Chapter 1617: No Time to Die (Part 16)

"Respected Dr. Rodriguez, I have to write to you again, but this isn't because of any emergency. Please don't worry. It's just that the situation I told you about before is getting more and more serious. I just hope this isn't my groundless worry. At least my worry has some reason, right?

Yesterday, Dick came back, but he just came to get textbooks. Before, Alfred heard that he was still going to school in your universe, so he arranged a tutor for him. What surprised me was that his grades were quite good, and he could speak French and dance ballet.

I once thought about letting Dick learn dance or gymnastics. He has exceptional talent in this area, but in the end, I didn't open my mouth. This can also be called a regret.

Dick left soon after getting his things. I can understand him. I think there must be many differences between me and the Batman of your universe. Damian, who accompanied him back, looked at me a few times. I am sure there was some longing in his eyes, but I don't know what he was longing for.

Or maybe it's just that I don't want to admit it.

He didn't say anything, and neither did I. They both left soon. Jason, who should have returned to the manor on Thursday night to get repair tools, didn't come back either. He said Barbara was using his computer to do something, and little Jason was helping her.

They seem to have suddenly had their own things to do, but I feel worried about this. I think this emotion shouldn't exist—it's strange, because I often hoped they could have their own independent lives in the past.

But now that it's really like this, I'm not as happy as I imagined. I have too many worries about the birds that have left the nest, but I know they actually had powerful wings to soar in the sky long ago.

I just hope to confirm with you, Doctor, that my strange emotion comes from my temporary maladjustment. I hope this is just my maladjustment. I think I won't be that kind of overbearing elder who binds children."

With a slight "clatter," the letter paper was folded down by Schiller's fingers. After reading the content of the letter, he sighed again. He was very worried about Batman's current state of mind.

After the two full sets of Robins were transferred from this universe to the main universe, they clearly caused quite a stir in that Cat Getan City. Logically speaking, Batman should have quickly found out who was causing trouble, but clearly, he is now trapped in a depressed emotion, and even his detective sense, which used to be sensitive, has weakened slightly.

Or rather, he is in no mood to investigate cases at all. He has only paid sparse attention to the strange rise of gangsters, and has been writing letters to Schiller these past few days to talk about the changes in the Robins.

The Robins who returned from another universe indeed had great changes, and the biggest and most unacceptable one for Batman was that the Bat-family no longer revolved around Batman.

In the past, the Bat-family were called Batman's assistants, but they were more like his support team. Batman rarely let them do any real major work, and instead often helped them solve many problems. The connection between the Bat-family and Batman came more from endless topics about Batman.

They discussed Batman with each other, then discussed with Batman individually, then discussed with each other what they had discussed with Batman, and then talked about what they had experienced with Batman, and what they would experience with Batman in the future.

Children and teenagers will simply determine the focus of their lives. Their sensitivity in a group is better than that of adults, more like a group of little lambs. Whoever is close to them, they rely on all parts of their lives on him. The Bat-family placed all their focus on Batman.

This habit not only domesticated these children but also domesticated Batman to a certain extent.

He had become very accustomed to the birds of the Bat-family constantly shaking in front of his eyes, chattering in his ears, causing trouble for him every few days, and even becoming his weakness and trouble.

While the Robins took Batman as the focus of their lives, Batman was also ready to protect them at any time.

But since these two sets of Robins went to a distant universe and came back, Batman was shocked to find that the focus of the Bat-family's life was no longer Batman.

The Robins suddenly became busy. It seemed that everyone had many things to do, but these things had nothing to do with Batman, and even had nothing to do with the Batcave or Wei En Manor. They came and went in a hurry in these places, and didn't even have time to say a word to Batman standing on the side.

If it were someone else who suddenly changed their temperament, Batman would definitely feel very suspicious and launch an investigation immediately. But Batman is now trapped in self-doubt, because he had hinted to the Robins to be more independent several times before, and he himself felt that he must hope for the Robins to be independent.

But waiting for the day when the Robins really became independent, Batman found that he wasn't happy at all. So he began to suspect whether he was that kind of very double-standard parent, appearing very open-minded in trivial matters, but completely ignoring the children's wishes when it came to major events.

Batman didn't think he was such a person, but he couldn't explain the lost emotion in his heart.

He had heard of some people's evaluations of the Bat-family, such as "How could a rich man raising a group of little boys have no other purpose?", or the lighter "Batman letting all the children of the Bat-family revolve around him is nothing but to satisfy his desire for control and vanity."

In the past, Batman didn't care about these evaluations at all, but when that faint sadness, which hadn't appeared in his heart for many years, surged up, he couldn't help but start to doubt why he formed the Bat-family in the first place.

Looking back, did these children really help a lot? Did they really gain healthy growth and make great progress? Could this rotten city of Cat Getan really become better because of their existence?

Batman's recent letters to Schiller mostly explored these issues, because he really didn't know who else he could discuss education-related topics with. And Schiller indeed replied to every letter seriously, which occupied most of his recent life.

But Batman's own psychology couldn't be called healthy. Like a dam already full of cracks, Schiller had to pay attention to not letting old cracks leak while plugging new holes, and even more attention to not creating new cracks. This was simply like embroidering on a balloon.

He felt that the world should really establish an award comparable to the Nobel Prize, called the "Batman's Psychologist Award." Even with Schiller's professional level, acting as a consultant for an adult Batman in psychology and education was exhausting.

Schiller knew he had to think of a way to improve this situation. One reason was that correspondence wasn't a good way for psychological counseling.

Or rather, for an adult Batman, there was no correct way for psychological counseling. Even face-to-face, Schiller couldn't get the feedback he wanted from his expression and demeanor at all. His mental defense was built too high. Even if he had the ability to climb over, climbing over wasn't a good choice.

The second reason was that if Batman continued to indulge in this emotion and didn't investigate the events happening in Cat Getan City, then the two sets of Robins, big and small, would really build the Wei En family into the number one gangster family.

Just as Schiller was thinking about a solution, Strange, wearing a mage robe, knocked on his office door.

"So you're here." Strange let out a long breath and then said: "Can we swap the second class this afternoon? I want to conduct teaching research with Professor Constantine."

"Teaching research? What do you plan to research?" Schiller stood up from behind the desk, walked to the class schedule on the wall, looked at it carefully, then took off the fountain pen from his pocket and drew a circle on the afternoon class.

"Uh... can I say it? I actually haven't taught children this young at all." Strange sighed long and said: "In the trial class just now, I spent half the time maintaining classroom discipline. Seriously, you should find them a middle school teacher instead of bringing me here."

"So you are going to research how to maintain discipline?"

"No, maintaining discipline is still left to that Professor Victor. We are going to do what we are better at. I really can't deal with the noise of that group of children for more time in a day."

"Alright, then I'll teach the second class." Schiller nodded and agreed easily. Strange looked a bit confused. He looked at Schiller calmly and said: "Are you sure? That group of lively and active children is even more noisy than monkeys in the primeval forest. Are you sure you can handle it?"

"If you are curious about my teaching mode, you can come and listen to the class, or come with John."

Schiller walked back to the desk and started packing the letters from Batman. At this time, Strange noticed that Schiller was reading a letter just now. He half-transferred the topic and half-curiously asked: "Who wrote you so many letters?"

"An empty-nest elder whose child suddenly left home."

"You look very worried."

"Is it that obvious?"

"Very obvious." Strange spread his hands, walked to the table, and tidied his cuffs and said: "It seems that you are still an excellent psychologist in this world."

"Psychologists can't handle this level of trouble."

Strange raised an eyebrow and said: "What's the trouble with this? I really don't understand how there can be people in this world who like children, and even feel sad because this group of monkeys left home. I wish they would get out early."

After saying this, Strange turned and walked toward the door while saying: "Since he lacks children, then stuff a few children to him. If it were this group of ours here, it would be even better. I really don't know how long my patience can last."

Watching Strange's back as he left, thinking about the words he left behind, Schiller stood there in silence for a while, then he lowered his head and rubbed the letter paper in his hand with his fingers, as if he had an idea. ===== CHAPTER 1618 =====