Chapter 42 Work? Work!
This sentence has a very refreshing effect, comparable to a bucket of ice water.
Dick perked up immediately, sitting up straight and trying to say something to gloss over the matter: "The day before yesterday..."
Bruce continued eating his breakfast as if nothing had happened.
In fact, he had already begun frantically racking his brains, trying to fill in all the loopholes in Dick's words.
“Okay, I understand.” Thomas picked up the vegetable juice, took a sip, hesitated for a moment, and ultimately didn’t drink a second sip. Under Alfred’s disapproving gaze, he put down the glass.
No, wait.
"What do you know?"
“It’s a secret,” Thomas said meaningfully.
“Don’t get me wrong, Thomas,” Dick quickly waved his hand, “Actually, I guessed wrong. Bruce and Night Owl have nothing to do with each other.”
Bruce coughed lightly, trying to remind Dick not to say too much.
Talking like that will only make things worse; it's best to avoid any more misunderstandings in this family.
Especially misunderstandings like mistaking him for a night owl.
"Oh, really?"
“Yes, I really don’t have any talent for this.” Perhaps because he hadn’t slept well these past few days, Dick put down his knife and fork somewhat dejectedly. “It seems I’m not cut out to be a detective.”
“Don’t think like that,” Bruce tried to reassure him. “It’s already quite a talent to take the first step in finding evidence.”
“And what kind of career you can pursue definitely doesn’t depend on a single talent,” Thomas added. “I had a colleague who started an organization and forgot the name he personally chose, but he was still the leader, wasn’t he?”
Bruce glanced at him.
"Thanks, I'm much better now, but Bruce really has nothing to do with Night Owl." Dick put down his knife and fork and took a big gulp of milk.
Thomas didn't answer whether he believed it or not, and skipped the topic altogether. "Speaking of which, you did the investigation the day before yesterday, but you didn't sleep well last night either, Dick?"
“Cough…cough!” Dick put down his cup and coughed fakely, trying to buy time.
"Get some rest." Thomas finished the last bite of his breakfast (except for the vegetable juice), stood up, and said, "Lack of sleep can affect your height."
“I will, Thomas,” Dick said sheepishly, wiping his mouth. “I have to go to school.”
“You don’t need to go to school today.” Thomas grabbed his clothes and put them on.
"Is school closed today?" Dick asked, somewhat surprised. "How come I didn't know?"
Will that holiday killer make a move...?
“I’ll ask for leave for you. You were so sleepy you forgot about school time.” Thomas straightened his clothes and buttoned them up. “Get some rest today.”
"No, my investigation report!" Dick struggled to his feet, nearly falling into Bruce's plate. "My hard-earned investigation report!"
"...Even after all this, why bother with the report?" Thomas was greatly shocked.
“You go to work every day too, Thomas,” Dick said nimbly, bracing himself on the table. “You also go to a private lab on your holidays. I think you need a break too.”
Bruce facepalmed.
“That’s quite a remarkable line of reasoning, Dick.” Thomas looked at him thoughtfully. “I only recently got involved in the research at Wayne Enterprises’ internal labs again. It seems you’ve already spoken with some of my colleagues without my knowledge?”
Dick opened his mouth.
Bruce moved his hand, which was supporting his head, down and covered his eyes.
"Alright, I'm kidding you." Thomas walked out of the restaurant. "Since you want to go, I won't ask for leave."
The restaurant remained silent for a while, until Bruce finally broke the silence.
“Dick, the best way to deal with Thomas is to keep quiet as much as possible.” Bruce also put down his hand, sat up straight, and seriously instructed him, “Try not to lie to Thomas, but to answer him confidently.”
“But I have a feeling Thomas knows something.” Dick took a few anxious steps. “Are we really not going to tell him?”
He had a feeling that if Thomas discovered Bruce's identity on his own, something terrible would happen.
“Thomas probably doesn’t know,” Bruce replied. “If he did, he definitely wouldn’t be so…calm right now.”
Alfred remained silent for a moment.
Bruce remembered it too.
Dick looked at Bruce, then at Alfred, and finally couldn't help but ask them, "What's wrong?"
"Thomas went crazy a couple of days ago, but I don't know why he recovered after working one day."
Moreover, there are doubts about whether he has recovered, as Thomas still seems to be acting somewhat subtly abnormal these past two days.
“Thomas has the nerve to talk back to me!” Dick said indignantly. “Does he really love going to work that much?”
"...That was probably the most out-of-control I've ever seen young Thomas," Alfred recalled. "He even gave up his unfinished milkshake and tried some unsweetened alcoholic drinks instead, and said he wanted to kill someone."
“Great, I’m planning to confess to him as soon as possible.” Bruce smirked.
He seemed to be running away from something, and pulled out a small device from somewhere.
"What is this?" Dick leaned closer.
“The reason I planted the bug in Thomas’s office was mainly because I suspected his mental state had recently deteriorated, and he still insisted on keeping a mole as his bodyguard,” Bruce said. “This is probably the last time I’ll use it.”
After confessing, regardless of whether Thomas knew beforehand that he was Batman, the bugging device could not be left behind.
What does Thomas do in his office?
“Working, studying physics,” Bruce said, “and drinking beverages.”
"Why is there no sound?" Dick picked up the little thing and shook it.
“That’s probably because young master Thomas is still on his way,” Alfred replied. “I think young master Thomas hasn’t mastered teleportation yet. To be honest, I agree with young master Thomas. You really need to get some sleep.”
The three of them just idly surrounded the little creature.
"Wait until it rings, or until it's time for school, then wake me up. I'm going to sleep for a bit." Dick yawned, arranged a few chairs in a row, and lay down on them.
They didn't have to wait long; the roads in Gotham seemed unusually clear today, and Thomas appeared to have arrived at Wayne Tower quite early.
First came the sound of the door opening, followed by footsteps, the sound of a knife slicing through paper, and the sound of papers turning over...
A slightly distorted sound came from inside:
"Do you really want to destroy the world?"
Wait a minute! What are you doing so early in the morning?
-
Thomas opened a letter that had been sent to him that day and poured its contents onto the table.
Surprisingly, there were no razor blades or anything inside, only a fancy piece of paper.
He unfolded the letter with one hand to read it, and handed Kelvin the work that didn't require his personal attention with the other.
This letter paper, with its dizzying color scheme, is covered with a patchwork of various words, big and small pieces of paper stuck together crookedly, making it a torture device for the eyes.
The above content mainly tells Thomas to go to a bar in Gotham's East Side alone, or his evil secret will be exposed.
"Are you really going to destroy the world?" Kelvin asked, speechless as he took the document.
“What nonsense are you talking about?” Thomas put down the mysterious letter, pulled out a blank sheet of paper, and scribbled on it. “You drank last night?”
“I think you’re the craziest person in the whole company, planting bombs everywhere.” Kelvin had been contacting Sebastian, who had left the Court of Owls, for the past few days. The two of them had been studying the bomb around his neck for a long time, but they still couldn’t find a way to remove it.
"Why would I plant a bomb?" Thomas put down his pen and held up the paper to him.
It read: "Shut up, or I'll blow your head off right now."
Even a fool would think that Batman must have left something in this office.
Kelvin shut his mouth.
Thomas immediately spilled the Coke onto the paper, tore the paper into pieces, and threw it into the trash can.
“You can leave work early today,” Thomas said casually, standing up. “I’m planning to go to the East End tonight.”
Putting everything else aside, Thomas was curious about what secret this person was referring to.
He has so many evil secrets that he can't even keep track of them all.
"If you're really asking for trouble, just open the window and jump out; that'll be faster." Kelvin opened the window for Thomas.
"Thank you, but I don't plan to die right now. It's just that someone invited me to go to the East District alone."
"Are you serious?" Kelvin looked at him like he was a lunatic. "You know how much those thugs in the East End hate you right now."
I know.
So what? Batman will follow him if he hears about it anyway.
“But I am indeed very interested in this unknown person who sent the letter and managed to deliver this to me so precisely…” Thomas leaned against his desk, having just made an internal call to have someone tidy up his workspace. “It seems they also have connections with one of our colleagues. I’m curious who else is unhappy with my job at Wayne Enterprises.”
“There’s no need for you to go yourself.” Not wanting to be blown up after the mentally ill man died, Kelvin advised him, “Why don’t you hire two people to go in your place?”
“Sometimes we just need to take risks to get things done.” Thomas waved his hand. “I’m going to wash my hands.”
Seeing that he was determined to do something reckless, Kelvin resigned himself to working overtime that night.
He strongly suspected that Thomas didn't want to pay him for working overtime tonight, which was why he deliberately said he was going to the East End alone.
Meanwhile, the three people at Wayne Manor fell silent once again.
“I’m not going to school today,” Dick said. “I’m going with you to track down Thomas.”
“...I did not intend to follow Thomas.”
“Impossible!” Dick retorted confidently. “This sounds like a trap. I don’t believe you’d leave Thomas, who’s courting death, alone.”
That makes a lot of sense.
“You can skip school, I’ll get you excused right now, but you can’t come with me,” Bruce said seriously. “It’s too dangerous for a child. You need to get some sleep and then go back to a normal life.”
“Okay, Bruce.” Dick walked slowly toward the restaurant door, looking somewhat dejected, as if waiting for someone to call him back.
But both Bruce and Alfred firmly believed that children should not be involved in these things. Alfred even told Dick, "Go to bed early, Mr. Dick, you can still make it to lunch."
After Dick was out of their sight, Alfred asked Bruce, "Do you believe that young master Dick will return to a normal life?"
“That’s at least what I expect, but it seems unlikely.” Bruce turned to Alfred. “So I’m leaving you in your hands, Alfred. You’ll probably have to deal with an energetic kid who’s always trying to get out tonight.”
“Don’t worry, Mr. Bruce, I have a lot of experience with this,” Alfred said calmly. “This sounds no different from what I’ve been doing for the past twenty years.”
"...Thank you for your help, Alfred."
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Author's note: So sleepy... I don't want to learn to drive. My god, the class time is 8 a.m. earlier than mine. It's like going back to high school.
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