Jersey City.
Just across the Hudson River from New York City's Manhattan lies West View Town, a small town in the suburbs of Jersey City with a population of less than four thousand.
The town is small.
But…
It is neat and orderly, with wide streets, lush greenery, and full of vitality.
A true bustling energy, originally due to population outflow, the small town gradually withered, suddenly seemed to stand under the spotlight without anyone knowing when.
Originally, the silent main street with its shuttered shops started to reopen one by one.
Candy store.
Toy store.
Movie theater.
People of Eastern Country, French, Russian descent, all seemed to have gathered from all over the world to this small town, and then settled down.
It seemed as if overnight, this small town was revitalized.
Restaurants of Eastern Country cuisine.
Russian candy store.
French flower shop.
People who are unaware might come to the town and think they've stumbled upon a world expo.
No.
Not a world expo.
Some old residents in the town, watching as the town spent money to refurbish and even restart the fountains in the plaza, gathered together, feeling like they were dreaming, and whispered to each other.
"The town's kindergarten seems to have opened too."
"Not seems, it's true, and West View Town Elementary School is also in the process of restarting."
"God."
"But it seems like the town doesn't have that many children of suitable age."
"So the mayor intends to open the kindergarten first."
"...Oh, what about Jordan and Michael?"
"They moved away."
"Moved...when?"
"Just a few days ago, something seemed to happen, two trucks came at night and then they moved."
"Hiss!"
"I suddenly realized something, by the way, have you noticed any different colors these past two days?"
"..."
Jordan and Michael were old residents of the town.
Of African descent.
The old residents gathered at the newly reopened plaza in the town subconsciously looked at the colors around them.
There was white turning anew.
There was yellow overhead.
But no pitch-black darkness.
Not far away, Pietro, who had just bought a lot of candies from a newly opened Russian candy store, listening to the conversation of a few old residents, also subconsciously looked around, then blinked, suddenly stunned, as if he remembered something, and took two steps back to house number 123 in West View Town.
"Wanda."
"What's the matter?"
Wanda, who was at home, saw her brother Pietro returning home and closing the door, looking mysterious, and was somewhat curious.
Pietro leaned towards Wanda, handed the candies in his hand to an excited Jean, and whispered, "I suddenly realized there's something wrong with this town."
Wanda originally thought Pietro wanted to say something significant.
But...
Wanda couldn't help the urge to roll her eyes and glanced at Pietro.
"You just realized?"
"Uh..."
Pietro was stunned, looking at his sister who seemed to have noticed something was wrong long ago, and scratched his head.
"When did you know?"
"When they started building children's play facilities on the vacant lot across from our house."
Wanda said so, looking through the window at the road across, where in full swing, in just five days, one of the most luxurious and well-equipped facilities for children to play, could be said to be the most luxurious in the entire Jersey City, already took shape.
Regardless of construction personnel or management, all had yellow skin.
If nothing unexpected happens, in another two days, this children's facility will be completed.
The speed—
Incredibly fast.
"And the stores on the street."
"What's up with the stores?"
Pietro was a bit puzzled, he went to street stores to buy things more frequently than his sister did, why hadn't he noticed anything unusual about the stores.
Wanda looked at her clear-eyed brother, somewhat speechless: "Haven't you noticed that most of the street stores are related to Jean, Billy, and Tommy?"
Toy stores.
Candy stores.
Mother and baby product stores.
And five unique clothing stores.
The focus was on the clothing stores.
There's nothing wrong with opening a clothing store, even having five dedicated to children's clothing isn't too much.
But this is a small town.
A small town with a population of fewer than four thousand, having five adjoining children's clothing stores is not even trying to hide it.
"Even if you don't care about the clothes, haven't you looked at the candy you bought?"
"What's wrong with the candy?"
"How much did you pay for these candies?"
"Ten US Dollars, the store owner said it was a grand opening sale, very affordable."
"..."
Wanda turned her head to look at the box of candies Jean was opening while sitting cross-legged on the mat.
"Godiva!"
"The most exquisite handmade chocolates in the world."
"Also top-tier luxury candy."
"Ten US Dollars..."
Wanda stated the brand of candy in her daughter Jean's hand, looking at her clear-eyed brother Pietro with a half-smile: "You could take this box, turn around, and sell it for Three Hundred US Dollars, and someone would eagerly take it off your hands, afraid you'd change your mind."
Ten US Dollars.
Three Hundred US Dollars.
"Hiss!"
Pietro thought about the difference, finally reacted, and looked at Wanda: "Shit, are we being surveilled?"
Wanda couldn't help it anymore and directly rolled her eyes at Pietro.
Forget it.
Her own brother.
Calling him stupid might hurt herself, better to just endure it.
Wanda thought to herself but still closed her eyes, took a deep breath, then opened her eyes again.
"It's unlikely to be surveillance; they should be here to protect us."
"Protect?"
"Yeah."
Wanda nodded, reached out to smooth her hair, then her right hand emitted a crimson aura, and the steamer on the stove automatically opened, with two beautifully steamed eggs landing on the bar.
Pietro, who was about to ask more, blinked at the sight of these two bowls of steamed eggs.
"What's this?"
"Steamed eggs."
Wanda smiled: "Madam Zheng, who moved in a couple of days ago, visited and we talked a bit about parenting tips; she taught me how to make them."
That Madam Zheng is from Eastern Country.
She also has two children, a son and a daughter, who are a year older than Billy and Tommy. When she visited that day, after seeing Billy and Tommy, she talked to Wanda about parenting knowledge.
Wanda benefited a lot, and that Madam Zheng also gave her many recipes specifically for infants and toddlers, and even sent her a website link.
She checked it out that day.
A simple and clear website, filled with all sorts of instructional videos specifically for infant and toddler foods.
The videos were detailed to an absurd degree, and Wanda had her brother Pietro check out the new shopping mall in town.
Goodness gracious.
Even condiments not found in the most authentic Eastern Country stores in New York City's Chinatown, the town's shopping mall had them.
With Wanda's interruption, Pietro, who thought he'd discovered some earth-shattering secret, lost interest in talking.
Wanda couldn't be bothered to say more.
After all, the people here have no ill intentions.
Even if there were malicious ones, Wanda figured, they probably wouldn't be able to enter this town.
After a while.
Billy and Tommy sat in their respective special chairs.
Jean sat on a high stool, eating the latest successful creation of her mom, Wanda, the steamed eggs.
Wanda used her Crimson Chaos Magic to control a cloth to clean the countertop.
An ambulance, without its lights on, quietly parked in front of the house diagonally opposite.
Pietro leaned in.
"The house diagonally opposite seemed to have been moved out of the day before yesterday."
"Yeah."
"Then this ambulance..."
After the ambulance parked, it opened its rear door, and a blonde middle-aged woman who seemed to be asleep, still lying in bed, was quietly pushed into the house.
Pietro raised an eyebrow.
"An old lady who's sick."
"Shut up."
Upon hearing this, Wanda said to Pietro beside her, then whispered: "That woman has his scent on her."
Pietro was initially dazed, then realized and thought about that middle-aged woman being pushed into the house diagonally opposite, looking at Wanda.
"And that woman's..."
"I don't know."
Wanda shook her head. After tidying up the tabletop, she handed over the task of watching Jean, Billy, and Tommy to her brother and walked toward the backyard herself.
The backyard was large.
Larger than Palm Street No. 521A's backyard, after all, Palm Street No. 521A's backyard didn't have a swimming pool.
And West View Town No. 123's backyard had a swimming pool.
When Wanda and the others first arrived here, Jean was happily soaking in the pool.
Even unwilling to come up when called.
In the end, she provoked Wanda's anger, and with a burst of Crimson Chaos Magic, Wanda directly pulled Jean from the pool back to her room on the second floor for an afternoon of confinement.
Wanda came to the backyard, intending to use magic to clear the fallen leaves and debris from the pool.
Later, her brother Pietro would take Billy and Tommy to play in the water.
This was also a parenting secret shared by Madam Zheng next door: children doing more exercise can improve their resistance.
Just as Wanda was about to use her Crimson Chaos Magic, the magic power at her fingertips paused.
Wanda turned her head to look.
Entering view.
Hawk quietly appeared behind her.
Their eyes met.
Hawk smiled slightly.
"Getting used to living here?"
"It's alright."
Wanda reacted, also smiling slightly, and smoothed her hair: "It's quite nice here, and you haven't restricted our activities."
Hawk, hearing this, shook his head with a smile: "The people outside weren't arranged by me; they were just worried you'd get into trouble and wanted to please me."
With just the Battle of the Atlantic, he had already firmly seated himself as the top on the small broken planet.
And because of his relationship with Maria Hill and Victoria Hand, he was more than capable of being regarded as the stabilizing anchor of the small broken planet.
So...
The Madam Zheng next door was indeed called Madam Zheng, and her husband was Zheng Xian, the director of the Eastern Country S.P.E.A.R. Bureau.
The one next door to them was Adelina Yelich, who also had three children, and her husband Yelich was the director of the Russian Defenders.
Hawk, without a habit of secrecy, told Jean about the people behind the neighbors on this street.
Wanda nodded, crossing her arms.
"And what about diagonally across, the new one?"
"That's..."
Hawk thought for a moment, meeting Wanda's gaze, and chuckled.
"My mom!"
"..."