American comics: Damn it, I’m surrounded by those who worry about their fathers!.

Chapter 67 Who is the poor boy?
"Mr. Padraic?"

Wiping the rain off his face, Bruce looked at Peter in shock as he held an umbrella for him.

"You said you were ready to go home, Thomas, but it looks like your way home is blocked."

"I"

Bruce lowered his head. "I don't know if that place still belongs to me."

He didn't know if he would ever be able to return to Wayne Manor.

"You look like a loser now, not like a real man."

Peter patted his shoulder and said, “Come on, follow me back to the hotel first.”

His super hearing just now had enabled him to hear the conversation between Bruce and Alfred.

The combination of the butler Alfred, calling himself "Thomas Wayne" (Bruce's father's name), and being rich made it easy for Peter to guess his identity - Bruce Wayne.

Looking down at the dazed boy, Peter found it hard to connect him with the Dark Knight.

"hotel?"

Bruce looked up at Peter and was slightly stunned when he heard this.

After hesitating for a moment, he finally followed Peter and walked towards the car.

"Sir, do you really believe me?"

Bruce asked with mixed feelings as he followed Peter.

Peter nodded and replied, "Of course, I believed you at first, Thomas, but you seem to be unsure of yourself now."

Bruce struggled and said, "Yes, my confidence has been destroyed. And sir, I lied to you. My name is not Thomas. My real name is Bruce Wayne."

"Well, is there any other deception besides this?"

"No, it's not. Everything else is real, including the $20,000 and the bar. I mean, sir, I just didn't want to get you into trouble, so I used a fake name."

Bruce quickly explained to Peter.

Peter nodded, "Now what? Why tell me your real name now, Bruce?"

Bruce exhaled, "Now, I feel that I choose to believe you, sir."

"I am very honored."

Peter continued walking forward with an umbrella, complaining in his heart: This guy is not afraid of getting himself into trouble, but he just doesn't trust me.

Sitting in the driving seat, Peter started the car and drove forward in the pouring rain.

With one hand on the steering wheel, he casually took out a "Franklin" and handed it to Bruce.

Bruce took the money, not knowing what was going on.

"This is the money you gave to the orphans just now. They can't have money of this value."

Peter said he took back the whole bill and gave it to them in change.

Holding "Franklin", Bruce was silent for a moment and then thanked Peter: "Thank you, sir."

He seemed to be talking to himself or to Peter, "I don't understand why there is crime everywhere in the city, whether it's Gotham or Metropolis."

Peter looked at the other person in surprise. This kid now had such doubts about "sin".

"Where there is light there is darkness, and this is inevitable."

Peter replied casually.

Bruce nodded and looked out the window at a church.

The cross directly above the church stood in the heavy rain, shining brightly after being washed.

He murmured, “Why doesn’t God save us and dispel the darkness?”

Peter followed Bruce's gaze and found that his eyes were fixed on the cross on the church.

He slowed the car down. "God might be a little busy, Bruce. Do you know what some people think the cross represents?"

Bruce shook his head, "I don't know."

"The horizontal line represents humanity. It refers to the present world, a world full of material, flesh and dirt, mud, blood, stone and bones. The vertical line is the sacred line representing God. It is dominant. It is perpendicular to the human world and is the axis of the afterlife and the unknown world." It happened that the car drove to a traffic light intersection and Peter stepped on the brakes.

“Jesus stood at the crossroads, and he chose not the horizontal line, which represented the human world, but the vertical line, which represented God.”

He raised his eyebrows and asked Bruce, "If it were you, Bruce, what would you choose? A horizontal line or a vertical line?"

He really wanted to know, one way was to painfully redeem himself and others in the human world, and the other was to make a Jesus-like sacrifice once and for all and then be liberated.

Of these two, which heroic approach will Batman choose?

"I?"

Bruce was immediately confused when he heard Peter asking him to make a choice.

Pinching his fingers, he was in a dilemma.

Although the horizontal and vertical lines sounded like they represented simple things, he frowned and still didn't know how to choose.

Looking at Bruce's conflicted expression, Peter's mouth curled up slightly.

"It's okay, Bruce. This is not a compulsory question. The cross is a crossroads and a symbol of choice. The most difficult thing in life is making choices."

The green light came on, Peter stepped on the accelerator, and the car drove forward through the intersection.

Bruce cast a puzzled and confused look at Peter.

He always felt that Peter's words seemed to hint at something.

The next day, early in the morning.

When Peter got up, he saw Bruce, who was dressed neatly, squatting in the corridor, staring at a vase.

After hearing the sound, he turned around and saw Peter standing behind him.

"Good morning, Mr. Padraic."

"Good morning, Bruce, what are you doing?"

Bruce pointed at the vase and said, "Nothing, I just thought this vase looked familiar. It should be a porcelain from the Celestial Empire, more than 500 years old."

Peter glanced at the vase and said, "Pretty much. A group of robbers stole them and displayed them here in a dignified manner. Bruce, do you have such porcelain at home?"

Bruce said somewhat unnaturally: "There are similar ones, sir, but they were probably not stolen. My ancestors bought them from others."

"Glad to hear Bruce your ancestors were merchants, not robbers."

Peter was talking to Bruce when Zu heard the noise and walked into the hallway.

He was a little surprised to see Bruce appear.

"Hello, I'm Bruce Wayne."

Facing A-Zu, who was much shorter than him, Bruce took the initiative to extend his hand to show goodwill.

"Are you the poor boy who borrowed the money?"

A-Zu did not shake his hand but looked at him.

"I will pay it back."

"Return? Then return it now."

A-Zu looked at him with contempt, "You may not know the concept of money. Let me tell you, I only earn seven dollars a week from lawn mowing, and you want a hundred dollars at every turn. You are greedier than me! I tell you, you can fool Dad, but you can't fool me!"

Peter frowned when he heard Zu's threat that he didn't look like a good guy.

"John?"

"Sorry, Dad."

A-Zu was originally using the "Great Wilderness Prisoner Sky Finger" to attack Bruce, but when he heard Peter's dissatisfied tone, his face immediately changed.

A-Zu, with a harmless expression, said to Peter innocently, "Dad, I'm just afraid that you'll be cheated by this poor boy."

Bruce turned his head away in displeasure as he watched his grandfather change expressions freely and call him "poor boy" all the time.

He hates this naughty kid!

(End of this chapter)