The North American Gourmet Demon Handbook

Charlie continued to talk.

"Okay, okay, I kind of understand. The name Alessia has a meaning. It signifies the hidden truth, and also the dynamic process of revealing the truth... That's enough."

Finally, Li Shanze, unable to bear it any longer, stopped Xia Li's philosophy class.

Looking at Xia Li's unsatisfied look, Li Shanze couldn't help but frown.

It seems that Charlie's usual naiveté is probably due to her teacher constantly instilling all kinds of philosophical knowledge into her, turning her into a nerd...

Apart from philosophy, there is art. I wonder how much of Charlie's energy these subjects, which require decades of effort, take up.

It has to be said that the great wizard of the Boiling Sage has devoted all his energy to his students.

Is becoming a philosophic philosopher a necessary step in becoming a true wizard?

In order to combat your existential crisis, you wizards decided to drive yourself crazy by reading all sorts of nonsense philosophy books, right?

Li Shanze couldn't imagine how much witchcraft knowledge was contained in Xia Li's so-called liberal arts education.

Maybe the great wizard Barnum just hadn't finished teaching philosophy yet, so he hadn't had time to teach Charlie witchcraft.

In this light, it's no wonder that Charlie, despite having a talent that made another great wizard, McGee, envious, was still a wizard apprentice...

"Do you understand? That's great, Li!" Charlie seemed very excited. "I was thinking, breaking the devil's contract should start with her real name..."

Now Li Shanze is certain that Xia Li did get angry after arguing with Alessia.

All she could think about now was "getting it at that damn bitch."

"Let's put the matter of that devil aside for now." Li Shanze interrupted Xia Li and pointed to the seemingly endless corridor in the bell tower.

"The most important thing for us right now is to persuade our friend Calvin to come back."

Author's words: Thanks to the original soundtrack for the update ticket

Thanks to Brother Fenghua for the monthly ticket

Thanks to Fenghua brother, Yuansheng Laji, and Yinzhishisan for their recommendation votes

176 Maze

After Li Shanze persuaded Xia Li, the two continued to walk deeper.

They passed by an oil painting of the 1787 U.S. Constitutional Convention. Some people were waving the Declaration of Independence and shouting that all men are created equal. The painting was full of enthusiasm, and everyone looked happy, as if they were applauding and cheering for the equality of all mankind.

On the other side of this painting is the same painting, which depicts the infamous Three-Fifths Compromise, also signed by the federal government in 1787.

The so-called Three-Fifths Compromise was a bill that counted black slaves as three-fifths of a person in the population in order to increase the number of seats in the House of Representatives of southern slave states.

Next is Lyndon Johnson holding the Civil Rights Act, and on the other side are American military planes dropping Agent Orange in the jungles of Vietnam.

Next is cowboy president Andrew Jackson playing the banjo and singing hymns of democracy, and on the other side he signed the Indian Removal Act, which triggered the Trail of Tears.

Li Shanze has even become numb to the double standards and hypocrisy that come his way.

But this corridor seems to have no end.

It seems that as long as you don't stop and keep moving forward, the road will continue to extend forward.

As to whether this is due to the disorder of the timeline of the Paradox Clock Tower itself, or due to his own identity as a time traveler, Li Shanze has no idea yet.

He tentatively asked Xia Li, "Have you noticed that the time of these artworks has been jumping along the way?"

"What do you mean?" Charlie looked confused. It was obvious that her liberal arts education did not include American history.

It seems that she might be European at heart.

Li Shanze could only count on his fingers as he explained: "MacArthur during the Great Depression, Thomas Jefferson in the early days of the United States, Woody Wilson after World War I..."

"Then there was 1787, after the American Revolutionary War, then Lyndon Johnson during the Vietnam War, then Andrew Jackson in the early 19th century... and now there's this mess of things that I can't make any sense of... There's no pattern to it at all."

Li Shanze looked at the exit in front of him that seemed to be forever unapproachable.

"Yeah." Charlie nodded in agreement.

The witch followed Li Shanze's gaze and looked towards the exit ahead.

She also frowned. "Although there's light there, in terms of space, I feel like we're neither close to it nor far away from it."

"Although we are always moving forward, the path ahead seems endless... If the exit is our destination, it seems like we are just standing still."

"All sorts of wishes permeate the air here. It's so chaotic that I can't even grasp the clear direction of the energy flow, and therefore have no way of determining where the true exit is."

Li Shanze also nodded: "Yes, in this place called paradox, is the forward direction really the forward direction?"

"Since this is the holy land of the Brotherhood of Time and an anchor point in history, perhaps we should proceed according to the order of history?"

Having said that, Li Shanze and Xia Li looked at each other.

Then Li Shanze shrugged helplessly: "Since Calvin wants to go back to 1619, I'm afraid we have to go upstream along the chronological order of the river... However, neither of us is a qualified historian..."

Li Shanze only had a general understanding of American history and didn't know many details.

Moreover, this is America, where the course of history has changed since 1991, and the current affairs that he was most familiar with are now completely different.

Xia Li took out Li Shanze's cell phone and looked at it in embarrassment.

"No." She shook her head. "After all, this is the holy land of the Time Brotherhood. The flow of time is even more chaotic than before. I'm afraid it will be difficult for us to contact Aikou and the others..."

Li Shanze nodded. "It seems we can only rely on each other. I'll leave the art matters to you."

So Li Shanze pointed to a messy painting—his artistic taste could only take so much—and asked Xia Li, "What is this?"

"Well, only Angie understands these modern arts... I can only appreciate Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painters like Cézanne, Van Gogh, and Gauguin. I can't understand Cubism starting with Picasso." Charlie was very distressed.

"The teacher said these people are crazy, and their so-called art has nothing to do with aesthetics."

"Some people even treated a urinal as art and named it 'Fountain'."

"In the teacher's eyes, this is a complete desecration of Ingres's famous painting."

Considering that Xia Li's teacher was probably an old antique who had lived for who knows how many years, and considering that Xia Li received the traditional and conservative education of the 18th and 19th centuries, Li Shanze felt it was not surprising that she could say such words.

"The teacher said that Futurism, Suprematism, Neo-Plasticism, Dadaism, Surrealism, Conceptualism... all reflect the mental torment suffered by modern people."

"The teacher said that most of their works were just expressions of emotion and had nothing to do with aesthetics."

"The teacher also said that those who engage in modern art might have a mental state worse than a wizard experiencing an existential crisis, so he warned me not to touch these things."

Li Shanze finally understood why Xia Li always said "the teacher said" when it came to evaluating modern art, but had no opinions of her own.

It turns out that the great wizard of the Seething Scholars does not allow his student to come into contact with modern art in order to protect her mental state.

They can even make the wizard, who relies entirely on me and goes crazy at the slightest disagreement, feel worried about his mental state. It seems that these modern artists really do have special skills...

Li Shanze sighed. Although he agreed very much with Xia Li's evaluation of modern art by his teacher, whom he had never met, the problem had to be solved.

Li Shanze looked around the area filled with modern art, speechless. He could not understand what the paintings were about, nor did he have a clear idea of ​​what these works were trying to express.

Not to mention recognizing their age.

It seemed that all Li Shanze could do was to throw up his hands.

At this time, Charlie, who was also looking at these works of art with a sad face, seemed to have discovered something.

"Wait, there seems to be a logo on this poster. Ah, it's a variant of the Amazon logo. Maybe it's a reference to the Year of Amazon?"

“Amazon, Goldman Sachs, Facebook, ExxonMobil, Budweiser, Quaker,” she counted on her fingers.

"This was six years ago! So close to now!" Charlie said excitedly.

Li Shanze was in high spirits. "Yes, this is a good start. It seems that no matter which direction we go, we are likely to be going back."

But he was immediately in trouble again. He was stunned as he looked at the two pictures in front and behind him that were almost pure red.

"But which way should we go? Which painting is older? The one in the back that's almost entirely red with just a few gray and white patches? Or the one in the front that's mostly red but has some other things painted on it?"

"The purer the color, the crazier the spirit." Charlie quickly answered, "And the closer it is to the present."

(Note: The prototypes of the two paintings here are Barnett Newman's "Anna's Light" 1968 and Henri Matisse's "The Red Studio" 1911. It can only be said that modern artists go crazy much earlier than we think...)

Li Shanze pondered, "If we want to imitate going upstream in time in this strange corridor, we should always go to the older of the two points. So, forward."

The two walked forward side by side.

When they walked to the red painting and turned their heads to look, they unexpectedly found that the painting behind them had changed.

There was no longer a poster for the Quaker Year, but another work.

Charlie frowned, as if thinking about something, and she even cast a spell.

After a moment, she smiled and said, "Li, you're right. Although I didn't notice any changes in the space here, I just used witchcraft to measure it, and we are indeed closer to the end of the corridor than before."

Li Shanze shook his head. "But that doesn't make sense. Haven't we been heading further away from history before? When we were heading towards 1787, nothing around us had changed."

Charlie did have some guesses.

"Remember what Alessia said? These artworks appear different to different viewers... Black people and white people see different things in art."

"I wonder if this strange corridor of time is the same. Before we realize the correct rules while walking through it, even if we accidentally follow them, they won't be triggered."

"Another abuse of the observer effect, right? Quantum mechanics is indecisive when faced with a problem." Li Shanze complained unhappily.

Even though this problem was solved, there was still one thing Li Shanze didn't understand.

"According to Alessia, as long as we don't leave the Paradox Clock Tower, Calvin won't be able to activate his history erasure technique."

"Then why doesn't he, who understands the intricacies of this matter, come out to greet us? Wouldn't it be better to resolve this matter sooner rather than forcing us to walk through this long and difficult corridor of time?"

"Really, Calvin is such an unfriendly person."

Li Shanze couldn't help but complain.

177 Anchor of History

As Li Shanze's complaints died down, the entire corridor seemed to undergo some changes.

The change is very subtle, although you can't see anything on the surface.

But Li Shanze and Xia Li both noticed something. They looked at each other and saw the confusion in each other's eyes.

"Never mind, let's just move forward and be careful. We just need to slowly approach the date of 1619."

However, this is not exactly the same as Li Shanze's conjecture. Although the artworks in front and behind will change after the choice is made, they are not always going back in linear time.

Occasionally, there will be recurrences.

Li Shanze initially wanted to find some "historical laws," such as that history is an upward spiral...

But then he discovered that there seemed to be no pattern, and the random arrangement of various artworks looked more like the turbulence of history.

To be more precise, what appears randomly is no longer simply art and artworks, some are simply immersive real scenes.

"In front of us is the moment before the plane kisses the Twin Towers, and behind us is the bustling marathon and an electronic clock counting down."

Li Shanze recognized 911, but he didn't know which year it was in the history of the United States in the other world.

"9/11 in Boeing's year. Boston Marathon bombing in Apple's year. Boeing's year is even further ahead," Charlie replied quickly.

Did 9/11 happen in the Boeing year?

It's really... appropriate.

It has to be said that this year there is no American company more impressive than Boeing.

Li Shanze shook his head and walked forward side by side with Xia Li.

"Yes, that's right. We are closer to our destination." Charlie nodded.

It seems that after finding the right method, the next thing to do is very simple, it is nothing more than identifying the direction and then taking the first step.

It's like a long journey.

Li Shanze and Xia Li walked towards the past, towards the image representing 1619, in this corridor where time was frozen.

They listened to Martin Luther King's speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963 and witnessed the overwhelming wave of the civil rights movement.

They felt the warmth of gun barrels on drifting snow from the Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890 and watched as Lakota blood stained the white snow crimson.

They found their way forward in the victory kiss of Times Square in 1945, and they were entangled at the ankles by the dead sycamore leaves of the Great Depression in 1929.

They listen to the tea-splashing waves of Massachusetts Bay on the Boston docks in 1773.

They witnessed the flames lit by British troops in revenge for the sacking of Dover in the burning beams of Washington in 1814.