Chapter 4108: When Pumpkins Mature (1)

People who have never experienced autumn will never understand. If spring is a romantic journey, then autumn is a long-term chronic illness, a time left by God for people to be depressed, sorrowful, and lonely. The soul descends with the whole world, becoming as dry as fallen leaves, gradually withering and shattering, blown up by the cold wind, like noise constantly flashing in an old movie played with film.

Autumn in big cities is wetter and colder. Without soil and red brick walls, water mist always condenses on the glass of revolving doors, reflecting the water stains on the asphalt road. Leather shoes stained with muddy water, woolen scarves piled around the neck, handwritten menus of the day, the humming sound of coffee machine grinding beans—autumn mornings on Green Street always start from these things.

"Hello, two espressos, two lattes without sugar, one latte with double milk and double sugar, and one flat white. Just put them together, thank you."

The coffee shop clerk turned back and saw a young man in a black trench coat, with a light blue shirt inside that was well-ironed, and a work badge hanging around his neck.

"Oh, new here." He smiled while choosing coffee beans and said, "Which office are you from?"

The other party seemed a bit embarrassed and nervous, and he said: "Uh, the least popular one."

"Can't tell, you are actually an employee of the Federal Shield." The coffee shop clerk's tone was very brisk, and he looked back at the man and said, "I thought they only wanted freaks."

"No, I'm not from the Federal Shield, I'm from the FBI." The other party seemed even more embarrassed, and he said, "Behavioral Science Analysis Unit, BAU, you've heard of it, right?"

"FBI?" The other party was even more surprised, and he said, "I heard you were going to set up an office here, but I didn't expect it to be on Green Street too. Why? Specifically to analyze the freaks across from you?"

"Federal Shield is not across from us." He shook his head and said, "In fact, we are at the beginning of the street, they are at the end of the street, and our work content is also different..."

"Okay, don't be so nervous, boy. Being a policeman in Cat Getan is not an easy task, but it's much easier than before. Which university did you graduate from?"

"Cat Getan University." He replied, "In fact, I just graduated not long ago. If it weren't for the FBI just moving the Behavioral Science Analysis Unit office to Cat Getan, I wouldn't be working so early. I still wanted to read for a master's degree."

The coffee shop clerk wiped his hands with a rag and then said: "Don't think so. Job opportunities are hard to come by, especially for such decent office positions. Looks like you should be doing well, right?"

"Why do you say that?"

"In other places, it might be the least popular person serving tea and water and running errands, but in Cat Getan, being sent out to buy coffee across a street proves that they trust you very much. After all, our whole city is a 'high-risk area'."

The young man also laughed. He rubbed his nose and said: "Yes, they told me to be careful before I left. It's the first day of moving here, we don't want to cause trouble."

"Don't worry too much, there are no gangs now, and you don't have to pay for anyone's coffee. Here, your coffee, nine dollars in total."

"Uh..."

"What's wrong? Is it too expensive? I have top-quality coffee beans here. Although the one next door is cheap, they all use old beans, and the machines are all creaking. You have to believe in my Italian blood."

"No. To be honest, have you been to Los Angeles? I worked there before."

"I see, you think it's too cheap, right? I have a nephew working in Los Angeles, heard that an espresso there costs three dollars, really don't know what kind of big shots they are. By the way, my bagels and sandwiches here are also good, do you want some? Or do you prefer donuts?"

"I want two pretzels, and three ham sandwiches, no onions and black olives. Thank you."

The coffee shop clerk packed everything up, two full large paper bags, with the coffee shop's logo printed on them, which is a round croissant. When handing the things over, he saw the job title written on the other party's work badge—"FBI Behavioral Science Analysis Unit Special Agent Barry Allen".

Pushing open the revolving door and returning to the street, a chill rushed toward him. Barry exhaled a breath of hot air, only then remembering that he didn't ask the clerk for a shopping receipt, so he couldn't get reimbursed.

But thinking about it, today is the first day of moving here, as a half-local who used to study here, treating a meal of coffee to express his friendliness is what should be done. Moreover, it only adds up to more than ten dollars, which is completely within his affordable range.

Walking across a street and going around from the beginning of the street, he came to the entrance of a new building. This used to be the company of a popular clothing brand, and it still retained the original product display window, but now, it has become one of the FBI's offices.

Pushing open the gate and walking in, taking the elevator to the 3rd floor, pushing open the gate with the words "BAU" printed on it, Barry put the things he bought on the table in the middle, took off his trench coat and hung it at the door.

"Oh, my God! You must be the messenger sent by God to save my breakfast!" A blonde woman rushed in first. Following her were a plump black woman, a white man wearing glasses, and an Asian man who looked kind.

"Come on, my life doesn't seem to need to be more like a TV series." Barry said helplessly, "Don't be so exaggerated, it's just a breakfast."

"A dramatic city needs a dramatic life." They started to dig into the paper bags like hyenas, biting away the food they needed. Barry walked to the mirror on the other side, checked his image, and then sat down at the table.

"Have the analysis results of the surveillance video data of the previous child kidnapping case come out?" Barry picked up his coffee cup and asked casually.

"I've already handed it to Brainiac, if there is any news, he will notify us as soon as possible." The white man wearing glasses said, "Do you know? We might be neighbors with the Federal Shield."

"Is that the supernatural department?" The black woman raised her eyebrows and said, "Heard that there are super-powered people there, a bunch of freaks."

Barry coughed lightly, but didn't attract anyone's attention. They were just discussing on their own.

"I knew it wouldn't be that simple to transfer us from the West Coast to here, the big boss must want us to keep an eye on them."

"I don't want to deal with super-powered people, they are mostly eccentric and dangerous."

"I don't think it will be more dangerous than this city. I investigated it the other day, don't look at the low crime rate here, but the proportion of vicious crimes is shockingly high, and cases that can be included in criminal psychology textbooks are everywhere. It's hard to imagine how high the psychological quality of the police here must be."

"Will it be a bit too exaggerated? I think it's not bad here, the city environment is good, the rent is cheap, and the prices are not expensive. More importantly, the climate here is better than the West Coast."

"What? It's freezing here, and you actually think the climate is better than Los Angeles? California is the place with the best climate in the United States!"

"I prefer the four seasons to be distinct, maybe I can see the first snow in my life here, you know, I was born in Southern California, and I have never seen snow..."

Barry listened to their discussion while drinking coffee. And outside their office was a huge American beech tree, the leaves had completely turned yellow, and some even turned red, shaking in the wind, the whole tree looked like a burning flame.

The flames in the fireplace finally became vigorous. Schiller threw the last piece of firewood in, walked to the door to check the calendar, and saw that it would be Halloween in three days. He walked to the kitchen to get a glass bowl and placed it on the cabinet at the door. Next is to go out to buy some candy, although I don't know if anyone will come to ask for it, but I still have to prepare it.

Just as he was dressed and ready to go out, the phone at the door suddenly rang. Picking up the phone, the voice of Main Universe Batman came from the other end:

"Hello, Doctor. I have arrived at Metropolis Airport and am preparing to transfer to Cat Getan. I want to book a room at the Wayne Hotel, but they don't seem to accept online reservations. Can you help me find their phone number?"

"You probably went to the wrong website." Schiller said, "We don't have Booking or Expedia here, the phone you bought should have the Brainiac software pre-installed, click on that, and then enter your needs."

"Is that the green bald software? I thought my phone had a virus, so I used some technical means to uninstall the software."

"... You actually managed to uninstall it? Truly worthy of being Batman." Schiller sighed, "You have to download it back, without that, let alone a hotel, you can't even call a car."

"Okay, I see, I will download it again, but why is this software called 'Brainiac'?"

"This is a bit troublesome to explain. You'd better come over first."

Hanging up the phone, Schiller sighed. He knew that Batman was not the kind of person who would wait for an explanation, and he would soon understand everything. But this is not important, he has to go to the store to buy candy quickly, if it's late, it will be sold out.

Schiller dressed well and walked to the community store. The lake in front of his house was the same as before, and the forest in the distance was already full of autumn colors. A boardwalk leads to the depths of the forest, where a small park was built. When there were no people during the day, Schiller would go over to sit for a while.

Cat Getan's ecology has indeed recovered a lot, and there are more water birds on the lake. Neighbors said that there is an extra herd of deer from the suburbs in the forest, but Schiller has never seen it. His gaze stayed on the squirrel on the big tree by the road. This guy's cheeks were stuffed full, and his big tail was swinging back and forth, looking at this side vigilantly.

Walking forward for a distance, Schiller knew where its food came from. This neighbor actually planted a chestnut tree, which not only survived well but was also full of fruits, falling all over the ground, which had become a buffet for small animals. Besides squirrels, there were chipmunks and sparrows, and you could hear the chirping from far away.

Walking forward, it is a pet park, which is also newly built. It is said to be a park, but it is actually just surrounding a lawn, but it is still deserted and there are no people.

The point that Schiller is most satisfied with his new home is that it is really sparsely populated, just like living in a nature reserve. There is no one to be seen within ten miles during the day on weekdays, which is very quiet.

As for why this is the case, it is also a sequela of Brainiac's policy. Originally, housing was allocated according to per capita living area, and Schiller had to pick up little Shazam to live for a while. Doing so does have benefits, that is, the rich cannot occupy too much land, and the per capita living space of the poor has been greatly improved.

But there are also problems after a long time, such as the problem of supporting facilities. The rich area has a good natural environment and spacious houses, and it really feels good to live in at first, but unfortunately, in order to maintain the environment, there are no supporting facilities here at all. If you want to buy anything, you have to drive into the city, and it is far from work in the city, even if there is no traffic jam at all, you have to drive for more than an hour.

And with the rich in the city moving to the Inner World, more houses with better locations in the city have become vacant, so everyone naturally doesn't want to live far away. After negotiating with Brainiac, they changed to a more central location.

The community where Schiller is located is neither in the city center nor in the suburbs, but stuck halfway. The nearest business district has just been demolished, there is no plan for any subway, and the gas station has also moved away. Some wealthier neighbors moved to the Inner World, but not many people were willing to move here, and the population became smaller and smaller.

But Schiller is very satisfied with this situation. Maybe after everyone moves away, he can enjoy a nature reserve alone. ===== CHAPTER 4109 =====