Jersey City.
Located just across the Hudson River from Manhattan, New York, Westview is a small town in the suburbs of Jersey City with a population of less than four thousand.
Though the town is small...
...it is neat and orderly, with wide streets, lush greenery, and full of vitality.
A truly bustling vitality; originally, due to population outflow, the town had gradually become desolate, but at some point, it suddenly seemed to be in the spotlight.
The shops on the main street, which had become quiet due to closures, began to reopen one by one.
Candy store.
Toy store.
Movie theater.
People of East Country descent, French descent, and Russian descent seemed to have come from all corners of the world, arriving in this town and settling down.
It seemed as if overnight, this town had been re-energized.
Various East Country restaurants.
Russian candy stores.
French flower shops.
Anyone unfamiliar with this town might think they had stumbled into some kind of international exhibition.
No, that's not right.
There were no 'nations'.
Some old residents of the town, looking at the square that had been refurbished with the town's money and even had its fountain restarted, felt as if they were dreaming and discussed in low voices.
"The town's kindergarten seems to be open again."
"Not 'seems', it really is. Westview Elementary School is also in the plan to restart."
"God."
"But, the town doesn't seem to have that many school-aged children, does it?"
"So the Director's idea is to open the kindergarten first."
"...Hey, where are Jordan and Mikael?"
"They moved."
"Moved... When?"
"Just a few days ago, something must have happened. Two trucks came at night, and they moved."
"Hiss!"
"I suddenly realized something. By the way, have you seen different colors these past two days?"
"..."
Jordan and Mikael were old residents of the town.
They were of African descent.
The old residents gathered in the newly reopened town square subconsciously looked at the colors around them.
There was White hair and new things.
There was a Yellow sky above.
But no darkness.
Not far away, Pietro, who had just bought a lot of candy from a newly opened Russian candy store, listened to the conversation of a few old residents, and also subconsciously looked around. Then he blinked, suddenly paused, as if he had thought of something, and quickly returned to house number 123 in Westview.
"Wanda."
"What's wrong?"
Wanda, who was at home, looked at her brother Pietro, who had returned home, closed the door, and had a mysterious expression, and was a little curious.
Pietro leaned towards Wanda, handed the candy in his hand to a very excited Jean, and then said in a low voice, "I suddenly realized that this town is a bit off."
Wanda originally thought Pietro wanted to say something else.
But... Wanda couldn't help but roll her eyes and glanced at Pietro.
"You're just realizing that now?"
"Uh..."
Pietro froze, looking at his sister who seemed to have noticed something was off a long time ago, and couldn't help but scratch his head.
"When did you know?"
"When they were building children's play facilities on the empty lot across from our house."
Wanda said, looking out the window at the road opposite, where a children's play facility, which couldn't be called the most luxurious in the entire town, but could certainly be called the most luxurious and complete in all of Jersey City, was being built with great enthusiasm, and had already taken shape in just five days.
Whether they were construction workers or managers, they were all of Yellow skin.
If nothing unexpected happened, this children's facility would be completed in another two days.
This speed—
Extremely fast.
"And the shops on the street."
"What about the shops?"
Pietro was a little confused. He went to the street shops to buy things much more often than his sister. How come he hadn't found anything wrong with the shops?
Wanda looked at her brother, Pietro, whose eyes were very clear, and was a little speechless: "Haven't you noticed that most of the shops on the street are related to Jean, Billy, and Tommy, the three little ones?"
Toy store.
Candy store.
Mother and baby store.
And five unique clothing stores.
The key was the clothing stores.
There's nothing wrong with opening a clothing store, and even five stores specializing in children's clothes isn't a big deal.
But this was a small town.
A small town with a population of less than four thousand. Opening five adjacent children's clothing stores, this was completely unsubtle.
"Even if you don't pay attention to clothes, didn't you look at the candy you bought?"
"What about the candy?"
"How much did you pay for these candies?"
"Ten U.S. dollars. The store owner said it was a new store opening discount, very cost-effective."
"..."
Wanda turned her head and looked at the box of candy that Jean had opened, sitting cross-legged on the floor mat.
"Godiva!"
"The world's most exquisite handmade chocolate."
"Also a top-tier luxury candy."
"Ten U.S. dollars..."
Wanda stated the brand of the candy in her daughter Jean's hand, looking at her clear-eyed brother Pietro with a half-smile: "If you take this box out and resell it for three hundred U.S. dollars, someone would buy it without hesitation, and they'd be afraid you'd change your mind."
Ten U.S. dollars.
Three hundred U.S. dollars.
"Hiss!"
Pietro thought about the difference in price and finally reacted, looking at Wanda: "sh*t, are we being monitored?"
Wanda couldn't hold it in anymore and directly rolled her eyes at Pietro.
Forget it.
He's her brother.
Calling him stupid would be self-inflicted, so she'd just endure it.
Wanda thought to herself, but still closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then reopened them.
"Not monitored, they should be here to protect us."
"Protect?"
"Mm."
Wanda nodded, reached out to gather her hair, then her right hand glowed with crimson energy, the steamer on the stove automatically turned on, and two very beautiful bowls of steamed Water egg automatically landed on the bar counter.
Pietro, who was about to continue asking, blinked at the two bowls of steamed Water egg.
"What is this?"
"Steamed Water egg."
Wanda smiled: "Mrs. Zheng, who just moved in two days ago, came to visit and we chatted about parenting guides. She taught me how to make it."
That Mrs. Zheng was from East Country.
She also had two children, a boy and a girl, one year older than Billy and Tommy. When she came to visit that day and saw Billy and Tommy, she chatted with Wanda about parenting knowledge.
Wanda benefited greatly, and that Mrs. Zheng also gave her many recipes specifically for infants and toddlers, and even sent her a website.
She looked at it that day.
A concise website, with a dazzling array of teaching videos for infant and toddler food.
The teaching videos were incredibly detailed, and Wanda had her brother Pietro check out the new shopping center in town.
Goodness.
Even seasonings that weren't available in the most authentic East Country stores in Chinatown, New York City, were available at the town's shopping center.
Distracted by Wanda, Pietro, who had just thought he had discovered some earth-shattering secret, immediately lost interest in talking.
Wanda was also too lazy to say more.
Anyway, the people here meant no harm.
Even if there were malicious people, Wanda mused, they probably wouldn't be able to enter this town.
After a while.
Billy and Tommy sat in their exclusive chairs.
Jean sat on a high chair by herself, eating her mother Wanda's latest successful creation, steamed Water egg.
Wanda, meanwhile, was using her Scarlet Chaos magic to control a rag to clean the countertop.
An ambulance, without flashing lights, quietly parked in front of the house diagonally across the street.
Pietro leaned over.
"That house diagonally across, wasn't it moved out of the day before yesterday?"
"Mm."
"Then this ambulance..."
After the ambulance parked, the rear door opened, and then a middle-aged woman with blonde hair, still lying on a bed but seemingly asleep, was quietly pushed into the room.
Pietro raised an eyebrow.
"A sick old lady."
"Shut up."
Wanda heard this, said to Pietro beside her, and then whispered, "That woman has his aura on her."
Pietro first froze, then reacted, thinking of the middle-aged woman who was pushed into the house diagonally across, and looked at Wanda.
"Then this woman..."
"I don't know."
Wanda shook her head. After tidying up the countertop, she handed the task of looking after Jean, Billy, and Tommy to her brother, and then walked towards the backyard.
The backyard was very large.
Much larger than the backyard at 521A Palm Street, after all, the backyard at 521 Palm Street didn't have a swimming pool.
But the backyard at 123 Westview did have a swimming pool.
When Wanda and her family first arrived here, Jean was happily splashing around in the swimming pool.
The kind where she wouldn't come out even when called.
Finally, Wanda got angry, and with her Scarlet Chaos magic, she directly pulled Jean from the swimming pool back to her room on the second floor and grounded her for an afternoon.
Wanda came to the backyard, preparing to use magic to clean up the fallen leaves and impurities in the swimming pool.
Later, her brother Pietro would take Billy and Tommy to play in the Water.
This was also a parenting secret taught by Mrs. Zheng next door: children should exercise more to improve their immunity.
Just as Wanda was about to cast her Scarlet Chaos magic, the magic power at her fingertips paused.
Wanda turned her head to look.
In her sight.
Hawk quietly appeared behind her.
Their eyes met.
Hawk smiled slightly.
"Are you getting used to living here?"
"It's alright."
Wanda reacted, also smiled slightly, and gathered her hair: "It's quite nice here, and you haven't restricted our activities."
Hawk heard this, shook his head and smiled: "The people outside aren't arranged by me; they're just afraid something might happen to you and are trying to curry favor with me."
With just the Battle of the Atlantic Ocean, he had already firmly secured the throne as the number one on the little blue planet.
And because of his relationship with Maria Hill and Victoria Hand, he could even be called the stabilizing force of the little blue planet.
So... Mrs. Zheng next door was indeed named Mrs. Zheng; her husband was Zheng Xian, the Director of the East Country's S.H.I.E.L.D.
The one next door to her was named Adelina Yelich, who also had three children. Her husband, Yelich, was the Director of the Russian Defenders.
Hawk didn't have a habit of concealing things and told Jean about the people behind the neighbors on this street.
Wanda nodded, her hands crossed.
"What about the one diagonally across, the new one who moved in?"
"That's..."
Hawk thought for a moment, met Wanda's eyes, and chuckled.
"My mother!"
... (End of chapter)
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