As she browsed the news on her phone, Max talked to Old Earl, and Caroline took out the last three special cupcakes.
Max was shocked. “What? That’s fifteen dollars! You didn’t sell them?”
Carolin chuckled. “I don’t mind, but do you really not want to taste Chris’s cooking?”
Max snorted. “I tasted enough this morning… cough cough.”
She abruptly stopped talking, and picked up a cupcake. “Hmph, I’ll have him make more if there’s a chance again.”
As she spoke, she took a bite of the cupcake and chewed twice before she raised an eyebrow in surprise. “Hm, this doesn’t taste bad.”
Caroline gave one to Old Earl with a smile and sat down to eat as well.
There was no way she would tell Max that she had goofed off at noon and eaten the cupcakes at lunch, only to eat four in one go because they were too delicious.
20 dollars for lunch would be too much for Max.
At that moment, Han walked out. “What are you eating?”
The three of them looked at each other silently, not knowing what to say.
That was because there had only been three cupcakes.
However, Han didn’t think too much of it. He simply sat down, exhausted.
Actually, he hadn’t cooked more than a hundred meals tonight.
Most customers either left immediately after asking how long they would have to wait, or bought cupcakes and a drink before leaving. They couldn’t wait for the food in the kitchen at all.
Even so, Han felt exhausted.
Soon, the four of them started chatting idly.
Old Earl was still the person who had been the most relaxed today.
Hundreds of cupcakes had been sold today, but it was Max and Caroline who collected that money.
Han had been very inefficient tonight, so Earl had spent most of his time on his phone, and immediately started to brag about the information he had gathered.
Why had Max and Caroline struck it rich today? Because of the explosions yesterday.
What was so great about the explosions yesterday? Of course, it was Batman and Iron Man.
The details of the case were still confidential, and hadn’t been disclosed to the public. There was nothing to discuss even if people wanted to.
There were countless eyewitnesses to Batman and Iron Man’s appearance. Naturally, it had been confirmed that the two of them had been at the Wall Street subway station to deal with the terrorists together.
No one recorded how Iron Man had entered the subway station at the very beginning, but he came out of the station and changed into a new set of armor before going back in.
Both suits of armor had looked beaten up. Clearly, the battle inside had been very intense.
There were also videos and photos taken by hardcore “live witnesses” of what Batman had done inside.
There was even a video on the subway train that had blown up.
Coincidentally, it was by an up-and-coming video blogger who took videos of his daily life and posted them online.
This blogger was also very professional. He didn’t use a phone, but something that looked like a helmet recorder.
Sitting at the front in the second last train car, he took the most complete video of Batman saving lives in the explosion.
This blogger wanted popularity above all else, and the disclaimers on all his videos simply said, “You can share, as long as you mention the source.”
Soon after it was uploaded, the video fell into the hands of the major TV stations.
Many organizations had already blocked the video, but it was useless.
In just a few minutes, the video was downloaded by a lot of people, including those who had ulterior motives and were waiting to make a fortune by selling it to the TV stations.
As long as it was a cash transaction, it wasn’t too difficult to sort out.
When the original video was taken down, many copies were sold for a good price.
It wouldn’t be easy to suppress what the TV stations had.
Besides, there wasn’t any deeper implication involved; it was just a few organizations who selfishly wanted to keep the information to themselves.
In the end, this video was played countless times on TV, and the blogger’s website was also dug out.
The public didn’t care about internal politics.
It was just like how organizations with ulterior motives didn’t care about how many civilians Batman had saved. In any case, rich people wouldn’t take the subway; they wouldn’t be the ones to die.
They just wanted information on Batman, or to reduce Batman’s contribution in this matter.
Once again, there were a lot of hardcore Batman fans among the crowd.
This time, some people who criticized Batman in public were hit hard by the masses.
Nobody could slander Batman now.
In the video, everyone could clearly see Batman standing in front of the car doors after rescuing eight passengers.
Clearly, in order to protect the passengers who couldn’t escape in time, he chose to resist the explosion.
Who knew how he had protected the second last train car from being torn apart in the explosion, but that flared cape and the blazing fire which covered half of the car proved that Batman had used his own body to protect the passengers.
Then, Batman jumped out of the subway train and stopped two cars that were sweeping through the station. There were also videos and photos of this taken by people who weren’t afraid of death.
However, these people weren’t as professional as the video blogger. The cameras rocked back and forth, and were out of focus.
The TV stations and online techies analyzed whatever footage was usable frame by frame to confirm that Batman had suffered injuries from the explosion.
The Batman suit might be black, but it wasn’t dustproof.
Right after the explosion, the suit was clearly covered in dust which blew over the armor in irregular patterns thanks to the wind, making it look even more wretched.
Many experts jumped out to prove that this was definitely the result of a head-on confrontation with the explosion, and that this video hadn’t been edited.
Batman really did use his body to withstand the bomb explosion and protect the passengers on the subway train.
Those who took the subway were mostly people at the bottom of society, but they were also the largest in number.
They might not be smart, might be easily swayed by others, or might be easily manipulated, but they also made up the group that was most likely to feel gratitude.
On the other hand, the rich could hire security guards to block bullets for them with money; they really didn’t care about the lives of others.
However, Batman had always been for the people.
Luke had always remembered the teachings of a great man from his previous life: You are only invincible when you are from the people and for the people.
And with the help of that professional blogger this time, Batman’s influence was set in stone.
With the recognition of the civilians, who had the absolute advantage in numbers, Batman finally went from “superhero” to “spiritual symbol.”
In the eyes of the civilians, he was no longer a “vigilante” who enforced the law on his own, but an outstanding embodiment of justice, courage, belief and persistence, unyielding and fearless.
In a sense, he became a “god” that the people believed in.