The North American Gourmet Demon Handbook

"Is this why you've shown unprecedented rebellion at the dinner table?" the senator asked jokingly. "Don't you think this is equally disrespectful to your friends?"

"I'll apologize to them!" Gray was still furious. "At the dinner table, as soon as you opened your mouth, I knew what you were planning, Dad! I'm just bringing friends home for a visit. I repeat, Dad, don't involve them in your dirty political games!"

"If it weren't for dirty political tricks, my clever daughter—"

Senator Hamilton remained composed and showed no sign of anger at his daughter's accusations.

The Senator slowly lit a cigar.

"—Why do you think you can win every case that can't reach a plea bargain? Why did that hacker lady in the attempted spacetime hijacking case get bail?"

"Of course I know that I enjoy the protection of my family, and I also know that I have corresponding obligations, so I should help you, Dad, not my friends." Gray insisted.

The Senator took a slow drag on his cigar. "Your friends showed up in Philadelphia, right at the right time, in our home. Don't you think this is God's will?"

Gray laughed angrily. "Do you believe in God, Dad?"

Senator Hamilton smiled but said nothing, or perhaps he was enjoying some family happiness with his daughter.

Gray sighed. "Yeah, I'm really confused! Of course you believe in God. How can there be a senator in the United States who doesn't believe in God?"

Senator Hamilton smiled and said, "You've become wiser, my dear daughter. It's true that crises are the true test of human nature. You finally remembered that even a black president of Jewish and Muslim descent had to declare his faith in God and swear an oath on the Bible when he took office."

"So you asked me to deal with that little 'Hussein'?" Gray asked.

"I'm looking for you and your friends to deal with Calvin Hope, especially your 'dear lady'." The senator gritted his teeth a little when talking about his daughter's girlfriend.

Gray was like an enraged lioness: "I told you, don't go after my friends, Dad!"

The senator continued slowly, "Your uncontrolled ranting doesn't make you more persuasive, my dear daughter. It's hard to believe you're a lawyer who never loses a case."

"Don't forget whose phone call saved them from the National Guard. I believe your friends will not be as forgetful as you, my dear daughter."

The ridicule from her father actually calmed Gray down.

Gray stood there, feeling mixed emotions.

She knew her father was a powerful figure, but this time she would never compromise. She had to protect her friends, and no matter how her father threatened and tempted her, she would not let them get involved in this political struggle.

She didn't want to lose her friend like she lost her brother.

So, through the cigar smoke, Grey looked into her father's eyes and said earnestly, "As your daughter, I beg you, Dad, please don't use my friends to deal with your opponent in the midterm elections, okay?"

The Senator laughed. "Well, well, who can refuse the pleas of their lovely daughter?"

"So, you agree?" Gray's eyes flashed with surprise.

"Yes, I promise. I will never ask your friends for help." Senator Hamilton smiled. "This is the greatest concession I can make, my dear daughter."

Gray's face darkened. "You're going to resort to another series of schemes and tricks to achieve your goal, Dad."

"I promise, I won't. I won't do anything unless your friends offer to help," the senator continued.

"And then, you took the initiative to lure them into the trap, just like you did to your brother!" Gray roared, stiffening her neck.

Senator Hamilton's expression suddenly turned very ugly, and it was also full of pain: "Regarding John, that was not my intention at all!"

"You are not worthy to mention your brother's name!" Gray roared.

The senator was shaking with anger. He stood up suddenly and said, "You—"

"Okay, you two, stop arguing." At this moment, the senator's wife appeared in time, and her appearance pulled Senator Hamilton back from his rage.

"Kurt, how could you lose your temper with your daughter?" she demanded.

Senator Hamilton fell back into his chair and took a deep drag on his cigar. In the rising smoke, he sneered, "Why don't you ask your precious daughter what nonsense she said."

After saying that, he turned his head away angrily.

"Okay, let's go." The lady pulled Grey and wanted to leave the senator's study.

"No, Dad hasn't promised yet." Gray stiffened her neck and refused to give in even if her mother stepped in.

The senator's wife looked at her husband.

"Okay, okay, I promise." Senator Hamilton said helplessly.

"That's better." Gray turned and left, slamming the study door loudly.

The study fell into silence again.

After a while, Senator Hamilton sighed. "Could it be that the intelligence was wrong? My daughter's lover isn't that New York bounty hunter, but one of the young man and woman seen today? Why is she so protective of them?"

The senator's wife also looked pained. "I think Grey is so angry not to defend her friends, but because she was angry at herself for not being able to protect John."

The Senator was silent for a moment, then he said, "I'm just as angry about this. I think I'm almost on the verge of tracking down John's killer, Miranda."

"That's great, that's great, Kurt." The senator's wife trembled and murmured.

The couple cuddled for a while before Senator Hamilton said, "I really hope Grey is so angry just to protect that Li Shanze."

"You seem to admire him, Kurt."

"Yes, it's funny, it's not just that I see my shadow in him. I even feel that he is like my ideal self." Senator Hamilton said this as if he were in a dream.

He seemed to be explaining to his absent daughter, "So, I won't do anything bad to him. I want to see how far he'll grow. I even hope he'll become my son-in-law and inherit my legacy."

Then he shook his head again: "What a pity, what a pity, he is an ogre."

"Ogre? That Lee?"

The Senator took a long drag on his cigar and said, "Yes, he is a real ogre."

"Oh my god, Kurt, this is terrible, right? I need to notify the guards!"

"Don't be nervous, Miranda, he's not a cannibal."

"How did you know."

"Of course I do, Miranda, of course I do."

…………

"Hello, Anjie?"

"What's wrong, you stinky man?" Anjie said lazily while soaking in the bathtub. "Gray told me that you had dinner at her house. Hey, why did you call me behind Charlie's back?"

"Xia Li has gone to bed." Li Shanze explained, "I have a question for you."

Anjie didn't know how she wanted Li Shanze to answer, but when she heard Li Shanze's answer, she knew that this was not the answer she wanted.

So she suppressed her dissatisfaction, rubbed her white and smooth calves, squinted her eyes, and squeezed out a "hmm" through her nose to show that she was listening.

"Why did Grey warn me not to get involved in her father's plan against Calvin Hope? I'm looking for an opportunity to repay the favor." Li Shanze asked curiously.

"This is probably related to her brother's death." Regarding Gray, Anjie said with a cheer.

"Her brother?"

"Yes, Grey's brother was involved in one of Senator Hamilton's plans and was unfortunately killed." Anjie lowered her voice. "I'm not sure what happened exactly. Grey didn't want to say it clearly, but since then, Grey has become hostile to her father and the Catholic Church - Hello, hello?"

"I'll call you back later, it's urgent."

"Hello? Hello! You stinky man! You really just throw it away after using it!" Angel threw the phone away angrily.

At this time, Li Shanze, who had hurriedly hung up the phone, had quietly followed the staff of Senator Hamilton.

100 Break-in

In order not to attract attention, Li Shanze made the call with his back to the hallway, and he quietly looked at the people coming in and out through the mirror.

Sure enough, although the senator's staff was very alert to his own gaffe, he did not notice Li Shanze's gaze at all, nor did he realize that Li Shanze had quietly followed him.

Li Shanze sent a text message to Grey, asking her to take good care of Xia Li.

In order to guard against the possibility that Senator Hamilton might harm Charlie, Li Shanze left Ella behind to protect Charlie.

A Buick LaCrosse drove out slowly, driving cautiously in Philadelphia where the heavy snow had just stopped.

In addition to the senator's staff sitting in the driver's seat of the Buick LaCrosse, Dr. Wilder was also present in the passenger seat.

Not far behind the black Buick LaCrosse was a silver Tesla Model S.

This is the car that Li Shanze borrowed from Grey.

Environmental protection, zero carbon emissions, fashion, high technology, Silicon Valley consensus - Tesla Model S represents the symbols of these stereotypes.

As the daughter of a Democratic congressman, Grey doesn't really have much choice in vehicles.

Li Shanze's breath condensed into mist on the inside of the car window.

Li Shanze put on the seventh-generation thermal imaging eyepiece - this was also a gift from Grey.

Despite verbally warning Li Shanze not to cooperate with her father, Grey still took out all the high-tech equipment she had collected and provided them to Li Shanze.

She hopes Li Shanze can protect herself.

The black Buick LaCrosse five hundred meters away looked particularly dazzling in the thermal imager.

The car turned into an orange outline on the thermal imager, and this orange outline was getting farther and farther away.

Li Shanze drove slowly following the Buick LaCrosse until the outline of the thermal image suddenly disappeared.

Google Maps on the mobile phone showed that the place where the Buick LaCrosse disappeared was an office building belonging to the Philadelphia branch of Yongsheng Technology Co., Ltd.

Li Shanze stopped the car and walked forward slowly.

Although it is called a technology company, the decoration is very classical and the building is completely in Baroque art style.

Li Shanze looked up and around, but did not find any surveillance devices.

The bronze door knocker shone with a cold luster in the winter night, and Li Shanze's hand gently brushed across the heavy door panel, creating tiny static sparks.

This was no ordinary Baroque decoration—Li Shanze had the illusion that the entire exterior of the building was alive.

The slight electrical sparks were like insects gnawing on his fingers, or like moss breathing between the cracks in the rocks.

No, these were not static sparks. Li Shanze realized that these sparks were more like the glow of witchcraft that he had witnessed at Buchaska's place.

It seems that this door is not the nano-level sensor described on the official website of Yongsheng Technology Co., Ltd. After discarding the false disguise of high technology, it is simply a product of witchcraft.

Dr. Wilder went into the witchcraft building?

Li Shanze did not forget that she drew two tubes of blood from Xia Li in the name of examination.

Considering that these two people were the senator's staff and family doctor, Li Shanze found it hard to believe that Senator Hamilton was unaware of this.

"The hailstorms in Burgundy were relentless in their attack on the wine estates, and the fragile Pinot Noir grapes needed the protection of the monastery cellars."

Li Shanze chewed over Senator Hamilton's toast to Xia Li at the dinner.

It seems that I have to break in and find out what's going on today.

Li Shanze cleared his throat. Following the technique taught by Ella, he quietly released the vibration of Apat's Throat.

The door constructed by witchcraft might indeed be alive. It opened immediately before Li Shanze finished uttering the first low-frequency syllable.

Judging from the speed at which it opened inward, it still had a hint of fear.

Li Shanze adjusted his black bowler hat and walked proudly into the building. Behind him, the door slowly closed again.

However, behind the door lies pure Baroque decor: Persian tapestries, marble floors, crystal chandeliers, Venetian mirrors...without a trace of the Buick Regal.

To be precise, this exquisite decoration does not look like a place where a car can be driven in, and the staff and family doctor are nowhere to be seen.

"Did you know that this house will remember every intruder?" The sudden voice made Li Shanze's pupils shrink suddenly.

A burly bald man in a suit and tie stood at the top of the spiral staircase, the fierce pistol in his hand reflecting the cold light.

Was this a setup? Had the Senator's staff and my family doctor deliberately lured me here?

Li Shanze frowned slightly.

"These oak floors can record 36,000 different footsteps, and you..." The bald man lowered his gun slightly, "are not among them."

Oak flooring? Did he let it slip, or are our visions of the scene different? Li Shanze's heart stirred.

"Good evening, sir. I'm here to look for someone." Li Shanze gave a polite smile.

Li Shanze didn't want to make a big move before he was sure whether this was a trap or not.

"I'm afraid you've come to the wrong place." The big man said coldly, "Leave here."

He pointed the large-caliber pistol in his hand at Li Shanze.

"Okay, okay, before I leave, I would like to ask you to answer a question, sir. Just to satisfy my curiosity. Ahem." Li Shanze cleared his throat, as if he was ready to ask questions.