In the end, Batman came in.
Watching the nurse walk away, Shiller let out a deep sigh, he looked up at Batman and said, "Have you ever heard the saying, 'When you enter a mental hospital, you become a mental patient'."
Batman shook his head.
"Of course, you haven't, because I made it up," said Shiller, working his neck, "The fact is that I am a mental patient, and I urgently need treatment."
"What happened?" Batman slightly frowned.
"Why do you all like to ask this question?" Shiller shook his head, "The fact is, when I tell you I'm a mental patient, don't listen to any of my words."
"I think you are somewhat confused." said Batman.
"Exactly." Shiller grimaced in what appeared to be pain, he said, "I am repairing my house. The earthquake damaged some things. So, now, I roughly have only 30% of my energy to talk to you. Don't ask for logic."
A chill ran through Batman, he understood. Shiller was actually saying that there were some problems with his Tower of Thought, and he was adjusting it now, which means he could not put much energy into the real world and might seem a bit confused.
But what made him even more wary was the way in which Shiller was speaking. He didn't believe that this tempered professor had purposely not spoken clearly. He wouldn't speak so ambiguously even if his attention were not focused unless he was doing it on purpose.
To the onlookers, this was complete nonsense because there was no house here, and no earthquake had occurred. Yet Shiller was deliberately saying so, apparently so that the onlookers would think it was nonsense.
So, where were the onlookers?
Batman looked around, he didn't see any reflection of surveillance equipment, so he abandoned rational judgment, followed his intuition and looked at a corner of the ceiling where there was nothing.
In an instant, he was looking directly at the watchers on the screen.
Constantine broke out in a cold sweat, he practically jumped out of his seat, he glared at Owen and said, "Didn't you say he couldn't see us?"
"Calm down, calm down, he definitely can't see us, nor has he detected us, it's just a coincidence..."
Joker Arthur, however, suddenly snorted, but when everyone turned their attention to him, he suddenly lowered his head and stopped talking.
Bruce also revealed an interested expression, as if he had thought of something, but he didn't say anything.
But Lord Superman, who had been paying attention to him, was not willing to let him go. He stared at the smile on Bruce's face, and asked, "What have you noticed?"
"Nothing, I just find it a bit funny."
At this point, Spider Man suddenly spoke up, "I feel something is wrong, but I can't put my finger on what. It's just a bit strange."
"This hospital is indeed strange." Bruce really was like someone who had thought of something funny to say, propping his elbows on the armrest next to him, pressing his fingers to his lips to stop himself from laughing out loud.
"I don't know which genius came up with the brilliant plan to torment psychiatrists." Bruce sniffed, and commented, "If I were Professor Shearer, I would choose to never wake up."
"What's the matter?" Lord Superman asked. The expression on his face was like saying, "I'll let you have it if you don't make it clear."
Bruce revealed a smile and said, "Have you ever been in a mental hospital?"
Constantine paused slightly. After a while, he said hesitantly, "I have been, but I think the mental hospital I was in was not very normal."
"Really? What did they do to you?"
"They locked me up, fixed me to the bed so I couldn't move at all. Even going to the bathroom had to be watched. They forced me to take medicine. Everyone was scolding me. It was terrifying torture."
"Yes, that's because you knew you didn't have a mental illness," Bruce pointed out, "You understand that your abnormal behavior was because you were a mage, not because you are mad."
"So they can treat real mental patients like that?"
"They absolutely can, and must do so."
Bruce sighed, "What you just saw on the screen in terms of the atmosphere of the mental hospital, is probably what a person who has never been to a madhouse imagines it to be and holds unrealistic fantasies about mental patients."
The others frowned at Bruce, except for Joker Arthur. Arthur grunted a few times and said, "For healthy people, it is indeed hell. They monitor you, constrain you, insult you, and manipulate you into whatever they want."
"That's because, people who are not mentally ill but are sent to a mental hospital are the minority, whereas the vast majority of people in mental hospitals are genuine mental patients, some of whom have a severe condition," added Bruce.
"For example," Bruce let out a sigh and looked at Constantine, "Do you know why the nurse had to watch you go to the bathroom?"
"Why?" Constantine asked with his face scrunched up.
"Because some of them eat their own feces."
Both Constantine and Spider Man immediately made retching noises, but Bruce said very calmly, "But this is already considered good. Some people will hide their own excrement, take it back to their rooms, and smear it in any corner they can touch."
"Why?" Spider Man asked incredulously.
"Because they are mentally ill." Bruce sighed a little helplessly, "A human who has completely lost their reason is far scarier than an out-of-control machine."
"Every rule in a mental hospital that may seem excessively strict or even inhumane will have a shocking disease track behind it. The most important lesson I learned during my internship is not to ask why, just do as told."
"And..." Bruce extended another finger and said, "The gentleness, patience, and rationality exhibited by the doctor and the nurse just now are almost nonexistent."
"When you've worked long enough in a totally chaotic environment, it's quite commendable to maintain basic functionality, let alone having any good temper."
"Some might think that many hospital nurses are quite rude, and psych hospital nurses would be ten times rude because most of their working time is not spent healing people, but taming beasts."
"Simple yet powerful commands are the best approach to dealing with these mental patients with wild imaginations. Fostering fear may be simple, but it works."
Lord Superman suddenly understood what Bruce is saying.
If going by this theory, Gotham is a giant mental hospital, and Batman is the nurse spreading fear in the mental hospital.
You may say he's brutal and ruthless, but the things the lunatics in Gotham did were way more outrageous than that. You may say he's violent, but he's not thoroughly violent. We've never heard of any psychiatric hospital nurse who'd kill a patient simply because they were too tricky.
Why does the law go easy on mentally ill patients? Lord Superman began considering this question.
"But if the treatment methods are scientific enough, we wouldn't necessarily need to resort to violence, would we?" Spider Man scratched his head, still feeling rather disheartened, "They're sick, they're already quite miserable, wouldn't it be better to be gentle?"
"When end-of-life care is needed, indeed, we should be gentle. But the problem with mental patients is, they're merely insane, not on the verge of death. Mental hospitals take various measures to try to cure them, to help them reintegrate into society."
"If you don't hold hope, of course you can gently coax them, but if you want the treatment to be effective, you'll have to be strict. Otherwise, no one would obediently take their meds."
Bruce turned to the screen again and said, "That's why I said, this is ultimate torture for a psychologist, because he can clearly see that everything everyone in this hospital is doing is a waste of effort. They won't be able to cure any real patient."
"And you seem to understand this very well." Arthur said.
"Of course, because I've been through it." Bruce lowered his eyelids, blocking out the glow of the screen reflecting in his eyes. He said, "The treatment process between a psychologist and a mental patient tends to be a mutual torture. They must torture each other."
"Because if one party gives in and becomes gentle, as you say, it does not mean that the patient is cured. Instead, it means they've given up."
"Doctor giving up treatment can just sweet-talk the patient, as whether he is cured or not is no longer his business. Patient giving up treatment can just perfunctorily appease the doctor, seeming apparently cured."
"And if they give up on each other from the beginning, with no treatment undergoing, they'd naturally get along harmoniously, respecting each other."
"Are you okay?" Batman sat next to Shearer's bed and said, "It seems like you're in an illusion, or perhaps it's a dream."
"I remember we both fell asleep on the bus, this should not be a coincidence, but means that the opponent has drawn us into a dream, this game is finally getting interesting." Shearer said.
"Why a mental hospital?" Batman asked rhetorically, "The difficulty of the game is gradually increasing, but for us, the sleight of imitation and hiding is negligible. Maybe this time, the killer devils are seeking to find the vulnerabilities in our hearts."
"Have you been to a mental institution before?" Shearer asked Batman.
Batman's hand jerked on the railing, "That was a long time ago, Alfred thought something was wrong with my mental state and wanted to find me a doctor. The doctor's name was Hugo Strange."
"And then you stopped trusting any psychologist."
"I don't trust any ill-practiced psychologist."
Shearer laughed and said, "Do you remember you once said that my skills were inadequate?"
"I still stand by that." Batman filled Shearer's paper cup with water and said, "There must have been a moment in your life that fits this state, or maybe you were hooked on Freud since birth. Was that so?"
"That would indeed be a lack of skill."
Shearer chuckled a couple of times, looking at Batman and said, "If you're coming to me for advice on how to break through this illusion, you're likely to be disappointed. Because I plan to live here for a while."
Shearer looked up at the bright ceiling and said, "Free room, free medicine, attentive treatment, comfortable environment, I think I can recuperate here for a year, use someone else's medical insurance quota to restore my building, then leave."
"You got it wrong, I'm not in a hurry either." Batman shook his head, "The killer devil seems to want to deny our past by constantly telling us we're crazy, making us prove to him that we're not. But I've long passed the stage in my life where I argue with others about whether or not I'm crazy."
"Coincidentally, me too."
Shearer picked up the cup with his free hand and clinked it against Batman's. The two comfortably sat like they were having a picnic.
The next second, with a loud "thud", a figure fell onto Shearer's balcony. Beihan pushed open the window, looking back a little angrily, and said:
"They actually said I was crazy?! I think they are the ones who've truly lost their minds!"