Chapter 409: Friend
Atop the cap of the mushroom in the center of World's Crown were buildings of varying sizes built in a modern architectural style. If an individual from the modern world were to find themselves here, they wouldn't think of this place as a mere imitation of modern times.
The shops on the ground floor of the buildings were open for business. The islanders had no idea of the meaning behind the squarish-shaped characters carved on the signboards of those shops.
However, the islanders had been staying here for such a long time that it was impossible for them not to know what those shops were selling.
The shop with an all-green signboard was selling beef noodle soup, while the shop with a signboard depicting a man eating what looked like green beans was selling duck leg rice bowls.
Meanwhile, a signboard with the image of three characters written in bright yellow was selling chicken rice bowls.
The agriculture of the World's Crown could be considered well-developed, but animal husbandry was non-existent here. In other words, dishes with meat were so expensive that the average islander couldn't afford to eat them on a daily basis.
Of course, the islanders would still gnash their teeth and spend their hard-earned money on dishes with meat whenever there were occasions such as weddings and so on.
Donna carrying a basket on her arm walked past the shops selling expensive dishes. A smile tugged at her lips as she made a beeline for her home.
Upon arriving at the residential community where her home was located, Donna saw her daughter laughing while playing with the other children beneath the canopy of a huge mushroom.
"Nene, come over here!" Donna called out to her daughter.
Soon, a tomboyish, short-haired little girl ran over to Donna and hugged her leg.
"Mommy, where did you go?"
"Mommy went somewhere to buy you something nice. I managed to buy it with much difficulty. Anyway, I'm back, so let's go home," Donna replied, pulling her daughter toward the apartment assigned to them on the second floor of the residential community's first building.
The three-bedroom apartment with a living room was being shared by four farmer families.
Donna focused on getting straight to their bedroom, and it was only when she closed the door that she realized that her daughter was holding the hand of a little girl. The little girl looked to be about the same age as Donna's daughter, but the little girl had special eyesbeautiful green eyes with cross-shaped pupils.
Is she one of the new waves of outsiders here in World's Crown? I wonder which island has denizens with such special eyes, Donna thought. She wasn't surprised to see the little girl's special eyes.
After all, the farmers of the World's Crown were destitute people who couldn't survive the islands where they had come from and were forced to go to the World's Crown.
In other words, Donna had seen far too many varieties of islanders that she could no longer be surprised. In fact, she had even seen people born with no ears, so green eyes were nothing special.
There was a more pressing matter at hand that Donna had to address, so she set aside her thoughts and cast a puzzled gaze at the little girl, "Little girl, where are your parents? Did you walk into the wrong room?"
"Mommy, she's my new friend," Nene chimed in, "Her name is Sparkle."
"Oh, she's your friend?" Donna nodded and walked up to the table. After placing her basket on the table, she started rummaging through the basket. The two curious little girls tiptoed and clutched the edge of the table, casting curious gazes at the basket.
Donna took out a long, curvy item wrapped in an old layer of cloth. Donna unwrapped it carefully, revealing a banana. Unfortunately, half of the banana had darkened.
"It's so dark and ugly. What is that, Mommy?"
"This is something nice from Hope Island. Apparently, this grows only beneath the holy light of the Light God. It's very good for the body, so come here and eat it up," Donna replied and placed the banana on her daughter's hands.
"Mommy, can you slice this? There are three of us here, so you should cut this into three," Nene said.
Donna glanced at the curious Sparkle, and her expression turned ugly as she said, "If she wants to eat that, then she should ask her mommy to buy her one."
"But good things are meant to be shared, and I want to share this with my friend," Nene replied.
"Who said that? The one who said that must have never starved in their entire life. Why must you share the good things that you have with others?" Donna asked.
"Nim's father told him, and then Nim told us" Nene muttered.
"Don't play with kids who don't know any better. Anyway, enough. Hurry up and eat," Donna replied.
Nene cast a hesitant gaze upon Sparkle before staring longingly at the banana in her hand. In the end, Nene returned the banana to her mother, saying, "You can have it, Mommy. Sparkle is my friend, so I'm not eating unless she eats."
Donna gave her daughter a good look, and she suddenly felt pissed. Why was Nene insisting on sharing her food with others? Donna pondered over it and realized that it had to be because life had gotten better for them recently.
When they were still living in the harbor district, they couldn't even eat their fill every day, much less share their food with others.
Donna attempted to persuade her daughter multiple times to eat the banana by herself, but she eventually gave up, saying that she would split the banana into two and give half of it to Sparkle.
"Mommy, split it into three, please? This is good stuff, so you should have a taste, too."
Warmth filled Donna's heart upon hearing Nene's remark. The fact that Nene still thought about sharing such a small banana with her mother made Donna feel gratified.
Donna had said that she would give Sparkle a portion of the banana, but she still pulled a petty trick and gave Sparkle more skin than flesh.
Nene stared with dazzling eyes at the banana in her hands. Then, she took a big bite, including the skin and exclaimed, "Sparkle, taste it! It's really sweet and delicious!
Sparke looked down at the portion of the banana in her hand and stuffed the entire thing into her mouth.
Huh? Did this little girl just eat that banana without chewing? She must have a pretty wide throat, Donna thought, astonished by what Sparkle had done.
"Are you not going to eat, Mommy? Why are you just holding that?" Nene asked while chewing.
Donna smiled and put her portion of the banana back in the basket to wrap it up again later. "I'm too full right now, so I'm going to eat it later."
Nene had no suspicions at all as she stuffed the final chunk of the banana in her hand into her mouth. Then, she turned around while chewing and was about to pull Sparkle toward the door when Donna asked, "Where are you going?"
"I'm going to play with Sparkle!" Nene replied.
"No more playing today. Today is our last day here, and we have to go down soon. Otherwise, we won't make it to our house today," Donna said.
Nene's brows drooped, but she didn't complain and simply turned around to help her mother with their luggage.
"Sparkle, sorry. I have to leave here now. See you again in six months," Nene said.
"Why do you have to leave? Can't you just stay here?" asked Sparkle, sounding confused. Her clear and melodious voice sounded pleasant to the ears.
"The Governor's decree states that we can live here for only up to a month after six months of farming down below," Donna replied.
"Then, why can I always stay up here?" Sparkle asked.
"I don't know" Donna muttered as an envious look fleeted across her face. This little girl can always stay on the Crown's cap with her parents? Her parents must be pretty wealthy.
The mother and daughter didn't have much luggage, so it didn't take them that long to pack up and leave the residential community. The mother and daughter pair walked slowly toward the wooden basket that would bring them beneath the Crown's gills.
"What's that on your face? Why do you have to put that on your face?" Sparkle asked, sounding confused as she tagged along with Donna and Nene.
"This is called a face mask. We have to wear this down below, or our coughing will get much worse."
"Coughing? What is that?"
"A cough is a coughcough, cough, cough! Like that."
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