"Why are you looking at me?" Bruce rolled his eyes and said, "Don't overthink this. Take the photo back and find ten inferable details from it. Write a short paper and bring it to me tomorrow morning, make it detailed."
Jenna finally snapped back to reality and hurriedly nodded, saying, "Oh, right, Professor. How many words should it be?"
"500 words will be enough, pay attention to punctuation marks."
Jenna nodded with the photo in hand and left. Bruce turned his head and noticed a photo left on the table, the one taken from above a barrel, looking down at a body.
The body was curled up in the barrel, as peacefully as a sleeping infant.
Because of the evening makeup class, Bruce felt a bit hungry, so he went to the cafeteria and ordered a meal, only to find Shiller was also there.
"Good evening, Professor. Haven't you had dinner?"
Shiller shook his head and said, "I was busy correcting a paper tonight."
"Whose paper?"
"Barry's. He still couldn't finalize the last two sentences, so I had a two-hour video meeting with him."
"I tutored Jenna tonight." Bruce paused and then continued, "She is very talented, in every aspect."
"You want her to be Batgirl?"
"Not really, I don't even have a Robin, but I do think she and her brother really need more guidance. They both are talented. Oliver is more interested in her brother, thinking he has leadership skills."
"They are still too young," Shiller said. "Just like you were when you were young."
"I'm not old now either," Bruce muttered.
"You do know that this phenomenon is known as regressive psychology?"
"But it's healthy, the textbooks say so."
"Yes, a youthful mindset often stems from a happy and wonderful life, and can't be considered morbid, but if you keep saying it, people will think you like to act young."
"I don't care what they say," Bruce snorted.
"How has your sleep been lately?" Shiller asked, taking his plate from the robot's head.
"Quite good," Bruce said as if he remembered something. "I talk to Selina very late every night, often forgetting to charge my phone. I really, really miss her, but unfortunately, we are both too busy now."
Bruce propped his face, occasionally gazing down at the plate and said, "I never used to talk this much with her, even our chats were just casual conversations, and sometimes I felt like there wasn't much to talk about, and we would just stop."
"But lately, it seems like we have endless topics. She talks about her experiences on the West Coast, and I talk about what I've seen in Battleworld. We always talk until I'm too sleepy to keep my eyes open, and she says she does the same."
"And we seldom talk about the kids. I realized that a year ago, our conversations were still mostly about Aisha, and quite polite, mostly her asking how Aisha is doing, and me replying she's fine."
"But recently, we've been talking more about us, about the past, about the future, and it really makes me feel good, but I don't know if this will change if we meet in person?"
"Why do you think this change occurred?" Shiller asked and then as if he suddenly remembered something, shook his head and said, "Never mind, you don't have to answer, it's because not only you have grown over these years, she has too. Do you remember how long she has been living independently?"
"She's not since birth... oh, you mean in a normal society, yes, it's been a few years now."
"Yes, she grew up, she saw a lot of high society, began to understand you, understand why you wear suits and tie, why you also dress her in expensive gowns, why you can't discuss theft and murder at parties, and why she can't take every gemstone she sees."
"She must have been taught many lessons," Bruce's voice deepened, and he said, "She just dove headlong into Hollywood, I shudder to imagine how much difficulty she had to go through to get where she is today, maybe I shouldn't have agreed to let her..."
"Then you two would never be able to talk like you do today," Shiller looked into Bruce's eyes and said, "She knows that she and you are from different worlds; she didn't just crash into Hollywood, she dove unabashedly into your world."
Bruce turned his face away, his features crinkling in pain. He took a deep breath and then said, "Because I didn't go to her."
"You did, you went long ago," Shiller replied.
Bruce flinched slightly; he thought of his days in the slums, around the time Selina had left Gotham.
He thought, yes, just as Selina took a step towards him, he also took that step towards Selina; they truly were in sync.
"It's just that you're smarter than her," Shiller said. "You understood the slums in a few months; she needed years to understand Hollywood."
"No, it's not that I'm smarter than her, it's just that the path she chose is harder," Bruce clenched the fork tightly until his fingertips turned white. "I know what that world is like; a girl like her is bound to get hurt all over."
"But that's a cat for you," Shiller said with a smile. "It won't come to you purring because it's hurt; it will just silently sit in the corner licking its wounds, and give you a disdainful glance when you come to care for it."
Bruce seemed to remember something and laughed as he quickly pulled out his cell phone to type a message but quickly stopped mid-way, a troubled expression on his face. He deleted what he had typed but then started typing again after a while.
"What do you want to ask her?"
"I want to know why she chose to leave Gotham in the first place."
"Influenced by some external force," Shiller said bluntly, "It must have been one of her friends who advised her."
"Advised her to try her luck in Hollywood?"
"No, she likely just emphasized a fact to her that you two weren't from the same world and you might just be playing around. If she got too involved, she could get seriously hurt."
Bruce showed a hint of dissatisfaction on his face, but he didn't say anything because, in that situation, that interpretation was correct, even suggesting that this friend truly had Selina's best interests at heart.
Otherwise, dating a wealthy man would elevate not just her but her friends as well; her friend would benefit too. If truly selfish, the friend would have just advised Selina to trap him with her beauty, use his connections, and not care about Selina's consequences.
"Actually, that was probably just one of her attempts," Shiller reflected and then added, "But you gave her a surprise because just as she was trying to make a move towards you, you also moved towards her."
"Yes, I remember after that, Selina's temper improved a lot, and I thought it was because my actions in the slums made her think I was a fool..."
Bruce displayed a wry smile and quickly started tapping on his phone again as it seemed Selina had replied. After checking the message, he had an epiphany, then said,
"That's right, her friend Maggie had advised her, and Selina isn't the kind to sit by passively. She decided to make one last attempt, and fortunately, I didn't let her down."
"I just have one question: does your phone not have a camera?"
"No, no, no, video calling would ruin the sense of mystery," Bruce's head shook like a bobblehead as he spoke, "It would diminish the surprise of actually meeting in person, so we only text."
Shiller shook his head, as though he couldn't understand the young people of today.
Bruce was eating and chatting, somewhat distractedly, when suddenly a call came in, surprising him as he picked up the phone.
"Oh, Jenna," Bruce raised an eyebrow and flashed Shiller a smug look as if to say, see, this little girl is also happy to deal with me, can you blame me for wanting to adopt her?
But as Jenna rattled on, Bruce couldn't help showing a look of resignation as he said, "Yes, 10 details 500 words, not 5 details 10 hundred words, alright, good night."
"10 hundred..." Bruce grimaced, "She sounds like Aisha when she first learned to speak, she can count up to 1000 hundred."
Shiller was nearly finished eating; he stacked his plates, and then said, "You should potentially focus more and not waste her talent."
"I believe making her only take psychology classes would be wasting her talent. Diana will teach them combat tomorrow, and I think she'll do well there too."
"Keep your confidence."
Soon Bruce also finished his meal and planned to hurry back to his dorm room, lie in bed, and chat with Selina, and of course, he might make a voice call—it wouldn't ruin the mystery as much.
After returning to his dorm room, Bruce took a shower, dried his hair, changed into his pajamas, and lay down contentedly. Before he could dial his girlfriend's number, another call came in.
"...What if I can't find 10 details? Can't you try a bit harder? 26 photos and you can't find 10 details???"
"No, don't talk to me in that tone; I'm not your brother, and pouting won't work... Am I being harsh? I'm being responsible..."
"Fine, since it's your first time writing a paper, I guess finding 5 details will do, right? Yes, just 5 details plus your reasoning process, and submit it on time tomorrow morning!"
After hanging up the phone, Bruce sighed deeply. When he talked to Selina later, he definitely needed to discuss this; he felt even Selina could have found 10 details.
Barely two minutes into their call, another call came in, and Bruce had to say, "Hold on a sec, baby, I need to take this call."
Bruce picked up the phone, and it was Jenna again. Hearing what she said, his eyes widened as he exclaimed, "Why would 5 details only be 250 words? Because of a mathematical rule??? What math rule???"
"Simplifying??? No, hold on, you mean because the details were halved, the word count should also be halved??? Am I bullying you for not understanding math???"
"No, no, no, Jenna, listen to me. It's as many words as I said it would be, alright? If you can't produce 500 words with 5 details, then write 10 details!"
"You can't do it? But didn't I just tell you to write 5 details?... No, you can't write 250 words!!!"
Because Bruce had taken Jenna's call on another phone and hadn't hung up on Selina, she heard Bruce's outburst.
A few minutes later, Bruce picked up the phone with Selina again and said, "Sorry, baby, I just needed to cool down a bit, let's continue."
He was just about to say something when the other phone rang again. Bruce answered it and immediately shouted, "I said 500 words, due tomorrow morning, no discussion!!!"
"Oh, Clark, nothing much, I'm not angry, I just raised my voice a bit. Believe me, I'm really not, I'm very calm, calm..."