growth of branches and leaves cuts the warm sunlight into pieces, and lays them on the iron-gray window sill like pieces of gold.

He still wore handcuffs, shackles, and a high-voltage electric collar, but he did not wear a straitjacket or an iron mask. The guards with live ammunition could not enter the room and could only stand outside the reception room door.As soon as Jack saw the battle, he knew who was coming. Sure enough, after waiting for a few minutes, Batman dressed in black walked into the reception room and sat on the chair opposite his table.

"It's not surprising at all." Jack folded his hands, "Did someone tell you to bring some dessert to visit?"

When Batman is not speaking, he is silent and cold, like a dark wall with pointed ears, between the ordinary people of Gotham and his criminals.But since Jack called his name, occasionally, he would reveal the tenderness that belonged to Bruce Wayne, just like at this moment he handed out a paper box from under the black cloak: "Chocolate cake."

"If this is a vulgar story, we should have something happening now, such as paying the bill with our bodies, or sparking the spark of love." Jack habitually teased Batman.

"You've already paid."

Following these words, Batman took out the brass bullet casing and stood it on the table. The golden bullet casing shone brightly in the sun, like the eyes of a lion.

Well, the best detective in the world.Jack curled his lips, and he knew that this matter could not be hidden from Batman.

"And what did you look at?" Batman looked up at him. Although the half black mask made it difficult to see his expression, Jack still read the sentence from the subtle expression, "No one Dare to make a **** deal with you—your face, your body.”

"Interesting things written by the psychiatrist who came out of Arkham, such as this "Arkham: The Genius Lives Next to the Crazy", and "The Last Laugh-Deciphering the Life of the King of Crime, the Clown." Jack said to He raised the colorful books in his hand.

With the notoriety of the lunatics in Gotham, the label "Arkham" quickly became a wealth code. The psychiatrist who first wrote the book "Arkham: The Genius Lives Next Door to the Crazy" only worked in the clinic. One year is not enough to talk to notorious lunatics.He hadn't even been to the inner district once, and he made it up in the book based on his own speculation and unfounded rumors.

He claims that the double-faced man is a fighter who died for unfair laws, and even robbing a bank is to raise funds for his ideals; the scarecrow is a mad scientist who is deeply involved in research and cannot extricate himself. In order to prove his point of view, he does experiments on himself, In the end, it became the virtue of being neither human nor ghost; the Mad Hatter was abused by his parents and teachers in the same year, and fell in love with a non-existent Alice he imagined. He firmly believed that he would one day become Pygmalion .

And the author used three whole chapters to describe the clown, portraying the clown as a "unfortunate super genius, a crazy philosophical madman, and a nihilist with confused beliefs". Accepted by the world, even excluded, a genius who cannot work, he often raises philosophical questions in terms of human relations, law, morality, etc. These questions drove all the psychologists who treated him crazy, even the author himself had to defend himself Considering his physical and mental health, the observation and treatment of the clown was interrupted.At the end of the book, the author ends with a sentence: Why do people say that a person who lives soberly is crazy?

I have to say that, excluding the author's mystifying stories and a bunch of philosophical thinking that seems to make sense but is actually nonsense, this book is actually quite interesting, and it is very qualified as a recreational reading.

"Arkham: The Genius Lives Next Door to the Madman", relying on its acceptable quality and the gimmicks of the criminal lunatics, successfully sold 600 million copies in one month, and sold more than [-] million copies in the following year, creating a brotherhood. Tan's sales myth.The psychiatrist became rich overnight, and for a while this shareholder storm blew all over Gotham. Since then, books about Arkham have continued to emerge, and most of them use the names of madmen as gimmicks to make money. Later, Batman noticed that These indiscriminately fabricated books and periodicals will make the public feel admiration for lunatics, which is not a good thing for Gotham, so the Wayne Group has come forward to combat this unhealthy trend, but the books and periodicals published on the sidelines of Arkham are still Not a few.

It is worth mentioning that the first thing the doctor who got rich at the beginning was to move out of Gotham and go far away after receiving the royalties. He may have taken the road of opportunism, but it does not mean that he is an idiot.He knew that his books were all groundless speculations, and if those true lunatics knew his name, one of them would be able to kill him if he escaped one day.

Batman's face darkened: "Stop watching such nonsense."

"But I think it's very interesting. It's like listening to a bard tell a story about me in the audience. It turns out that I have become a legend." Jack licked the corner of his mouth. Read a pastime novel to relax, "I still have the love novel between me and Harry, do you want me to read it to you myself?"

"It's the Joker's and Harley's, not yours."

Jack paused for a moment, then smiled, "You finally know that I'm not him?"

"Dubiously," Batman said, "maybe you're not him, but I don't see why the Joker would create a jailer to guard himself."

"Maybe he thinks it's so funny, anyway, the clown never does things for any purpose."

Batman pours Jack a cup of hot cocoa: "No, the Joker has a purpose, he just looks out of order. He sees his game as a 'discussion' with me, he wants to prove his bad theory to me , to prove this he would die. But he suddenly healed himself, created a jailer for himself, and I can't figure out what changed him."

Jack held the hot cocoa and was silent for a while: "Bat, have you thought about one thing?"

"what?"

"Maybe the Joker is crazy, but he's not as crazy as he looks. I mean - he's not sane on the outside, but he's sane, at least partially. He's nowhere near that crazy .”

Batman nodded: "I really thought so. When Harley Quinn was Harleen Quinzel, she wrote a report saying that the clown was not crazy but pretended to be crazy, and he should be executed. But he did The brain is deformed, and we have been unable to prove that the damage had no effect on his mind."

He once visited well-known scholars around the world for the clown's brain. The first sentence many brain experts saw when they saw the model was: This patient is still alive?This shows how rare clowns are. Others with the same degree of brain damage are either incontinent and unable to take care of themselves, or have severe intellectual impairment that even their mother can't shout. Only he is alive and kicking, jumping up and down, life and intelligence are not affected at all. Influence.

"Maybe I'm the part of him that's not crazy." Jack can't tell Batman that he is time-traveled, and it's not bad to make others think that the clown has a split personality. "After all, before he went crazy, he was just an ordinary person, and he may have good intentions , and a little gentleness, so I won’t be as mad as I am now.”

Batman thought for a moment, streaming sunlight rolling through the folds of his clothes.The dark mountains outside the window are coated with a layer of fluffy golden edges by the rising sun.The pine forest is tall and beautiful, cutting the blue sky into several pieces. Occasionally, there is the sound of rustling leaves, and the sun rolls the clouds into a retractable white line, which is laid out thinly and delicately on the horizon, like a noble lady. Gorgeous lace embellished on the skirt.

Broken golden sunlight fell on a small wooden table, like a golden tapestry cut into several long and narrow rectangles. Jack drank hot cocoa and heard him say, "Thank you, Jack."

"Why do you say thank you?"

Batman stood up, and at this moment he was no longer like a dark wall. "You're a start. Everything's going to be better and everything I do counts."

"I don't really want to pour cold water on you, bat, maybe I'm the only exception, the others will still be as bad and won't improve in the future." Jack smiled.

Batman didn't turn his head: "Even if it's just you, it makes sense."

Jack suddenly remembered the story he saw when he was a child. After the tide ebbed, there were many small fish left on the shore. If no one intervened, they would only die in the sun after the puddle evaporated. At this time, there was a child who kept putting those small fish Throw them back into the sea, one by one.The adults told him, "There are too many fish, you can't save them. Besides, who cares?" The child held the small fish that was about to die in the sun and said, "This fish cares."

Trapped forever in the alley behind the movie theater, Bruce Wayne, fighting evil like Sisyphus, has done all he has done in his life to stop an eight-year-old boy from being surrounded by his parents. Weeping next to the dead body is also a futile effort to stop the two bullets that were shot at his parents.People outside the play blamed him for sticking to his principles too much, thinking whether his principles made his enemies feel confident, and whether his kindness allowed them to continue to commit crimes.Didn't see how killing kills affects Batman, who is constantly fighting his enemies, repeating almost pointless chain fights, just for "this fish cares".

"Brucey, why did you become Batman? Why did you fight? Is it for justice?" Jack asked him.

Batman was silent for a while: "Let my parents rest in peace."

"Believe me, Bruce, when you become a parent, you only want your child to live safely, not to be a caped hero. How many bones did you break last time?" Jack looked at Batman's waist meaningfully The back and arms, there must have been thick bandages and splints in place, and probably heavily stuffed with painkillers.

"You do not understand."

Jack was furious: "What do you think I don't understand? I am a father, and I also have children."

"I'm not going to stop fighting," Batman said. "And you said, Jack, 'Gotham needs me.'"

Jack froze for a moment, realizing that he had indeed said this sentence not long ago—oh no, he had blown it, he scratched his hair in frustration, and said: "I hate you group of personal heroes who have sacrifices. Christians, every time I see you scrambling to sacrifice yourself to save others, it’s very annoying, as if only noble morality is meaningful in life, I hate this kind of plot the most, clichéd repetition, meaningless self-movement... You stand on the side of morality Isn't it cold on the commanding heights?"

Batman patiently listened to his nagging and complaining. Many people thought he was cold, but after getting along with him for a long time, he would find that Batman was surprisingly gentle.

Jack made a gesture: "Bat, in fact, you don't have to do this. When you put on the bat suit and decide to fight the evil to the end, whether you win or lose, your parents will be proud of you."

Batman deserves a better world.

Perhaps my own arrival was that opportunity.He was a good start, giving Batman a new hope: everything will be better, and everything you do is not meaningless repetition.Your efforts, your hopes, they all count.

"If your kid was like me, would you be proud of him?"

Jack froze for a moment: "Yes."

"You said just now that you never want him to be a caped hero."

"That's different, Bruce. Parents are... no matter what their children do, they love him, unconditionally. Parents are like that."

Batman turned around, and the two looked at each other, and saw the colors of their own eyes in each other's pupils, gold and blue, like amber and turquoise hidden deep in the mud.At this moment, they didn't say anything, and it seemed that they had explained everything clearly. After a long silence, both of them laughed at the same time, like old friends who have known each other for several years.

Batman can't count how many years he and the Joker have known each other. Time can spoil too many things. Even the purest and single hatred can hardly last for so many years.For such a long time, Batman's feelings for the Joker are no longer as simple as "the most terrible enemy". Maybe at that time Batman caught up with the Joker, said "Let me help you" to him, and heard the Joker say They were friends when they made a joke about the madman and the flashlight. *

(The friendship comes from "New 52 Batman Endgame", in which Batman's line is "I want to rest here with my friends for a while")

"I'll see you next time, Jack." Batman turned and pushed open the door of the reception room.

Jack waved: "Take care, bat."

The wind blows through the gaps between the layers of branches and leaves, shaking the leaves, and the sound is soft and slow like silk. The marble church stands silently, and the baroque spire pierces the top of the clouds. From afar, the sound of the church is heard The bells are ringing, the snow-white birds are rising and falling in the square, and everything is as silent as a mystery.

It was the time of high tide, and the distant sea surface was like silver-white silk, the snow-white tide and foam surged up and down, and the huge waves slapped on the dark reef, and a roar came from afar.

Gotham under the sun is no longer as dark and separated as usual, but has an old, solid and gentle legacy, the smell of coal stoves, meals, powder and spices, marble churches, ancient murals, beige Linen curtains, a labyrinth of alleys, mossy flagstone floors.The silent Gotham City is like an old lady. Although the corners of her eyes are wrinkled, she is still beautiful. This kind of beauty is the precipitation of time and upbringing, just like beeswax wrapped in gemstones. This is the aging that women dream of.

What is Gotham?

Gotham is the cake, Gotham is the rose, Gotham is the bad cheese, Gotham is the child's eyes, Gotham is the city of sin, Gotham is the city of demons, Gotham is the smog from the factories, Gotham It's a cloud of black ash, Gotham is a huge vortex—

Gotham is Batman.