Chapter 608

In the midst of the night, Wei En Manor exuded a tranquil atmosphere. Dick, wearing pajamas and a nightcap, hugged a blanket and walked toward his bedroom.

He had just finished the homework assigned by his teacher and had fallen asleep while doing it. Alfred had draped a blanket over him, which made him feel a bit embarrassed.

Bruce placed great emphasis on Dick's grades. Although he didn't necessarily have to be first, he at least had to have decent grades; failing was definitely not acceptable.

Dick didn't really like reading. He followed Bruce originally wanting to learn combat skills and reconnaissance skills, but Bruce insisted that he wasn't an adult and had to go to school, so Dick could only go to school quietly.

However, Dick was indeed very smart. He didn't work very hard, but he could still rank in the top three. However, he really didn't like rote memorization; instead, he stood out in various activities at school.

And because he used to practice acrobatics, his physical coordination was very good, and he also had an advantage in sports. He even joined the middle school high jump team; he could be said to be a typical example of all-around development.

After returning to his room, Dick found Aisha hugging a storybook and waiting for him. Dick walked over, took the storybook, flipped through it, and said, "Where did we leave off? Let me see... oh, this book is already finished."

Aisha stared at him with wide eyes. Dick sighed and explained, "There's no way; we can't go to the library anymore."

"Opening the library door requires a key, and the key is with Alfred. Alfred should be asleep by now, and we can't go disturb him anymore; that would be impolite."

Aisha showed a wronged expression, jumped up, snatched the book from Dick's hand, and turned to leave. Dick grabbed her and said, "Don't be angry. If we don't tell stories, we can do something else. Hmm, let me think..."

"Right, I joined the school choir before. The teacher taught a few songs, but I don't really like singing them."

Dick pulled Aisha to sit down. He hugged the blanket, thought for a moment, and said, "A few days ago, I was organizing materials for Mr. Wei En, and he had me learn a song. I think it's quite nice. I'll teach you how to sing it, how about that?"

Aisha tilted her head, seemingly not knowing what song Dick was talking about, or rather, she couldn't actually understand what a song was at all. Dick tried hard to recall the song and then said, "Forget it, it won't work. That song is too complex for you; I memorized the lyrics for a long time."

Aisha made a sound. Dick immediately turned his head to look at her and said, "You're sure you want to learn? It's really quite hard..."

Aisha nodded vigorously. Dick said helplessly, "Fine, if you don't learn it by then, you're not allowed to be angry."

"I'll teach you the lyrics first." Dick stood up, ran to the bedside table, took out a pen, opened the storybook, and started writing the lyrics in an empty space.

Aisha leaned her head over, but she didn't really know the words yet, so Dick recited as he wrote:

"Court of Owls... watching you all the time..."

"These lyrics are really strange, right? But the tune of this song is quite nice. I'll teach you how to sing it: Court of Owls... watching you all the time..."

Dick hadn't experienced the previous battle with the Court of Owls; he had no idea that such a thing existed in Cat Getan. Moreover, he saw in the book that this song was just a nursery rhyme, and Bruce hadn't shown any special attitude toward this song, so Dick just treated it as a song.

Bruce felt that Dick, who hadn't received professional music education, couldn't possibly understand sheet music, let alone sing the song completely.

However, Dick had participated in many activities at school and had joined the choir. He had a good relationship with the nun who taught the choir and had learned some basic content of musical scores, so he could hum the song by looking at the sheet music.

But because he hadn't learned it fully and hadn't sung it seriously, the tune he hummed was an extremely simplified version. Combined with those complex lyrics, it was a bit strange, but precisely because the tune had been simplified, Aisha learned it very quickly.

Discovering that Aisha could hum the tune, Dick began to focus on teaching her the lyrics. But Aisha couldn't even speak, and she didn't know many words, so how could she memorize such a long string of lyrics? So, Aisha simplified the lyrics as well.

Just like that, the originally complex, dark, Gothic-style Court of Owls nursery rhyme completely turned into a real children's song.

Perhaps Dick had exceptional talent in art; this children's song could really be called catchy. Except for the first two lines, "Court of Owls, watching you all the time," which remained unchanged, the remaining lyrics were changed to be very logical, and the tune became relatively repetitive, pleasant, and easy to remember.

Before long, Aisha had completely learned the song. It seemed she really liked singing. After learning it, she started singing non-stop, and even the pronunciation of the words became fluent.

After singing it a few times, Aisha became more proficient. She clapped her hands happily. Suddenly, she froze, then started shaking her head from side to side, seemingly looking for something. Dick was a bit confused by her reaction and asked, "What's wrong? Aisha? What are you looking for?"

Aisha showed a very confused expression. She opened her mouth, seemingly biting something, but she didn't bite anything. She sniffed hard again, as if she smelled something, but there was nothing around.

Her reaction made Dick's back feel cold. Dick shivered, hugged the blanket tighter, looked at Aisha, and asked, "What exactly is wrong with you? Don't scare me..."

Discovering that she hadn't found what she wanted, Aisha thought for a moment and then started singing again. After a while, she opened her mouth, took a bite of the air, and sniffed again.

Seemingly having discovered something, Aisha started singing the nursery rhyme loudly. Later, Aisha discovered that singing it like this was still too much trouble, so she further simplified the lyrics and the tune. In the end, the entire nursery rhyme was left with only the first line, plus a simple tune, repeated constantly.

Aisha sang faster and faster, her voice getting louder and louder. As she sang, she kept her mouth open, chewing twice every time she sang, chewing twice every time she sang, as if she were eating something. Dick was scared out of his wits. He ran out of the room quickly and went to call Alfred.

After Alfred was called over, Aisha was still singing. Alfred didn't act rashly. He went straight to make a phone call and called Bruce, who was researching the Ark Reactor model in the Batcave, back.

After Bruce returned and saw Aisha like this, he asked Dick, "What's wrong? What is she singing?"

Because this song had been simplified into too many versions by Dick and Aisha, Bruce couldn't tell at all for a moment that it was that nursery rhyme. Dick thought he had caused trouble and honestly confessed everything.

Bruce looked at Dick and said, "You really learned that song? How do you know how to read sheet music?"

"I joined the school choir. The nun who taught singing liked me quite a bit, so she taught me to recognize some symbols in musical scores, but I don't recognize them all. I only know a basic melody, and the rest of the tune was made up by me."

Dick turned his head to look at Aisha again and said, "After I taught it to Aisha, she didn't fully learn it either. The rest of the tune was probably made up by her too."

Just then, Aisha suddenly stopped singing. She stood in place, hiccuped, and then suddenly started laughing. She ran to Bruce's leg, hugged his leg, jumped, and shouted, "Daddy! So full! Ate until full!"

Bruce squatted down, pressed Aisha's shoulders, looked her over from front to back, and discovered that she was neither injured nor was her mind confused; it was just that he didn't quite understand the sentence she had just said.

Aisha could already say some words now and could also use language to express her state. For example, when Alfred fed her vegetables she didn't like, she would say she was full and didn't want to eat.

Bruce looked up at the clock hanging on the wall again. It was past 9 o'clock in the evening. Logically speaking, 4 hours had passed since dinner time. Bruce looked back at Alfred. Alfred shook his head and said, "Eating a midnight snack is not good for your health; the Wei En family doesn't have such a habit."

"What did you eat?" Bruce asked.

"Delicious... so full, ate until full! Hiccup!" Aisha could only repeat these few words over and over. Bruce asked several times, but she couldn't say anything else.

In the end, Aisha also understood that Bruce really wanted to know the answer, so she tugged on Bruce's pant leg, walked to the window, and pointed outside.

Bruce looked outside the window. There was nothing there, only the endless night of Cat Getan.

Discovering that Bruce still didn't understand, Aisha thought for a moment, then ran over quickly, jumped onto the bed, and turned off the desk lamp.

Now, the whole room was plunged into pitch darkness. Aisha stood on the bed, jumping up and down, shouting, "This! Delicious! It's this!"

Bruce walked over and turned on the desk lamp. Aisha stopped shouting. He turned off the desk lamp again, and Aisha started shouting again. Bruce stood up, exchanged a look with Alfred, and then said, "Dark? Night?... Darkness?"

Suddenly, he thought that the one who created this nursery rhyme might be a dark owl priest. Now, when Aisha sang this nursery rhyme, it was like she was eating something, and after eating, she would shout "so full." Did that mean this nursery rhyme might have brought some things, and then they were eaten by Aisha?

Thinking of this, Bruce immediately became nervous. He first picked up Aisha, then tugged on Dick's arm, and said, "Come with me, come with me, go to the hall!"

"Alfred, turn on all the defense systems of Wei En Manor. All vehicles are to be in position. If any abnormality is discovered, output maximum firepower directly!"

After saying this, he carried one child in each hand, walked quickly to the hall downstairs, turned on all the lights in the hall, and let them stand in the center of the hall. Alfred brought him the full set of Batman equipment. After Bruce changed into it, he stood in the hall of Wei En Manor, ready for battle.

But after waiting for a long time, nothing strange came. Who knew that at this moment, Aisha actually started singing that nursery rhyme again, and then started chewing, chewing, chewing while singing. Bruce took this opportunity to observe the surroundings, but still saw nothing.

He felt that this might be a problem of vision. Some things Aisha could see didn't mean he could see them. After all, Aisha was a reincarnation of Parallax, her soul was Parallax's, and his soul was an ordinary human's, so it was very likely that Aisha could see things he couldn't.

Not just him, Dick and Alfred were both ordinary humans, so in the entire manor, only Aisha could see that kind of thing.

Bruce admitted that when he discovered this nursery rhyme might be problematic, he panicked for a moment. At that time, he felt that Dick couldn't read sheet music, which was why he had him memorize the lyrics.

But this was actually also because he lacked understanding of Dick. Recently, he had been busy researching the Ark Reactor model Schiller gave him. By the time he got home, both children were already asleep. Sometimes, they didn't eat dinner at home either. The time they used to spend chatting and telling stories in front of the fireplace after dinner was completely gone.

Therefore, Bruce hadn't understood Dick's school life enough recently and didn't know what activities he had participated in at school, which was why this oversight occurred.

Fortunately, Aisha wasn't an ordinary child. If both children were just ordinary human children, they might have been entangled by something, and Bruce and Alfred wouldn't have been able to discover it.

Linking it to his previous speculation—that is, Cat Getan becoming so chaotic and dark might be precisely because the dark owl priests were playing tricks in the dark—could it be that because of his momentary negligence, Dick and Aisha would also walk down an irreversible path?

Thinking of this, Bruce's expression slowly turned cold. He didn't leave the two children but had Alfred bring the phone from the living room, picked up the receiver, dialed, and said to the other end:

"Hello, it's me. Come to Wei En Manor."

A muddled and hoarse voice came from the other side: "What? Bruce? What did you say? I... oh, wait a minute, honey, wait, let me take a call... I don't have time right now; it's adult time..."

Bruce's voice became colder and colder. He said, "If you don't come over, then I'll come find you, Constantine."

Constantine instantly broke into a cold sweat. He felt that he was being watched by an irresistible darkness. He shook his head hard and said:

"Wait for me, I'll be there right away."