Just as he was saying this, the doorbell rang, "Ding Dong." Eddie could clearly feel Shiller shudder.
He quickly reached out to comfort Shiller, then slowly sidestepped to the door to get the takeaway.
At this moment, Shiller began to dismantle the origami toy, until it was reduced to a piece of candy wrapper, which he put in his pocket.
When it came time for dinner, Shiller seemed to return to normal abruptly. He looked at Eddie and asked, "Why haven't you moved back to Manhattan? You're not short of money now, are you?"
Eddie responded while opening his Chinese stir-fried noodles, "I quit my job, I don't intend to be an editor anymore."
"Why?" Shiller inquired.
"Indeed, being an editor is easy, the pay is high, and there are no performance expectations," Eddie shook his head, "But that's not what I want to do."
"When I was studying, I dreamt of becoming the world's best journalist, but once I entered the workforce I realized, journalists are not the Justice Messengers that reveal evil. Without explosive news, without job performance, you are nothing."
Eddie ate his noodles heartily, speaking vaguely, "On the road to becoming a well-known journalist, I've done many unconscionable things."
"I admit it. I did this for the money, and I admit, I've made a lot of dirty money. But later, in dealing with the Life Foundation case, I realized there's some money I just can't make."
"I never would have thought, that my hotheaded moment would change my life. I encountered this black parasite, and met many interesting people..."
Suddenly, Eddie's body shivered, a clear sign that Venom was trying to wrestle control of his body.
"I switched to a more leisurely job, saved up a considerable amount of money, even managed to save up a down payment for a house in New York by endorsing certain industries."
"But the case with the Life Foundation made me realize…" Eddie wiped his mouth, took a swig of beer, then said, "I don't know if you remember, back then, the Life Foundation was conducting experiments on the homeless..."
"What baffles me is, why didn't this cause a scandal? So many missing persons and hardly anyone noticed their disappearance?!"
Eddie shook his head helplessly, "No newspapers were interested in the story, these homeless people had no appeal to the masses, everyone knew how bad these neighborhoods were, people from other areas would just consider it misfortune..."
"At the time, I had to move here because I was broke, but after living here for a while, I found the news around here to be quite interesting."
"There are no high-flying superheroes, no grandiose technological developments, just a bunch of common folks like me."
Eddie gulped down a mouthful of cold beer, "I quit my job as an editor, started digging into the news of these impoverished communities because I still had a fair amount of savings."
Eddie had a bitter smile, "I feel that unless I started my own TV station, no one would be interested in these stories. Consider it a little amusement for myself."
Just as he finished speaking, he noticed that Shiller had drunk the remaining two bottles of cold beer. Eddie shrugged and said, "Well, Doctor, didn't expect you to drink like a fish. But I didn't order much alcohol, the drinks in Chinese restaurants are too pricey, it's just not worth it."
Afterward, Eddie started cleaning up the takeaway boxes on the table, talking about the neighborhood whilst cleaning up, "Although previously, I occasionally enjoyed Chinese food, it was always at high-end restaurants. I rarely ate things like fried rice or fried noodles."
"However, here, the affordable food in Chinese restaurants is widely enjoyed. Only these restaurant owners dare to deliver to poor communities late at night, they fear neither the gentlemen who could lash out at any time, nor the Mob who might rob houses... they're more concerned about money than life."
"In addition, while they may charge a bit more for alcohol, their staple dishes are plentiful and satisfying, they taste good, and the food without cheese still tastes fine even when it cools down. If pizza was this temperature, you couldn't eat it."
Eddie picked up a toothpick, cleaned his teeth, then skillfully piled the takeaway boxes together, placed them into the bag, tied a dead knot, and put it on a table by the door.
"How long can I stay here?" Shiller asked.
"You can stay as long as you want," Eddie said carelessly, "Anyway, you're a lot better than Thor. When Thor was my neighbor, Venom was always complaining about allergies. But once you came, Venom has been much quieter."
Just as Eddie was saying this, he heard a pounding knock on his door. Instantly alert, he walked to the door, pulled out a handgun from the corner of the shoe cabinet, stood sideways against the door, and peered through the peephole.
Seeing the face in the peephole, he paused momentarily, then put away the gun, opened the door, and greeted the blond man outside, "Thor, why are you here?"
Thor, dressed in human clothing and even carrying a few gift bags, rubbed his hands together awkwardly and said, "Um...ah... Eddie, long time no see. Can I... stay with you for a while?"
Before Eddie could answer, Venom sprung from his body, a black head poking out from behind Eddie, baring his teeth at Thor saying, "Scram scram scram! You're not welcome here!"
Unexpectedly, Thor, as if he'd been prepared for this reaction, raised his gift bags and said, "Is that so? If I leave, this Asgardian specialty dessert would just have to be returned to the goddesses."
Again, Venom's head slowly emerged, eyeing the bag and asked, "Asgard has special desserts? I thought you guys only had steak and grilled fish?"
Thor scoffed, "That's narrow-minded! Too narrow-minded!"
"Asgard has a long history, how could we not have unique desserts?... Alright, stop looking at me like that, they are Norwegian specialities, apple pies and syrup biscuits, I just flew to Norway to buy them. If you don't want them, I can just leave."
Thor turned around to leave. The next second, black goo gushed out, instantly swallowing all the gift bags. Both Eddie and Thor gasped in surprise, and Venom burped and said:
"Tastes not bad… Come on in."