"That's because you're too fat!" Eddie rebutted.
"What did you say?!!" Venom bellowed angrily, his huge mouth agape: "Apologize! Apologize now!!! "
"Don't make a scene, people are watching…" Eddie said, coughing a few more times.
Shiller craned his neck to look up at Venom, who was at least three times larger than his comic book and movie versions. He asked, "You seem a bit overweight. What's causing your gluttony?... Is it anxiety?"
In a rare human-like expression, Venom stretched one corner of his mouth back, giving a "tch" sound, then said: "Ignorance from Eddie is one thing. But you? Don't you understand? For symbionts, more is better, and bigger is beautiful!"
"If I went back to Klinter Star now, I could easily win the Symbiont Beauty Pageant!"
"Just look at my abundant symbiotic factors, my densely arranged mental pathways, and take note of my excellent flexibility and solid structural formation..."
After saying that, Venom started laughing wildly. However, in the next second, a hand grasped his glowing red tongue.
Shiller yanked on Venom's tongue, forcing a "ah" sound from Venom as he wildly flailed his arms.
Upon releasing him, Venom reeled backward, bumping the back of his head against the wall. He touched his slightly dizzy head and shouted at Shiller, "What the hell?!"
"Has anyone ever told you that narcissism is also a disease." Shiller sat back down, sinking back into his semi-conscious state, and instinctively reached for a cigarette.
With a crooked smile, Venom put his hands on his hips, looking down at Shiller, and mentally asked Eddie, "What... what's wrong with him? He's not here to scam us, is he?"
"You know about scamming?" Eddie replied.
Venom instantly retracted his presence within Eddie, shook his arm, and turned to Shiller, whose trembling hand was spilling ash all over the place, and said:
"Look, Shiller, if you don't want to go back to your clinic or a hospital, I can take you wherever you want to go, where do you want to go?"
"...I don't want to go anywhere." Shiller shook his head. Even speaking was troublesome, his breath short and his words occasionally slurred, sounding like a baby learning to talk.
"Shiller's state reminds me of the kids with autism we met when we visited the special education school." Eddie inwardly said to Venom, "Remember? The constant self-talking, irrelevant answers, sudden excitement, sudden depression..."
"You didn't just now realize he's autistic, right?" Venom's mocking voice echoed in Eddie's mind: "I guess this is proof of your skill level."
Eddie sighed, not in the mood to argue with Venom. He thought for a moment, then said, "I remember the special education teacher telling me that when talking to someone with autism, be gentle, don't break their routines. Otherwise, they might have a meltdown."
Eddie moistened his lips, sat down again, and called out to Shiller, "Shiller? Shiller? Shiller, look at me, Shiller!"
After calling out about thirty-plus times, Shiller finally raised his head to look at him, so Eddie said, "Alright, I know you're not feeling well. Can you listen to me? I'll assume you can hear me…"
"I'm not a professional doctor but if you really don't want to go anywhere, you can stay here. There is a guest room available. However, I must collect your personal items."
Looking straight into Shiller's eyes, Eddie said, "If you want to live here, give me the keys to your clinic, and I'll help you pack."
Eddie repeated at a slower pace, "If you want to stay here, give me the keys…"
Shiller leaned back somewhat sluggishly until his back was completely against the sofa. About five minutes passed before he reached into his pocket.
However, he was only wearing a black high-necked sweater under his coat - and there were no pockets.
He slowly stood up and walked toward the coat lying on the washing machine. Eddie didn't stop him. That is, until he heard a loud thump coming from the washing machine area.
When he went over, he saw Shiller pounding a fist on the cabinet and asking Eddie, "Where's my candy wrapper?!"
Eddie said somewhat awkwardly, "Uh, Venom took it. Wait a sec, I'll get him to spit it out at once!"
"Venom! Venom! Spit out his candy wrapper now! Didn't you see his murderous eyes? You want to get us killed?"
"That's not his candy wrapper!" Venom protested loudly: "It's clearly mine! Someone else gave it to me!"
Eddie stood there dumbfounded. He weighed the probabilities, deciding that it was more likely Venom had eaten the candy — he couldn't see a professional and strict therapist like Shiller munching on a piece of chocolate candy while treating patients.
But as Eddie was mulling this over, Shiller started to lose control. He kept pounding his fist in the same spot and mumbling the same sentence over and over. It made no sense; it was merely a constant repetition.
Because his teeth were chattering, his words were fragmented, sounding like bizarre incantations.
On certain unintelligible words and stresses, he would grit his teeth while snorting, as if cursing.
He kept hitting the cabinet in the same spot with his palm, maintaining consistent rhythm and force, and began to sway back and forth, nodding forward as if about to collapse.
Eddie rushed over to steady him. After a moment, a candy wrapper finally appeared in Eddie's palm. He gave it to Shiller who promptly became much calmer and stopped banging on the cabinet.
Shiller held the wrapper in both hands and started to flatten it, rubbing out every crease with his fingers until it was perfectly smooth, then he folded it in half by pinching its two corners.
He folded the square wrapper into a rectangle and then again in a different direction until a cross was formed. Then, he unfolded it, folding the four corners toward the cross's central point.
Eddie squinted at Shiller's actions. He soon realized that the candy wrapper had been folded countless times, and Shiller's every move was efficient, decisive, and precise, like instinct — requiring no thought.
About half a minute later, a strange origami object appeared in Shiller's hands.
It looked like a big umbrella or four small umbrellas grouped together.
If Eddie were Chinese, he would know that this type of origami toy played an important role in every Chinese child's childhood, and in most regions, it's called — the "compass."