Shiller didn't hesitate and walked through the hall towards the back garden. He believed that before Bruce discovered him, he should allow himself enough time to observe. He wanted to know how they were getting along.
Soon, a figure appeared in the hall of Wayne Manor. Following him was another small figure. It was a very frail little girl. Because her body was so thin, her head seemed disproportionately large, almost as if it would fall off her shoulders. She was Noel.
Bruce's attention was entirely focused on this little girl, so he did not notice Shiller standing at the back door. Shiller stood there, quietly watching the interaction between the two. However, the more he watched, the deeper his frown became.
Bruce was laboriously trying to explain the current situation to the little girl. He was telling her that she was safe. But the little girl completely ignored his explanation and ran to the corner of the room, and Bruce followed her over.
At that moment, Shiller actually remembered that he had seen similar traces in Wayne Manor before and concluded: the little girl Bruce brought back might have died of cardiopulmonary failure caused by stress. It now seemed that this judgment was correct.
Some of Bruce's actions were indeed unwise, but this was more likely due to his lack of understanding of children.
Many people know that pediatrics is also known as the "silent department." Children are very difficult creatures to communicate with. They may not speak, and even if they do, it might not be accurate, and even if accurate, it might not be useful. So treating children is much like treating small cats and dogs. You can't expect them to communicate effectively with you and solve problems through communication.
Not to mention children, how many adults like to tell little lies when seeing a doctor? Reasoning and inquiry are not enough to solve their problems. That's why doctors prefer to use professional instruments for checks. If they really treated based on patient self-report alone, they wouldn't be doctors; they'd be killers.
Bruce's biggest mistake was that he put too much emphasis on the patient's self-report. He thought he could use verbal communication and consolation to solve the problem, but that was not the case.
However, this kind of mistake is almost inevitable. Because if someone has back pain or leg pain, doctors can prescribe all kinds of imaging checks to determine where the problem lies. So how do you conduct an imaging check if someone has a mental problem?
The fact is, even today, a super artificial intelligence like Brainiac can't handle madmen. Many mental problems still rely on patient self-report, with other checks serving as auxiliary.
Of course, there are more accurate methods, but Bruce is completely unaware of them. Because this method of bypassing verbal communication and directly judging mental states is called psychoanalysis.
It's fair to say, if it weren't Bruce and someone else of a similar age, the tragedy would be unavoidable. Because they're too young, have never been parents, and lack experience in dealing with children. They only think about identifying problems and solving them. A straight line is the shortest distance between two points, and the final result is causing too much mental pressure on Noel.
The only hope for turning the situation around would be to have someone older handle it. And this person ideally should be a good parent, who has been deeply involved in their own child's childhood or a professional in the field. Otherwise, it still won't work.
Shiller stood behind the door, carefully observing Noel's condition. Then he realized that Noel's excessive reactions were not only due to Bruce's pressure but also from her fear of the new environment.
Shiller noticed a detail: when Noel ran toward the corner, she stepped on the carpet by the fireplace. At the moment she stepped on it, she showed a very frightened expression and nearly fell. Then she scrambled to avoid that spot before she reached the corner.
This was because, in the environment she lived in before, there was no such thing as a carpet. The floor was supposed to be hard, so she was frightened when she stepped on the carpet. She didn't know what it was. Information like "floors with something on them can also be soft" had never occurred to her before. This kind of common sense was flooding into her brain, overwhelming her already under-supplied brain, leaving her unable to accept it.
The continuous bombardment of information that she couldn't process caused her brain's cache to overload, effectively crashing her main system. This made her even less able to communicate.
Then Bruce took the little girl upstairs. Because Noel had a fever, Bruce sent her back to rest. But in fact, this did not stop the information bombardment, instead accelerating the influx of unfamiliar information.
The bed is soft, the quilt warm, the fabric smooth... All of these were too foreign to her. This information lingered inside her brain, further consuming system memory until it was nearly full.
Seeing this, Shiller felt puzzled. Even if it's an information bombardment or system crash, it shouldn't be life-threatening. On the contrary, freezing the brain could actually facilitate rest.
It's like tossing and turning in bed when you can't sleep, thinking about all sorts of things. It's the things you can't figure out that make you excited, until you hit something you just can't solve, pause at "if you can't figure it out, don't think about it," and then fall asleep.
The brain of a human being consumes a lot of energy. If brain activities temporarily cease, it can save a fair amount of energy. It seemed positive, so how did things suddenly worsen?
Shiller saw Bruce talking with Dick on the stairs. While neither was paying attention, Shiller went up to the second floor from another side and reached the room where the little girl was resting.
He glanced at the door briefly and understood why—Noel had no intention of giving up thinking.
Even though her brain was severely lacking circulation, even though her system was almost at a standstill, she still didn't give up, never thought "if I can't figure it out, I won't think about it." She was continuously trying to comprehend the things around her.
She forced herself to accept: the soft thing she was lying on was a bed, there were warm blankets, and some medicines were effective. She was constantly using her brain to process the overwhelming information flooding in, even attempting to analyze it.
She was trying to understand what the person who brought her back intended to do, what would happen to her in the future, and what she should be doing now. Her brain never stopped for even a moment, therefore she just lay on the bed stiffly, utterly sleepless.
It's obvious; if she had given up early, thinking "whatever, it's just death anyway," she would never have reacted, just like a puppet to be manipulated by others.
Precisely because she kept trying to respond to the incoming information, yet her hardware conditions didn't support it, she cried and made a fuss when she should have rested but couldn't.
This is perhaps the curse of Gothamites, Shiller thought. They're too good at thinking, regardless of the situation or location. Thinkers are always in pain; they can never completely shut down those brilliant minds to seek genuine peace.
They can't accept fate blindly, like those numb wandering souls. Thoughts as sharp as knives flow through their spines, constantly dissecting the world and themselves.
Noel's breathing started to weaken because her body truly didn't have the energy to sustain her thinking anymore. But she was still continuously analyzing those things: from when they were rescued, to when she was taken back to Wayne Manor, then to the words Bruce whispered in her ear, the soft bed and warm blankets...
Shiller couldn't bear it any longer. He pushed open the door. But at that moment, he felt the echo of Noel's soul. In his eyes, those colorful lines representing emotions and thoughts bloomed like gentian flowers. This caused him to pause in place, quickly turn around, and rush out the door, shouting: "Bruce!!! Bruce Wayne!!!!"
No response. Clearly, Bruce was just downstairs, but he couldn't hear Shiller's call. Shiller immediately realized something was isolating him from this memory. Could it be the Power of Death?
No, Jack's judgment shouldn't be wrong. The Power of Death should have already left the Spirit Domain. Besides, if it were the Power of Death, it wouldn't just be isolation, it would likely be more aggressive. The style of the entire memory fragment would change accordingly, becoming darker and more terrifying.
"Hugo Strange," Shiller uttered the name, "it must be his handiwork."
It's reasonable. His purpose is to prevent breaking the stalemate, so of course, he wouldn't let it be easy to interfere with Noel's memory. Even if he observed something, there's no way to reverse it.
Instantly, Noel had already lost her breath. The memory fragments shattered. In the misty white light afterwards, Shiller found himself back at the very moment when he entered the Spirit Domain.
He frowned deeply because this was abnormal. Jack directly sent him into the memory fragment. After the fragment collapsed, he should appear outside, not return to the starting point—this meant he was likely trapped.
As others analyzed, this was Hugo Strange's trap. He used some method to isolate Shiller's spirit body from Noel's Spirit Domain but trapped him here in a never-ending loop.
Shiller stood right at the center of Wayne Manor's hall, watching Bruce lead Noel inside. Neither of them saw him. Shiller observed Noel's condition very carefully again, while contemplating his own predicament.
Hugo trapped him here definitely with a purpose, likely to defeat or kill him. But just relying on the loop is pointless, since he can't interfere with the memory and the things inside the memory can't interfere with him. There must be another trick.
After traversing the entire process again, Noel died again. The process was very fast, Shiller couldn't interfere. Then the third time, fourth time...
The entire process was like a fast-forwarded movie, and Shiller was merely an observer sitting outside the screen. He was completely unable to intervene and could only watch helplessly.
When Noel died once again, Shiller noticed something different—the light began to dim.
Shiller stood once again right at the center of Wayne Manor. He turned his head. The fireplace was still burning, but the flames were much dimmer than the first time, leaving only a few flickering flames. Meanwhile, the shadow reflected on the wall was thick and substantial. The sky outside the windows of Wayne Manor grew increasingly dark.