Laughing American comics, I am becoming more and more like a clown

...Why don’t you knock on the door now?

Walking into the wrong door was a perfunctory lie to the extreme, and the old man's target was him.

While Lucien was thinking about this, suddenly a gunshot was heard... It came from the room the old man had just walked into.

……

Curiosity is the last thing that should exist in Gotham... It means adventure, accidents, death, but it also means unusual acquisition of information.

……

When Lucian's palm touched the door panel, he found that he could push it open easily.

The door was not closed, and wind blew through the gap, bringing with it a bloody smell.

This is a baited trap, a mousetrap with cheese in it.

Lucian didn't hesitate, withdrew his hand, turned back to the room, closed the door, and ignored him.

……

He wasn't curious about it at all.

"well---"

A long and helpless sigh sounded from the room.

A middle-aged man appeared on the sofa in the living room. He looked at Lucian with a look of "as expected" and asked, "Why don't you go in?"

"what is inside?"

"A well-planned puzzle."

Lucien sneered.

"Let me guess, is it about Batman's past? Or is it the part of my memory that I lost?"

The man frowned unhappily and said nothing.

"Look, I guessed it all... Why should I go in? Are you expecting me to be deceived by you and then be fooled around by the truth, whether true or false?" Lucian sneered again, then opened the door and gestured:

"I have no interest in this. Let's go, Mr. Riddler."

"I'm not the Riddler, you guessed wrong." The man showed no intention of standing up.

Lucien looked at him for a moment, closed the door again, and then sat down opposite him. "Many times, the Riddler doesn't refer to a character or screen image. It can also be a derogatory term for a person."

He met the man's gaze, opened his mouth, and smiled: "Right, Mr. Clown."

……

Green hair, green eyes, and makeup... this uninvited middle-aged man is the famous Joker who disappeared from Gotham twenty-five years ago.

But to Lucien's surprise, the Joker shook his finger and gave a gentle smile that could be described as sad: "I'm not a Joker... The Joker is dead."

Lucien raised his eyebrows.

"I'm just an imposter," he said. "Call me Arthur."

Arthur...

2019 clown name.

"Your age doesn't match," Lucien said.

If we extrapolate from Arthur's age in 2019, he should not be a middle-aged man in his forties or fifties, but an elderly man in his eighties or nineties.

"So I'm not a clown." Arthur said without any emotion: "I'm just his assistant..."

"So where's the Joker?"

Arthur pointed in the direction of the door: "You should go there and take a look."

Lucien made no attempt to stand up.

"Don't be like this." Arthur said in a coaxing tone: "Guess why I'm waiting for you here? Your current behavior is also within his expectations."

"If I have a plan for every possible option, then everything is part of his plan... I can't just fly away with wings, nor can I jump out the window. Whether I come back or go in, it's all within his expectations... That's meaningless."

Lucien remained unmoved: "You need something that can really convince me."

Arthur's expression became even sadder. Just as he was about to take something out of his pocket, he was held down by Lucian.

"Okay, okay, that's what he expected. I really don't understand, is he the Joker, or is he Batman?"

Arthur watched Lucien leave, heard the sound of the door opening and closing, took his hand out of his pocket, opened it, and found nothing inside.

He put the hand over his eyes and couldn't help laughing silently.

……

"Okay, man, I knew you were going to play nesting dolls."

Lucien poked his head out of the doorway and walked back in. "Stop pretending, clown."

Chapter 105 "Beginning"

The minute hand of the clock passed the number twelve, and it was now four o'clock in the afternoon.

A snow-white dove flew past the window, its feathers coated with a golden luster.

Lucian looked down at the man dressed exactly like a traditional clown. Arthur did not avoid or dodge, but maintained that smile, narrowed his eyes, and looked into his eyes.

Same hair and eye color, same thin frame.

Similar outward appearance, except that he reveals his features while Arthur wears heavy makeup.

……

Lucien had long known that there was something wrong with his memory. Not just his memory, but also his understanding of the world.

He maintained his life as usual, but ignored all the abnormal situations around him. It was not until recently that he suddenly realized the existence of the Saint Bat.

Now, an Arthur who looked just like him had appeared. It was like the answer was printed on the test paper. As long as he copied it step by step, he would be able to reveal it...

But many things, if you look through them, you will find that they are not interesting, so Lucian said:

"How about we skip the middle step and just tell me the truth?"

After a long moment, Arthur said, "Okay."

……

Then Lucien saw Arthur touching his eyes with his fingers.

...pulled out a pair of green contact lenses from inside.

Wet a towel with water and rub your hair, revealing the brown-black base color over time.

He looked at Lucien with his gray eyes and smiled again: "I'm not a clown."

……

"You are the clown."

……

I don’t know why, but even though Gotham is always covered in dark clouds, the dusk and dawn are exceptionally beautiful.

Lucian half leaned against the wall, holding a cigarette between his fingertips, smoke rising up, and his eyes looked at the crimson clouds through the gaps in the building.

Since his return from Ms. Taylor, his ordinary life has been turned upside down.

Jenny, who has a mental illness, the holy bat who rules the city, Lilith, whose real identity is a rebel, who suddenly recalled her memories of DC and fanned the flames and participated in the resistance, Arthur, who is suspected to be a clown... and herself, who is considered a clown.

Somewhat like...

"……How are you?"

Jenny came over, her eyes concerned.

"It's okay." Lucian came back to his senses, threw away the cigarette he had just smoked, and stamped it out with his foot: "Let's go."

Some of them are like the beginning of a novel or a movie.

----

The nightclub they worked in was called "Moulting" and was located in Linyinfang. Public transportation had been scrapped more than ten years ago because no one was working or maintaining it, so they had to walk there.

Along the way, Lucien saw scrapped street lights, dilapidated roads, and shaking vehicles.

It was hard for him to imagine why he had been so indifferent to all this and had firmly believed that he lived in a peaceful and stable city.

……

With his hair tied up, Lucien stood at his work station, but this time he let Jenny take the lead and he acted as the assistant, correcting her movements while keeping his attention on the customers.

It was under the psychedelic lights, the wabi-like atmosphere, the moans, the crisp clinking of wine glasses, and the absurd scenery reflected in the red liquid.

They drew a "w" with a horizontal line through it on the table.

If you observe carefully, you will find that there are very few people who actually come here to drink and dance... There is not even any encrypted calls or secretive cover-ups, and they just exchange information with each other.

Lucien sliced ​​the lemons in his hands with no expression on his face.

……

By four o'clock, the crowd had thinned out. Jenny took out a few cakes from the kitchen and placed them in front of her. She lamented the day's fatigue, expressed her admiration for Lucien, and chattered about her heart-to-heart talk with her mother last night.

"We both cried. This was the first time she told me about her father..." Her smile was sad and sweet:

"They met at school, she said..."

The dim light softened the contours of the mother's face, and she looked like a young girl. "Your father has always been upright. His idol is Harvey Dent, known as the Knight of Light. You probably don't know this name... He is an upright prosecutor. We all regard him as the hope of Gotham."

"Only later he became Two-Face... a super villain who was killed during the rebellion against the Sage Batcave fifteen years ago."

"Dent was a very good person before half of his face was burned off... Many people confessed their love for him." The mother said shyly, "I had a crush on him too."

After saying this, he pretended to be serious and returned to the topic: "Your father was sad for a long time after knowing that his idol had become a villain."

The mother shrugged: "I was sad for a long time too."

"But to be honest, it was the first time I realized your father looked so beautiful when he cried, so I confessed to him not long after."

"He agreed. Later, when I asked him why, your father said he was reminded of Harvey's girlfriend... Whatever it was, we got married anyway... Jenny, remember, if you meet someone you like in the future, you must seize the opportunity and take advantage of it."