席勒被总统召回.即使他可以远程控制,但实际上,需要其他人来管理精神病院的日常事务.这项任务落在了布鲁斯身上.
席勒满怀信心地将所有工作委托给布鲁斯.布鲁斯总觉得教授对他的信心比对自己的信心还要大.
他只是一名大一新生,在他的第一次实习中,他正在负责一家非典型的精神病院.虽然这家精神病院里没有真正的精神病患者供他管理,但情况甚至比处理真正的病人还要危险和麻烦.
当布鲁斯质疑他是否有能力胜任这份工作时,席勒告诉他,"有时候,除非你逼迫自己,否则你不会知道你是一个天才.
上班第一天,布鲁斯就遇到了一个大问题:他分不清谁是谁.
尽管他已经记住了厚厚的病人记录,记住了他们的姓名,房间号和相应的病历,但如果这是在普通医院,一个实习医生做这么多已经绰绰有余了.
但不幸的是,没有一个传统意义上的精神病患者.在他们的名字和诊断记录的背后,是极其复杂的社会身份.
谁是哪个家庭的成员?哪个黑手党家族与哪个家族关系不好?谁曾经是敌人,谁是伙伴?这些都没有写在病历上.
布鲁斯在席勒打电话时无意中听到了一些事情.他非凡的记忆力将这些信息转化为初学者的礼物包.如果他搞不清每个人的社会身份,那也没关系.他可以从现有的线索中推断出它们.
此外,布鲁斯善于伪装自己.就像他伪装成花花公子一样,在这家医院里,他变成了一个有冒险精神却又向往黑手党生活的有钱人.
世界首富的身份为他提供了许多优势.一般来说,没有歹徒会认为世界上最富有的人会故意聊天以获取信息.因此,当布鲁斯对他们的故事表现出兴趣时,黑帮老大们只是认为这个年轻的有钱人,就像有钱人的小儿子一样,已经舒适地生活了太久,渴望黑手党电影中描绘的精彩生活.
因此,当他们在故事中加入自己的捏造时,布鲁斯仍然可以推断出有关暴徒内部社会关系的有用信息.
在一个几乎每个人都与暴徒有某种联系的城市中,解开这些复杂的关系意味着几乎了解这座城市黑社会的所有潜在联系.
布鲁斯发现这个城市的生存规则比他想象的要复杂得多.
从最低级的小帮派开始,即使是只有十几名成员的小帮派,也有自己的生存规则.
These small groups often take on the tasks of patrolling the streets and engaging in petty thefts. They also have to pay protection fees to the larger groups to be under their control.
And the larger mafia groups, with hundreds of members, are the mainstream in Gotham. Most of them have one or two industries in their hands, which could be shops or factories.
They provide protection for these industries, drive away troublemakers, and remote control small gangs under their command to attract clients. When conflicts arise over competition for customers, there may be small-scale skirmishes, but they mostly involve firing a couple of shots from behind a car with a handgun, rarely resorting to large-scale firepower.
Moving up further, there are large mafia groups with hundreds of members, reaching a different level. Each member of these groups has at least one special industry that is their livelihood. Bruce discovers that these damn mafia groups even have their industries divided into specialized sectors.
At the scale of hundreds of members, they often control at least one smuggling chain or have a complete chain of production, extraction, and sales in industries like cultivation or refining, or they dominate the majority of the industry in a red-light district. Some of the upper even achieve a monopoly in a certain industry in a specific area.
Reaching this level, the daily profits they can reap have already reached astonishing levels but also reached saturation point.
Moving higher up, they can no longer be called groups but should be referred to as family . The twelve families ruling Gotham, apart from controlling the core forces in their territories, jave nothing to do themselves. Their role is to remote control these large groups. Each mafia family has dozens or hundreds of large mafia groups under their command, managing different businesses in different areas.
When Falcone established the twelve families, he assigned them with twelve different industries to specialize in.
Meanwhile, Falcone stood atop the pyramid, issuing orders to all the families and gangs.
During the process of collecting and analyzing information, Bruce discovers that Gotham's seemingly chaotic rules are actually a quite robust pyramid structure. Fortune is extracted from criminal industries layer by layer, then redistributed and produced again by those at the very top.
In this cycle, Gotham has formed its unique ecosystem, creating the largest hub of criminal industries in America.
At the same time, Bruce realizes, it is different from what he had previously imagined. From the perspectives of sociology and economics, the industrial structure of this city is damn healthy. Whether it is the distribution of industry sizes among different hierarchies or the division of industrial concentration areas, it actually surpasses most cities in America.
As the investigation delves further, Bruce gradually begins to doubt his original intentions. He finds that although Gotham is wicked, it is not poor. The living standards of its people are not low, and they are quite wealthy apart from facing danger.
During his internship in asylum, Bruce meets an old man who comes from the Fortress city, nicknamed "Shotgun."
Shotgun had originally come from the Fortress city, but his daughter married into Gotham, to a small mafia leader. This small leader was framed by bad guys, and his daughter narrowly escaped death. Upon receiving his daughter's plea for help, Shotgun directly took an old shotgun and rushed to Gotham. With a few shots, he killed those who sought to harm his son-in-law.
The Lauren family, one of the twelve families, admires this old man's violent temper and his skills. Now, he is the owner of a restaurant in the Western District owned by the Lauren family.
Unlike other members, this old man actually needs medical help. He has chronic headaches, seemingly a consequence of anxiety disorder. So, his son-in-law finds intermediary to have him admitted for treatment. After receiving two courses of treatment, he feels much better.
"It's all the same, all the same..."
Smoking a cigar, Shotgun leans against the hospital bed and says to Bruce, "You think Fortress city would be better? Everyone here lives on clean streets, every family has a car to drive, and the kids can go to school?"
He takes another puff of smoke. This old man even has the demeanor of a Southern nobleman, just like a true shotgun.
Amidst the smoke, he slowly reminisces, "When I met Mary. You know, that was decades ago... I was a poor boy, wandering through the city with just my bare hands..."
"There are also mobs in Fortress City. Where aren't? I worked for them, but that is less than Gotham. I earned too little. Sometimes, I didn't even have a penny in my pocket. I wanted to marry Mary. But I had no money, so how could we get married?"
"So, I took a gun and become a killer, and life started to improve. By the time my daughter was born, I was doing quite well. Although I haven't read many books, if you ask me, Gotham is much better."
Bruce asks, "Gotham is better than Fortress City?"
If it hadn't been said by this seemingly insightful old man, Bruce would've thought he had lost his mind.
"I know, you young boy from good family think this city is rotten to the core. Everywhere is filled with gangs, and everyone's a criminal. But for people like us, we work hard for whoever gives us the most money. If someone gives more, we'll work for them."
"In Gotham, as long as you're a real one of the mafia, you can actually earn quite a lot. And those like me, with a restaurant or a bar in their hands, it's not much different from doing big business."
"Moreover, the members of gangs are safer. There is their own set of orders here. If you don't have a war to a mob, don't touch their people, even if it's just the least important thug."
"So those who join the mafia to make a living are actually safer than in other places. Because here, the mobs rules here. Once you become a one of them, your words carry more weight."
"I know, I know..." Shotgun puts down his cigar and sighs, "I know well killing others should be punished. I will go to hell and face Satan's judgment. But I don't care, do you know why?"
Before Bruce can respond, Shotgun continues, "I need to fill my stomach first, earn more money, and live a better life."
"God didn't let me be born into a family as rich as yours. My father lost everything gambling, and my mother ran away with another man. My only possession was an old gun. So, I thought, why not give it a shot and see what happens?"
"After coming to Gotham, I realized that the people who built this city must be geniuses. Don't you think the mafia here is planned too perfectly? It has achieved a kind of balance that allows the city to run smoothly, and for people to live decently."
"My son-in-law has a guy working under him, what's his name?... Whatever, let's just call him 'One-Hand.' His father, whose brain is destroyed by drugs, cut off his left hand. But One-Hand has been working with the casino boss on their street since he was young, specializing in throwing dice. Last year, he even bought a car and is getting married next month."
"The mafia industry is huge, and they are always short of people. As long as you can work, they will take anyone."
"Kids who don't go to school can learn a skill. Some clever can work in restaurants and learn how to cook from the boss or go to a bar and learn how to mix drinks. The most skilled ones are those who learn techniques at the casino; they are quite geniuses."
"The prompt ones become pickpockets, the ones with good eyes become lookouts. Even the least capable ones can learn how to fight. With so many gangs, restaurants, bars, casinos, and car repair shops all need employees or guards, you always can find something to make a living anywhere."
"If you ask me, the economy has been better in the past two years. If I save up some more money, I might even be able to buy a small house on the outskirts of the wealthy area in the south. Oh, you should live in the center there. They say you're a big rich."
"My grandson is not as lucky as you, but that's enough. Much better than me. At least he was born in a house without drafts.His mother takes good care of him while his father earns money. We live well, don't we?"
Perhaps it is because his headache has improved significantly, but the old man seems spirited, constantly rambling about the details of his life. At that moment, Bruce's thoughts drift far away.
One sentence from Shotgun makes him start thinking.
The planning of Gotham's criminal industry is unbelievably perfect, almost impossible to form naturally. The mobs emerged from chaos, and they couldn't possibly have spontaneously organized these industries.
How did this city become what it is today?
Could it be that someone deliberately designed it this way?
What is their purpose? If they have the ability to plan the industry chain so perfectly, why create a city known for crime instead of doing something else?
Gotham is the biggest oddity among all cities in America. It has smoothly operated in a bizarre and twisted way for such a long time, deviating from the norm and becoming one of the most prosperous cities on the East Coast in an extremely absurd way. People here not only meet the minimum standard of living but can strive for excellence.
Its creator must be a genius. They created order from chaos, almost magically inventing a new mode of urban operation.
But at the same time, they must also be a madman. They used their crazy creativity to build the world's largest city of crime.
Bruce thinks, perhaps here, genius and madman are separated by a thin line. Gotham is like a coin standing between them, seemingly on the verge of falling. But it continues to sway along this line until now.
Everyone here, just like this city, is a duality. They are both uniquely talented geniuses and unparalleled madmen.
Genius on the left, madman on the right, and everyone in Gotham, just like the city's traffic rules -
I go straight, and never take bend.