Chapter 2217: Late Autumn in the Golden City (Part 17)

August to September is the season for Atlantic salmon to migrate to the estuary. There is always this tempting bright orange on the dining tables of the upper class on the East Coast. In addition to raw salmon slices, pan-fried salmon, herb salmon salad, and Tuscan salmon are common dishes, as well as the versatile seasonal vegetable-accompanied salmon.

The large dining table at Rodriguez Manor is only used for banquets of six or more people. The last time it was used was the last supper of the mages. It took some effort to clean the scent left by the moose meat, but in the end, Merkel did his job well, and so did the chef.

Shiler could clearly see the surprised expression of Lex, who followed Merkel to the large dining table in the dining room.

Lex looked at Shiler and asked, "Professor, is the definition of a simple meal different between Cat Getan and Metropolis? Do I need to go back and change into formal wear?"

"No, absolutely not." Shiler shook his head and sat down at the head of the table, while gesturing to the first seat on his right. Lex sat down with obvious anxiety.

The reason was also very simple: he was only wearing a shirt, and not even a very formal one. His coat was a long trench coat that had already been put away by Merkel. He had no tie or bowtie, and he was currently trying to button his sleeves to avoid the metal edges scratching the marble tabletop.

Shiler was still wearing a dark suit, the only difference from the previous day being the dark pattern on his tie. Lex observed carefully and found that this was indeed Shiler the professor, not any other Shiler.

He knew that this professor was so rigorous that he had a bit of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Even the most disheveled troublemakers in the grade would tidy up their appearance before entering his office to prevent themselves from being stabbed through by an umbrella—this is the hottest campus legend in Cat Getan University at present, and Lex believed it was not just a legend.

He felt a bit lost. If Shiler was just inviting him for a simple meal, then Rodriguez Manor must have a small dining table for two people. And if it was relatively solemn, then this professor couldn't possibly joke about such things or use some misleading language. So what exactly was going on?

When Merkel brought the dishes up, Lex felt a bit more at ease, because this didn't look like the amazing dishes at a luxury banquet. The appetizer was raw salmon flower with seaweed and tartar sauce, the soup was dried orange pumpkin crab claw, the main course was puff pastry roll cream spinach sauce and pan-fried salmon, as well as vinaigrette salad and pickled sour cherry cheese chiffon cake roll.

These were actually quite home-style dishes. One couldn't tell which cuisine they belonged to, and one could gather them by walking into three ordinary Western restaurants. The soup and main course were steaming, and one could very clearly distinguish that the edible value was greater than the ornamental value.

When Shiler picked up the knife and fork, Lex fastened his napkin and picked up the cutlery, but he still couldn't say he was completely relaxed, because he didn't know what Shiler wanted to talk to him about.

Talking alone with this professor was full of pressure, which was why he had pointed out earlier that if there was a problem with the thesis, they could communicate via email.

Many students at Cat Getan University said they had never felt that communicating via email was such a convenient and efficient thing, because if they gave up this written way and went to talk to Shiler in person, they would need a week to recover from their psychological trauma.

Lex had already started considering canceling his work for the week ahead. He couldn't say he wasn't guilty at all; his graduation path did have parts where he took shortcuts, and his premonition that he would be scolded was very strong.

So he spoke first.

"Professor, I have to admit that the graduation season is difficult for everyone. Professors have to be busy with many things, and students are the same. And often after a busy mess, we all feel very tired."

"Actually, if we prepare early and put a lot of work into the learning process, perhaps all this wouldn't happen. What do you think?"

Lex spoke methodically while cutting vegetables, and could even put food into his mouth to chew in the gaps of breathing. The whole person was a capitalized Western dining etiquette manual.

"Don't be nervous, Lex." Shiler obviously read his emotions from these body movements and said, "Although I continue to pay attention to your studies and regret that I couldn't play a greater role in this process, we don't have to talk about this all the time."

Lex was even more confused. His movements paused for less than a second. He raised his eyes to look at Shiler's expression at an extremely fast speed, and then said, "I completely agree. It's not that I intend to occupy your rest time to discuss professional knowledge, but I was a bit busy some time ago. The form I submitted to Professor Fries had some formatting problems, so I couldn't discuss my project with you more deeply at the last moment of graduation. This is indeed a bit regrettable."

"You submitted all the design drawings and forms to Victor. How long did it take to organize them?"

"About a week." Lex cut off a piece of salmon and answered, "During the creation process, the carrier I used changed, so some charts in certain drawing software needed to be exported and printed. The software wasn't very easy to use, so the order was wrong, which delayed some time."

"But Professor Fries was quite tolerant. He asked me to submit the organized parts first, and while he reviewed them, I could organize other parts of the apprenticeship modifications and submit them, which greatly improved our efficiency."

"Sounds like a perfect match."

"Always so, Professor."

During this period, Shiler discovered a characteristic of Lex, which was that he could always lead the topic to a substantial direction he was quite capable of talking about without leaving a trace. He had performed like this several times in Shiler's group meetings before, and no one could find any problems.

The topics he brought up were often related to the theme and were substantial, making it easy for people to listen patiently and spend a long time without knowing it, until they realized it was time to end the conversation. It had to be said that this was a quite wonderful communication experience.

Lex Luthor was a speaker who could perfectly guide the audience to listen to him, just the opposite of Batman.

Shiler began to be a bit curious. Did he practice this skill in the struggle with those shareholders? Or was it actually his talent? This was a talent more advanced than perfect expression, almost akin to manipulation.

Shiler decided to test it.

"I think your choice to prioritize Victor's studies is correct. This will leave more time for the two of us."

"I sent the final draft of the thesis to your email about two weeks ago. In your reply, I received your inclination to express approval, perhaps there are some details that can be adjusted."

"I think we don't have to occupy more spare time to talk about this." Shiler put a piece of fish into his mouth and said, "This is a rare private time. How is the taste of the dishes?"

"Quite good, Professor. I can't say I like eating them very much, because I actually don't know what I like to eat. I only know that their taste is very pleasant, perhaps the nutritional value is also good."

Lex smiled, scooped up a little soup and said, "Every time the salmon migration season comes—usually autumn, the way of taking in protein becomes more pleasant. The taste of fish is completely different from other red meat. They taste like they have a natural flavor."

"Do you prefer raw or cooked?"

"Cooked, fish chunks with butter and herb flavor." Lex gave a very specific answer and said, "I am not a fanatical lover of seasonings, but spices have existed in human history for such a long time and have become an indispensable part of our diet for a reason. In short, they taste good."

Lex and Shiler both smiled. Shiler got the answer he wanted. This natural skill didn't look like a skill acquired later.

In fact, in the conversation with Shiler, it was very difficult to take the initiative, and the conversation always developed into Shiler asking and others answering.

Because Shiler carried an innate oppressive force in the process of conversation, which was a temperament born from the focus of autism plus some neurotic components, making people feel that he was moody and that there was deep meaning behind every word and sentence.

Listening and understanding would gradually become difficult, requiring more time to spend, and it was difficult to analyze from Shiler's expression and posture whether he affirmed certain words. This feeling of being completely unfathomable would make people lose all the sense of security that anchored themselves.

Once self-imbalance occurred, it was inevitable to fall into a low position, and the conversation always developed into Shiler asking and others answering, because under this swaying instability and the huge pressure of falling into the water at any time, they were powerless to express themselves, and were more eager to complete the task.

So it was rare to hear anyone say what they liked or disliked in front of Shiler, because having the courage to express feelings required courage and firmness. Ordinary people would lose everything in the conversation with Shiler within three rounds, and then fall into the dialogue trap of longing to come up with an answer that satisfied Shiler and was correct.

In the conversation with Shiler, maintaining self was relatively difficult, because if Shiler had anything he couldn't control, then perhaps it was this temperament that brought pressure to others. This came from his root pathology and was difficult to control freely.

But in the previous dialogue, Shiler behaved capriciously. He raised the topic of studies first, but immediately said not to occupy private time, which would make people confused.

Once they started reflecting on whether there was something wrong with themselves, leading to the topic falling into a contradictory situation, then the one-sided situation was already irreversible.

When they fell into thought, Shiler threw out a question again, which was to ask about the taste of the dishes. This was a simple question deliberately arranged. People would always instinctively answer that it was very good.

Because they were still feeling uneasy about the previous topic, they often couldn't say anything else after a perfunctory and general answer—they were busy thinking about where they went wrong.

Then they would come back to their senses belatedly, wanting to add a few sentences to make themselves look less perfunctory, but at this time Shiler gave a multiple-choice question—raw or cooked?

This question came too fast, not giving them time to experience their own feelings, so they could only make a choice with reason.

They would think that I might have already missed it once, or even twice, because I answered very perfunctorily when facing the taste and behaved very rudely, and Shiler might have already lost patience.

So they would instinctively guess, not focusing on their own preferences, nor thinking about the reasons for their choice, but wanting to choose a correct one, or one that Shiler liked.

Immediately after, a very few great detectives would start to infer whether Shiler liked eating raw salmon or cooked salmon through behavioral analysis, and give a correct answer for Shiler through perfect reasoning.

And once Shiler started to blame him for being hopeless for this kind of "correctness," he would feel very aggrieved, constantly arguing and sighing about how perfect my reasoning was and how correct my answer was.

Shiler discovered that he couldn't recall anymore. His blood pressure started to rise again. ===== CHAPTER 2218 =====