mtl008 Chapter 4402 Project Farstar (2)
Chapter 4402 Project Farstar (2)
Chapter 4402 Project Far Star (Part 20)
“Bruce, take a look at this.” Victor dialed Bruce’s number, sent him a bunch of photos, and said, “I found this in an art museum. It’s probably a painting by Martians. It looks pretty good.”
Bruce scrolled through the pictures he'd sent, then stopped. He realized that Martian art was quite different from human art; they weren't realists at all. Calling it abstract was a bit of an exaggeration; it was more like magical realism.
For example, when they draw a tree, although it still has the outline of a tree, it is filled with lines of strange colors and many things unrelated to the tree. If one or two paintings are like this, it can be said to be a unique art style, but most paintings from different people are in this style, which proves that this is popular art in Mars City and that they can understand it.
Bruce certainly couldn't understand it, so he contacted Ron and sent him the photos. Ron was silent for a long time before replying, saying, "Martians have the ability to read minds. We don't get to know a person through their appearance, but through their inner world. It's the same with objects. Those colored lines that you can't understand are actually expressing feelings in their inner world."
“I see.” Bruce nodded and said, “Thank you so much, Ron.”
“It’s nothing…” Ron remained silent for a long time, but neither he nor Bruce hung up. After a while, Ron spoke, “Where did you find these paintings?”
“Victor found it. It seems to be in an art museum. What happened?”
“These are children’s drawings,” Rong En said. “Their expression of the spiritual world is very simple; they just draw what they see without much embellishment. My daughter has also drawn similar pictures.”
"Really? Which kindergarten is he in? Maybe we can find some of his past works," Bruce said casually.
“She…she did have a painting selected for the Mars City Art Museum. It’s…it’s a painting of me, a scene of me arresting a criminal. You…”
"You want me to help you look for it, right? Okay, I'll tell Victor, but he just left the art museum, so I'll have him go back and look for it again."
"No, no, no... let's not delay our important business..."
“Studying Martian culture is our main task. If possible, I would like you to explain how that painting was created; you should know, right?”
"Yes...she told me..."
Rong En's voice was a little hoarse at first, but soon, as if he were lost in those beautiful memories, he spoke more and more fluently. He described how he saw his daughter's painting, how proud she was to tell him about her classmates' reactions when the painting was selected, and how they later went to the art museum together to see the exhibition.
Bruce listened quietly, occasionally responding. Towards the end, Ron sighed, saying, "I don't know why you suddenly became interested in Martian culture, but if it weren't for that, I probably would never have talked about these things again. Thank you, Bruce."
“It’s alright, Rong En, it’s my duty.”
After hanging up the phone, Ron, back in his apartment on Earth, sighed. Although he could never truly understand Bruce, he had to admit he was a good leader. Ron was still somewhat moved when Bruce listened to things he thought would never be mentioned again.
But he soon realized that he had been moved too soon.
Things started moving at an unimaginable speed, so much so that by the time Ron realized what Bruce was up to, it was too late.
On an ordinary winter morning, every household was busy preparing for the upcoming Christmas, cleaning the house, buying groceries, or shoveling snow from the yard.
Because both Atlantis and Amazons were affected by the war, Arthur, Diana, and Ron stayed on Earth, while the others worked on Mars.
That day, they gathered at the Hall of Justice, preparing to repair the street as well. Of course, Victor had already repaired the previous damage, but the street itself wasn't very clean, and with Christmas approaching, they decided to give it a thorough cleaning.
Arthur swept the first street, Diana swept the other, and Ron was responsible for cleaning the snow in front of the door and the roof. They didn't use superpowers, just relied on their superhuman strength to sweep little by little. As they were sweeping, Diana's phone rang.
"Hello? Yes, Ms. Madela told me she wasn't very busy lately, so I didn't go today. What's wrong?" She answered the phone while shoveling snow.
"What?! Another exhibition?! Why is it being exhibited again?!" Diana suddenly exclaimed.
Then she yelled, rather exasperatedly, "What's so interesting about that damn snake?! Why are they putting it on display again in such a short time?!"
After hanging up the phone, Diana, looking utterly dejected, even resigned, squatted down and covered her face. Ron, hearing the commotion, realized Diana was in trouble and came over to ask, "What's wrong, Diana? Is your boss giving you trouble? I told you you didn't need to come all the way back..."
“No,” Diana’s tone was filled with deep despair, “… ‘The Serpent of Frini’ is going to be exhibited again.”
“Uh, is it difficult to exhibit it? Why don’t you go back first? Don’t delay your work.” Rong En thought he was very understanding.
Diana shook her head. Ron frowned slightly, but when he saw Diana take out her phone, he nodded and said, "If you're not going back, at least let your colleagues know so they don't wait up."
“I want to resign,” Diana said coldly.
"Wait! Wait!" Rong En quickly stopped her and said, "Why quit your job? Your job is so good, it's respectable, the salary is high, and there's even a housing allowance. If you quit, where will you find such a good job?"
Diana wore an expression of utter despair. Ron finally sensed something was wrong and said, "What's wrong? If you really can't explain it, why don't I take a look myself?"
Diana nodded. With his permission, Ron examined a portion of her memories, and then he too was speechless.
"I mean, is it possible that there is even one true professional in the entire art collecting world who could discover that this painting is a fake? Is there not a single one?"
“That’s the arts world for you.” Diana was so angry she laughed. “Besides, now that the royal family has endorsed it, no one can say it’s fake.”
The two fell silent for a moment. Rong En said, "Let's exhibit it then. It'll earn us more ticket revenue, and it's all part of your salary anyway."
“If only that were true.” Diana pursed her lips, smiled, and said, “But the problem is, this painting is often associated with the Pharaoh’s curse.”
Before they could finish speaking, a black luxury car drove onto the street and came to a smooth stop in front of them. Schiller straightened up, adjusted his tie, and looked at Diana, saying, "Come with us, ma'am. Or perhaps you'd like to have a closer look at the Pharaoh's treasure?"
Diana closed her eyes, took a deep breath, opened the car door, and got in. Schiller also got in. Ron watched the car drive away, feeling slightly worried, but he didn't sense any malice from Schiller and figured everything should be fine, so he didn't follow.
"You must have heard about the murals being re-exhibited, right?"
"What are you planning to do now?" Diana asked, staring at him.
"It's nothing, I just wanted to do an interview with you about this precious artifact. The staff of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and private collectors should have some very insightful opinions."
"Where is the report?" Diana asked directly.
Schiller took a document from a file folder next to him and handed it to Diana. It was a pre-written interview transcript; all she needed to do was sign it.
Upon seeing the title, Diana was stunned. She glanced at Schiller, then at the interview transcript, and exclaimed, "'Ancient Amazonian princess claims mysterious alien spaceship patterns on Egyptian artifacts may point to Martian civilization'?!"
Diana felt like her brain was completely scrambled. Wasn't that Kryptonian spaceship in the picture? How did it become Martian? Wasn't this supposed to be a reference to Superman? How did it point to Martian civilization?
“The general public has no idea that Krypton exists,” Schiller said. “Besides, even if they did know, it’s so far away from Earth that they don’t really feel it. Mars is different; in terms of cosmic distance, these two planets can’t be any closer.”
Diana seemed to realize something; she gasped and turned to stare at Schiller, as if trying to read something from his face. But the man only smiled at her.
Diana slammed the document shut, shook her head, and said, "No, I won't sign it. This is spreading rumors and creating panic. What's the point?"
"Don't play dumb, ma'am. Have you forgotten what Batman told you?"
"You two were definitely in cahoots!!!!" Diana screamed in terror.
"I'm afraid we've been in cahoots for longer than you think. Unfortunately, I'm just Mr. Wayne's black glove, so please don't place too much blame on me, okay?"
Diana felt a shiver run down her spine. She realized that Batman had known all along, from the moment Schiller first approached her, and that everything that followed was under his control.
Fabricating fake artifacts, spreading rumors, coercing Superman, moving the Capitol Building, forming the Justice League, fighting against monster attacks...
All of this was part of Batman's plan.
And what he really wants seems to be quite obvious.
Diana took a few deep breaths, trying to calm herself, then stared intently at Schiller and said, "Are you sure your series of grand plans can be implemented smoothly? If not, it will be a disaster for the entire planet!"
"That's none of your concern, ma'am. To sign or not to sign?"
Diana didn't want to sign, but the descriptions of Batman by her fellow fighters kept flashing through her mind. She'd initially thought they were exaggerating, but now it seemed they'd toned it down.
After hesitating for a long time, Diana finally wrote her name at the bottom of the report, threw the document to Schiller, and said, "If anything goes wrong, I will hold you responsible!"
“That’s unreasonable,” Schiller said. “I already told you, this is Batman…”
"If I can't beat him, can't I beat you?"
"...It's hard to say."