Chapter 49: Is auto-pickup on if it's not turned off?
"Finished eating?" Thomas thought for a moment and then suggested, "We still have time, how about we pack some leftovers? We probably won't be able to eat lunch today."
"What are we going to do?"
“I’ll take you with me to threaten your two guardians in a bit.” Thomas ordered two more hamburgers. “If you can’t finish them, leave them in the car.”
"Thank you, I will pay you back later."
Thomas thought for a moment, then said, "If you're really under a lot of pressure, you can come work for me in my lab."
They're not going to dissect me, are they...?
“What are you thinking? If I wanted to use you for human experiments, I could just have someone kidnap you and bring you here. It would save a lot of time and effort.” Thomas seemed to know what he was thinking. “It wouldn’t even cost half the money.”
"How did you know...?"
"How do I know what you're thinking? Of course, it's because I know how bad my reputation is."
What he said makes a lot of sense.
"Then what do you need me for? You know I'm definitely not helpful when it comes to experiments."
“I don’t know either.” Thomas’s phone rang. He picked it up and typed while asking Jason, “Do you know any special welding?”
"Won't."
“Alright, then I’ll have to do it myself.” Thomas looked up. “My bodyguard will be here to drive in a bit.”
"several?"
“One, and a lawyer.” Thomas put down his phone and picked up his pen and paper again to do the calculations.
"Only three people?"
"Including you, that makes four in total, which is more than enough. I originally wanted to bring the whole bodyguard team," Thomas explained, "but then I thought, there's no need to waste Wayne Group's human resources dealing with this kind of person, so just calling my private bodyguards will suffice."
Considering that they were Jason's parents, Thomas added, "Of course, if you can't bear to part with them, we can find a charge to prosecute them and send them to prison. You can visit them anytime you want. If you don't want to see them, I also have ways to make sure they never get near you again. It's up to you."
Thomas made it sound like he was dealing with stray dogs, asking whether they should be "neutralized" or adopted.
It might have been creepy for someone else, but sitting across from him was Jason.
"I don't know, do you have any suggestions?"
Huh? You want to ask me about your parents?
Now, if we do the math, the three big shots of our crime syndicate can come up with four pairs of dead parents, two of whom we killed ourselves.
Thinking about it this way, it seems like the Super Queen was also planning to kill her mother and seize power? No wonder the three of them could work together in the same organization.
"To be honest, I can't quite remember how I got along with my parents; they both died very young." Thomas pondered for a moment, then decided to answer the question based on his own experience.
"If you really don't know how to decide, just kill them all. That way, whether they are good or bad by nature, they won't be able to affect you."
The experienced Gotham residents around them quietly slipped away, and some seemed to be hesitating about whether to call the police.
While there are many lunatics in Gotham, it's still quite rare to find one who directly advises a child to kill their parents.
"Of course, this is just my suggestion. If you really can't bear to part with them and they're disobedient, another option is also good: raise them like pets that don't understand human language, tolerate their mistakes, discipline their behavior, control their money, and restrict their freedom." Thomas thoughtfully rubbed the pen in his hand. "I haven't tried it yet, but I think it's pretty good."
Have you ever tried killing your family members?
The fast food restaurant owner cautiously approached the two men and asked Thomas, "Sir, have you finished eating?"
He practically had "Finish your food and leave" written all over his face. If it weren't for the fact that so many customers were leaving, he wouldn't have wanted to offend this guy who was clearly not someone to mess with.
“I didn’t finish eating,” Thomas answered without hesitation, continuing his calculations.
The boss seemed astonished that someone could lie so blatantly without hesitation. He seemed about to say something, but Jason interrupted him: "Yes, I haven't finished eating yet."
After saying that, he forced himself to open the hamburger wrapper and stuffed it into his mouth.
The shop owner had once given Jason some hamburgers when he was hungry, so he couldn't let the two of them get into a fight today.
"If you can't finish it, don't eat it." Thomas seemed unaware that this was a way to save face. He put down his pen again, took out a wallet from his pocket, rummaged through it, took out his checkbook, tore off a check, filled it out, and handed it to the boss. "Tip."
The boss looked at the signature above, checked it repeatedly, and finally managed to recall Thomas Wayne's appearance from his hazy memory.
He took a small step back, and the atmosphere became a little awkward.
"You changed your wallet?"
Jason held the hamburger, but eating it didn't feel quite right, and putting it down felt awkward, so he just held the hamburger and tried to make conversation.
“No, actually I don’t usually use a wallet. I can usually just say something and someone will have one ready.” Thomas packed his things. “The last one was something I prepared a few years ago when I had something to do. This one was stolen from my brother.”
"steal?"
“Yes, I realized before I left that not having cash might be a bit of a problem,” Thomas replied without batting an eye, “so I took his wallet.”
"So, you have a brother, and you two are pretty close?"
"Probably? Although strictly speaking I have two brothers." Thomas's tone was a little uncertain. "As for our relationship, I think it's at least better than when I was a child."
At least Thomas didn't kill Bruce this time, doesn't that mean they have a good relationship?
Jason's brain began to automatically generate images of the Thomas brothers.
Then, he imagined two little lunatics plotting against each other, growing up and forcing a smile to cooperate.
That's a bit too scary.
Recalling Thomas's grand pronouncements on how to treat family members, and the various terrifying tales of the Wayne family told in casual conversations, Jason's mental drama had already escalated to the point of sending assassins to each other...
“I knew he would put this photo in.” Thomas glanced into his wallet, then closed it and stuffed it back into his inner pocket.
"What photo?"
Okay, having a vivid imagination is a mistake; Jason's head is now filled with all sorts of gory pictures.
“Our family photo,” Thomas said, opening his phone, finding the photo in his album, and pushing it onto the table towards Jason.
Jason looked over cautiously.
Surprisingly, the photo is quite normal: a good-looking couple with bright smiles leaning together, with a little boy who is also smiling brightly between them.
The man was holding a child with a slight smile on his face, who was shyly looking down. It was probably because the child was too short to be seen in the picture while standing on the ground, so his parents had to hold him.
"So, this is you?" Jason pointed somewhat suspiciously at the child being held in the photo.
He wasn't quite sure if it was Thomas, but he immediately ruled out the smiling child.
"Yes, it's me."
"Is this your brother?"
“No, he is my brother,” Thomas replied seriously.
"Who do you think would believe me? Me?" Jason retorted, assuming Thomas was being sarcastic because his question had indeed been somewhat redundant.
"Suit yourself," Thomas said nonchalantly, "My personal bodyguard is here."
-
“So how do you know that?” Dick sat lightly on the cluttered table, meeting Bruce’s gaze. “I don’t think Thomas will actually go see a psychiatrist.”
“I plan to talk to him today,” Bruce replied, flipping through the surveillance footage at Wayne Manor.
"Do you think a conversation with young master Thomas would be helpful, young master Bruce?"
If it were useful, then something strange would happen.
Thomas was somewhat better as a child, but it's clear that the adult Thomas is unlikely to obey.
But now is not the time to think about these things. The sound of the mouse gradually became more urgent, and Bruce switched the monitoring speed up.
"Let's not talk about that now," Bruce said seriously. "Thomas is missing."
“While I would love for Thomas to make more friends,” Alfred said, “I think we can probably rule out the possibility that Thomas left Wayne Manor just to socialize with his friends.”
"He went to work?" Dick wasn't surprised at all; it would be strange if Thomas had really been staying at Wayne Manor the whole time. "He said he had something he hadn't done."
Upon hearing this, Bruce made a phone call, said a few words, and then announced: "Thomas didn't go to work either, but he called a lawyer and his personal bodyguard. It's said that he initially planned to transfer some armed bodyguards, but then suddenly changed his mind."
“That doesn’t sound good,” Dick said hesitantly.
It's not just bad; Thomas rarely paid attention to these bodyguards before. The last time he contacted Wayne Corporation's security was when Dick was taken away by the Owl Court.
Bruce began reviewing the surveillance footage from Wayne Manor, starting from when Dick entered the Batcave, and following his trail to find Thomas.
Thomas hurried into the bedroom, changed his clothes, and came out again.
“It seems his situation isn’t that urgent.” Bruce breathed a slight sigh of relief. “I know him. If there were real danger, Thomas would definitely have stuffed his clothes full of weapons, not be wearing such a well-fitting outfit.”
Thomas seemed to want to go downstairs, but then he seemed to suddenly remember something and turned to go into Bruce's bedroom.
The next time he appeared on camera, he was holding Bruce's wallet, waving it at the monitor, then casually stuffing it into his coat pocket and moving his lips.
Dick covered his mouth with his hand, trying to make his expression look serious.
"No wonder young master Thomas is in such a hurry. Is Wayne Enterprises going bankrupt?"
“Lip reading,” Bruce zoomed in on the image and read aloud, “'Don’t worry, I won’t give your wallet away, okay, Thomas.'”
-----------------------
Author's note: In short, this is a make-up for yesterday's leave request on Sunday.
-
One of the motivations for writing this article was to buy an official copy of the character "枭宗" and then, by chance, have someone repaint it.
A few days ago, on a whim, I opened a certain online marketplace to find a reliable painter, and then I saw that comment from that AI-idiot in the comments section—
"Night Owl has finally found a warm home. I hope he continues to uphold justice!"
Holy crap, I double-checked, the product name is Crime Syndicate Night Owl! It wouldn't be surprising if the post included Batman or the movie title Justice League: Two Earths, and the AI recognized it as "Justice," but the seller didn't include anything...
No, I'm speechless with laughter. How can a sentence be both hellish and hilarious? Humans have spent their whole lives thinking of hellish jokes, but none of them can compare to the brilliance of AI.
(And that expired parent voucher, I'm really fed up with these AI programs.)
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