91. Gotham: Legitimate Channel

99.

Typically, family members go through three stages when receiving the news: disbelief, anger, and resignation.

The farmer skipped the complaining stage, but seemed far from resigned to her fate. She responded with an "I know," took back the handful of ancient fruit and its grave, and seemed to be planning to find another way out.

“…”

Batman wasn't used to it.

An hour ago, along with the anti-potion, Zatanna's magical inspection instructions were delivered to the Batcave. Zatanna was initially puzzled about receiving agricultural products from Batman, but based on years of trust, she still conducted a preliminary magical inspection on the things he sent.

"An interesting discovery." She had just finished a city tour when she contacted her. The young magician pulled a tarot deck from her hat and snapped his fingers. The cards immediately floated up as if given life, neatly arranged beside her. "But... before hearing the results, why not try listening to the tarot's advice first?"

He ignored her invitation for divination. Even though Batman was a member of the Dark Justice League, he was quite conservative about things involving magic. Of course, the other party's cold and negative attitude did not dampen the magician's enthusiasm at all. He snapped his fingers and continued to play. A card belonging to Bruce Wayne jumped out of the deck and appeared in front of him.

On the card, the holy archangel's feathers slowly spread out, covering the sky and the sun. Under his protection, Adam and Eve are smiling at each other, their love sincere.

"Lovers in the right position."

"Zatanna..."

Hearing Batman address her by name, the clever magician knew when to quit. She extended her index finger and lightly touched her lips to indicate that she was no longer speaking on the topic. Then she lightly brought up the matter at hand: "These carrots contain some world rules."

Zatanna almost laughed at herself. Among the myriad of bizarre yet equally rare spellcasting implements in the magical world, this was the most unpretentious she had ever seen. It felt like it could be tucked into the kitchen right after it was created and become part of that evening's salad.

"You're absolutely right in your guess, Bruce. It involves the laws of life."

"...it grants the consumer a certain amount of vitality, yet has no side effects." Zatanna couldn't help but admire this, her eyes sparkling with a thirst for knowledge. "Although magic related to life is almost always forbidden, it is indeed a great alchemical miracle. Whoever gave you this must have put a lot of thought into it."

Thinking of the farmer who gave these things away, Batman felt that this was not entirely true. He crossed his arms, still skeptical: "Regarding my other guess..."

"The rules above do have a part about 'favorability,'" she continued, knowing what he wanted to know most. "But that's just a harmless addition. It only works if you don't dislike these things... You didn't like carrots before, and I'm afraid you still don't like them now?" She hoped that this enthusiastic gift-giver had prepared other gifts for baby Brucey. Otherwise, given his picky nature, it would be difficult to impress him with carrots alone.

"Honestly, I don't think there's any need to create the latter rule. Who hates receiving gifts? It's normal to feel good about the giver." This is an iron rule that has been proven time and again in human social interactions. Even Zatanna, who is used to receiving flowers, will always be enthusiastic about the next bouquet.

"Unless—" With a little magic, the carrot that had been sampled did a spiral dance on the spot: "Someone is just too difficult to deal with."

…

After getting the answer from Zatanna, Batman was able to ignore her teasing.

But when Aria stood in front of him, these irrelevant jokes forced their way into the queue among the information and plans and jumped back into his mind.

Emotions are uncontrollable and unstable factors, and using magic to try to control emotions is a taboo for Batman.

...but the farmer most likely doesn't know this.

Aria has always been a mystery. Anyone who wants to investigate her is like walking into a thick fog. The closer they get, the more lost they become. They can only vaguely see their own outline and the part she is willing to show - and the content that can be shown is too much like a theme park parade. Even after a lot of enthusiasm and laughter, it still cannot give people a clear picture.

Batman wasn't used to this mode of getting along, but when it changed, he also felt uncomfortable.

…

The farmer had no idea what Batman was thinking, but there must be some idea being processed deeply in her brilliant mind. Because Batman re-examined the soil in her hand, and after a while, she said, "Is it important to you?"

Of course! The farmer nodded. In her opinion, Batman was the kind of person who could come up with a reliable plan. If even he couldn't solve the problem, it meant that some unconventional means were needed to achieve the goal.

When it comes to plants, Batman naturally thinks of Poison Ivy first, but Poison Ivy is still serving her sentence in Arkham Prison. Considering the farmer and the unknown enemy and friend behind her, Batman thinks it is better to let her visit Arkham Asylum under his supervision.

If this answer is ruled out, the only option left is laboratory cultivation. It is extremely difficult to re-cultivate living organisms based on dead plants, and the cost and manpower involved are visibly high.

...Luckily he's Bruce Wayne.

Batman said coldly, "I'll extract a piece of plant root and try to clone another one for you."

"But you need to tell me what this thing is used for first."

Aria was always honest: "Making fruit wine."

“…”

Although Batman could read the speechless look on his face, and although it looked like he really wanted to just stuff the money into her hand, Dark finally restrained himself and extracted soil and roots from the farmer's sample and put them into his Batbelt.

"If everything goes well, it will take about half a year to complete."

It sounded much faster than Kara's cloning plan, but the farmer felt it wasn't fast enough.

A good game will not only provide one way to solve the problem. When the regular channels cannot meet her requirements in terms of efficiency and time, the farmer will prepare to do something unconventional.

…

When Jason Todd met the farmer, she was sitting on the patio of a street cafe, poking sadly at the sugar cubes on the plate with her stirring spoon.

From the moment the Red Hood appeared, the noise level in the vicinity became lower and lower. Several shop owners hurriedly turned over the business status signs at the door of their shops when they saw his iconic red head, and some even ran away faster than the store could close.

——They all thought he was here to seek revenge, only Red Hood knew he was here to pick someone up.

Red Hood, who had just beaten up a criminal in another block, was in a good mood. He pulled a stool nearby and sat opposite the farmer. He knocked on the table and acted like he was there to watch the fun: "What? Did the farm finally go bankrupt so he decided to turn to me?" Is that why he looks so sad?

Aria felt like she had been having some bad luck lately. She lazily turned over in the sun, like a salted fish turning over, so that the other side of her face could be evenly exposed to the warm sunlight. She said a little depressedly, "I forgot to leave a cup for the boss when we were drinking coffee outside..."

The farmer still thought this was a farm. She swallowed it in one gulp before realizing something was wrong. But it seemed too late. The boss's eyes looked at her with something strange.

"Ha." Red Hood laughed without hesitation, but he didn't drop the invitation: "Let's go, then don't stay here."

He took out a bill and placed it on the bottom of the plate, paying the farmer's bill quite conscientiously. "The confidentiality here is too poor. If you have any questions, go to the safe house to discuss it."

————————

*In some episodes, Zatanna drew a tarot for Batman. The tarot content was made up by the author. I found that the upright Lovers card can be interpreted as the beginning of a relationship x

*Farmers consider Batman as a legitimate channel, and Red Hood as an unleash one

Red Hood: What image do you have of me?