Chapter 2513: Battle for the Cloak (Forty-Three)
Chapter 2487: The Battle for the Cape (Forty-three)
Jason was frightened and woke up, but his head was dizzy and he had a splitting headache after being forcibly awakened. He felt that some clues appeared in his mind, but he couldn't concentrate at all.
Jason hadn't been so seriously ill for a long time. When he was Robin, his body was always strong. He only needed to rest for a night to recover from a cold. After that, most of the discomfort he had was caused by external injuries.
Jason had a strong tolerance for pain, so he was more afraid of this kind of situation where he felt uncomfortable all over his body, but he couldn't tell where it was uncomfortable. What consumed his energy more than the headache was dizziness and sacral joint pain. What made him even more unbearable was muscle weakness. This all-round weakness brought people torture no less than being beaten all over.
Jason felt his throat swell up at a speed visible to the naked eye. In just a few minutes, he couldn't speak. His nose was completely stuffy, and his eyes were swollen and sore, as if his eyeballs were about to roll out of their sockets.
Ben Parker and Aunt May immediately realized that he had a severe cold. Don't think that a cold is a minor illness. It can be fatal if it is really serious.
So they took some effort to lift Jason to the sofa in the living room, found him an ice pack for physical cooling, and then began to search the medicine box at home, wiping his back and arms with alcohol.
Spider-Man came back soon, bringing antipyretics and syrup, and also bought pancake powder, chocolate and electrolyte drinks.
Jason could only vaguely see a few figures constantly circling around him, and the rest of his consciousness was always sinking. When he was about to sink to the bottom, he recalled a serious illness he had experienced when he was very young.
It was the old saying of getting caught in the rain again. This is a problem that is difficult to avoid in Gotham. It is not something that can be solved by holding an umbrella anytime and anywhere, because if you have to make a living on the street, it is difficult for you to have the leisure and elegance of strolling on the street with an umbrella. Most of the time you are running.
When the wind started to blow, the space that the umbrella could cover was really limited. The children in Gotham basically wore cheap raincoats, but raincoats were not warm. If they were in a heavy rain, the rain would quickly take away the body temperature until they were cold all over.
Jason was also in a hurry that day. One of his friends got into trouble and was beaten half to death at the back door of a gang nightclub. He was anxious to save him, so he hurriedly put on his raincoat and rushed out.
It happened that it rained heavily in Gotham that day, and the big raindrops kept falling down, and a small figure had no time to pass through the gap under the eaves, but ran in the middle of the road.
Jason didn't remember how the matter was resolved that day. He only remembered that after returning to the cellar where he often stayed, he began to feel hot all over, cold as if falling into an ice cave, and so painful that he couldn't move at all.
At that time, Jason clearly realized that he was dying.
There are almost no children in Gotham who can survive serious illness, because they are often alone, without relatives to take care of them, lack of medical care and medicine, and insufficient nutrition. The immune system is really a cook without rice. Not to mention a severe cold, even a small cut on the body, or even a foot rubbed by running too much, can cause death from wound infection.
But Jason is different from them. He never wants to give up. Even if he knows that he may not survive, he has to endure it. He has never thought that it is better to die than to suffer so much.
During the whole process of fighting the disease, he never wanted to give up. All he thought about was surviving, surviving, and surviving.
He had the foresight to store some food, which was the key to his survival. So even if his throat was so painful that he had difficulty swallowing, he still bit the food viciously, chewed it hard and swallowed it in one breath, like a wolf tearing the prey's internal organs crazily.
The clean water was gone, and the rainwater flowing down the cellar door was drinkable, but it was too cold, so Jason dug a flue from the cracks in the bricks on one side of the cellar to make a fire for himself.
This cold lasted for a whole month, and he had a fever for more than ten days, but Jason finally defeated the disease. When he walked out of the cramped underground space again, Gotham happened to be in a bright night.
From then on, he wanted to live even more, because he had survived such a predicament, so what difficulties could he not survive? If he gave up later, wouldn’t it be a waste of suffering before?
After being picked up by Batman and taken home, Jason had more room to think about his wealth, and he began to have time to think about why he wanted to live.
Batman gave him a goal, that is, fighting criminals is justice. For a long time, this was the purpose of Jason's survival. He wanted to make the city better and let more people like him no longer have to suffer like this.
But things change, Jason was kidnapped by the Joker again. In the dark and tortured, he began to try his best to survive, until the extreme pain completely distorted his previous goals. He was no longer for justice, but for revenge.
After that long night, Jason's spirit was restarted by Schiller's treatment. Those distorted extreme thoughts were about to dissipate, and he returned to a wealthy and peaceful life again, which gave him time to reflect.
What can extreme violence bring? Jason thought of Spider-Man standing alone at the entrance of the alley. He paid the price for Jason's momentary anger.
Ordinary people don't have so much spare time to take revenge. They have to spend more time and energy on survival. Once they do something beyond their ability to bear, it means that there will be losses, which will only make them face more difficulties.
Batman can take revenge on criminals unscrupulously because he is Batman and Bruce Wayne. His genius wisdom and wealth make him worry-free, but ordinary people can't.
Ordinary people will make mistakes and spend time to pay for their mistakes. Ordinary people will be entangled and spend more energy to make up for the consequences of their hesitation. Ordinary people don't have such strong willpower and need more time to relax and entertain to maintain mental stability. They have almost no time and ability to engage in illusory revenge. If they insist on doing it, they will either go crazy or die.
I should know this better than others, Jason thought, because he is just an ordinary person, a poor little guy who climbed up from the bottom of society.
In this case, he should probably learn to live like an ordinary person, instead of doing something completely irrelevant to survival and illusory like he is now, making himself extremely uncomfortable and dragging others down.
The most important thing is the last point. Spider-Man told him that the Parker family's plan for this afternoon was that Uncle Ben would go to repair the car, while Aunt May would do the general cleaning. After Peter finished his homework, he would move the Christmas tree into the house with Uncle Ben who came back.
But Jason's illness completely disrupted their plans. Jason couldn't leave without someone, so at least Spider-Man and another person had to stay, because Spider-Man didn't know how to take care of the patient, but he was the only one who could move Jason, and the only remaining person couldn't leave to take care of the three people's food and daily life.
Their pre-Christmas decorations were all ruined. Jason blinked slowly and thought that they would have a decorated Christmas tree tonight, a refrigerator full of Christmas dinner ingredients, and perhaps those happy topics at family gatherings. This was a rare time for them to relax in a year, but it was all ruined by himself.
Because he sees himself as a great detective, he must figure out what happened to Bruce, because he sees himself as a thinker, and he stays up late at night to go to the riverside to enjoy the cold wind.
Jason is not even sure whether Batman has wanted to live an ordinary life like him during his years of revenge, or he dare not think about this question, because he has the answer in his heart.
The same is true for all superheroes. A small episode in their fight against criminals may be a disaster for ordinary people. The destroyed cars and broken glass may be bought by ordinary people at a high price. The fire trucks, ambulances, and employees who are in a hurry to deliver documents that are stuck on the road due to traffic impact may change the fate of many people because of this traffic jam.
Is their contribution to this society really greater than the damage? Or can this contribution and damage make up for each other? Can the fate of a specific person who slipped because of them be so easily hidden under the success of the grand narrative perspective?
Jason thinks that they can't. They can't communicate with each other and can never offset each other. The development of the times and the change of social conditions are sometimes not affected by the general public, but if everyone doesn't pursue this and never takes people's livelihood seriously, then the macro level will never develop in a good direction.
Jason's brain, which had been mixed into a mess by the high fever, kept thinking about these ideas, and then he came to a conclusion that the world needs heroes, but not so many heroes. Being an ordinary person and living a good life is also Batman's way to escape reality, isn't it?
In this case, it is more important to solve his own dilemma first. Jason finally relaxed the muscles of his back and curled up in the soft sofa. He swallowed the medicine with some effort, drank a large glass of warm water, and then fell asleep.
The sleeping Jason was awakened by the smell of pancakes. He smelled the aroma of egg cream and pancakes, and there seemed to be some sweetness of maple syrup. Obviously, his nose was completely blocked, but these smells lingered around him.
Jason slowly opened his eyes and saw Spider-Man dangling a muffin over his head. As soon as Jason woke up, Spider-Man smiled and said, "Are you awake? I told you that Parker's muffins are a special medicine for colds. Do you want to have some?"
Jason supported his body with his arms with some effort, making his upper body slightly upright, and said in a dry voice, "Can you give me some water first?"
"Glad to help." Spider-Man immediately handed Jason a large cup of warm water. Jason just took two sips and didn't feel anything, but soon tasted the sweetness and saltiness of the water.
"I put a little glucose syrup and salt." Spider-Man said, "You sweated a lot when you slept just now. I wiped it for you several times, and you seemed to have nightmares all the time, always muttering something about Batman. How do you feel now?"
"I... not bad."
Jason was not being stubborn. When he realized that if he was not Robin, nor a superhero, but just an ordinary person, he found that there was nothing he could do.
All he could do now was to be a patient quietly and cultivate himself with peace of mind.