Thomas sat on the sofa of Wayne Manor with Bruce's report card in hand, clutching his forehead. His current emotion was not anger, but genuine worry.
He realized he had fallen into a cognitive trap. Professor Zoom's words had led him to think that his son Bruce was on the path to becoming Batman, a character who was an all-knowing, omnipotent genius capable of doing everything.
In reality, even if Bruce wasn't Batman, with the large inheritance left by Thomas and Martha Wayne, the stable operation of Wayne Enterprises, an old butler who took good care of his life, and his handsome appearance inherited through genes, theoretically, as long as his capability was on par with an average person, he would definitely lead a happier life than an average one.
But it seems that Bruce didn't make good use of his time when he wasn't being Batman. His life was a mess.
It's not that Thomas's expectations were so high, but Thomas was an old-fashioned man. Before he became Batman, he was a traditional Catholic who highly valued family. Even after he became Batman, he didn't forget to save Martha when she became the Joker.
From his behavioral logic, everything he did was to save his family, even though he did not succeed.
So, the fact that Bruce just graduated from university and already has an energetic illegitimate daughter was a bit beyond Thomas's comprehension.
America is not as liberal as many people imagine. At least in Thomas's time, Catholics on the East Coast were quite conservative. If illegitimacy would come out, it would utterly disgrace the whole family.
However, Thomas could still comfort himself. He and Martha passed away too early, so it was inevitable that Bruce would need emotional comfort. It was not surprising that he made a mess at that time when he was inexperienced.
Thomas didn't know that Aisha was fundamentally a monster. He thought Alfred's words were credible. Perhaps it was because of Bruce's irresponsible behavior with Aisha's mother, which resulted in many inherited diseases in this little girl.
What upset Thomas even more was that it seemed Aisha's various diseases hadn't been well treated. Since things had happened, they should take responsibility, not leave it to fate, which was contrary to Thomas's values.
If these two things were still tolerable, the fact that Bruce wasn't devoted to scientific research, and his disastrous university grades were even harder for Thomas to understand.
People's time is limited, even Batman was no exception. Thomas knew that he could commit wholeheartedly to being Batman because he had no worries.
For the still-youthful Bruce, of course, he needed to balance his vigilante work with studying and writing papers, and inevitably one would fall short.
But both things were such a mess, what was going on?
For the past few days, Thomas's main routes were still the West and South Districts. Gotham was a huge city, and unless he intentionally went to the East and North Districts, he wouldn't see the constructions there. Even if he did see them, Thomas wouldn't have associated them with what Bruce was doing.
It took a lot of trials and tribulations for Bruce to form his own thoughts and choose his path, and the twists and turns were too complicated for those who hadn't experienced them to understand. Upon seeing it for the first time, Thomas couldn't possibly understand what he was up to. Even if he did get it, this heartbroken Batman probably wouldn't hold out much hope.
What Thomas knew even less about was that because of Shiller's arrival, the Joker of this universe was just a Sunset Overlord Shrimp. Therefore, he really didn't understand how Bruce, who had so good material conditions, a genius brain, and handsome appearance, could accomplish almost nothing.
Pessimists have a way of becoming more pessimistic as they ponder, and this old Batman, who had endured the world's most painful tragedy, only grew more worried the more he thought about it.
And his grievous speculation was most powerfully confirmed when he found in Bruce's bedroom a whole bunch of messy medical certificates.
I'm sure many people remember that Bruce once asked Shiller very seriously if he was sick.
Shiller gave a positive answer. However, it was not just an answer. He had prescribed some medication for Bruce. Even though Gotham's medical system was rather chaotic, Shiller had still adhered to a doctor's guideline, which was to prescribe medication as per procedure.
Prescription wasn't just about writing a note. It required a series of standard procedures, such as making a diagnosis, making a prescription, reviewing the prescription, and so on. The indispensable link among them was making a diagnosis certification.
According to Shiller's judgment, Bruce might have some spectrum characteristics and features common among high-functioning individuals because of his exceptionally high IQ overshadowing the emotional modules in his brain. However, he was not typically autistic.
In this case, Shiller couldn't just write anything, but fortunately, there was a category in medical science for such people. Therefore, Bruce's diagnosis was Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS).
Many people might start to feel dizzy seeing such a long term, but the diagnosis in English is just like this, not only long but also filled with various strange acronyms.
Fearing that Bruce wouldn't understand, Shiller intentionally wrote out the full name. Otherwise, if he only wrote PDD-NOS, most laymen wouldn't understand.