Had lunch with Harvey and Christine. Shiller briefly introduced Harley's situation to Harvey, but didn't rush him to make a decision, instead asking him to think about it for a few days before responding.
Just as he sat down in his office, Harley's call came through.
"How did the talk with Attorney Dante go, Professor?"
"Not bad. I can tell he's quite short on money lately, so the chance of him agreeing is pretty high."
"Really? That's great!"
"However, it might still take a few days. You know too well that he's a lawyer, these people are especially cautious and might check your financial background and such."
"Why is that? Alright then. What about Cobblepot? Did Professor Fries say if he agreed?"
"The Kobert Group had some issues yesterday, so the two of them didn't meet. They probably won't be able to have dinner until tonight. Ask him tomorrow morning."
"Oh heavens, what's up with them!" Harley couldn't help but complain.
"Haste makes waste, miss. Personnel issues are just part of what you have to solve. Have you decided on a name for the organization's base? How will you contact and operate on a daily basis?"
"Hmm, I plan to wait until everyone is here to discuss it together."
"There's nothing to discuss. You've spent so much money, do you think we can overstep our roles?"
"Yeah, you're all mature and polite adults, unlike Dick and his gang of rascals... Let me think about it."
"No rush, the base is very important. You can also ask Waylon for a recommended renovation team."
After hanging up the call, Shiller continued to check his emails. After reading two papers, he felt a bit of a headache and went to the lounge to take a nap. He was awakened by a call from Victor.
"You're awake? There's a big circus at Gotham Theatre today, Xi Wana gave me two tickets, do you want to go?"
"Nora... oh, she's allergic to animal fur. Let's go."
Just as Shiller was about to go out, he noticed it was raining. Since the dark clouds cleared, it had rained less in Gotham, but this season is still rainy. He grabbed an umbrella and headed out.
Victor's car was parked a bit far away, but fortunately, the rain wasn't heavy. Shiller walked a few hundred meters, then put away the umbrella and got into the car.
"The Grayson Troupe's big circus is quite famous, and there are plenty of tourists from out of town coming to see it. Also, you can't see moles as big as boars elsewhere."
"Did they catch that seagull from the dock? It seems like it hasn't been around in a few days?"
"I think they caught it before, but it was especially hard to tame and keeps pooping everywhere. Can you imagine how big the poop of such a huge seagull is?"
"Can you not talk about it? I haven't eaten yet..."
They arrived at the theatre, Shiller only then remembered: "Weren't you supposed to have dinner with Cobblepot tonight?"
"That's at nine o'clock. We have plenty of time."
As it turned out, he was a bit too optimistic. Coincidentally, during today's big circus show, a large group of parrots went out of control and crazily flew towards the audience. It took two to three hours to catch them, finishing only at nearly 10 p.m.
Standing at the theatre entrance, Shiller sighed, removing a feather stuck to his suit collar, watching Victor reload his Freeze Gun.
Thankfully, Victor came. Without his Freeze Gun, they might still be catching these parrots till morning.
"Oswald? Yes, there was a bit of trouble... no, it's nothing. Never mind, let's meet at noon tomorrow."
After hanging up, Victor first dropped off Shiller at school, then drove himself home. Before leaving, he said, "Because of the need for treatment, Billy has fallen behind in his classes, I have to go home and tutor him."
Shiller waved as the car lights disappeared into the dark street.
He sighed, yawned, and prepared to go back to rest.
Since he had to watch the football team's practice game in the morning, Shiller went to bed early that night.
In hindsight, this decision was very foresighted, as he was woken up by a call from Victor again at two in the morning.
"Come save me!" Victor's distressing voice came from the phone, "You taught at a grammar school, right? Get over here quickly! I'm going crazy, Shi!"
"Don't call me 'Shi'." Shiller sat up sleepily from his bed, removed the nightcap, and brushed his hair with his hand.
"Whatever! Just come over!!!!"
At two-thirty in the morning, a car pulled up at the Fries household. As he got out, Shiller tightened his coat, looking at the brightly lit mansion, sighing deeply.
Victor waited on the porch, wearing just a simple plain knit sweater, his hair was messier than the fuzz on the sweater, apparently from him messing with it himself.
"Either help me tutor or teach me some child psychology. Shiller, hurry!"
Shiller rolled his eyes slightly and followed Victor to Billy's bedroom. Billy was sitting on the carpet, with a textbook laid out in front of him and a colored picture book beside.
"You teach him first. I still have to finish the craft assignment." Victor pulled at his hair, turned, and dashed out of the room, shouting from the staircase, "Nora! Where's the remaining white glue from when we glued the stool?!"
Shiller leaned against the wall and sat down on the carpet, glanced at Billy's textbook, and found that although it was a public school's textbook, it was quite challenging, comparable to private grammar school level.
"Come on, Billy. Look at this word, what is this? It's a 'tire.' Is tire countable or not?"
It turns out that tutoring kids has nothing to do with the parent's education level, profession, or even the stability of their personality, the way they express emotions, or their recent mood changes.
Basically, whoever takes it on goes crazy.
Billy has never really studied well and hasn't developed good learning habits since childhood. As a result, his attention is scattered, and it's a bonus if he pays attention for one or two minutes within ten minutes.
Plus, he has comprehension issues. It's not that he has an IQ problem, it's just that without systematic education, his brain doesn't lean towards logical thinking and is always wandering.
For example, seeing numbers, instead of calculating them, he imagines "2" as a swan, and "8" as two eggs. His divergent thinking overwhelms logical thinking, making it hard for him to understand the questions.
Even Victor and Nora, who are very experienced teachers, get infuriated by him.
The reason they called Shiller over wasn't because they thought he had a solution; it was because they knew Shiller wouldn't get angry—he deals with patients much crazier than this every day.
Shiller really didn't get angry. If Billy couldn't focus, he would explain it a few more times; if he couldn't understand the questions, he'd go over them a few more times.
They slowly made it through half of it, and Shiller decided that was enough and finished the rest himself.
This was one of the reasons Victor called him over: Victor never systematically studied grammar and made too many mistakes, which might make the teacher think he wasn't tutoring properly.
Finally done, it was almost dawn. Billy was already sound asleep. As Shiller went down the stairs, Victor was walking up holding the crafts he had spent most of the night working on.
Shiller patted Victor on the shoulder, expressing infinite sympathy with a small gesture.
Being a mental patient isn't so bad; at least you'll never have the legal chance to raise a child. Thinking of this, Shiller couldn't help but laugh out loud.
As expected, after dropping Billy, his homework, and his crafts at school, Victor, who stayed up all night, fell asleep instantly, once again missing lunch with Cobblepot.
They originally planned to meet at the staff cafeteria. Victor slept until the afternoon, and finding no one, Cobblepot came to Shiller's office.
Shiller roughly figured out what happened, so he said, "It's actually nothing. Harley had a sudden idea to form a villain group, offering a 500,000 annual salary per person. Victor wanted to see if you were interested."
"A villain group?" Cobblepot couldn't help frowning and said, "Do I look like a villain?"
Shiller really gave him a serious look and then realized that the Cobblepot in this universe doesn't look much like a villain.
On one hand, he's rather thin, giving him a sharper and more energetic look, plus he maintains a fitness routine. Although he didn't grow very tall due to childhood malnutrition, his body proportions are quite good.
On the other hand, presentation matters, and since his business took off, Cobblepot pays special attention to his appearance. Every aspect is well-maintained, exuding a reliable aura, not looking evil at all.
So, Shiller said, "Harley's criterion for selection is: if your counterpart in other universes is a villain, you can join. In other universes, Cobblepot is the famous Penguin Man."
"And after all that effort, he only became the mayor?" Cobblepot said rather disdainfully.
"That's not important. The key is whether you want to earn this money."
"What exactly does this organization do?"
"Honestly, I don't know, but since it's a villain team, they might oppose the Justice League, right?"
"Where is the Justice League, then?"
"Good question." Shiller looked at the paper he was holding and said, "Though they're off duty now, they'll go to work eventually. We can deal with it then."
Cobblepot rubbed his cheek and said, "I don't have any other engagements. You can add my name when confirming members."
"Alright, I'll let Harley know," Shiller nodded and said.
After Cobblepot left, Harley called again.
"There was a bit of a situation with Billy, and Victor just managed to free up some time. But he's already contacted Cobblepot, so there should be results by tomorrow."
"What about Harvey?"
"He's looking into the Federation's association regulations, and he said he'd give me the results tomorrow."
"Alright, alright, alright," Harley's tone revealed her helplessness.
He hung up and then called Pamela.
"I've figured out what to name this organization!"
"What is it?"
"'Tomorrow Alliance'!"
"Why?"
Harley said fiercely:
"Because no matter who you ask 'when will there be results,' their answer will always be 'tomorrow'!"