Chapter 1509: The Bat-Nest Farce (Part 1)

In the study of the Gordon Manor, Barbara Gordon was writing away, buried in her work. After a long while, she finally looked up and pushed up the glasses on her face. Just then, Gordon, who had been standing behind her, set down a cup of hot tea and said with a smile, "How are the accounts coming along?"

Barbara sighed helplessly. "The costs for the merchandise have been calculated, so I can send the order to the contract manufacturer. The venue costs are still being tallied... I have to ask, are you really planning to rely on me alone to pull off this concert?"

"Of course not," Gordon said, sitting down at the table. "You have the entire Cat Getan underworld at your disposal. As long as you can get the concert running, they'll do whatever you ask."

"The problem is, they don't know how to do anything!" Barbara said, on the verge of a breakdown. "I went to a meeting with them yesterday and suggested diversifying the merchandise. They actually said metal pins were too 'girly' and suggested we just sell grenades stamped with the album logo! Have they even thought about how much that would cost?!"

Barbara slapped her pen onto the desk. "The most important part of the merchandise industry is cost control, and those words don't even exist in their brains. The gang's financial management system is absolute garbage..."

Gordon quickly tried to soothe her. "Don't get angry. You know they're just a bunch of amateurs. The cold-chain industry made them a lot of money recently, so now everyone has cash to burn. Just finish the report, and I'll take it to Yin Wensi tomorrow. He'll definitely approve it."

Barbara clutched her forehead. "It's not just the finances. The entire management plan for the concert is a mess. If things keep going like this, I don't even know if we'll be able to pull it off..."

Just as the father and daughter were discussing the upcoming Cat Getan Music Festival in the study, a special guest arrived at the Gordon Manor. Gordon looked surprised when he opened the door, as standing there was Bruce Wei En.

He put away his umbrella, walked into the porch without standing on ceremony, and looked around, saying, "My apologies for missing your housewarming party, Commissioner Gordon. I hope it's not too late."

"It's so late. What are you doing here?" Gordon took the umbrella from Bruce's hand, placed it in the stand nearby, and stepped aside to let him into the manor.

Barbara happened to be walking down the stairs just then. Seeing Bruce, she instinctively called out "Batman," then cleared her throat awkwardly and said, "I mean, Bruce, it's so late. Is there something you need from James and me?"

"Nothing much. I heard the planning for the music festival isn't going very smoothly?" Bruce walked over to the fireplace and sat down.

Barbara nodded and was about to start complaining, but Gordon spoke up first: "That's hardly worth you running over here in the middle of the night. Tell us, who did you get into an argument with this time? It wouldn't be your professor again, would it?"

Bruce shook his head, then let out a deep sigh, recalling the farce that had been unfolding at Wei En Manor over the past few days.

After Bruce brought Martha back to Wei En Manor, Thomas and Alfred were both shocked.

Because the Bruce who invaded the Flashpoint universe hadn't been wearing his Batman gear and had his face covered, and Thomas had been drunk, he hadn't realized he was being brought back by Bruce. So, when he found out that his sudden appearance in the hospital operating room had been an accident caused by Bruce trying to save Martha, he was extremely agitated—so agitated that he punched Bruce directly in the face.

Without a doubt, Thomas, like all Batmen, hated anesthesia; this was the main reason he and Bruce had gotten into a brawl.

Alfred, on the other hand, was simply overjoyed. He had never imagined he would see the Wei En couple reunited in his lifetime, and the Wei En Manor, which had been cold for years, was finally lively again.

Since the Wei En family had a very typical structure of a stern father and a kind mother, in Bruce's childhood, Thomas was mostly busy with business while Martha took care of everyone. Bruce was more dependent on his mother, and after Martha returned, he did indeed enjoy a few days of care and concern from her once again.

But good times didn't last. The idea that a long-separated family could immediately return to their original harmonious atmosphere only happened in TV dramas. Moreover, the Wei En family's separation had spanned an entire life stage—Bruce had gone from a child to a young man, while Thomas and Martha had grown old.

Upon meeting again, they inevitably felt a sense of estrangement after years of separation. It was difficult for a family that had missed each other's most important stages of life to immediately cast aside the thorns forged by hardship and embrace each other without reservation. Thus, after the initial warmth of the reunion faded, many problems began to surface.

First, Martha could not accept that Thomas smoked and drank, and had nearly ruined his own health. As a mother from a very traditional wealthy family, she had dedicated her life to maintaining the health of every member of her household.

At the same time, when Martha was still a young lady of the Kane family, she had attended a religious girls' school. Her thinking was relatively conservative; she believed that parents and elders had to lead by example to teach their children well, keeping them away from habits that could harm their bodies, including but not limited to smoking, drinking, drug use, and frequenting nightclubs.

She demanded this of herself, and she demanded this of her husband. Before the tragedy of her son occurred, the Wei En couple had always maintained extremely healthy living habits; the Wei En family was a model family praised by everyone in high society.

Without the influence of the madness virus, when Martha saw her husband again, she found that he had transformed from a tall, handsome, successful businessman into a decadent alcoholic. How could the former Mrs. Wei En accept this?

Of course, Martha knew there were reasons for this, and the blame could only be placed on unfair fate. But since the past was in the past, and the family and children were back, they had to break those bad habits now and set a good example for the children, right?

But Thomas had his own hidden suffering. Now, the entire operational pressure of the Wei En Group rested on his shoulders. Cigarettes and alcohol were the only things that could relieve his stress and fatigue. If he didn't hate the side effects of hallucinogens, he might have even resorted to sedatives.

Quitting smoking and drinking wasn't impossible, just not right now. His body and emotions were already on the verge of collapse; if he had to endure withdrawal symptoms on top of that, he wouldn't be able to work at all. But if he didn't work, what would happen to the massive Wei En Group?

If this were in the past, Thomas would have considered his wife's feelings and taken a few days off if she had kindly persuaded him. But Thomas knew very well that the burden on his shoulders was too heavy now; he had no time to rest.

On one hand, the Cat Getan renovation project was constantly draining the Wei En Group's blood. Thomas couldn't even just maintain the status quo; he had to act like a newcomer in the business world, seeking out good investment opportunities everywhere to expand operations so that more fresh blood could flow into Cat Getan.

He and Martha had done charity work for so many years, but their combined achievements might not even equal one month of progress on the Cat Getan renovation project. Seeing the hope of saving Cat Getan right before his eyes, how could Thomas be willing to give up?

On the other hand, he had to consider that there were so many children in the manor now. Aside from the one or two who had a talent for business and could inherit the Wei En Group, the others had to seek their own paths in various industries. If there wasn't sufficient capital, how could he pave the way for them?

So, Thomas knew that overdrawing his body would cause his wife's dissatisfaction, but he still had to keep going. What he thought about was no different from any other worried parent in the world—nothing more than suffering a little more himself and hoping to make it through.

Thus, Martha persuaded him every day, and Thomas explained every day. The whole situation made no progress, and both sides inevitably had emotional friction. To prevent their relationship from being further eroded, Thomas could only try his best to stay at the office and not go home.

Stuck in a stalemate with her husband, Martha turned her attention to her son. The first thing she worried about, of course, was Bruce's marriage.

Martha was quite happy to learn that Bruce had a girlfriend. When she learned that their relationship was stable and that they hadn't broken up even after a period of long-distance, Martha was even happier.

The only thing that made Martha feel a bit hesitant was that Selina's two professions were a thief and an actress. Neither of these identities was welcomed by high society.

But this was Cat Getan, so it wasn't entirely unacceptable. After all, Cat Getan's dark curse was fair to everyone; the probability of scumbags appearing in high society and at the bottom was about the same.

One could see from Elliott and Roman that Cat Getan's high society wasn't much better—dissolute and recklessly wasteful were considered mild. People like young Elliott, who killed his father and mother, appeared every few years. Martha hadn't held high expectations to begin with.

But what made Martha feel very confused was that Bruce and Selina had been dating for five years, from the time they started college until they graduated. Every child in Wei En Manor knew Selina, and Selina's friends knew Bruce. So why hadn't they gotten married?

In Martha's era, there was no such thing as a "long-distance relationship." Between a man and a woman, from the first stirrings of love to a stable relationship, they should naturally enter the halls of marriage. Since the relationship was stable, why not get married?

In Martha's relatively simple view of emotions, Bruce must be the one in the driver's seat in this relationship. After all, there was a huge gap in their status and background—it could be called a flipped Cinderella love story. So, whether they could get married was definitely up to Bruce. Why wouldn't Bruce get married?

Martha had probed a few times at the dinner table, but Bruce acted as if he didn't understand. This made Martha's heart hang in the balance. She was worried that her child hadn't learned how to take responsibility for a relationship and a family.

But ever since Thomas showed Martha Bruce's pile of diagnostic reports and medication lists, Martha felt she couldn't push too hard either.

This responsible mother gradually resumed contact with her sisters and elders in the Kane family, and picked up her interactions with her former classmates and close friends from girls' school. From time to time, she would have Bruce visit his aunts, or invite them over as guests to chat about family topics.

But Bruce was also very busy, having to conduct various research at Arkham Asylum and help with construction at the space station base. And when Pamela, who was researching plant biology with him, and Diana, who frequently traveled to the space station base, appeared before Martha, Martha became even more anxious.

A scorching atmosphere began to spread among the three. The friction and collision between the father-son, mother-son, and husband-wife relationships continued. This family, which had just struggled out of hardship and reunited after a long separation, began the pain of the adjustment period.

Originally, this wasn't a big deal. After the initial awkward period passed, someone would eventually realize that communication was the only answer to these problems.

But the problem was that in this already complex family relationship, two full sets of Robins, big and small, had been stuffed in.