Chapter 160: Dumplings
"What?" Klein realized he had overestimated Alice. "You... never mind, this is indeed a serious matter for you."
Alice blinked in confusion, looking at Klein quizzically. "What are you talking about?"
"Nothing, forget it," Klein quickly dismissed his previous assumption.
Alice gave him a puzzled look, then suddenly asked, "If that's the case, can you change back to your original appearance?"
"I haven't tried yet..." Klein paused, also remembering this issue.
Unlike before, after his spirituality stabilized, although the "Faceless" potion showed no signs of digestion, he felt a vague sense of compatibility...
Wait a minute.
Klein suddenly recalled a question he had overlooked. He looked at Alice and asked with furrowed brows, "Have you fully digested the 'Disaster Priest' potion?"
"..." The topic she had been deliberately avoiding was brought up. Alice lowered her gaze and asked, "What do you think a 'Disaster Priest' does?"
"Probably..." Klein chose his words carefully, "Brings disasters? Maybe also needs to preach..."
Alice spoke softly, head still lowered: "I seem to have done such things countless times already."
Klein looked at Alice, wanting to say something but hesitating.
However, Alice's mood recovered faster than Klein had anticipated—perhaps a bit too quickly.
Before Klein could decide how to react, Alice was already speaking thoughtfully:
"If Leonard were a 'Faceless', he could fulfill his wish..."
"?" Although Klein knew Alice was likely talking nonsense, and despite feeling a moment of sadness at the mention of an old friend, he couldn't suppress his curiosity. "What wish?"
"Wearing a dress," Alice answered sincerely.
Klein involuntarily imagined Leonard wearing a dress, then shuddered in horror. Shaking his head, he looked at Alice and asked:
"Is his desire to wear a dress similar to how my Sequence 4 is called Circus Leader?"
Alice paused before replying, "It should be called Circus now."
Klein's mouth twitched. For the sake of his mental health, after confirming Alice had nothing else to say, he sent her back down into the gray fog.
...
Klein stood before the mirror, looking at his reflection.
The man in the mirror had black hair and brown eyes, wore gold-rimmed glasses, and had grown a beard that softened the scholarly air of his face.
This was the image of Sherlock Moriarty.
Klein nodded thoughtfully:
"Essentially, Sherlock Moriarty is just a disguise for Klein. I've actually been playing the role of Klein Moretti all along.
"Although I've received some memory fragments and merged with some existing emotions, I'm still Zhou Mingrui from Earth..."
Countless thoughts surfaced and dissipated in Klein's mind. Finally, he sighed, slowly closed his eyes, and his facial features began to change.
When he opened his eyes again, the mirror reflected a different person.
It was a young man with deep brown eyes and short black hair. His features were unremarkable, overall appearing gentle, with heavy eye bags and a slightly chubby chin.
This was Zhou Mingrui from Earth.
I won't need haircuts or shaves anymore... Klein mused as he looked at himself for a while, suddenly struck by this thought.
...Alice would surely love this joke.
Klein expressionlessly reached out and rubbed his face. When he lowered his hand, he had transformed back into Sherlock Moriarty.
...
When the knock came, Alice had just put down her paintbrush and was contemplating what to have for dinner.
She jumped up from her chair, ran to open the door, and found Evelyn standing outside.
"Hi, long time no see, Brielle~" Evelyn waved with a smile.
They indeed hadn't seen each other for several days, but had been exchanging small notes through the mailbox almost daily, so they weren't out of touch.
Alice smiled, waving Evelyn in as she stepped aside, asking, "What brings you here?"
"I won't come in," Evelyn shook her head, "Actually, I'm here to deliver a message."
"A message?" Alice looked at her quizzically.
"Mom asked me to invite you to spend New Year's with us," Evelyn winked at Alice, "It would be too lonely for you to be alone, after all."
Alice was slightly taken aback, suddenly realizing that Loen's New Year was approaching.
Remembering the faceless relatives from her memories who had kicked her off the table for having a perfect hand, Alice felt a faint sadness.
"Are you alright?" Evelyn's cautious voice broke in, "Did I touch on a sore subject?"
Alice looked at Evelyn and chuckled softly:
"No, it's all in the past.
"Um... would you like to learn about a food from my hometown?"
Evelyn was slightly surprised.
She knew that Brielle Rose, or Alice, wasn't a local, but Alice seemed to have difficulty talking about her past life and rarely mentioned her hometown.
This was the first time she had heard Alice bring up her hometown.
Afraid of misunderstanding, Evelyn didn't dwell on it further. She nodded and asked curiously:
"What kind of food is it? This is the first time I've heard you talk about your hometown."
Alice chuckled and asked, "Have you ever heard of 'jiaozi'?"
"'Jiaozi'? What's that?" Evelyn asked, puzzled.
"'Jiaozi', or dumplings, are made like this..." Alice smiled and began explaining how to make dumplings.
Even though she couldn't cook, Alice knew the process of making this essential New Year's food clearly.
Step one: Prepare the dumpling filling.
Step two: Make the dumpling wrappers.
Step three: Wrap the filling in the wrappers.
What's that? You're asking how to make the wrappers and filling? Well... we'll have to rely on Mrs. Greenland's culinary skills for that.
However, for New Year's dumplings, the most important thing is...
"In my hometown, there's one crucial difference between New Year's dumplings and regular dumplings," Alice added, looking at Evelyn who seemed to understand yet not understand.
"What is it?" Evelyn blinked.
Alice smiled and said:
"We wrap coins inside the dumplings. This way, whoever eats a dumpling with a coin inside will have especially good luck in the new year.
"Usually, children always get the dumplings with coins when they're young, making them happy for a long time. But when they grow up, they realize...
"The adults actually mark the dumplings with coins while making them, specifically saving them for the children..."