About Natasha's assurance, Tim didn't fully trust her. He was really like Batman; he had to know the principle behind the matter, or else he couldn't trust any definitive answers.
But he knew he was running out of time; the gathering was starting the day after tomorrow, and he needed to find a way back to Schiller first.
After leaving S.H.I.E.L.D., Tim received good news from Pamela. Schiller had proactively contacted Pamela to confirm the status of the Attacking Cabbage; the two of them were together now.
Tim hurried over, but he discovered that the meeting place wasn't in an apartment or an office, but rather at the entrance of a department store supermarket.
Schiller and Pamela were standing at the entrance, talking. When they saw Tim running over, they waved at him.
"You went to Nick's place?" Schiller asked.
A surge of panic rose in Tim's heart. He hadn't forgotten that no matter which Schiller it was, all were suspected to possess the Mind Reading Technique. If Schiller could see what he intended to do, this thing wouldn't work out.
However, Schiller didn't dwell on this topic. He turned his head to Pamela and said, "So remember, it's best to pick the smaller ones, the ones with a white base color rather than yellow, and it's best if you can smell the scent of soil when you pick them up."
"What are you talking about?"
Schiller waved his hand and headed towards another door of the supermarket, while Pamela turned around and walked back with Tim towards the main entrance of the supermarket.
"We're tired of the food here, so Schiller decided to cook himself. His new place has a nice kitchen... he said something about a gas stove, but I don't really understand," Pamela said.
"So you guys came to buy groceries?"
"Yes, he's heading to that Chinese supermarket over there. I'm in charge of leveraging my specialty to help him pick vegetables."
"Your specialty?"
"I can know the precise death time of vegetables, allowing me to judge their freshness."
"Then why does he still need to guide you?"
"Vegetables don't know what they are called, so I need to make sure which ones he wants to buy. He told me not to buy large broccoli but to choose the smaller kind."
"What's the difference?"
"They are actually two different varieties, but I can't taste any difference," Pamela said as she walked into the revolving door, looking left and right for a shopping cart.
Although it wasn't the weekend, it was the rush hour after work, and the market was crowded. By the time they arrived, only one cart was left, which Pamela snagged by quickly pulling out a coin before anyone else could.
They were supposed to head straight to the fruits and vegetables area, but the supermarket was so large that they passed many sections for daily necessities.
Of course, they ended up buying snacks and even seemed to forget about buying groceries at all, dazzled before the vast array of tempting snack shelves, much like countless other supermarket trips.
"Are you the type to leave your fridge empty?" Pamela asked as she picked up a packet of chips and looked at it.
"Alfred manages the fridge, but I am the only one with the right to open the fridge anytime."
"Why?"
"Because I am the only one who doesn't mess up what he's organized," Tim shook his head and sighed, "Everyone else, including Bruce, will never put the half bag of toast back where it originally was."
"You like order, and so do I. What about cooking for you?"
Tim shrugged and said, "Dick likes that; he seems to find a lot of fun in it, while I spend more time putting the kitchen tools back in place, sometimes even to an extent that irritates Alfred."
"So, you arrange the plates by color?"
"The beans too."
"You have OCD."
"I don't; I was talking about coffee beans," Tim said. "I can't stand mixing beans of different flavors."
"You talk as if you have been drinking coffee for many years."
Then they reached the instant coffee aisle, and Tim actually began scrutinizing the ingredient lists, stopping every few steps with a look of disdain.
Pamela casually picked up two bags, which he criticized for a long while. Then they turned to look at beans, and unsurprisingly, Tim was not satisfied there either.
"I remember before you met your counterpart, you weren't interested in coffee," Pamela said with a hint of confusion.
"When I found out they all liked drinking coffee, I went back and did my homework," Tim said. "You could say it's for fitting in. Our cosmos doesn't need more unique beings."
"I understand," Pamela said. "You just want other cosmic beings to think at least you are normal when they find something different about everyone in our cosmos, so then they will come to you."
"I am indeed the most normal one," Tim said. "I thought I would find a kindred spirit in this world. But it turns out, every cosmos has its own kind of madness. Gotham is a bit special, but not that different."
"It's hard to imagine what you have seen."
The two quickly moved past the snack area and then began looking at the stationery section. Their universe was technologically more advanced than the one they were in, meaning light industry was better developed, and all kinds of little things were dazzling.
Although not entirely for tourism, they still wanted to bring back some souvenirs and, after much deliberation, finally made their way to the fresh produce section.
Pamela seemed to really know the exact time of death for each vegetable; she always managed to pick the freshest one from a heap of vegetables.
The vegetables in the organic supermarket were not scattered loosely on the shelves but were all wrapped in cling film, displayed on the racks, and it took Pamela a while to finally gather all the ingredients Shiller needed.
They went to queue for checkout, but Shiller was nowhere to be seen until they were leaving and found that Shiller seemed to have been sitting in the car waiting for them for quite a while.
"If it hadn't been so quiet, I would have suspected you guys went off to save the world on your supermarket trip," Shiller came down, put their bags in the trunk, and said, "That's why I don't go supermarket shopping with Spider Man."
"Does he often save the world on his way?"
"Our world isn't that dangerous, but he'll help everyone in the supermarket who can't carry their goods, adjust all the cleaning signs, restore any fallen goods, and even polish all the cameras..."
"That doesn't sound much like a volunteer policeman, more like a volunteer janitor."
"That was all when he was a kid."
The car headed off into the sunset, perhaps due to rain earlier, the sky tonight was adorned with fiery clouds, and the whole world was bathed in pink-purple light as if it was about to ignite.
"Did you always live with Spider Man before?" Pamela asked, "Like Bruce and his foster sons."
"Pretty much, I had a clinic in Hell's Kitchen; he often came over, and we occasionally cooked together, shopping for ingredients at the supermarket."
"He must not be the kind of person who leaves the fridge empty," Pamela said.
"On the contrary, he often stuffed the fridge so full there was no room left for my ingredients."
"Does he like to cook?" Tim asked.
"No, not at all," Shiller shook his head and said, "His mind switches too fast, always moving on to the next thing before finishing the current one, which makes it hard for him to concentrate on cooking."
"But you can," Tim said.
"You think I'm passionate about cooking because I like it?" Shiller rolled his eyes dramatically and then said, "It's obviously because I'm so over bland food; I need steaming hot, freshly cooked meals, not some cold sandwiches!"
Tim touched his nose; what could he say? He was a fan of bland food, even a sandwich for lunch was pretty good; often, he'd just have a coffee and some chips.
"You don't really have to cook on your own, though; you could just go to a Chinese restaurant," Pamela suggested, "There should be plenty of authentic Chinese restaurants in the big cities on the East Coast."
"They do exist, but firstly they're too far to go every day, and secondly, not everyone's cooking suits my taste."
Pamela looked puzzled, and Shiller explained while driving, "China is very large, with many different cuisines, and people from different places have their own tastes."
"So, what is your taste like? Can you handle spicy food?"
Shiller shook his head and said, "I prefer lighter dishes, so I almost never dragged you guys to eat hot pot. There are a few decent Cantonese restaurants in Chinatown, but my favorite one was taken over by the son of the original owner. After that, I never went back."
"Did it get worse?"
"Not really, but it just didn't feel the same as before," Shiller shook his head and said, "Blame my sophisticated taste buds, I suppose."
Tim surreptitiously glanced at the ingredients in the trunk and, knowing very little about Chinese cuisine, pulled out his phone to start searching.
After some comparisons, he realized Shiller probably wanted to cook Cantonese cuisine because he noticed vegetables that looked like water spinach, meat that seemed meant for roasting, and spices likely for steaming fish.
At that moment, Tim had a sudden thought, recalling what Natasha had said earlier.
What could make Shiller determined to attend that gathering?
After thinking it through, he opened his phone's contact list and sent a message to Jason.
Jason was having coffee with Captain America and his classmates when he checked Tim's message and paused.
Then he pulled Captain America aside and said, "The people we sent to monitor the gathering at the Love Farm, did they check the ingredients they were preparing?"
With a puzzled look, Captain America glanced at him and said, "No, they didn't. Do you think someone could have tampered with the ingredients?"
"I don't know, but Tim asked me to check the gathering's menu and ingredients. He's a smart guy; I don't think he'd say this without reason."
After a moment of thought, Captain America validated Jason's suspicion; he too believed Tim to be a clever person who wouldn't make baseless suggestions.
So he walked back to his table, clapped his hands, and announced, "Alright, kids, time to get to work. Keep a close eye on the ingredient transport vehicles going to and from Love Farm; let's see where they come from."
After the crowd dispersed, Jason said, "I think the chef is a key link. Do you know which culinary team they hired?"
Captain America shook his head, clapped Jason on the shoulder, and said, "Then you handle investigating that. Let me know once you find out."
Although Jason wasn't usually involved in agent activities, investigating such matters was still within his grasp. Even if someone feared tampering and didn't disclose the chefs' names, based on the ingredients and the menu, it was possible to deduce which type of cuisine they intended to prepare and the renowned chefs known for that cuisine.
After some research, Jason discovered that the head chef of the culinary team preparing dishes for the gathering at Love Farm was a well-known Cantonese chef from Hong Kong.