Thomas was puzzled. If Bruce bought a Lamborghini sports car, he could barely understand it. Who among young people doesn't like luxury cars and yachts?
But what are your thoughts on buying a Lamborghini tractor? Show off your wealth to a scarecrow in the field? Thomas couldn't help but look down, and then he became even more confused.
The previous consumption record for a Lamborghini tractor was a children's slide, which is quite normal, after all, there are four children in Wayne Manor.
Children of this age hate dogs because they are too noisy and have endless energy. They always need some entertainment facilities to vent their energy and promote parent-child relationship.
But the next one above the children's slide is a large ox bone teething stick, and the one above it is still a children's slide, and the one above it is still a children's slide. If you look down, you will see that the next five or six slides are all children's slides.
Judging from the product description on the sales record sheet, this is not just several different models of slides, but seven or eight of the same model. No matter how big the garden of Wayne Manor is, there is no need for seven or eight identical children. Slide?
The previous consumption records were not much better. They were all repetitive non-consumables, either stair railings or sofa pillows. The floor had to be repaired sixteen times a month.
Thomas stared at the bill and began to consider the possibility that Bruce had falsely charged his own account.
But this is actually completely impossible. What’s the point of forging your own journal entries? No matter how you forge it, won’t the money still come out of your own account?
Holding back a lot of questions, Thomas put aside the question for the time being, because Bruce's personal account, except for the Lamborghini tractor, really didn't have any big purchases in the past few years. Even luxury goods such as sports cars cost four. Bought it years ago.
Thomas turned his attention back to the Wayne Group's public accounts. The entries on them were very particular.
It can be seen from the expenditure on building materials that Bruce is interested in the real estate business, but what is written on it is not the cost of the real estate development project, but other investments, and combined with the income items, all investments have not yet paid off.
This means that Bruce is no longer engaged in commercial real estate development, so what is he using these things to build?
Looking further down, there are also some obvious road and bridge construction materials. The specifications of the materials are very high and the quantities are large. They are obviously not used to build community roads.
In addition, there are power grid and water pipeline construction, street lights and solar equipment, flower bed masonry, road beautification plants, etc.
This shows that Bruce is not building a real estate, but tearing down the entire infrastructure of an entire area and starting from scratch.
Thomas rubbed his chin and remembered all the material quantities in his mind, and then began to estimate how large an area could be built with such an astonishing cost of building materials.
Soon, he came to an astonishing conclusion. At such a sky-high cost, at least about 30 square kilometers of infrastructure and residential and commercial construction could be reconstructed in the most densely populated area of such a megacity.
When Thomas came to this conclusion, he immediately jumped up from the bed, but as soon as he sat up in shock, he felt his eyes go dark.
He felt as if a big stone was pressing on his chest, he couldn't breathe smoothly, and blood surged to his head.
Morey, who was standing aside, quickly helped him lie down again. Thomas lay on the edge of the bed and gasped for two minutes before he recovered a little.
It’s not that Thomas hasn’t had a good rest during this period of time, it’s that he hasn’t had any rest at all, and
"This period of time" is counted from the time when The Flash left for his universe. When he learned that he might be able to resurrect Bruce, Thomas worked without sleep for several days with courage, enthusiasm and excitement.
When the excitement reached its peak, he received a blow. Bruce would become Batman after being resurrected, which instantly extinguished his enthusiasm.
Originally, at this time, he should have gone to rest due to decadence, but there was another stimulus that made him unable to stop. The death of the clown Martha caused serious damage to his body and mind.
Later, Thomas came to this world and had no time to spare. First, he was tricked by Schiller into going against Bruce, and then he learned that his son might suffer from congenital mental illness. Then he discovered that the Wayne family's industry had reached a new level. Dangerous.
Any of these blows would be fatal to ordinary people. Thomas can persist only because he is Batman.
But in fact, this is not the main reason. The most important thing is that Thomas is not young anymore. He is not Batman in his prime, just an old man tortured by fate.
Thomas's living habits were not good. He smoked and drank alcohol. He also had the habit of drinking for a long time. He also stayed up late every day, confusing black and white. His lifespan was shortening at a speed that was visible to the naked eye.
Lying on the hospital bed, Thomas felt a helpless panic for the first time. But for some reason, after experiencing countless pains and almost giving up, but coming to this world, there was something new that supported him to overcome the physical pain and stand up again.
Perhaps in the final analysis, I am still uneasy. The consequences of excessive control are not only the children's inability to stand on their own feet, but also the parents' fear of letting go. Thomas is worried about Bruce.
There is a kind of parent in this world who spends his whole life in fear, always worrying that his children will not live well and will die in the rush to provide for future generations.
Thomas took a deep breath and held it in his chest, stood up with strength, looked at Morey and said: "Send me back to the company and find the newspapers, current affairs magazines and news records from the past six months, especially the pages related to the international situation. and local trends in Gotham." Morey quickly followed suit, and in the next two days, Thomas began to fill in the common sense of this universe, and there were indeed many things about this universe that were beyond Thomas' knowledge.
For example, the big country in the distance is still lingering on, such as the fire at the door of the United States, which almost burned its buttocks, and another example is the development of tourism and gambling in Gotham, as well as the most vividly described Gotham reconstruction project.
Thomas frowned and looked at the Gotham renovation project buildings photographed on the front page of Gotham Daily. He said to Morey: "Get the car ready. I want to see this place in person." After a while, the car arrived. Downstairs, Thomas got in the car and drove towards the completed renovation project of Gotham's East End.
Soon, the car drove to the place where the East District project was underway. Now the residential renovation project is slowing down, mainly increasing infrastructure construction. All residential buildings that have been renovated have 100% occupancy rate, so although the construction machinery is still in operation He was alone, but there were many people around him.
When Thomas got out of the car, he instinctively looked up at the exterior of the building. If he looked at the building under renovation project from a distance, he would think it was nothing special. At most, there were a lot of green plants planted on the terraces between the buildings, but This is not uncommon in many communities in Italy.
But if you look closely, you can find many clues. First of all, all the buildings in the fourth phase of the renovation project are all connected, and many places that appear to be terraces are also wrapped in the building, like greenhouses made of glass.
The building is not very high and cannot reach the level of a skyscraper, but because all the buildings are connected together, there is another kind of shock, as if it has become an independent world.
The people and plants living in this world all appear so small, like the remains held in the mouth of a giant steel beast, with a decadent but ethereal beauty, full of people's fantasies about the end of the world.
If you get closer, you can see the high-tech weapons fixed on the wall, the cool lights emitted by the patrolling drones, and the dazzling white light emitted by the automatically rotating searchlights. The ultimate technological style is like A head of cold water extinguishes all people's illusions.
In addition, those shiny and dreamy neon signs and the traditional Gothic patterns of Gotham retained in the stone parts of the building make people feel even more weird and confusing, as if they have fallen into a world where the past and the future are unclearly intertwined. Dream.
Thomas slowly stepped into this dream. The weapons ignored him, and the bright lights did not shine on him. So he fell into sleep step by step, but the moment he stepped into the building, he suddenly became enlightened.
What surprised him was that it wasn't crowded at all. The walls of the building were incredibly thin and didn't take up much space at all. And because the building structure was reasonable and the windows provided good lighting, the space seemed even larger.
There is nothing to say about the structure of the house. It is more like a hotel than a mansion or an apartment building. The difference is that each floor will have at least one large terrace. Most of the terraces are closed on two sides, and the remaining sides are light-transmitting. The glass wall is equivalent to a sun room.
The rest of the paths are all gardens of planted plants. There is only a narrow path that can pass through. After walking through the initial reception hall and taking the elevator to the upper floor, you can see people.
What surprised Thomas the most was that most of the people here didn't have any overreaction when they saw him, a stranger, appearing in their living area. They just looked at Thomas with a somewhat strange look, and then went about their own business. went.
Of course, it might not be too strange for this situation to happen in any other city in the world, but this is Gotham.
This is a place where gun-toting gangsters or explosive maniacs can rush out at any time. Thomas also came to the East District in his early years. Crime was not so rampant at that time, but no citizen would relax their vigilance to this extent.
Thomas then took the elevator to a higher floor, where to his surprise he saw the school.
It is a genuine school, and it is not an aristocratic school. Those who attend school here are not young masters and young ladies from wealthy families in the South District, but children from ordinary families in the East District.
Thomas didn't go in, he just stood outside the door and peeked in secretly, with a hint of guilt and a hint of luck.
The old hand holding on to the door frame began to tremble slightly. This old man who had gone through many vicissitudes of life and suffered all the tragic hardships in the world, his pursed lips and reddish eyes were telling what he had seen. That is the best blessing and the most vicious curse in the world. Its name is
"hope". Thomas's hands clenched into fists, and he lowered them hard toward the door frame, but when he touched the surface of the building, he relaxed again. Finally, when his palms touched the wood grain, the force was as light as stroking his lover's hair.
Thomas was still for a moment, then walked quickly towards the elevator, took the elevator downstairs, strode out of the building, got in the car and returned to Wayne Tower as quickly as possible.
When he sat on the chair in the office, Thomas gasped with a ferocious face, and then slowly closed his eyes. From the corners of his eyes to his lips, every wrinkle told of his struggle.
Losing a son, losing a wife, leaving home, walking the path of suffering for most of my life is like being buried halfway in a whirlpool of quicksand. This kind of despair cannot be understood except through experience.
When the most miserable tragedies in the world are piled on one person, there is no will that cannot be destroyed and no hope that cannot be erased.
Many images flashed before Thomas' eyes, including the way Bruce looked at him, the doctor's warning to him, the focused expressions of the children in the East End... In the face of suffering, smart people should learn to give up early, but there are a group of fools in this world. No matter how many times a stick is struck on the head, one's pride cannot be quenched. How many basins of cold water can be poured on one's head but the fire in one's heart cannot be quenched. Thousands of sufferings cannot cool one's hot blood.
When the old Batman opened his eyes again, he let out a sigh of relief as if he had made an important decision.
In an instant, fragments of the international situation flashed through Thomas' mind, broken into fine points of light, and then intertwined into countless complicated lines.
Thomas tapped his finger lightly on the table and asked Morey expressionlessly: "Is Lieutenant General Albers still alive?"
"Are you talking about the Army general you knew in the early years? He is still alive and has been promoted to general." Morey replied.
Thomas took a deep breath, his eyes as cold as a crocodile before shedding tears. When the deep voice of this experienced capital tycoon sounded, it was like sharp teeth grinding flesh.
"Contact Mexico and Wayne Group is willing to provide internationalist assistance to the new democratic fighters of Guadalajara."
"Tell General Albers that next year's military spending will increase by 50%, and Wayne will ask for 70%."
