The days of being a spiritual mentor in Meiman.

Chapter 3347: Old City, New Night (Part )

Chapter 3347: Old City, New Night (Part )

Gordon was standing in his office, handing the last of a document to Harvey Bullock. The big, generous new chief of the Gotham Police Department lowered his hat and said, "I never thought that one day I would have to call my old buddy the mayor."

Gordon patted his arm, walked out with him, and said, "I didn't expect my approval rating to be so high. Maybe I'm doing a good job in downtown. Nothing makes me happier than being recognized by the citizens."

"You got what you wanted," Bullock said. "But the job of a mayor is different from that of a police chief. You have to flatter a lot of people. But I hope you can remember that I will always stand by you."

"You don't have to stand on anyone's side, Harvey. Just stand on the side of justice."

Gordon came home. Barbara was cleaning. They finished the house together, and after dinner, they took their usual walk down the street.

Only this time, they walked a little further, along the edge of the community park all the way to the entrance of the Gotham Bridge.

There is a pedestrian walkway on the Gotham Bridge, where many people go for morning jogs, evening jogs, or walk their dogs.

Standing on the bridge in the evening, you can see the sunset of Gotham slowly sinking into the water. Barbara put her hands on the guardrail and looked into the distance, seeing the construction equipment in the distance swinging back and forth, as if trying to scoop up the sun that was about to sink into the horizon.

"You're going to face a big problem right after you take office." Barbara sighed and said, "It's not easy to dismantle the Gotham Reservoir, not to mention that the ruins of Gotham Village were found under the water. The citizens don't agree to move there, so you better not be too tough."

Gordon smiled and said, "I didn't expect you to say that. I thought you would resolutely stop me."

Barbara showed a hesitant look, pursed her lips, and said, "On the day you were accused of murder, I checked the surveillance that Batman had set up near the Gotham Bridge. I... I saw it."

"What do you see?"

"You did corner the car and made it fall off the bridge, but then you jumped off." Barbara's hands were tightly gripping the railing. "Do you know how high this bridge is? If something hadn't fallen on it and destroyed the surface tension of the water, you would have died."

"Why are you talking about this suddenly?"

"I just want to know what you think." Barbara turned her head back and said, "If you want to kill someone, you should leave without looking back. If you don't want to, then don't do it in the first place."

"Do you want me to do that?"

"I know it's wrong to do this, and you've always taught me that. But I also know that sometimes moral and legal right and wrong are not the only way to trace the root of a matter. I just think it's dangerous."

Gordon looked up at the gorgeous sunset in Gotham, and stroked the railing of the bridge with his rough fingers. He said, "I know how dangerous the job of Batgirl is. If I were just a father, I would definitely want to stop you."

"When I saw the car slowly sinking, I realized that my understanding of this kind of danger was still superficial. Because the most dangerous thing you face is not the rain of bullets, but the constant torture of your conscience."

"When you have the ability to kill, you have to try to control yourself at every moment when your emotions get out of control, and make choices that will not make you regret or disappoint others. This requires extremely strong self-control and sense of responsibility."

"The moment I stepped on the edge of the bridge, I realized how difficult it was to do all this. But you did it. If I were not your relative, I would definitely admire your character very much."

"Then why did I not see these things, even though I was so closely related to you, and instead narrowly interpreted all this as you recklessly putting yourself in danger, instead of rationally analyzing that you were able to handle it and emotionally believing with pride that you could do it?"

Barbara understood something. Yes, if they were not father and daughter, they would have admired each other's actions very much - a young superhero fighting crime with determination, and a Gotham police chief sticking to his principles without wavering. The character required to do these is enough to make anyone who heard about their deeds admire them.

Then, as relatives, they would instead one-sidedly perceive such a great behavior of the other party as not considering other people's feelings and putting themselves in danger. Aren't they also using kinship to kidnap the other party?

Then, wouldn’t they just become the kind of feudal control freaks that they hate the most?

Barbara felt that some of the knots in her heart that had been tangled for a long time had untied. But she couldn't help but think of Batman, and the deep sadness that she had seen Batman express in some late nights.

Under the same sunset, two tall and thin figures stood on the roof of Wayne Building. Nightwing took off his mask and exhaled the cool air he had just inhaled while riding a motorcycle.

"You lose again." Jason said, his foot on the steps at the edge of the building. "Batman's choice of assistants is really poor."

"Aren't you scolding yourself as well?"

"I'm mainly scolding myself, how could it be you?" Jason snorted coldly.

"What did you give him for Christmas? Why won't you tell me? Are you worried that I'll copy you?"

“Don’t take yourself too seriously, you’re the one who came after.” Jason retorted mercilessly, “Mind your own fucking self.”

Nightwing rolled his eyes and said, "I've never seen such a self-satisfied egomaniac as you."

Jason ignored him and sat down on the edge of the roof. He also took off his hood and fiddled with the gun in his hand.

"Do you know what the Joker and Batman said on Christmas Eve?" Nightwing said, looking at the sunset in the sky.

"About me?"

"How did you know?"

"If it has nothing to do with me, you wouldn't bring it up all of a sudden. Your way of finding a topic is too awkward."

Nightwing also sat down on the edge of the roof and said, "The Joker told Batman that you betrayed him."

"They are not the same clown, do you believe what he says?"

"Of course not. But Batman looks sad."

"He didn't believe it either. He was sad about something else." Jason took a deep breath and said, "Before he left, I had a fight with him. I guess he didn't listen carefully to what the Joker said."

"You had a fight with him again, so what did you say?"

"'Don't fucking trap me in your memories'. That's it."

"Hiss..." Nightwing took a breath with an ambiguous tone.

"But what the Joker said is true." Jason curled up one leg, hugged his knee and said, "During my years in Blüdhaven, I was also reflecting on what I did. Maybe I trapped Batman in my memories first."

Nightwing turned to look at him.

"He saved me, so I assumed he was a great hero, and his every move had to be in line with heroic standards, and there could be no disqualification. So when I realized he wasn't that powerful, I hated him for deceiving me."

"But the fact is, if we didn't know each other, as a poor boy from the slums of Gotham, I would probably admire Bruce Wayne, a wealthy man, for coming to our place to fight crime, regardless of whether he was being used or was sincere."

"After all, there are a lot of bad guys in this city who don't even pretend. Even if he came here to perform for fun, at least he beat up a few villains, and I might still regard him as my idol."

"Then why, when I was his assistant, I couldn't get to know him so intuitively?"

"Why do you think that is?" Nightwing asked.

"I thought about it for a long time, and then realized that intimacy means expectation. The greater the expectation, the greater the disappointment. Many misunderstandings in intimate relationships come from trying to use one's special feelings towards the other to kidnap the other person."

"And the truth is, no one has to live the way anyone expects them to. Just like Batman is not obligated to live the way I think he is, the perfect hero, and I am not obligated to live the way he thinks I should be, the traumatized, pathetic stray dog."

"Is that all you thought about in Blüdhaven?"

"how about you?"

"I also have a lot of unrealistic expectations of Batman. For example, I think he should have accepted the Joker as soon as he transformed, and I also quarreled with Batman about this." Nightwing shook his head and said, "And the main reason why he was not as sad as he quarreled with you is probably because he didn't have any high expectations of me. And I have you to thank for this. Your experience made him feel that I just need to live well and can't expect more."

Jason suddenly laughed. It was a smile that still shone brightly under the golden sunset, full of the youth's pride and arrogance, happy and proud like a swan.

"The facts prove that you are indeed not as good as me." Jason pointed to the motorcycle downstairs and said, "I used this to help him stop many fleeing criminals. The speedsters back then were much better than they are now."

Speaking of speedsters, Nightwing became excited. He said enthusiastically, "That Bruce from another universe is a very good driver. At that time, the Pale Knight and I chased him but we couldn't catch up. Why don't you give it a try?"

"You look like you haven't seen the world. That's Bruce Wayne, a pampered young master who can only play with sports cars at most. How can the urban skills learned on the track be compared with those of the slum drivers?"

"If you don't believe me, just try it. It will definitely scare you!"

The roar of the engine blew into the window along with the last breeze before the sunset. Clark, who was organizing his thoughts, frowned and instructed his assistant to close the window.

At 8:00, there was a knock on the door. Clark put down the notebook where he had written down the questions, straightened his tie, walked to the door, and shook hands with the figure who appeared outside.

"Nice to meet you, Miss Ruth. Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas, Mr. Kent. You've become quite famous recently, and many of my colleagues at the Municipal Planning Department want your autograph."

Clark smiled and walked over to remove the lens cap of the camera. Ruth took off her glasses, and they sat opposite each other in front of the window, with the new night sky of an old city behind them.

"I am very happy to invite Ms. Ruth, the head of the Gotham City Planning Department, to share with you her legendary story from a slum girl to a Gotham state politician..."

Schiller took the remote control and turned up the volume of the TV. Sitting on the other side of the sofa was Brad, who looked helpless, and next to him was a shadow of a man wearing aristocratic clothes, who looked a bit like Paul.

Greed will bring happiness to everyone!