Chapter 1126 Schiller is not working today (Part 1)
Added 2024-04-02 00:41:36 +0000 UTCIn DC World With Marvel Chat Group : Table of Content/Chapter List
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The candlelight in the glass lamp shade flickered, and the moonlight shone through the tall floor-to-ceiling windows into the room, leaving long streaks on the deep red plaid floor.
A dwarf pine tree near the desk shed needles all over the floor. A hand holding scissors swept through the deep green leaves, "snap", a small branch was cut off and fell beside the leather shoes.
Schiller gently rolled up the sleeves of his suit that had peeked out, using his feet to move the wheeled office chair, gliding to the side of the desk. He picked up the broom that had been prepared earlier and cleaned up the branch and leaves he had cut off.
The previous Arkham Asylum had been completely uninhabitable after being destroyed by a group of Green Lanterns.
The Falcone Family and Wayne Group jointly funded the renovation. At the same time, Schiller, the former attending doctor, finally had his own office and didn't have to share the old office with Brand anymore.
The new office had a brown floor, deep red wallpaper, and a dark brown wooden structure. It was divided into two parts by a wooden structure and glass partition wall.
This half where the desk was located occupied two-thirds of the area, with two full-wall bookcases filled with all kinds of books. In front of the desk, there was a sofa for guests and a round coffee table with two bottles of wine and a few glasses.
On the other side of the glass partition, there were some medical examination equipment and a bed. But unlike the cold white color of other medical equipment, the stethoscope and blood pressure monitor here were placed on a wooden table, and the bed was covered with a deep red velvet bedsheet with tassels, looking nothing like a medical bed.
However, this was the norm for most psychologist's offices, which had to appear comfortable and warm to help patients relax. If it looked too cold, no one would open up.
Opposite the medical bed was a common five-drawer cabinet. On the wall above the cabinet's desktop, a small door was open - a newspaper delivery door, allowing the newspaper boy to put newspapers directly into the cabinet without knocking or entering.
There was a stack of newspapers there, obviously unread, and next to them was a small silver telephone.
Suddenly, the telephone receiver vibrated, and a crisp ring sounded. Schiller, who was about to take out the trash, froze for a moment, put down the cleaning tools, and went to answer the telephone.
But before he could reach the telephone, Mrs. Miller came in and said, "Professor, you don't need to answer the telephone. I just wanted to tell you that Professor Victor will be here in ten minutes, so it's not time for coffee yet. Would you like some tea?"
Seeing Mrs. Miller come in, Schiller quickly walked to the side of the desk, using his body to block the broom he had just put down. But Mrs. Miller's eyes were very sharp. She took a step to the side, peeked out, and saw the broom handle.
"Oh my goodness, Professor!" Mrs. Miller let out a shriek. "You've brought the broom from downstairs up here again? Haven't I reminded you not to mix cleaning tools from different areas?!"
"Uh, I just wanted to sweep up some leaves," Schiller explained awkwardly.
"Leaves??" Mrs. Miller looked puzzled as she stepped forward, noticing the pine needles on the floor. She didn't seem surprised, but when her gaze fell on the scissors next to them, she let out an even higher-pitched shriek.
"Professor Schiller! Isn't that the scissors from the inpatient department? How could you bring them to the consulting room?!"
Mrs. Miller held her forehead and said, "Oh my goodness! You doctors! You never sympathize with us nurses! Always taking things and putting them down randomly, never putting them back where they belong! Even Beatrice is neater than you!"
Schiller leaned on the desktop with one hand and sighed lightly. He knew that Mrs. Miller, the retired head nurse who had been rehired, couldn't stand things like this. He had to try to change the subject, so he asked, "Who is Beatrice, a new nurse?"
"Beatrice is a cat I'm raising!" Mrs. Miller glared at Schiller, walked quickly over, picked up the broom first, then went behind the glass partition and grabbed a newspaper, wrapped the scissors in it, and then used the newspaper to wrap the scissors and the broom handle together.
Schiller reached out a hand, wanting to stop her actions, but seeing Mrs. Miller's murderous eye contact, he withdrew his hand and said softly, "...I haven't read that newspaper yet."
Mrs. Miller carried the newspaper-wrapped items towards the door, and as she walked, she said over her shoulder, "Hot water will be delivered in 5 minutes."
"Wait, what about the leaves scattered on the floor?" Schiller turned around and asked, looking at the pine needles he had cut off.
"I'll have someone come to clean it up," Mrs. Miller said as she closed the door. Just as Schiller was about to sigh, the door was pushed open again, and Mrs. Miller poked her head in and said, "Don't touch that poor tree anymore! Wasn't it enough for Beatrice to trim it?"
With a "bang," the office door was shut. Schiller sighed and sat back in his chair, taking out a pen from his pocket and starting to play with it.
After a while, there was a knock on the door, and Victor's voice came from outside, "Hello, it's me, Victor, may I come in?"
"Please come in." Schiller straightened his tie, placed his hands on the desktop, and looked at Victor as he entered, asking, "Why is it you who came? Copperpot said he would come a little later to pick up the medicine, so I've been waiting until now."
"Don't mention it, he's been too busy to come," Victor shook his head. As he walked further inside, he looked around the new office environment, and his gaze fell on the bed.
He walked over and sat on the bed, caressing the bedsheet with his hand and marveling, "No wonder you don't want to live in the Gotham University dorms anymore. The conditions here are much better than there."
Schiller came out from behind the desk and sat relaxed on the sofa in the lounge area. He shook his head and said, "Thanks to those green-glowing lunatics, I finally have a decent office."
After saying that, he turned around and looked at Victor through the glass partition wall, asking, "What's going on with Copperpot? How could he be so busy that he doesn't even have time to pick up medicine for his mother?"
"Do you remember the incident when the GothamCitizens went crazy last time?" Victor lay down on the bed, placed his hands on his chest, and said while looking at the ceiling, "I gifted the freezing weapons to the Gotham police department and also led the students to subdue those crazy Citizens. Now, most of them are frozen in the cold storage, waiting for the antidote to be researched before they can be thawed."
"Batman, however, quickly researched and understood the antidote. He added the antidote he researched into Gotham's water circulation system."
"But relying solely on skin absorption and ingestion is not effective enough. The best way now is to partially thaw the ice blocks and inject them."
"However, there are thousands upon thousands of crazed patients, and all the nurses in Gotham are so exhausted that their arms are about to fall off, and they still can't finish the injections. The Wayne Corporation did hire nurses at high prices from outside, but it's just a drop in the bucket."
"Gordon wanted to organize nurse training, or rather, injection training. The intravenous operation process is not complicated, and with some practice, they would learn it. But most Gotham people are accustomed to being rough and uncouth. Could you really get those burly gangmembers to practice giving injections?"
"There was no choice. Copperpot had to lead the children to help train the older kids. Without him there, the children wouldn't focus on their studies, so he's been working overtime these days on nurse training. He really doesn't have much time to come and pick up medicine."
Victor stood up from the bed and walked over to sit on the sofa opposite Schiller. At this moment, Mrs. Miller happened to enter with a hot water kettle, and she naturally continued the conversation topic.
"Those little brats may be naughty and mischievous, but their hands are much more dexterous than adults. Many of them have folded takeout boxes or packaging bags in the back kitchen, which is already a very rare work experience."
Schiller asked with some confusion, "Then why is our hospital still empty? Our nurses seem to be quite idle too?"
Mrs. Miller rolled her eyes and said, "Because psychiatric nurses are not good at giving injections at all. What they are best at is intellectually outsmarting patients who want to hide drugs, physically grappling with patients who suddenly go crazy, and the most important and also the most troublesome job that all nurses in the world have to doโreminding the doctor to put things back in their place."
Schiller shrugged lightly. After Mrs. Miller left, he tilted his chin towards the door and said, "This is the biggest drawback of this new office. I have to get scolded at least three times a day."
Victor laughed at his misfortune and said, "When you were in the office, you often scolded me and Anna for not putting things back after using them. Now it's your turn, isn't it?"
"Because you two were taking my stuff," Schiller said grumpily. "Shall I remind you again that within a week, you and Anna lost six of my pens?"
Schiller took a sip of water, glanced at Victor, and asked, "Has Bruce reported to you? What is he studying? Physics or chemistry?"
"Physics," Victor answered. He picked up a finger cookie from the metal tin on the desktop, broke it in two, ate one half, and said, "Why did you only think to ask now? He has already attended a group meeting."
Schiller also broke off a piece of the finger cookie and put it in his mouth, raising an eyebrow and saying, "Only a group meeting with you and him?"
"Didn't I tell you? I've taken on a few new postgraduates."
"The Cold Master was the first. When he was young, he took the wrong path and taught himself while in prison, but he always longed for campus life and wanted to receive a systematic education. His research direction is somewhat similar to mine, but not exactly the same. To be precise, he can't really be considered my student; he is fully capable of leading a research group on his own."
"However, he is very humble and even contacted a professor he knew from prison to write him a recommendation letter. He has now officially become a postgraduate at Gotham University."
"There's also Pamela. I don't know if you remember herโshe's a third-year biology student at Gotham University. She was supposed to graduate soon, but during the Citizens' Disaster, her classmates abandoned her and used her as bait, which made her very sad and angry."
"Bruce's girlfriend rescued her, and the two of them became good sisters. Pamela was somewhat disheartened and didn't want to continue her studies, but Selena persuaded her to cherish her time on campus."
Victor shook his head and said, "Her psychological shadow is still quite serious, or perhaps her psychological state itself has some issues. Her emotions have always been unstable. However, she still listened to Selena's advice and didn't drop out."
"But she didn't want to see her classmates from the biology department anymore, so she applied for early admission to the postgraduate program and wanted to come to the physics department."
"Although I think she is more suited for research in the life sciences, Gotham University doesn't have an advisor in that direction. So for now, I've let her be affiliated with me for independent research. When she pursues her doctorate, she can go to Metropolis University."
Victor sighed and said, "She's a remarkably talented young lady, as if she can talk to plants. I've seen her undergraduate research results, and they were astonishing. Those classmates must have treated her that way out of jealousy because she's a genius."
Schiller nodded and said, "It would be such a pity if she doesn't pursue her studies. When you go back, persuade her again. If she feels distressed, she should see a psychologist. She should understand better than anyone that medication is effective."
"Let's talk about Bruce," Schiller said, looking at Victor. But he didn't see any annoyed expression on Victor's face. On the contrary, when mentioning Bruce's studies, Victor's eyes were shining with excitement as he opened his mouth to say:
"He's also a genius! A thorough genius! And he has a keen interest in physics and a burning passion for research!"
"I have to say, at the first group meeting, from the paper topic to the group discussion, he performed the best!"
Schiller was dumbfounded.
[Read at www.patreon.com/shanefreak, and thanks for the invaluable support!]
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Next Chapter>>Chapter 1127 Schiller is not working today (middle)