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

Page 83

"So," Lucian said, moving away from the candlelight. The shadow behind him became real but small. "Don't expect me to be him, and don't expect the Saint Bat to impress me... I haven't fallen into a chemical plant, I don't have any brain disease, I haven't experienced the worst day, I can communicate, I can cowardly escape, and I yearn for the peaceful life that he can't yearn for..."

"Besides, you also said that the Joker is the opposite of Batman. Batman has been dead for twenty-eight years. How could the Joker exist alone?"

Lilith looked at him, only seeing his face blurred due to being away from the firelight, and his dark green eyes were like a flat mirror, reflecting coldly.

She stammered:

"Are you like this because the Bat is dead?"

"I can tell you... Batman is not dead."

Batman is not dead?

Lilith looked at the expression on his face when he heard the news, and almost saw the image of the Joker in the photo come to life as if by hallucination.

But soon, the clown disappeared, and Lucian emerged, shaking his finger:

"No," he said. "It has nothing to do with me... Whether Batman is dead or alive has nothing to do with me, not just him, but Gotham has nothing to do with me... I repeat, I may be the Joker, or I may not be the Joker, and it doesn't matter."

"I just want to live a simple life... A flooded cabin, some people are asleep, some are awake. Those who realize the crisis are trying to repair the ship and wake up the sleeping people."

"I don't want to wake up, Lilith. I don't want to see the terrible reality, nor do I want to do my best to survive." Lucian looked at her:

"I just want to sleep like this. Even if you wake me up, I will still pretend to be asleep... If the ship really sinks, let me die with you. If the ship is repaired, I will also thank you for your efforts."

"Selfish." Lilith suddenly said, "Foolish and absurd!"

"You obviously know everything!" Perhaps Lucian's harmlessness gave her the courage to pour out her emotions:

"You know we pretend to be normal for you! You know our problems, our efforts, our difficulties, our sacrifices, and you know we need you!" She couldn't help but laugh.

"You even know that you are special and know how to save this city and this world!"

"But you ignore everything for the sake of so-called normality! We hold you high, place you on the altar, and send you to a safe place. We call you patiently, waiting for the day when you wake up, walk to the throne and lead us!" Lilith became sad, but the person she complained to was indifferent, which seemed like a farce.

"...Do you have to do this?" Her tears were touching.

"Don't be like that. It makes me look stupid." Lucian's expression remained unchanged. He sat on the wooden chair, but he seemed to be high up in the clouds.

"I remember I said the so-called resistance army—a group united by mutual interests, using grandiose slogans to guide ignorant people, born to replace the Holy Bat."

"If I'm not mistaken." His gaze fell to the distance - the direction of home: "You finally lost your patience with me, or perhaps you already had a plan."

"If I don't want to be the Joker, you can make me crazy - a sad and wonderful script, the villain points to the Holy Bat."

……

Jenny opened the door and Tone, dressed in religious clothing, walked in. He said, "The clown still refuses to be born."

"Jenny, I'm going to kill you and leave him a dead body."

……

"You're so obvious."

The person behind the counter remained calm: "From the very beginning, Jenny coming to my side was arranged by you, right?"

Lilith was stunned.

"The director who wrote this script overlooked something." Lucian squinted his eyes and began to recall:

"A girl from a special family... Her parents were fighting for the same enemy, yet she chose to marry and have children with a colleague despite having strong feelings for him. I don't think someone as indifferent to family ties and ungrateful as me will ever appear again."

"And the planning for emotions..." Lucian couldn't help but smile—a smile that didn't involve the Joker.

"I still remember her mother suddenly saying that one should take the initiative in relationships... That was so abrupt. At least you should have a hero saving the damsel in distress... Sorry, maybe you didn't think I would choose to save her."

"And then there's the character design issue... I remember her original character design was that she had depression... Do you think I don't have any research on mental illness?"

"Well, I haven't done any research, but if you put yourself in their shoes, you'll find that the person a reserved and vulnerable person would confide in is likely someone they'll never meet, or someone they can't possibly meet again, or someone who's responsible for keeping secrets."

Lucian looked at Lilith with a playful expression, "Why would she pour out her heart to a colleague she just met on the first day... someone she'll be working with for a long time and whose personality she doesn't know well?"

Chapter 108 Jenny's Death

"This is going to be panned as a bad movie."

The air was silent for a long time, and finally Lilith asked: "When did you know?"

"The moment she confessed to me."

"Then..." Before Lilith could ask why, Lucian interrupted: "Because I don't care."

He said, "I just need a wife."

……

Putting everything aside, this is just an ordinary family consisting of a man and a woman.

Jenny looked at the clock pointing to five o'clock and seemed to say to Tone, "I really like him."

Pregnancy brings her maternal tenderness, and her plump figure has the low-key and gentleness that beautiful women lack.

……

"Just a wife? Then why were you willing to marry her and have children with her?"

As the wheelchair turned, a hoarse voice sounded... It was Catwoman, whom I had only met once.

"Is it possible that I've truly fallen in love with her? Who knows?" Lucian glanced over. "Comparatively, I'm more surprised... Aren't you just an NPC who triggers conversations?"

He looked at Lilith and raised an eyebrow, "Okay, that's also a lie."

He sighed, "Ah...it's all lies."

Lilith went over and pushed Catwoman to the counter. After making all the arrangements, she returned to her original position. The air currents from the back and forth caused the candlelight to flicker. The shadow behind Lucian became strangely distorted. He spoke again:

"Is this considered 'The Truman Show'? Do I need to follow the script and start acting on the big screen?"

Strangely, there was no big emotional fluctuation. He looked at Lilith:

"Do I need to wait until seven o'clock to get home from get off work and cry my heart out over the two dead bodies?" He looked at Catwoman.

"Is this the worst day you've created for me? You're going to appear before me as the savior? Let me inspire the people? Boost the morale of the army? And then it'll end with a war against the Saint Bat?"

"...Oh, I almost forgot, Batman is still alive. I still have to perform a scene with him, dissecting his inner thoughts? And then, as you expected, stage a feud between old enemies?"

"I can imagine what's going to happen next... Batman escapes and saves Gotham again, and then I become the villain, the Joker, the most ordinary member of the gang, and then I get caught, jailbroken, jailbroken, jailbroken, jailbroken, jailbroken... Hahaha!"

A pale, hollow laugh suddenly rang out, then abruptly stopped. Wax tears dripped from the candlestick. Lucian calmed down. He stepped forward to clean up, and the shadow grew larger again.

"I remember comics all have names...why don't we come up with one too? And then for the cover and poster...I'm good at both watercolor and oil painting, and I'm also good at woodcutting. Maybe give me a few days to design it beforehand?"

"After all, this is our work. If the audience doesn't buy it and the sales are poor, it will be cut."

……

The first ray of sunlight broke through the darkness, and the whole city suddenly lit up.

"He meets all my expectations of a future husband." Jenny lowered her head and gently stroked her belly, feeling a little reluctant: "If I give birth to the child... I really can't bear to hurt him again."

Tone raised his knife—similar to a Japanese samurai sword, flashing with a cold light.

……

"Shedding Clothes" is a very closed contact point, isolated from the outside world... There are only candles and oil lamps here.

"So you'll follow the script?" Catwoman looked at Lucian's rolled-up sleeves, neat work clothes, clean face, and nimble movements.

"When he returned home and saw his wife's miserable state, he collapsed and turned his attention to the Holy Bat, becoming the leader of the resistance... saving Batman and gradually becoming the Joker."

"Who knows?" After cleaning up the wax tears, Lucian sat back down, his shadow becoming more condensed and real again. "Maybe... maybe I'll keep doing this. Maybe it's too boring, I can't bear it anymore, maybe I'll commit suicide."

He lit a cigarette, the smoke curling up, the candle no longer the only source of light. "Actually, while I was lost in this dream, I often wondered... maybe I'm no longer needed before everything happens? Maybe I'll die at the happiest moment? Maybe a hero will appear and save the world? Maybe the resistance will be completely destroyed?"

Lilith and Catwoman listened and saw his slightly dazed and detached expression, and they both understood that Lucian had a tendency to depression.

His words can be simplified into one sentence: "Is it me who dies first, or whoever saves me who comes first?"

……

The clock ticked, and behind the half-open door was a female corpse with her belly opened and her head beheaded.

The lifeless uterus and the head with closed eyes were placed on the table.

The cold wind blew in through the gaps in the window, and through the dim light, one could see clearly: the word "heresy" was written on the wall in scarlet blood.

……

"Do you really love Jenny?" Catwoman looked at Lucien's unhurried expression and said, "You know she will die tonight."

"So what?" The cigarette in his hand flickered, flickering. "Disaster is inevitable... Am I going to save her, take her away, and then see her die in my arms while being pursued by the cultists? Will that satisfy me?"

Lucien's behavior was really not what a husband should behave... His current attitude broke Lilith's filter of mistakenly believing that he really loved Jenny... It was chilling.

"Don't show that expression." Lucian noticed her strangeness and smiled nonchalantly: "This was all planned by you. You were the ones pushing it, and you were the murderers. I just watched everything unfold... Compared to me, you are more cruel."

"Suffering is artificially created just for the sake of someone's birth." Smoke blurred his face. "But have you ever considered that suffering doesn't train or transform people; at its core, it kills."

"You're planning to kill me and then resurrect the Joker in me."

Lucian laughed: "A bunch of butchers, murderers in high-sounding disguises."

Despite this, he did not struggle and said, "I'm looking forward to it too... I'm really curious, will I be killed first or saved first?"

……

7am.

Lucien took off his overalls, let his hair down, and said to the two people who hadn't left: "Want to go see the murder scene, friends?"

……

Dilapidated roads, deserted streets, crumbling buildings...but these show signs of dawn coming under the bright light of hope.

Gotham is beautiful both in the evenings and in the mornings.

……

Lucian saw the closed window, walked up the stairs and stood in front of the door. He seemed to see the puzzle that Arthur left here two years ago.

I also smelled blood... the same smell of blood that I once stood in front of the door.