The weather in New York in October gradually turned cold, and Rania's immune system was relatively weak. Standing downstairs in the cold wind, she immediately sneezed.
With the sneeze, Dick's awkwardness faded a little. Instead, he relaxed and suggested, "Let's find a place to sit."
"No, thank you." Rania shook her head.
She rubbed her nose and said in a soft nasal voice, "Do you want to come to my house?"
As she spoke, the girl looked up and down. Her eyes were clear and bright, as if she was just naturally issuing an invitation. She had no idea how much closeness and trust this sentence represented, and how easily this unguarded heart could be hurt.
Rania didn't think there was anything wrong with this invitation. Although she was useless, she could always ask Mister to come out when needed. If she could take down a bunch of gangsters in a bar, she could take down this man in front of her. If that was really the case, then if he really wanted to do anything, he wouldn't need to wait until he was invited in.
… Generally speaking, strangers were not allowed to enter the house because there were valuable belongings in the house, but Rania sadly felt that the most valuable thing in the house was probably the old refrigerator.
Dick was slightly stunned, but he accepted Rania's proposal easily. "Okay, it's my pleasure. Do you need me to help you carry your bag? "
As expected, Rania shook her head and refused his help. Dick followed her into the apartment and waited with her for the shaky elevator to descend. While the elevator rattled, he observed the girl without leaving a trace.
She looked even thinner than in the file. She wore a pair of half-moon black-rimmed glasses on the bridge of her nose, and her eyelashes were slightly drooping. Her blue eyes were deeper than the ones Dick was familiar with, closer to a pure blue. The faint shadows of the lights blended into the distinct layers of waves, like faint blue flames burning faintly.
If it weren't for the black-rimmed glasses, just those eyes alone would easily make people think of another handsome and romantic man.
The girl didn't seem to notice his gaze as she was still focused on the jumping elevator floors. Her soft curly hair covered the side of her face, and the outline of her eyebrows was familiar, but the lines were softer, and the slightly straight corners of her lips were exactly the same as Bruce Wayne's.
… Heavens. Dick thought.
No matter how many times he looked at it, he would still find it novel.
As the oldest in the family, Dick had always been looking forward to having a younger sister. However, until he went solo, he was unable to realize this wish. However, this did not dampen his enthusiasm to care for his younger siblings. Therefore, whenever Weyne had a new member in the family, he would happily run back to take a look … until now, he had found one himself.
The old elevator swayed as it carried them up. When the elevator door opened, Rania took out the key from her backpack and trotted to a door. Her eyes lingered on the red mark on the door. She opened the door with the key, turned on the light, and stepped aside to let Dick enter first.
Dick took a step forward and slowly came to a stop. "… Wow."
Rania knew what he was surprised about.
Behind the door was a red room. From the walls to the floor to the furniture and decorations, there were only shades of red as far as the eye could see. Even the knives on the kitchen counter had red handles. At first glance, it was almost impossible to find anything that wasn't red.
Even if she could not see it, Rania could guess the expression on Dick's face. She could only try to be as calm as possible and pretend that she did not know how strange such a room looked. She pointed to the sofa and gestured for Dick to sit down while she ran to get some water.
… She could only serve him a glass of water. The last carton of milk had been drunk last week when she made oatmeal. In the past week, she could only make oatmeal with hot water. As for the taste, of course, she did not dare to compliment it. However, in order not to waste it, Rania could only force herself to swallow it.
However, it was rude to serve a guest with a glass of water.
The more Rania thought about it, the more listless she became. She came over with a mug, pushed the water over, and said as calmly as possible, "Sorry … If you come next time, I will prepare tea."
"…" Dick looked away from the water in the mug and glanced around. He felt from the bottom of his heart that Rania was poor.
Apart from the strange colors, the furniture in the room was obviously cheap at a glance. The only electrical appliance was the old refrigerator in the corner. Sitting in the living room, Dick could hear the dull buzzing sound of it arrogantly and rudely. He wondered if it was complaining about not being able to retire in time.
However, unlike its old age, the refrigerator was polished as if it was new. There were a few refrigerator stickers on the refrigerator door and a small blackboard hanging crookedly on it. The handwriting on it was a little blurred, as if it had not been touched for a long time.
The information in the file did not represent everything. At least, Dick could not see how much Rania cherished the old refrigerator from the file.
He turned his gaze back to Rania's face. Looking at the little girl's forced calm at the moment, he swallowed the rest of the words back, picked up the mug, and shrugged. "Trust me, the water is good."
Rania only took it as a consolation, but she still could not lift her spirits.
Labor in the United States was very expensive, so Mister's salary was also very high. As a Black Mist, she did not need to eat, so it was not difficult for her to feed Rania with her salary alone. She could save one or two thousand dollars a month by saving money.
… However, Rania still had to pay off her gambling debts.
Life was really difficult. Rania silently choked in her heart.
She sat down across from Dick and placed her hands squarely on her knees. She swept her gaze up and down, estimating for a moment. Then, her gaze landed on the position where his eyes should be. She stared at him seriously.
Because of the height difference, Rania slightly raised her head, and the black-rimmed glasses slid down a little. Her blue eyes were clear and bright. When she looked at him without blinking, she looked like a little puppy wagging its tail.
Dick: "…"
He felt that he could not drink the water anymore.
It was a complete accident that he found Rania, but in Dick's words, it was actually a coincidence. This little girl looked like a modified version of Bruce with a dozen softening filters. She might be more like his father than Damien. In her, the genes that belonged to the maternal side seemed to be submerged and could not be reflected in the slightest from her appearance. As long as someone familiar with Bruce saw her, they would naturally start to wonder about their relationship.
… So now he felt that Bruce was looking at him, and the scary thing was that she was a little too good-looking.
Nightwing felt that his heart had been hit hard.
He forced himself to suppress the strange emotions in his heart that could not be described as horror or something else. "Aren't you curious how I found you?"
Rania nodded.
She did not seem to be very good at communication. After sitting down, she quietly waited for Dick to speak. There was no extra emotion on her face, as if she was not at all curious about her brother in the legal sense who came looking for her.
Then Rania heard a … magical story that could be summarized as "on the road, I saw a little girl who looked very much like my adoptive father, so I secretly investigated and did a paternity test."
"…" Rania looked at Dick with a complicated expression.
To be honest, this story sounded very much like a lie made up by a liar.
Obviously, Dick felt the same way. He coughed, put down the mug, pulled out a document, and pushed it over the table. Rania did not know his current expression, but his tone sounded almost pitiful. "Do you suspect that I'm a liar?"
Rania did not look down to read the report. She just blinked.
"Do we really look like each other?" She asked.
Except for Rania, who did not look at the report, her reaction was all within Dick's expectations. "Not bad — compared to cloning."
Unexpectedly, Rania did not dwell on this question. Instead, she asked a … somewhat strange question.
"Is he human?" she asked seriously.
"…" Dick was speechless.
Great. He thought.
What would any other fifteen-year-old girl's reaction be? At the very least, she should ask about the identity of her biological father. At the very least, she should ask about the purpose of his visit … Why was she curious about whether her biological father was human???
Dick began to feel that the most troublesome thing about the little girl in front of him was her way of thinking.
He smiled calmly. "Yes."
… Then he watched as Rania breathed a sigh of relief, showing a strange mixture of relief and pity.
"…" Dick was speechless.
Rania was not joking. She really felt that this question was more important to her. Compared to identity or family, Rania was more concerned about what species her father was.
Since she was a child, Rania had guessed that she was the hybrid of some kind of evil creature and human.
Among her parents, the one who was human gave her a body of flesh and blood, allowing her to live like an ordinary person in the capital of Earth. And the one who was evil gave Rania the other half of darkness, as well as the strange symptoms of color blindness.
Perhaps because she was not sensitive to emotions, Rania found it difficult to feel negative emotions. Even though her life was much more difficult than normal people because of this, Rania still had no resentment towards her parents for passing on the strange color blindness gene to her. Instead, she was more curious and emotional.
Think about it, whether it was her father or her mother, one of them actually slept with an evil creature.
As a hybrid of an evil creature, Rania knew very well how powerful the Black Mist she summoned was. Compared to Mister, she was extraordinarily weak as a human, and presumably, the contrast was even more obvious when it came to her parents. A weak and helpless ordinary human and a tentacle-surging Black Mist's love … This must be true love.
Although she did not know why she was abandoned, Rania felt that this should be a story of Romeo and Juliet. So every time she thought of her parents, the little girl was in awe of the human who slept with the evil creature, and infinite tenderness welled up from the bottom of her heart …
Now that Dick came to her door, it proved that she was not deliberately abandoned at that time. Thinking that her biological father was just an ordinary human, Rania only felt her heart soften a little, as if a spoonful of honey milk was added to it. Even the way she looked at Dick was full of gentleness, and she even gave him a faint smile.
He didn't even mind that she only poured him a glass of water. He is really a good person. Rania thought sweetly.
Perhaps it was because of their blood relationship, but in terms of appearance, Rania's appearance tended to be more cold. When she was not smiling, she was like a copy of Batman, so when Dick was facing her, he always had a subtle feeling that he was facing Bruce.
But these subtle feelings disappeared the moment this smile appeared.
… This is simply cheating. Dick thought.
Dick felt that his whole body was melting. He was like a piece of butter or a candle, happily melting into a pool of sticky liquid under the light.
How could there be such a cute creature like this little girl in the world?
Just by sitting there, she made people think of honey, spices, jewelry, and all the beautiful things in the world, not to mention that she looked like little Bruce with a dozen softening filters. God, this is simply cheating.
The melting Dick began to expand, rise, and float. He looked at the little girl in front of him and unconsciously returned her a gentle smile.
At this moment, the two idiots who consciously put on countless filters had completely overlapped thoughts.
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