civilwarnovels Chapter 4136 When the Pumpkin Ripens (8)
Chapter 4136 When the Pumpkin Ripens (8)
Chapter 4136 When the Pumpkins Ripen (18)
"Damn it, Victor must think I didn't prepare any candy!" Arrogance couldn't help but roll his eyes.
Billy dressed up as Master Yoda from Star Wars. After a period of treatment, he has grown quite a bit taller. But he is still a child after all, and he looks really cute in the Yoda costume, especially his two big, fluttering ears.
"The Force pays homage to you!" Billy brandished a fake lightsaber and said, "Hurry up, trick or treat!"
“Come in,” said Arrogance. “There’s going to be a children’s party later. Elsa might come too. You can have cake together. Pumpkin cake.”
"Awesome! I love cake!" Billy burst in, saying, "My dad has a big pumpkin too, but they can't even make pumpkin pie, they just bake it. If I'd known that, I would have dressed up as Darth Vader and stolen the recipe!"
Arrogantly slammed the door shut. Billy kept sniffing and exclaimed, "My God, I smell an incredible amount of butter! The cake's almost done, isn't it? How much longer until they arrive?!"
"Where did your dad find this outfit?" Arrogance couldn't help but ask. "Is he a Star Wars fan too?"
"Of course not, I'm a Star Wars fan! I got two A's on my exams before he agreed to buy it for me! I originally wanted the Jedi set, but they were sold out, so this was all I had left..."
Billy sat down on the sofa, grumbling on and on. Arrogance gave him some candy first, telling him to eat slowly. He had originally intended to go to the kitchen to check on the cake's progress, but in that short time, someone else came asking for candy.
"No candy...no candy..."
When Arrogance opened the door, he found Ron's daughter Jenny dressed in a "My Little Pony" outfit, which later became known as the "Rainbow Pony" outfit. This was a toy series launched by Hasbro in 1983, which was very popular with children and later spawned a movie and an animated series.
Arrogance wasn't very familiar with this IP and couldn't tell which horse she was dressed as. She was wearing a light pink outfit, had dark pink curly hair on top of her head, and seemed to have some blue patterns on her body. She looked very cute, and it suited her perfectly.
Arrogantly, he walked over and picked her up. Jenny ultimately couldn't bring herself to say "trick or treat," because she was actually a very introverted and gentle girl, and she wouldn't threaten anyone, even if it was just a holiday phrase.
Arrogance led her into the house. Billy became excited again upon seeing a familiar face. The two chattered away as they ate candy.
Arrogance could sense that Ron was nearby, perhaps secretly protecting Jenny. However, he didn't care; after the hedges were trimmed, the living room of the house was easily visible from the outside.
"Trick or treat!" A slightly familiar voice came from outside the door. Arrogant opened the door, looking at Harley with a hint of helplessness, and said, "Ms. Quezel, how old are you?"
"Ha! I came all this way to bring you candy, and you don't even appreciate it!" Harry said, very dissatisfied. "Do you know how disappointed the children who didn't get candy will be?!"
You think I didn't prepare any candy?
"Of course. And even if you did prepare some, it would be those old-fashioned flavors. You wouldn't be buying candy from the neighborhood store, would you? That's not popular with kids. What they like most are the new flavors of candy that the food factory where I work has launched."
Harry pulled a basket out from behind her and said, "Look, here are Coca-Cola Lava Chocolates, Popping Toffee, Crunchy Gummies, Caterpillar Sour Candies..."
As soon as she walked in carrying her basket, Billy cheered and rushed over. "It's Scoop candy! This is delicious!" he exclaimed.
"Alright, since you don't welcome me, I'm leaving." Harley stomped her foot in feigned annoyance and headed out, but then added at the door, "Just kidding, I still have to deliver candy to the other old fogies. I suspect James still has World War II-era candy; I won't let him poison children!"
Harry skipped away. Arrogant smiled helplessly. He went over and rummaged through the basket Harry had brought, and had to admit, it was indeed much more fashionable than the candy he had prepared.
These candies don't come in traditional Halloween colors; some have holographic designs, some are made into ghost-shaped boxes, and some are even shaped like lifelike spiders. Plus, there are more flavors available.
The candies that Arrogant bought were either chocolate or toffee, with the newest flavor being coffee gummies. Although children love all kinds of candy, they're probably already tired of these compared to the novel flavors.
"Alright, kids, you can't eat these new flavors of candy yet. You have to wait until the other kids come." Arrogant took the basket away. Billy seemed a little unhappy, but Jenny seemed to prefer the traditional flavors, slowly peeling off the wrappers. So Billy quieted down, and the two whispered about school.
Not long after, it sounded like a tractor coming from the street corner, a huge commotion and a swarm of strange creatures sweeping across the street. The Schiller family's door was being pounded on.
"Trick or treat! Open the door!!!"
"Trick or treat! The witch is going to play a trick!!"
"I'm a zombie! I'm a zombie! Hahahaha!!"
Arrogantly, he walked over and opened the door, then froze when he saw the person leading the group. The face was familiar; it was Elsa, but the problem was that she was dressed as Batman.
Arrogance couldn't help but cover his forehead. He had thought that Elsa's hasty return might mean her outfit was a bit perfunctory, but he hadn't expected Bruce and Selena to have started preparing so early. This children's version of the Batman costume wasn't something that could be made in a day or two.
"My God." Arrogance crouched down, scrutinizing Aisha closely, and then realized that this Batsuit was actually the Arkham Batman version—the one with lots of metallic embellishments, looking incredibly cool and shiny. And the lantern she was carrying was a Batmobile; so Bruce knew whose Batsuit was the coolest.
"Professor!" Aisha rushed into Arrogant's arms like a cannonball.
"Alright, alright." Arrogance quickly let them in. Once inside the house, he finally saw what the children were dressed like.
Some children dressed as the King of the Seagulls, some as zombies, and some as vampires. Paul, his main target today, wasn't exactly dressed shabbily, but rather somewhat perfunctorily. He was dressed as the Tin Man from "The Wizard of Oz," but his suit wasn't made of iron; it was made of cardboard with some patterns drawn on it. He did a pretty good job, and it looked quite decent, but it was clearly not as refined as the other children's.
"Oh, Billy, you're here too!" Elsa exclaimed upon seeing a familiar face. "Oh my god, new flavors of candy! I want some too!"
Arrogance put down the basket, and the children swarmed around it, searching through the candy. Arrogance noticed that Paul was standing on the outermost edge of the children, clearly unable to squeeze in.
"Okay, you can eat your fill of sweets and then leave the pumpkin, cream cake, and both flavors of pumpkin pie to others..."
"What?! There's cake too?!"
"I want to eat cake!"
"I want some too! My mom won't let me eat cake!"
"Me too! She had to pack all the candy I collected today for me because she said it would give me cavities!"
"I want some cake too!"
They scattered from the table instantly. Arrogance patted the back of the sofa and said, "Everyone sit down, or there won't be any cake."
They obediently sat down. Paul remained seated at the very edge, his expression obscured by the cardboard mask on his head, but his arrogance suggested he was quite happy.
Elsa deliberately sat down next to him and said, "Hey, Tin Boy, I wasn't kidding you, was I? This is the most generous family around. I've never had pumpkin cake before."
"You've never tried it either?" Paul's voice sounded muffled.
“That’s right, our butler is English. Although he might be the best chef in all of England, his tastes are just too old-fashioned. Can you imagine? Black tea cake. Oh my god, everyone says it’s delicious, but it tastes bitter to me…”
“I don’t like black tea cake either,” another child said. “I don’t understand why adults like bitter cakes. And coffee cakes, they don’t even put enough sugar in them.”
"I bet you've never had my grandmother's ginger cake. The ginger smell was so strong it could poison my dog..."
They chattered excitedly, and then soon, a huge pumpkin-shaped cake was brought to the table. The whole room erupted in cheers as the children screamed, clapped, and bombarded the room with questions about how it was made.
Greed stood by, explaining unhurriedly, "First, we need to bake the cake base, then spread the sauce and cream on top, and finally frost the surface. As long as you shape it while frostting, you can make a pumpkin-shaped cake..."
“Oh my god, you two look so alike.” A child took off his mask and looked at the two of them, saying, “Are you twins? My neighbors are twins too, and they probably look even more alike than you.”
“You can understand it that way,” said Arrogance.
"Let's cut the cake!" Elsa's eyes were glued to the cake. "I've been eating tiramisu for almost half a month now! Damn it, is tiramisu the only dessert in Italy?!"
Then they started cutting the cake. It was supposed to be Elsa's turn, since she was the leader of the kids, but she deliberately said, "No, this cake is a bit oddly shaped, and I don't want to get cream on my hands. Paul, you do it. Your iron shell will protect you well."
Paul seemed a little surprised, but he still took the cake knife and cut the cake into small pieces. He divided them very precisely, so each piece was roughly the same size and had about the same amount of cream, so everyone was satisfied.
This made Arrogance realize that Paul was a very clever kid who knew how to seize opportunities to gain his place in the group, which explained why he was able to lure the kidnappers into making a mistake.
“You’re amazing,” Billy said. “If it were me, one person might have no cream on their plate, while the other person has a mountain of cream on their plate…”
Everyone laughed. Even though Paul was wearing that cardboard mask with holes cut out, you could see he was laughing too.
Greed gave Pride a look. Pride nodded, then whispered, "If that equipment really fell into the lake, it must have been intentional."