Starting from scratch, Batman crushed my dream of getting rich

Chapter 596 Interrogation
Ma Zhaodi and Clark still had many questions about Walter, but the CIA arrived quickly. After dumping them in the city center, they disappeared with the terrified locomotive, the Invisible Man, the corpse of Homelander, the ice sculpture of Soldier Boy, and Edgar himself.

"I'm sorry, but I have a lot of things to deal with right now."

The CIA personnel were quite polite. One of Butcher's bed partners, CIA Deputy Director Susan Reiner, personally ran out of the car to apologize to the two: "Mr. Superman, we've wanted to meet you for a long time, but unfortunately we haven't had the chance. We hope we can get to know each other better in the future. We really need someone like you—"

"Sorry, I don't want to join."

Clark refused outright, but his near-perfect face and marble-sculpted physique made it impossible for Susan to get angry: "It's alright, Mr. Superman, we respect your choice, and the CIA's doors are always open for you."

Left out in the cold, Ma Zhaodi pursed his lips, thinking to himself, it's hard to say whose door is open to Superman.

After the CIA vehicle drove away, Superman looked at Ma Zhaodi: "I remember you also mentioned a Senator Newman. Since she attacked Edgar, is it possible that she sensed something was wrong and ran away immediately?"

"It's possible; anyone would run away in this situation."

Ma Zhaodi replied, "However, the Butcher had already told the CIA about this. Since the deputy director didn't ask us for help, it means she had a plan in mind."

"Ok."

After the two finished their discussion, Clark leaned against the roadside railing and looked in the direction of the Vought Building.

The gleaming glass exterior reflected the golden sunlight; it was dusk.

Clark let out a long sigh of relief.

"I'm so tired," he said. "Finally, I can rest."

“Yeah, you won’t need to clock in and out starting tomorrow,” Ma Zhaodi replied. “It doesn’t matter whether you go to Walter or not—want to come back to the Black Robe Squad’s base with me to celebrate?”

"Are you throwing a celebration party?"

Clark immediately agreed: "Sure, I'm teammates with the others in the team too. We've been working together for so long, we can't have never met each other from beginning to end, right?"

Seeing that Clark agreed so readily, Ma Zhaodi chuckled and took out his wine gourd.

"Let's see if God gets drunk."

The next day, a phone call from Susan Rayner woke the butcher up.

After getting up from the sofa, the Butcher saw that the room had been cleaned up and that the squad members were sleeping sprawled out on the oversized futon.

The scattered bottles, takeout containers, and grill were all gone; the lingering smell of alcohol in the air was the only evidence that everyone had gotten drunk together the night before.

The sound of stir-frying came from the kitchen, probably because Lao Ma didn't sleep in too long. After getting up, he tidied up the room and then went to cook (but actually, it was Dai Mao and San Bengzi who tidied up together. Dai Mao said that Lao Da is really lazy).

Looking at Clark, who was sleeping soundly at the far end of the floor, I saw that he was still fast asleep.

"Clark looks so strong, but he sleeps so soundly?"

The Butcher scratched his head. He didn't have a good impression of any superhumans, but Clark had a strange charm. Even though they had only met for the first time last night and knew very little about him, the conversation became inexplicably smooth after a few drinks.

He had to admit that he really liked this self-proclaimed superhero who grew up on a Kansas farm. Aside from his own superpowers and gentle, upright character, the guy was practically a native redneck farmer, and a damn tough guy—Mazhaodi said he beat Soldier Boy and Homelander head-on.

"This guy doesn't seem like a superhero," he thought to himself. "He's just a regular redneck."

"This guy is alright, let's have a drink together sometime." For the butcher, "doesn't seem like a superhero" is probably the highest praise he could give a superhero.

"Hey?"

He answered the phone: "Susan, what's the rush? Ma Zhaodi said you should be busy interrogating Edgar."

"Why don't you act happier?"

Susan asked, "Isn't this what you've been pursuing for so many years? To destroy Walter, to destroy Homelander."

"After I found my wife, Homelander and Walter became secondary."

The butcher replied, "But you guessed right, we are very happy, otherwise we wouldn't have drunk so much yesterday—everyone except me and Old Ma is sleeping like a log."

"Dad, Mom said that even when you're drunk, you sleep like a log."

Ryan hadn't been drinking, of course. He was currently working on the problems his new teacher, Ma Zhaodi, had given him with a bitter expression—and couldn't help but turn around and mutter a complaint.

Go do your homework.

The butcher rolled his eyes and continued the call: "Susan, just say what you want to say."

"Didn't you say that I should send you a copy of the materials after the interrogation? This is about what Vogbaum and Edgar told you yesterday. Remember to delete the video after you've read it."

"You trust me that much?"

"I am from the Black Robe Squad."

The phone beeped and then hung up.

After breakfast was prepared, Ma Zhaodi, the Butcher, and the others who had been woken up watched the interrogation video sent by the CIA.

When Superman woke up, he was still a little surprised and asked Ma Zhaodi what kind of wine he had drunk yesterday, but Ma Zhaodi casually brushed him off.

In the video, an elderly man with white hair is speaking in front of the camera; he is Vogelbaum, the former chief scientist of Vought International.

"Yes, we had Project Odyssey back then. I know it was inhumane, but I was so obsessed with Compound V when I was young that I ended up leading the project for the research."

"Homelander's blastocyst came from Soldier Boy's genes, so that's right. He can be considered Soldier Boy's son."

Ma Zhaodi noticed that when Clark heard these words, his body trembled and he couldn't help but clench his fists.

“There’s a global rehabilitation center in Malibu that’s one of our research sites. Homelander grew up there and never went back—yes, there’s a human lab there, and rooms specifically for holding superhumans.”

“I don’t know about Homelander. When I was young, I tried my best not to develop feelings for my experimental subjects, but he was someone I watched grow up. I probably feel guilty; I feel I’ve let him down, or rather, I’ve somewhat regarded him as my son.”

"I promised to secretly groom Ryan to be the next star of the Vought Seven, without the Homelander's knowledge. Yes."

"To this day, I regret what I have done. I have only one request: could you please not tell my daughter what I did? Charge me with another crime, please."

(End of this chapter)