In Klein's eyes, Alice's words were as credible as fate's special luck - you can't say it's wrong, it's just that her perspective on the problem is a bit strange. After looking at Alice carefully for a long time and finding that she really looked at him with a sincere smile without any guilt, Klein gave up further questioning Alice. With concerns about the next Tarot Club, Klein brought up another topic: "I might go to the sea to look for mermaids."
"Mermaids!" Alice sat up straight, "Ariel!"
"...Who?" Klein was stunned for a moment.
"Little Mermaid Ariel," Alice explained, "I also want to see mermaids with my own eyes, and it would be best if we could take a photo together..."
"...Do you think you're going on a trip?" Klein looked at Alice, thinking of the vampire Emlyn White, and suddenly had a bad premonition.
Alice blinked twice. Klein pondered for a moment and asked, "Would you like to take a photo with a vampire?" Alice's bright eyes explained the answer to this question. Klein looked at this scene and suddenly regretted letting Emlyn White attend the Tarot Club. ...I always feel that Mr. Fool is getting more and more out of control. Klein sighed deeply. ... When Klein got on the train to Pritz Harbor, Alice was at Evelyn's house. She didn't send Klein off in the end because after Klein took out the sealed "Creeping Hunger" and described the effect, she asked a question that Klein couldn't answer: "You said, since it has the characteristics of being alive, it needs to eat on time. If you don't feed it like now, will it starve to death?" Klein stared at Alice in amazement. After thinking for a moment, Alice continued according to this logic: "According to what you said, the extraordinary characteristics can be released later, so isn't that equivalent to... "Eating people, then digesting the flesh and blood, and the extraordinary characteristics can't be digested, so they are excreted..."
Klein painfully cut off Alice's network cable to stop her from speaking. After being driven away, Alice rested for a night and hurried to find Evelyn. After Alice gave the reason of "infected with plague in the haze", Mrs. Greenland and Evelyn gladly accepted her breach of appointment, and Mrs. Greenland also brought out the prepared dumplings.
Yes , dumplings. Although Alice did not have time to teach Mrs. Greenland the recipe for dumplings that Klein had researched, Mrs. Greenland still successfully served a plate of dumplings, and - a pair of chopsticks. When she raised the chopsticks, Alice was confused. She did mention to Evelyn that it was not convenient to eat dumplings with a knife and fork or a spoon, and chopsticks were much more suitable. So... where did this pair of chopsticks come from? Seeing Alice's shocked and nostalgic expression, Mrs. Greenland laughed: "When Eli told me that this was the chopsticks you mentioned... chopsticks, I didn't believe it. It seems that going out more often is good." "Eli?" Alice repeated a name in confusion. "It's my husband. You should have never seen him," Mrs. Greenland smiled gently, "Try it and see how it tastes. "Although she was full of questions, Alice knew that now was not the time to ask questions. She smiled gratefully at Mrs. Greenland and said softly: "I don't know how to thank you. I thought, I thought I would never see the food from my hometown again..." Although her original intention was just a disguise, Alice, who had just gone through the promotion ceremony and recalled the memory of Shen Yinghuan, couldn't help choking up while speaking. She really could never go back. Tears fell into the bowl. Alice reacted, reached out and wiped away her tears, looked at Mrs. Greenland solemnly and said: "Thank you very much... Thank you for letting me see these again. " After saying that, she picked up a dumpling with chopsticks and put it in her mouth without waiting for Mrs. Greenland to respond. Alice, who had been using knives and forks for three years, showed a hint of awkwardness and unsmoothness when she used chopsticks for the first time in a different time and space. But that was very short-lived. After only a few attempts, Alice regained the feeling of using chopsticks and focused on tasting. The dumplings made under Loen's conditions tasted very different from those made in the local area. At least in Alice's opinion, except for the shape, these were no longer the dumplings she remembered. The flour was not fine enough to make the dumpling skin more resilient. After a bite, the filling inside... She endured the taste of fish meat. Who taught you to add mashed potatoes?! Alice buried her head in In the bowl, to prevent her expression from accidentally showing. Perhaps because she had never made dumplings before, Mrs. Greenland dared to put only a small amount of stuffing to prevent the dumplings from bursting. This is indeed what novices often do - either they are reluctant to add stuffing, or they add too much stuffing. The dumpling wrappers were not actually good enough. Compared with real dumplings, this bowl of dumplings actually had various defects, but Alice still found something familiar in it - the 1 penny coin that made her teeth ache. Alice spit out the coin in astonishment and looked at Mrs. Greenland - she never expected that this point would also be replicated. Mrs. Greenland pretended to be surprised and applauded to celebrate for her: "Oh my God, I was wondering why no one in our family got the lucky coin, it turned out to be you!" Alice was silent for a moment, and finally did not expose Mrs. Greenland, but picked up the second dumpling. ...How many coins were put in this bowl of dumplings? Alice was silent for a moment after spitting out 1 penny again, and became more careful when biting the third dumpling - as expected, she spit out another coin. Until she finished eating this bowl of dumplings, Alice finally realized one thing - Mrs. Greenland, actually, put a coin in each dumpling! After sincerely thanking her, Alice confirmed this from Evelyn. ...This is much more excessive than marking to deceive children! Alice opened her mouth and wanted to complain, but she was not an ungrateful girl, and Evelyn was not Klein, so she finally just thanked Mrs. Greenland again and again, and then gave Evelyn the New Year's gift. It was an oil painting of Evelyn. - As a former art student, she certainly knew more than just drawing comics.
... After saying goodbye and leaving the Greenland family, Alice returned home and pondered. After becoming the "winner", she did not digest the potion immediately like she did when she drank the potion of the "Calamity Priest". This means that just like Klein needs to go to the sea to find a mermaid to complete the promotion ceremony, she needs to find her own way of acting.