The doorbell rang punctually, and Raven opened the door to see a blonde girl standing outside, holding a large stack of papers and dragging a bag that seed to be filled with a lot of stuff.
"Hello, whoever you are, please help get this stuff inside first, if you would."
Raven had no choice but to use her telekinesis to move the pile of things into the house for her, and the girl hopped in after and said, "Harley Quinn, pleased to et you. Where's Shiller?"
"He's gone out to mail a letter. Do you need him for sothing?"
"It's about his house, but it's not urgent. Anyway, I haven't brought him any good news. Let take a look at his new place first."
With that, Harley began to pace around the living room as if she owned the place, nodding as she looked around and said, "Not bad at all, both cozy and fun. Did you help him decorate?"
Raven did help Shiller move so sculptures, so she nodded, and Harley seed relieved, "That's good. If it were decorated like a show ho like in his old manor, we couldn't have a party. Where's the playoff schedule?"
"What playoffs?"
"Of course, the football playoffs. Please, tell you don't ignore the gas. This year's playoffs are getting a lot of attention. You should hang the schedule in a prominent place, otherwise people will think you're so hillbilly who doesn't even watch TV."
"I've heard of football."
"Looks like you are indeed a hillbilly." Harley sighed, but her tone wasn't too harsh as she said, "Alright, where's the nearest print shop? I can't believe I missed this. Vincent told Shiller often goes to football gas. I thought he'd know, but he didn't even prepare this. People will run out of things to talk about."
"Maybe he'll prepare later." Raven trusted Shiller quite a bit, picked up the remote control, and was going to continue watching TV when Harley leaned in and asked, "Are you watching a rerun? Have you seen that popular drag show everyone's talking about lately?"
Raven shook her head and said, "I think I've seen it, but I'm not interested. I want to watch that woodworking show."
"Please, that's what old rednecks watch. Who's interested in touching up a farm? Change the channel, let's watch that drag show..."
Raven was reluctant to hand the remote control over to this crazy girl, as she had missed the end of a show because she went out for late-night snacks last night and there was a rerun during the day, which she had to finish watching.
So, when Shiller walked in, he saw the two of them fighting over the remote with throw pillows scattered all over the floor, Harley's ponytail completely pulled off, and Raven, not faring much better, pinned underneath Harley with the remote control slipped out of reach.
Shiller stood silently at the entrance, watching them, and Harley stood up from the sofa as soon as she saw Shiller, flinging back her hair while panting and said, "You're like a barbarian, miss."
"I don't know how you have the nerve to use that word to describe soone else."
"Because if I don't use that word, I will swear even nastier, give the remote control, I want to watch TV!"
"That's enough, ladies," Shiller said as he took off his shoes and then turned to look at the bag of things Harley had brought, which she imdiately grabbed, shook in front of Shiller, and smiled triumphantly.
"I knew you old fogey wouldn't know how to set up a housewarming party. This isn't your vampire manor anymore. The modern community has modern ways of socializing, so don't expect to get by with so book club eting."
"So, what did you bring?"
Harley started to take things out one by one, first pulling out a bunch of Yankees caps and saying, "You can stack them in a corner of the room; people are sure to notice. They'll guess you're a fan of the team. Of course, you can also say you're not, that you just got these hats by chance, then they will complain to you about the poor quality of so team's rchandise for at least a good thirty minutes."
"This is an old boat's oar, got from my uncle's old house," Harley continued, pulling out a long oar, adding, "Many of Gotham's rich have a history in fishing, the oceanic fleets here were once thriving. If you have an oar, you can reminisce with them about the experiences of the older generation, a surefire conversation topic."
"The rest of these parts are for a tabletop football ga. This is no common store-bought item, but the last batch produced by this company in 1897. What's special is that the little figures all wear the Gotham football team's uniforms, a commorative edition!"
"There are also so barbecue tools for the backyard. I know you probably don't like to eat barbeque, but you can't deny that a backyard barbecue is an essential part of a party. They can talk half an hour just about the freshness of the ingredients."
"Oh, right, you've already bought groceries, right? Let check the quality of the at, seeing as you don't usually frequent markets. If you get swindled, people will laugh at you for being a..."
As Harley walked over to pull the door of the freezer compartnt, Shiller, who was standing by the door, wanted to stop her, but it was too late. The mont the freezer door opened, a strong evil aura was released.
Raven instantly flew into the air, her red hair blazing wildly behind her, a powerful force swirling around her, forming a strong vortex, and her eyes shooting beams of power.
"Harley! Shut it!"
Harley gasped and slamd the freezer door shut, and Raven, her sword drawn and looking bewildered as she couldn't find where the demon was, slowly descended to the ground.
"What happened?" Raven looked around and said, "I felt the presence of a demon just now, and a very powerful one at that."
"It's your illusion," Shiller said with certainty.
"But I clearly..."
"It's definitely an illusion." Harley leaned against the refrigerator door.
At this point, Raven also noticed that the problem might be with the refrigerator. She walked over and looked at Harley skeptically. Harley gave her a forced, insincere smile and frantically signaled Shiller with her eyes in a corner Raven couldn't see.
"Step aside, let take a look," Raven said.
"There's nothing to see. There might have been a leak of so chemical in the fridge just now, causing an illusion," Shiller said. "So fridges that aren't maintained regularly are like that."
Raven, not very familiar with these modern electrical devices, was sowhat skeptical but, seeing Harley earnestly nodding, decided to put aside her doubts for the ti being.
When it was ti to move the things Harley had brought to the backyard using telekinesis, she hid beside the refrigerator and yanked Shiller's sleeve hard, saying, "I saw at least five pairs of hooves. How could you not stuff yourself to death?!"
"You know that's not ."
"Don't change the subject. You're not planning to serve this to the guests, are you?"
"Of course not; I haven't even bought the at yet."
"I hope what you an by 'at' is the normal kind... I an it's already too late to buy now, isn't the party the day after tomorrow? Do you plan to just throw a whole cow at the guests?"
"Isn't it about buying ready-made..."
"Please, you're in the wealthy district. You definitely need to order the freshest at from a farm on the outskirts, and that requires at least a three-day advance notice, plus friends who are farm owners willing to help you portion it into steak and shish kebabs. Are you planning to buy from the market? That at isn't organic; you'll be mocked for it."
While they were discussing this, the doorbell rang, and when Shiller opened the door, he unexpectedly saw Xi Wana's face.
"Hello, sir... oh, Professor, you live here? I was biking past and heard so noise. Are you all right?"
"I'm fine," Shiller shook his head and said, "Would you like to co in for a bit?"
"No, thanks. You must be busy preparing for the party, and I don't want to spoil the surprise for the day of the event. If you need any help, just let know. I should be on my way."
Xi Wana left, and as Shiller watched his retreating figure, he thought that Xi Wana was a very clever person. He must have rushed over because he felt the fluctuation of power with his right eye.
If an ordinary person were living here, Xi Wana might have already knocked them down, but the fact that he abandoned the thought of initiating a fight the mont he realized it was Shiller's residence proved that he had researched Shiller and was therefore cautious.
As if she heard Shiller's inner monologue, Harley waited until he turned around and looked at him, saying, "There's no need for any investigation. The look on your face just now was practically inviting him in, almost as if to say, 'Please co in, I need sobody and that sobody is you to be the main course of this party.'"
"No ti for jokes," Shiller sighed.
In the past, the manor's food supplies were always handled by rkel; their butler seed to have a group especially in charge of purchasing, with Alfred as their leader, so Shiller never needed to worry about ingredients.
But now, with his butler absent, Shiller had actually never shopped for groceries himself, though from his past life's experience, he thought that the market should have everything available.
At that mont, he forgot to take into account Arica's situation, where food is divided into organic and non-organic: most of the cheap supermarkets sell non-organic products, and it's not just pesticides, even lean at additives are legal.
To buy organic products, one must go to organic supermarkets, but even among organic products there are many grades, such as green, pollution-free, vegetarian organic, regular organic, each varying in price and type.
And standing at the top of the hierarchy are local organic foods, mostly from nearby farms. Even better is to have a farr friend who could provide at freshly slaughtered that morning on the farm, because this proved not only that the at was top quality but also that you had a strong network.
For Gothamites, this was particularly important, since there were no farms around Gotham and tropolis wasn't well-developed in agriculture. Therefore, to be able to get fresh farm at was a status symbol.
Shiller hadn't considered this, but he knew that he certainly couldn't serve the at from the freezer to his guests; ordinary people couldn't eat that stuff.
More importantly, Raven kept pacing in the living room, her glance often lingering on the freezer, clearly suspicious about what was actually inside. Shiller didn't plan on opening it any ti soon.
Soon, Shiller received reply letters from the guests. Allergens varied widely, but after sorting them out, he realized that at seed to be the only thing they could all eat—therefore, at beca especially important.
Thinking of a farm, Shiller naturally thought of soone, but he knew Clark was likely very busy. He hesitated for a mont before deciding not to make the call.
But just after they finished breakfast, there ca a noise from the backyard. Shiller went to check and saw Clark landing on the lawn, bringing with him a cow and a sheep.
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