"Oh… these must be from other places," Harry looked at the water and chocolate when he sighed, "There are so many places in the world that I have yet to visit…"
I looked at him and casually said, "I don"t remember where I got them."
"I know," Harry hugged the things I took out earlier. He then looked at me excitedly and exclaimed, "From today onwards, your home is here. You even brought us so many precious things!"
Judging by his expression, these different foods that I could buy anywhere in my world, and eat anytime I wanted to, seemed to be very precious in this world. If this food was so precious and he recognized it right away, it meant that the food once existed in this world, but for whatever reasons had become extremely rare.
How could it be?
If these things were to become rare, the only reason I could think of was… the resources in this world became scarce and there wasn"t enough raw material to make chocolate from. Naturally, chocolate became rare.
I thought to myself and put my hand into my bag again, "Then… do you want this?"
Harry looked at me with complete antic.i.p.ation as though my bag was Doraemon"s magic pocket that I could take out many magical things from.
I slowly took out a green apple. The fruit, and not the phone.
Just as the green apple appeared before him, he was completely dumbfounded. I looked at the glistening green apple, and couldn"t help but take a bite. I had not even had any water until then.
*Crisp.* The fragrance of the apple filled the entire room and the sour juice nourished my throat. I instantly felt great, then turned to see Harry"s mouth hanging open… as he drooled!
The guy was drooling again!
Slap! He held my wrist and he stared at my apple, then swallowed his saliva. I immediately said, "Don"t worry, I have…"
But, before I could finish my sentence, he suddenly pulled me up and brought me to the door. Slap! He slammed the red b.u.t.ton by the side of the door. Then, the entire underground city was blinking with alarm-like red lights!
What, what is going on!?
*Wail. Wail.* The siren wailed making everyone anxious.
Harry opened the door and pulled me out. We stood in the corridor and everyone in the city hemmed us in the very next moment.
Military Instructor Ceci held Elder Alufa, Xue Gie protected a.r.s.enal, Raffles was scribbling in his booklet while he rushed over, Uncle Mason led his scouting troop, the guards, and even the people of the city—they swarmed over from all directions and gathered on the square downstairs.
The siren stopped wailing and the red lights stopped blinking.
Harry held my wrist tight and his expression looked extremely solemn yet excited. His hand that was holding my wrist was s.h.i.+vering slightly. He stared at the people in the square but didn"t speak for a very long time.
The square was extremely quiet. Everyone was looking up at his face. All of them looked nervous and confused.
"Harry! What happened!?" Uncle Mason looked at Harry solemnly. It was obviously not a joke to trigger the alarm.
Harry moved his lips but he didn"t say anything. Everyone was still confused. But suddenly, Harry raised my hand that was holding the apple and shouted, "Luo Bing brought us an apple!"
He didn"t call me his wife then, but called me by my name—Luo Bing!
Just as he said that it instantly became silent once again!
The crowd comprising of two hundred people was quiet. It was so quiet that it felt as though they were holding their breaths. They stared at the apple that I had already taken a bite from, with eyes that were wide open and full of shock. Their gazes were excited but also filled with disbelief. It felt as though a hopeless person stuck in the desert had finally seen water, or a terminally ill person had suddenly found a cure!
*Pak!* Raffles dropped his booklet on the floor and looked at the apple in my hand, "C-Clean, clean one?" He was so excited that he stuttered.
Harry nodded, "Yes! It"s clean!"
"It"s not polluted? Uncle Mason asked with excitement.
"Not polluted! Harry replied excitedly too.
"Really?" Elder Alufa"s voice was s.h.i.+vering.
Harry"s voice was s.h.i.+vering too, "Yes! It"s real!"
I stood by the side. His, as well as everyone else"s eyes were glistening with tears!
What"s going on? I looked at Harry in confusion! I was shocked because he was covered in tears!
I-is this necessary? It"s only an apple!
"What is an apple?" Suddenly, I heard a child asked. I looked down in shock. It was Da Li. She was asking Princess a.r.s.enal. Da Li has never seen an apple before?
a.r.s.enal looked at Da Li with eyes moist with tears, "It"s a fruit. A type of… precious fruit…"
My body stiffened in the corridor. The children… have never seen an apple before…?
Apple… became so precious…
What happened in this world?
Water, chocolate, apple—these had all become extremely precious. The resources in this world were so little that I couldn"t imagine.
Our history teacher had told us that many fruits and vegetables didn"t exist during ancient times in China, and apples only came to China in the nineteenth century. Hence, the Chinese had never seen an apple before that. The history teacher always jabbered about the flaws in the time-travel novels and we loved listening to these bits of information.
However, Harry and the others" response was different. They knew about apples, but it seemed that the fruit had gone extinct. Hence, the children had never gotten to see it before now.
The children were excited. They looked up simultaneously, "It"s food!"
"Princess a.r.s.enal says that it is a fruit!"
"What is a fruit?"
"It"s yummy! It"s yummy!"
"Luo Bing…" Harry wiped his tears away and put down my arm. He looked at me, "Can you… let the children have some? They have never had fruits before…"
I looked at Harry"s gaze full of sincerity and antic.i.p.ation, I knew that I couldn"t reject him. I nodded heavily, "I have another two in my bag."
"What, what!? You have more! You, you are so magical! Hahaha!" Suddenly, he picked me up and started spinning me around. He stopped and shouted downstairs, "Elder Alufa, a.r.s.enal, Raffles, Luo Bing says that she has three of them! Three complete apples!"
My head was still spinning. Then, I heard cheers break out among the crowd…
"Oh!"
On the square downstairs, stood a brown wooden long table that was full of b.u.mps and hollows, and seemed pretty old. Harry and I made our way there.
Including Da Li, there were a total of twelve children—seven boys and five girls. They were looking at the three green apples that I placed on the table as they drooled. The apple that I had taken a bite from was turning yellowish by then.