Rain tonight.
The lower it gets, the bigger it gets.
The wind tonight.
It also scraped harder and harder.
The luxurious stretch car parked outside an ordinary apartment building. In this apartment where not many people lived, one of the bright windows was being stared at by the people in the car.
The busy figure inside the window obviously didn't notice this.
"Finally done!"
Scientist Leonard felt as if he had fought with a beautiful woman for three hundred rounds and was sweating profusely. In fact, he just tidied up his room and put back the comic collection that had been messed up before.
This may not be a high-intensity exercise for most people, but he is Leonard, a crispy scientist,
Half of my life is almost dependent on this tidying up.
"Sheldon can't find fault with me now." The reason why Leonard spent so long sorting it out is naturally because he has a roommate with extremely obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Walked out of the room.
Just as he was about to show off to Sheldon, he saw a girl sitting cross-legged on the carpet eating potato chips, while Sheldon on the sofa was weighing the takeout on an electronic scale.
"Hi, Penny."
Leonard's cocky cocky look immediately calmed down a bit.
"Hi, Leonard."
The girl ate potato chips while watching TV and did not look back. This made Leonard seize the opportunity and run to the toilet. After sorting out her image, she came out again.
"The person who just spoke to you was the talented cartoonist, right? You even messed up your room because of it." Sheldon said in a determined tone while recording his food intake.
"I've tidied the room."
Leonard immediately defended his image.
A little proud.
It's just that the girl didn't seem to pay attention to him, but was surprised by Sheldon's hearing.
"You were clearly playing games in front of the TV just now, but you could actually eavesdrop on Leonard's phone call? Could it be that you installed monitoring software on his phone?" The girl named Penny is not bad looking. She is the neighbor of two geeky scientists and is also Leonard's dream girl.
"Huh?"
Sheldon straightened his head like a groundhog,
"What a great idea! Penny, I didn't expect you to have a flash of inspiration. Maybe you really don't have to be a waiter in this life." Sheldon's tone was full of emotion - he didn't look down on his friends, he just liked to discriminate everyone's IQ equally, and theoretical physicists had a sense of superiority.
Hear the words.
Penny put down the potato chips in his hand with an expressionless expression.
"If you are really so smart, don't you know that you shouldn't offend the girl who serves you?" She turned her head and looked at Sheldon, the smell of threat was very strong.
Sheldon didn't dare to refute. He seemed to have turned his head and stared at Leonard, and began to change the subject, "What does the genius cartoonist want you to do? Let me guess, don't tell me yet... Well! He must have seen the 1,000 pages of suggestions I hacked into his computer and implanted in his computer, and called you specifically to ask you to thank me on his behalf!
A theoretical physicist in his thirties, his beautiful blue eyes were full of childlike expectations. However, Leonard shook his head in response, shattering the beautiful fantasy in this man's heart.
"No, he didn't mention you or your thousand pages of comic suggestions. In fact, the kid just consulted me about superhero comics."
Leonard looks proud that he is a know-it-all about comics.
It just didn't attract girls.
He was a little frustrated, but he continued, "I think our talented cartoonist should be looking for inspiration - and, maybe because I doubted his strength at first, he finally told me that he has someone closest to Mr. Bruce·Wayne as his Angels investor."
"I gave him a free investment of US$10 million." Speaking of this, Leonard couldn't help but marvel. Such a fortune was definitely a huge amount of money that he could never imagine in his life.
"You believe this?"
The girl Penny rolled her eyes.
She always felt that her neighbor just met a middle school student who liked to brag.
"He said he doesn't like to lie. I think the credibility is quite high." Leonard held the phone, feeling a little guilty. He just wanted to exude his masculine charm by being valued.
"Then you are definitely hopeless."
Penny Sincere evaluation.
"What do you think?"
She also looked at Sheldon.
It's just that the strange otaku Sheldon doesn't care about this.
"He didn't mention me! Not at all?" Sheldon's voice raised an octave, "Didn't he even call that annoying tall physicist?"
The big boy was very unwilling.
"Yes, no."
Leonard gave the answer helplessly. He couldn't lie, because if he lied, he would be caught by Sheldon. No one knew better than him how annoying this roommate was.
"Okay, I understand, it seems he is not as talented as we thought!" Sheldon abused the food in the lunch box with a fork, as if those innocent pieces of meat were some cartoonist who failed to live up to his expectations.
He stuffed a piece of meat into his mouth.
Sheldon puffed out his cheeks and chewed hard.
"Listen to me, you have to believe me-." Penny wanted to say something at this time, but her words were interrupted because Sheldon suddenly jumped up like a cat whose tail was stepped on.
"Cherry pit! Cherry pit!"
His face turned red and he pinched his neck with his fingers.
"Damn it, you're just eating cherry meat! The Chinese restaurant didn't put real cherries in it!" Leonard, despite complaining, rushed to rescue his roommate immediately.
Penny also rushed to help.
After some extremely skilled work, Sheldon was finally rescued successfully.
"I swear, the fact that this guy can survive until now is the best proof that I should believe that there really is God in this world." Penny said to Leonard while patting Sheldon on the back.
"It's not my fault, it's all cherry pits. I couldn't deal with it in the first place. To me, it's like Superman facing Kryptonite." Sheldon protested weakly after regaining his breath.
But all they got in exchange was two very synchronized eye rolls.
"Can this be attributed to superheroes? They won't have cherry pits stuck in their throats!" Penny attempts to use ruthless reality to wake up friends who are immersed in false analogies.
"Penny is right, and that's not a cherry pit, that's just a pea." After Leonard washed his hands, the water stains on his hands made Sheldon avoid him.
"I ordered cherry meat, there will be no peas in it." Sheldon corrected seriously. However, neither Penny nor Leonard wanted to believe his sophistry.
"But that's just a pea!"
Leonard emphasizes again.
So, Sheldon thought for a moment.
"No, that's not a pea, what I ordered was cherry meat." Sheldon continued to insist, even though Leonard had already taken out the peas he spit out, he just glanced at it.
"It just looks like a pea. I won't admit it is a pea anyway." Sheldon lowered his head and started tinkering with the lunch box, but he didn't dare to put food in his mouth again.
"You call this self-deception!"
Leonard gritted his teeth.
"Who would collect food vomited by their roommates? You two are so weird." The girl Penny couldn't help but feel it while standing up and straightening the folds of her clothes.
She moved her mouth Barry twice as if she had an ulcer, "You know? I used to think it was crazy enough that you were obsessed with superheroes in comics but didn't dare to chase superheroes in reality."
Penny hasn't finished speaking yet.
"What now?"
Sheldon answered the call reflexively.
"Now?" Penny grabbed his coat and fished it out on the table, "Either I'm crazy or you are crazy. Anyway, it's impossible for the world to be crazy."
"Tell the truth and don't talk about what just happened."
"I just said that I believe that a fourteen-year-old or fifteen-year-old kid will have ten million, and he also knows the billionaire Bruce·Wayne. If I were a liar, I would deceive you all out of your pants."
"If you believe this, you might as well believe that I can meet Bruce·Wayne when I go out now and flirt with me."
Penny was really kindly trying to persuade her two friends not to believe in the scam that a billionaire had come to visit. However, she found that both of her friends were silent and did not respond.
"Hey, sooner or later you will have to live on the streets, but I will definitely adopt you. Who doesn't like pets?" Penny said, opening the apartment door and preparing to go back to his apartment.
"Pa~"
The door is closed.
The two homeboys looked at each other.
After a while.
"It's incredible that Penny can still realize that she is a lunatic." Sheldon sighed sincerely and withdrew his gaze from the door.
"Who says it's not the case? In fact, she doesn't need to lie to me. I can take off my pants and give them to her." Leonard withdrew his gaze like a maniac and lowered his head to enjoy tonight's supper.
However.
Seeing the empty table, his expression instantly froze.
"Where's my takeout?"
Leonard thought of Penny's easy catch just now.
The tone was startled.
"Leonard, Leonard, I told you before that you need to buy three takeaways. You don't have to believe in math or me.
But you really should believe that our neighbors will perform stably as always." Sheldon kept fidgeting with the takeout box with his fork, not taking a bite for a long time, and sounded pitiful.
Leonard is extremely helpless.
However, he was still a bit stubborn, "This is all my plan. Penny will become dependent on my takeout sooner or later.
So he couldn't live without me and eventually married me."
It's really an otaku's fantasy.
Leonard The whole person is excited.
"Look, this is the opportunity she left for me." He noticed the mobile phone left by Penny on the table. He quickly grabbed the mobile phone proudly and rushed to the apartment door.
Just arrived in the corridor.
Leonard saw Penny who was still standing at the door for some reason.
Is she waiting for me?
With this thought in mind, Leonard quickly stepped forward.
"Bububu."
Penny froze in place as if being stared at by Medusa, his lips trembled, and he kept repeating the same syllable.
"Bush?"
Leonard walked up to Penny in confusion.
So.
"Bububu, he has also become a repeater.
The two people stuttered in sync.
And at this time.
"Leonard!"
Sheldon also rushed out in panic.
"No! My computer is ruined! That cartoonist's computer is full of viruses! He might be a genius! He predicted my prediction in advance and caused my computer to completely break down!"
Sheldon sounded tearful.
He found the two friends standing stiffly in the corridor.
I haven't waited for Sheldon to ask.
"What cartoonist are you talking about?" Bruce, who is wearing a suit and leather shoes, looks like a successful person, and has an extremely luxurious temperament.
Wayne moved from in front of the two people to the side.
Sheldon's eyes immediately went straight.
"Bruce·Wayne!"
He actually had a complete exclamation.
Nothing more.
This may have used up all his strength.
"Oh~God~"
As an atheist, Sheldon rolled his eyes and fell straight back. Or it was a boat of friendship. Leonard and Penny came to their senses and hurriedly caught the theoretical physicist. Immediately, the three of them capsized together.
Sitting in the corridor with a strange posture.
"Sorry."
Leonard doesn't know why he wants to apologize to Bruce.
"Well, sorry."
Penny didn't know why he apologized. The main reason was that the two people's brains were still blank and they couldn't believe that they would see a world-class rich man in such a low-rent apartment.
"You don't want me to come in and sit down?"
Bruce was speechless inside, but still smiled on the surface. Hearing this, Leonard and Penny nodded quickly, stood up in a hurry and carried Sheldon towards the apartment door like a patient.
"Please come in!"
Penny didn't forget to put his head out and talk to Bruce.
In the living room, Bruce elegantly avoided the <Star Wars> figures scattered on the floor, his eyes lingering on the comic posters all over the wall. Leonard was as nervous as a student facing the principal.
His hand holding the coffee was shaking.
"So, Ian·Kent, my nephew, is he going to hire you two?" Bruce politely took the coffee, put it on the table and got straight to the point.
His eyes moved from Leonard to Sheldon who was unconscious on the sofa.
"Am I not here?"
Penny couldn't help but interject. This was the first time she had seen a living top chaebol, so she looked awkward and wanted to find some humor to adjust the tense atmosphere.
"No."
Bruce looked at the girl and responded seriously.
"Uh---"
Penny suddenly felt the pressure and took a few steps back, "Really? Actually, I am very good at cleaning. No matter how high-end the company is, it should need excellent cleaners."
She smiled a few times and spoke.
"No need."
Bruce Concise and clear response.
He didn't know why he thought of the sterilized female cleaning woman in Ian's other novel. He felt that he might have been mentally disturbed by that kind of thing recently.
"Okay."
Penny scratched her itchy scalp and retreated to the corner in embarrassment. She felt that she had humiliated herself a little, and her mood was very complicated. She only felt that the extra person in this room looked like Joker.
Thinking like this.
Penny, who noticed that Bruce glanced at her a few more times, didn't think it was her own charm that was at work. She just felt that the world was crazy and a little unreal.
Who would have thought.
The bragging little boy my neighbor met turned out not to be bragging. The billionaire Bruce·Wayne actually came to visit him. The probability is comparable to being hit on the head by a meteorite while walking on the street outside.
Penny The more I think about it, the more dreamy it becomes.
And the same goes for Leonard.
"Yes-sir, Mr. Kent did say he was willing to offer me and Sheldon a new job, it's just-"
The dumb Leonard hasn't finished speaking yet.
"Very good."
Bruce nodded and interrupted him.
"Promise this nephew of mine."
The words of the old money plutocrats are extremely serious.
"So, this is Wayne Enterprises's official employment?" Leonard cautiously probed. Like Penny, he felt that things were dreamy and even couldn't help but secretly pinch his thigh.
"You can think of it as my personal additional employment." Bruce corrected the other party. He needs someone to help him keep an eye on whether the alien technology Ian may be hiding is safe enough.
"Additional hiring?"
The whole <Mission Impossible> plot immediately played out in Leonard's mind, "Are we commercial spies? I'm afraid this is different from the nature of our university's work, right?"
He was somewhat repelled. In any case, Leonard really didn't want to give up his university job. After all, scientific research is not only for the future but also for the benefit of all mankind.
Just when Leonard felt proud in his heart.
"United States The average annual salary of university professors is two hundred thousand dollars, and I will give you an annual salary of half a million dollars, which is not counting the salary Ian·Kent will give you."
Bruce activated his most unexplainable money making ability on this planet.
It's just a slight touch.
The poor guy Leonard who had already been smashed was as dumb as a chicken.
"Half a million!?"
Scientists with scientific ambitions have been hit by money - his and Sheldon's salaries are actually not low, but the student loans they have to repay are definitely not small.
at America.
The more advanced the degree, the more money has to be paid behind it. This is the capital market of free America. Most of the income of most high-paying professionals in the first twenty years has to be used to pay off student loans.
"This-"
Leonard's heart began to waver.
And Penny, who heard this salary promise, also sent an assist.
"Oh my God! Leonard, you are really going to get rich! You will become the richest nerds I know!" Penny's timely sigh was like a shot in the arm.
"The richest nerd?"
Leonard seems to feel his own male competitiveness. Any scientific ideals or the future of mankind are all nonsense.
Being able to reproduce is the most essential mission of human beings!
"Don't worry, Mr. Wayne, Sheldon and I are the best at being commercial spies!" Leonard took off his glasses directly.
I made an extremely firm guarantee to Bruce.
And at this moment.
"Leonard! Leonard!" Sheldon suddenly jumped up from the sofa, like a frog being shocked by electricity, "I was dreaming! I dreamed that I saw Bruce·Wayne!"
"Then I fainted from being so excited!"
He first looked at his roommate, and then followed his roommate's gaze to see Bruce sitting in his side blind spot.
"It turns out it wasn't a dream, it was my Groundhog Day~" After saying that, Sheldon fainted again. His nonsensical performance made Leonard very embarrassed.
"Maybe I'm the only one who's better at-"
Leonard coughed twice guiltily and touched his face, which seemed a little helpless. In response to this, Bruce couldn't help complaining in his heart. The abnormal Ian was looking for some kind of abnormal scientist.
"Not commercial espionage."
Of course, on the surface Bruce still maintained his elegance and pretended to ignore the farce. He considered his words, "It's more like I'm looking for two caregivers for my nephew."
This is the truth.
After all, Batman cannot keep an eye on a Metropolis little boy. Because of this, Bruce needs these two scientists who are targeted by Ian to keep an eye on Ian for him to avoid some situations that neither he nor Clark may want to see happen.
Of course, Bruce will also start preparing to plug other more reliable scientists into Ian.
However.
It doesn't matter if there are two more people.
"Caretaker?"
Leonard didn't respond.
"That is, the nanny."
Penny explained in a low voice on the side. She felt that the world was really too ridiculous. Who would spend a million dollars a year just to hire a nanny for a child?
"But Mr. Wayne, Sheldon and I are both people with scientific ambitions---" Leonard reacted and started to twist, his last stubbornness was still struggling to death,
Regarding this.
Bruce calmly took out two checks from the inner pocket of his suit and placed them lightly on the coffee table filled with comic books.
"This is the settlement fee."
Bruce stood up and straightened his suit. The sound of the friction of cloth sounded like money, "Besides, who said you can't continue to conduct cutting-edge scientific research?"
He showed a mysterious smile to Leonard.
The technology that can blow up the earth is not cutting-edge, so what is cutting-edge?
"Is there really any research?"
Leonard's eyes widened.
"Oh! Oh, my god, Leonard, you can move into a big villa, that's the life I only dream of." The number on the check made Penny take a breath.
She just sighed out of pure inner shock.
However, the infatuated Leonard felt that he had noticed the key.
"I did it! I did it as a nanny!"
He became determined again.
"Your assist is good."
This was Bruce taking out a few banknotes and putting them into the hands of the girl Penny as a thank you. He turned around and smiled and glanced at Sheldon who was still unconscious on the sofa.
"Someone will come to convince him."
Leave this sentence behind.
Bruce put down the coffee without taking a sip and stood up to leave.
"Are you leaving?"
Leonard and Penny sent each other off immediately.
Very enthusiastic.
Einstein on the wall of the living room is quietly witnessing this scene.
Another scientist corrupted by capitalism.
Same as him.
Gotham The rain always smells like rusty iron.
And Metropolis's rain smells like diluted lemon detergent.
Alfred stood downstairs in the apartment holding a black umbrella.
The curvature of the umbrella surface is just enough to allow rainwater to flow away along the folds of the Gotham richest man's custom-made suit without getting wet the meticulous hairstyle of this wealthy man who wants to meet.
"Return to Gotham, Master?"
The old butler asked as he opened the car door, his voice filled with a calmness that saw everything through.
Although he is already old, and Bruce is already middle-aged and has the identity of a father,
But his name for Bruce has not changed.
"Not tonight." Bruce loosened his tie and quietly carried himself into the apartment building. The remaining two kilograms of the ten kilograms of monitoring equipment were thrown aside.
"Ian·Kent is still a student. He can't fly and has just begun to awaken his abilities. Therefore, his secret base must be in Metropolis."
Bruce is conducting a reasonable analysis. Yes, he had a sudden realization at Ian's house before because he felt that he had grasped important clues.
What God of All Machines, isn't it artificial intelligence?
That is completely similar to Superman's childhood experience!
before.
Bruce feels that he has seen everything.
It was because I thought of the information about Clark.
It's simply too similar.
This is also the reason why he suddenly returned everything to Ian, because he has realized that Ian may have a Fortress of Solitude that does not belong to the earth just like Clark!
"I can see that you are very fond of little Mr. Kent."
Alfred looked in the rearview mirror and saw the twinkling light in his young master's eyes - the excitement he was all too familiar with when discovering a new puzzle.
"So, will little Mr. Kent enter Arkham?" Butler-Man actually has the same curiosity. After all, he has also read the mental evaluation report of Batman on Ian.
"Why do you think I will reward him? Arkham does not need to usher in its second king." Bruce did not raise his head, and his fingers slid quickly on the on-board computer.
The neon outside the car window casts flowing colors on Bruce's face.
"Maybe little Mr. Kent is also from Krypton?" Alfred drove the car smoothly. He would always chat with Bruce and would start a conversation when he had the opportunity.
As someone close to Bruce.
No one knows better than him that his young master is Gotham's biggest mental illness.
"If it were just that kind of situation, I would be very happy to see it. However, the situation may be more bizarre and complicated." Bruce lowered his head and kept sliding the tablet.
"What is his awakened ability? Soon, we may know the answer." Bruce showed the Sentry comics he secretly photographed on the tablet on his lap, and there was even a Homelander comic.
Sentry's broken golden battle suit and Homelander's distorted smile would be keen on making such works. Bruce feels that Ian is definitely not just a lover of money or a lover of creation.
He thought he had grasped the key to the problem.
And.
Getting closer to the hidden truth about Ian·Kent.
"Is it really possible to draw power from fantasy?" Bruce felt that he had grasped the key information, but even he felt that this guess was too absurd.
Of course.
Absurdity is not impossible.
That's why you need to wait for the verification time.
And before that.
"Start looking for his secret base near his school."
The car ran over a puddle.
Bruce made a night "combat" plan.
Very cautious.
But no one can tell clearly.
Is he making excuses for himself to temporarily escape the nightmare that he will continue to experience after returning to Gotham?
[ps: There is still 1.9 in the evening]