## Chapter 19: The Rent Problem
“Bruce, there’s something I need to tell you,” Tim said, gently stroking the coffin of Deathwing (Si Wang Tian Shi). “It’s about Zas.”
“Didn’t he attack my school, Gotham Heights High School, before? The one you sent Cheshire to capture?”
Tim continued, “Zas claims he wasn’t ordered by anyone, and my investigation confirmed he’s telling the truth. But I don’t believe in coincidences. Out of all the high schools in Gotham, why specifically mine? Both the method and timing of Zas’s actions this time are completely different from his past. Someone must be controlling him from behind. Two-Face? The Riddler? I can’t figure it out for now.”
He stood up, “But whoever it is, they might have guessed my real identity…”
Tim quickly shook his head, losing interest. “Forget it, it’s all just speculation. I have no evidence to prove it, so let’s not talk about it.”
“Bruce, what did you want to say earlier?”
Chen Tao furrowed his brows.
Indeed. According to the comics, Zas was supposed to attack a girls’ school, not the high school Robin attended. What caused this plot change?
Damn it, could it be me again?
With limited information and no answers, Chen Tao decided to stop thinking about it. He said, “We’ll talk about this later. Now, I need you to accompany me to the Little Saint Priscus District.” (It’s a neighborhood in Gotham.)
…
…
…
This is the newly opened “Super Baby” restaurant in Gotham City. Due to the strange dinosaur incident from the previous two days, the owner thoughtfully introduced the “Magical Dinosaur Delicious Set,” which quickly became popular.
“Okay, one Harley Quinn Burger, one Black Canary Salad, one Jesse Quick’s Broken Leg Set…”
A waitress dressed as Harley Quinn brought several sets to the table. However, a mischievous fellow reached out towards her backside.
“… Watch your hand be crippled, fatty.”
“Hey, respect women.”
Two policemen sitting on the windowsill said, “We may not be able to deal with a green, giant dinosaur, but we can definitely handle you.”
“Hah!”
Unfortunately, in Gotham, the more police don’t want certain people to do something, the more they insist on doing the opposite.
The hand still reached out.
The younger of the two policemen grew angry.
“Boris, I can’t take it anymore, I…”
Bang!
The handsy man screamed loudly. The barmaid lifted him with one hand and threw him to the ground, twisting his arm with a crack.
The waitress dressed as Harley Quinn patted the non-existent dust off her hands.
“So, what else can I get you, gentlemen?”
“Damn it, she broke my hand! She freaking broke my hand—“
Creak—
Hours later, it was time to get off work.
Harley Quinn left the restaurant, doing the crossword puzzle in the newspaper, but didn’t go home. She took the subway to an apartment in downtown Gotham.
Knock, knock, knock!
She climbed the stairs and knocked three times.
“Oh!”
Harley looked up, seeing a leaf sticking out from under the door.
“Someone could see that,” she immediately stretched out her pale, slender hand, plucking the green leaf.
No answer.
So she took out her key and creaked open the door. It wasn’t obvious from the outside, but once you opened the door, the room was almost entirely filled with plants.
Lush ivy covered the entire room, with twisting tree trunks, making it feel like a tropical rainforest in East Africa.
Harley put her hands on her hips.
“Enough!”
Rustle, rustle, rustle…
Along with the subtle rustling sounds, the plants slowly retreated, revealing the person inside.
Perhaps it was a plant.
“Hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee!”
A giant man-eating flower appeared in the center of the room, letting out a chilling laugh.
“Harley, you’re here! Ivy told me this would be your new home!”
“Of course, there’s no electricity, no water, no gas, because Ivy hasn’t paid rent in over six months!”
“…”
Seeing Harley silent, the giant man-eating flower immediately replied, “Aha, I know what you want to ask, let me answer you.”
“Stop. Let me ask. And Frank, can you stop these dramatic bodily movements?”
The giant man-eating flower paused.
“Oh. Harley, I thought you would like these.”
“Firstly, I’ve already broken up with Joker. Secondly, I’ve turned over a new leaf. I’ve even found a job as a waitress at a damn restaurant called Super Baby.”
“Thirdly, I’m sane now, not crazy at all. And my name is Harleen Quinzel, not Harley Quinn!”
Harley forcibly squeezed her face, forced a twisted smile, then reached out, abruptly pulling down the raised corners of her mouth. Her face returned to normal, completely devoid of the former madcap Harley Quinn’s demeanor.
“Fourthly, I’ve been cured. The Arkham doctors even awarded me a bunch of nonsense awards. In short, I wasn’t released along with Red. If I hadn’t been out of money, I wouldn’t have…”
“Ugh, damn it, let’s not talk about this. Weird.”
Harley looked around at the mess and said, “Didn’t Red tell me he hired the neighbor’s boy to clean his room and water these plants? Why is this place…”
“Yuck!”
Frank vomited a skeleton in front of Harley. The skeleton was carrying a leather backpack that couldn’t be digested.
“Holy shit, heaven, what are you—“
“I can’t help it, Harley.”
The man-eating flower Frank complained, “A week after Ivy left, this little bastard actually cleaned the room diligently. But after a month, he started stealing things, so…”
“Damn it, you’re in big trouble. Don’t his parents have—“
“Yuck!”
“Yuck!”
Two more skeletons were vomited up. By their clothes, Harley could tell without looking that they were a man and a woman.
“Goddamn Frank, if the landlord finds out…”
“Yuck!”
A skeleton leaning on a crutch was vomited up. This skeleton was newer, with two pieces of undigested rotten flesh still on it.
Frank vomited a gun, “It’s not my fault, that little bastard’s parents were total gangsters, they came with guns, they didn’t look like good people at all.”
“The landlord had already taken back the house, he even took a lot of the plants Ivy and I planted. It’s fine, but then he wanted to make powder in this room, so I had to…”
“…”
Harley was speechless.
“Alright,” she felt a little tired, “Anyway, I’m just an ordinary person now. I can only live here. There shouldn’t be any damn—“
Knock, knock, knock.
The door was knocked on.
Harley heard someone outside calling, “Open up! Batman!”
“… Annoying, right.”
(End of chapter)
Previous Chapter | TOC | Next Chapter