What Else Is a Kind of Cow

Harvey Dent wasn't dead, and in fact, Glinda was fine too.

Ma Zhaodi watched the news report and smiled happily. He was almost completely certain of his judgment because the System's prompts were never wrong.

He casually filled a cornucopia with grapes, corn, small pumpkins, and cherry tomatoes. Today was Thanksgiving, and another holiday meant another job. The cornucopia in his hands was the item required for this gig.

"Even the amulet necklace's usage count in the System bar hasn't decreased. Harvey Dent is really amazing; ten seconds must have been plenty of time for him."

Thinking this, his smile faded again because the latter half of the news seemed strange.

Why was Harvey's wife hospitalized? He couldn't understand it at all. If her hospitalization on the day of the explosion was for a check-up, then today, there was no way she should still be in the hospital.

Could there have been some unforeseen development he didn't know about?

He carefully recalled his memories of Harvey's wife, but in reality, he could only remember the girlfriend of Harvey Dent from the Dark Knight trilogy who was kidnapped by the Joker. It was obvious these two had no connection.

"I should go to the hospital to take a look, and by the way, retrieve the cross necklace."

--

"Do you think his story has any possibility? This isn't the first time I've heard—"

"Harvey Dent shot the Roman's nephew twice in the head? I don't believe it, I won't believe it, and you shouldn't either."

Harvey, who had just entered the room, didn't know about this conversation between Gordon and Batman. He only felt a moment of disorientation as he removed his mask.

It was a strange feeling to be two people at once, yet he seemed to handle it with practiced ease, even feeling a touch of reluctance, as if he had been two people from birth.

"So, we won't prosecute the Irish Mob for murder— I plan to let them go. We'll leak some information to the streets, say we reached an agreement with them, and then see how the Romans react."

"We can still charge them. They admitted to attempted murder, bombed your house, and sent Glinda to the hospital."

Hearing Gordon mention Glinda, Harvey's mood turned somber.

He had tricked Glinda into wearing the cross necklace from the package and had also managed to get her out of the main blast radius, but even though no external injuries were found on her body, she had fallen into a coma and still hadn't woken up.

Gordon's words indeed touched a nerve, because Glinda's condition was still uncertain. But if they did it this way, there would be no gains.

"They can post bail and bribe a judge in an hour, and we'll still get nothing."

Batman watched the two argue, remaining silent. At a time like this, he didn't want to make a decision for them.

"Prosecute them, Harvey, for God's sake, or I'll find someone at the District Attorney's office willing to charge them." Gordon's words were filled with anger. Harvey's wife was in the hospital, and now they were going to let those scoundrels walk free to solve the case? This made him furious. He had always hated seeing such brazen criminals who wantonly challenged justice get away with it.

If Gordon didn't have such integrity, the Gotham Police Department might still have been one of the mob's protection rackets today.

Harvey was wrong. The Irish Mob was bailed out of prison in less than an hour.

Gordon truly missed dinner. Harvey went to the hospital to stay with Glinda for the night, while Batman, carrying a Thanksgiving feast, went into the sewers— and there he saw Solomon eating another meal, which reminded him of the friend Grundy had mentioned.

"Grundy? Who brought you your food?"

However, the big guy didn't answer him, just continued eating.

Batman scanned the surroundings. Apart from the sewage on the ground, it seemed everything had been eaten by Grundy. Solomon's friend had left no clues to investigate— it was Batman's instinct to investigate whenever something happened.

Meanwhile, Harvey had also returned to the hospital.

Glinda still lay on the hospital bed, showing no signs of waking up. So he took her hand, warming her cool palm with his own body heat, and sat by the bedside, silently praying to God, hoping his wife would wake up soon.

At this moment, Harvey seemed to have returned to the role of a husband, a feeling that was even somewhat foreign to him. For a long time, he had constantly had to choose between Gotham and his family, and he had always chosen Gotham. The ever-increasing overtime, the growing number of crimes, the increasing dangers all came at him, but he endured them all.

But his time at home became later and later, the cases he encountered grew larger and larger, and Glinda's stress increased accordingly— she had wholeheartedly stayed in the city with Harvey, supporting every decision he made, but her husband spent less and less time with her.

This city had taken her husband, she often thought.

Harvey thought about what they had said a long time ago, about wanting a child, to add a little life to their home. But even today, that idea remained just an idea. It wasn't until today that he remembered he still had the identity of a husband.

"I'm sorry, my wife," he thought, feeling even more guilty. He held her hand like this, resting his head on her bedside, and fell into a deep sleep.

A moment later, a nurse wearing a mask pushed the door open and walked in. She glanced briefly at the patient in the room before walking directly to Glinda's bedside.

Her footsteps were light, and she didn't wake Harvey. She reached out and gently touched the cross necklace at Glinda's neck, and it disappeared.

She then looked around the room, making sure no one had noticed her, and quickly left the room.

"Hey, hey, John, look at this monitor. Why did it suddenly go black?"

In the security room, the guard eating a hamburger turned his head and saw that the monitor screen his colleague was pointing at was indeed showing static. He couldn't help but scratch his head.

"You're right. Damn it, I'll go take a look— Huh? The screen's normal again?"

The two looked at each other, and finally, unable to figure it out, they gave up thinking about it.

"Whatever, it's normal now anyway."

"Let me see. A computer set cost four thousand, adding a phone to it cost five hundred, the nurse uniform cost twenty, intermediate stealth mastery cost four thousand, the custom bomb cost five hundred..."

Ma Zhaodi muttered as he tallied the assets he had spent over the past few days, sighing.

Over nine thousand deducted in cash, and so many worries. Being a good person was truly taxing.

He wondered how Harvey Dent managed to keep going.