The North American Gourmet Demon Handbook

Li Shanze was in high spirits, and Xia Li's eyes showed undisguised admiration.

Miss Witch really liked the look of Li Shanze when he was in high spirits, which made her feel excited.

Charlie's throat rolled: "What should we do next?"

Taking advantage of the gap between words, she quietly swallowed her saliva.

"Find out where this is, and then find a way to get up. Only this time there won't be any shortcuts like the Emancipation Proclamation."

While answering Xia Li, Li Shanze observed the surrounding environment.

This is a street corner in a black neighborhood.

The peeling wall exposed the cement, and the cracks in the cement were filled with chewed gum and cigarette butts.

A clothesline was wrapped around the rusty fire escape, with colorful clothes hanging on it.

It was obvious that if a fire really broke out, the firefighters could not rely on these fire ladders, just as the black people never relied on the firefighters.

The drains were clogged, sewage accumulated in them, and gave off a foul smell.

Floating on the sewage were fried chicken wrappers, torn condoms, and swollen copies of the "Community School Admissions Brochure."

The asphalt road was littered with messy scraps of paper and needles thrown away.

A huge red cross was marked on the locked iron door on the side of the small shop, and the red paint looked like a scab over the wound.

Broken glass is quietly waiting to mold in the cracks of the asphalt, and the glass in the small shop has not been replaced yet.

Behind the iron fence, the gray-haired black shop owner squinted his eyes, his head heaving as he dozed off.

The black shop owner acted so relaxed that he didn't look like he had just been robbed.

Perhaps he was accustomed to or even numb to it, and felt indifferent to such small scenes; perhaps this simple robbery blocked by the iron fence did not just happen.

Compared to the suffocating endless field with nothing but cotton, although the environment of this slum is terrible and the public security is very worrying, at least there is the breath of "people".

Li Shanze put the phone back into Xia Li's hand and said, "Stay with me. Keep trying to contact Ai Kou on your phone. I'm going to ask the shop owner for information."

The old black man behind the small shop window was dozing with his eyes closed. He suddenly opened his eyes when he heard the sound of Li Shanze's leather shoes tapping on the asphalt road getting closer and closer, as if coming straight towards him.

The look in the old man's newly opened eyes was far from friendly.

On the contrary, it was a look full of intimidation and menace, looking like an angry beast.

Li Shanze noticed that his arms were also tense, and his hand reached for the drawer under the window.

Li Shanze guessed that there was a pistol there.

However, after he saw Li Shanze's skin color clearly, he breathed a sigh of relief. His originally tense arms relaxed again, and his eyes became much calmer.

It has to be said that stereotypes have their advantages.

Even though Li Shanze was tall and strong and looked tough, he was subconsciously considered a friendly person by the shop owner because of his yellow skin.

The old shopkeeper put on a friendly smile and said, "What would you like to buy, sir?"

He acted like a real person.

Author's words: Thanks to book friends 30600563, Polar Bear, and Silver Thirteen for their recommendations.

164 Directions

Li Shanze felt that this old black shop owner was more like a real person because he showed his own joys, sorrows, anger and happiness, and had a relatively real reaction to Li Shanze.

In contrast, the black people who gathered to watch Calvin Hope were more like symbols, some highly abstract existences, some... puppets.

This is the space of consciousness after all.

Therefore, Li Shanze does not think there is anything wrong with the existence of those symbolic and abstract puppets.

People's understanding of others is often very one-sided.

Except for a very few close friends, most people are often symbolized, labeled, and abstract in the eyes of others.

Therefore, in the space of consciousness, the vast majority of "people" appear in the form of symbols and labels.

It is precisely because of this that this more lively old shop owner is an outlier in Li Shanze's eyes.

When the old shop owner saw Li Shanze's yellow skin, he not only breathed a sigh of relief and took his hand out from under the counter, but he also picked up a rag and wiped the wooden table that seemed to never be clean.

"I want to leave here, old man." Li Shanze replied with a smile.

The old man sighed, the rag in his hand never stopping for a moment.

He spoke in a Southern black accent: "Chile (note: the pronunciation of the American Southern black child), this neighborhood is like the whirlpool of the Mississippi River and the quagmire of Florida - the more you struggle, the faster it swallows you up."

Li Shanze was talking about leaving here, but the old man naturally understood it as leaving this neighborhood.

So how to leave this level, the answer becomes very simple.

The puzzle is right on the surface. Since the old man understood "here" as this block, it also means that "here" is this block.

So, if you want to leave "here", just leave this block.

But will it be that simple?

"So there is no way to leave?" Li Shanze continued to ask tentatively.

The old man's face showed a look of reminiscence: "Yes, it doesn't belong here. Your grandfather said so, your father said so, and now you say so too..."

This answer was irrelevant and Li Shanze frowned.

Just now you recognized that I was a yellow person so you let down your guard, how come you suddenly called me grandpa and dad?

"Your grandfather tried to join the army. He walked across Brown Street to enlist."

The old man pointed to the west, indicating that "Grandpa" left west along Brown Street.

"In the end, he came back with the shame of the Vietnam War, shrapnel embedded in his body, and a bottle of fentanyl he could no longer live without."

"And your father tried to study. He worked hard to get into college. The day he left, he walked along 39th Street to the bus station."

This time, the old man pointed to the north.

"But in the end, his tuition loan bill was higher than the bail of any guy on the street!"

"Although he can be considered to be living a good life...at least he found a decent job, and now he has something to look forward to."

"But before he could pay off his loan, he was shot and killed by a drunk white police officer who had returned to the wrong house on suspicion of burglary. Your mother had no choice but to bring you back to this neighborhood to live with relatives."

Is this a wrong person?

No, this is not a case of mistaken identity.

Because the old man in the consciousness space is not a living person.

He is just an impressive NPC, repeating the same impressive lines to that fixed person.

The reason why he relaxed was probably because this was just a fixed plot in his memory, not because of Li Shanze's yellow skin.

Li Shanze didn't know whether he should be relieved or disappointed.

At least Li Shanze figured out one thing: his previous judgment of this space of consciousness was wrong.

This is not the space of consciousness of black suffering as previously identified.

This place is essentially more similar to the consciousness space of the virtual saint Vivian. This is the consciousness space belonging to Calvin Hope.

Calvin Hope did not know the specific situation of black slaves, so the cotton field on the first floor was just a concept of an empty cotton field, boundless and without many details except the corpses of black people.

In contrast, in this neighborhood, everything becomes much more concrete and no longer a grand abstract concept.

Every detail of the environment is included, and even the old black man is lifelike, which shows that Calvin Hope was particularly impressed by him.

Considering that Calvin Hope is a time wizard, he once openly tried to use Charlie's blood to perform a spell in front of the Liberty Bell during his New Year's speech.

The huge willpower to maintain this space of consciousness should come from his supporters - that is, from his black compatriots and a small number of white leftists who believe in his ideas about liberating black people.

Of course, we cannot rule out the possibility that part of the wish power comes from the Liberty Bell.

Perhaps this is why Li Shanze and others were able to come to Calvin Hope's consciousness space from Vivian's consciousness space.

At this time, the old man continued leisurely: "My child, your grandfather and father have already shown you two wrong directions. If you really want to leave here, there are two more roads you can try: either go south or go east."

"There are tons of rap labels out East. You could try wrapping cigars for music company executives with your contract."

"To the south is the Philadelphia 76ers' training camp. Allen Iverson, the hero of black Philadelphia, is not even as tall as you. You might as well try your luck there."

Rappers and athletes are indeed the few opportunities for black people to advance.

All I can say is that this old man must have something special to have left a deep impression on Calvin Hope.

Of course, the opposite could also be true.

Perhaps it was because the old man left a deep impression on the young Calvin Hope that he gradually beautified the old man in his memory, and eventually beautified him into the image of a prophet.

Now it seems that since this is Calvin Hope's consciousness space, if we want to find the Calvin Hope who climbed to a high position, we have to follow the path he once took.

It is not as previously speculated that everything will be fine if you just walk along the road to the outside of the block.

So, what did Calvin Hope do?

Li Shanze had no interest in the so-called "civil rights activist" before. He thought it was a politically correct cliché, so he didn't even look at Calvin Hope's information.

This actually added some trouble to his journey.

Since he can run for senator, he should eventually follow the path of his parents and choose to go to school, right?

Li Shanze subconsciously looked to the north.

No, that's not right. He was just a minor civil rights activist before. He rose to fame after he gave that identity to his puppet...

Li Shanze was full of doubts.

Wait, since this old man occupies an important position in Calvin Hope's memory, maybe it was this old man who pointed the way for Calvin Hope when he was at the crossroads of life.

"Then which direction do you think I should go?" Li Shanze continued to ask tentatively.

"Hahaha, little Calvin, that's a good question." As expected, the old man laughed heartily. "Let old Calvin tell you, if I were you, I wouldn't go anywhere."

"Not going anywhere?"

"We're not going anywhere. We can't leave here." Old Carl pointed to the clothesline on the fire escape.

"Look over there. See? Forty years ago, it was my uncle's overalls, twenty years ago it was a gangster's bandana, and just last week it was a promotional flag for a drugstore that went out of business."

Li Shanze looked back in confusion, then exchanged glances with Xia Li, and both of them saw the doubts in each other's eyes.

All that's hanging there are colorful clothes, where are the pharmacy's promotional flags?

What are you talking about?

Old Carl still spoke earnestly: "What I want to say is that we are not leaving at all. We are just turning into dust of different colors and falling into the seams of white people's leather shoes."

Is there any logical connection between these two sentences?

What's going on with this consciousness space? Could it be that Calvin Hope has taken drugs and is unconscious?

Li Shanze became more and more confused.

“Although countless black people have been crushed into a new coating on the asphalt road by the wheels of white police, this is also a road where you can leave here stepping on the flesh and blood of black people.”

Old Carl grinned and gave a wicked smile.

"How about it? Do you want to come and help me? I can give you a good opportunity to leave here."

The smile was so terrifying that Xia Li couldn't help but take a step back and hide behind Li Shanze.

Li Shanze almost couldn't help but punch Old Carl in the face.

I originally thought that you, a seemingly honest old man, were a good person.

After all, what a perfect script it is to have a poor boy who, under the influence of his life mentor, is motivated and strives to break free from the quagmire - it is simply a standard Hollywood model of the American Dream.

So you're the bastard who seduced Calvin Hope into becoming bad!

So you’re the fucking gang boss of the black community!

No wonder he's so impressed with you!

No wonder he felt that climbing up was actually going to hell!

So Li Shanze swung his fist, and with the power of the "Ogre", he punched through the iron fence and hit old Carl in the face, knocking him out.

I couldn't hold back this punch after all.