Chapter 2180: Battle of the Two Cities! (Fifty-Eight)

Thomas sat at the head of the table reading the newspaper. It was his favorite, the *Cat Getan Wharf Evening News*, and he was scrutinizing every word on the front page with eyes as sharp as a falcon's.

This stirred memories from Batman's childhood; almost every morning and evening, whenever he walked out of his room, he would see Thomas holding a newspaper just like that.

Martha was at the entrance of the dining room, confirming the meal's progress with Alfred. Soon, she walked over, nodded to the group, and said, "Dinner will be ready in ten minutes. Boys, go call your friends; don't let the food wait too long."

"I bet Dick is still rushing through his homework, and those two are helping him finish before the deadline so he can pass my inspection after dinner," Thomas said without looking up.

The three Robins Batman had brought down took their seats one after another. Tim ran upstairs to call the others. Batman walked to the chair opposite Wei En, but he didn't sit down immediately.

Wei En was adjusting his napkin. He reached both hands behind his neck to grab the knot, seemingly wanting to untie and retie it, but he fumbled for a long time without success.

Martha walked over, stood behind his chair, and helped him untie the napkin. Wei En looked back and smiled at her. "Thanks, Mom."

Martha patted his chair back gently and walked away. Wei En retied the napkin, his movements drawing a glance from Thomas.

"Go check upstairs," the dignified head of the household said, his gaze returning to the paper.

Wei En nodded at him and started to stand up. Thomas sighed, looked at Wei En, and said, "Don't take the napkin with you wherever you go; it's very unhygienic."

"But I just finished tying it."

Martha beckoned to Wei En. He sat back down, and Martha gently untied the napkin, folded it, and placed it on the table. "Go on, I'll help you tie it again when you get back."

Based on Wei En's series of actions just now, Batman concluded that he was a master manipulator.

Batman thought that the "excellent graduate's" worth was likely quite high. In just two minutes, Martha and Thomas's attention had been completely captured by Wei En.

Batman would bet that Thomas hadn't read a single word of the newspaper, and Martha's attention wasn't even half on the kitchen.

They hadn't even fully realized themselves that they had been focused on Wei En for several minutes, all just to see if he could tie that stupid napkin.

The cultural ecology of a dinner table is quite interesting; it usually reflects the most traditional customs of a country or region.

In Batman's childhood, the Wayne family was a relatively traditional Catholic household, upholding the customs of the first wave of European immigrants: respect for elders and clear rules.

In families of this old aristocratic style, they value heritage and education, so naturally, the younger children receive the most attention.

If three generations live under one roof, the middle generation is the most easily overlooked, because the head of the family is busy with work, and dinner is the only time they have to interact with the younger generation, so they naturally want to learn more about the children's education and lives.

People from such families often develop these habits, and after they transition from the younger generation to the older one, they unconsciously follow this instinct.

Martha and Thomas both came from old aristocratic families; such habits were etched into their genes, and initially, they acted according to this instinct.

Martha sending Tim upstairs to call the other two children was essentially an act of giving more attention to the younger ones. Thomas's concern was also for Dick's homework.

Theoretically, after caring for the youngest, it should have been the turn of the three older Robins, but Wei En had successfully used his napkin-tying antics to lock Thomas and Martha's attention onto himself.

Batman had long observed that the napkin was tied in the simplest slipknot; any normal person with two hands could easily pull it apart with just two fingers. Wei En had been reaching his arms back, fumbling and flailing for over 20 seconds.

And if you're going to take it off, fine, but he had to retie it again. Judging by his movements, one would think he was building a Great Wall behind his neck rather than tying a simple knot.

Batman knew this was essentially a regressive performance designed to trigger the parents' instinctual response to infants.

The instinct to help, care for, and rescue young offspring is hardwired into human genes; it is the most important guarantee for the survival of the species. Therefore, as long as certain conditions are triggered, human attention will be completely captured.

Wei En's actions seemed childish—not sitting properly at the table, reaching out to play with the napkin, taking it off and putting it back on—but essentially, it was a child-like tantrum designed to attract adult attention, locking everyone's gaze firmly on him.

Thomas told him to go upstairs and take the napkin off; his response was also unreasonable. Just because he had just put something on wasn't a reason why he couldn't take it off. Even if it were a reason, an adult's reply would be "it's too much trouble" or "it won't get dirty."

Wei En's expression was more emotional, emphasizing only "what I did." This self-centered way of expressing oneself is common in children; they don't understand the complex structure of human relationships, so they only emphasize their own feelings.

Strongly emotional expressions are more attention-grabbing because human empathy organs operate before rational thought.

Even though he understood the principle, Batman still didn't understand what Wei En was aiming for with this performance.

Batman knew that Wei En and Thomas/Martha couldn't be considered "reunited after a long separation," because they had already lived together in Wei En's universe for quite some time; they had plenty of time to experience family affection.

Yet Wei En was here acting unreasonably and attracting attention. Batman didn't know who he was aiming his sniper rifle at.

"And you intend to just sit there until Alfred brings the food," Thomas aimed his fire at Batman again.

Batman paused, then pulled out his chair and sat down, only to find himself in an extremely awkward position.

The three Robins sat there chatting in low voices. Batman heard them talking about *Sherlock Holmes*. They hadn't had much time, so they had only read the opening of "A Study in Scarlet," the part where Dr. Watson goes to rent a room and meets a strange roommate.

They were discussing whether that young doctor was Holmes. Batman had already read the rest, so he knew, of course, he was.

But he couldn't discuss this topic with the Robins now because Thomas was there. Batman didn't want Thomas to know he was reading *Sherlock Holmes*, because to Thomas, being a detective wasn't a respectable profession.

If you were already practicing and were known as the world's greatest detective, and you still used your spare time to read about another world's greatest detective, Batman wanted to write himself a psychiatric diagnosis.

Batman knew the contents of the *Cat Getan Wharf Evening News* Thomas was reading. The front page mentioned that the Cat Getan Sky Island airport was under construction. That was a decent pre-dinner topic, probably enough to talk about until dinner was served.

So Batman opened his mouth and said, "I heard on the news that in about six months, Cat Getan will have its own new airport."

The Robins' attention was indeed captured. Tim said, "Really? The kind of airport for docking spaceships?"

"I heard so," Nightwing joined in. "With an airport, we can have normal transport with the ground. We can send goods or people or something."

"Are we going back to the top of the East Coast?" Red Hood asked.

"Of course, that is still Cat Getan," Thomas said. "We cannot abandon our home on the ground. It will be a better new city."

"And if certain people had spent three hours actually caring about the construction of the Sky Island, we wouldn't have to wait six months."

Facing Thomas's death stare, Batman silently turned his face away. This was why he was now idle but wouldn't enter the lab; because if he didn't help build the Cat Getan airport but pulled out a pile of Batman gear from the lab, he would have to face Thomas's gaze like this every day.

And he didn't help build the Cat Getan airport because he wasn't sure if letting Thomas and Martha build the new Cat Getan was a good thing. If the ground transport channel opened so quickly, the two of them would join forces to eat all the other investment groups alive.

Seeing Batman remain silent, Thomas withdrew his gaze, shook the newspaper, blocked his view with it, and said, "Elbows turning outward."

Batman opened his mouth; he actually wanted to refute this.

Because he had recently discovered that a large amount of Wayne Group funds were flowing into Mexico. He really didn't dare to imagine what Thomas was trying to do by being so eager to develop real estate in the new city to make money.

Before figuring this out, Batman absolutely could not let Thomas make any more money, which was why he would rather hide in the manor reading *Sherlock Holmes* than go to the lab to help build the Cat Getan airport.

Batman chose to continue playing dead.

In the past, this trick worked. Martha and Thomas weren't the type of parents with strong control issues; they were relatively open-minded, respected their children's wishes, and as long as what they were doing wasn't too outrageous, they wouldn't interfere too much, let alone get to the bottom of things.

But Batman had just closed his mouth when Wei En brought three children over, and Damian had also finished school. Four children of similar age sat neatly opposite Batman.

"Then let's go Friday afternoon," Wei En said, looking past Dick at Jason. "We have to get our revenge. We can't let them be so arrogant. Who do they think they are, the bosses of Mulberry Street?"

"They certainly aren't!" Jason raised his voice. "It's not that I look down on them, but if that referee hadn't blown a biased whistle, Biker and I would have shown them!"

"Then it's settled," Wei En turned to Thomas. "Dad, I won't go to the lab on Friday. I'm going to play soccer with Jason to get revenge for last week's game."

Thomas shook his head helplessly. "It was just a friendly match; don't take it so seriously."

"You don't know how biased that referee was," Wei En tapped the table. "The other side was offside twice and he didn't blow the whistle. Jason's team hadn't even lifted their feet and his whistle was blowing like crazy, and he always gave us the yellow cards for conflicts. This time at home, I have to keep an eye on the referee..."

Thomas hummed lightly, shook the newspaper again, and said, "Go ahead, who would count on you anyway?"

His gaze fell on Batman again.

"And you intend to just sit there, not helping your mother and Alfred, and not even tying your napkin, hmm?"