New Gods of North America.

Chapter 397 Report
The next day, after Wayne delivered the lottery statistics bulletin to Richmond,
I found myself in a rather embarrassing situation.

He had deliberately released the news at first, saying that he would challenge everyone working for Cohen Pharmaceuticals in Virginia to a duel.

The purpose is to create an extreme pressure momentum of "completely destroying the other party's business", which not only provokes the other party to take corresponding actions, but also tries to weaken the other party's base as much as possible.

But today, Wayne took a carriage to Cohen Pharmaceuticals' office in Richmond to take another look.
But I found that this place has been closed...

When Wayne dueled with Mr. Baker yesterday, there were so many citizens watching that the result must have spread in Richmond.

Among the nearly ten people who appeared in the office at this time, there was a middle-aged man who seemed to be one of the audience at the time. After seeing Wayne, he immediately explained that he was just the leasing agent of the property and was just confirming the termination of the lease. He was not an employee of Cohen Pharmaceuticals.

Wayne chatted with the other party for a while and found out that Mr. Baker had someone contact the agent yesterday to say that he wanted to cancel the lease early.
Thinking about the "ghoul" last night, I didn't expect that the real estate agent made a profit from the deposit.

As for the rest of the people, they were all clerical staff who had worked here before.

After they learned the result of yesterday's duel, they came to check today and found that many personal belongings in Mr. Baker's office had been taken away and the safe had been cleared out. They were now complaining that they had to find a new job.

Well……

Wayne had no need to challenge those guys who had no intention of standing together with Cohen Pharmaceuticals.

Salaries are paid weekly these days, and Cohen Pharmaceuticals has been temporarily closed since Wayne and his colleagues set up a stall to sell lottery tickets. The employees have not been owed wages and have no hatred towards Cohen Pharmaceuticals.

So Wayne looked at the civilian staff who all looked angry but dared not speak out, and felt that the atmosphere at the scene was a little off.

He quietly left here and went to the newspaper office, bought tomorrow's announcement, saying that he was looking for the next challenger, and that people who knew relevant clues could contact the detective agency.

Who knew that Cohen Pharmaceuticals' local operations would be so vulnerable...

Wayne has to continue to put on an act to see if there are any fish that slip through the net, so as to prevent those lottery buyers who bought tickets on how many games Wayne can win in a row from getting "outraged".

However, since Wayne had gained some honor yesterday, he took the opportunity to go to Mr. Russell's estate to pay a return visit to the detective agency's only long-term client.
I plan to relay what Ryan had sent back earlier, to let the client know that the detective agency has been fulfilling the contract well recently, and that the security fees were well spent.

Mr. Russell's butler quickly invited Wayne to the study and congratulated Wayne on his first duel victory.
It is said that several young ladies talked excitedly for a long time after returning yesterday, and now even many maids in the manor hope to be able to watch the next duel.

Wayne was quite happy to hear this, but after meeting Mr. Russell, he was immediately confronted with a soul-searching question:
"Today is Monday, Wayne, shouldn't you be in class at the academy?"

Yeah, it seems like I haven’t been to class for a while.

Moreover, today is Professor Maisel's class. If he finds out that I have won the duel and I haven't brought Emma to class, he might come to the detective agency to conduct a home visit again...

Wayne told Mr. Russell that this was his last few days of "recuperation" and soon turned the topic back to the security of the steam train line.
He focused on reporting on the office's recent crackdown results and hinted at the important role the detective agency played in maintaining public security and stability in the area surrounding the railway.

Mr. Russell didn't seem to care much about these trivial matters, as if to say, "I've handed the matter over to you, so I won't interfere any more." Instead, he chatted with Wayne about his recent daily life and even talked about the incident in which Wayne threw a white glove at Malcolm Baker outside the cathedral.

Wayne could only answer his questions one by one, saying that he had gone to the cathedral to see Tom Hagen yesterday and just happened to run into Mr. Baker.

I didn't meet the Bishop yesterday. The last time we met was about a month ago.

As for some personnel changes in the church, Wayne had heard about it from David Mills, so he just talked about some parts that he felt should not be a secret to the local wealthy people. For the rest, he could only smile and say that he didn't know either.

Mr. Russell seemed to be just asking casually.
Fortunately, he seemed to be in a good mood at the end. He praised the recent work performance of the detective agency office and encouraged Wayne, "young man, keep up the good work."

……

Back to the detective agency,

Doug and Liam had already gotten a lot of dirty laundry about Cohen Pharmaceuticals and Mr. Baker from the prisoner who was "almost sold" before.
Wayne took a rough look at it. This time the interrogation records were quite detailed. Many stories had names and even the causes, processes and results.

He asked Doug to follow up the situation of the local exorcism department in a timely manner. If the church gave a "final verdict" on Mr. Baker who had turned into a "ghoul" and was eliminated, the detective agency would publish these things in the newspapers.

If these things still cannot be published, then arrange for agents to go to bars to promote them.

After that, nothing happened for a while.

As dinner was approaching, Wayne even had time to taste several sauces that Chef Parker had tried out, and chose the one he liked the most.
By now Wayne had experience and had guessed in advance the type of sauce that was more popular with most agents.

Cut, I just prefer sweet and sour taste and black pepper,

No matter how much cheese you put in, you won’t feel sick of it.

Cheese, or more precisely, "cheese", is not cheap now.

Fortunately, the chef has learned to use cheap leftover cheese and other things to make recycled cheese, and has gradually tested out the best cost-effective version that is well received by the agents.
With the detective agency's current income level, we can barely achieve cheese freedom, at least we can eat hamburgers for every meal.

What surprised Wayne the most during this process was Chef Parker's "sense of taste".
Parker actually doesn't need to eat at all. If he does eat, he needs to secretly open his stomach to clean out the crumbs or "mud".
So he can taste the flavor, but he doesn't know what "delicious" means.

His criteria are, for example, remembering what flavor most people like, or what the versions made by chefs taste like.
Then he would season the dish based on the flavors that had received positive reviews, so that the taste of the dish would be as close to the "benchmark" as possible.

No wonder Wayne sometimes feels that the taste of the chef's dishes is familiar.
Those can be considered as Wayne's "original" things. Once Wayne chooses the taste, Parker will make it almost the same every time. So that's how it is.

(End of this chapter)