Chapter 35

It may be strange to say this, but Bruce actually often sees his parents, in dreams, in hallucinations... Some of them will look at him with a disappointed look, saying that he is their shame, he makes Wei The name En is shameful, and some people will dress up as he remembers them. They embrace him, love him, and try to make him indulge in those dreams and never wake up.

At the beginning, Bruce would still feel sad about this. Those condemnations and cries were like a big hand, pulling the young man who had fled Gotham for many years back to that sad night again. He stood there in silence, feeling the embrace and comfort of Martha and others, and listening to their abuse and humiliation of him, but the most important thing was their death.

Warm and bright red liquid splashed out from their bodies. The murderer's panicked breathing and messy footsteps also echoed in the alley. Gun smoke filled the tip of his nose, mixed with the smell of blood that almost made him nauseous.

The screams of people, the sirens of police cars, the dazzling flashlights and reporters' inquiries and reports...those things were like a whirlpool, pulling the entire Gotham into the death of the Waynes.

For a moment, everyone was discussing their murderer and the young children they left behind. They sympathized with his plight, were jealous of the wealth he inherited, and ridiculed what he had done.

As the center of the whirlpool, Bruce didn't care about it, because he couldn't hear any sound at all at this time. He just sat in a pool of blood, and the street lights shone on them, making everything around him fall into darkness and silence. .

But later, perhaps it was because this kind of thing happened too many times - not only did a movie about the death of the Waynes appear in theaters every year, but the villains and magicians would always use this incident to try to defeat He, they expected to see Batman curled up in a corner crying, longing to see him crying and shouting for his parents, but in the end, all they got was disappointment.

They looked at him with surprised eyes, as if they were shocked that Batman could break free from the illusion. They opened their mouths to say something, but most of the time the fist was already in front of them before they could make a sound.

And at this time, someone often has to stop Batman before he stops. Although he didn't show anything on the outside, the violence and grief in his heart were like a fire, burning him. His parents will always be a forbidden area that he cannot mention.

But this time it was different. He stood stiffly on the spot, and those past memories were recalled in his mind. Through Mia, he seemed to really see Thomas. He was sitting on the sofa, looking at him with an expression on his face. With helplessness and kindness.

But he soon realized. According to Mia's usual reaction, when Damian asked her what role she was, she should tell everything. For example, today she could see the undead, and now she sees Thomas and Martha and stuff like that.

From the surveillance, they found that she said good morning to the air this morning and invited the other person to have breakfast with her, so they guessed that Mia saw them before going to the restaurant.

But in fact, she didn't do this, and was still consciously trying to cover up the other party's existence.

This also led Bruce to speculate that his parents did not want him to know their existence.

"Father." Just when Bruce froze, Damian suddenly shouted, with a little hesitation in his tone. He can naturally think of those things that Bruce inferred, and as the son of Batman, he certainly knows the importance of Martha and the others to Bruce. In a sense, they contributed to the birth of Batman.

It's just that as a child who has been taught that feelings are weak since he was a child, Damian doesn't know what he should say now or what he should do. Maybe he can say something to comfort his father, just like them It was the same when comforting the frightened citizens, but damn, every time it was Richard and Joe who did this kind of thing, the most he could do was stand aside and nod in agreement.

So after a while, he held back something that even he himself didn't believe, "Maybe Mia just forgot to say it."

Bruce was stunned after hearing Damian's words, but soon he realized that his

child was comforting him. This realization made Bruce feel somewhat relieved. You know, when he first met Damian, he never thought that he would comfort others.

He looked at his child helplessly. He could more or less guess what his parents were thinking - in the last conversation between Mia and Bella, he speculated that there were other things on earth besides the world they lived in. There is another world where the undead live. All the dead people will go there to live, and on certain special days, they will return to the world of the living to visit their relatives and children.

And this means that his parents may have seen him wake up from those nightmares more than once. Oh no, wait, maybe they also saw him relying on coffee for several days in a row to survive and being injured while investigating the case. Night patrols are almost a daily routine for him.

Thinking of this, Bruce suddenly felt guilty for some reason. He subconsciously glanced at the straps on his body and the empty coffee cup. After being silent for several minutes, he decided to go to the kitchen to refill himself. A cup of coffee (since Alfred had clearly told him that this would be his last cup of coffee today, he had to go to the kitchen to start the coffee machine himself and give himself a cup of life-saving package), and then today Spent the whole day in the Batcave sorting out cases.

But he didn't expect that when he finished pouring the coffee, he also took two biscuits, which were banned by Ah Fu on the grounds of losing weight because he was caught stealing fast food last time. When he was about to leave, he happened to bump into him and came to the kitchen to taste them. Cookie Mia.

She was a little confused when she saw his appearance, but she still invited him to enjoy today's snack with her, or should I say, them.

The freshly baked cookies paired with ice juice made Mia happy. She likes cookies and a glass of ice-cold sweet juice in the summer, especially after she has done strenuous exercise.

For Mia, today's search for her mother in Wayne Manor can be regarded as a strenuous exercise. You must know that she has opened more than a dozen doors just to open them, and it is said that those who are so long that she can't even look at them. When she reached the corridor at the end, she couldn't even remember how many turns she had turned.

Compared to Mia who was relaxed and happy, Bruce seemed a little nervous. He picked up the black tea in front of him - his coffee was put away by Ah Fu - and tried his best to behave when the wounds on his body were involved. It's like nothing happened.

To be honest, it's not that difficult for Batman. A lot of the time he has to endure the pain and pretend like nothing happened. After all, you have to know that Baby Brucie might fall while skiing in Switzerland. His arms and legs were broken, but there were no gunshot wounds, large burns, or all kinds of weird scars on his body.

It's a pity that his disguise couldn't be hidden from Martha and Thomas at all. They frowned at their child. Even with the scent of biscuits and tea, the smell of medicine on his body could not be concealed.

At the same time, Mia also looked at her father with concern, "Are you okay?" she asked softly. Although she didn't see his wound with her own eyes, she happened to hear Dick and the others talking about Bruce's injury when she was exploring the manor a few days ago.

Dick sat on the sofa, his tone full of sadness. Even if this kind of exclusion from Batman has happened more than once, it still makes him angry every time it happens.

"Sometimes I really don't understand. He just needs to press that button, and then he will have a few more helpers so that he no longer has to be in danger alone. But he is never willing to do that." Dick complained , he hugged the pillow and sunk his whole body into the sofa.

"Ah, classic personal heroism." Jason sat aside and mocked. Although he had made it very clear that he had nothing to do with Batman, he rushed back to Wayne Manor as soon as he heard the news of his injury.

Faced with his brother's anger, Tim did not join in their conversation. He sat on the chair and contacted Connor on his mobile phone to tell him that he would go to a mountain around Gotham for vacation this weekend. If the alliance had any questions, they could contact him directly through Robin's communication.

The other person also responded quickly. Connor first expressed his understanding of the matter, and then

asked him in an exaggerated tone if something had happened. Otherwise, how could Red Robin, who is usually online almost 24 hours a day, be able to do this? Suddenly I said I wanted to leave work and go on vacation.

"Hey Ronaldinho, if you need help with anything, just let us know," Connor sent a message, followed by a Superboy emoticon.

That made Tim feel warm. His partners always gave him a lot of help, but this time he didn't need help with anything. He just wanted to teach Bruce a lesson and let him deal with the difficult problems on the board of directors. Just shareholders.

Even if he didn't join in the conversation with his brothers, it didn't mean that he wouldn't be angry about it, or that everyone was angry about it, but there was nothing they could do about it because they knew they couldn't change Bruce's mind, so The boss is notoriously stubborn, and they know very well that if they were faced with those things, they would make the same choice.

Thinking of this, Tim put away his phone. He raised his head and looked at Dick, who was still complaining. He suddenly stopped mid-sentence and looked at the door with an embarrassed expression, "Hey, good evening, Mia. ." He said,

"Good evening...good evening, brother." Mia, who was standing outside the door, slowly stood up from behind the door after hearing her name. Her eyes moved around, and her expression also changed. With a guilty conscience.

Of course she knew it was bad behavior to eavesdrop on others, but it wasn't all her fault. Who made them leave the door open when they were talking about these things, so that she could just hear it when passing by the door of the room, and as a superhero A fan, no, it should be said that she is a good child who cares about her family. It is normal for her to stop because of the news that her family members were injured.

Thinking of this, the expression on Mia's face began to become more rational. She raised her head and looked at her brothers, asking them about Bruce's injury.

Although she already knew their identity as vigilantes, that was all. They did not allow her to join them, and they would keep most things secret from her.

Mia can understand the reason for this, it's just for her safety, but it still makes her feel depressed.

She had unhappily gone to Bruce to talk about it, telling him that she felt they needed to be fair and that as she told them all her adventures, they should do the same. Tell her what happened during his night patrol.

Bruce was stunned when he heard her protest. He put down the documents in his hand and said that night patrol was a boring thing and she would not be interested in it.

"No, I'm very interested in this." Mia shouted loudly. She looked at Bruce stubbornly, with an expression that seemed to say, if you don't promise me, I will make trouble.

That made Bruce sigh and he rubbed his temples, there was always nothing he could do when it came to children, especially his own.

So he put down his work temporarily, and after thinking for a while, he told Mia that the night patrol last night was all normal.

"Then what?" Mia asked expectantly.

"What then?" Bruce asked.

"It means whether you met any villains, or arrested any criminals, etc." Mia explained.

"Batman is not responsible for catching criminals, that's the responsibility of the police." Bruce corrected.

"It makes no difference, we all know that sometimes Batman hangs those prisoners at the door of the police station." Mia said. She sat on the sofa and looked at Bruce with admiration. In her eyes, night patrol should be tense and exciting, just like every police movie she had ever watched. Every confrontation between the police and criminals would make her excited. I was so nervous that my palms became sweaty.

But no, nothing. Batman told him that no villain showed up yesterday, and now they are all staying in Arkham. There was no crime. At most, there were some small things like robberies.

Gotham's crime rate plummeted after Batman appeared. The gunshots that plagued Gotham's citizens all night long began to decrease. I don't know when, and more and more people appeared on the streets every night. , some of them are social animals who have just started to drive home because they have worked overtime, and some of them are simply coming out to look for food... They are walking

in a hurry on street, and they will all agree when they see the black figure crossing the sky. They stopped and thanked their protector.

So Mia had no choice but to give up this idea. She wandered slowly in the mansion. To be honest, Mia preferred to call it an adventure. When she passed by Tim's room, she happened to hear the sound coming from inside.

Dick and the others did not answer immediately after hearing Mia's question. They pursed their lips and looked at the open door. Almost every time they complain about Batman in Wayne Manor they purposely leave the door open, and just like Alfred purposely makes Batman waffles and vegetable juice to express his concern, they also use this way to express his worry and anger towards Bruce.

It's just that they forgot that besides them and Bruce, there is another Mia in the manor. She looked concerned when she saw them like this, and if Batman was hurt, then her brothers were probably hurt too.

"No, we're fine," Dick replied, not mentioning the countless bruises, scrapes, and gunshot wounds from the last time a gunshot hit him, which were commonplace to them. Not worth mentioning, "There's nothing serious about Bruce, we're just angry about his behavior."

"Okay." Mia nodded. She took Dick's word for it, that he was the easiest of them all, to give him any reason to cheat on her.

So after getting the answer of "Of course, I feel fine" from Bruce, Mia continued to eat the cookies without any doubt, and even chatted with her dad while eating.

She told him about her adventures in Wayne Manor today. With the help of Martha and the others, she explored more areas this time. Of course, she did not tell him about the existence of Martha and the others. She remembered what she promised.

And her mother, she said that she was always busy with work and had no time to accompany him. Just like now, it was already more than half of the day, but she still didn't see her.

As she spoke, Mia began to ask Bruce about his parents again. That question stunned Martha and the others, and also stunned Bruce. He did not expect that she would suddenly mention them.

"I just wanted to ask because I saw your portrait in the corridor." Mia explained. She looked at Bruce with a firm look, as if she really suddenly mentioned the Waynes because of this. of.

This made Bruce sigh, he put down the cup in his hand, and said after a long time, "They are very good parents." "That sounds really

good, and by the way, you are also a very good father. "Mia nodded, swinging her legs and eating the biscuits in front of her.

"Thank you." Bruce said. He still looked a little nervous, but compared to before, the nervousness was a little more nostalgic. He remembered that when he was young, his parents would often sit in this position. They were enjoying the black tea prepared by Ah Fu. When they looked at him playing with his friends in the distance, their eyes were full of tenderness and doting.

"Then, do you want to meet them?" Mia asked again. She touched her notebook. If she couldn't make Martha and the others change their wishes, then she could realize her father's wish instead. She is a wish-granter and helps everyone realize their wishes.

And the way to realize your wish is, of course, to make your birthday wish to your mother.

Just like her wife and grandma made a wish to the elf a few centuries ago because she wanted to experience a different life, now she wants to make a wish to her father and her brothers (while preparing to make a wish to her mother), Mia suddenly thinks of Dick and the others. Even if her parents have passed away, she can see her parents and make a wish to her mother.

After all, to Mia, her mother is as omniscient and omnipotent as an elf, and she will help her realize all her wishes.

It doesn't matter even if she knows that this will also make her see her mother later. She is the best at waiting. She will stay in her room and wait until her mother comes to her.