Chapter 4395: Far Star Project (20)

"Bruce, look at this." Victor dialed Bruce's communication, sent over a large pile of photos, then said, "I found this in the art museum; it should be paintings by Martians; they look quite good."

Bruce flipped through the pictures he sent, and then his movements paused. He discovered that the artistic creation style of Martians was really quite different from humans; they were not realists at all; the things they painted, saying they were abstract was a bit too much, more like magical realism.

For example, when they painted a tree, although there was still the outline of a tree, what was filled inside were some strangely colored lines, and there would be many things unrelated to the tree. If one or two pictures were like this, it could be said to be a unique artistic style, but most of the paintings from different people's hands were this style, which proved that this was popular art in the Martian city, and they could understand it.

Bruce definitely couldn't understand it, so he contacted Martian Manhunter and sent the photos over. Martian Manhunter was silent for a long time before answering; he said: "Martians have the talent of reading minds; we don't recognize them through a person's appearance, but through their spiritual world. It's the same for objects; those colored lines you can't understand are actually expressing feelings of the spiritual world."

"So that's it." Bruce nodded and said, "Thank you so much, Martian Manhunter."

"It's nothing..." Martian Manhunter was silent for a long time, but didn't hang up the phone, and Bruce didn't hang up either. After a while, Martian Manhunter opened his mouth and said: "Where did you find these paintings?"

"Victor found them; it seems to be in an art museum; what's wrong?"

"These are children's paintings." Martian Manhunter said, "Their expression of the spiritual world is very simple, just painting what they saw without too much processing. My daughter also painted such paintings."

"Is that so? Which kindergarten is she in? Perhaps we can find her past works, who knows." Bruce said nonchalantly.

"She... she indeed had a painting selected for the Martian City Art Museum; it painted... it painted me, it was the scene when I arrested criminals. You..."

"You want me to help you find it, right? Okay, I'll tell Victor, but he just left the art museum; I'll let him go back and look for it."

"No no no... better not delay the real work..."

"Researching Martian culture is our real work. If possible, I hope you can talk about how that painting was created; you should know, right?"

"Yes... she told me..."

Martian Manhunter's tone was a bit dry at first, but soon, as if he had fallen into those beautiful memories, he spoke more and more fluently. He described how he saw the painting his daughter painted, how proud his daughter was when telling him about her classmates' reactions when the painting was selected, and how they later went to the art museum to see the exhibition together.

Bruce just listened quietly, responding from time to time. By the end, Martian Manhunter was also a bit emotional; he said: "Although I don't know why you suddenly became interested in Martian culture, if it weren't for this, perhaps I would never talk about these things to anyone again. Thank you, Bruce."

"It's nothing, Martian Manhunter, this is my duty."

Hanging up the phone, Martian Manhunter, who had returned to his apartment on Earth, sighed. Although he could never see through Bruce, he had to admit that he was a good leader. When Bruce listened to those things he thought would never be mentioned again, Martian Manhunter was still a bit moved.

But soon he discovered that he had been moved too early.

Things began to develop at an unimaginable speed, so much so that by the time Martian Manhunter realized what Bruce was trying to do, everything was already too late.

On an ordinary winter morning, every household was busy for the upcoming Christmas, cleaning houses, buying ingredients, or cleaning the snow in the yard.

Because both Atlantis and Themyscira were affected in this war, Arthur, Diana, and Martian Manhunter stayed on Earth, while the others worked on Mars.

On this day, they gathered at the Hall of Justice, preparing to repair this street as well. Of course, the traces of previous destruction had been repaired by Victor, but the street itself wasn't that clean either; they thought Christmas was coming soon, so they should clean it up properly.

Arthur swept the street head, Diana swept the street tail, and Martian Manhunter was responsible for cleaning the snow at the door and the roof. They didn't use super-powers either, just relying on physical strength far exceeding ordinary people to sweep bit by bit. While sweeping, Diana's phone rang.

"Hello? Yes, Ms. Madela told me it's not very busy recently; I didn't go today; what's wrong?" She swept the snow while answering the phone.

"What?!! Exhibiting again??!! Why exhibit again??!!" Diana suddenly let out an exclamation.

Then she roared somewhat exasperatedly: "What on earth is there to see about that broken snake?!! Why is there another exhibition in such a short time??!!"

After hanging up the phone, Diana looked lifeless, even somewhat desperate, squatting on the ground and covering her face. Martian Manhunter heard the movement here, realized Diana had encountered trouble, so he walked over and asked: "What's wrong, Diana? Is your boss giving you trouble? I told you you didn't need to run back specially..."

"No," Diana's tone was filled with deep despair, "...'The Serpent of Phrine' is going to be exhibited again."

"Uh, is it difficult to exhibit it? Why don't you go back first? Don't delay work." Martian Manhunter thought he was very understanding.

Diana shook her head. Martian Manhunter frowned slightly, but seeing Diana take out her phone, he nodded again and said: "If you're not going back, also say hello to your colleagues; don't let them wait in vain."

"I'm going to resign." Diana said coldly.

"Wait! Wait!" Martian Manhunter hurried to stop her, then said, "Why resign? That job of yours is so good; decent, high salary, and housing subsidies. If you resign, where are you going to find such a good job?"

Diana had an expression of despair greater than death. Martian Manhunter finally sensed something was wrong; he said: "What on earth is wrong? If you really can't explain it clearly, why don't I take a look myself?"

Diana nodded. With his permission, Martian Manhunter checked a part of her memory, and then he was speechless too.

"I mean, is there a possibility that there is a real professional in the entire cultural relic collection world who can discover that this painting is fake? Not even one?"

"This is the art world." Diana was laughed at by anger; she said, "Moreover, now with the royal endorsement, no one can say this is fake anymore."

The two were silent for a while. Martian Manhunter said: "Exhibit if you want to exhibit; it can earn some more ticket money; isn't it all your salary?"

"If only that were true." Diana pursed her lips, revealed a smile, then said, "But the problem is, this painting often appears together with the Pharaoh's curse."

Before she even finished speaking, a black luxury car drove into the street and stopped steadily in front of the two. Leather shoes stepped on the ground; after Schiller stood straight, he tidied his tie, looked at Diana and said: "Come with us, lady. Or do you still want to have an intimate contact with the Pharaoh's treasure?"

Diana closed her eyes and took a deep breath, opened the car door and sat in. Schiller also got in the car; Martian Manhunter looked at the back of the car leaving, feeling slightly worried, but he really didn't feel Schiller's malice, thinking there shouldn't be anything wrong, so he didn't follow.

"You should have heard the news about the mural exhibition, right?"

"What do you want to do again?" Diana stared at him and asked.

"Nothing, just want to do an interview with you regarding this precious cultural relic. The staff of the Metropolis Museum and private collectors should have quite exquisite views."

"Where is the report?" Diana asked directly.

Schiller took out a document from the file bag on the side and handed it to Diana. This was an interview draft that had been written long ago; she only needed to sign it.

Just seeing the title, Diana was shocked. She looked at Schiller, then looked at the interview draft, then said: "'Ancient Amazon Kingdom Princess claims, mysterious alien spaceship pattern on Egyptian cultural relic points to Martian civilization'?!"

Diana felt her brain was stirred into a paste. Wasn't that alien spaceship painted on it a Kryptonian spaceship? How did it become Martian again? Wasn't this thing meant to point to Superman? How did it point to Martian civilization again?

"The public doesn't know about the existence of Krypton." Schiller said, "Moreover, even if they knew, because it is too far from Earth, there is no real feeling. Mars is different; for cosmic distances, these two planets couldn't be closer."

Diana seemed to realize something; she gasped, turned her head to stare at Schiller, seemingly wanting to see something from his face. But this man just smiled at her.

With a "slap", she closed the document, Diana shook her head and said: "No, I won't sign. This is spreading rumors and creating panic. What is the point of doing this?"

"Don't ask what you already know, lady. What Batman told you, have you forgotten it all?"

"You two were really colluding!!!!!!" Diana shouted in terror.

"I'm afraid the time we've been colluding is longer than you imagine; unfortunately, I'm just a black glove for that Mr. Wayne, so don't add too much blame to me, okay?"

Diana felt she was trembling a bit. She realized that from the first time Schiller found her, Batman was aware of it, and the series of events that happened later were all under his control.

Fabricating fake cultural relics, spreading rumors, forcing Superman, moving the Capitol, forming the Justice League, resisting monster attacks...

All of this was Batman's plan.

And what he wanted, it seemed, was already self-evident.

Diana took a few deep breaths, trying hard to calm her mood, then stared tightly at Schiller and said: "Are you sure your series of high-level plans can land smoothly? If not, that will be a disaster for the entire Earth!"

"You don't need to worry about this, lady. Sign or not?"

Diana didn't want to sign, but in her mind, the descriptions of Batman by her sisters in the Battleworld kept flashing. She originally thought they were exaggerating; now it seemed they were still restrained.

After struggling and hesitating for a long time, Diana still wrote her name under the report with a big stroke, threw the document at Schiller forcefully, then said: "If something goes wrong, I'll hold you accountable!"

"That's unreasonable of you," Schiller said, "I already told you, this is Batman..."

"I can't beat him, can't I beat you?"

"... Hard to say." ===== CHAPTER 4396 =====