When Bruce opened his eyes again, it was Gordon's face that appeared in front of him, but what he waited for was not a suspicious inquiry or concern, Gordon said with a little anxiety: "Bruce, Mayor Roy was assassinated this morning and was seriously injured!" ”

Bruce was awake in an instant, but with it came intense pain and a somewhat suffocating vertigo.

Realizing that he couldn't stand up at all, Gordon hurriedly helped him to sit up and said, "Who the hell did you go to fight with last night?" You have broken three ribs, injured lungs, and lost two of your back molars. ”

Bruce's eyebrows furrowed deeply, and a hint of anger flashed in his eyes, but instead of answering, he asked, "How is Roy?" ”

"It's bad." Gordon looked worried, he sighed and continued: "A life was recovered, but the problem is that now many people think that it was Falcone's hand, and the situation has become very tense. ”

Gordon sat down on the edge of Bruce's bed, poured water for him and said, "You also know that the Falcone family is a gangster family after all, and little Falcone needs to be responsible for the interests of the family. ”

"His prestige is not as good as his father's, so there are certain things that he must be ruthless in carrying out to the end in order to establish his authority."

"He and Roy also disagree on some issues of urban development, and Roy feels that he is too selfish to care about Falcone and the Twelve Families, and he can't solve the root cause of Gotham's problems."

"Alberto felt that Roy was completely unrealistic, and wanted to copy the successful plan of the Imperial City, and if he didn't do local reforms, everything would fail."

"Roy thinks that Alberto is just trying to serve the Falcone family, and Alberto thinks that Roy is doing it for his own political career, and the problem is that neither of them can prove that he is not selfish."

"Originally, there was still Ling in the middle to ease up, and the two of them didn't dare to offend you, so they didn't make too much trouble, but you didn't attend the last few banquets, and the two of them were already very stiff on the bright side."

"As a result, Roy was assassinated on his way to the city government office building this morning, and was shot four times in the body, but fortunately, he was close to the hospital and saved his life."

"He said he didn't see the killer, but everyone thought Alberto did it, and to be honest, the Falcone family had a bad record in this regard, and everyone knew how the previous mayors died."

Bruce struggled to get up from the bed, and then fell down in an instant, looking pained, but he still stood up and shouted to the door, "Alfred...... Alfred! Getting dressed, I'm going to the Falcone estate. ”

Gordon helped Bruce barely get dressed, but Bruce was a little reluctant to stand, and his movements were too haggard, Bruce took a deep breath, looked at Gordon and said, "Help me get some analgesics, don't let Alfred know." ”

As soon as Gordon opened his mouth, Bruce reached out a hand to stop him from speaking, and then said, "I know better than anyone the dangers of painkiller abuse, but now that this is a special situation, Gotham's transformation is at a critical stage, and I must not let this go down the drain." ”

Gordon sighed, he helped Bruce to the edge of the bed and sat down, hesitated, but still reached for the walkie-talkie hanging from his waist.

After a while, a bag hanging from under a rope appeared outside the window, Gordon went over and opened the window, and took off the bag, which contained several bottles of medicine, and Bruce was about to reach out to take it, but Gordon took his hand back and said:

"I have to warn you that this thing has the potential to affect your IQ, and your precious genius brain must not be poisoned by drugs, so you must swear to me that you will never abuse painkillers."

"Don't worry, I swear, I care more about my brain than anyone else."

Gordon hesitated, but in the end it wasn't Bruce's assurances that made him hand the medicine to Bruce, but the pain between his eyebrows.

Bruce got better with the pills, so the two of them planned to go out, but just as they walked out the door, Bruce saw Dick at the end of the hallway.

Dick stepped forward with some hesitation, still holding the homework book in his hand, he pursed his lips and struggled for a long time before he spoke, "Last night, Tim and Jason persuaded me all night, okay, I'm sorry, Bruce, I know I ...... before"

Hurried footsteps came from the direction of the stairs, and a uniformed police officer quickly rushed up and whispered a few words in Gordon's ear, Gordon's face changed, and he said to Bruce: "Roy's sister went to Falcone's estate with a gun, she first gave Alberto a shot, and then a shot herself, Mrs. Falcone was frightened, fainted, and went to the hospital to check only to find out that she was pregnant, but the condition was not good." ”

"Alberto is about to be angry, he wants Roy and his sister's life, the leaders of the twelve families are trying to dissuade him, but he can't be persuaded anymore, we must go over immediately, we must stop Alberto."

Bruce's face also changed, he knew that the Falcone family was all Italian and traditional Catholics, and he valued his family very much, and Mrs. Falcone was injured, and the conflict would definitely be exacerbated to a very dangerous point.

Bruce couldn't think too much about it, he rushed downstairs like a brisk, opened the door of the police car and ripped the driver off, sat in himself, and sped away with one foot on the accelerator.

Dick stood still, looking at his back, and all the courage he had mustered overnight had dissipated.

After Bruce had reconciled all the contradictions and dragged his tired and painful body back to the manor, Dick had already packed his school bag, and Bruce walked up to him and sat down and said, "Dick, I'm back, I think we can talk." ”

"I'm really sorry." With tears in his eyes, Dick looked at Bruce and said, "I didn't know you were hurt, I didn't know you were hurt so badly." ”

The brunette boy turned his head, reached out and stuffed the last book into his bag, and said, "You should go and rest, get some sleep, I don't have any problems, or compared to the problems you face, I have small problems, I can solve them myself." ”

Bruce looked at him a little stunned, for some reason, he felt like his chest was blocked by something, even worse than the pain of a broken rib.

"Just now, I called the teacher to apologize, I promised her that I would definitely do my homework well, and she asked her to agree that I would go to the school boarding, and today is Friday, so I won't be back this weekend."

With that, Dick put his bag on his back, walked up to Bruce, and stared him in the eye and said, "We should all try not to worry you, so that you can rest with your free time." ”

"Dick, don't do that, Dick......" Bruce said repeatedly, calling Dick's name, "we're going to have a good talk." ”

"You should go to the hospital now." Dick looked at Bruce's pale face, and he said very seriously, "I can solve my own problems, so you should also solve your problems." ”

After speaking, Dick was about to go out, Bruce grabbed his arm, Dick turned back a little helplessly, he opened his schoolbag and took out the homework book from it, opened it and showed it to Bruce: "Look, I wrote my homework well yesterday, figured out all the questions, and corrected my previous mistakes." ”

Bruce glanced at the neatly written handwriting in his workbook, and he found that instead of being a little happy, he was angry and sour, but then ashamed of his own emotion.

Dick closed his workbook, gently touched Bruce's face with his hand, and said, "I'm going to school." ”

When the boy turned around, he was just in time to step into the sunset light through the floor-to-ceiling window, and the string in Bruce's heart finally broke.

"Come back, Dick!"

Bruce couldn't feel the pain anymore, he stood up, grabbed Dick and pulled him back, Dick frowned, obviously hurt by him, but Bruce didn't mean to let go of his hand, he emphasized again: "I said, come back!" Dick! What the hell are you messing around?! ”

"I'm going to school!" Dick emphasized.

"I said I was going to have a good talk with you, and you don't think you have anything to say to me, and then you lose your temper and want to run away from home, Dick Grayson, do you think I'm going to make you so messy?!"

Bruce felt that the blood in his whole body was beginning to burn, and strode to the side of the phone, and said while dialing: "If you don't want to study, then I'll call the teacher to ask for a few days off, you must develop good study habits at home, and then go to school." ”

Dick was stunned, his bag fell to the ground, looked at Bruce in disbelief and said, "Do you think I'm lying?" Even though I did my homework well, you still didn't believe me? Or do you want to call the teacher to confirm if what I said is true?! ”

Instantly, Dick's eyes turned red, and he gritted his teeth and said, "If you hate it, I can say it!" I don't do my homework well, you have to teach me a lesson, now I do my homework well, and I'm going to go to school, and you don't let me go, is it wrong for me to do anything? ”

"Last night, you had nightmares because of trauma, and this afternoon, you told me you were going to live on campus, Dick Grayson, are you taking responsibility for your health?!" Bruce also raised his voice.

"I know better than you whether I'm mentally healthy or not!" Dick was almost already screaming.

But then, he showed an extremely sad expression, stood in place and said to himself: "You won't be like this to Tim and Jason, I shouldn't believe them that you are inexperienced as a father for the first time, I shouldn't be considerate of you, you don't appreciate it at all!" ”

"I just wish you were better!" Bruce said.

Dick took two steps back, shook his head and said, "Is it as good as you are now?" ”

Bruce's eyes widened, but Dick wiped away a handful of tears and said as he stepped back, "Why do you ask me of something you can't do yourself?" ”

With that, he turned around and ran out the door, and the phone in Bruce's hand fell, slamming on the ground with a "bell".

Bruce sat back on the couch with the back of the sofa, and an uncontrollable pain erupted from his chest, he had never hurt so much in his life.

Bruce felt like he couldn't even catch his breath, like a fish that was about to die, the dizziness of suffocation cast a black fog in front of his eyes, an inexplicable fear surrounded him, and he felt that he was going to die.

Bruce had never thought of it that way before, but this time he felt extremely panicked, he was convinced that he would die, and he was convinced that he was afraid of death.

He almost scrambled to pull the analgesic out of his coat pocket, shuddered, poured out a handful, and stuffed it into his mouth.

The hazy and dreamy light and shadow appeared in front of Bruce's eyes, making him feel as if he had returned to the roof of Wayne Tower and saw the neon lights of Gotham every night.

And Thomas, who really saw these neon, took off the pistol on his waist, and the fingers wearing black gloves, filled the magazine with four bullets, and there was no joy of victory between his eyebrows.

It is amazing that the wrinkles of this old Batman, who have long been domesticated by pain, can squeeze more pain out of pain.

It's like Gotham every night, and the cold rain is endless.

Father and son are filial piety

(End of chapter)