Chapter 1356: Jealousy Makes People Ugly, Big Clients Make People Rich
It had been sunny in New York for the last two days, and the peaceful life continued.
Luke and Selina continued being idle, until Luke fixed on a target and Selina finally came back to life.
Sweeping through hooligans was definitely her specialty.
Also, the mission this time was very simple. There was no need for an interrogation or to bait people; she just had to get everyone on Luke"s list sent to the major hospitals in New York.
There was only one requirement — be quick about it.
After they split up, Selina only needed to deal with four gangs on the edge of Queens, while Luke was responsible for seven gangs in Queens and Brooklyn.
This operation was supposed to be completed in three hours. Selina couldn"t spend more than 40 minutes on each gang, while Luke had less than half an hour for each.
Before, this wouldn"t be very efficient.
There were too many people furtively gathering intelligence in New York recently, which both increased the time it took them to move on to the next location and the possibility of being tracked, so the technical requirements for the operation were still quite high.
Selina, however, said confidently, "No problem. They"ll tremble under my fists."
As she spoke, she raised her hands, which glowed with a faint yellow light. "I"ll blow up all the dogs with these invincible fists."
Gold Nugget was unhappy. "Huh?"
Selina said, "You"re not a dog, why are you scolding me? Go and eat your lobster."
Gold Nugget thought for a moment and realized that it made sense. Why should it be outraged on behalf of human-shaped dogs? I"m a n.o.ble symbiotic host.
So, it decisively lowered its alien dog head and gobbled down the Boston lobster in its bowl.
Luke finally told her the reason for this operation.
Selina was shocked. "They really dared to use the explosions to force Batman to come out?"
Thanks to Luke"s indirect influence, she was already used to the bottom line of upper-level figures, but it was beyond her imagination that they would cause a large number of civilian casualties in their own country just to force the chivalrous Batman to come out so that they could capture him.
After all, Batman hadn"t committed any crime against ordinary people. At most, he was cracking down on crime outside the bounds of the law.
He only injured the criminals; there were practically no deaths.
Even if there was a death count in the information which other parties had, those comprised the Hand ninjas which Selina had killed, along with vampires which couldn"t necessarily be considered human.
Strictly speaking, Batman had never killed any human being.
Any mid-sized gang in America did far more serious damage than Batman.
For the other party to use such a ruthless method to force Batman out, that could only mean that they weren"t targeting Batman for justice and the people, but purely for personal gain.
"Maybe not." Luke shrugged. "Think about the raw materials for the 2,400-pound bomb that was switched out, and the two dump truck drivers who disappeared after incapacitating Charlie and the others."
Selina frowned. "Are you saying that they still have a conscience?"
It had nothing to do with conscience. Luke laughed. "Think about it."
Selina thought for a moment and said, "Are you saying that they knew, but didn"t stop it from happening, and only told the witch to wait for Batman to show up? They took the bomb away not because they genuinely didn"t want to make things worse, but to prevent the case from being investigated?"
Luke nodded. "More or less. Do you understand their line of thinking?"
Selina said, "They were only taking advantage of the situation. Even if we investigate the robbers, we"ll only be able to find out that they were the ones who planned everything. At that point, the authorities will be satisfied and want to close the case as soon as possible."
Luke snapped his fingers. "Bingo. The mastermind behind this operation is very cautious. Even if I divulge this information to other departments, I won"t be able to get enough evidence, and no one would understand her motive. After all, there really isn"t any benefit for her in looking for Batman."
Selina said, "Because the benefits will only be clear after she catches Batman, right?"
Luke patted Selina"s head with a smile. "Good girl, keep it up."
Selina sneered and moved away. "Scram, you"re not even old enough to legally drink yet!"
Luke said, "Drinking can numb the nerves and make a person ugly. Drinking can hold a person hostage! So, I don"t drink."
Selina was lost for words. What was this? Could he speak English properly?
…
That night, Luke"s clone was sitting leisurely in the Williamsburg Diner.
He was sitting by the window, which gave the best view of the diner.
It was already half past one in the morning, and the diner was closing up.
Caroline, Old Earl, and the middle-aged boss, Han, were huddled over a table in the staff lounge and whispering to each other with inquisitive expressions.
"Are you really not going to call Max?" Han asked in a low voice. "Usually, at this time, the both of you will be cleaning up, tallying up the money, and waiting to get off work."
Caroline said carefully, "That"s love. How can she be disturbed by a smelly mop and dirty cash?"
Old Earl said with a smile, "I think, as long as there"s enough dirty cash, many hot white women would be willing to fall in love with me."
Caroline said, "…Fine, you"re right. So, when Max gets the money for her 20 cupcakes from her spendthrift boyfriend over there, shouldn"t I just watch quietly from here? If I use any more lipstick, I"ll be sc.r.a.ping my lips raw. I need dirty cash to buy me some Devil"s Claw lipstick and then I can catch a man"s eye."
Han: "…Caroline, it seems you don"t have a boyfriend."
After a brief silence, Caroline finally said, "That"s why I need lipstick to charm a man."
Actually, after Luke entered the place at 1.05am, Max had served him the cakes.
It was already 1.35am, and the waitress was no longer in her usual spot.
What could Caroline do?
She was also helpless in the face of this big client who always emptied out their cupcakes whenever he came.
Jealousy could only make her ugly. It couldn"t make her rich, not like big clients could.
Between money and jealousy, Caroline decisively chose money.
The cupcakes these days weren"t cheap goods at 1.50 dollars, but high-end products at 3 to 4 bucks.
Ever since this big client gave them suggestions, Max and Caroline had added a top-quality product to their cakes.
Originally, it was because Caroline couldn"t get around a certain woman who only had s.e.x on the brain, so she had agreed to a trial sale for a few days.
The outcome was that a number of people would always come to buy this expensive cake every day.
As someone born into a super-rich family, she was too familiar with this pattern.
As she casually chatted with the customers, sure enough… she didn"t find anything.