The end game [Zhongyingmei]

"Perhaps I should remind you that overthinking is not good for your health."

The silver-haired old butler bowed slightly, set the afternoon tea, and gave Bruce a gentle look.

The bleak wind blows through the room in autumn, bringing the smell of frost, snow and dust.

Bruce rubbed the center of his brows wearily, and didn't speak until the two deep nicks were rubbed away by him.

"Alfred, do you remember what Sisley was like when she first came to Wayne Mansion?"

"Yes, of course, as clear as yesterday, Master Bruce."

Alfred said while pouring black tea.

"She's very pleasant, isn't she?"

Bruce leaned back, threw away the diamond-encrusted pen in his hand, smelled the mellow aroma of black tea, and asked in a low voice.

"I would have chosen a stronger word than 'likeable'."

Alfred replied calmly.

After a pause, the old butler walked to the door of the study room, bent down with some difficulty, lifted the carpet, and pressed a few times on the hidden compartment on the floor.

When Alfred straightened up again, he held a small silver box in his hand; the old butler covered the carpet again and handed it to Bruce.

"I still remember her running around here."

Alfred's voice was always steady and gentle, "Miss Sisley likes to play with the ball here... Oh, she likes the little silver ball that can put things in it, and she doesn't want it unless it's a Damascus rose."

"...Because she recognizes the color of that rose." Bruce stared blankly at the small box in his hand, and answered automatically.

The old housekeeper glanced back at him, his eyes were full of reminiscence, lighting up his usually calm eyes.

"How we were afraid she'd fall, but she never once. She's a natural little lark, Master Bruce."

Sisley, who is more than one year old, is the cutest human cub with the sweetest smile and the most agile eyes in the world. It seems that she is born with some kind of magical power that anyone can fall for.

The whole world loves her, no one can not love her.

She used to be all over the newspaper headlines, wherever Bruce Wayne went, there would be a cute little porcelain doll of Yuxue in his arms, and she was innocent and loved to laugh, grew up watered by love, met new friends, and her eyes grew brighter. Liang is also very happy to meet her old friend, her good temper makes her heart soften, and she can't wait to hold the world's best treasures in front of her.

In one year and three days, the focus of gossip in Gotham also changed from "Bruce Wayne's affair" to "Sisley's street outfit today". Everyone thought that the playboy of the Wayne family would change this Sex, change your mind.

One year and three days, in the dark world of Gotham, no one heard Batman's muffled sound after being injured, but the wreckage of the bat dart increased several times.

The exhausted but energetic President Wayne can always come home in the early morning, change his clothes, and then go directly to see Sisley who is already fast asleep.

————This also led to the most heartbreaking day in Bruce's life on the day she left.

He still doesn't want to recall exactly what happened, and how he spent those few days.

Even as he thinks about it, Bruce has to pull himself out of it with a relatively cool other perspective, to tell the full story of what happened.

"...nobody remembers who she is, Alfred."

Bruce said in a hoarse voice, "Everyone."

He was only delayed for half an hour at the dinner party, and that afternoon, Sisley, who was carrying the most accurate GPS in the world, disappeared from the world.

When Alfred called him, Bruce listened to it many times before he understood what the old butler was talking about.

——she just disappeared.

On the lawn in the backyard, Alfred said that Sisley, who had been reading in the sun peacefully, had disappeared when he turned to look for sunscreen.

It had just rained in Gotham the day before, and if well-trained thugs took her away, they would definitely leave traces.

—— But the ground was empty.

When talking about this passage, the silver-haired old butler couldn't help but choked up in a low voice.

"Less than a minute."

On that day, harsh noises were more or less heard in the whole of Gotham City. After a year and three days, Bruce Wayne drove drunk again, drifting crazily from Wayne Tower all the way back to Wayne Manor without even braking. Step on, and no matter how many police cars chase after him, they are thrown away.

When the newspapers were freshly out, Batman had already rushed to the computer to check the surveillance video.

"Many things after that day are a little blurred in my memory."

Bruce whispered.

He picked up the black tea brewed by the butler, bowed his head and took a sip, letting the bitter aroma collide on the tip of his tongue, then put down the cup, put his hand back on the small silver box on his knee, and gently stroked it a few times. pattern.

———If it is said that the young Bruce Wayne’s heart fell to the bottom when he just learned the news of Sisley’s disappearance; then during the 15 minutes of checking the monitoring, it was the one that really broke his heart and fell into hell 15 minutes.

In the Batcave, Batman and his butler witnessed the most spine-chilling scene in the world.

When Bruce started to rewind, the screen suddenly snowed.

After the snowflakes passed, Sisley's figure visibly became lighter to the naked eye, until she finally disappeared in that frame.

Bruce keeps rewinding the tape, but Sisley disappears so quickly that within a year's worth of surveillance tapes, she's gone.

If the snowflake screen just now can be said to be hacking, but the video of Batman saved in the local device also disappeared.

When Bruce rushed out of the Batcave and went to the Wayne Mansion, a scene that made him even more heart-rending happened right in front of him.

In the hall and corridors, all the places with Sisley's face are gradually disappearing, the double portrait becomes a single person, and only the background of her single person photo is left hanging in the Wayne mansion.

After this unreal scene happened, Bruce tried to pounce on the newspaper clippings in his collection, frantically protecting the information with his body, and wrestling with invisible beasts.

However, those reports that once described how amazing and lovely the Wayne family's youngest daughter was, disappeared irreversibly, and were automatically replaced by pictures of him and strange women, pictures of him drunk and ugly, and his "climbing" and breaking A picture of the mess behind the arm.

Any carrier that retained Sisley's face, Sisley's name, and Sisley's story all evaporated in this afternoon, like a drop of dew in the sun.

Realizing this, Bruce couldn't help but shudder in despair.

———This is a battle between mortals and gods, and he lost a mess.

Bruce Wayne's young soul withered away, and the scars formed on the wound became Batman's indestructible armor.

……

"Yes, I remember that, clearly, Master Bruce."

The silver-haired old housekeeper's face was pale, but his eyes contained insight and coldness of everything that happened that day, like a poisonous snake waiting for an opportunity.

The corners of Bruce's lips were drawn into a straight line, and the lowered hand was clenched into a fist until the well-manicured nails sank into the flesh.

Feeling the subtle pain, he took a deep breath, picked up the thing on his knee, laid it flat on the table, and opened the small silver box that had been sealed for 15 years.

"This is a birthday present from Mr. Iron Man in New York."

Alfred stood behind Bruce, also looking at the contents of the box, "Perhaps because of this, it was preserved."

Bruce's fingertips trembled, the first time it didn't work.

It was the second time that he hooked the hollow ball, raised it in front of him, and held it carefully.

Fifteen years later, the once-bright Damask rose inside had turned a dull red, like a smear of dried blood.

"If it wasn't for this ball, I wouldn't even be able to trust my own memory."

With a low wry smile, he closed his eyes, and Batman's thumb lightly brushed the dents and scratches on the small silver ball.

He can memorize the origin of each path silently in his heart. For countless days and nights, he can still sit in the study because he knows that this little silver ball is close at hand.

"Miss Sisley is back now."

Alfred reminded him.

"........."

Bruce didn't speak.

He continued to caress the small silver ball in his hand, his gaze fell through the open window onto the lawn below, his steel blue eyes were so calm and unfathomable, at this moment, even Alfred didn't know , What is the man in front of him thinking?

"I've grown a lot in the past 15 years."

Batman said softly.

"Yes, Master Bruce."

"My mind has also become stronger enough to allow me to rationally control myself in any situation."

"..." The silver-haired old housekeeper didn't speak.

"Isn't it, Alfred?"

"When faced with the matter of Miss Sisley, I doubted this."

The silver-haired old butler replied softly, before Bruce could say anything else, he spoke first.

"Little Miss Sisley is different too, Master Bruce. She's very clever, and she has a lot of friends."

"………her friend."

Bruce paused for a moment while stroking the little silver ball, put it back into the box again, fastened the hidden lock, and handed it to Alfred.

The old butler took the silver box, put it back under the secret compartment, and locked it firmly.

"Tim has already deciphered that message." Batman suddenly got up and walked to the door of the study, "We will act tonight."

"And are you ready, Master Bruce?"

Alfred asked quietly.

"Compared to 15 years ago, yes."

Bruce replied quietly.