章 3442: Chapter 2577: Rustling Down (26)
Shiller had thought about writing a reply right now, but, after giving it some thought, he figured Anatoli would be patting his own head, wanting to retract these crazed records once sober. There was no need to write back so soon just to mock him; besides, Shiller doubted the postman at the door would be able to deliver the letter for him.
He had more important things to attend to now, such as preparing for the housewarming party, starting with writing the invitations.
People who care about details would order customized invitations or have their own special templates, but Shiller did not want to bother with that. He planned to take a photo of his new house and have it printed as postcards at a print shop to serve as the invitations.
Shiller walked around the house and found its exterior not distinctive enough, so he decided to take pictures of the interior instead. Taking out his camera, he made a couple of rounds in the dining room and looked around the living room. He settled on taking pictures of the place where he would conduct future consultations, also serving as an advertisement.
The shutter flashed repeatedly, and soon the photos were taken. Shiller picked one with a good angle and lighting and saved it before driving to the community's print shop.
Being in an affluent area, they were well-versed in such tasks. Shiller first chose the weight of the card stock and then picking the printing method. After some thought, he decided on inkjet color printing, setting up horizontal lines on the back of the postcard for writing, and quickly got it all processed.
After that, it was time to buy envelopes and stamps. Perfect timing to inquire at the post office about the origin of the letter. The post office was not far from the community; a two-minute drive got Shiller there, where he purchased dark red envelopes, as he happened to have blue wax pellets.
As for the source of the anonymous letter, of course, the post office found nothing. They said the sender might have sneaked the letter into the system at some point. The post office was always short-staffed and unable to conduct an investigation.
On his way back to write invitations, Shiller suddenly remembered that although he had the envelopes and wax pellets, he had left his seal in his new office; he needed to make a trip to the university to retrieve it.
Fortunately, it wasn't rush hour yet. Shiller decided to make a quick trip, driving as fast as possible toward the university. En route, he noticed that several houses at the edge of the community bore obvious signs of moving, which explained why the postman mentioned the recent influx of new residents.
As the car sped along, Shiller thought he saw a familiar name on a doorplate—"Sidis Shivana."
The new principal had moved here too? But judging by his attire, he was unlikely to be just a principal. His appointment at Gotham University must have had some other purpose.
Seizing the opportunity to drive, Shiller could finally sift through the files in the Tower of Thought.
Soon he located his target person. No wonder he seemed familiar—this guy was the famous Superhero Thunder Shazam's antagonist, seemingly straight out of the movie version.
Shiller read through Shivana's biography and realized that this was an unfortunate man.
As a child, Shivana was transported by an old man to a Mysterious Space on the way home with his parents, claiming he would grant him immense power.
However, at that moment, Shivana heard someone whispering in his ear that the old man was deceiving him and that he should touch something. Being young, Shivana did as instructed.
Then the old man accused him of ill intent, unworthy of power forever, and kicked him out. Shivana was frightened and told his father everything; the revelation distracted his father, leading to a car accident that left his father disabled, unable to walk again.
His father blamed him for everything, and in the following days, subjected him to domestic violence. Shivana's brother fanned the flames alongside, turning the household into Hell.
Despite this, Shivana earned his PhD, returned to the old man, snatched the Seven Deadly Sins he had wanted to touch previously, put them on his eyes, and then killed his father and brother, embarking on a path of villainy against Shazam.
If Shiller were to comment on this story, it would be that this is what happens when you study Magic without Psychology.
Anyone who hears this story would ask, can that old man even speak properly? You bring a clueless child here, scare the hell out of him.
If you're going to transport someone, at least take some protective measures. Don't just leave a powerful Divine Artifact capable of corrupting hearts next to the child. And when the child is tempted by it, you accuse him of impurity. Even Joker would come to Gotham and say you're the craziest in town.
Let's set aside what that old man's identity is; judging by his actions, it's no wonder he's trapped in that dark space. It's a miracle his emotional intelligence didn't get him killed.
In any case, this is yet another individual with a personality disorder, and with so many years gone by, he's likely past the point of no return. The chances for treatment are not great.
Understanding this, Shiller had a pretty good idea of why Shivana sought him out and moved to this community.
The words "never worthy" were the root of Shivana's psychological trauma, and that root pointed to power.
The old man told him that those without a firm will and a heart of justice were unworthy of power. Therefore, he had to prove to them that he would possess the most formidable power.
Considering that the evil material sealed in that space represented the Seven Deadly Sins, and Raven symbolized Arrogance, one of the sins, it's very likely that Shivana was targeting the red-haired girl.
However, Shiller guessed he probably didn't know that Raven was living in his own house, otherwise it was unlikely he would have approached him directly.
His attendance at Shiller's housewarming party was probably just an opportunity to see if there were any familiar faces among the neighbors. Moving to this community was also for the purpose of tracking Raven's whereabouts.
Shiller surmised that he might be after the power within Raven's body, a force that, though evil and uncontrollable, was indeed very powerful—to the extent that it wasn't impossible for an explosion to summon a Sanguine Demon on the spot.
But since Shiller had already agreed to invite him, the invitation definitely had to be sent. He could only arrange for Raven to go out on that day, especially since she seemed to prefer shopping over staying in the house anyway.
When he arrived at the school to retrieve his seal, several professors hurriedly made their way to the office. Shiller stopped one of them to ask a few questions and learned that the new president had brought in several projects from the industrial area and was now selecting suitable project teams. The professors were all rushing to encourage their students to perform well later on.
These projects weren't very high-end, and they all had ready-made results that they could tweak and use. Everyone wanted these low-investment, short-return projects that some of the economically troubled project teams at the engineering school were eager to get their hands on.
After returning to the office and chatting with Anna, Shiller found out that the new president was indeed formidable. In just one day, he brought two big cases to the law school, all involving economic disputes of large companies with high returns, enough to support dozens of graduate students and PhDs.
The medical school wasn't left behind either; they had extensive discussions with the central hospital and Wayne Hospital, and many previously paused medical research projects were restarted, with many internship opportunities added.
Now everyone in the school praised the new president unanimously, saying he was truly a capable strongman. Shiller thought so too, although he hadn't brought any benefits to the psychology department yet. Shiller also knew that it was difficult to commercialize and profit from psychological knowledge, especially during the study period.
Shiller himself felt that the research outcomes of his graduate and PhD students were not impressive, and going out to treat and save lives might even seem a bit like crimes, so he really couldn't expect others to treat them fairly.
Just as he found his seal in the office, Xi Wana arrived, knocked on the office door, and rushed in saying, "Congratulations, Professor Shearer, because our psychology department has long been shouldering the task of publishing academic research papers, I proposed to the city government to prepare an academic scholarship for all graduate and PhD students. From now on, in addition to the manuscript fees, any papers published will receive an academic commendation bonus determined by the journal of publication and impact factor."
Shiller raised an eyebrow and said, "The city government agreed?"
"Of course, because Gotham University's psychology department is indeed the most published and influential department among all the universities and departments in Gotham. You have played an indispensable role."
Shiller thought, I certainly did play an indispensable role, since I published the most and elevated the entire psychology department's academic level.
Shiller stepped forward and shook hands with Xi Wana, saying, "Thank you for your efforts, Mr. President. I am preparing the invitations right now, and if nothing unexpected happens, I will host the housewarming party the day after tomorrow or Wednesday."
"I will be there on time," Xi Wana said with a smile.
On his drive home after retrieving his seal, Shiller was in a good mood. The economic status of his PhD and graduate students wasn't very good, and some even needed his subsidies. Now with this scholarship money, many could breathe a little easier.
More importantly, this would encourage them to write well, because they would only get money if they published papers. Even if it was just for the money, the quality of the papers Shiller would receive from then on should significantly improve, after all, not everyone is Bruce Wayne.
By the time Shiller drove home, it was already evening. The flag on the mailbox had been lowered again. Shiller went over and opened the mailbox only to find a third letter from Anatoli.
This time, there were no cryptic symbols on the letter. Upon opening it, a single sentence contained a multitude of complex emotions—"Sorry, had too much to drink, don't mind me."
Shiller chuckled and planned to frame the letter.
Nevertheless, he still needed to hurry with the invitations. Manually writing over a hundred invitations would take some time. Shiller sat at the table in the living room from dusk until dark, then put them into envelopes, sealed them with wax, and attached postage, ready to send them off when the postman came the next day.
Just as Shiller put down his pen to stretch his shoulders, Raven burst in and said, "Professor, do you know where the nearest shopping district is? I want to go shopping!"
"Did you earn a lot of money?"
"Of course!"
"How much?"
"500 US dollars!"
"How much?!"
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