The North American Gourmet Demon Handbook

"That's why she got so angry when I asked if it was a hoax."

Kate nodded, confirming Li Shanze's guess.

She rested her chin on one hand and said thoughtfully, "I wonder if Robert Stroman really doesn't know that his 'fiancée' has a son?"

“Perhaps it was Jimmy Crestow’s successful life extension that conveyed the possibility of the project’s success.”

"This also means that Olivia Crestor wasn't randomly chosen for counterintelligence... She made such a sacrifice for her son."

Li Shanze snapped his fingers: "Looks like everything makes sense now."

"No, not all of it makes sense." Kate shook her head.

"There's at least one remaining question: why did Olivia Crestor turn and drive away when she saw me? Internal anti-industrial espionage activities within a company don't violate federal law."

The Knight stood up and picked up the car keys from the table. "Let's go to Eternal Life Technology. I think Mr. Dillon McGee should be able to answer many of our questions."

…………

"You're right. This time, Dillon McGee refused to even show up. He just asked his men to say that he was not there." Kate returned to the car with a frown.

"After all, he ran away in front of me before." Li Shanze said with a smile.

"Senior Witchcraft Specialist Olivia Crestor used a time spell on me, which directly led to her own annihilation. She also said that I would disturb the river of time."

"I think even though Mr. Dillon McGee is the Grand Wizard of the Brotherhood of Time, it would be difficult for his spells to remain uninterrupted."

"Maybe he's just hiding away and licking his wounds right now. Of course he can't see you."

Li Shanze guessed almost exactly that Dillon McGee had decided to hide.

Kate nodded, then looked at Charlie, who was frowning and studying hard with the parchment scroll in her hands.

"Charlie, what are you looking at?"

"Oh, this looks like a witchcraft blueprint..." Charlie struggled to decipher the various witchcraft symbols and alchemical equations on the blueprint. "I don't quite understand it either. It seems to be related to the 'time bank'."

Kate was extremely curious: "Huh? Where did you get this?"

Without waiting for Xia Li to answer, Li Shanze pointed at Kate and said, "Oh, this is what I found on the bald wizard."

Li Shanze triggered the skill information cocoon of the index finger of the First Amendment.

He kept it a secret from Charlie and whispered to Kate in the dark, "Don't ask why I didn't take it out earlier. When I seized it, I didn't even know you were my good little slave girl."

Kate's face suddenly turned red under the dual effects of shame and anger.

She stomped her feet, sat in the driver's seat angrily, and slammed the car door. "Let's go, let's go visit Lisa Stroman next and see if she knows what's going on with her husband."

"Wait a minute, Kate." Charlie suddenly interrupted before Kate started the car.

"What's wrong, Charlie?"

"I think we should confiscate and seize some reference materials from Eternal Life Technology." Charlie looked up from the back seat of the Chevrolet with a smile. "That will make it easier for us to investigate this time bank."

After witnessing the tragic annihilation of Olivia Crestor, Li Shanze believed that the existential crisis of wizards was indeed a terrible thing.

If possible, he would rather Charlie remain a carefree little witch who doesn't understand systematic wizard knowledge.

"Are you sure, Charlie?" Li Shanze asked worriedly, "I think what Dillon McGee said makes some sense. Since your teacher wants to protect you——"

"I'm fine, Li," Charlie insisted. "Of course I know the teacher means well, but I want to help you more. I want to be a real wizard, not a wild witch who knows nothing."

Looking at Xia Li's stubborn and fighting eyes, Li Shanze swallowed his words of persuasion.

So, when Kate returned to the car again, various manuscripts and notes piled up beside Charlie were more than half a person high.

The backseat of this Chevrolet Suburban feels like the Great Library of Alexandria.

Clay tablets inscribed with cuneiform, papyrus with spells written on it, parchment with patterns of magic circles, wax tablets with star maps, alchemical formulas sealed in Venetian glass bottles, fragments of Gutenberg movable type, Mayan bark paper covered with bright red prophetic blood...

What’s even better is that among these old-fashioned-looking notes, there is even an iPad for taking electronic notes.

The Philadelphia branch of Eternal Life Technologies looked like it had been subjected to a brutal raid.

"It's amazing that you can get so many notes." Li Shanze couldn't help but admire.

"Oh, I'm of English descent. Don't forget, what we English are best at is robbery." Kate made a joke about her ethnicity.

143 Heart Surgery

"I've told your men countless times, Agent Mackenzie! My husband can't be a wizard. We grew up together!"

Lisa Stroman, the bald wizard's wife, was far from friendly when Kate came to visit again.

Mrs. Stroman subconsciously protected the baby carrier in her hands behind her back. She turned half sideways, making a psychologically defensive posture.

"I have to make money to support my two children. Please move aside, Agent Mackenzie!" she said bluntly.

"We at the FBI just eliminated the legal risks associated with several bank accounts left behind by your husband today. There's quite a bit of money in them, and all you need to pay is an inheritance tax... Perhaps this will convince you to talk to us?"

Kate said with a smile.

Mrs. Stroman was stunned.

She looked at Kate suspiciously, and finally, her tense body relaxed: "Of course, why not, please come in."

She welcomed Li Shanze and his group into her messy home and carefully put the child into the crib.

Then he casually placed the empty baby carrier on the faded Ikea dining chair, and the unpaid bills were spread out on the dining table.

Mrs. Stroman was relighting the fire.

The weak fire did little to dispel the Pennsylvania January chill.

"Please take a seat, everyone. What would you like to talk about?" Stroman tried her best to put on a smile. She didn't want her husband's "legacy" to become any more complicated.

"We still want to talk about your husband, Mrs. Stroman. You grew up together, right?" Kate said softly.

Li Shanze looked at the prefabricated house of only about 30 square meters with great interest.

There was still a mortgage payment reminder letter that had not been torn off on the door.

A reflective vest hung behind the door, the front still caked with the wall dust of a Philadelphia office building.

There was a paper airplane on the ground. Li Shanze picked it up and found that it was the instruction manual for IKEA's simple assembly of a crib.

Buy a crib and get a toy for free - Li Shanze was wondering whether IKEA would have such a crazy advertising slogan.

Li Shanze casually placed the paper airplane on the table, then picked up the family photo on the table.

In the photo, Mrs. Stroman is holding her newborn baby in her arms and looks much more energetic than she does now.

And Robert Stroman looks like any ordinary blue-collar worker.

He looked strong and sturdy, with a confident yet somewhat rude smile, and one hand on his eldest son's shoulder.

That hand obviously belonged to a manual laborer.

Li Shanze even found it difficult to connect him with the bald wizard in a neat suit.

"Your husband, Mr. Robert Stroman, did he tell you where he found the job?" Kate asked at this time.

"At the Philadelphia Navy Yard, working as a porter on the docks there," Mrs. Stroman answered seriously.

After repeated questioning, one thing was certain from Mrs. Stroman's answers - the Robert Stroman who returned home was just a rude and ordinary blue-collar dock worker, and had nothing to do with wizards.

Li Shanze looked around the Stroman family's house but could not find any trace of wizards.

Li Shanze, who was coughing everywhere trying to find signs of the destruction of the witchcraft, even attracted the concern of Mrs. Stroman: "What's wrong with you, Agent? You keep coughing. Do you have a cold?"

"No, it's nothing, thank you for your concern." Li Shanze confirmed that there was no trace of witchcraft in the room, and he smiled and waved his hand.

I'm not concerned about you, I'm concerned about you infecting my child. I can't afford another medical bill.

Mrs. Stroman forced a smile, but was afraid of angering the FBI agent, so she suppressed her worried expression.

Li Shanze didn't notice Mrs. Stroman's well-hidden worries. He paced back and forth, thinking for a while, then raised his head and said to Kate:

"I don't think Robert Stroman actually knows he's a wizard."

"He probably had his memory implanted and replaced... When he was Robert Stroman, he was always the longshoreman."

"Only when he becomes West Loken does he become the security director of Eternal Life Technology, the bald wizard in a suit and tie, and the corporate spy."

Kate nodded in agreement. "Yes, that makes sense, but there's a problem. Memory implantation and replacement is a complex and sophisticated spell..."

Li Shanze understood Kate's subtext.

Since Robert Stroman leaves Philadelphia every weekend to return to his small rural town to be with his family, he needs memory replacement twice a week.

Switching from Robert Strowman to West Loken, then switching from West Loken to Robert Strowman again.

So Li Shanze agreed: "Yes, the frequency of memory replacement twice a week is too high."

"It's more than just high. I've dealt with wizards from the Delusion Society before." Kate frowned.

"Memory replacement spells are extremely taxing on both the body and the mind. It's a good thing a person can handle it once every six months."

Li Shanze sighed: "Perhaps the Delusion Society has some way to reduce the burden... Wait."

Li Shanze suddenly thought of something, and he quickly looked at Mrs. Stroman: "Mrs. Stroman, I remember you said that your husband had heart surgery, right?"

Mrs. Stroman nodded. "Yes, that was three years ago."

"Robert had heart palpitations and although he kept insisting he was fine, I was very worried about him. It wasn't until he suddenly fainted one day that we started going to the hospital for examination."

"Then we received the devastating news that Robert's condition was very complicated and difficult to treat."

"After asking around, I found out that Dr. Miller of the University of Pennsylvania Hospital was conducting a clinical trial."

"Dr. Miller said it was a new clinical procedure, promoted as an experiment, so the price was relatively low. Otherwise, we simply couldn't afford it."

"So we gritted our teeth, sold our previous house, and used all our savings to finally complete Robert's treatment."

"I thought, I thought Robert would get better after the operation, who would have thought, who would have thought..."

At this point, Mrs. Stroman couldn't help crying again.

A soft holy light shone on Kate's body, and the holy light gradually soothed Mrs. Stroman's sorrow.

After Mrs. Stroman calmed down, Kate continued to ask softly, "I'm sorry, Mrs. Stroman, but could you please recall what illness Mr. Stroman has?"

Mrs. Stroman opened the drawer of the cabinet, took out a diagnostic case from the drawer and handed it to Kate.

"Prado-mirror myocardial disorder?" Kate frowned and read out the illegible words. She and Li Shanze looked at each other in confusion. "I'm afraid we need to consult a medical expert..."

Then she smiled at Mrs. Stroman. "Thank you, Mrs. Stroman. Perhaps you would be willing to come back with us to Philadelphia Police Headquarters to sign the documents claiming the estate?"

Mrs. Stroman was a little tempted at first, but then she frowned. She didn't want to ride in the same car with the "sickly" Li Shanze with her baby who was only a few months old.

So she glanced at the clock and shook her head pretentiously: "No, my eldest son Mark will be home from school soon..."

Although it was still early, the excuse seemed a bit far-fetched, but Kate didn't force it.

Not everyone is willing to ride in an FBI car. Even good citizens are not uncommon to feel aversion to FBI cars.

Kate nodded and said, "You can contact us at any time at the Philadelphia Police Headquarters to claim your husband's estate. We'll take our leave now. Thank you for your cooperation, Mrs. Stroman."

…………

Aikou: Prado-mirror myocardial disorder? I only found a few related papers. (Poor) (Poor)

Ai Kou: The main symptoms are palpitations accompanied by short-term memory loss, and the ECG shows abnormal QRS complexes...

Aikou: This paper was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, click here.

Aikou: The author of the paper is Dr. Miller from the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. (exclamation mark) (exclamation mark)

Li: What about the other authors of the paper?

Aikou: All the papers are authored by Dr. Miller. (Surprised)

Li Shanze thanked him and exited the software.

He said to Kate, "Since all the papers are attributed to Dr. Miller...it seems we need to visit this remarkable Dr. Miller."

Author's words: Thanks to book friends 30600563 and Polar Bear for their recommendation votes

144 Dr. Miller

This is a typical surgeon's office.

The main color is silver-gray, and the desks, chairs, and counters are all angular and look particularly precise.