hotmtlnovel Chapter 2487: Battle for the Cloak (43)
Chapter 2487: Battle for the Cloak (43)
Chapter 2487: Battle for the Cloak (Forty-three)
Jason was frightened and woke up suddenly, but his head was dizzy and he had a splitting headache after being forcibly awakened. He felt some clues appearing in his mind, but he couldn't concentrate at all.
It had been a long time since Jason had been ill so seriously. When he was Robin, he had always been in good health. If he caught a cold, he would basically recover after a night's rest. After that, most of the discomforts he experienced were caused by external injuries.
Jason has a strong tolerance for pain, so he is even more afraid of the situation where he feels uncomfortable all over his body but cannot tell where it is. What consumes his energy more than headaches is dizziness and sacral joint pain, and what makes him even more unbearable is muscle weakness. The torture brought by this all-round weakness is no less than being beaten up.
Jason felt his throat swelling up at a speed visible to the naked eye. Within just a few minutes, he could no longer speak. His nose was completely blocked 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 bad cold. Don't think that a cold is a minor illness. If it is really serious, it can be fatal.
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 rummage through the medicine cabinet at home, wiping his back and arms with alcohol.
Spider-Man came back soon with fever-reducing medicine and syrup, and also bought pancake mix, chocolate and electrolyte drinks.
Jason could only vaguely see a few figures circling around him, and the rest of his consciousness kept sinking. When he was about to sink to the bottom, he recalled a serious illness he had experienced when he was very young.
It's the old story of getting caught in the rain, which is a problem that is difficult to avoid in Gotham. It is not something that can be solved by carrying an umbrella with you at all times, because if you have to make a living on the streets, it is difficult for you to have the leisure and elegance to stroll on the streets with an umbrella. Most of the time you are running.
Once the wind blows, the space that an umbrella can cover is very limited. Most of the children in Gotham wear cheap raincoats, but raincoats are not warm. If it is in a heavy rain, the rain water will quickly take away the body temperature until the whole body is cold.
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 gangster nightclub. He was anxious to save him, so he hurriedly put on his raincoat and rushed out the door.
It happened that it was raining heavily in Gotham that day, and drops of rain as big as beans kept falling down. However, a small figure had no time to pass through the gap under the eaves, and instead ran in the middle of the road.
Jason couldn't quite 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, then felt as cold as if he had fallen into an ice cave, and his whole body ached so much that he couldn't move.
At that moment Jason clearly realized that he was about to die.
Almost no children in Gotham can survive serious illness, because they are often alone, without family members to take care of them, lack medical care and medicine, and have inadequate nutrition. The immune system is like a housewife without rice. Not to mention a severe cold, even a small cut on the body, or even a rubbed foot from running too much, can cause death from wound infection.
But Jason was different from them. He never wanted to give up. Even though he knew he might not be able to survive, he still held on. He never thought that since he was suffering so much, he might as well die.
During the entire process of fighting the disease, he never thought of giving 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 though his throat was so sore that he had difficulty swallowing, he still bit off the food viciously, chewed it hard and swallowed it in one breath, like a wolf tearing the organs of its prey madly.
The clean water was gone, and the rain water that flowed down the cellar door was drinkable. It was too cold, so Jason dug a flue from the brick gap on one side of the cellar and made a fire for himself.
The cold gradually worsened and lasted for a whole month, and the fever lasted for more than ten days. But Jason finally defeated the disease. When he walked out of the cramped underground space again, it was a bright night in Gotham.
From then on, he wanted to live even more, because he had survived such a difficult situation, so what difficulties could he not survive? If he gave up later, wouldn't all his sufferings before that be in vain?
After being picked up by Batman and taken home, Jason became wealthy and had more room to think. He began to have time to think about why he wanted to live.
Batman gave him a goal, which was to fight criminals and uphold justice. For a long time, this was Jason's purpose of living. He wanted to make this city a better place so that more people like him would no longer have to suffer like this.
But things are unpredictable, and Jason was kidnapped by the Joker again. In the torture of darkness, he began to try his best just to survive, until the extreme pain completely distorted his previous goals. He was no longer fighting 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, which gave him time to reflect.
What exactly could such an extreme act of violence lead to? Jason thought of Spider-Man standing alone at the entrance of the alley, having paid the price for his momentary anger.
Ordinary people do not have enough spare time for revenge. They have to spend more time and energy on survival. Once they do something beyond their ability to bear, it means inevitable losses, which will only make them face more difficulties.
Batman can take revenge on criminals without restraint because he is Batman and Bruce Wayne. His genius wisdom and wealth allow him to have no worries, but ordinary people cannot do that.
Ordinary people will make mistakes and take 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 do not have such strong willpower and need longer periods of entertainment and relaxation to maintain mental stability. They have almost no time and ability to engage in some illusory revenge. If they insist on doing it, they will either go crazy or die.
Jason thought that he should understand this better than others, because he was just an ordinary person, a poor guy who had climbed up from the bottom of society.
In this case, perhaps he should learn to live like an ordinary person instead of doing some illusory things that have nothing to do with survival like he is doing now, making himself extremely uncomfortable and dragging down others.
The most crucial point is the last one. Spider-Man told him that the Parker family's schedule 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 with Jason falling ill, their plans were completely disrupted. Jason needed someone to stay with him, so at least Spider-Man and another person had to stay. Because Spider-Man didn't know how to take care of a sick person, but he was the only one who could move Jason. The only remaining person couldn't leave in order to take care of the three people's food and daily life.
Their pre-Christmas preparations were all ruined. Jason blinked slowly and thought, tonight they would have had a decorated Christmas tree, a refrigerator full of ingredients for a Christmas dinner, and perhaps some happy topics to talk about at a family gathering. This was a rare relaxing time for them in the year, but he had ruined it all.
Because he regarded himself as a great detective, he had to find out what was going on with Bruce. Because he regarded himself as a thinker, he would run to the riverside to enjoy the cool breeze in the middle of the night instead of sleeping.
Jason wasn't even sure whether Batman, after so many years of revenge, had also wanted to live an ordinary life like him. Or he didn't dare to think about this question because he had the answer in his heart.
The same applies to all superheroes. A small episode in their fight against criminals may be a disaster for ordinary people. The destroyed cars and broken glass may have been bought by ordinary people at great prices. 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.
Do their contributions to society really outweigh their damage? Or, can their contributions and damage compensate for each other? Can the fate of a specific person who slipped away because of them be so easily hidden under the success of the grand narrative?
Jason thinks that it cannot be, they are not interconnected and can never offset each other. The development of the times and the changes in social conditions are sometimes indeed not affected by the general public, but if everyone does not 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 turned into a mess by the high fever, kept thinking about these thoughts, and then he came to a conclusion that the world needs heroes, but it doesn't need so many heroes. Isn't being an ordinary person and living a good life also Batman's way of escaping reality?
In this case, it is more important to solve his own dilemma first. Jason finally relaxed the muscles in his back, curled up in the soft sofa, swallowed the medicine with some difficulty, 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. His nose was completely blocked, but these scents 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 widely and said, "You're awake? I told you that Parker's muffins are a great cure for colds. Want some?"
Jason used his arms with some effort to prop up his body, 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 glass of warm water. Jason took two sips and felt nothing, but soon he tasted the sweetness and saltiness of the water.
"I added a little glucose syrup and salt." Spider-Man said, "You sweated a lot when you slept just now. I wiped you several times, and you seemed to have been having nightmares, and you kept muttering about Batman. How do you feel now?"
"I'm... not bad."
Jason wasn't being stubborn. When he realized that if he was not a Robin or a superhero now, but just an ordinary person, he found that there was nothing he could do.
All I can do now is to be a patient quietly and recuperate with peace of mind.
(End of this chapter)