Chapter 1511: Bat-Nest Farce (Part II)

Red Hood's words sounded harmless at first glance, and could even be considered as giving Damian a way out, but the reason Thomas, Martha, and Bruce frowned simultaneously was that they all realized the socialization of the original Bat-family was even more lacking than they had imagined.

Damian asking Nightwing for a seat was more like an all-encompassing provocation of authority: first, Nightwing was older than him; second, Nightwing was the leader of the outsider group; third, Nightwing also shouldered more responsibility for taking care of others in this family than Damian did. The timing of sitting down was actually the least important point.

This meant that neither Damian nor Red Hood had any idea what was actually happening on the scene; they didn't understand normal social rules, didn't grasp social cues, and couldn't even sense the emotions being projected by others.

I believe many people would feel overwhelmed when encountering someone who blindly makes demands without paying any price, projects their emotions regardless of the occasion, and believes everyone should indulge them and do things according to their wishes.

Often, such people aren't acting out of malice; it's just that a lack of socialization leaves them not knowing how to find their own positioning or influence others in the group through rational means, so they can only project emotions, which looks like throwing a tantrum.

Damian actually felt he should sit closer to Thomas because he felt closer to him, but he had no idea how to use this reason to move others, so he could only make demands or find some absurd, lame excuses.

Nightwing hadn't stayed in the manor for many days before, and the one who was close to Aisha was the younger Dick, not him. Yet, Damian just casually found a reason that made no sense at all and said it without any psychological hesitation, even firmly believing this reason could move the other party.

Social habits and thinking are established by gradually exploring within society, and Damian's performance meant he likely hadn't explored at all.

Finally, under the gaze of Thomas, Martha, and Bruce, Damian walked to the very last seat, and throughout the entire meal, he just kept poking the vegetable leaves on his plate with a fork, his face dark and silent.

He felt very aggrieved inside, not knowing why he suddenly had to be so far away from the person he was closest to, to the point where he could barely see them. And his way of venting this emotion was to go and trouble Nightwing after breakfast ended.

This series of actions looked far too much like a spoiled brat, but fortunately, Martha, who grew up in the Kane family, had also experienced similar confusion in her youth: why did instinct and rules conflict, yet she could only obey the rules? Why did her family clearly say they loved her, yet refuse to compromise on certain matters?

After Damian had a fight with Nightwing in the backyard and ended up covered in dirt, Martha sat on the steps in front of the door, called him over, hugged him to comfort him, and then asked him why he did that.

People are more prone to emotional breakdowns when facing their mothers because there is less confrontational emotion between mother and child; no one needs to resist a mother's love like they resist patriarchal authority—at least, that was the case in front of Martha.

Damian only held out for about thirty seconds before he started complaining incessantly to Martha, but he still didn't realize where the problem lay, still talking about how Nightwing wouldn't give up his seat, how Red Hood said he got up late when he actually got up early but was entangled by Aisha, and so on.

After Martha patiently listened to the end, she began to explain to him bit by bit why he couldn't use a commanding tone to demand Nightwing give up his seat, why they had to sit according to the seating order instead of just sitting anywhere, and even why the vast majority of social occasions in this society were actually just magnified versions of finding a seat.

In the following days, Martha, Bruce, and even Thomas dealt tirelessly with the petty frictions arising from these complex social relationships, and this group of ignorant lambs also learned, through constant setbacks, how to accept good influences from others and discard the bad, while simultaneously learning how to use their own status to influence others.

All the Robins were smart, without exception, and the special thing was that the members of the Bat-family were all very good at learning through practice. Within a few days, they began to understand the operating rules of Wei En Manor.

Damian finally learned that if he wanted to sit next to Thomas the next day, he had to go find Thomas first to get his consent, then go find Alfred to add a chair, and finally go find a doll to place opposite Aisha to prevent her from sadly gnawing on her plate.

And Nightwing also finally learned to show majesty when facing all the subjects over whom he could exercise power, to restrain them from causing trouble, rather than rushing in to clean up the mess after they had already caused it, and then making his own life a total mess.

But this wasn't the end. After exploring their individual positioning, they began to form groups, dividing into different small groups based on age, familiarity, and activity time. And between group and group, they had to find their respective positioning, while simultaneously generating various exchanges and frictions.

Representing the groups, in addition to the two sets of big and small Robins, they also formed the combination of Harley, Jason, Aisha, and Damian, who had previously searched for the Black Diamond—this was also the first group where big and small Robins were mixed together—as well as the group of two Dicks who were going to take ballet lessons together, the group studying anatomy with Bruce, and the group of Nightwing, Dick, Red Hood, and Aisha who needed to go out for a joyride every night.

They began to learn how to balance their status within the small group and use this to consolidate their positioning within the larger society, handle the contradictions brought about by the conflict between preferences and rules, and decide the degree to which they would sacrifice their personality for the group, thereby gaining clearer self-awareness and a more stable personality.

When Bruce spoke to this point, Gordon and Barbara both looked at him. Gordon said, "Isn't this a good thing? This is a rare educational opportunity; you don't even have to put in any effort."

Barbara also sighed and said, "Thank heavens, they can finally learn to be a bit more mature. You don't know, back when I was in the Batcave with them, a small matter could turn into a world war. Everyone was childish to the extreme. Sometimes I also complained that Batman really should manage them more."

"But looking at it now, it seems Batman managing them alone wouldn't be of much use either," Barbara pursed her lips and said, "Not to mention he doesn't have much time to manage them."

"Since it's going so smoothly, why did you run over here?" Gordon asked again.

Bruce sighed deeply again and said, "After they constantly smoothed over their differences, they finally realized that everyone in Wei En Manor was a community of shared interests, and they should unite to fight for status for this group."

"Isn't that pretty good?"

"Then guess where they intend to fight for status?"

Gordon widened his eyes, looked at Bruce, and said, "It wouldn't be the whole of Cat Getan, would it?"

"Congratulations, you guessed right." Bruce reached out to cover his eyes and said, "All the children have united and started fighting crime in Cat Getan."

Gordon opened his mouth, thought for a moment, and said, "Although I don't really approve of letting such young children wander around Cat Getan, at least their hearts are in the right place. Who hasn't had dreams of fighting crime and upholding justice? Right? Batman?"

"You don't think they're rushing up to throw punches with criminals, do you?"

"Isn't that it?"

"They can throw punches on their own; why would they need to unite?"

Looking at Gordon's confused expression, Bruce said helplessly, "They didn't form a team; they formed a gang. God knows what they've learned recently! They don't want to save Cat Getan; they want to dominate Cat Getan!"

Bruce placed one hand on the table and began counting on his fingers: "One day, after Dick finished his ballet class, he didn't take a car home but ran home from the rooftops. On the way, he saw the newly gathered food street and goods street near Cat Getan Railway Station."

"He was originally leading the other children there to eat and drink, but somehow Damian managed to ask one of the stall owners about their business secret. It turned out the small vendors had learned in advance that Cat Getan was going to hold a grand music festival, and there would definitely be many outsiders then, so occupying a stall near the railway station in advance definitely wouldn't be a loss."

"Damian immediately felt he had found the capital to rise and fall in the business sea, so he instigated Jason to join him in renting a stall so they could sell goods there. Jason felt that if there was money to be made, it should be made together, so he found the members of the original children's gang and had them stock up on popular small commodities to sell while walking through the streets."

"But setting up a stall in Cat Getan requires the consent of the gangs. The gangs there hadn't seen them before and thought they were there to cause trouble. A conflict broke out between the two sides, and as a result, Nightwing led the other older children and beat them all to the ground."

"At this point, Red Robin discovered that setting up a stall personally wasn't as profitable as sitting behind the scenes and taking a cut. So they replaced the original gangs and started collecting entry fees from all the stall owners. Then they discovered that the locations of the two neighboring gangs were also very good, especially suitable for connecting with the area they controlled to form a large market."

"And I don't know what Red Hood was thinking. After the others had scouted out the headquarters of the two gangs, he threw Aisha into the other side's weapon depot and had her eat all their weapons. As a result, the two gangs surrendered without a fight, and they took down the two largest pieces of land suitable for stalls near the railway station."

"And Damian, I don't know how he self-taught the technique of washing his hands and going ashore (legitimizing), but he had Tim write a letter to the Cat Getan municipal government, claiming they wanted to launch a 'Cat Getan King Music Festival Cultural Exhibition Activity' near the railway station, packaging the three streets and one square near the entire railway station into a shopping street wearing the coat of a music culture exhibition."

"They all played several roles, writing letters to the municipal government. Some played down-and-out artists wanting to exhibit paintings, some played wandering musicians wanting to perform, some played small vendors begging for a stall, and some played peripheral product customizers capable of bulk shipping. They forcefully performed a scene where the cultural activity was a sure thing and stalls and exhibition booths were in short supply."

"That idiot Luo Yin actually fell for it. It wasn't until he came to me to ask if Wei En Group wanted to invest in this cultural activity that I discovered the handwriting on the letters he brought was too familiar. Hundreds of letters were all written by these little bastards."

"And in less than a week, they had already swindled over twenty million dollars in investment, eighty percent of which was invested by Cat Getan's gangs."

"They drew over twenty streetscape and cultural promotional posters of Cat Getan, took over two hundred real-life photos, and built an official webpage, putting them all up. After completion, it went viral on the internet within a week, with over four hundred thousand views and over thirty thousand reservations."

"Reporters from six East Coast television stations have already booked their tickets, including Clark Kent. My stupid reporter friend even wanted me to provide him with a tour suggestion in advance. Even Amazon Princess Diana expressed that she wanted to come over to learn from advanced tourism development experience and also asked me to organize a banquet so she could meet Cat Getan's genius curator."

Gordon covered his eyes, and Bruce sighed again, then turned his gaze to Barbara's face and said.

"Now, Ms. Gordon, you have a new task, which is to get another twenty million dollars outside of the music festival investment and find a way to get this cultural exhibition activity up and running—that place is still pretty much a wasteland right now."

Barbara slapped her forehead. ===== CHAPTER 1512 =====