amaotonovel Chapter 2481: Battle for the Cloak (37)
Chapter 2481: Battle for the Cloak (37)
Chapter 2481: Battle for the Cloak (Thirty-Seven)
This shop selling bathtub ducks is obviously quite old. You can tell from the arrangement of the window that it is one of the most old-fashioned gift shops. So when you go in, you can see all kinds of shelves placed against the wall, and a bunch of messy counters in the middle, all of which are piled with all kinds of gifts.
This kind of chaos should have been very down-to-earth. Peter really liked visiting such gift shops. However, in the past, when he visited such shops, he felt a bit like a thief because he could not afford most of the gifts here and was worried about being laughed at by his classmates.
But today he felt a little more at ease, and even wanted to come over for a stroll with excitement, because he was followed by Jason, a guy who was stronger than Thompson.
Spider-Man secretly thought in his heart that if he met his classmates this time, they would definitely not dare to laugh at him for being a poor guy, at least they would not dare to laugh at him in front of him.
But this time, when they entered the store, what attracted their attention was not the pile of messy goods, but the person behind the messy goods counter.
The man was wearing a clerk's apron and was half-kneeling on the ground sorting the merchandise on the middle shelf. From Spider-Man and Jason's perspective, only his head was exposed, but this head alone was impossible to ignore; he was so handsome.
Jason recognized at first glance that this was the Batman from his universe. Although all the Batmans looked very similar, there were some subtle differences in the details. The Robins from each universe could also distinguish them very well, and Jason was especially good at it. He felt that the Batman from his universe had more three-dimensional facial features than other Batmans.
They both shouted at the same time, but the man did not respond. He did not even stand up the moment the two men rushed in, but continued to fiddle with the goods on the shelf.
It was not until he heard a noise behind him that he turned around, slowly stood up, looked at the two of them with some confusion and said, "Batman? Are you looking for some new toy with a bat? Well, what do you think of that one?"
The man pointed at the little yellow duck behind Jason. It was the Halloween-style little yellow duck that Jason had seen before. It had a bat on its head and a pumpkin under its butt. It looked a little funny, but the bat was very cute.
Spider-Man and Jason looked at each other and realized that something was wrong. Why did Batman pretend not to recognize them? Was there an enemy monitoring this area?
"Do you really think that looks good?" Spider-Man was a little shaken, and Jason immediately glared at him. Although the bathtub duck with a bat is very beautiful, is that the point?
But just as they were hesitating, the man wiped his hands on his apron, took a doll from the side and introduced it: "How about this one? This is also a Halloween-themed doll. Look, its bow tie is a bat!"
Spider-Man saw that the man was holding a teddy bear in his hand. The teddy bear had a small wizard hat on its head, a pumpkin bowl filled with soup in its hands, and a bat bow tie. The overall shape was very cute.
Spider-Man took a step forward and reached out to touch the teddy bear's head. Jason immediately stopped him and said, "Don't touch it. There may be nano monitors, nano viruses, nano... Anyway, there must be a lot of things on it."
The man holding the bear and Spider-Man looked at Jason as if he was mentally ill.
"No, we don't have any free gifts." The man shook his head and explained, "Because this is a discounted model, a small Halloween limited edition pumpkin teddy bear, only $19."
Spider-Man immediately showed a conflicted expression. He only had 20 dollars in his hand. If he bought this, he would definitely not be able to afford the bathtub duck, which would cost at least seven or eight dollars.
Compared to Europe, Americans have higher wages and lower basic prices, but that also depends on which city you are in. Spider-Man lives in New York after all, and even if it is not the most expensive area in Manhattan, non-essential items such as gifts are still much more expensive than elsewhere.
The financial situation of the Parker family is not very good. Even when he was in high school, Peter only had 20 dollars of pocket money a week. He was not yet an adult and could not work. His pocket money was often robbed by school bullies. It took him almost a month to save up these 20 dollars.
Jason's attention is now all on Batman. He instinctively feels that there is something wrong with Batman's eyes. If he must describe it, Batman's eyes are a little too clear.
Batman's beautiful blue eyes always contain lingering haze and storms. No one can see through them. Jason once thought that maybe Batman himself could not see through them. His overly heavy past accumulated on every line of his iris, weaving into an impenetrable web. When he looked in the mirror, it also prevented him from figuring out what he was thinking.
If there were enemies watching him now, Batman could pretend to be harmless, but his eyes and his expression would never be like this.
Jason could even clearly read the eagerness in his eyes, as if he wanted to sell more goods before Christmas. Peter looked like the kind of kid who had a lot of money but didn't know where to spend it, but he was not like that.
"Why is this on sale?" Jason asked pointedly.
The man who looked exactly like Batman immediately showed an embarrassment on his face, as if he had been exposed. He swallowed a breath and said, "Well... well, the label of this thing was damaged when it was caught in the vacuum cleaner, so it has no label and can only be sold at a low price."
Jason crossed his arms and said, "You actually bought it a long time ago because you damaged the label, right? But you felt that it was useless to you, so you wanted to find a scapegoat to sell it to and recoup some of your losses."
The embarrassment on the man's face became even stronger. Jason narrowed his eyes and said, "I guess you won't spend more than 25 dollars on it. Are you only going to spend 6 dollars to pay for your mistake? Oh, I was wrong..."
Just as the man was about to speak, Jason continued, "19 is a very unique number. It is close to 20, but it starts with 1, so many stores like to start their numbers with it to hint to customers that this thing is only a dozen bucks."
"But these cunning merchants will not let go of the money they can make. They will definitely mark the price as 19 yuan, which is no different from 9 yuan. They can still get the same starting price of 20. Even the dumbest store owners will not let go of the 1 cents."
"If you say the price of this toy is a round number of 19 yuan, it proves that this is not the price in the store, but perhaps more like a small concession that some people are willing to make for their insignificant mistakes. Is 1 yuan really enough to fill your conscience?"
The expression on the man's face had completely turned into embarrassment. Jason carefully observed the changes in his expression and found that this was not an act. Even if it was just a casual act, Batman didn't have so many rich little expressions. What was going on?
Jason immediately pulled Spider-Man and said, "Something's wrong. I think Batman might..."
As soon as he said this, he turned around and found that Spider-Man's eyes seemed to be glued to the teddy bear.
And Batman's eyes seemed to be glued to Spider-Man.
Jason sighed and said, "Don't think you can fool us. No one wants to pay so much extra money for your mistake. Since you have already bought it, it is a second-hand item. For $10, we will also give you a Christmas duck in the window."
"Impossible!" the man said in a raised voice, "The duck alone costs eight bucks. How can this bear only be worth two bucks?"
"Please, it's not about how much the bear is worth, but how much we are willing to pay to slightly compensate for your loss. This is obviously out of humanitarian concern, not a commodity transaction. Anyway, there is no use for you to keep the bear, right?"
The man looked at the bear in his hand with some hesitation. He was unwilling to accept the price, so he could only bargain: "15 dollars, bear and duck, how about it?"
"No, that's too high. You know, we don't need this bear in the first place." Jason stretched out his hand to block Spider-Man's eager gaze and said, "We just want to buy a duck. It only costs 8 dollars. It's because you got into trouble and asked us for help that we are willing to spend an extra two dollars to help you solve the trouble."
In the end, the two bargained and decided to buy the bear and the Christmas bathtub duck for $12. In the process, Jason discovered a shocking fact: this Batman actually doesn't like bats.
If it was the real Batman, Jason dared to bet that even if the teddy bear with a Batman bow tie was of no use to Batman, he would not sell it. Even if Batman was not the richest man in the world and he was short of these two dollars, he would not sell it.
Jason only recently learned that Batman is simply a fanatical lover of bats. At his birthday party, a man who is almost 30 years old, he received a bat doll that was almost as tall as him, which brought him a huge mental shock.
He was completely confused by Batman's enthusiasm for bats, and finally understood a truth that he had never understood before: why is it bats?
Why else? Batman just likes bats. Those theories like bats are Batman's psychological shadow can't explain why he is so obsessed with printing bat patterns on every piece of equipment. Who would print psychological shadows all over the world?
Batman's new dollar bill has bats all over it!
That’s right, US dollars. Jason immediately reached into Spider-Man’s pocket, but there was no way Spider-Man could rob him. Jason took the banknotes from his hand. They weren’t even whole bills, but a bunch of change.
Jason flipped it open and saw that there was no bat on the dollar bill, but still Franklin, which meant that this was the era before Bruce Wayne became president.
No, it's not that real. This is a dream after all. Anything is possible. This guy could be Batman, or he could be just a passerby in the dream.
Jason decided to test the waters. He held the money in his hand and ignored the eager look in the eyes of this strange Batman. He put one hand on his waist and leaned against the counter. He said, "Actually, I'm more curious about how you got the label on the toy rolled in with the vacuum cleaner. Shouldn't you clean this thing close to the ground?"
An even more embarrassed expression appeared on the man's face.
(End of this chapter)