The twilight hours around five or six in the afternoon is the best weather in Gotham, where the occasional sunset can be seen over the sea.
The glow of the setting sun can penetrate layers of rain clouds and shine into the City of Darkness. Therefore, it is inaccurate to call this place the City of Night, it is more akin to the City of Twilight.
At sunset, the demonic moment, the light of the setting sun can give everything it shines upon a veil of mysterious dream-like beauty. With the rosy illuminations, even the black text on the white paper turns into a beautiful gold, starting to shimmer and twinkle.
Although the appearance of the text becomes very beautiful, it can't reduce the headache caused by the content. With a stack of papers in hand, Shearer is obvious with furrowed brows.
Victor, who was passing by Shearer with a stack of files, paused and glanced at the stack of papers, noticing the name Bruce Wayne in the author section, and curiously leaned over.
"This is Bruce's paper? It's pretty good, isn't it? The introductory part seems quite logical, but... is there something wrong with this symbol? And the citation format here seems to be incorrect..."
Shearer shook his head and said, "There are more problems than that, you only saw his introduction, and that's the part he wrote most diligently. Take a look here, its all competent upon first glance, but it's completely inconsistent with the proposal he submitted to me, it's obvious he let his pen fly off in the wrong direction."
"Over here, the logical connection in his argument is a complete mess. He shouldn't have cited Jung's theory here, it conflicts with the conclusion he presented previously, and over here... his paper shows clear signs of being hurriedly done overnight."
Victor patted Shearer on the shoulder, saying, "You shouldn't be too strict, after all, he hasn't done much work for the past three years. It's already wonderful he's able to produce this, these are minor issues. As long as the main direction of his research is sound, he can still graduate."
Shearer snorted and said, "If his undergrad papers are like this, what will happen when he's a postgraduate?"
"He wants to go to graduate school?" Victor asked in surprise, "I thought he hated class? Besides, does he really have the time to devote to research?"
"Whether he wants to research or not, he needs to. The whole of Gotham University only has a few postgraduates, all of whom are from other schools and whose academic level isn't up to par. I've been working here for several years, and I haven't been able to bring up a single postgraduate, that would be a stain on my record."
Looking at the stack of papers, Shearer sighed, genuinely filled with worry. Victor contemplated for a while and said, "I think the people who look at your record probably wouldn't care whether you've brought up a postgraduate or not."
Shearer rubbed his temples, put down the stack of papers and picked up the phone on the side, he said, "Hello? I'm Rodriguez, yes, that's right, I'm looking for Wayne, What? He's not there? At this time, if he's not at the library, where else could he be?"
Glancing at his watch, Shearer noted that it was almost seven pm. He knew that dinner time at Wayne Manor was usually around five to six in the evening, and Bruce was accustomed to a regular life and wouldn't easily change his meal hours.
Therefore, he should have finished dinner and returned to the library to continue studying. If he isn't in the library now, that means he's not studying.
Shearer checked the paper in his hand again, furrowing his brows a little more.
If there are various issues with the paper, this is perfectly normal as he's just an undergraduate, but to remain behind in progress with ongoing problems in basic formatting, and then to disappear after dinner, that's an issue of attitude.
Shearer got up, put on his coat, grabbed an umbrella, and made his way to the library. Finding that Bruce was indeed not there, he went to the dormitories and the dining hall, only to realize that Bruce was nowhere to be found within Gotham University, meaning Bruce wasn't at the university at all.
Recalling Bruce's report that Alfred had fallen ill, Shearer guessed that Bruce might have gone back to Wayne Manor to visit his butler. After all, he had been staying at the university these few days. It is understandable that he would be concerned about Alfred's condition.
Shearer also wanted to visit Alfred, so he drove to Wayne Manor, only to find that Bruce was not there.
"Oh, Professor Shearer, what brings you here at this hour?" Alfred hurriedly greeted Shearer. He wanted to help Shearer take off his coat, but Shearer didn't have the intention to stay long. He said, "Nothing much, there are some formatting issues with Bruce's paper, I wanted to discuss them with him, is he not here?"
Alfred faltered for a moment and said, "I was just about to call the school and ask him to come back this weekend. Aisha is now at the age of attending kindergarten, I need to plan whether to hire a home tutor or send her to a community kindergarten…"
Shearer thought for a moment, then said, "If he's not at the school or at the manor, he's likely in the Wayne Building, or at his base."
Alfred nodded in agreement and said to Shearer, "You've been putting a lot of trouble into him these days, professor, I hope Bruce can graduate with excellent grades..."
Looking at the old man in front of him, Shearer smiled and said, "He will."
After leaving Wayne Manor, Shearer rushed to the Wayne Building, which is where most of the administrative staff of Wayne Enterprises work. Shearer had never been here before, since he didn't have an appointment, he asked the reception, but they hadn't seen Bruce there either.
Just as Shearer was about to head to the Batcave to find Bruce, he spotted a familiar shadow in a small alley near the Wayne Building. He glanced at his watch, it was not yet eight. Barely nightfall, why was Batman already out and about?
Schiller arrived at the end of the alley, just as Batman had jumped down from the wall. Upon seeing Schiller standing outside the alley, Batman was taken aback.
Before Schiller could say a word, Batman spoke up first, saying: "Professor, if you wish for me to finish my thesis as soon as possible, you could reach out to me directly in the library, there's no need to go to the Wayne Building, it may frighten the staff…"
Schiller was also taken aback, he asked: "When did I go to the Wayne Building? The front desk staff there doesn't even know me. I just called the library to look for you, and the librarian told me you weren't there, so I came here."
Both of them went silent, realizing there might be some misunderstanding at play here. Schiller was the first to speak up: "Batman, I don't necessarily want to stop your heroic endeavors, but don't you think you should assess your current situation?"
Schiller somehow produced a stack of papers, waving it in his hand to produce a "swish" sound. Looking at Batman, he said: "Your thesis now, there are issues with even the basic formatting. A lot of symbols are wrongly used, citation formatting is off…"
"If you wish to continue fighting crime in Gotham, at the very least you need to fix these issues first, right? Is it really too much to ask?"
"Uh, no…" Batman replied, but then he hesitated before adding: "However, I do have an urgent matter to handle right now."
"What matter?" Schiller asked, looking at him.
Perhaps even Batman found it absurd, he revealed a hesitant face but still said, "... There's been a break-in at the Wayne Building."
"A break-in??" Schiller raised his voice, saying: "Batman, do you insist on testing my patience time and time again? If you truly don't want to write your thesis, then you can postpone your graduation, a few years is fine. Don't spin a lie that even a three-year-old can see through to evade studies..."
After that, Schiller lowered his head, took a deep breath and said, "Alright, I can overlook the fact that you've been suffering from mental issues that aren't treated timely, causing a string of consequences, and prevent you from entirely immersing yourself in normal life at present. My demand isn't high, can you amend the symbol errors by tonight, is that too hard?"
Schiller thought he had displayed utmost patience, but Batman showed no signs of leaving. Batman repeated his statement, "I'm not joking, someone broke into the Wayne Building and took away a number of important documents. I thought it was…"
"You thought I was the culprit?" Schiller stepped forward and retorted while holding up the papers, "I have no interest in any documents from Wayne Enterprises, all I want now is for you to return to school promptly and correct your punctuation errors!"
Batman sighed and said, "I'm not worried about the documents being stolen, there's no secret in the Wayne Building. But the issue is, many employees were frightened. They claimed that a figure suddenly appeared in the office when they were clocking out…"
"Many people said it was a ghost but some reactions were quite extreme. In the past few days, the window glass of the Wayne Building has been shattered by bullets more than ten times, but the figure is still appearing…"
Schiller sighed and said, "I don't have time to play this detective game with you. Handle the problems of your company yourself. But tomorrow morning, I want to see all punctuation in your thesis corrected, alright?"
After saying this, he turned around and left. Batman standing behind him took a deep breath, touching his forehead, he was feeling anxious. Over the last two weeks, he deeply understood what academic pressure was.
The next morning, Schiller sat in his office once again, holding a stack of papers, frowning and sighing.
Anna and Victor leaned in together, whispering to each other. Victor stared at Schiller and said, "To be honest, I can totally understand his feelings. Whenever a student's thesis refuses to improve no matter how much they amend it, I really feel like shooting them with a freeze gun."
Anna snorted and said, "You've never seen a genius who got more than a dozen different results from the same data set or someone whose decimal point placement in the results section of the thesis was incorrect!"
The two of them sighed simultaneously. Having spent a long time in Gotham University, they could not wait to go to the chapel and thank God anytime they encountered a student whose formatting and punctuation were correct and whose logic and arguments were reasonably rigorous.
Schiller didn't hear their low voices and was just focused on looking at the thesis in his hand.
The punctuation in the thesis had been corrected, but that was all that was corrected. Schiller didn't believe that Bruce was one to act only when pushed. There was no other explanation for this other than his lackadaisical attitude.
After all, the story about the break-in at the Wayne Building, unless the thief was Catwoman, always sounded like a tall tale.
However, the matter was far from straightforward. Today, when Schiller called the library, the librarian said that Bruce Wayne was not there and hadn't been all day.
He called the dormitory, and the roommate said he hadn't seen him either. And calling the Wayne Manor, Alfred again said Bruce was not there.
For three entire days, he couldn't reach him on the phone, couldn't get the thesis, and couldn't find him.
It could be said that the only thing keeping Schiller from blasting Bruce with his temper at this moment is that Batman doesn't have parents.