Chapter 281: Gotham Playing House (Part 2)

When Selina took Aisha from Bruce, she was already struggling. Aisha was not a baby after all. It was already a bit difficult to hold a three or four-year-old child. Selina was not as tall as Bruce, so it was naturally more difficult to control Aisha in her excited state.

But at this moment, after a short pause in the aerial trapeze performance, it entered a climax again. The dazzling aerial movements made Aisha completely excited. She jumped forward with all her strength, and Selina couldn't catch her at all.

Aisha jumped directly to the front row of seats, then crawled along the chairs to the ground, and passed under the front row of chairs. Selina followed the same route to chase her.

But who knew that Aisha seemed to have awakened some superpowers. She was incredibly fast and disappeared in the layers of seats in the audience in almost an instant.

Selina completely lost her and could only look for her row by row.

At the same time, a small black shadow ran past the backstage of the stage. The circus owner felt some movement and turned back suddenly, but found nothing.

At this time, the circus owner was holding a saw and approaching the wooden stake that fixed the rope for the aerial performance.

In the aerial performance, the rope used for swinging is hung on a higher rope. The circus owner approached the wooden stake that fixed the highest rope with a saw and a grin.

The circus owner held the saw and began to saw the thick rope. While sawing, he cursed very relievedly, but just when the rope was about to be cut, a small figure appeared in an instant and bit his arm.

Aisha was not here to seek justice. She was originally interested in things that move. When the circus owner sawed things, his arm went up and down. In the entire dark backstage, only his arm moved. Of course, Aisha bit it without thinking.

Unfortunately, Aisha was too light and her bite was not heavy, just like she usually bit Bruce and Selina's arms. Apart from leaving a row of teeth marks, it did not cause any substantial damage, and only delayed the circus owner's arm for a moment.

The thick rope that had been sawed to the limit was only connected by the last strand, but it finally broke.

But it was also these few seconds of delay that allowed Bruce, who came out of the bathroom, to get closer to the stage.

The moment the rope broke, the two people hanging on the rope began to fall, but it took a few seconds to completely pull such a long rope out from the other end. It was the superposition of these few seconds that Bruce rushed onto the stage in an instant and grabbed the flying rope in the shadow of the curtain.

But he was just one person, and there were two people hanging on the other end of the rope. His weight was not enough to stop the two people on the rope from falling. Bruce had considered this problem before grabbing the rope, so he grabbed the rope with one hand and wrapped his arm around it twice, and then quickly grabbed the curtain beside him with the other hand.

With a fixed point, the rope stopped pulling away, and the Grayson couple on the other end of the rope stopped in mid-air.

Suddenly, Bruce heard the sound of inhaling cold air. He turned his head and saw that behind the curtain, there was a little boy who claimed to be the heir of the Grayson family.

He opened his eyes and mouth wide, looking at Bruce in shock.

There was still a distance from the auditorium to the stage. There were several rows of seats in front of Bruce's position, and the stage was higher than the auditorium. There were three steps next to it. Bruce completed a series of actions in just a few seconds, including flipping over the seats, rushing up the steps, grabbing the rope, and grabbing the curtain.

The quick reaction, smooth movements, and precise handling made it look more like an art performance than a heroic rescue. In the eyes of the bystander, little Grayson, Bruce was glowing.

Bruce sighed and said, "Don't stand there, come and help pull the rope."

Little Grayson, who had recovered from the shock, realized that his parents had almost fallen down. The shock on his face turned into anger. He helped Bruce pull the rope down and said, "It must have been the circus owner! He has been displeased with my father for a long time!!"

After a while, the rope was pulled back to its original position, and the two actors returned to the platform. They walked down and thanked Bruce.

Mrs. Grayson was already in tears, and little Grayson said angrily, "It must be him! Let's go find him!"

"Don't go! Dick! Come back!" Mrs. Grayson called him. The boy named Dick had already rushed out, but was finally called back by his mother.

"Can you tell me what happened?"

At this time, Mrs. Grayson was on the verge of a mental breakdown. She hugged her husband and cried non-stop, and Mr. Grayson was also a little depressed. The couple were just ordinary people who had just experienced a life-and-death crisis. The fear of being hung in the air and not knowing when to fall had completely crushed their hearts.

As if looking for an outlet to vent, Mr. Grayson said to Bruce: "... I know it was him who did it. He is the owner of the circus. We don't want to work here, but we have no choice."

"There should be many circuses on the East Coast. Why don't you go there?"

Mr. Grayson sighed and said, "You shouldn't pay attention to this aspect, right? My father, old Grayson, is the last generation of aerialists. He made a major mistake in his performance. Not only did he fall from mid-air, but he also hit the edge of the stage props. He..."

"Okay, I know, you don't need to go into details. Please accept my condolences."

"It was a performance at a high-profile charity dinner. Many of the participants were dignitaries who had never seen blood. This bloody death frightened many of them. The Grayson family lost its reputation. The big circuses were unwilling to hire us, fearing that we would cause such trouble again..."

"Only this circus was willing to accept us, because this is Gotham, and people are not afraid that we will fall to death..."

This reason was both absurd and reasonable. Bruce couldn't say anything to refute. He asked the Graysons: "You are not native to Gotham, right?"

"In fact, we have been here for a long time and bought our own house. We are considered half-locals, but our hometown is in Blüdhaven."

"Let's go back, back to Blüdhaven!" Mrs. Grayson sobbed, "Give up, we can't let little Dick live in this fearful environment..."

Mr. Grayson pursed his lips, his face was haggard, Mrs. Grayson continued to cry and said, "I know, I know you have always wanted to revive the family business, but this really won't work. You have to think about it, if we die, what will happen to poor little Dick? In Gotham, orphans without parents are likely to be sent to that terrible foster school, and then..."

Mrs. Grayson began to cry again. Bruce heard some information in her words, but it was not easy to ask now. Little Grayson went up to comfort his mother, and the three of them hugged each other.

When Bruce walked into the backstage, Selina was tying the last knot. The one she tied up was the owner of the circus, and Elsa was still biting his arm and refused to let go.

When Bruce went to hug Elsa, he thought he would have to fight with her again, but he didn't expect that Elsa easily let go of her mouth.

Seeing the saw next to him, Bruce knew what was going on. He called Gordon, then hugged Aisha and left the circus with Selina.

Just as they got in the sports car and were about to drive home, a figure appeared in front of his car. Bruce let go of the steering wheel, turned his head and looked at the figure. He asked: "...Dick? What's wrong with you? What are you doing?"

Dick walked around the front of the car and stood next to Bruce's driver's door and said: "My parents are going back to Blüdhaven."

"Then you should congratulate them. It's much better there than Gotham. You should live a stable life."

"But I don't want to go back..."

"Why?"

Dick pursed his lips. Although he was young, he had a resolute look. , he said: "My grandfather's death was not an accident at all."

"How do you know?"

"I have investigated." Dick said very firmly: "The horizontal bar of his final curtain call was tampered with. I checked the rope. The marks on it showed that it was a wrong knot. The knot used to fix the horizontal bar should not be like that at all..."

Bruce narrowed his eyes and asked him: "So,"

"You are not an ordinary person, right?" Dick grabbed Bruce's car door with one hand and said to him: "I have been learning acrobatic skills from my father for a long time. I know how difficult your set of movements is. Those muscle force techniques can never be performed on the spot, you should practice for a long time..."

Dick kept pursing his lips, and he said to Bruce: "My parents gave up, but I won't give up. I want to stay here to revive the reputation of the Grayson family and avenge my grandfather."

"More importantly, if the cause of my grandfather's death cannot be found out and the murderer who killed him cannot be found, then my parents will not be safe."

"But..." Dick showed a helpless expression and said: "I know what kind of place Gotham is. The skills I learned from my father are not enough for me to survive here, and I can't convince my parents to keep me here, so..."

Dick took a deep breath, and his face showed a melancholy that was inconsistent with his age. He looked at Bruce and said: "If you can allow me to learn from you, I think I can fulfill my wish one day, and you saved my parents. If I follow you, I don't think they will object..."

Before Bruce answered, Dick said: "...Okay, I know this sounds really ridiculous. How can I count on a rich old man..."

Dick let go of his hand, he sighed, and then waved his arm, motioning Bruce to drive.

He also knew that he was just impulsive. He didn't leave his parents and stayed in Gotham alone. He also wanted to learn from the world's richest man? This was simply a fantasy.

Bruce looked at Dick, but he had a very strange feeling. People always see themselves in another person at some point. In fact, Dick's appearance was completely different from his, and he was just a little boy of seven or eight years old. He didn't have any personality, but the tone of his voice made Bruce feel that he was very special.

Maybe there are two people in this world who are naturally compatible. In short, Dick likes Bruce very much, and Bruce likes Dick very much.

But liking is liking, Bruce doesn't plan to adopt an adopted son. A daughter is almost driving him and Selina crazy.

Wait, daughter...

Bruce looked back at Aisha, who was completely fixed in the child safety seat but still restless, and then looked at Dick, who looked much more mature than his peers. Just when Dick turned around to leave, Bruce called him.

Half an hour later, in Wayne Manor, Bruce dragged Elsa by her armpits, showed it to Dick like a pet dog, and said to him, "This is your sister."

"Wait, are you planning to adopt me? I..."

Before he could finish speaking, Aisha opened her mouth, and the mouth full of fangs startled Dick. He asked in shock: "What's going on??? Why are the teeth..."

"I was born with crooked teeth. I'm too young and haven't had time to correct them yet." Bruce replied without thinking.

Siluke

"Uh, okay... wait, her eyes seem to be..." Dick pointed at Elsa's eyes and said.

"Heterochromia iridis, follow his mother." Bruce answered in a natural tone.

"Yes...really? But...why can't she speak?"

"The child is autistic and has made an appointment with a psychiatrist." Bruce answered fluently.

"But……"

At this time, Alfred came down from upstairs. He asked Bruce hopefully: "Master, is this the eldest young master? Have the legal issues been resolved? I think we can..."

－－－－－－Digression－－－－－

There should be another 10,000 words later today, and then there will be no more on the 16th.