The Abundant Harvest

"Hey, what's wrong? Your face looks pale. Are you sick?" Haoran asked Emma out of concern, seeing her restless. He hurriedly took out a bottled drink from his bag and handed it to Emma. "Have a drink first, you'll feel calmer."

Emma nodded weakly and drank Haoran's water. "Thank you."

"All right, we'll go through another entrance." Madame Delaval nodded slightly to the cathedral's staff and signaled her students to follow her. "Kids, we're going through the other entrance. We must stay together."

"Do you want to rest here? I'll wait for you," Haoran said. "Madame Delaval won't know we've disappeared. Alex will keep her and Monsieur Thomas busy."

"Hmm... thank you. I want to go back to the shuttle bus," Emma said. She didn't dare risk showing herself around the cathedral at the moment. If the police arrived and somehow recognized her, she might get arrested and she wouldn't want that.

She couldn't be caught! She still had to find clues about her parents.

Haoran seemed to understand something must have happened to Emma. Turning pale all of a sudden wasn't normal for this girl.

Haoran found Alex and whispered something. Alex nodded and gave Haoran an OK sign by making a circle with his index finger and thumb with the other three fingers lifted. Shortly afterward, Alex and David had approached Madame Delaval. They bombarded their French teacher with so many questions about Notre Dame Cathedral that she didn't notice that two of her students slipped away.

Meanwhile, Haoran pulled Emma back to their shuttle bus, which was parked at the next block. Emma's still trembling even after she sat in the bus' seat. She's scared at the thought of the police out there looking for her.

Haoran didn't ask anything when they arrived at the bus. He knew Emma would have told him herself what had happened if she wanted to. So, he didn't want to guess or force her to open up to him.

"Haoran, you can leave me now. I'm fine," Emma said a moment later. "You'll miss touring Notre Dame. I heard the church was magnificent."

Haoran shrugged.

"I've actually been to Notre Dame," Haoran answered casually. "I've already seen the inside and climbed the tower at the top of the cathedral. So I won't miss out on much."

Emma looked at Haoran with rounded eyes. "You've been here before?"

Haoran simply smiled and Emma let out a short sigh. Ah, she should have known the question was unnecessary. People as wealthy as the Lee family must be used to traveling abroad and visiting famous cities throughout the world. For them, it's just like a wave of a hand to travel to Paris.

"All right, then," Emma nodded.

"Do you want to tell me what happened?" Haoran asked her finally. He looked at Emma with a gaze that's neither judgmental nor nosy; nevertheless, that made Emma uncomfortable to try and keep a secret from him. So, she decided to tell him the truth.

"I'll tell you what happened, but not now. Can you wait?" Emma asked quietly.

Haoran nodded. "Of course."

"Thank you," Emma said. She closed her eyes and massaged her forehead. Her chest was still pounding. It'd be terrifying if the police knew she's the person responsible for the orange tree's unusual behavior.

If they caught her, what would they do to Emma? Will they take her to a laboratory and study her?

Of course, she couldn't let that happen. From now on, Emma decided to be more cautious when using her powers. Last night's event of making the tree bore fruit was totally unnecessary. Next time, she would test her powers of controlling the plants only when she's in a remote place, that way she wouldn't have to worry about someone seeing her.

Emma closed her eyes and tried to calm down. Haoran leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes too. They sat together like that for an hour. Each busy with their own minds.

At 12:30 PM, the other students finally came back to the shuttle bus with their two teachers.

"Alright, kids. Now, we'll go to Versailles to visit the palace where Queen Marie Antoinette resided. You'll be amazed at how magnificent and luxurious the residence of kings and queens of France was," said Madame Delaval. Her students cheered happily. They had been wanting to explore the palace for a long time.

The shuttle bus drove to the Versailles area on the outskirts of Paris. At 1 PM, the group arrived at the destination. The students eagerly got off the bus and walked from the parking lot to the magnificent Versailles Palace. From outside, they could already admire the grand palace. Even the gates were decorated with gold.

"I've already asked permission, so we can enjoy our lunch while having a picnic in one of the gardens in Versailles Palace," said Madam Delaval happily.

When students had gotten off the bus, they had been given a paper bag containing their lunch. It contained sandwiches, croissants, fruits, and bottled water. As usual, the Palace of Versailles was crowded with visitors.

Summer was always a very busy tourist season. The large front yard of the Versailles Palace was filled with people in snake-like queues. Madam Delaval had made reservations and booked group tickets for them. Still, the students had to wait in the long line before they could enter the palace's compound.

However, the wait was truly worth it. Once they set foot behind the wall, they could see the beautiful garden cared for by professionals. It's one of the many gardens in Versailles Palace. The compound was so huge that the establishment provided buggy for people who would want to tour the whole area without turning their legs into jello from walking so much.

"Don't you separate yourself from the group. Remember, we must stay together," said Madam Delaval over and over again, while raising her bright yellow umbrella. She walked down the steps to the left, followed by her gawking students while admiring the large garden they had seen from above.

Emma was jovial seeing the many orange trees in the first garden. She really liked plants, and she had a habit of pouring some water from the bottle she carried on the plants she passed by every day.

Back at school or her neighborhood, she had often found plants that appeared to be suffering from drought or weren't taken care of properly whenever she walked. However, none of the plants in this garden seemed to need one drop of additional water. Everything looked healthy and happy. Seeing so many healthy plants, Emma remembered her father, Kaoshin Stardust.

'Father would be pleased to be in this garden,' she thought.

Haoran, who walked near Emma and Alex, pulled Alex and interrogated him about what had happened at Notre Dame earlier. The way Haoran whispered to Alex made Emma roll her eyes. The two young men seemed like they were plotting a crime.

"Alex, was there anything interesting about Notre Dame?" asked Haoran.

Alex shrugged and whispered back. "I don't quite understand since I suck at French. But clearly, it seems like some officers there were talking about a magical orange tree that suddenly produced so much fruit in one night. We tried to take a peek from the top of the tower and found which tree they were talking about. I managed to take a picture, by the way."

Proudly, Alex pulled out his cellphone and showed a photo. There was an orange tree with so many fruits hanging from its branches, surrounded by several uniformed policemen. They were talking to each other and taking pictures. The policemen were being assisted by two cathedral staff who looked confused.

"From what I've heard, the cathedral's personnel also didn't know what happened. How could the orange tree bear fruits in one night? It's strange, isn't it?"

"Don't tell me it's because of global warming," Haoran said. "If it is, then I guess that's not a bad thing, because then we can have more fruits in such a short amount of time."

"From their attitude though, it looked like they were taking this more seriously than that. I've heard them using words like bio-hackers or something," Alex said in a mysterious tone like the people who discussed conspiracy theories. "They feared there were some bio-hackers testing out and changing the composition of plant genes in a short time. It seems like this has happened before."

"Did it?" Emma narrowed her eyes, her ears were perked as she listened to Alex attentively. "They said that?"

"My French isn't great, you know that," said Alex. "When I came out of Notre Dame, I pretended to be lost, because I wanted to take a close-up photo of that amazing tree. I happened to hear them discussing if this incident was carried out by the same person from fifteen years ago."

'Fifteen years ago?' Emma's chest was pounding. Something must have happened, and her father was involved in it. "Do you know what incident they meant?"

She must find out what happened at that time to get a clue to her parents' whereabouts.

"Maybe it's on the internet. Let's find out later." Haoran noticed Emma's change of attitude. So he decided to stop their conversation. Their schoolmates had gone ahead of them, leaving the three to catch up. "Come on, let's follow the group, don't get separated. We'll discuss it again later."

Emma nodded. She walked alongside Haoran and Alex, but her hand opened the internet on her cellphone and searched for the news Alex had mentioned. She typed several keywords. 'Fifteen years ago means... 2041. Okay,' she thought.

[2041. Bio-hacker. France.]

ENTER

Her topaz eyes widened when she saw several news links about a mysterious harvest in one region in France. As she continued on following Haoran, Emma clicked on a link.

[AFTER ENDURING FAILED HARVEST FOR TWO YEARS DUE TO GLOBAL WARMING, FARMERS IN LIMOGES HAVE BEEN BLESSED WITH ABUNDANT HARVEST. BUT WHAT DID ACTUALLY HAPPEN?]

'Is this the incident they were talking about?' Emma furrowed her brows as she read the contents. She skimmed the article and found out that a group of farmers in Limoges, France, was devastated because they experienced failed harvest for two years in a row due to severe global warming impacts.

The case garnered nation-wide attention because there was a farmer who committed suicide due to depression. He had become depressed because the failed harvest meant losing his home and farm that were mortgaged to the bank.

One day in July 2041, all of a sudden, the withering crops grew healthy and gave them abundant harvest. It all happened in one night.

'This must be father's doing!' Emma thought with overflowing happiness. There was no mistake. This must be Kaoshin Stardust's doing!