Fake Brucey opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but Gwen, who had been observing her, immediately cut her off.
Gwen said with a tone full of delight, "That's great, little sister! Haven't you always especially loved Giovanni's magic? Now you finally have the chance to perform on stage with him, you must be overjoyed!"
These words, like a barrage of bullets, blocked all of Fake Brucey's attempts to decline.
Fake Brucey thought of many more things to say, but as soon as she saw Gwen's "sincere" smile, she could only helplessly close her mouth.
Under everyone's gaze, Fake Brucey could only brace herself and walk towards the stage, each step appearing heavy and unwilling.
Watching her smiling elder daughter and her somewhat heavy-footed younger daughter, Thomas and Martha, relying on their familiarity with the two, keenly sensed something was amiss.
Martha frowned slightly and gently nudged Thomas with her elbow; Thomas shook his head but looked solemn.
Gwen's behavior today was a bit strange; normally, she almost never called Brucey "little sister."
She either called her by her name or used peculiar affectionate terms like "Little Brucey, adorable Little Brucey, big sister's good Brucey."
When Gwen called out 'little sister' just now, although her tone seemed sincere, to the Wayne Couple, who knew her well, it carried an indescribable undertone of sarcasm.
The two looked at each other, both feeling that the "little sister" just now was truly too strange.
Worried that the two sisters had a disagreement, Thomas asked with concern, "Gwen, did your little sister make you angry?"
At this moment, Fake Brucey had already ascended the stage. The smile on Gwen's face instantly faded, replaced by a cold sneer: "That's not Brucey at all."
Taking advantage of the preparation time on stage, Gwen recounted the real Brucey's ordeal to her parents.
At that time, Brucey was just about to come out when she heard the bathroom door suddenly open, followed by heavy footsteps coming from the direction of the bathroom entrance.
Her heart tightened, and she instinctively stopped what she was doing.
These footsteps were too muffled; they were clearly not a woman's footsteps.
But the question was, why would a man come in?
A strong sense of danger enveloped Brucey. She didn't dare to breathe, slowly turning the toilet stall door open little by little until it was fully ajar.
Brucey looked around, glancing at the window next to her.
She was in the innermost toilet stall, and half of the stall faced a closed window.
The instinct for survival drove her to act without thinking, quickly climbing onto the windowsill, pressing tightly against the window, not daring to even breathe.
Not long after, sounds of "clank" came from inside the bathroom.
If Brucey wasn't mistaken, the other person was probably opening doors to check the stalls.
As the "clank" sounds grew closer, Brucey held her breath.
Finally… the door to her stall was suddenly pulled open.
Brucey trembled all over. She looked up and saw a burly man appear before her.
His face was fleshy, and his eyes were sharp, scanning the bathroom like a hungry wolf.
Fortunately, Brucey was perfectly hidden in a blind spot, and the strong man did not discover her.
Just as the strong man was puzzled, another voice came from the doorway.
And to Brucey's surprise, this voice was almost identical to hers: "Did you find Brucey?"
The strong man responded with a gruff voice: "No."
The voice then said, "I'll go replace Brucey first; you hurry and catch her!"
The strong man sighed helplessly, muttering, "That's the only way."
Since the person who arrived was at the bathroom entrance, the strong man could only go to the bathroom entrance to communicate with her.
Taking advantage of the distance between the two and herself, Brucey seized the opportunity, gritted her teeth, and jumped out of the window.
This bathroom was on the first floor and not particularly high; as long as she landed carefully, she wouldn't get hurt.
But Brucey hadn't expected that there were several dilapidated wooden crates piled below.
As soon as her feet landed on the crates, there was a "snap," and the wooden crates instantly broke.
The two people chatting at the bathroom entrance heard the sound from the window and immediately realized someone had escaped.
"Someone ran out!" the strong man roared. Immediately after, he rushed to the window in one stride, poked his head out to look, and just happened to see Brucey's small figure running further and further into the darkness.
The strong man tried to chase her out the window, but the window was too narrow, and his burly body couldn't fit through.
"Damn it!" the strong man cursed, then abruptly turned and rushed towards the bathroom entrance.
Not long after, he appeared at the theater's main entrance and began to chase after the figure.
Afterward, upon hearing Brucey's vivid description of her experience, Gwen finally understood.
So, Brucey had successfully escaped, and those people, unwilling to fail, sent someone back into the bathroom to check again.
After all, they thought Brucey was just a little girl who might try to hide back, playing the trick of 'hiding in plain sight.'
And at that moment, Gwen happened to go to the bathroom to look for Brucey and coincidentally ran into the person they sent to impersonate her.
After escaping, Brucey knew that those people wouldn't give up. To evade capture, she rolled in the mud puddles on the street, making herself dirty all over, with disheveled hair, looking exactly like a child from the slums.
Then, under the cover of night, she hid in a nearby park until Gwen found her.
Anyway, when Gwen heard Brucey tell the story, she had a feeling.
It wasn't that Batman was born because of the Crime Alley incident, but rather that because of the Crime Alley incident, the Batman part completely overshadowed Bruce Wayne's original existence.
Compared to her being able to jump out and analyze the problem from the perspective of a comic reader, the Wayne Couple, upon hearing this, were almost furious.
Of course, Gwen had already been furious when she held Brucey, who had been hiding and dodging all the way and only cried after seeing her.
Among the stack of books she read, there was 'An Actor Prepares,' and if she hadn't been this angry, she probably wouldn't have even sneered.
However, at this moment, the parents were still fuming.
Martha's eyes were red, and she gritted her teeth in anger: "Those villains, to make my daughter fall into such a pathetic state!"
Her hands were tightly clenched, her nails almost digging into her palms.
This scene made Gwen a little scared; somehow, it reminded her of Martha from Flashpoint.
That was the Joker from another timeline!
In contrast, Thomas was still able to remain calm.
His gaze was steady as he looked at Gwen: "Gwen, you must already have your own way of handling this, right?"
Gwen still wore a cold sneer on her face, her eyes fixed on every move of Fake Brucey on stage, and she slowly said, "Let the bullets fly for a while."