Part 1 The Joker Chapter 27: Dinner for Three Siblings
Simply cialis …… Klein laughed out loud, using his vast “experience” from his previous life to match another hack:
”In fact, there’s no evidence that any of those big shots have brains.”
”Good! Very good!” Benson laughed out loud and gave a thumbs up, “Klein, you’re much more humorous than you used to be.”
Taking a breath, he continued:
”I still have to get to the docks this afternoon, and won’t be off until tomorrow, when, well …… we’ll all go over to the ‘Tingen City Improved Housing Corporation’ and see if they have any cheap and nice townhouses for rent there, and, first, I have to pay a visit to Mr. French.”
”Mr. Landlord?” Klein asked back, puzzled.
Did the current landlord have a nice townhouse in a good neighborhood location in his name?
Benson glanced at his brother in amusement:
”You don’t forget we have a one-year lease, do you? It’s only been six months.”
”Hiss ……,” Klein breathed out.
He had really forgotten about this matter!
Although the rent was paid weekly, the lease period was as long as a year, and moving now would be tantamount to breaching the contract, and if he was sued in court, he would have to pay out a large sum of money!
”You still lack sufficient social experience.” Benson touched his receding black hairline and lamented, “This is still the clause I tried to get in the first place, otherwise Mr. French would only be willing to sign for three months at a time, for the wealthy class, the landlords are renting for one year, two years, or even three years straight away, for stability, but for us, for us and the neighbors around us before, the landlords would be worried at any time about someone having an accident and not being able to pay the rent, only wanting it to be a short-term contract.”
”That way, they can still raise the price as often as they see fit.” Klein added, combining fragments of the original owner’s memories and his own rental experience.
Benson sighed and said:
”This is the reality and cruelty of today’s society, well, you don’t have to worry, the matter of the contract is very easy to solve, frankly speaking, as long as we are a week behind in our rent, Mr. French will immediately throw us out and withhold items of value, after all, his intelligence is not as good as a curly-haired baboon, and he doesn’t have the ability to distinguish things that are too complicated.”
On hearing this, Crane suddenly remembered a certain Sir Humphrey’s terrier, and shook his head earnestly:
”No, Benson you’re wrong.”
”Why?” Benson was full of doubt.
”Mr. French’s IQ is still a little higher than that of a curly-haired baboon.” Klein replied seriously, and just as Benson gave a knowing smile, he added, “If he’s in good shape.”
”Haha.” Benson didn’t control his reaction for a moment.
Laughing out loud for a moment, he pointed at Klein, and for a moment he couldn’t find a good expression for it, so he had to turn back to the subject:
”Of course, as gentlemen, we won’t resort to that kind of shameless approach, we’ll go directly to communicate with Mr. French tomorrow, believe me, he’ll be easily persuaded, easily.”
Of this Crane had no doubt; the existence of the gas-pipe was the strongest proof.
The brothers chatted for a while, added the small amount of sautéed meat and fish left over from last night to the vegetable mess soup, and while it was cooking hot, softened the rye bread with steam moisture.
Spreading a little butter on the bread, Crane and Benson made a simple meal of it, but they were still quite satisfied with it, after all, the creaminess and sweetness of the flavors made it memorable.
When Benson had gone out, Crane took three sousl bills and the odd copper penny, and went to the Lettuce and Meat Market, where he bought a pound of beef for six pence, and a large piece of tassock, which was tender and spiny, for seven pence, and potatoes, peas, white radishes, rhubarb, lettuce, turnips, and things such as rosemary, basil, oils, and so on, cumin, oils, and other things.
During this process, he could still feel someone spying and watching him, but still no substantial contact occurred.
After a short delay at Slim’s Bakery, Klein returned home and began to build up his arm strength with heavy objects, such as stacked books.
He had wanted to do military boxing to strengthen his body, but now he had already forgotten the movements of the radio exercises, not to mention this kind of military training to touch the things, so he had no choice but to try to keep it as simple as possible.
Klein didn’t let himself work out too much, because that would instead tire him out and increase the danger, and he stopped at the right time to look through and read up on the original owner’s textbooks and notes, hoping to go over the Quaternary-related knowledge again.
……
In the late afternoon, Benson and Melissa sat at their desks, looking at the food set out, poised like upperclassmen in a primary school.
Various mingled aromas composed a rich overture of food; the pervasive hook of boiled beef, the obvious and persistent thrill of mashed potatoes, the sweet tang of pea bisque, the subtle and neutral harmonization of stewed rhubarb, and the buttery, light sweetness of the rye bread surround.
Benson swallowed and looked back at Klein, who had chucked a crisp yellow, glistening fish onto his plate, only to feel the fried aroma burrowing from the end of his nose into his throat, into his esophagus, into his stomach.
Grunt! His stomach made a distinct rumbling sound.
Klein rolled back the cuffs of his shirt and carried the fried fish plate, placing it in the center of the cleared desk, then returned and pulled two large mugs of ginger beer from the cupboard and set them in the corresponding places for Benson and himself.
He smiled at Melissa and tricked out a lemon pudding:
”We have beer, you have this.”
”…… Thanks.” Melissa said weakly as she took the lemon pudding.
Seeing this, Benson lifted his glass and spoke with a smile:
”Here, celebrate Klein getting a nice job.”
Klein lifted his glass, clinked it with Benson, and clinked it with Melissa’s lemon pudding:
”Praise the Goddess!”
Grunting, he tilted his head back and took a sip, the spicy flavor burning through his esophagus and bringing a wonderful aftertaste.
Ginger beer was called ginger beer in full, but it didn’t actually contain any alcohol, mixing the spiciness of ginger with the tartness of lemon to create a beer-like taste, making it one of those beverages that women and children could accept, except that Melissa wasn’t too fond of the flavor.
”Praise the Goddess!” Benson followed with a sip, while Melissa took a tiny bite of the lemon pudding, chewing it repeatedly, unable to swallow it.
”Try it.” Klein put down his glass, picked up his fork and spoon, and pointed to the table full of food.
Here, he was the least confident in the pea soup, after all, on Earth would not eat such a strange thing, can only be based on the original owner’s memory fragments of “re-creation”.
Benson, as the older brother, did not have the courtesy to dig a spoonful of mashed potatoes into his mouth.
Stewed to the limit, pressed to a very rotten taste of potatoes mixed with a light taste of lard and just the right amount of salt flavor, so that his saliva crazy secretion, appetite.
”Not …… wrong …… good.” Benson vaguely praised, “Much tastier than the last kind I had at the office, which had cream on it.”
That’s kind of my specialty …… Klein accepted the compliment openly:
”Thanks to the teaching of Mr. Chef at the Welch house.”
Melissa, on the other hand, looked at the beef broth, green basil leaves, green heads of lettuce, and white chunks of radish immersed in a colorless broth that hid the softly simmered beef, the colors fresh and the aroma tantalizing.
She forked a piece of beef and chewed it in her mouth, only to feel the chewiness remaining in the softness, the slight saltiness and the light sweetness of the radish and the pungent aroma of the basil working together to stimulate the flavor of the beef itself.
”…………” she said as if praising something, but couldn’t stop her mouth.
Klein tasted it and found it delicious, but not without regret, this is still not the same fire as his best level, after all, some seasonings are not available, and can only be replaced with something else, which is inevitably strange.
Of course, even at the best level, his own cooking is just scraping by.
Suddenly, his heart ached for the unseasoned Benson and Melissa again.
Swallowing the beef in his mouth, Klein chucked another piece of fried tarsoc sprinkled with cumin and rosemary, it was crispy on the outside and tender and charred on the inside, that salty and oily flavor intertwined.
Nodding slightly, Klein tried another piece of stewed rhubarb, and found it just about okay to take the edge off of the mushy flavor of the meat.
Finally, he plucked up the courage to ladle a spoonful of the pea bisque.
It was too sweet and sour …… Klein couldn’t help but frown.
But when he saw the satisfied looks of Benson and Melissa after they tasted it, he doubted his tastebuds a little and couldn’t help but pour a mouthful of ginger beer to clean his tongue.
At this meal, all three siblings had bulging stomachs and couldn’t get up from their chairs for a long time.
”Let us praise the Goddess once again!” Benson said contentedly as he picked up the only remaining mouthful of ginger beer.
”Praise the Goddess!” Klein drained the last of his drink in one gulp.
”Praise the Goddess.” Melissa, on the other hand, put the small amount of lemon pudding she had been holding back until the end into her mouth, savoring it back and forth.
Klein saw this and laughed through his slight intoxication:
”Melissa, that’s not good, the best and most favorite food has to be eaten at the beginning, that way you can see its most delicious side, wait until you’re full and your appetite drops, then taste it again, the flavor will be discounted.”
”No, it’s still just as delicious.” Melissa replied firmly and stubbornly.
The three siblings talked and laughed and digested for a while, then worked together to clean up the plates, forks and spoons, and pour back the oil that had fried the fish.
After the hustle and bustle, they had a full and satisfying time as one reviewed their courses, one studied on his own about accounting, and one continued to go through their textbooks and notes.
At eleven o’clock, the three Klein siblings extinguished the gas lamps and shuffled off to bed separately.
……
With his eyes eerily dark and feeling muddled, Dunn Smith, dressed in a black knee-length trench coat and a half-height bowler hat, suddenly appeared within Klein’s line of sight.
”Captain!” Klein was instantly awake and knew with certainty that he was in a dream.
Dunn’s gray eyes did not ripple as if he were speaking of a trivial matter:
”Someone has infiltrated your room, pick up your revolver and corner him in the hallway, after that leave it to us.”
Someone snuck into my room? The Watchers had finally struck? Startled, Klein didn’t dare to ask more questions, but just nodded:
”Okay!”
The scene in front of him changed instantly, with colors presenting themselves in a messy manner, shattering one by one like bubbles.
Eyes open, Klein carefully turned his head sideways and looked towards the window, only to see a thin and unfamiliar back standing in front of the desk, wordlessly rummaging for something.