As winter gradually set in, the rain in Gotham didn't diminish. The pitter-patter rain slid down the eaves, falling into the garden where tender garden plants had their leaves beaten down, their supple branches bent, touching the ground, uttering helpless cries.
Merkel put on his raincoat and went out with an umbrella. Shiller, who had been reading by the fireplace, looked up and asked, "What's the matter? Where are you going?"
"Sir, the rain is too heavy tonight. The newly-transplanted plants in the garden might not be able to bear it. I'm going to prop up the rain canopy to help them make it through this winter."
Shiller shook his head with a hint of resignation, "Even without the rain, they wouldn't survive this winter. I'm afraid they wouldn't even make it through the night..."
"Merkel. I told you long ago, Gotham is not a city where you can use your gardening skills. Those delicate European seedlings are only suited to grow in the gardens of European nobles, but Gotham? This place will be their graveyard."
Merkel sighed lightly and said, "A month ago, when there was some sunshine, they were growing quite well, but I didn't expect that, in the past week, the city has been covered with clouds."
"Even if they can't all survive, at least we need to save the few remaining ones. After all, how could there be no flowers in the manor's garden?"
Shiller just shook his head helplessly, without saying anything, and Merkel went outside with his umbrella.
Through the French windows behind the drawing room, Shiller could see that as soon as Merkel stepped outside the door, the strong wind broke the umbrella ribs, with the force of the wind pushing him into a tree behind him, tripping him with the tree roots on the ground.
When Merkel stood up again, he threw away the broken umbrella as if he was venting his anger, put on the hood of his raincoat, and walked back. Shiller laughed and said, "Why would you bother at this point? Can't you deal with it tomorrow morning? Tonight is a typhoon..."
Having finished speaking, he closed the book, walked to the door, and glanced back at the garden.
The situation there was indeed not optimistic, not just for the newly transplanted plants, but even the many rose plants left by the former manor owner, as well as the dense shrubs. Despite their tough nature, they were now barely hanging on in the gusts of the typhoon.
Shiller turned back to the cloakroom near the staircase, took out two umbrellas, and handed one to Merkel. Merkel, looking somewhat puzzled, took the umbrella and Shiller shrugged, saying:
"We do have to rescue the plants. Judging by this weather, Gotham's gardeners will be pretty busy tomorrow, and you can't expect the ladies in the mansion district to rush out in this rainy night to save their gardens."
Shiller put on his own raincoat, grabbed his umbrella, and walked into the garden. The cold wind whipped against his raincoat, but his umbrella stood firm, no matter how torrential or fierce the wind, it remained immovable.
The garden of Rodrix Manor is one of the larger gardens in the mansion district. It is said that the former owner had a great interest in gardening. Although Shiller didn't know how a typical Gothamite could develop such a hobby, when he initially bought the manor, he ended up paying a third of its price for the beautiful, large garden alone.
Shiller had barely any experience with gardening. After acquiring the large garden, he was briefly inspired to plant something, but in the end, the outcome was far from a bounty of growth – instead, it resembled a desolate, fallen forest.
However, before Shiller tried his hand at gardening, he had crammed a great deal of knowledge about cultivation. After getting started, though, he found that taking up gardening in Gotham was a little too extravagant. The majority of the local plants had to go through survival of the fittest for many generations to adapt to the harsh environment here.
Gotham's rain is equal for all life forms. Humans could go mad because of it, animals could turn savage, and as for plants, they haven't undergone any frightening mutations yet. To expect them to still blossom beautifully is really asking too much.
After several unsuccessful attempts at transplanting new plants, Shiller no longer tinkered with the garden. But then, Bat Cat and Pikachu damaged a large part of the mansion's structure. Shiller had no choice but to move back to the academy for a while.
Broken houses can be fixed. In fact, Shiller even managed to change the layout of the rooms he didn't particularly like into something more to his taste and simultaneously unify the redecoration style. But the only pity was the large garden. The collapse of the buildings hurt many plants. They couldn't get through just one winter and all died.
Shiller's mansion is a very typical English manor. You enter through a main door under a three-sided skylight. On your left is the hall, and on your right, the parlour.
To the south of the parlour are tall, slender glass windows for lighting, and to the north is a complete, curved French window, followed by the door leading to the garden. This French window opens right out onto the garden.
That is to say, guests waiting in the parlour could see the garden just as they came in. When Shiller first came to view the house, he was attracted by this feature.
The heavy door is pushed open, sunlight cascades down from the skylight. When you walk into the parlour, the taller, slender glass windows cut the sunshine into slender shapes. When it projects into the room, it is warm but not dazzling.
Sitting on the sofa in the parlour and looking out, you could see a blooming garden.
Looking out through the French window, first, there were roses climbing the trellis, followed by staggered reeds and half a pond. Then there was a serpentine path hedged by trees, a big tree in the middle of the courtyard, and a pristine flower pavilion in the far distance.
This French window was like a picture frame, encapsulating the most beautiful scenes in the whole garden.
But after the garden was destroyed, the trellis for the climbing plants collapsed. Some of the shorter climbing plants survived, but most of the roses that had grown for many years were almost completely wiped out. The bricks around the pond were damaged, and the reeds were leaning in all directions.
The smaller pathway pergola and the trees in the distance were unharmed, but without the foreground to enhance their beauty, they seemed even more desolate.
When Merkel used to visit, he would admire the grandeur of the large garden. He said he had learned gardening skills in Steward Academy, so Shiller, sitting in the living room reading the newspaper, often saw him pruning flower branches in the garden.
But since the large garden was destroyed, Shiller was so busy watching over the kids at the vocational school that he didn't have time to return to the manor. After a call from Merkel, who had purchased a bunch of gardening plants from Europe, they were planted in the previous transplantation season.
As expected, after two devastating seasons and the heaviest rainstorm in ten years, eighty percent of the transplanted plants didn't even have a chance to bloom before returning to the embrace of Mother Earth. The remaining twenty percent barely survived and their condition further deteriorated.
Standing in the storm, Shiller looked at the few plant seedlings tied with thin ropes to correct their growth, and sighed helplessly. He thought that these remaining plants probably wouldn't survive the night.
At this moment, Merkel came over carrying the materials for the rain shelter. Shiller took a gardening shovel and two shelter stands from him, walked to the other side of the garden, loosened the soil, and buried the stands.
After all four stands were in place, he hung the rain shelter. After hanging and fastening it to one side, he went to the other side and did the same thing.
"I think what we're doing is pointless," Shiller said while fastening the rain shelter," this is only satisfying our sympathy. It won't make any difference to these poor plants."
"What did you say?!" Merkel yelled from the other side of the garden. The sound of the rain and storm drowned their voices, so they had to shout. While tying the rope, Shiller repeated:
"I said! I think this is completely useless! We can't guard here every night, they're bound to die in the rain!"
"But we have to do something, don't we?!" With a tightened raincoat collar, more securely fastened hat, and squinting eyes against the rain, Merkel loudly continued, "Last time! When Alfred came to pick up Aisha! He sighed looking at the bay window! He must have had some opinions about Steward Academy where I studied!"
Tying a knot on the rope, Shiller pushed the knot onto the shelter stand and yelled just as loudly, "I think! He may have a problem with me! Because Aisha hasn't yet learned to call his name, but she learned to call mine!"
"Damn it!!!" Merkel stumbled, shaking his hand violently. Shiller glanced over and asked, "What's wrong? Did you run out of rope?"
"No, a damn splinter from this stand got stuck in my hand, I might need to bandage it," Merkel frowned, looking at his hand and grimacing.
Before Shiller could respond, a strong gust of wind blew, and Merkel pulled back both his hands from the shelter stand. The wind blew the erected rain shelter like the previous umbrella, suddenly collapsing and falling to the ground.
Shiller let go, took a step back, and watched in disbelief as the shelter stand and rain shed fell onto the few pitiful seedlings.
Then, he shook his head and said, "It seems, I was too optimistic. They probably won't even survive through the first half of the night..."
The two men returned to the manor. Merkel took off his raincoat and went upstairs to bandage his injury, while Shiller stood in front of the French window watching the fallen shelter being blown around the ground, like a ferocious spider monster. When it was blown outside the garden, it messed up the pebble pathway and the grass in front.
When Merkel returned, Shiller walked back to the sofa and said, "I initially thought that the garden could last until Aisha learned the word 'garden', I didn't expect it to be destroyed this rapidly…"
Merkel showed a guilty expression and said, "I shouldn't have tried to save those few seedlings. Tomorrow morning, we not only have to clean up the rain shelter, but also repave the pebble path. The adjacent hedge seems to be somewhat damaged too, oh God!"
At this, he hurried to the phone and said, "I hope God forgives me for calling Big Foot Daddy this late and asking him to recommend a gardener…"
After he said this, he picked up the phone and dialed. As Shiller listened to Merkel negotiating the time for the gardener and repairman to come, he walked back to the French window, wanting to observe how the spider-like rain shelter had destroyed the garden.
Now, the rain shelter had been blown to the foot of the oak tree in the middle of the garden. The thick root system of the oak tree had stopped the spider legs of the shelter stand, reducing its destructive force. It seemed that the path of destruction had been halted.
Just as Shiller was about to turn away, he saw a black shadow jump off the manor's roof onto the oak tree and then jump down from the branches of the oak tree.
As it landed, the cloak got caught on the raised rain shelter stand, like a mosquito caught by a terrifying spider monster, or rather... a bat.
In the first second of being caught, Batman didn't understand why he was hanging in mid-air. He'd taken this route countless times before, so what could possibly go wrong?
But soon, he realized, it wasn't him who had a problem, but Shiller's manor.
Looking at the manor that seemed to have been ravaged by a giant beast, and catching Shiller's eye who was quietly standing behind the bay window, Batman surprisingly found himself sighing in relief.
Not for Shiller, but for the creature that may have attacked Shiller's manor, and for himself.