Chapter 1800: Summer in Fool Village (XIV)
The 26th floor of the Wayne Hotel has the most luxurious and best view restaurant in Gotham. Sitting in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows, you can overlook the entire city skyline, which is called the Eye of Gotham.
This restaurant is most famous for its extremely strict membership invitation system. After all, with Batman's suspicious character, he will not let anyone see Gotham's skyline casually. Many gourmets who want to visit the restaurant have been turned away because of their insufficient status. However, the more people scold, the more curious they are about what is in the restaurant of the world's richest man.
The decoration of this restaurant is exactly the same as Wayne Manor. It shows a classical style because of the solid materials, and at the same time has the Gothic magnificence unique to Gotham.
The floor is a marble with black and dark purple interweaving, and each color is separated by a golden line. The bronze handrail pillars are inlaid with monster statues that only exist in fantasy. Four huge and thick Roman pillars support the Gothic dome. The curtains slide down from the walls and pillars on both sides. The sunlight through the slender and sharp Gothic windows is filtered into a gloomy and hazy tone.
Talia has seen the interior decoration of countless magnificent buildings, but none of them has made her feel so shocked. The darkness of Gotham is not only like drizzle, but sometimes like an irresistible torrent. When you are in it, you only feel like a bird swaying in the dark storm. Even the wind that supports you unconditionally cannot rely on each other at this moment.
Gloomy, lonely, and isolated from the world, this is the dark blade that every old building in Gotham pierces straight into people's hearts.
Talia looked up at the Gothic candlesticks on the wall that were sometimes scattered and sometimes overlapped, and felt that her mind was shaking with the heavy firelight.
Bruce Wayne, who was sitting opposite her, was wearing a very decent sapphire blue suit, and his eyes were as blue as the door that the wind and snow left for the world to glimpse the truth of dreams. When he looked at her intently, Talia completely forgot the prepared words.
"I'm sorry, ma'am, I'm so presumptuous to invite you, but I think we should have a good talk."
Bruce spoke first, he straightened his back, cut the food on the plate in an elegant but not too restrained manner, and said: "To be honest, I didn't expect you to come to this city. This is a very courageous decision for anyone."
"I came to find you." Talia said bluntly.
"I knew it when we met again." Bruce nodded and said: "You expressed your intentions very well, so we will meet again here."
"What are you going to talk to me about?" Talia put one hand on the table, picked up the fork with the other hand, and fiddled with the food on the plate absent-mindedly.
If it were a formal occasion, this would be a bit rude, but Talia had obviously dressed up carefully today. She wore a streamer fishtail dress like a starry night, with thin suspenders and waisted fishbones on the upper body, and the soft silk material on the lower body was like flowing black honey, and at the end of the blooming, it reminded people of the mysterious deep sea undercurrent.
There is no doubt that Talia is a beauty, and unlike most women Bruce has seen, she knows her charm and has polished it into a sharp blade, not showing any innocence or weakness, just wanting to tell everyone how dangerous she is as charming.
This is an extremely unique temperament, making it difficult for people to look away from her. Talia has always adhered to a principle, and her aggressive appearance can well filter out those soft eggs who only covet her beauty but don't have the courage to bear her danger. So far, Talia is very satisfied with Bruce's gaze.
In the past, most people looked at her with a timid and lustful look, and when she looked back, they looked away as if they had seen a ghost, wishing they could tear off their skin so that this crazy-looking woman would not bother them.
But Bruce's eyes were full of pure appreciation, and some very simple curiosity, not aggressive prying, but just curiosity.
Talia wanted to be more straightforward. She thought it was time to ask Bruce for an answer. It would be better to get his favor and make him his servant, but if not, just getting his genes would be fine.
But just before Talia opened her mouth, Bruce spoke as if he had timed it perfectly: "I haven't brought any female companions here, because this restaurant has a special meaning to me. You should have been to Wayne Manor, right?"
This successfully aroused Talia's curiosity, so she nodded and said: "Yes, I see the connection between the two places. Their decoration styles are a bit similar."
"Because they were all built by my parents." Bruce raised his head, rolled his eyes and looked around the ceiling, and said: "In their time, this style was popular for a long time. After getting married, they first moved the Wayne Manor in the West District to the South District intact, updated the decoration style, and then built the Wayne Hotel in the same style."
"I don't know how to evaluate this style." Talia also turned her head to look at the deeper darkness behind the candlelight, which was a bit like a slightly lonely loneliness, and also like a terrifying threat.
"It doesn't look like the decoration style that a newlywed couple would choose. When I first came here as a child, I had the same question, and they told me that this was the style they chose after discussion, and they all liked it."
Talia turned her head back and looked at Bruce's blue eyes again, which were suddenly filled with sincere apologies.
"I'm sorry that I took such a long detour. What I want to say is that perhaps this is the meaning of family. The great thing is that when they decide on something together, they see the courage to go through all difficulties with each other at the same time, and people call it love."
"This is completely different from the hormonal impact they first received from each other's appearance and family background. If you choose family, it's like throwing the candles in a candlelight dinner into the fireplace, giving up one night of romance in exchange for long-term warmth and peace."
Talia didn't realize how long she had been staring at Bruce. When she spoke, it was not the ambiguous teasing she was good at. There was some uncontrolled thinking in her words.
"So you've already thrown the candle in?"
"This is the price you have to pay for making a choice." Bruce looked intently into Talia's eyes and said, "I've been attracted by countless beauties like you in the fluttering skirts, and I've also been attracted by the gorgeousness and freshness, chasing a cat over the city regardless of the cost."
"But what really made me make the choice was that she jumped from a high altitude first, and plunged into the difficult trivialities from freedom and happiness. She didn't like taking care of children, she just liked me."
"I have no feelings for anyone who is originally in a difficult situation. I have to find a little love in my life. I respect the love that people give me, and the same goes for you, ma'am."
Talia looked back at Bruce, as if insulted, and asked in an absurd tone: "Why do you think I am as poor as your thief girlfriend? We are completely different people!"
"Really?" Bruce put a piece of okra into his mouth and frowned slightly because of its sticky taste, but still stretched his eyebrows and said: "You don't have much choice, ma'am, if I don't choose to respect you, but use a quite "You know you can't." Bruce interrupted Talia's rebuttal and said, "You know clearly that in a patriarchal society, no matter how you stare at me, you can't put pressure on me. No matter your purpose is to steal my genes or something else, people will only think you are a slut." Talia squeezed the fork tightly, staring into Bruce's eyes and said, "I don't care..." "But I have to consider the reputation of me and my daughter." Bruce continued to cut the food with his head down. He said, "I chose the family, so I must consider every family member. Because of the existence of the patriarchal society, part of the moral pressure I have received will inevitably flow to my wife and daughter. For adults, this is just another affair of mine, but Aisha just started elementary school this year. Children will magnify their misunderstanding into greater malice. I must completely avoid such incidents. " Talia began to feel confused. She couldn't fully understand what Bruce said. The main point she didn't understand was family. The jewel in the eye of the leader of the Assassin's League has understood most of the things in this world with talents and perseverance that ordinary people can hardly imagine, but if there is a blank, it may be family and affection.
When Talia was young, her mother was killed, so she only had her father in her memory, but for her father Lei Xiaogu, her impression was only endless cruel training and orders for various difficult tasks.
Talia has never experienced any normal family affection, and has no understanding of the human social unit of family. Most of the assassins of the Assassin's League come from orphans raised by Lei Xiaogu all over the world. They have no concept of family, and this topic has never appeared in Talia's first half of her life.
As the saying goes, you regret not having enough knowledge when you need it. When Talia needed to talk the most, she encountered a topic that could make her brain blank the most. She had only seen the most typical American blue-collar family in magazines. She didn't know if it was normal, so she couldn't even say a few jokes.
"You love your daughter very much." Talia said dryly.
"And I'm very surprised that your father would instruct you to do such a thing." Bruce looked up at Talia and said, "Usually a father would try his best to prevent his daughter from being tainted with such a reputation. Even if there is even a little similar tendency, they would like to pick up a gun and blow the bastard into pieces immediately."
"I..." Talia hesitated for a moment, but still said, "This is not his instruction, I just... need your help."
"Why do you want my genes?"
"I need an offspring."
"Then why do you need an offspring?"
After a moment of silence, Talia rolled up one side of her long hair with one finger, thinking and saying, "I am the daughter of the devil, and the blood of the devil Lei Xiaogu flows in my body. They say this will bring me great power, but it is not strong enough."
"Not strong enough for what?"
Talia was silent for a long time. She was not thinking, but seemed very reluctant to answer this question.
Bruce gave her tangled answer: "You are not strong enough to create a new order for this world. You are not strong enough to influence the entire human history, so you hope that you have a descendant who is strong enough to rule mankind and shape history."
As soon as Talia's eyes met Bruce's, she heard Bruce say: "Because your father is never satisfied with you, he is never satisfied with his progress in changing the world, he is always longing for an end, and you are eager to give him an end in order to end this torture."