Chapter 41

A moment later, they pass through a road filled with sellers who are selling dishes. The dishes they are selling soon captivate Daphne to observe them enthusiastically.

"Hey, is it a vertical pearl?" Daphne asks as she sees one of the horizontal pearl food vendors. "But it is vertical, not horizontal?" The horizontal pearls are formed by a piece of sweets and jars of honey filling wrapped into aromatic doughs, thus being arranged in a stick horizontally. The balls emit a kind of pleasant-somehow-bewitching aura, those who are prone to be allured will buy it easily.

Stairmount looks at the dishes Daphne is interested in. "Oh, it's indeed similar to a vertical pearl. But the ethnic Saturnians call it a horizontal pearl," Stairmount explains.

"If I'm not mistaken, the vertical pearl is originally from Saturn. And Pluto changes the arrangement into horizontal, however, the shapes and the tastes are all the same." Mrs. Yale adds. "The balls are very alluring, no wonder they can be famous in many countries."

"Oh yeah? I don't know about that."

"I've never seen that one," Daphne now points to some buns served by another seller. The buns have various kinds of forms - round, rectangular, pentacle, and so on, but they are all the same in color - transparent-luminous, with glowing bubbles inside. The interesting part is, sometimes, they can fly (but only for a short time).

"Oh, that dish is called Luminescent Doughs. Unlike horizontal pearl, that dish is not very famous, in Saturn itself, it is only famous in the southern area."

"Wow, cool! So many things I've never seen before!" Daphne is now staring at a peddler who is forming an extended cake, that way he forms the extended cake is always attractive and alluring everyone to watch it. "Then, it is some kind of Long Wheat?" The dishes called Long Wheat have the form similar to pasta. It gives a sensation of satiation.

Along the way, Daphne seems to forget her anxiety since she is very interested in whatever she meets. She even buys an Luminescent Doughs - in this case, it isn't really Daphne's idea, but Stairmount's. Knowing that Daphne is very interested in Saturnian dishes, Stairmount approaches one of the peddlers and buys the dishes for Daphne. "Wow... thank you very much, Sir!" Daphne accepts it, eyes sparkling with joy. Stairmount replies with a big smile.

A little while later, a Saturnian man also buys the Luminescent Doughs. He speaks in Saturnian, and the peddler also replies in Saturnian.

"Sir, why did you trade in Jupiterian language? He can speak Saturnian?" Daphne is confused since Stairmount bought Luminescent Doughs by speaking Jupiterian language, and the peddler, who apparently has just migrated to Jupiter for a while, he is so bold since he migrates to Jupiter but can't speak Jupiterian language, doesn't understand what Stairmount spoke. Moreover, the peddler doesn't expect that the Jupitune may buy an Luminescent Doughs in Obsidian, and it makes him dumbfounded. In some cases, the transaction was almost nullified.

"I can't speak Saturnian language," Stairmount replies, ill at ease.

Daphne's eyes widen, "But you're a Saturnian?..."

"My parents raised me by not using Saturnian language. They say, Saturnian children who can only speak the Saturnian language have difficulty getting along with other ethnics just because they can't speak Jupiterian language, and it brings difficulty for their future life. Well, after that I hang out mostly with non-Saturnian people, so my chance to practice Saturnian language is getting nil..."

"Ah, I apologize... I just thought that you are the same as us ethnic Neptunians. Even in Pluto, we still speak Neptunian."

"No." Stairmount shakes his head. "For me, it is different."

Copyright ©️ by boundless_universe

The alley they pass through finally leads them to a medium-sized house. Totally different in shape from their cyber mansion, the house emits an aura of 'antiquity'. It is not small, but not big, either. However, it gives a beautiful and comfortable impression. A good settlement for living.

"Alright. We've arrived." Stairmount stops his step. "This is my parents' house."

This time Daphne and Mrs. Yalle get completely dumbfounded. The house in front of them is very different from the image which has been swirling around in their minds and becoming a pressing scourge for quite a long time.

"Ah, sorry... it's dull, huh..." Misinterpreting their dumbfounded facial expression, Stairmount says, feels uncomfortable. "My father firmly refuses to accept my offerings originating from my salary. He always says, my salary is from an illegal source, that the money is caused by the sufferings of other people, and by then he prefers to live this way. Yeah, parents, anyway..." Stairmount rings the bell. "Dad? Mom? Are you at home? It's me, Schynn. I've come back."

No answer.

"Dad? Mom?" Stairmount rings the bell again. "So strange. They just go to the store in the afternoon. Ah, that's really weird. And they don't answer my messages and calls, either." He rings the bell again. "Dad?! Mom?! It's me, Schynn! I'm home!"

His ultra-cyber minipad rings aloud. Stairmount immediately reaches for it. "Geez! Finally, after hours of waiting for an unanswered reply, the reply comes!" He opens the lock screen by blinking his eyes on the ultra-cyber minipad, then reads the message that has just arrived. "But why do they send a message, anyway? Just open the door and it's much easier..."

Stairmount gasps. On this sunny day, he is sure that he has heard the sound of thunder that rumbles very loudly. The sky above suddenly turns pitch-black. All of the sudden, Merressa has appeared in front of him and bewitches him into stone. Through the short message that was sent just now.

"Mr. Rivers?" Daphne immediately realizes that something wrong has just happened. "What's going on?..."

"My parents..." Stairmount's voice trembles. "My parents... have been captivated by Chrono."

Copyright ©️ by boundless_universe