[Comprehensive British and American] Gotham Nightingale

"Here are all the materials sent by Mr. Lucius, sir."

In the small living room of Wayne Manor, the fireplace was blazing, and the warm flame took away the coolness of the cold spring.

Alfred came to the brown leather sofa with thick paper documents, piled them on the tea table in front of Bruce Wayne, and brought well-made strong tea and hot milk, because tonight he could not stop Stay up all night to prepare.

Tim, who was forced to stuff a glass of milk in his arms, took a look. The top document was an identity file including a photo, and the entry date was 20 years ago.

Twenty years ago, the detention center under the name of Wayne Group was officially established.

There are so many street children in Gotham, it is so rare that people walk on the street without seeing one, two or three.

As for the detention center, of course not all of them are taken in - some street children actually have parents, some even have children when they are underage, and some have been in the juvenile detention center several times, with some cases on their backs.

In Gotham, people never say that people are inherently good.

Some kids, even though they look like kids, may already be tougher than adults in some other cities.

That's why Lucius said at the time that the child who could achieve the surname "Wayne" might not be able to pick out a child from all the people who took care of him in the past few years.

Red Robin gulped down the milk, and said, "Whoah!" "20 years ago, so Miss Nightingale was also in it? She was smaller than me at that time?"

After finishing speaking, he saw that Bruce didn't express any rejection on his face, as if the other party had acquiesced, he stretched out his hand and followed the alphabetical order to "N", and pulled out the file representing Nightingale.

Because it is the original file 20 years ago, the paper is very thin and there is very little information.

But Tim was attracted by the color photo in the upper left corner of the file at first sight.

"Jesus Christ, this is too... so cute?"

……

When the identity photo was taken, the orphans were obviously cleaned and dressed in a uniform of little shirts.

Some children, even if they are well-groomed, can still see the traces of their wandering in the past-whether it is the smoke or knife scars on the flesh, the emaciation caused by malnutrition, or the gloomy eyes that are completely different from ordinary children. .

As for Little Nightingale, to be honest, apart from the dry and fluffy curly curly hair, some people will believe that she is the little baby who is held in the palm of her hand.

Although thin and pale, the small face with the baby fat that has not faded looks really delicate, like an old ceramic doll in an antique shop.

She looked at the camera, probably happy because she was about to enter a new life, her crystal clear cobalt blue deer eyes bent with a smile.

It seems to be talking to you after 20 years of time and photo plastic packaging.

"Oh, it's like a little fat chirp with fried hair."

Tim liked to look at the photo for a while before going to the information below.

Six years old (really, it looks like four years old at most), wandering for three years, from the shabby shantytown of the Upper West Side, once under the jurisdiction of "Skinny Jack", the language logic is clear, and the means of livelihood is to borrow appearance and words to beg.

The family relationship that is simply marked is that there is an elder brother, who is not related by blood in brackets, and the name of the elder brother in brackets is Posey.

Then Tim went to find the files starting with "B" and found "Posey".

In the photo, he was a very handsome young man.

He was different from any of Tim's familiar peers, or even from the Asian boys Tim had seen in school.

Although it is a color photo, Posey's soft black hair and narrow, moist black eyes still make him look like a light and soothing Chinese ink painting.

Tim doesn't know how to describe it, but he just thinks that Percy looks so comfortable, like you can tell him anything on your mind.

Like a whale diving into the deep sea, like a bird flying into a bamboo forest, like maple leaves turning red in autumn, like peaches and plums ripening in their respective solar terms... everything is so natural.

But for such a young man, the line marked in red on his file reads, "Unidentifiable systemic organ failure, no treatment is recommended."

...Even a stranger like him, who only glanced at the photo after 20 years, felt it was a pity.

What follows is a series of basic information, such as 16 years old, such as six years of wandering time...

And then there's the family ties, with a little sister called "Nightingale," who's not related by parenthesis.

Red Robin gave the two documents to Bruce.

He noticed that Bruce had looked at little Nanting's photo a few more times, and then his eyes stayed on Posey's information for a long time, with a rare sadness on his face.

Then Tim finally realized that this boy who made him feel sorry was the victim of the Gotham Hospital bombing they found in the Batcave last time.

He battled terminal illness for ten years.

He didn't die of disease.

He died in a deadly joke.

……

I don't know how many minutes passed.

"Categorize all the information by block."

The man who was still pinching the two thin sheets of paper said in a deep voice.

Because he went to the watchtower tonight and there was no night patrol, he didn't continue to wear the Batman uniform after he came back.

At this moment, he was sitting on the sofa wearing a reddish-brown nightgown, his brows were deeply illuminated by the fire, and he looked sleepy and tired.

Tim pushed Afu's strong tea towards him, Bruce didn't refuse, picked it up and took a sip—but didn't put down the two pieces of paper in the middle.

For Red Robin, who is good at hacking techniques, it is not difficult to sort and filter paper materials.

His brain and hands moved very quickly, and within a few minutes, he divided these old materials from 20 years ago from a thick stack into six large stacks and seventeen small stacks of varying thickness, corresponding to different spheres of influence and neighborhood.

After thinking about it, Tim realized something was wrong: "How come there are so few information about beggars on such a large territory as the Upper West Side and Chinatown?"

Then he thought of the two cards in Bruce's hand, which happened to belong to the only child on the Upper West Side.

Bruce mused, before he could reply.

Another young but steady voice came from outside the corridor:

"The Upper West Side was under the jurisdiction of the Penguins back then, and the beggars in that area were under unified management, and almost none of them were found by the shelter—maybe they were hidden, or they left by themselves. Of course, I think the former is more likely. big."

Ye Yi stepped on wet steps, took off the rainproof cloak with the help of Alfred, took out the information in his arms, and said:

"Bruce asked me to go to Director Gordon. He kept some paper files on the Upper West Side, and I took them back."

Tim quickly took it and flipped it over: "Ah... this matches the missing part."

"But 20 years ago, didn't anyone care about those homeless minors? Director Gordon was just an ordinary police inspector at that time, right? Why did you still make a file?"

……

Hearing Dick's question, Ye Yi fell silent for some reason.

Bruce, who had been silent before, stretched out his hand, motioning for Tim to hand over the new information, and then said softly after getting it: "Because this is a criminal case."

Red Robin didn't understand at once.

Bruce's steel-blue eyes were gloomy: "The children in this stack of materials, logically speaking, should all be gone."

At the beginning, although Bruce Wayne proposed the construction of the shelter under the name of the Wayne Group, his personality as a playboy rich second-generation idler made it impossible for him to personally handle all these matters.

Therefore, it is up to the subordinates to find suitable street children.

——Since it is run by people, there is a lot of room for maneuvering. For example, gangs are unwilling to hand over people, so they do some py transactions to hide the truth.

Bruce just returned to Gotham 20 years ago and was busy building the Batcave bit by bit. He knew how much gangsters controlled the city, so he didn't have to take those kids.

So he didn't know that most of the beggars on the Upper West Side were not taken into the shelter.

What's more, they were all gone in just half a month.

... No, it's not all gone.

He quickly found the information on "Alger" in alphabetical order from the top list file.

It didn't even take up half of the paper, and there were no photos.

There are no photos in this stack of materials.

The dozens of lives that disappeared 20 years ago are only left with cold words on yellowed paper, and then they briefly describe their appearance characteristics, (not necessarily accurate) ages, and experiences (mostly thieves and thieves) touch, robbery, etc.).

Even these texts are not necessarily true, because they all come from the confession of a gangster manager "Skinny Jack".

The only real thing is probably their ending.

——was hidden in an abandoned factory, avoiding the containment plan of the Wayne Group and the government, but all died in a leakage accident of waste toxic chemical products in the factory one night.

It was said to be an accident, caused by some naughty child breaking the gate.

The matter was quickly suppressed, and the "Skinny Jack" who hid the child was pushed out to top the bag, and only then did the paper files of GCPD come into being.

Logically speaking, this Alger deserved to die, just like those dozens of unlucky waifs.

The thread broke again.

……

However, if things were really that simple, then there would be nothing wrong with Batman.

He always felt that he had overlooked some possibility, so he rubbed the space between his brows, spread out the materials again, and fell into deep thought.

Upper West Side.Shanty town.The dead beggar.Alger.reception center.Nightingale and Percy.

The stolen wallets of Wayne Group employees.List of shelters.Thin Jack in jail.

……and many more.

Since Thin Jack transferred all the beggars in advance, how did Nightingale and Percy escape in advance?

The well-informed must have obtained the news first.

Where did the news come from?

Alger who stole the wallets of Wayne Group employees.

Like a fishing line with beads connected in series, the analysis is clear bit by bit, but it gets stuck again at a key position.

If Alger was the one who got the news in advance, why didn't he leave too, but was on the list of dozens of beggars?

Leakage accidents of waste toxic chemical products, broken gates...

Let me ask, in Gotham, how to make a complete makeover?

When the rest of the insiders are dead, when he himself is "dead", and when the only insider will not reveal his identity, "Alger" will cease to exist.

Why a complete makeover instead of going away?

He wants to continue to stay in this city, and he has enough obsessions, and a reason not to be found out about his past.

For example, if you want to do something dangerous enough, you don't want to involve your loved ones.

Or, weakness.

……

Bruce took a deep breath.

He took out the communicator and dialed the private communication number between Batman and James Gordon.

The other party picked it up very quickly. At this point, the director who had the information taken away seemed to have expected tonight's sleeplessness.

"Recall carefully, 20 years ago, after the leakage of waste toxic chemical products, among the various gangsters in Gotham, was there a young boy who was suddenly appreciated by a certain force, was very young, alone and had no background."

In terms of understanding the history of the Gotham gang in recent decades, James Gordon is definitely an expert in Gotham.

Even though it was a long time ago, after recalling for a while, he quickly found the right candidate.

"There is one. It's Penguin's subordinate. It doesn't have a real name, but it's nicknamed Lie Yan. It is said that he is an orphan from Kansas. He came to Gotham alone, and became the manager of the Iceberg Restaurant in just one year."

"It took him ten years to achieve the second-in-command position under Penguin, but in the tenth year, he suddenly turned back and assassinated Penguin, and then there was no more news."

"I remember, he had red hair."

The author has something to say: [Timeline]:

20 years ago, when the asylum center was established.

Ten years ago, when Percy died.

Six or seven years ago, when the clown died.

.Thanks to the little angels who voted for me to overlord or irrigate nutrient solution~

Thanks to the little angel who threw the [grenade]: 1 cat that meows but not meows and eats fish;

Thanks to the little angels who voted [Line mines]: the end of the play is easy to disperse, one meow not meow;

Thanks to the little angel who irrigated [nutrient solution]:

Ai, 5 bottles of A Dream into Chaos; 1 bottle of Meow Meow Meow Meow Meow;

Thank you very much for your support, I will continue to work hard!