清晨,阳光洒进韦恩庄园的卧室.布鲁斯在床上坐了起来,阿尔弗雷德站在门外.布鲁斯问他:"现在几点了?
"现在是九点钟,韦恩大人,"阿尔弗雷德回答.
布鲁斯有些惊讶.他走到窗前,拉开窗帘,瞥了一眼外面.它确实已经很亮了.自从回到哥谭以来,这是他第一次醒来这么晚.
然而,管家阿尔弗雷德似乎很开心.当布鲁斯下楼吃早餐时,阿尔弗雷德站在那里,脸上带着微笑.
"阿尔弗雷德,你怎么了?你为什么看起来这么开心?布鲁斯问道.
"因为您最近看起来很开心,先生,"
布鲁斯一瞬间吃惊.他快乐吗?他摸了摸自己的脸,努力回忆起自己最近的行为.
由于席勒提出的精彩的哥谭大学学生实习计划,布鲁斯最近确实非常忙碌.白天,他要和其他学生一起出去指挥交通,到了晚上,他要穿梭于医院和监狱之间,安排不能呆在一边的帮派成员转移到另一边,反之亦然.
他突然意识到,最近,他花在布鲁斯身上的时间比花在蝙蝠侠身上的时间要多得多.
以前,他不会在韦恩庄园隐瞒自己的真实本性.他很少微笑,比较安静.虽然他与阿尔弗雷德关系密切,但实际上,他很少表现出任何情绪波动.
但最近,因为他成为布鲁斯太久了,他的行为模式开始像他假装的那个花花公子.他不再有永远严厉的面孔,偶尔甚至会和阿尔弗雷德开玩笑.
这在他心中升起了一个警示信号.自从回到哥谭后,他就再也没有自然地睡到九点.这表明他的警惕性正在放松.
从心理上讲,这是很正常的.一个人成为什么样的人,很大程度上取决于他们觉得自己是谁.布鲁斯现在只有18岁,刚刚开始上大学.当他沉浸在扮演一个开朗,善于交际的亿万富翁的角色中时,他很难清楚地找到这种伪装的身份和他自己的个性之间的界限.
又忙碌了一天后,布鲁斯回到了卧室的浴室.他打开水龙头,用冷水洗脸.
他身旁的窗帘在晚风中轻轻摇曳.他头顶的冷色灯光在他的脚下投下了一道黑影.
布鲁斯靠在浴室的水槽上,看着镜子里的自己.镜子里的人有一双蓝眼睛.然而,头顶的灯光从他的眉毛上遮住了他的眼睛.
"Who am I?" he asks.
"Who am I?"
"Who am I..."
His voice echoes in the empty room. The sound bounces off the walls and returns to his ears, as if another him is asking him that question. He feels, vaguely, he hears an answer, but at the same time, it seems like he hears nothing.
Reflective echoes can't provide him with answers, Bruce knows that very well.
He reaches out his hand to wipe away the condensed mist on the glass, to see his own eyes clearly. But in the end, he doesn't do it. He lets the fog cover his entire face and eyes on the surface of the mirror, then he stands up straight, looking at himself in the mirror with a condescending attitude.
"I am Batman."
"I am Batman..."
The corners of his mouth start to droop. He isn't wearing the mask, but as shadows climb upon his features, his entire face seems to be covered by a black mask once again.
The shadows enveloping his blue eyes grow denser. Eventually, only his low voice reverberates in the empty manor as he says, "I am, Batman..."
Bruce walks out of the bathroom. In the pitch-black bedroom, he doesn't turn on the lights. After opening the door and standing by it, he continues through the dark corridor. When he stands by the stairs, he happens to see Alfred downstairs, wiping an old telephone with a piece of cloth.
Since Bruce returned, he has invented a new mobile communication device for himself, a cellphone. He never uses that telephone again. That old rotary dial telephone is too old. Moreover, whenever it rings, it makes the manor feel even emptier.
But Alfred cherishes it dearly. Bruce has never seen a speck of dust on it, and it is the same today. However, what is different is Bruce hears Alfred humming a tune, a bit like a jazz tune, full of the aura from the last decade, just like the joyful and lively mood of immigrants when they first discovered this Golden Coast.
Bruce watches Alfred's figure and closes his eyes painfully. He tightens his grip on the handrail, causing the old wooden railing to emit a slight creak. Alfred turns around and sees Bruce standing on the stairs. Before he can ask anything, Bruce quickly returns to the bedroom as if fleeing.
After closing the bedroom door, he is almost panting heavily, as if this distance is more exhausting than running thousands of meters.
He feels an intense emotion churning within him. It seems that something is constantly stimulating his emotional system in his brain.
It has been a long, long time since Bruce has felt such intense emotions. After the sound of gunshots on a dark night, half of Bruce's emotional world is lost. All those emotions of joy, happiness, and touch have long departed from him.
But when he sees Alfred so happy, Bruce doesn't know how to describe his feelings. This question has been troubling him for a long time.
Restless, Bruce tosses and turns on the bed, unable to fall asleep. A strange impulse is affecting him. He has no choice but to put on the Batman suit and leave Wayne Manor.
It is the first time Batman leaves here not because he needs to fight with criminals. He just wants to escape from the emotions he doesn't want to accept.
Therefore, after leaving Wayne Manor, he aimlessly roams the skies of Gotham. Bruce has never before hoped he could quickly meet a criminal like he does now and bring them to justice... no, today it should be sending them to asylum.
Thinking of this, Batman feels a discomfort and covers his forehead. What is he thinking? Come on! You are not Bruce right now! Stop thinking the back-and-forth between hospitals and prisons!
However, Batman still can't control himself. The moment he thinks about the number of inmates in the prison exceeding 28% again tomorrow, while the occupancy rate in the infirmary is less than 15%, he feels that this pressure is more terrifying than anything else.
But damn it, in a city where normally he can encounter three robberies by walking just two steps, Batman has been roaming for half an hour and hasn't come across a single criminal.
Now, the streets near the central ring in downtown ablaze with lights. The four main roads extending from the roundabout are each hosting night markets that stretch for kilometers. Bright lights illuminate the night.
Most of the people here come for night shifts. Not just the truck drivers who transport goods at night, but also dock workers, warehouse guards, security personnel, and so on. This group of people is the most active citizens of Gotham right now.
Batman stands at the top of a high building. He knows very well if he jumps down in this suit, before he even lands, he will be welcomed by two bullets, and there are no criminal activities here. Evidently, downtown doesn't need Batman. He can only leave and go further away.
The central circle and the major traffic hubs aren't everything to Gotham City. In the areas where the lights can't reach, there are darker neighborhoods. Batman follows his dark instincts and arrives at the darkest place in all of Gotham.
Here is the East End of Gotham. The East End has always been equal to chaos in Gotham, with its tangled and complex web of organized mobs. However, the chaos in the East End is also graded.
Among them, the most terrifying place is known as "Living Hell." It is the westernmost district in the East End, the farthest from the docks, and it is the most crowded, densely populated, dark, and impoverished area.
Living Hell is often referred to as "Gotham within Gotham" by the people of Gotham. All the residential buildings here are crooked and squeezed against each other. The alleyways between the buildings are so narrow that even an adult can't stretch both arms wide. In such dark and narrow alleys, piles of junk are stacked, leaving almost no place to set foot.
Batman falls from the rooftop and walks into the first street of the living hell. Looking up from the ground, there is only a narrow gap in the sky. The dense network of power lines and antennas obscures most of the view, like a giant web hanging over his head.
Moving forward in such an alley is extremely difficult, even for Batman. There are hardly any lights, except for faint ones peeking out from a few windows high above. After almost tripping over garbage bags multiple times, Batman finally turns on his flashlight.
However, even with the flashlight, walking here is still very challenging. Just as Batman takes a few steps in the alley, he discovers a twisted staircase leading into a dark corridor.
He climbs up the creaking stairs. Upon entering the corridor and coming out again, he finds himself facing another flat ground. Walking forward, he realizes it is the rooftop of another building, with another dark alley beneath his feet.
Batman finds a ladder on this rooftop, leading to the other side. Even with Batman's agility, he has to proceed with caution on this type of ladder.
While standing on the ladder, he looks down. It is like an endless abyss filled with layers of windows, power lines, and garbage bags, all tangled together and descending like layers of hell.
After crossing the ladder to the other side, he sees a mountain of garbage bags in one corner of the rooftop. As he moves to the other side, there is another towering building with a small door that requires him to bend down to pass through. Batman enters and finally steps into the body of the living hell.
The situation here is worse than outside, with almost no light. The hallway has become so narrow that Batman has to lower his head and tighten his arms to climb the stairs.
Batman feels calling this kind of passage a staircase is inaccurate; it is more like an intestine. It is truly fitting to call this place the living hell.
The narrow, dark, and cramped corridor is like an organ in a living organism. After climbing two floors, Batman finally sees another small door beside him.
After going through this door, the corridor ahead is slightly more wider, but the main entrance is still tightly shut. Various signs hang inside the hallway, indicating places like delis, grocery stores, barber shops, and more.
Batman is surprised to find the living hell seems to have its own ecosystem. Walking along the corridor, he discovers there are six doors leading to it, according to Batman's estimation,each resembling a part of the building in six different directions.
It is truly strange and wonderful, Batman thinks.
This city is like a microcosm of Gotham, deserving of the name "Gotham within Gotham."
To his surprise, Batman discovers this place has various living facilities as well as a complete system of electricity, water, and communication. Thick water pipes extend endlessly in the dark corridors like large blood vessels. The overhead wires are tangled messily, resembling a dense network of nerves.
Countless posters, advertisements, and even mailboxes are posted next to each doorway.
Batman is experiencing this side of Gotham at the first time. Previously, without the Batmobile, his crime-fighting activities are mainly centered around Wayne Tower, spreading out a certain distance around it. The robberies mostly occur within this range, as it is Gotham's most prosperous commercial street.
But now, he finds himself in the midst of this living hell, witnessing the hidden side of Gotham that few know about—or, the reality beneath its surface prosperity.
Strangely, despite being dark, cramped, terrifying, and eerie, this place has a complete ecological system, displaying a different kind of vitality and charm, even exuding a fascinating beauty.
Batman feels like he might be mad. He even thinks ,this realistic yet chaotic scenery is the ultimate answer to this city.