"Students who don't study well make me very helpless, and the head teacher also makes me very angry, but what really affects my reputation in the academic world is failure in exams," Schiller said with a sigh.
"The topic of Bruce's graduation exam is manipulation or counter-manipulation. Which one do you think is more difficult?"
"Manipulating others and not being manipulated by others?" Helen thought for a while and said: "It should be more difficult to manipulate others. It requires learning a lot of skills and being able to quickly analyze a person's personality and formulate targeted strategies.
.”
Schiller shook his head and said: "Skills can be learned. Finding the weaknesses of other people's hearts is not a technical job. It is difficult to understand a person in a week, but as long as you are willing to invest time and money, you can stay with a person for several years.
People are spinning around, and no matter how difficult it is to understand the other person, it is almost time to understand them."
Helen nodded thoughtfully, touched her chin and said, "Is it difficult not to be manipulated by others?"
"It's hard not to be influenced by others." Schiller took another sip of tea and said, "It's hard not to be influenced by the surrounding environment. The more important the person is to you, the greater the influence they will have on you. You must be completely immune to this kind of influence."
Impact is impossible."
"Once the other person wants to manipulate you, his understanding of you and his important position in your mind will become the most powerful weapons. The inability to resist is not because of weakness, but because the essence of manipulation is that he loves you, and you also
Feeling his love, you feel that this can make up for his manipulation of you."
Helen silently kept these words in mind, and then she said: "Now that Bruce has graduated, it proves that he has learned to manipulate others and also learned to resist manipulation."
"Jack himself is also manipulating Bruce. This is the same knowledge point, but in a different form." Schiller said with a sigh.
"And the easiest way to resist manipulation is to stop looking for approval in other people, completely give up thinking about whether other people will be disappointed in you because you do this, and just do it."
"I understand." Helen stretched out a finger and said: "Jack emphasized to Bruce that if he does not participate in the exam, you will be very disappointed. If he is worried and anxious about this, and even takes the initiative to find ways to get high scores, instead
It was manipulated by Jack."
"This proves that he did not really complete this subject." Schiller said with a long sigh: "It also proves that I let his graduation exam go. And I previously publicized the news that he graduated with excellence, which will definitely hurt me.
The reputation in the education community was dealt a major blow."
"This is really difficult!" Helen said, lying on the single sofa: "Who can not pay attention to the feelings of the people close to them? If you never consider their thoughts before doing things, won't they really be disappointed?
Are you sad?"
"So grasping the scale is the most important thing." Schiller said while folding the corners of the newspaper: "If you think too much, you will worry about gains and losses. If you are ruthless and unrighteous, you will lose. Everyone has a handful in his hand.
It’s called the knife of emotion. Either you use it to hurt someone, or you blunt it, or you feel guilty, or you suffer pain. There is no other choice.”
"But this question is not that difficult to solve. In fact, there is another way of thinking." Schiller changed the subject and said.
"What is that?" Helen asked curiously.
"Either Bruce can realize that my opinion should not be valued and resist Jack's manipulation, or he can realize that there is no point in saving Gotham."
"It's not that Batman in another universe needs to save Gotham, he also needs to do so. After all, the situation in Gotham in another universe is different from his Gotham."
"The Gotham where the other Batman lives has reached a dead end. Batman failed to establish order in the first place, so it will be difficult for him to explore the path that is most suitable for his city in the golden age. If he starts exploring now,
It’s a lot to pay.”
"Then a virtual Gotham that is not affected by dark forces is the best experimental ground. This is a very precious opportunity for him, so of course he should try boldly."
"But for Bruce, the Gotham he is in no longer needs to be explored at all. His Gotham has already found a route and just needs to develop step by step. Then find a way to save Gotham again.
It doesn’t make sense, at least it’s not a top priority.”
"But if he wants to do his top priority, he also has to let go of his anxiety about test scores. Isn't it still the same thing in the end?"
Schiller shook his head and said: "It depends on what the top priority is, or whether there is such a thing that is worth the risk of disappointing me."
Helen stared at Schiller, not missing any expression on his face, but still could not see any emotion on his face. Just when she looked away, she heard Schiller whisper.
"If so, how could I be disappointed?"
The ringtone of Gordon's cell phone in front of the screen drowned out Schiller's voice. Gordon picked up the phone and said, "Hi, hello... Clark? What's wrong?... Your cat is missing, and Bruce can't get through? Do you want to
Let me help you ask him if he has seen your cat?"
"Sorry, Clark, we can't contact Bruce now, but I don't think a cat can run from Metropolis to Gotham... Does he have super powers? Then I should have received the relevant crime report long ago...
"
"Oh, you're not crazy, are you? But I really didn't hear any news... No, it's okay. When Bruce comes back, I will be the first to... What? Your cat is back? Okay, bye."
Clark put down the phone, picked up the Batcat who jumped on the phone stand with both hands, then held him in his arms and rubbed his head vigorously and said: "Where have you been? You disappeared while I was making a sandwich. You
What's going on with Bruce? You said he was looking for you?"
"He was indeed looking for me just now." Batcat licked his paws and said, "But the call came very vaguely, and I can't determine the exact location."
"Is he in any danger?" Clark said anxiously: "He invited me to go to Gotham before, but I couldn't get out of my newspaper job, so I didn't go. Could he be in some trouble?"
Batcat plucked his beard with his paws, avoided Clark's stroking hand and said, "I'm more inclined to believe that he may be trapped somewhere in the dreamland."
"Why?"
"Otherwise why would he contact me instead of you directly?" Batcat raised his eyes and looked at Clark and said: "If he has a chance to send a message, then the first choice will definitely not be a cat, unless he can only send the message to
I."
"The only limitation that allows him to send a message to me but not to you is that I come from the dream kingdom and am part of the Dream of a Thousand Cats. I can communicate with the cat city Gotham at any time, and you are a human. You
When you are not dreaming, no one in the Dream Kingdom can contact you."
"Bruce is trapped in his dream? Then I have to find him quickly. Didn't you say that he died in the dream before that he was really dead? He must be very dangerous now..."
Clark turned around to leave as he spoke. Batcat yawned unhurriedly and said, "Do you think you can walk to the Dreamland?"
Only then did Clark react. He stopped in embarrassment and said, "Uh, it doesn't seem possible. Can you take me there?"
"Yes, yes, but why don't you think about how much danger it would take to trap Batman?"
Looking at Clark's confused expression, Batcat had no choice but to explain: "Batman's soul is very strong, and his willpower is unmatched in the world. Logically speaking, as long as he realizes that it is a dream, he should be able to wake up."
.”
"But since he sent the message from the Dream Kingdom, it proves that he cannot return to the real world for the time being, which proves that the thing that trapped him in the Dream Kingdom will be very difficult to deal with, and it may not be useful if you go alone."
Clark put on a serious expression, he touched Batcat's head and said: "You are right, something that can trap Batman must not be simple, but I don't know much about these mysterious things.
I have to ask Diana."
Not long after, in the cafe next to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Diana held the coffee cup in both hands and took a sip of iced coffee, and then said: "You said Bruce might be trapped in the dream world? I don't know anything about it either.
Yes, but how did he contact you?"
Clark looked at the bat cat next to him. The bat cat squatted beside the table, hanging his tail under the table, and said in his usual serious tone: "This is about the origin of the dream of a thousand cats. Do you know? This world once
It’s dominated by cats.”
Clark laughed. He wanted to reach out and touch Batcat, but Batcat avoided it. He looked at Clark with a very serious expression and said, "This is not a joke, this is true."
"A long time ago, cats ruled the world, and humans were cats' slaves. But one day, a thousand humans collectively had a dream, and they used this dream to change reality. So humans dominated the world, and cats became pets.
"
"So how did the Dream of a Thousand Cats appear?" Bat Cat asked and answered: "A Siamese cat that became a human pet followed its own reproductive instinct and gave birth to her child, but her owner only
He thought these little bastards were troublesome, so he put them in his pocket and sank them to the bottom of the river."
"The Siamese cat felt darkness and fear. The deep pain of losing her child awakened her extraordinary emotions. She began to pray like a human being, and a mysterious dream answered her prayer."
"The Siamese cat found herself appearing in this dream. The place she was going to was far away and mysterious, and there were powerful guards, but these could not stop an angry mother. She went through all kinds of difficulties and dangers and came to the cave.
, and waiting for her is the God of Cats, who also has another name that you are familiar with, the master of the dreamland—the Sandman."
"The Sandman told her about the grievances between humans and cats. From then on, the cat hoped to find a thousand cats to form the Dream of a Thousand Cats, and use dreams to rewrite reality and return the era to the era when cats ruled."
"Wait, I have a question." Clark asked: "If cats once ruled humans, why didn't they leave any traces in history?"
Batcat sighed and said: "Because this is not history at all. The Dream of a Thousand People has completely changed reality. The material world that exists now has been ruled by humans from the beginning, and the world line ruled by cats has been completely erased.
went."
"So that means that if the Dream of a Thousand Cats really works, the timeline of human rule will also be erased?" Diana asked.
"Yes, but that didn't really happen." Batcat shook its ears and said: "The ending of the story is that the Siamese cat woke up, and she kept repeating her story to her companions in reality. She wanted to
Find a thousand cats having the same dream."
"The Siamese cat's speech made a world with only cats appear in the dreams of more and more cats, so places like Gotham, the cat city, began to appear in the dream kingdom, where the only residents were cats. We are
Part of the Dream of a Thousand Cats."
"But you still haven't said how Bruce contacted you."
"I told him this story." Batcat paused and said, "So he knows how to make the Thousand Cats Dream hear his call."