"We really don't want to know why Shiller knows what you have in your wardrobe..." Hal began.
"Nor are we interested in what the first thing you do when you get up in the morning..." Constantine immediately added.
"You two even got to the point where you can live peaceably after literally stabbing each other…" Clark was quick to chip in.
"...Whatever you two do at this point is not surprising anymore," Lucifer concluded.
The seamless hand-over of dialogue like in a play, gagged Bruce's attempted defense, leaving him feeling as powerless as punching cotton.
There isn't really much to explain. Most of the torturous interactions between Bruce and Shiller over these four years were paper revisions.
Even if Bruce Wayne is a famous billionaire, a renowned psychologist like Shiller is not going to lower himself to revise his paper at Wayne Manor.
Bruce wouldn't allow this anyway, because at Wayne Manor there are Selina, Dick, Aisha, and Alfred.
Putting aside his girlfriend and kids, if Bruce's paper were seen by Alfred, Aisha probably couldn't salvage his image that struggled for improvement in Alfred's eyes.
So that means the paper revisions happen either at school or at Rodrix Manor. Even at school, Shiller eventually has to go home. If the paper isn't finished, Bruce just has to follow him home. Escape? Not a chance.
Of course, as is widely known, the scene of Batman being hung on a tree in the garden, usually happens when Shiller demands freshly done patrolling Batman to revise his paper at his manor.
Batman chose the garden route not because of the scenery, but to avoid being seen by Merkel. Otherwise, within an hour, considering the speed at which butlers exchange information, Alfred would be knocking on his door.
Looking back, Bruce really wants to slap his past self. He had jokingly asked Shiller to spare him a room in Rodrix Manor, but it has become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Over the years, whenever Batman needs sleep, he typically lodges at Shiller's.
Although Batman is not a typical loner, and basically has no rigid behaviors, he is not a slob either. Like other patients with mental illness, he likes things to stay in the familiar places. So no matter where he goes, as long as there is a wardrobe, the way he arranges his clothes never changes.
Bruce is aware that this arrangement comes from Alfred. Since he was little, Alfred has been the one to organize his clothes. The old British butler is meticulous about order, especially when it comes to formal wear. Even the slightest differences are not allowed. Each article of clothing has its own place.
When Bruce lodges at Shiller's, he normally doesn't bring a change of clothes. But the thing is, to Batman, sleep is not the end of a day. He is used to resolving during sleep the issues he doesn't have time to deal with during the day.
As mentioned before, human dreamworlds are interconnected. The distance between dreams is not determined entirely by reality. In other words, proximity in reality doesn't necessarily mean proximity in dreams, but there are exceptions.
Generally speaking, the distance of dreams depends on the frequency of conscious activities. In a rather sci-fi explanation, it is "brainwave". Brainwaves of the same frequency are more likely to connect.
After tormenting each other over Bruce's paper, it's no wonder Shiller and Bruce would go to bed lost deep in thoughts, with Shiller in particular fuming with righteous indignation.
Then, Shiller found out that even without Mad Liquor, as long as Bruce fell asleep in such a state, their dreams are still very closed. So Shiller could just hop over the wall into Bruce's dream, drag him over and continue revising the paper in the dream.
Although there are many rooms in the Tower of Thought, and plenty of vacant offices, Arrogant didn't want other Shillers to know just how bad Bruce's paper had become.
So, he always took Bruce from that hole to his own room, and they would continue their rather unfriendly discussions about his paper. Discussion here means aggressive argumentation first, followed by deliberation.
After a while, the other Shillers got used to it as well. In the end, Bruce did not even need Arrogant to guide him. He could hop over the wall from his own dream, walk through the cavern below, and make it to Arrogant's room on his own.
In the real world, although there are no clothes in the room, not even a wardrobe. Yet inside the Tower of Thought, everything relies on imagination. When Bruce stays in Arrogant's room, he projects the bedroom from his memory into this place, and it briefly transforms into his bedroom at Wayne Manor, and that includes Alfred's arranged wardrobe.
One special characteristic of Shiller's Tower of Thought is that it remains open when Arrogant goes to work. Arrogant's thoughts and the operation of Tower of Thoughts do not interfere with each other.
So, it is quite common to have a situation like this: in reality, Arrogant Shiller would be giving a lecture at Gotham University while Bruce sleeps under the desk. But Bruce is not actually sleeping, he is doing homework inside Arrogant's room in the Tower of Thought.
That's the most important reason why Arrogant Shiller allows Bruce to snooze during his lecture. Of course, his personal explanation might differ a bit but can be conveniently ignored.
Under such circumstances, it's hard for Shiller not to know the details of Bruce's daily life. Time flows differently in thoughts compared to the real world. Shiller often makes Bruce spend hours on his paper revision; he almost knows how many strands of hair Bruce has.
The people in the theatre of this world are not surprised by this, as they have said before. These two have not just stabbed each other once, have spent four years tormenting each other to the point they almost killed each other and yet now can sit together calmly, what is there left to admonish? What warning could they possibly give?
Even Clark is starting to question the correctness of his initial decision to keep them separate. He thought the two were probably miserable but just couldn't help it due to their conditions. Now he realizes, maintaining these two madmen is more labor-intensive than plowing two more acres of land in Mexico.
Clark even wanted to suggest that these two should come together and create a tutorial on how all the mentally ill people in the world can pair up in this way, causing damage internally, resolving internal conflicts, and not harming ordinary people. If this could really be successful, the merit would be immeasurable.
But the problem was, Jason in this universe had no idea about these thoughts. To him, Shiller was a strange man who suddenly came out, and there was a great possibility that he might be a criminal. So, when Shiller accurately described Batman's very private living habits, he almost dropped his jaw in surprise.
Even behind the mask, you could see that Jason's mouth had been hanging open for a long time, and besides the shock, there was another emotion, which was the anxiety brought about by the desire for knowledge.
Just as Jason was about to ask, suddenly a pair of chopsticks was handed to him. Shiller looked at Jason and said, "Don't hurry, your foster father has booked you a 5-hour treatment."
Jason opened his mouth again. He wanted to object to the timing, but he remembered Shiller's words. He repeated the word in his mouth, then said, "…Foster father?"
"He's not your foster father?" Shiller said in feigned confusion, "Did I misjudge your relationship? That's okay, treatment records can be adjusted..."
After speaking, Shiller put down the cutlery in his hand, gently wiped his hand, turned around to get the medical record, but at this moment, Jason began to stutter. He was holding a chopstick and stuttering, "No, that, wait a second..."
Shiller sat back down. As if he had just thought of something, he asked with a bit of confusion, "If he's not your foster father, why would he be willing to pay such a high cost to have you come to me for counseling?"
"The cost? What cost?"
Jason quickly picked up the terminology in Shiller's words. Although he had a bad temper, he had an exceptionally rich imagination.
He felt that Batman must have made some unreasonable promise to Shiller. So, he immediately said with a bit of anger, "Did you deceive Batman? Deliberately exaggerate my problems, huh, I've seen many fraudsters like you. Now, tell me, what did you cheat him out of?!"
"I'm not a fraudster, and I didn't cheat him out of anything. My psychology consultation is clearly priced. He paid me, so I'm treating you."
When he heard Shiller talk about money, Jason immediately breathed a sigh of relief. He waved his hand and said, "I thought it was something else. That rich guy has plenty of money…"
"Oh, is that so? Then I'm relieved. Could you please take this bill to him after today's treatment?"
Jason didn't care about what was said. He put one leg on top of the other, lifted the lower half of his mask to take a sip of water, took the bill with his other hand, glanced at it and said, "Who do you think you are? You want me to run an errand for you? I will take it just because you said... Pfff!!!!!!!"
Jason stood up with a swish, his eyes wide open, staring intently at the long string of numbers at the end of the bill, which was unusually long without any decimal points. His voice was almost screaming, "Thousands, ten thousands, hundreds of thousands... How much??????"
Jason lowered the bill and looked at Shiller with the same astonished look. Then he raised the bill and took another look at the number, and he finally looked at Shiller one last time.
"Wait a minute!"
Jason shouted. Just as Shiller was about to speak, Jason raised a hand to stop him and looked down at his clothes. He ran back to the center of the living room and took another look around the room.
Obviously, the most eye-catching thing in the living room was the assortment of curiosities displayed on the bookshelf. In Jason's eyes, these weird sculptures began to shine with the luster of money. He quickly found a familiar collection amongst them.
"... Isn't this the wine glass from the warehouse that was so frighteningly expensive?... Oh, I get it!" Jason suddenly realized, walked back to sit across from Shiller.
Like a young man who had discovered a great secret, he leaned forward, his eyes bright as he stared at Shiller, lowered his voice and said, "You're not helping Batman launder money, are you??!!"
Greed slapped himself on the forehead in the theater, shouting at the screen at Jason, "Take a closer look! Kid! Who's laundering money?! Arrogant Schiller? That old antique who doesn't even know how to use an abacus?! Terrible judgement!"
"I think I'm about to be in big trouble." Jason's face was stiff with realization: "Imagine daring to discuss money in front of Professor Shiller, I think he might be thrown into the river. I hope Batman can rescue him in time."
While the others said nothing, they apparently agreed with Jason's self-assessment.
Everyone knew that Professor Shiller strongly disliked financial calculations. He held a great deal of hostility towards finance, referring to Wall Street as an autonomous zone for humanity's common enemies. Those who repeatedly discussed money with him never came to a good end.
But unexpectedly, Shiller didn't get angry. He just smirked and looked into Jason's eyes and said,
"Isn't Batman your foster father? He was willing to spend so much money for you; I thought you were very important to him."
"I..."