Chapter 2574: Falling Gently (23)

Taking Jason's Tail Gang as an example, at the time there were two kids about his age, one of whom now works at a car repair shop, and the other went to another city and probably works at a convenience store.

There were two girls slightly younger than him, one now works as a performer at an amusement park, and the other runs a breakfast cart business with a friend.

One who was much younger and had no ability to care for himself when he was still King of the Children now attends primary school in the East District and lives with the child who works at the car repair shop.

The rest of the group each contribute money to this child every month to cover his living and schooling expenses, and since Jason's financial situation is better, he gives the most.

The other Children's Gangs essentially follow this same model, with some fully able to work while a few are still in school being supported by the others who earn money through jobs.

The emergence of the Children's Gang itself was to fill the void of social rules since there were too many orphans left on the streets at that time, and with the Mob as the ruling class exhibiting lax management, the wildly growing children spontaneously organized themselves to survive within the cracks of the rules.

With the rapid decline in the number of orphans, it's foreseeable that this unique organizational form that emerged in a unique era will soon disappear completely from the annals of history, never to appear again.

However, Jason indeed faced a problem now, as the child who took care of the younger ones and who worked at the car repair shop had been laid off. While looking for a job, he had to move into a smaller house, and the primary school student was left with no place to live, so he went to the sister who worked at the amusement park.

But the girl working at the amusement park was also having a tough time. Although she wasn't laid off, her salary was reduced, and with everyone short on cash, fewer people visited the amusement park, so she hardly received any tips. She also struggled to make ends meet.

The other children's incomes had decreased, and with everyone tight on cash and unwilling to spend, all industries were finding it hard to make money. Therefore, the funds for supporting the child decreased.

Jason had already put all his pocket money into it, and even some of the savings he had made from doing business at the music festival, yet it was just enough to keep their living standard barely stable as before.

After all, Jason was still studying, and even though he was a day student, there were many expenses at school like buying snacks for friends, getting water for everyone after playing basketball, and participating in club activities after school, all required spending money.

Under Thomas's arrangement, all the Robins attended not just any school but proper elite private high schools. In such schools, treating friends to food and drinks meant you couldn't just buy the cheapest options, and the social expenses needed to maintain relationships were not low.

Dick, apart from occasionally sending things to his parents, had no extra spending, and Tim was even less concerned, being the young master he was, his mother and aunt stuffed him with pocket money every day, worried that he might get bullied at school.

Jason had the worst financial situation among them, because he had a whole family to support and was unwilling to ask others for a loan, and even more reluctant to ask Bruce for money, so he decided to get a job.

Getting a job was nothing new for him, but Dick and Tim had never worked before and were very curious; hence, they also wanted to join Jason.

So, they kept looking for a part-time job that would allow the three of them to work together and make money, which Alfred was not optimistic about.

The butler wasn't as naive as the children; in the current social conditions, with great pressure in every industry due to decreased consumer spending, all industries were laying off staff and part-time jobs were hard to find.

Dick and Tim were completely green and were basically young masters who had never done manual labor; the kind of stores that hire part-timers needed skilled workers that could start working right away. They couldn't afford the time or the cost to train newcomers.

Moreover, the three of them wanted to work together, which clearly showed that they weren't taking the job to make money seriously. If Jason worked by himself, it might be fine, but bringing along two newbies meant he would also be responsible for training them, making it even less likely that he could focus on his work and earn money.

But how could they say it's a Batman preferred choice, can one chosen by Bruce have bad luck? Just as the Robins were wondering what kind of job to take, Shiller's call came in.

After explaining the situation, the Robins were all excited and rushed to the hospital. After expressing their concerns to Constantine, with a mix of mockery, they began to discuss how to operate the moving company.

Three excited teenagers gathered together could practically break the ceiling with their noise. The nurse came several times, and only after Shiller spoke did they quiet down a bit.

Zatanna couldn't stand their noise either, followed Shiller out of the ward, and said, "Anyway, my powers are pretty similar to Raven's, I might as well work with Waylon. Let Raven go with them, after all, they're of the same age."

Shiller could understand Zatanna's reluctance to lead the kids. Miss Magician had always lacked patience, and if the Robins kept up the noise, Zatanna was close to binding each one with an Antilanguage Magic spell.

Compared to that, Raven's temperament was a real issue. She had suppressed her emotions for too long, and if those emotions weren't vented, they could explode one day along with her energy.

And when it came to how to vent emotions, how to bring back a normal personality, Shiller always advocated for peers to play with peers and to not rely on others for any hope or emotional support.

Waylon had no objections to this arrangement. He was very loyal and learned that Jason was supporting his former Children's Gang companions. He generously offered to rent them the car he had before, charging only 15% of whatever they earned for the day, and if they didn't make money, there was no need to pay.

Raven didn't know who they were, but she actually didn't care. The only thing she was interested in right now was making money; with enough money, she could go shopping. She yearned for the dazzling array of goods on the shopping streets, a sight she had never seen in Azarath.

After Shiller left, the Robins discussed a lot, including the operation time of the vehicles, maintenance methods, the order of moving, and which routes in each district were more efficient, until Constantine, the patient, couldn't stand their noise and kicked them all out.

Shiller and Raven drove back to the new house together. It was obvious that Raven wanted to speak but was hesitating the whole way, seeming to want to ask who those three strange boys were but not knowing how to broach the subject.

"They are Bruce Wayne's adopted sons... they used to be his assistants, but he doesn't need assistants now, so they are all in school."

"In school? You mean studying knowledge with a teacher?"

"Yes," Shiller said as he turned the steering wheel. "But it's not like what you're picturing, with one teacher and one student. It's a lot of people sitting together learning from one teacher."

"Are you a teacher too?"

"Yes, I'm a university teacher."

"How many students do you have?"

"About a few hundred in total," Shiller said. "But that's just the undergraduate students who have taken my classes. I have exactly ten graduate and PhD students."

Raven's mouth opened wide in surprise. The teacher-student relationships she knew in Azarath were apprenticeships, where one teacher would have no more than three students. She found it hard to imagine how one teacher could teach so many students.

Shiller paused, then said, "Perhaps you could also go to school, learn some modern society knowledge, at least you should understand the basics of math and science, and then maybe I could teach you some basic psychology."

Raven fell into thought. She was curious about the schools in modern society, mainly because if she was going to work with those three boys next, it wouldn't be good to be clueless about all the topics they talked about.

But subconsciously, she was still resisting these ideas because she felt she would lose control and didn't think she would need to use any math or science knowledge—after all, she was a magician.

After returning to the new house, Raven thought about these things until she fell asleep, and in the end, she didn't say she wanted to go to school. It was a pity that she learned her lesson the next day.

The next day happened to be a day off. Early in the morning, the four of them met with high spirits at the front of the moving company. Jason took a long list of orders from Killer Croc, ready to make a big splash that day.

However, since the car was out of gas from running a few trips yesterday, they decided to first fill up the gas tank and buy some spare gas to put in the carriage. After arriving at the gas station and parking the car, they started refilling once they had calculated the gas needed. The boys told Raven to wait by the car while they went to the nearby supermarket to buy other things.

As Raven waited, one of the gas station attendants came over and said that the gas was already filled up and that there were cars waiting behind, so they asked her to pay and move the car out.

Raven didn't know how to drive, but she knew how to move the car. She simply used telekinesis to move the car and paid the attendant.

The others quickly returned and found the car wasn't in its original spot but had moved to a nearby space. They located Raven and the car, and Jason realized something was wrong as soon as he got into the driver's seat—the fuel gauge showed the tank wasn't full.

After inquiring with Raven, Jason slapped his forehead and said, "This is a common trick at gas stations, to deceive new drivers. They say they've filled the tank but don't, claiming other cars are in urgent need and asking you to pay first and then continue filling later. If you go after them, they'll say that the attendant wasn't their employee and that they're not responsible for cars leaving their fueling spots."

Raven knew she had caused trouble; she didn't even fully understand the principles of car operation or what the relationship was between the gas and the car moving. She just did what she was told when the boys asked her to keep an eye on things, and when the attendant asked her to move the car, she did, without knowing how to judge right from wrong.

Jason sighed and pointed to the car's fuel gauge, saying, "This here is the fuel gauge; it shows whether the tank is full or not. They probably saw you couldn't drive and looked unfamiliar, so they tricked you into thinking it was full."

"So what now? Can we go back and talk to them?" Raven said, somewhat angered, her inner power roiling with her emotions.

Tim sensed something was wrong and quickly stepped forward. "It's okay, we'll know for next time. At least they added most of a tank's worth so we didn't lose much, and they know we're not easy to mess with, so they wouldn't dare go too far."

"If we go back now, even if we manage to get those few dollars back, our plan would be delayed. It's better to run a couple more jobs and earn some extra money, don't you think?"

Jason was a bit angry, too, but he knew he couldn't blame Raven. Gotham was too unique a city for outsiders to understand quickly. They were also to blame for getting too excited and rushing into the convenience store, leaving no one to watch the car.

"It's fine, get in the car," Jason said. "You are a main force in our moving team. Even if we want to get back at them, we'll do it after the job is done. Let's go."