The North American Gourmet Demon Handbook

After seeing the bustling atmosphere of life and people coming and going in the car, the two brothers finally breathed a sigh of relief and felt somewhat relieved - of course, the fear and discomfort in their hearts about the occasional Japanese kanji that appeared on lanterns, screens or other places did not dissipate much.

"Al, have you noticed that there are only old men and women in good spirits here. Where are the young people?" Enzo asked after observing for a while.

"Ah, which young person can stay in such a remote town where there is not even a mobile phone signal? Maybe all the young people have moved to the city." Al said carelessly.

Enzo thought for a moment and nodded. "Indeed, when I first left Brooklyn, I lived in Fort Lee for a few months. Palliser Park, west of Fort Lee, is a Japanese settlement."

"Palisade Park is the largest Japanese community in the New York metropolitan area. Perhaps many of them are originally from the town of Kaguya (the romanization of Kaguya). I have to say, it's a strange name."

Enzo shrugged and said.

"Maybe we can stop the car and ask for directions? The locals must know how to leave this place, right?" Al said, suppressing the uneasy feeling in his heart.

When he made the proposal, he couldn't help but touch the pistol in his arms.

"Do you understand Japanese? The culture and decoration here seem to be arranged exactly according to their hometown. These Japanese may not understand English, let alone French or Italian." Enzo did not quite agree with Al's recklessness.

"At least we can find something to eat. I don't want to be hungry for another 24 hours." Al argued.

Enzo was convinced.

Obviously, the fact that they had just been hungry was more convincing, and hunger overcame their fear, so the two got off the car in front of a store that looked like a restaurant.

It's not that they know the Japanese words - but they can guess the purpose of the restaurant from the old people wiping their mouths as they walk out of the restaurant.

When the door was pushed open, a copper bell rang softly, and the salty aroma of miso soup floated in the twelve-tatami-sized hall.

The cypress floor had been trampled on for years, and had been worn into shallow grooves by straw sandals. The seams of the floor were stained with a soy sauce color that could never be washed off.

This restaurant is not very big.

Six elm wood tables were lined up along the wall, their legs wrapped in burlap to protect them from impact.

In the corner shrine stood a cracked fortune cat, with a few ten-yen coins scattered around its paws.

Faded ukiyo-e posters were stuck to the wall, and Hokusai's Waves had long been yellowed by the steam.

In the open kitchen, cast iron pots simmered on the gas stove.

A bamboo water flow device is suspended above the sink, and the bamboo tube knocks on the pebbles regularly every ten seconds or so.

The bamboo tube, stove and iron pot are almost the few sources of sound in this quiet restaurant.

An old woman who looked very old but was extremely energetic came up to us with a gentle smile on her face.

"You two are from outside the city? What would you like to eat?"

The old woman's English was unexpectedly fluent, which made the two brothers breathe a sigh of relief.

"Old man, I wonder what food you have here?" Al asked impatiently.

"Oh, just some simple meals," said the old woman with a smile.

The skin on her neck trembled slightly under the wooden corridor light.

…………

"What's wrong with you? You look worried?" Li Shanze finally ate food that satisfied him - although they were all Italian dishes, they still made Li Shanze in a good mood.

He was about to praise Claudia's cooking skills, but he found that the new cook looked worried and couldn't eat.

"No, Master, it's nothing." Claudia forced a smile.

"Are you worried about your two brothers?" Li Shanze could see what was on Claudia's mind.

He comforted them gently, "Don't worry. Before asking them to follow the wizard, I asked Charlie to divine. They will return safely."

Claudia's eyes lit up when she heard that, and she immediately turned her gaze towards Charlie.

Charlie nodded: "Yes, don't worry, I have already divined, your brothers will be safe."

"That's great, that's really great!" Claudia's face finally broke into a happy smile, and even her eyes were a little red.

She quickly lowered her head, on the one hand to cover up her gaffe, and on the other hand to express her seriousness: "Thank you, Master, thank you, Mistress!"

"Okay, okay, let's eat. Claudia, your cooking skills are really good. I'll teach you how to cook my hometown dishes later." Li Shanze picked up a piece of lasagna with a fork and praised.

As the low pressure dissipated, the atmosphere at the dinner table became lively and cheerful. Li Shanze felt even better. He shook his wine glass and drank the wine that Claudia had poured for him.

Then he squinted his eyes comfortably.

At the same time, in Princeton, an old man who had closed his eyes for a long time in the conference room opened his eyes, and his eyes were particularly ferocious.

Author's words: Thanks to swear not to flood water and Wukong for the monthly ticket

Thanks to Qianxiao Anran, Shisibushui, Fenghuagege, and Xiaopingguo112633 for their recommendation votes.

270 clues

James Drummond—at least that's the name of this body—is very unhappy with the current situation.

Because of those pharmaceutical executives who attack each other, or rather, those wizards.

Even though they were called together by James Drummond to discuss how to rescue Alex.

But during the meeting, they still engaged in verbal battles, sword fights, and endless attacks on each other.

The tense atmosphere in the conference room never disappeared.

The Drummond family is a master of divide and rule. They skillfully use various means to alienate and divide the possible communities of interests formed by these wizards, and become an authoritative arbitrator as a reliable mediator.

If these wizards had acted so aggressively under normal circumstances, James Drummond would have simply applauded in his heart.

But at this moment, the only heir of the Drummond family is facing the crisis of disappearance or even kidnapping, and the wizards are still in disarray, which is something James Drummond can no longer tolerate.

In fact, if these wizards who clearly had common interests had not been cleverly divided by the Drummond family and turned into a loose sand, their control over these pharmaceutical companies would not have been so strong.

If you let your subordinates become suspicious of one another, you can't expect them to unite at crucial moments. This is simply the price of political manipulation.

James—perhaps his name should be more accurately Archibald—had understood this principle, but his arbitrary control had lasted so long that he had forgotten it.

He believed that his control over the pharmaceutical factory was natural and that these young wizards should obey him unconditionally.

So he got irritated with the situation and he tried to use James Drummond’s body to start taking control.

He slammed his fist on the table. "Gentlemen, eight minutes. Eight whole minutes!"

"My... son is missing, and I've been sitting here listening to eight minutes of meaningless, cross-examination nonsense!"

"I am disappointed."

"What I need is not a quarrel, but a practical solution!"

"I want each of you to speak in turn, share the clues you have, and make your theories about the real culprit and possible solutions."

"Lancaster, my friend, let's start with you. You just came back from Philadelphia and visited that young lady on behalf of the Drummond family. What did you gain?"

Theodore Lancaster stood up with his usual gentlemanly smile, bowed slightly, and saluted everyone at the round table.

"As Mr. Drummond has said, I have just visited that poor but respectable lady in Philadelphia. Please allow me to interpret her present situation for a moment."

"Miss Graham is now displaying typical symptoms of a traumatic dissociative amnesia complex – the respectable lady can no longer recall any details of the evening, remaining only with physical terror, and she even has to rely on sedatives to calm down."

"Even the most effective memory-restoring drug I brought with me was completely ineffective."

To enhance his persuasiveness, Theodore Lancaster casually opened the briefcase in his hand, revealing a bag full of cash.

"Since we can't find a way through Miss Graham, I think we might as well start with the entourage that night."

"The FBI report shows that there were fifteen people attacked that night, twelve of whom died, and Miss Graham narrowly escaped. Alex and another person are still missing."

"We still don't know who the missing person is. The FBI is still testing the deceased's DNA in the hope of finding his true identity."

"However, I would venture to speculate that this missing person is very likely an accomplice to the kidnapping—or even the mastermind."

"I think if we find the other missing person, we can find Alex."

Theodore Lancaster said this, bowed slightly again, and then sat down.

James Drummond nodded slightly and turned to Marco Giuseppe Romano. "Romano, you have always had close ties with government departments. Go and urge Quantico (the location of the FBI's technical department)."

Romano nodded, then lowered his head and fiddled with the phone screen with his two fat fingers.

After a moment, he looked up with a smile and said, "I contacted a good friend, and he happened to have the FBI DNA test report."

At this moment, the fax machine rang.

After ringing three times, the fax machine switched to automatic mode, and files were spit out one by one from the fax machine.

"Ah, a fax is coming." Romano stood up and, with the agility that seemed not to belong to his huge body, trotted to the fax machine.

He picked up the fax and began to read through it page by page, and soon reached the end.

"Ten people matched the DNA of registered mercenaries, and the DNA of two others was not found in the FBI's archives."

"Mr. Romano, would you mind showing me this report?" Vikram Chandrasekhar said with a smile, still speaking with a curry-flavored Indian accent.

"Of course." Since James Drummond was angry, Romano temporarily stopped arguing with Chandrasekhar. He handed the fax in his hand to Vikram Chandrasekhar.

"Y-chromosome haplogroup I1-M253 is a core marker of Vikings; mitochondrial haplogroup U5b1b1 is a relic of an Ice Age refuge... These two individuals likely came from high latitudes, such as Canada, Scotland, or Scandinavia."

"The BRCA2 mutation... Ha, it's Swedish. A typical Swedish mutation."

Vikram Chandrasekhar came to his conclusion after carefully studying the genetic analysis report.

Then he looked at James Drummond with a smile and said, "Do you have any clues about the missing gentleman?"

James Drummond's face turned pale. "Morton, Cyrus Morton. Alex's witchcraft consultant."

As soon as this name was spoken, the wizards present were in an uproar.

This wizard, who originally had a promising future but suddenly disappeared, was a household name to everyone present.

No one present knew that Cyrus Morton had become a witchcraft consultant to the Drummond family.

…………

Alex woke up from his coma.

His teeth almost bit the tip of his tongue until it bled.

A strange rumbling sound entered his head, and his legs ached slightly.

Moldy scraps of fabric clung to the sides of his face, where the cuffs of his custom-made Italian shirts should have been.

He felt uncomfortable and subconsciously wanted to raise his hand to wipe off the debris on his face, but unexpectedly heard the sound of metal colliding.

Then he realized his hands were tightly cuffed together.

Um? what happened?

His confused mind was still unable to comprehend the current situation.

At this moment, the lights suddenly turned on. The dazzling light made him close his eyes again, and he subconsciously raised his handcuffed hands to cover his eyes.

A sarcastic voice came into Alex's ears: "Oh, it seems our guest has finally woken up."

This strange yet familiar voice finally brought Alex back to his senses. In the moonlight, the figure standing firm in the metal storm left him with an extremely strong shock.

"You are, you are... you are the ogre!" Alex's voice became particularly sharp because of fear.

"Yes, it's me. I think we should have a good chat, Mr. Drummond." The smile on Li Shanze's face was like Alex's nightmare.

"You broke into my home with uninvited guests and caused extensive damage. Shouldn't you ask for compensation?" Li Shanze said with a smile.

"Compensation? Compensation? Yes! Compensation! No problem, I will definitely compensate you! What do you want! What do you want?" Alex asked anxiously.

It was like finding a life-saving straw.

Author's words: Physical weakness shouldn't lead to mental retardation, and I forgot to set it to automatically publish...

271 Ransom Call

"What role do you think Senator Hamilton played in this?"

"Hamilton may be hostile to us, but that's not a good reason to attack us."

"Think about it, he just gave a televised speech warning everyone to stay away from the set of 'The Amish,' and then Alex walks in..."

"It would be fine if the warning came from a Philadelphia sheriff; he's a senator after all."

The implication is that if the person making the speech was just a mere sheriff, then it would be fine if he tried to extort money.

But when you really face off with a senator, "reason" comes in handy.