Chapter 290

In the early morning, dim and hazy light spilled onto the dining table. The light clinking of glass against silverware sounded exceptionally pleasant. The tablecloth draped smoothly from the tabletop. Alfred set down the final dish, and Bruce, sitting at the head of the table, nodded at him. The old butler turned and left with a look of gratification.

Bruce sat at the head of the long dining table. Opposite him was Selina. To Selina's right was Dick, and next to Dick was Aisha. On the surface, this was a very harmonious breakfast scene for a family of four, but after Bruce tapped his wine glass with a fork to signal the start of the meal, it became chaotic again.

Most children have a very strange habit: during non-meal times, they put everything into their mouths, but when it comes to mealtime, they act as if they have a grudge against food and won't eat a single bite.

Fortunately, Aisha's appetite had always been very vigorous—or rather, a bit too vigorous. She liked to put everything into her mouth at any time and in any place.

With a "crunch," a piece of the plate holding the sandwich was bitten off. Dick, who was drinking water, spat it out and coughed twice from choking. He hurriedly turned around and patted Aisha on the back, telling her to spit out the porcelain shards.

Dick hurriedly wiped his mouth with a napkin, then gestured as he said, "No, Aisha, that's not part of the sandwich! That's a plate! It's tableware, understand? You can't eat it... Wait! Put that cup down!"

With a "crunch," the cup was also bitten and cracked by Aisha. The milk inside spilled all over her. Dick covered his eyes, then took a towel from Alfred's hand to wipe the stains off her. The old butler was smiling the whole time, seemingly very fond of this scene.

"Aisha, don't bite the tableware, don't give Alfred any trouble," Bruce said. Alfred, while serving a new glass of milk, said, "Oh, it's fine, Master. You also spilled milk several times when you were little. This is very normal..."

Bruce opened his mouth. He really wanted to say that spilling milk and biting a notch into a milk cup in one go were two completely different things.

But the combat power of Aisha's sharp teeth was truly astonishing. Whether it was a ceramic plate, a glass milk cup, a fiber tablecloth, or a wooden table, one "crunch" and she could bite off a large chunk.

Dick taught Aisha how to hold a fork hand-in-hand, but as soon as Aisha picked up the fork, she put it into her mouth, and then—"crunch." The head of the metal fork was bitten off. Dick stared at Aisha with wide eyes; she chewed the metal fork as if it were chewing gum. He looked down at his own arm, where the tooth marks had not yet faded, and swallowed hard.

Aisha spat out the chewed-up fork; the poor fork had already been chewed into a small, unrecognizable lump of metal. After Dick threw it away, he asked Alfred for a new fork. Just then, Aisha suddenly screamed: "Wah! Wah!!!"

Selina, who was dozing off, suddenly woke up. She rubbed her eyes and said, "Bruce, she's calling you..."

Bruce looked at Aisha. Aisha reached out her arms toward him. Bruce could only put down his knife and fork, walk over to Aisha's seat, and pick her up. Then he asked Selina, "How do you know what she means?"

"Haven't you noticed that Aisha has been learning to talk lately?"

Selina propped her head up with one hand, looking very sleepy because she had gone to bed very late last night. She said, "You weren't home last night. I was playing with blocks with her, and then she suddenly screamed like this. I didn't understand what was wrong, but later I realized she seemed to be looking for you..."

"Against the Gods"

Bruce held Aisha a little further away and observed her carefully. Aisha grinned at him with that mouthful of sharp teeth, making an indistinct "wah-wah" sound. Dick turned around, listened carefully, and said, "It sounds like she's trying to say 'Papa,' she just can't make the 'P' sound."

Bruce carried Aisha to his own seat, sat down, and used a fork to feed her a piece of sandwich. Aisha bit off the sandwich and the head of the fork in one go. Bruce hurriedly told her to spit it out, but Aisha chewed twice and swallowed it directly. After swallowing, she stared at Bruce with big eyes, looking innocent.

"Don't worry, she's fine." Selina took a sip of juice and said, "Haven't you noticed that your daughter has many special abilities?"

"... What special abilities?"

"Do you think a normal child's running speed can hit 120 mph in three seconds? Can they jump off the third floor unscathed and still be lively after swallowing three building blocks?"

"Obviously, Aisha has superpowers."

Bruce stared at Aisha in his arms, but Dick's eyes lit up. He looked at Bruce and asked, "Superpowers??... Mr. Wei En, Aisha is your own daughter, so that means, you also..."

"I don't." Bruce denied it directly, but Dick clearly didn't believe him. Children in this age group have an infinite longing for superpowers that can fly into the sky and burrow into the earth. Just looking at Dick's expression, one could tell he really wanted Bruce to perform an on-the-spot takeoff for him...

After holding Aisha for a while, Bruce stood up again, put her back in her seat, and looked at Dick to ask him, "Where have you been running off to lately? Yesterday at noon I wanted to find you to go fix the car with me, but Alfred told me you and Aisha went out..."

"Oh..." Dick touched his knife and fork somewhat unnaturally and said, "I... I've made some new friends."

"New friends, who are they?"

"Um..." Dick hesitated, seemingly unable to say it.

Although he knew Bruce was not an ordinary person, he still didn't know he was Batman. In his eyes, Bruce was just a super-rich tycoon from the South District. He didn't know if Bruce would be like other rich people in the South District and hate those poor wretches in the East District.

But Dick got along quite well with Jason and the others. On one hand, it was because they were of similar age, and peers always had more topics to talk about. On the other hand, his own background wasn't very good; the magnificent and luxurious environment of Wei En Manor made him feel very uncomfortable and somewhat restrained. Instead, Jason's dilapidated underground base made him feel more relaxed.

But he couldn't tell Bruce this, because he was only able to stay in Cat Getan now because of Bruce. He knew he didn't have the ability to roam the streets of Cat Getan alone like Jason.

After a few days of getting familiar, Dick knew that to get by in Cat Getan, having martial arts skills alone wasn't enough. Besides, because he was young, his martial arts weren't that great, and he lacked practical experience in street fighting.

Dick was afraid that if he said it out loud, Bruce would make him break off relations with those little friends. Dick didn't want to do that because he felt that kind of street life was very interesting; not only could it hone his skills, but he could also see all kinds of very interesting things.

For example, just yesterday, the Curly Tail Gang led by Jason had a fight with the Red Mouth Gang from Red Mouth Street. These juvenile gangs' street fights were small but complete in every detail; not only did they have to scout for information, survey the terrain, prepare weapons, and organize manpower in advance, but they even had to be divided into different branches—some people kept watch, some people fought, some people covered the rear, and so on.

In short, in the society of Cat Getan's children, the bloody and cruel side of adult gangs was minimized because these kids couldn't get their hands on any very powerful weapons, and fights rarely resulted in life-threatening danger. However, the excitement, wildness, and aesthetic of violence were preserved, which easily attracted young boys of Dick's age to get hot-blooded.

But Dick knew that these rich people certainly didn't think this way; they would rather their children go learn some piano, violin, ballet, etiquette, or something like that.

Just as he thought of this, Bruce said to Dick, "Since I have adopted you, I must be responsible for you. I have already told Alfred: starting tomorrow, you will go to that boarding school in the north. It is the best boarding school in all of Cat Getan. Whether it's hardware conditions or teaching staff, it's second to none. The courses there are also very rich, such as Latin, ballet, harp, and so on..."

Dick looked at Selina with a look of distress. Selina shook her head and made an expression of being unable to help.

Dick sighed. Originally, he thought Bruce adopted him just to find a nanny for his biological daughter, but now it seemed it would have been better if he were just a nanny.

During this conversation, Bruce finished his breakfast. He wiped his mouth with a napkin and said, "I'm going out in a while, and I estimate I won't be back until tonight. Alfred will prepare lunch and dinner for you."

As he spoke, he left the dining table. Selina stretched, looking somewhat sleepy, and also left the table to go upstairs to catch up on sleep. Dick sat where he was, sighed, and then picked up Aisha and said to her:

"Let's go, I'll take you out to play. My good days will be over in a couple of days, and you won't be able to see me anymore."

Aisha didn't seem to understand what Dick was worried about. She kept yelling "wah-wah." From the tone and frequency of her cries, one could tell she was trying very hard to imitate human language.

Dick simply taught her: "'Papa,' you have to pronounce it like this. Purse your lips, and then make the soft 'P' sound..."

"This word means father, that is Mr. Wei En. He is your father, so you have to call him 'Papa.' But if you grow up a little more, you'll have to call him 'Dad' or 'Father'."

"This word is for children, but actually these words all mean father—it's just that one is an infant's colloquial term, one is a colloquial term, and one is a written term. Of course, the words for grandfather and grandmother are the same way..."

Aisha, who had just been practicing her pronunciation non-stop, was stunned on the spot.

Originally, language was a unique function of order-aligned creatures. Chaos creatures had absolutely no need for such things. They were born unique, had no tribes, did not need to communicate, and did not need to understand each other. They were born from chaos and would eventually return to chaos. Nothing logical would ever appear in their world.

And when a chaos creature suddenly transformed into an order creature, understanding the meaning of language itself was already difficult enough; learning pronunciation, tones, words, and grammar was even harder than ascending to heaven.

The Parallax Monster, who had transformed into a little girl, hadn't even figured out how to pronounce the simplest word when Dick told her there were endless words in this world waiting for her to learn. It was truly a headache for the monster.

Not wanting to listen to Dick's nagging anymore, Aisha broke free from his arms and ran out. Just as she ran onto the lawn, she felt a somewhat familiar power approaching.

Aisha paused, looked up at the sky, and vaguely saw two figures, one yellow and one green, colliding together.

She tried hard to turn her brain to think, then swung her short legs and ran back into the house, bumping right into Dick, who was just about to chase after her.

Aisha waved her arms and yelled "wah-wah" at him, but Dick couldn't understand what she was trying to say at all. Aisha imitated Dick and covered her forehead in distress.

She kept going "ah-ah-ah," as if she were only a tiny bit away from being able to say that pronunciation.