mousepad-d2 Chapter 45 Moon 45
Chapter 45 Moon 45
Just as Dick was in shock, there was the sound of slightly dragging footsteps on the wooden stairs.
Bruce came down clattering down in slippers and pajamas, rubbed his sleepy hair, and took the empty coffee cup to go to the coffee machine to order coffee to fill his empty stomach.
Then he saw Dick with a shocked face, and Alfred with a still calm face, both eyes were staring at him at the moment.
"Are you awake?" Dick said, with a bit of gloating in his tone, "The Church of the Secret Star is legal."
Bruce: ...
The coffee cup in Bruce's hand tilted, and two drops of hot coffee dripped onto the floor: "...huh?"
"Gotham's local channel is still live broadcasting the press conference, Master Bruce, and I hope you can dispose of the coffee before it dries on the floor." Alfred remained calm.
Bruce quickly wiped the two small drops of coffee on the ground with the soles of his slippers, and then rushed to the TV screen that occupied an entire wall, staring sleeplessly at Elmer's face on the screen.
"Mr. Mayor, are you also a believer in the Secret Star Church?"
"Mr. Mayor, is it possible to disclose the location of the main church of the Secret Star Church?"
"Mr. Mayor, can you disclose the current size of the Secret Star Church?"
"Mr. Mayor, will the Church of the Secret Star become the second court of owls?"
"Mr. Mayor..."
"Mr. Mayor..."
Elmer was still orderly in front of the reporters, answering their questions one by one: "As the mayor of Gotham City, as a public servant of the people, I only believe in a better future for Gotham City. .My official contact with the Church of the Secret Star is limited to accepting the church’s funding for the city hall and any government agencies, infrastructure construction, and assistance from the charity industry. All publicly available information about the church will be uploaded to the official website of the city hall later , anyone in need can check it out by themselves.”
After speaking, he turned around and left the scene, even though the reporter's flashing lights kept flickering behind him and the sound of questioning kept ringing, he never looked back.
"...just crazy," said Dick.
Elmer's response can be said to be extremely slick, he added too many attributives, "as the mayor of Gotham City", "the people's public servant", "official contact"...but he didn't say anything at all. Mention the attitude of being himself, as Elmer himself.
Judging from the current situation, anyone with a little bit of brains can hear Elmer's friendly attitude towards the church, which is a little outrageous.
This guy is definitely a follower of the Secret Star Church!
"The hand of the church has reached so far, even the mayor has been taken care of by them... Besides, it is absolutely impossible for Elmer to decide on the revision of the bill alone. I am afraid that most of the city hall has already been taken care of. The Secret Star Church is done." He switched several Gotham local TV channels, basically broadcasting the public speech of the Mayor of Gotham.
Some TV stations clearly expressed their support for the mayor and the Mystic Church, while some still questioned, thinking that the Mystic Church might become the next court of owls.But at this moment, no one has questioned the existence of the gods themselves.
"What should we do?" Dick asked, "Since the last time the Eye of the Secret Star rang the bell, there has been no news from Uriah, and the phone can't be reached... How about we go to the church and ask?"
Dick was subtly proud at the mention of this.
After all, he knows the location of the extremely mysterious main church of the Secret Star Church!
However, before Dick could finish his sentence, he heard that Bruce had begun to call with whom he didn't know.
"Hey, that's right, Mr. Mayor, it's me, Bruce Wayne. Yes...you know, I'm really curious." Bruce turned to the other side of the phone in a lazy, even innocently curious tone. while saying, "Oh, really? ...Really?"
Dick opened his mouth to ask something, but Bruce gestured back with an index finger on his mouth.
"Okay, no problem... yes, that would be great... oh, of course I'd love to. Mr. Mayor, you're too flattering... okay, no problem, so the church will be there too? … …Oh, that would be awesome," Bruce said, with a contented smile in his tone, but no smile on his face, "Okay, I'll be right there."
He hung up the phone and said, "Ah Fu, help me pick a car, I'm going to the city hall right now."
Alfred, who was about to wipe the floor with a towel, said calmly: "Oh, even if it takes a while, or you can choose to wipe off the coffee stains yourself, I'll help you drive."
Bruce: "..."
Dick looked at Bruce who silently took the towel to wipe the floor, almost couldn't hold back his laughter, and asked, "Why are you going to the city hall all of a sudden?"
"People from the church are now having a meeting with the mayor and related personnel in the city hall." Bruce wiped the ground a few times indiscriminately, and then wiped the soles of his shoes before standing up, "I can represent Wayne The group attended the meeting."
"I want to go too!" Dick stood up, looking expectant.
"I hope you can finish your homework before I come back, Dick, I remember you have to go to school tomorrow." Bruce said with a smile, after throwing the towel into the sink, ignoring Dick's face that turned into the bottom of the pot in an instant, the soles of his feet were raw Fengdi walked towards the door of Wayne Manor.
……
Ulea pushed open the door of the city hall meeting room and walked in.
There were already many strangers sitting inside the door, looking at him with awe and curiosity one after another, the meeting room was silent for a while, only the sound of his own footsteps remained.
"Mr. Messenger." Elmer stood up from the other end of the conference table, and stretched out his hand towards Ulea, "It is my honor to meet you."
Others at the conference table also stood up.
Yuria shook the mayor's hand, then looked around the entire meeting room.
Many of the people in the conference room are quite famous and respected figures, some of them even often appear on the TV screen, including some senior executives of companies, heads of government departments, and heads of public service agencies who are not involved in gang struggles. I even saw Gordon with huge dark circles under his eyes and happy face written all over his face.
"I am attending this meeting on behalf of the Church of the Secret Star." Ulea said calmly after sitting at the other end of the long table, "but I will not participate in this discussion. Any matters related to the church will be spoken by my spokesperson."
As soon as he finished speaking, a familiar figure appeared behind him, took off his top hat, and greeted other people in the meeting room with a smile.
"Penguin!"
"It's Penguin!"
"Why is he here!? Doesn't it mean that the gang has basically collapsed?"
"Penguin...Penguin is a member of the church?"
There was a burst of whispering voices in the meeting room on the spot. Everyone is considered a person who has experienced a lot of troubles in Gotham City, and they all have certain psychological qualities. Fear.
"Don't worry, everyone, I'm just the person who will speak for Mr. Messenger in this meeting." The penguin took his seat slowly, "After all, there are so many things to do, and Mr. Messenger has a lot of work to do every day, so it is impossible to do everything by yourself."
"I have brought you here this time to discuss the future development direction of Gotham with you." Elmer decisively brought the topic back to the original track, "I believe that everyone has been more or less affected by The gangs, the courts, and the building of Gotham City suffered because of it. Now that they're gone, we can do it."
"The biggest problem now is funding." A gray-haired old woman said, "The city hall has cut our funding for six consecutive years. I don't care about gangs and courts. The children in the orphanage are almost starving. I'm full!"
"Actually, it's not that the city hall wants to cut it. The problem lies in the corruption within the government system, Ms. Allen." A handsome young man said, "I will find out all the crux of the problem within a month, and remove those layers All the exploiting officials were dragged out. This time, I think Mr. Mayor has no reason to stop me, but we also need funds to support the manpower and material resources of investigating the case, and my colleagues have been working overtime without pay for a long time."
Elmer was a little embarrassed, and said to the messenger: "This is Ms. Allen. She is in charge of a large number of welfare institutions, including orphanages, schools and hospitals. This is Mr. Harvey Dent, representing the Gotham Prosecutor's Office. .”
"I heard that the Gotham Police Department received a huge amount of funding last week, and the entire law enforcement system has taken on a new look within a week." Another person said, "Maybe the city hall can also consider allocating more funds to our infrastructure department, Owl After the underground garden of the courthouse collapsed, we have no money to repair the square. It is a traffic artery. After being blocked, the Gotham area has been stuck in traffic for several days! Arkham’s outer wall has a hole. Renli, next time the clown escapes from prison, don't blame us again!"
Elmer was a little confused: "When did the city hall allocate funds to the police department?"
Gordon, who had been silent all this time, knew that he could no longer pretend to be dead, so he could only force his eyelids to keep falling and said, "Actually, the money was not given by the city hall..."
The Penguin said at this moment, "It was donated by the church."
The meeting room fell into silence, and everyone's eyes were on the dozing messenger and the penguin beside him.
Penguin still had a smile on his face: "The purpose of the church has always been to make this city a better place, so during this period of time, we have also prepared a sum of money to be donated to your departments and others. Build an ideal Gotham. The current Gotham is not what it used to be, I believe that everyone present is our own, and after getting the funds, they will definitely not let them go to waste.”
After speaking, the secretary of the meeting distributed the forms stating the amount of funds and investment projects one by one.
Everyone was immediately attracted by the outrageous number on the form, and for a while, there was only the sound of rapid breathing in the meeting room.
"This... this money..." Elmer was dumbfounded, "All donated to the city hall?"
"Well." Penguin nodded, "Mr. Mayor has fulfilled the agreement with the church. Now that the church has established a firm foothold in Gotham, there is no need to treat yourself as an outsider."
At this moment, the closed door of the meeting room was opened again, and at the same time, a voice with a smile came.
"Sorry, I'm late." Bruce Wayne - Gotham Prince's handsome smiling face appeared in the meeting room.
Everyone was a little upset because the ecstasy was interrupted, wondering which audacious guy dared to be late for such an important meeting?
Oh, Bruce Wayne, that's all right.
"So, this is discussing investment in urban construction?" Bruce took a statement from the secretary, glanced at it, and raised his eyebrows in surprise, "This is not a small number."
"Actually, it's a fund donated by the church to City Hall to build Gotham," Elmer said.
Bruce was slightly taken aback, and looked up at Yuria who was sitting at the end.
The latter was nodding at him from a distance, as if greeting an old friend.
Bruce was suddenly in a daze.
He originally wanted to cause a little trouble for the Church of the Secret Star, at least to let these people at the top of Gotham's power know that the Church cannot give them [-]% trust.
But he didn't expect things to develop like this.
At this moment, the thought of wanting to cause some trouble for the church disappeared. He lowered his eyes and looked at the report with astronomical figures, and a helpless smile slowly formed on the corner of his mouth.
It is obviously unwise to deliberately seek trouble at such a time.
That being the case, let's find a way to downplay some of the influence.
"Thank you to the Church of the Secret Star for your dedication to Gotham, and of course, thank you, Mr. Mayor, for inviting me to this meeting." Bruce Wayne raised his head, and stuffed the piece of paper into the secretary's arms, his face With an elegant smile, there seemed to be light shining in his eyes, "As a native of Gotham, I can't stand by at a time like this, so—no matter how much the church gives, the Wayne Group will add the same amount." amount."
The messenger raised his head at the end of the conference table, and his eyes hidden behind the sunglasses looked at Bruce who was standing at the other end.
The corners of his mouth also turned up slightly involuntarily.
"Thank you, Bruce," he said softly.
Everyone fell into an unprecedented shock, and some even started to pinch themselves, suspecting that they were dreaming.Everyone looked at each other, shocking emotions spread endlessly in the air.
After a brief silence, the entire conference room burst into applause instantly!
Everyone stood up at this moment, cheering and applauding for the church and the Wayne Group!