Early the next morning, the rain had stopped. Although the wind was still strong, the East Coast had finally entered the dry period of late autumn. The cold, dry air kept descending, pushing the thermometer's needle down to unimaginably low levels. The temperature dropped rapidly to single digits, but the entire sky, set against the autumn leaves, seemed unrealistically blue.
The weather was so good that everything outside was bathed in a hazy glow. The dazzling sunlight made it hard for anyone to open their eyes, and the eyelashes had never felt so prominent. Due to the strong wind, a trench coat was useless. Greed wore a windbreaker, shivering slightly as he opened the gate to the yard.
Arrogant had just walked out of the house and looked at Pamela, who was carrying a device in one hand, and said somewhat speechlessly, "So you are the so-called detection expert?"
"I must correct you," Pamela raised her voice to prevent it from being drowned by the wind, "I'm not the only detection expert in Gotham, but I am the only one who can safely walk into this dangerous nature reserve to deal with your beast!"
Arrogant sighed, turned his head aside, walked down the porch steps, and followed Pamela and her assistant to the front yard on the east side.
Pamela put down the instrument, looked up at the giant beech tree, hesitated for a while before speaking, "You mean, you successfully nurtured this beech tree, so you also have the conditions to nurture that chestnut tree."
Greed nodded and said, "I heard they are of the same species or the same family."
"That's not the point. The point is, you said this tree is planted in your yard?"
"That depends on how you define a yard."
"Define how? Is the entire western hemisphere your yard?"
"I generously consider not including the Atlantic," Greed nodded and said.
Pamela rolled her eyes dramatically, then pointed at the tree and said, "It told me that when you moved it here, you did it too roughly, and now its root system is a bit strained."
"You are a scientist, and you should use more scientific methods to detect everything in this yard, rather than listening to hearsay. Did the tree tell you the heavy metal content of our soil?"
Pamela was speechless at Greed's self-righteousness, so she had to set up the equipment and said, "Successfully planting the same type of trees doesn't help your qualification in nurturing and protecting trees, because although they are the same type, their protection levels differ. Don't look at me like that; there are no trees with the same endangered status as the American chestnut tree near your natural forest. Please don't harm those trees, okay?"
"And also, don't use your superpowers to hasten the grass's maturity; those little grasses are still dizzy..."
"Oh, God. Gray mist, did you sneak a drink again?!"
Though the process had some bumps, the testing results were optimistic. Shiller's home's yard had no harmful substances; the soil was rich in nutrients, and because it was near a lake, the groundwater system was also abundant, making it ideal for nurturing a chestnut tree.
Then Pamela took out a thick stack of documents and said, "In my view, among all these environmental regulations, the most important is that you cannot profit from anything on this tree, including the tree itself, its branches, leaves, and fruits."
"So, the chestnuts can't be sold?"
"No. The quantity of fruits produced by this tree is insufficient to impact the current chestnut market, but once bought, the fruits might be illegally cultivated."
"I don't understand," Arrogant said, "The American chestnut tree is endangered right now, right?"
"Yes, their disease resistance is too weak. Previously, waves of epidemics wiped out 80% of them, and the remaining ones are deep in the mountains. This one might have survived because it's isolated overseas."
"Then why not allow breeding?"
"Because ordinary people do not have the ability to edit tree genes and improve the variety. What they plant are all non-disease-resistant varieties, and when epidemics hit, they would still face annihilation."
"But can't they just be cut down for firewood?"
"That's ignoring plant welfare," Pamela said with her hands on her hips, "If what I say is incomprehensible to you, let's use animal protection actions for analogy. Many pets have cute appearances but suffer from congenital genetic diseases like cartilage disease or heart disease. As long as people buy them for their adorable looks and profits can be made, endless breeding will happen, causing more little animals to suffer. That's what animal protectionists oppose."
"The same applies to plants. If the planting of such plants were open, many people would want their own chestnut tree, but this variety has inherent defects, and the epidemic would make them equally distressed. However, ordinary people are unable to isolate plant epidemics, so personal cultivation isn't allowed before breeding disease-resistant varieties."
"Alright, I understand. The tree I want is healthy, right?"
"Yes, and if personal cultivation isn't open, this would be the only tree in the entire community, so its chances of getting infected are minimal, ensuring it stays healthy. Beech trees live long, so it can keep you company."
"Then returning to the chestnut issue," Greed said into the wind, pulling the zipper of his windbreaker up a bit and squinting, "They can be given as gifts, right?"
"Yes, but you must ensure that they neither sell them nor plant them privately. Otherwise, if traced back to you, you could face prosecution."
"Then I can give them away cooked?"
"That would be best."
The report came out quickly because Brainiac had replaced most of the administrative staff, so as long as the data was uploaded, it was approved almost instantly, and within an hour, the tree could be transplanted.
Of course, Greed can't be the one to transplant because he's not a professional. The beech tree he tried to transplant earlier fell over. Instead, the job should be done by professional arborists and botanists. This time, it's not just Pamela; there are indeed a few others who look very professional.
When the equipment needed for the tree transplant arrived, Arrogance didn't realize it was meant for him. He thought it was brought in to fish equipment out of the lake.
Watching the dozens of meters high crane, various excavators, and some other equipment he couldn't name all parked outside his house, Arrogance couldn't help but cover his forehead.
The plan was to dig up the tree, then directly lift it over with the crane. This way, they wouldn't need to transport it by truck.
"Why not use a truck?"
"Because putting such a large tree on a truck requires a crane anyway, so we might as well use a larger crane to lift it over directly. Don't worry, all the equipment is controlled by Brainiac, so there won't be any accidents."
"…but it looks like they're about to rebuild the Twin Towers in my yard."
"You don't have Twin Towers here."
"What great news."
Anyway, the project progressed smoothly. The workers operated the excavator to dig the tree out from the soil and then tied it to the crane. The crane lifted it up high to move the tree over the house into the yard. Pamela manipulated the tree to position it correctly and placed it into the pit dug by Shiller's team in the yard.
Once the tree was in position, Pamela straightened the roots, sprayed various disinfectants, applied fertilizer, finally filled up the soil, and restored the damaged lawn. One must admit, Pamela's skills are impressive; the tree looked like it naturally grew there.
At this point, things should have been finished, and the team could withdraw. But then, the excavator operator inside the house exclaimed, "There's something underneath! Lady Aisley!"
Pamela quickly went over and, with a few moves, they dug out a black box from underneath. Squinting at the box, Pamela said, "What is this? I feel it's emitting some kind of... radiation?"
Both Arrogance and Greed heard the operator's shout, but with the wind blowing hard, they couldn't catch the specifics of his words. They assumed it didn't concern them, so they headed inside.
Then, very unfortunately, Greed was struck by a chestnut.
He left some chestnuts for the small animals while harvesting them. Those chestnuts weren't fully ripened yet but were nearing it. As everyone knows, chestnuts aren't born smooth and shiny; they're wrapped in a layer with a spiky shell to protect the seeds.
Falling from a tall tree, sometimes their shells crack, allowing small animals to enjoy them. Fully ripened chestnuts sometimes have splitting shells, making them easier for people to peel. Previously, the chestnuts Barry and Primary Universe Batman peeled mostly had open shells, so they were easier to manage.
However, chestnuts that ripen but don't fall from the tree have very hard, sturdy spiky shells. When they strike a person at a speed of 450 kilometers per hour—half the initial speed of a handgun bullet—the result is catastrophic.
A single chestnut directly knocked Greed away, but luckily, he turned into mist mid-flight, otherwise, he might have been scattered into pieces.
But this was just the beginning because at least a hundred more chestnuts remained on this crazy tree, which started hurling chestnuts outward with abandon. Greed quickly pushed Arrogance back into the house and shouted toward Pamela, "Stop it, this joke is too much!!"
Just realizing the change on this side, Pamela flew over instantly, raised her hand, and froze the entire tree, causing all the chestnuts to fall down, turning the whole yard into an utter mess.
"Oh my God, what on earth is going on?!"
"That's what I should be asking you, plant expert," Greed said, looking at the chestnuts all over the place. "This tree is indeed healthy; the chestnut that just flew at me had a speed higher than any recorded initial speed in human throwing sports. What's going on?"
Frowning, Pamela went over to examine the tree and said, "We just dug out a radiation-emitting object under the tree. Maybe during the tree's growth, that equipment's radiation integrated into its spirit, becoming part of it, and when it left there, with its spirit damaged, it went crazy."
Greed opened his mouth but found himself speechless. After a long pause, he said, "So why would the culprit do this? Just so when someone tries to transplant the tree one day, they'll be killed by it?"
Greed was merely giving voice to an absurd idea, but Pamela nodded and said, "I'm afraid yes. I'm afraid anyone who tries to touch the roots or move it will be attacked."
At that moment, Greed thought, perhaps this tree was planted to one day cover up the noise made by the kidnappers in the basement. Because trees grow extremely slowly, for their plan to be smoothly executed, they must ensure the tree survives and isn't stolen.
"Ridiculous," Greed said, "So if someone tries to transplant a tree, and that tree attacks them, what would you typically do? Call the police?"
"No. In the old Gotham, people wouldn't call the police because this sort of thing wasn't uncommon, and the police would simply tell you not to meddle with plants if you're not idle, otherwise, you deserve being hit."
Greed couldn't help covering his eyes, saying, "You mean, back then, there were so many plants that attacked people, so they figured the best way to protect this tree was to let it protect itself."
"Exactly. Unfortunately, the likelihood of being killed by a plant is low but not zero, and in Gotham, this is even a statistical figure on paper."
"I almost became one of those statistics."
"You should consider the possibility of 'evil begets evil'."