The North American Gourmet Demon Handbook

She uttered a meek response, seemingly against her will: "Yes, Master."

Author's words: Thanks to Wukong and Yinzhishisan for their recommendation votes

153 Smile

"There's no need to go back just for an umbrella."

Sitting in Gray's Tesla, Xia Li, who was studying hard with a parchment scroll in her hand, smiled at Li Shanze who opened the car door.

"Just in case." Li Shanze shrugged.

Li Shanze fastened his seat belt and started the car.

He changed the subject: "I had been planning to ask Kate for help in researching the remains of the Liberty Bell, but I never got around to it. Instead, I helped her catch two criminals."

Then Li Shanze asked Xia Li, "How about you? Have you gained anything in the past few days?"

Xia Li's attention was indeed diverted, and she didn't notice Li Shanze's lips which were a little too moist.

She held the parchment scroll in her hand and pointed at a part of it: "I can now tell that this part describes a space witchcraft..."

"And this part, which seems to be talking about the location of the Paradox Clock Tower, but I haven't managed to parse the entire text yet."

"Oh, that's good. Don't worry, take your time."

The two of them exchanged words, and the Tesla drove out of the underground parking lot and crashed into the cold rain of Philadelphia.

"Do you think those two truck drivers were really sent by Grey's father?" Charlie suddenly asked curiously.

"Who knows? Even if they were sent by Senator Hamilton, it would be difficult to find a direct connection between them and the senator through these two truck drivers."

Li Shanze shrugged: "After all, he is a respected federal senator. He can have as many black gloves as he wants."

"Then, do you plan to take revenge?" Xia Li also understood Li Shanze's temper.

"To be honest, I don't think these are killers sent by Senator Hamilton." Li Shanze said, staring at the road surface soaked by heavy rain.

Charlie seemed very happy with this conclusion. In her heart, she was reluctant to become an enemy of Senator Hamilton, who had so warmly entertained her.

The witch asked, "Why do you say that?"

"Because those two truck drivers were so arrogant that they openly attacked the FBI vehicle. Even when Kate sounded the sirens, they refused to back down."

"Not to mention that the Chevrolet Suburban is the exclusive vehicle of FBI agents, and there's even a Knights Templar coat of arms painted on the door."

"Don't forget, Kate is a Grand Knight of the Catholic Church, and the Catholic Church and the Democratic Party are political allies."

The Catholic Church in the United States has always had a difficult time developing among traditional rural Puritan whites, who are the base of the Republican Party.

On the contrary, it was only after a large number of Spanish-speaking immigrants entered the United States that the Catholic Church experienced rapid development.

Many of these Spanish-speaking immigrants live in and around cities, which fits the Democratic Party’s consistent slogan of “diversity”, so the two sides hit it off and naturally became political allies.

So, after calming down, Li Shanze felt that the possibility of Senator Hamilton being the mastermind behind the scenes was not that high.

"No matter how crude the senator's methods are, no matter how much he disregards the law, he will never disregard his political allies."

"So, I don't think Senator Hamilton is too suspicious."

Li Shanze did not completely rule out Senator Hamilton's suspicion - what if he was a senator who was so carried away that he thought he could cover the sky with one hand?

After all, the Democratic Party has produced many lawless figures. Compared with the couple who killed Larry, the stock god on Capitol Hill is considered restrained.

"Oh, so who do you think is the mastermind behind this?" Charlie asked, rolling her eyes.

"I don't know, but I have to find him out before I can feel at ease." Li Shanze said bitterly, "This is a bastard who wants to kill us."

Charlie nodded. "That's true. But why not ask your wife for help? After all, she's a partner in Eternal Life Technology! She's a big shot!"

The jealousy in Charlie's words was almost sky-high.

Li Shanze laughed and explained, "Oh, I just found out today that my so-called 'wife' is a partner of Eternal Life Technology."

"Really? I don't believe it!" Charlie said angrily.

"It's true. I accidentally triggered a nationwide manhunt for the ogre, fell into her trap, and accidentally signed the marriage contract."

Fortunately, Tesla is an automatic car, so Li Shanze was able to use his free right hand to pull Xia Li's left hand.

Xia Li struggled symbolically, but failed to break free, so she let Li Shanze hold her left hand.

"I promised you that we would go to New York to get the divorce papers from her, right?"

"We've already agreed that once Philadelphia is done, we'll go to New York."

Li Shanze did not say anything like "It was you who suggested coming to Philadelphia first, which led to complications", because in Li Shanze's experience, reasoning is useless when dealing with women.

They only care about the so-called "emotional value" and don't care about rationality.

To be more precise, they only reason when reason is in their favor.

Adhering to this principle, Li Shanze quickly coaxed Xia Li and turned the witch's face from gloomy to cloudy.

But she still muttered a little unhappy: "I still don't know where you came from..."

“Do you remember being on the plane to Philadelphia?”

The witch shook her head. "No, I don't remember anything at all. I lost all my memories of that day. I just remember that when I woke up, I was already in the car arranged by the Grey family. If it weren't for your insistence, I wouldn't have believed that I was suddenly in Philadelphia."

"Yes, I quietly told you my background on the plane, and then you fainted." Li Shanze explained, "I don't know why myself."

Charlie puffed up her cheeks in dissatisfaction: "Okay, okay. Your origins are mysterious, and you have a mysterious wife... Are you really an ogre?"

"I'm not so sure now." Li Shanze said with a smile, "At least I don't eat people."

Now, in Li Shanze's view, the ogre is most likely the cognitive witchcraft launched by the United States in this alien world to stigmatize the Chinese.

After having this understanding, Li Shanze no longer minded being treated as an ogre.

Americans are very good at raising issues, and there is no need to follow their lead. Otherwise, you will easily fall into the trap of self-justification and run around in a hurry.

"Well, I remember my teacher told me some knowledge about ogres, but I thought ogres were too scary at the time, so I didn't listen carefully..."

Charlie looked distressed about her past desertion.

"By the way, your teacher is Barnum, the former great wizard of the Boiling Sage, right?"

Charlie nodded. "Yeah, that's right. I only realized that after hearing what Mr. McKee said. I never thought she had once led a school of thought."

In Charlie's memory, Teacher Barnum liked to wrap herself in a faded iris pattern scarf. She had silver hair and wore small round-framed glasses.

In Charlie's eyes, her teacher was just a kind little old lady. She was kind and gentle, and always slow in her temper.

Charlie had never seen her anxious or angry.

Xia Li found it really hard to imagine that the teacher had once led a school of thought.

"Well, maybe you have lived with your teacher for too long, so you didn't notice her peculiarity." Li Shanze said.

"Think about it, she used the magic circle to help Buchaska."

"No matter what, Buchaska is a god. A wizard who can interact with a god and even help him is definitely not a simple person."

"You have a great teacher."

When Xia Li heard Li Shanze praising her teacher, she couldn't help but feel overjoyed.

This made her happier than Li Shanze praising her directly.

Then, a smile finally appeared on her tense face.

This smile released all the emotions that Charlie had been suppressing.

It was a smile of unparalleled brightness.

Li Shanze was stunned, staring at the witch's face intently.

The corners of Charlie's lips curled up, forming a graceful arc, like a wine glass filled with sweet Baileys stored for an entire winter, making people intoxicated at the first sight.

Lead-gray clouds soaked in rain rose in her shallow dimples, making Li Shanze feel as if he was witnessing locust flowers falling into a clear stream in late spring.

The smile in her eyes flowed freely, and the smile lines at the corners of her eyes were like translucent silk threads spun by spring silkworms.

Her cheerful laughter was as clear and moving as the cry of a spring bird that broke the winter curtain. The rain curtain outside the car window was being combed into the silver strings of a harp by the rhythm of this clear spring.

She smiled gently, and spring returned to the earth.

Li Shanze seemed to see the bright white moonlight that accidentally leaked into the old school building during the plum rain season in the south of the Yangtze River when she was nineteen years old, and now it was falling between her lips and teeth.

This was the first time he felt the clichéd word "amazing" in its truest sense.

"Wow, stop daydreaming, look at the road, look at the road!" Charlie shouted with red ears.

Li Shanze came to his senses and hurriedly turned the steering wheel, narrowly avoiding the roadblock.

Charlie pursed her lips and lowered her head, unable to hide her joy.

There is no greater compliment for a woman than having her lover freeze in wonder while admiring her beauty.

The Tesla's cab fell into an ambiguous silence, with young men and women each thinking about their own things.

The air inside the car is constantly heating up.

And in the shadows, a thug was staring at the silver-white Tesla viciously and tactlessly.

154 Visiting Shadow Philadelphia

Li Shanze never thought that he would find homesickness in the bright smile of a woman in a foreign land.

He let out a long breath, forced himself to focus on the road ahead, and the corners of his mouth couldn't help but curl up.

Charlie's face flushed from ears to cheeks to neck. She lowered her head as if to hide it in the mountains on her chest.

At this moment, this Tesla suddenly spoiled the view.

First, a message popped up on the car screen: "Your permissions are insufficient. Please pay to upgrade to the Saints 7.0 system immediately to obtain Heaven Navigation permissions."

Then the choir's singing came from the loudspeaker.

Amidst the choir's harmony, Vivian's synthesized electronic voice rang out: "Lost lambs, please pay your data tithe."

The rain curtain outside the car had dissipated unknowingly, replaced by a frozen sunset.

The Tesla began to accelerate on its own, running over a sudden flock of pigeons, but the exploding blood feathers did not leave any stains.

"Space is distorted!" Charlie exclaimed.

Then Miss Witch immediately stopped Li Shanze: "No, don't cough! The space we are in now is no longer the real Philadelphia!"

She made a spellcasting gesture: "Let me try teleporting!"

Her gesture poked the touch screen, leaving a scorch mark, and rose petals soaked in holy oil sprayed out of the air conditioning vents.

The world in the rearview mirror is being devoured by pixelation.

"Shadow Space?"

Li Shanze took out his cell phone and tried to contact Anjie.

Then he was surprised to find that the phone automatically connected to an open network called GOD_WIFI, and the phone signal strength was displayed as full, but the 4G field was replaced by "Trinity".

There is no doubt that no matter whether it is Kate, Anjie, Gray or Aikou, their calls cannot be dialed, and the TeleGhost installed by Aikou on Li Shanze's mobile phone also becomes unconnectable.

"The spell I saw these past two days seems to be useful for this situation. I'll give it a try."

Xia Liyan sat in her seat, chanting spells.

As the spell was chanted, Vivian's compassionate cry came from Tesla's speakers: "You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil!"

Tesla's seat belt suddenly turned into thorns and wrapped around Charlie's neck, trying to stop the witch from chanting.

Li Shanze tore them into pieces, and the thorns mercilessly left blood marks on his hands.

As the spell was chanted, the Tesla's body began to vibrate violently.

所有车窗玻璃显现出不同年代的费城景象：1776年签署独立宣言、1787年的制宪会议、1844年的反天主暴动、1918年的自由公债游行和疫情失控、1943年的大罢工、1964年的种族冲突……

After reciting the spell, Charlie suddenly threw out the witchcraft energy and shouted, "Now, smash her to pieces!"

As Xia Li spoke, Vivian's gentle smile suddenly appeared on the car window on Li Shanze's left.

Li Shanze raised his fist and punched the Madonna-like smiling face.

boom.