"Sometimes to love someone, you gotta be a stranger."
-Luv (The Blade Runner 2049)
...
Inside the hospital room, Barbara lay on the bed with a bandaged right arm and a cast on her left foot.
Standing beside the bed are two people, one tall and one small.
The tall one is muscular and handsome, wearing a custom-made, expensive suit and a valuable watch. His blue eyes give off a sense of depth that is hard to understand.
The small one, although not as tall as the first, is still stronger than the average person. He wears casual clothes and is handsome in a different way.
The glimpse in his eyes reveals purity instead of depth.
Both of them have blue eyes, but they give off completely different feelings.
Clang.
At this moment, the door to the hospital room suddenly opens, and Dean and Cassandra stand at the entrance and look at the three people in the room.
"Dick?"
Dean immediately recognized the familiar face in the room.
"Dean? Why are you here?"
Dick looked surprised at Dean's sudden appearance and asked.
"And who's the little girl behind you?"
"Cassandra! How did you get here?"
Meanwhile, Barbara on the hospital bed noticed Cassandra's appearance and asked quickly.
"And why are you with Dean?"
"Hey, can you two ask your questions separately."
Dean raises his hands helplessly.
"With so many questions coming at me, I don't even know where to start."
"Just start from the beginning."
Dick couldn't help but roll his eyes.
"Okay, the truth is that I was at the library today and happened to run into Cassandra. She needed... some help, and I helped her. That's how we got to know each other. Then we heard from the library manager that Barbara was hospitalized, so we decided to come visit."
Dean summarizes the situation.
"Uh... so why did you bring Cassandra to visit Barbara?"
Dick doesn't know Cassandra and doesn't know about Barbara's connection with Cassandra.
"Cassandra is a very unfortunate child. She... ran away from home when she was very young and lived on the streets for many years."
Barbara starts to explain their meeting with Cassandra. Then she looked at Cassandra and nodded to show that she didn't mind.
"This child never went to school and couldn't speak. One day, I saw her looking inside the library through the window, and then..."
Barbara tells the story of how she and Cassandra met.
"Since then, Cassandra has been coming to the library often, and I have been teaching her how to read."
Listening to the story, Dean suddenly felt that something was off.
'Why doesn't Barbara mention Cassandra's strong martial arts skills?'
'Does she not know, or is she intentionally hiding this information?'
Dean looks at Barbara, then at Cassandra.
If Cassandra's being skilled in fighting is a secret that needs to be kept secret, then she wouldn't have been able to display her strength in front of Dean earlier.
Even though Dean knew Barbara and patiently taught Cassandra some new words, it wouldn't make sense for her to put so much trust in someone she was just meeting, right?
But it's also unlikely that Barbara doesn't know that Cassandra knows martial arts. They have known each other for a long time, even longer than Dean.
Surely Barbara would know something that Dean knows?
Of course, it's also possible that Barbara only met Cassandra in the library.
At night, Barbara becomes Batgirl, and she doesn't have the opportunity to see Cassandra show her fighting skills.
"So, Cassandra is your name, right?"
Suddenly, a voice came from beside Dean.
It turned out to be the tall, middle-aged man in the hospital room who had quietly walked up to Cassandra.
Cassandra looked up at him with big eyes and nodded silently.
"I'm Bruce Wayne. If you need help, you can go to the Wayne Foundation. There's a welfare home specially built for homeless children there. You can receive financial support every month and get free sponsorship for education."
Bruce's face revealed a warm smile as he spoke gently to Cassandra.
In that instant, Dean vaguely noticed Dick and Barbara's eyes twitching at the same time, but he didn't know why.
Cassandra shook her head lightly and made a few gestures toward Bruce.
"Alright, I understand. But the Wayne Foundation is always ready to help you if you need it."
Bruce sighed.
It was really difficult to do something good in Gotham.
There were too many people like Cassandra who would rather live on the streets than accept help from the Wayne Foundation.
He had enough technology to monitor the flow of funds in the Wayne Foundation in real-time, effectively preventing embezzlement of the charitable funds.
He always ensured that every penny went to the right place. But people's deep-rooted distrust of the word 'charity' was hard to erase.
Most people would rather just take a small amount of money each month than choose the free accommodations, meals, and education support provided by Wayne Welfare Homes.
Even so, Bruce led Wayne Enterprises to spare no effort in transforming Gotham, constructing projects, improving education, investing in healthcare, and lowering prices... creating countless job opportunities for the people of Gotham.
Bruce and the board of directors of Wayne Enterprises often fought over these expensive investments, which led to a tense situation.
If it wasn't for his extraordinary skills, he would probably have been taken down a long time ago.
Despite all this, Gotham's situation is improving under Bruce's efforts. It has advanced technology, a flourishing economy, developed education and healthcare, and the quality of life for residents is improving daily.
But all of this seems to belong only to Gotham during the day.
Once night falls, Gotham's prosperity becomes a mirage, and evil stays like a stubborn infection.
Why?
Bruce has pondered this question many times, but even with his intelligence, he hasn't figured out the root cause.
It seems like we're getting a little off-topic, but it's not important anyway. It's just a momentary thought.
Beside him, when Bruce and Cassandra finished speaking, Dean eagerly said to Bruce.
"I never thought I would meet you here, Mr. Wayne. I often saw your impressive deeds on the news and heard many stories about you from Dick. I've been wanting to meet you for a long time, and today my wish has finally come true."
Dean's expression was real.
The person in front of him is none other than Batman, the father of DC Comics and the world's greatest detective. He has heard about Batman since childhood.
If he didn't feel excited at this first meeting, that would be a lie.
Of course, this might also have something to do with the fact that Dean's system. If he had enough power, maybe he wouldn't care so much about Batman.
"If I'm not mistaken, you are Dean Thurston, the top prodigy magician in Gotham."
Bruce smiled at Dean.
"I've wanted to see your performances at the Gotham Grand Theater a number of times, but other matters always kept me from going. By the time I had the chance, I had heard that you no longer perform publicly."
"That's right, I haven't been on stage for two years because I wanted to focus on my life and studies."
Dean nodded.
"I've watched some recordings of your magic performances, and it's really impressive that you've reached such a high level at your age. I even think your skills from a few years ago could rival Zatanna's."
Bruce casually chatted with Dean, who couldn't find any unusual expressions on his face.
It was as if he was just a very approachable billionaire, no different from anyone else, unlike the silent and serious Batman.
Dean was well aware that the man in front of him was not an ordinary person.
To be honest, he wasn't sure if he should have a conversation with Bruce.
If he accidentally revealed any information, his identity might be exposed. But not speaking would only create even bigger issues.
As the saying goes, the more one tries to hide something, the more likely it is to be discovered.
So Dean decided to just be himself without carefully thinking about what to say or not to say. He would say whatever came to his mind and be as natural as possible.
After all, he couldn't suddenly say, 'Hey, Mr. Wayne, I think you look a lot like Batman,' or 'Did you know, Mr. Wayne, that I'm actually a Phantom Thief?'
"You flatter me, Mr. Wayne. Zatanna has perfectly inherited the talent of the great Zatara. I've been lucky enough to see her perform on stage a few times. Her mastery of magic far exceeds mine. Even the simplest magic tricks become truly magical in her hands."
Dean responded to Bruce's praise.
In the face of Bruce's compliment, Dean shook his head, laughing himself, and said, "Compared to her, I'm practically a beginner just starting to learn magic."
"Humility is a good quality, young man, but excessive humility is unnecessary."
Bruce chuckled.
"Hey! Hey! How long are you two going to chat? I thought you were both here to visit me."
Barbara suddenly spoke from the hospital bed, pursing her lips.
"Oh dear, I suddenly remembered something important."
Dean slapped his forehead, spread his empty hands, and groaned, "How could I come to visit without bringing anything?"
"It's okay; you only found out about this from the library after all. It's already a lovely surprise for me that you came to visit."
Barbara laughed nonchalantly.
"That won't do."
Dean rubbed his chin and thought for a moment, then his eyes suddenly lit up.
"I've got it! How about some fruit? Barbara, do you like oranges? Or strawberries?"
"Here we go again. I know what you're up to, magic time, right?"
Dick, who was nearby, had an expression as if he had known this would happen.
"Dean, if you already have the fruit ready, just bring it out. I don't know where you've hidden the oranges or strawberries."
"Shut up, Dick!"
Barbara said impatiently, then looked at Dean with interest.
"Dean, magicians usually prepare the necessary props in advance for their magic performances, so... I choose blueberries."
Barbara suggested with a slightly upturned corner of her mouth, eagerly anticipating Dean's next move.
Bruce smiled and watched the young people's playfulness without saying a word, just quietly standing by, not knowing what he was thinking.
At the back, Cassandra looked at the group in the hospital room in utter confusion.
She couldn't speak and didn't understand language, which meant she couldn't understand the meaning of spoken words.
Although she didn't have any hearing impairment and even had better hearing than the average person, Cassandra couldn't understand any spoken language.
The reason why Cassandra could still communicate normally with others was because she had an extraordinary ability—she could read people's body language.
The movement of hands, the motion of legs, the shaking of the body, the turning of the head, the opening and closing of the mouth, the opening and closing of eyes—all actions of the human body would reveal information invisibly, and Cassandra was able to understand these pieces of information.
As long as a person's body was still moving, Cassandra could judge what the person wanted to say or do by reading their body language.
In a certain sense, she could even predict something like an opponent's moves.
This almost superpower-like bug technique seemed perfect, but in fact, it had a major flaw.
If the other person's body wasn't moving, Cassandra would not be able to read their body language.
Also, when she encounters certain strange signals, Cassandra can't understand their meanings.
For example, the term that Dean and the others had just mentioned is "magic."
Cassandra had never seen a magic performance since birth, and while living on the street since the age of nine, she had never encountered the concept of magic.
Perhaps it sounds incredible, but she really didn't know what "magic" was, nor did she know what Dean planned to do.
"Blueberries, huh? That's a bit difficult... but it's okay; magicians are born to do the impossible."
After hearing Barbara's choice, Dean first rubbed the back of his head in distress and then turned the conversation around confidently.
He walked to the cabinet beside the hospital bed, pushed some items on top to one side, and instructed Dick.
"Dick, could you please find a handkerchief or piece of cloth?"
"Tsk, you sure know how to order people around."
Dick rolled his eyes and remarked, but he still took the initiative to find the prop for Dean.
A white handkerchief.
"Mr. Wayne."
At this point, Dean called out Bruce's name and smiled.
"You mentioned earlier that you've always wanted to see my magic show in person, and I'm incredibly grateful for that. So, I would like to invite you to join me in completing this magic trick."
"Oh?"
Bruce smiled slightly with a hint of playfulness and reminded Dean, "I forgot to tell you that when I was young, I studied under Zatara for some time. At that time, Zatanna's talent was not as good as mine. Are you not afraid that I'll expose your trick on the spot?"
"Well, then I can only ask Mr. Wayne to go easy on me and let me off the hook."
Dean shrugged helplessly.
Seeing that Dean said this, Bruce came to Dean's side and asked curiously, "What do you need me to do, Master Thurston?"
...
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