Chapter 1765: Summer in Fool's Village (14)

The 26th floor of the Wei En Grand Hotel has the most luxurious and best-view restaurant in all of Cat Getan. Sitting in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows, one can overlook the entire city skyline, which people call the Eye of Cat Getan.

This restaurant is most famous for its extremely strict membership invitation system. After all, with Batman's suspicious personality, he wouldn't just let anyone see Cat Getan's skyline clearly. Many food critics who wanted to explore the shop have also been turned away because their status wasn't up to par. But the more people scolded it, the more curious they were about what was in the world's richest man's restaurant.

The decor of this restaurant is exactly the same as Wei En Manor, showing a classical grandeur due to the solid materials used, while also having the Gothic magnificence unique to Cat Getan.

The floor is marble interwoven with black and deep purple, with gold thread separating each color. Bronze handrail pillars are inlaid with monster statues that only exist in fantasy. Four huge, thick Roman pillars support the Gothic dome. Curtains slide down from the walls and both sides of the pillars with a rustle. The sunlight passing through the long, thin, sharp Gothic windows is filtered into a gloomy and hazy tone.

Talia has seen the interior decor of countless magnificent buildings, but none have given her such a shocking feeling. Cat Getan's darkness is not just like a drizzle; sometimes it is also like a flood that is hard to resist. When in the midst of it, one only feels like a bird swaying in a dark storm, and even the wind that unconditionally supports you cannot depend on each other at this moment.

Gloomy, lonely, and independent from the world—this is the dark blade that every old Cat Getan building stabs straight into people's hearts.

Talia looked up at the Gothic candlesticks on the wall, sometimes scattered and sometimes overlapping, only feeling her mind shaking along with the heavy firelight.

Bruce Wei En, sitting opposite her, was wearing an extremely well-fitting sapphire blue suit. His eyes were as blue as the door to the truth of dreams left to the world by the wind and snow. When he looked over intently, Talia forgot the prepared speech completely.

"I'm very sorry, ma'am, for being so presumptuous to send you an invitation, but I think we should have a good talk."

Bruce spoke first. He straightened his back, cut the food on his plate with an elegant but not overly restrained posture, and said: "Honestly, I didn't expect you to come to this city. This is a decision that consumes quite a bit of courage for anyone."

"I came to find you," Talia said bluntly.

"I knew that when we reunited," Bruce nodded and said: "You expressed your intentions very fully, which is why we are meeting again here."

"What do you intend to talk to me about?" Talia placed one hand on the table and picked up a fork with the other, somewhat absent-mindedly poking at the food on her plate.

In a formal occasion, this would be slightly rude, but Talia was clearly dressed up carefully today. She wore a shimmering fishtail dress like a starry night. The upper body was thin straps and a waist-cinching fishbone corset, and the lower body was soft silk material like black honey flowing down. When it reached the blooming tail, it reminded people of mysterious deep-sea undercurrents.

Without a doubt, Talia is a beauty, and unlike most women Bruce has seen, she knows her charm well and has polished it into a sharp blade, revealing not a hint of innocence or weakness, just wanting to tell everyone that she is as dangerous as she is enchanting.

This is an extremely unique temperament that makes it hard for people to take their eyes off her. Talia has always adhered to one principle: an aggressive appearance can well filter out those softies who only covet her beauty but don't have the guts to withstand her danger. So far, Talia is very satisfied with Bruce's gaze.

In the past, most people's eyes looking at her carried a kind of cowardly lewdness, and when she looked back, they moved their eyes away as if they had seen a ghost, wishing they could tear their faces off so that this woman who looked crazy wouldn't find trouble for them.

But Bruce's gaze carried pure appreciation, as well as some very simple curiosity—not an aggressive prying, but merely curiosity.

Talia wanted to be more direct. She thought it was time to ask Bruce for an answer. It would naturally be better to gain his favor and make him a subject under her skirt, but if that didn't work, just obtaining his genes would also be fine.

But just a second before Talia spoke, Bruce spoke as if he had timed it perfectly: "I haven't brought any female companions here, because this restaurant has special significance to me. You should have been to Wei En Manor, right?"

This successfully aroused Talia's curiosity, so she nodded and said: "Yes, I saw the connection between these two locations. Their decorative styles are a bit alike."

"Because these were all built by my parents," Bruce looked up, rolled his eyes to look around the ceiling, and said: "In their era, this style was popular for a long time. After they got married, they first moved Wei En Manor from the West District to the South District intact, updated the decoration style, and then built the Wei En Grand Hotel in the same style."

"I don't know how to evaluate this style," Talia also turned her head to look at the deeper darkness behind the candlelight, which was a bit like a slightly lonely desolation, and also like a terror that was intimidating something.

"It doesn't look like a decoration style that newlyweds would choose. When I first came here as a child, I had the same question, and their answer to me was that this was a style they chose after discussion, and they both liked it very much."

Talia turned her head back and looked at Bruce's blue eyes again, and they were suddenly filled with sincere apology.

"I'm very sorry, I took such a big detour. What I want to say is, perhaps this is the meaning of family. Its greatness lies in the fact that when they decide on something together, they see the courage to face all difficulties with each other, and people call this love."

"This is completely different from the impact of hormones they first received from each other's appearance and family background. If you choose family, it's like throwing the candle from a candlelight dinner into the fireplace, giving up one night of romance in exchange for long-term warmth and peace."

Talia didn't realize how long she had been staring at Bruce. When she spoke, it wasn't the ambiguous teasing she was good at; the words were full of uncontrollable contemplation.

"So you've already thrown the candle in?"

"This is the price you must pay for making a choice," Bruce looked intently into Talia's eyes and said: "I once felt moved by countless beauties like you amidst the fluttering skirts, and I was also attracted by beauty and vitality, chasing a cat over this city regardless of the cost."

"But what really made me make the choice was that she jumped down from a high altitude first, plunging from freedom and joy into unsolvable trivial matters. She doesn't like taking care of children; she just likes me."

"I revere the feelings of anyone who still divides a little love to love me from a life that is already tight, and the same goes for you, ma'am."

Talia looked back at Bruce, as if she had been insulted, and asked in an absurd tone: "Why do you think I am as tight as your little thief girlfriend? We are completely two different people!"

"Are we?" Bruce put a piece of okra into his mouth and frowned slightly because of its sticky texture, but still relaxed his eyebrows and said: "You don't have many choices, ma'am. If I didn't choose to respect you, but instead publicly rejected you in a rather nasty and insulting way, could you still convince yourself that sleeping with me was to take revenge on me?"

"You know you can't," Bruce interrupted Talia's rebuttal and said: "You clearly know that in a patriarchal society, no matter how you stare at me, it won't bring me pressure. No matter if your purpose is to steal my genes or something else, people will only think you are a slut."

Talia gripped the fork tightly. She stared dead at Bruce's eyes and said: "I don't care..."

"But I must consider the reputation of me and my daughter," Bruce continued to lower his head to cut the food. He said: "I chose family, so I must consider every family member. Precisely because of the existence of a patriarchal society, a part of the moral pressure I receive must flow to my wife and daughter. For adults, this is just another one of my affairs, but Aisha just started elementary school this year. Children will magnify their misunderstanding into greater malice. I must completely avoid the occurrence of such events."

Talia began to feel confused. She couldn't fully understand what Bruce said. The main point she didn't understand was family.

This apple of the eye of the League of Assassins leader had figured out most things in this world with talent and perseverance that ordinary people couldn't imagine, but if she had to find a blank spot, it might be family affection and family.

In Talia's childhood, her mother was killed, so she only had her father in her memory. But for her father, Ra's al Ghul, her impression was only endless cruel training and orders for various difficult tasks.

Talia had never experienced any normal family affection, and she had no understanding of the human social unit of family. Most of the killers in the League of Assassins came from orphans cultivated by Ra's al Ghul all over the world. They had no concept of family at all. This topic had never appeared in the first half of Talia's life.

As the saying goes, "you regret having too little knowledge when you need it." Talia encountered a topic that made her brain blank when she needed to speak most urgently. She had only seen typical American blue-collar families in magazines. She didn't know if that was normal, so she couldn't even say a few joking teases.

"You love your daughter very much," Talia said dryly.

"And I am very surprised that your father would direct you to do such a thing," Bruce looked up at Talia and said: "Usually a father will try his best to avoid his daughter getting involved in such a reputation, and even if there is a slight similar tendency, they would wish to immediately grab a gun and blast that bastard into slag."

"I..." Talia hesitated, then said: "This wasn't directed by him. I just... need your help."

"Why do you want my genes?"

"I need a descendant."

"Then why do you need a descendant?"

Talia was silent for a while, then rolled up a side of her long hair with a finger, thinking and saying: "I am the daughter of the demon, with the blood of the demon Ra's al Ghul flowing in my body. They say this will bring me powerful strength, but it's not powerful enough."

"Not powerful enough for what?"

Talia was silent for a long time again. She wasn't thinking; she just looked very resistant to answering this question.

And Bruce said the answer she was struggling with: "For creating a new order for this world, you are not powerful enough. You are not powerful enough to influence the history of all mankind, so you hope you have a descendant powerful enough to rule mankind and shape history."

Talia's gaze just met Bruce's, and she heard Bruce say: "Because your father is never satisfied with you. He is never satisfied with his progress in changing the world. He is always longing for an end, and you, in order to end this torture, are urgently wanting to give him an end." ===== CHAPTER 1766 =====