Chapter 1440: Flying Birds and Returning (I)

The elevator door to Shiler's Tower of Thought opened, and Pride walked out slowly. He straightened the cufflinks on his wrists and walked toward his room. He opened the door and walked to the desk, intending to tidy up the things on the desk, when he heard someone knocking on the door with a familiar rhythm.

"Please come in."

Greed opened the door a little but didn't walk in. He placed a box on the cabinet by the door, gestured to Pride, and said, "Your friend came to look for you two hours ago. You weren't here. This is his gift. I've delivered it. Goodbye."

After saying this, he closed the door. Pride frowned, tidied up the desk first, and then walked to the cabinet by the door, took the box, and went to the sofa.

The surface of the black box was printed with a matte bat logo, which was the symbol of the main universe's Batman. Shiler opened the lid and found a book wrapped in deep blue paper inside.

After Shiler opened it, he saw that the title of the book was written in fancy English on the cover—"Stray Birds".

Shiler gently stroked the raised parts of the gold-stamped text with his thumb. After opening the book, he found a letter tucked between the first and second pages of the main text.

Shiler didn't open the letter first, but took a look at the part covered by the envelope. It was a poem about birds.

"Stray birds of summer come to my window to sing and fly away.

And yellow leaves of autumn, which have no songs and flutter and fall there with a sign."

Shiler's fingertips stroked those simple lines of text. Compared to Batman's inner world, it was too shallow and light.

Shiler had never thought that "Stray Birds" would be Batman's reading material. This beautiful and bright collection of poems would seem out of place even if it appeared on the bookshelf of Wei En Manor.

Shiler returned to the desk with the book and the envelope and sat down. After turning on the desk lamp, Shiler picked up a letter opener and picked open the thin wax seal. The letter paper inside was also printed with the bat logo.

"Greetings, Dr. Rodriguez. Has the winter passed where you are? I am writing this letter to you on the banks of the frozen Cat Getan River, conveying thoughts as cold and frozen as the morning mist on this solemn winter day.

The half-equation I handed to you is the result of research I conducted with a friend from another world. The chance encounter between the two of us came from you, and that is what you deserve.

But recently, I have discovered the powerful power possessed by this equation, so I must urge you to keep it safe, although I know there is no place safer than inside your brain.

Regrettably, my universe is far from being so peaceful. A powerful enemy and overlord in the universe has sensed the power of the equation and has turned his attention to Earth and me. I have already begun to investigate him.

If you have any news or intelligence regarding the name 'Darkseid', please tell me in detail in your reply. I know you have it, so I sent you a book as a return gift, hoping you like it.

And another piece of bad news: after time in my universe regressed, the Joker is hiding in the darkness as usual, wanting to make his powerful enemy fall from mid-air, but this time he has set his sights on the Bat-Nest.

My four Robins and Batgirl are all shrouded in his dark and cruel gaze, but the Justice League is stretched thin due to the powerful enemy in the universe, and so am I.

We agree that our primary task is to prevent Darkseid from obtaining the equation.

Here, I must request of you: while I turn my gaze to the universe, can I send the birds to your universe, so that I have no worries behind me?

To the Doctor."

Shiler read the letter carefully. Batman's wording was still concise and powerful without losing literary beauty.

In his previous communications with the main universe's Batman, Shiler had discovered that he was not a dry and rigid person. On the contrary, the main universe's Bruce Wei En had great artistic cultivation and was not the socially mute person who didn't say an extra word for the sake of efficiency as the public imagined.

Perhaps calling it sentiment is more appropriate. The fact is, Batman's writing is vivid and powerful, and can even be called lively and interesting. The trivial matters he describes in the Bat-Nest have quite a bit of Mark Twain-style humor.

Shiler finished reading the letter, and the wording for a refusal was already drafted in his mind. It wasn't that he wasn't willing to interact with the Bat-family; the Robins couldn't be more difficult to deal with than Batman himself. He had already taught Batman to graduation, so a few more little birds wouldn't make a difference.

It was just that in Shiler's plan, he would devote himself to restoring his previous social circle for a period of time in the future, to the extent that he might be busy running between the new world and the old world and attending social events.

He first had to go to Washington to attend a sociology academic conference, then go to Montreal to attend his former professor's birthday banquet, then rush to London to attend a private banquet for an old friend, then move between Bordeaux and Paris, and he might even go to Sicily to visit the old Godfather. He really didn't have time to take care of children.

But just then, Shiler saw another sentence below the final closing, the handwriting more cursive than the content above, looking like something Batman had added in a hurry. It read:

"Doctor, you have a thousand reasons to pull this dark city out of the abyss, but when it falls again with the force of ten thousand tons, you only have one reason never to let go, and that is to let your children bask in the sun. I am the same.

I hope that when your sunshine melts the floating ice on the Cat Getan River, you will understand the earnest request of a father.

Batman, written on a winter day."

Shiler stared at every word of these few sentences. He thought, when he faces a living person, he can always see his complexity from all aspects. This complexity brings a vivid vitality that outlines a three-dimensional image for him.

Batman always seems very cautious, but he is not cowardly or hesitant because of caution, and he is even less likely to be inferior because of it. Or rather, people always see his caution too much, but fail to see that his almost crazy boldness and decisiveness come from his confidence in his own judgment.

Clearly, Batman believed that based on this last paragraph alone, Shiler would definitely agree to him and take good care of his Robins. This came from his understanding and analysis of Shiler's personality and behavioral patterns.

He analyzed it correctly, Shiler thought, and his writing also successfully moved him. Therefore, he deleted the wording for refusal he had already drafted in his mind.

But Shiler didn't intend to change his social plan. It wasn't in line with his social principles to decline banquets that had already been scheduled. But it didn't matter. Anyway, the birds from the main universe didn't know who he was; they would only go looking for Batman.

So, Shiler sat by the desk, picked up a pen, and wrote a reply to Batman.

"I have received your letter and gift. My views are as follows:

The winter here is almost over. The Rodriguez Manor is not on the Cat Getan River, but the children passing by my door are carrying ice skates and returning in disappointment. I think the ice has melted.

The equation is safe. The information regarding Darkseid is enough to be compiled into a volume, which I will attach to this letter. But the situations in the two universes are different, so you should distinguish them carefully.

While you are working for the Justice League, the Joker is a threat to any member of the Bat-family. I understand your desire to ensure their safety, but I must regretfully tell you—

I am very busy for the next period of time, so if you expect me to provide psychological counseling for them, I'm afraid it is destined to fall through.

But if you only hope for them to come here for refuge, then you can directly ask Mr. Alan to send them to Wei En Manor. The Batman of this universe will take good care of them.

What you brought me cannot be called bad news, but I have to tell you the best news that has happened recently: Batman achieved quite good results in a recent exam..."

Just as Shiler was writing at his desk in his Tower of Thought, under the sunset, Dick, Jason, and Tim were walking side by side along the bank of the Cat Getan River.

"I told you, sunshine isn't necessarily a good thing. In past years, the ice on the river could at least last another month." Jason said with some disappointment, carrying a pair of ice skates in his hand.

On both sides of the road, there were many children returning in disappointment just like them. Their shoes stepped into the brick gaps, leaving wet water marks on the remaining withered grass, leaving intermittent trails in the sunset.

"Let's go back and eat." Tim tightened his thick scarf and exhaled a puff of white mist, looking like he was a bit cold. He sniffed and continued: "I bet Alfred has already heated up vegetable soup and black rice cakes on the fireplace. I'm going to spread a whole table knife of cheese on them."

Dick's Adam's apple also moved. He put both hands into his pockets, lowered his head, and counted the brick gaps, saying: "After dinner, I still have to go to ballet class, and then come back to do my French homework..."

"Why must you learn French to learn ballet?" Jason frowned, kicking the gravel on the ground with the toe of his boot.

Tim snorted coldly and said: "Because ballet originated in France, many professional terms are in French, and Dick's ballet teacher, Sylvia, is also French."

"I'm so annoyed." Jason switched the ice skates to the other hand and then said: "Nothing would happen if Thomas didn't come, but now I have to go play soccer with those rich kids on weekends. I'm really afraid they'll fall and cry into their mothers' arms."

Tim giggled foolishly. He shrugged and said: "It's good that my dad let me learn everything I should learn."

"Don't forget you still have to feed the ponies." Dick immediately reminded: "Thomas is too exaggerated. We already have a whole horse farm."

"Yeah, if there wasn't such a big place, the horses scared by Aisha would have hit the wall and died."

The three of them laughed until they were leaning back and forth, obviously remembering the chaos that happened when they took Aisha to the horse farm last weekend.

"Did Bruce take Aisha to see schools?" Jason asked.

"Otherwise, what has he been busy with lately?"

"Then which elementary school does he want Aisha to go to?"

"Thomas definitely wants Aisha to go to the girls' school in Portash. He will say that Martha graduated from there, and every teacher there has a senior clergy title, nuns or something."

"It would be better to let Bruce donate money to them to rebuild a statue of Jesus, which would be harder than a children's slide, otherwise no amount of nuns will be able to save God's wrath."

They started laughing again, walking along the streets of the rich area on the Cat Getan River bank back to Wei En Manor, which was not far away. Hot soup was waiting for them in the fireplace, and Tim spread a full layer of cheese on the black rice cake with a table knife.

After they were sweating all over even though they were only wearing shirts, they sat on the sofa in front of the fireplace and began to speculate how much money Bruce would have to spend to appease God's wrath if he had to replace the statue of Jesus at Aisha's future elementary school every week.

Before long, Dick went out to class. Three full hours of ballet class allowed him to vent his energy well. He fell asleep on the car, exhausted. When the driver called him awake, the warm and glowing lights of Wei En Manor appeared at the end of the dark road.

Dick yawned as he got out of the car, picked up his dance equipment from the other side of the seat, and walked back to the hall lazily.

Then he saw Bruce holding Aisha and talking to several strangers in the living room.

One of them was wearing a blue and purple uniform, one was wearing a red hood, one was wearing a red and green uniform, a small boy, and a young lady with two pointed ears on her hood.

Their conversation made some noise, and it looked like they were arguing. Jason and Tim were nowhere to be seen; they might have gone to a classmate's house to do homework and hadn't returned yet.

As soon as Dick walked in, everyone's eyes fell on him. ===== CHAPTER 1441 =====