The hatchet collided with his neck, causing sparks to fly and an explosion like metal clashing. The blade then shattered and flew backwards.
"..."
Nuo Xia was startled, touched her unscathed neck, and couldn't help shouting to the other side, "It's too dangerous... Hey! What are you doing, Bellemere!"
What appeared at the door of the orangery was a pretty girl.
Her long maroon hair was tied into a single ponytail, which was neat and tidy. Her sleeves were rolled up high, revealing her white and tender arms like lotus roots. She was holding a basket of oranges on her arm. There were beads of sweat on her forehead. She had obviously just finished working.
At this moment, she was frozen on the spot, looking up blankly at Nuo Xia, who was glaring at her.
Clang.
The basket fell to the ground, and the oranges inside rolled around.
"...Nuo...Nuo...Nuo..."
She was at a loss and stammered, and for a moment she couldn't say all of Nosha's names.
Somehow.
Seeing Bellemeier's appearance, Nuo Xia's anger that was almost accidentally hurt just now disappeared without a trace in an instant.
He sighed softly, bent down to pick up the orange that fell to his feet, and said with a warm smile:
"It's me, long time no see, Bellemere..."
Tread! Tread! Tread!
The sound of rapid footsteps suddenly sounded. Nuo Xia raised his head and saw the girl with a maroon ponytail throwing all the farm tools aside and rushing toward him.
The movement was like a wild beast emerging from its cage.
So excited?
Looking at Bellemeier whose eyes seemed to be filled with tears, Nuo Xia felt guilty.
He sighed softly, stood up straight, opened his arms, and put a smile on his face, ready to receive a hug from his childhood sweetheart.
However.
Soon, he felt that something was wrong.
It was clear that Bellemere was almost rushing to him, but he showed no intention of slowing down.
"You still-"
The girl gritted her teeth, clenched her right fist tightly, and made an uppercut from bottom to top, whizzing towards Nuo Xia's chin.
"Come back with dignity, you bastard!"
Boom!
There was a dull loud noise in the orange grove.
then.
What followed was the girl's painful scream.
"It hurts so much!!!!"
"..."
Nuo Xia stood speechless, motionless, looking at Bellemeier who was curled up at his feet, covering his painful right fist with tears on the verge of falling, and the corners of his eyes couldn't help but twitch.
You can't blame him, right?
Firstly, I didn't use the iron block, and secondly, I didn't use the armed domineering force. I can't blame the hand that moved his chin first...
But a smart man should decisively take all the responsibility on himself at this time.
"Are you okay, Bellemere?"
Nuo Xia squatted down, held Bellemeier's right fist with both hands, stroked the swelling on it, and spoke softly:
"I'm sorry, I wasn't prepared and I couldn't let you out. How about you punch me again? I promise to fly several meters away to show you."
He lowered his head and blew gently on the red and swollen area.
"Okay!"
Ah, Bellemere almost got goosebumps. He shook off his hand, pushed him away in disgust, and said angrily:
"It doesn't hurt that much... Don't be so disgusting here, eh, no, you guy, why do you act like a different person when you go out? When did you know how to coax people so gently?"
"Nonsense, when did it change?"
Nuo Xia snorted, "If you think about it carefully, when did I make you cry and get irritated before, and it wasn't me who took the initiative to comfort you in the end?"
"Fart! You really think I don't remember, don't you?"
Bellemeier glared at him fiercely, "Obviously, he refused to obey anyone every time. He hit him from the top of the tree to the bottom of the tree, causing the oranges to roll all over the floor. In the end, he was punched by Aunt Tulip before he stopped...
"
She suddenly stopped talking.
At that moment, exactly at this moment, Nuo Xia looked at the oranges scattered around, and then looked up at the sunlight leaking through the gaps between the orange branches and leaves.
He couldn't help but turn his head, and looked at each other with Bellemere. The two pursed their lips and smiled in unison at the same time.
The slight sense of alienation and strangeness brought about by the separation of nearly two years suddenly disappeared like a bubble in the sun at this moment.
"When did you come back?"
Bellemeier patted the dirt on his body, stood up neatly, glanced at Nuo Xia, "You won't say anything to me either?"
"I just came back late last night. I heard from my mother that you would be taking a day off today and would come to the orange grove to help take care of it, so I hurried over here at dawn today."
Nuo Xia pouted at the gifts he had piled under the orange tree, "Well, I brought a lot of gifts back from Malinfando just for you."
Bellmeier walked over and looked through it carefully, and found that they were all things he liked. It was obvious that they were all carefully selected by Nosha.
She was extremely happy in her heart, but she still had that cold look on her face. She snorted and said, "That's pretty much it. Tell me, why didn't you reply to me before? I sent four letters in total!"
"I replied to the previous letter. It was sent together with the letter from my parents. You should all have received a reply."
Nuo Xia blinked innocently, "I really didn't receive the last three letters, otherwise I would have replied to them. Besides, when you called me, I was out on a mission, and no one was following me when I returned to the headquarters.
After all, after all, I am alone in the headquarters with no backing and no one cares about me. I only heard about it last night when my mother mentioned it, and I only found out about this..."
This wave, this wave is called turning from fiction to reality, smoothly and normally transitioning the topic to something that both parties know, to increase the credibility of the reasons that were casually made up before.
Bellemere's attention was indeed drawn from behind.
Her expression softened and she no longer asked about the reply. After looking at each other for a moment, she suddenly reached out and skillfully opened the collar of the latter's shirt.
"There are more wounds..."
Caressing her scar-covered chest, she sighed softly, "Noxia... I saw your news in the newspaper some time ago. You have become so strong now. You must have suffered a lot in the headquarters.
?”
"It's not bad, haha. As you know, I have been drilled by my father since I was a child. What kind of hardships have I not suffered?"
Nuo Xia scratched her head, "I'm not used to it because you suddenly acted like this. I feel like the hairs on my back are about to stand up..."
Bellemel angrily pinched his chest, and the latter breathed a sigh of relief and let out a scream in response.
Well, this is just right.
"You've gotten a lot taller too."
Bellmer stood on tiptoes again, put his hands flat on his head and compared with the latter, "I used to be only more than half a head shorter than you, but now I can only reach your chest."
"Tell me about your life in the past two years?" She looked up at Nuo Xia and said with a smile.
"If you want to listen, I can talk all day long."
Nuo Xia shrugged, "That would be too much of a delay. How about I help you clean up the orchard and chat while we walk?"
"What do you mean you are helping me?" Bellemeier rolled his eyes at him, "Is this your orchard easy to cut?"
"Is there a difference?"
Nuo Xia looked at her innocently, "Besides, over the years, you've eaten at least ten times more oranges than I have, right?"
The girl's love for oranges was extraordinary. Nuo Xia remembered that when she was a child, Bellmere was sent to the dental clinic in a panic several times because her teeth ached due to excessive consumption of oranges.
snort.
Bellmere was too lazy to answer, picked up the oranges scattered on the ground one by one, threw a large pile of farm tools into Nosha's arms, and took the lead to walk deeper into the orange grove, ignoring the latter's whines.
The two of them walked one behind the other, and the morning light was filtered by the shade of the trees into countless fine spots of light, which fell on them.
From time to time, the sound of laughter and talk, accompanied by a faint refreshing orange fragrance, spread around.
This scene is as warm and bright as orange peel under the sun.
It's like an old, yellowed photo from many years ago.
————
East China Sea, Kingdom of Oykot.
It was raining lightly at the port. A middle-aged man wearing a brown windbreaker, who looked like a businessman, was standing on the pier holding a black umbrella, pacing back and forth anxiously.
"Here we come, sir!"
The servant suddenly reminded, "A passenger ship is coming. That should be the ship that Madam is on, right?"
Um?
The middle-aged man suddenly looked back. After seeing clearly the flag flying on the passenger ship, his eyes suddenly lit up and he couldn't suppress his excitement and joy. "The flag of the Bills Caravan... is absolutely right, it's this ship!"
When the passenger ship entered the port, he took several servants to welcome it happily. Sure enough, among the passengers who disembarked, he saw a slim figure with short blue shoulder-length hair, holding a baby in his arms, smiling and waving to him...
…
It is his newlywed wife who has been separated from him for more than half a year and has been staying in his hometown to raise his child.
"Marilyn!"
The middle-aged businessman cried with joy. After passionately kissing his wife, the two separated. He took the swaddle and looked down. The little baby girl inside also had short blue hair, looked cute and was sleeping soundly.
This was the first time that he saw his daughter in person, and felt the faint blood connection between father and daughter. The middle-aged businessman felt that his heart was almost melting at this moment.
"Have you chosen a name yet, Marilyn?" His voice was a little hoarse because he had been in the heavy rain for a long time.
"No, I want to wait and decide together after we meet with you." The blue-haired lady smiled gently, "But there is a good alternative. I plan to call her Nokigao, what do you think?"
"Nuoqi Gao, Nuoqi Gao..."
The middle-aged businessman repeated twice, "What a name! That's it..." He couldn't help laughing, and stretched out his hand to tease the sleeping baby girl's face, "Baby, your name will be Noqi Gao from now on."
, when you grow up..."
"master!"
Before he could finish his words, a servant's panicked cry suddenly came to his ears.
What's wrong?
The middle-aged businessman turned his head in confusion and looked in the direction pointed by his clerk. He was suddenly shocked and turned pale.
I saw a huge ship in the mist and rain, like a crawling beast, slowly sailing towards the port.
On top of the mast.
A black pirate flag with a skull painted on it is fluttering in the wind...
————
At the same time, on the other side.
The afternoon sun was cruising around Chaili Island wantonly. The two Nuo Xia, who had been busy all morning, were now walking on the street, chatting and laughing while looking for a suitable restaurant.
"Aren't you going home for dinner?" Bellemere asked, "You are back. Tulip must have made a lot of potato stew again, right? I haven't eaten it for a long time, and I really want to have a meal."
"There are still more than ten kilograms left to finish. I'll take you there in the evening and I'll make sure I can fill you up."
Nuo Xia yawned lazily, "But dad has to go to work at noon and can't get home. It's not good to leave him alone. Let's just have a simple meal outside."
"Well, that's fine too."
Bellemeier nodded with deep understanding, "Don't forget Mr. Romanov."
She was not from Chaili Island, but was born in Cocosia Village, less than 50 kilometers away from here. She was orphaned in a shipwreck when she was young, and wandered alone on the sea. It was Nuo Xia's father who happened to save her during a mission.
.
From then on, he was brought to Chaili Island to live, and he grew up with Nuo Xia, who was the same age as him.
Therefore, for Bellemeier, Tulip and old Captain Romanov are actually like half of her parents, the only relatives and elders in her world.
The two walked around for a while. Nuo Xia seemed to suddenly notice something. He stopped and looked at the direction of the street strangely, "Jatt Unlimited BBQ Buffet... Weird, I don't remember this restaurant. What?"
When did it open?"
"It seems like it was only opened at the beginning of the year. You had already gone to the headquarters by then."
Bellemare also turned around and looked at it, "Why don't we go there to eat at noon? His business has always been very prosperous. The taste seems to be very good and the price is not too high. It only costs 1,500 beli per person.
"
One thousand and five Baileys?
Nuo Xia was really shocked now. What was the concept of this number? The twenty kilograms of beef that my father bought last night totaled more than 10,000 beli!
This is a pirate world. Big eaters can be seen everywhere. Even if you dare to open a self-service barbecue restaurant, the price is still so low...
Is this boss really not afraid of someone teaching him a lesson?
"It's a miracle it didn't close down."
He was amazed, took Bellemeier's hand and went straight to the door, "Let's go, then this is the place. I want to see where the owner of this place comes from, and he actually has money to do charity here!"
"joyous……"
The two waitresses at the door greeted me with smiles on their faces as usual.
As a result, after seeing Nuo Xia's face head-on, it was as if roots had grown under his feet. He was frozen in place and could not move. He even forgot about his duty to welcome guests in.
Nosha glanced at Bellemere guiltily, who glared at him angrily and pushed him through the door.
The two of them sat down by the window on the second floor. A male waiter brought the menu. Nuo Xia briefly asked a few questions and roughly understood the rules.
This self-service barbecue is not a self-service one. After paying the head fee, you can order unlimited dishes according to the menu, and the chef will continuously deliver the barbecue, as long as the meal time is limited to one hour.
"This, this, and this, each weighs three kilograms. Well, that's all for now..."
He picked for a while and handed the menu to Bellemeier opposite.
The girl suddenly seemed to have been triggered by the muscle memory of the two fighting each other when she was a child. Not to be outdone, she followed Nuo Xia's choice and gained four kilograms of each.
When the waiter left, she felt a little regretful, and felt troubled and worried for a while, "It seems to weigh more than thirty kilograms in total... Nuo Xia, what should I do if I can't finish the meal? Packing and taking home is not allowed here. If there is too much left,
You still have to pay a fine."
"Don't worry." Nuo Xia laughed, "It doesn't matter if you order more, I'm here."
Of course, he is not a big eater, and he can only stand tall in front of Luffy, but his physical constitution is here after all. If he really eats with his belly open, dozens of kilograms of meat will not be a problem.
"Really? I don't remember you being that good at eating?"
Bellemare glanced at him suspiciously and started counting on his fingers, "I see there is a notice written on the wall. For every leftover food exceeding one hundred grams, an additional five hundred beli will be charged. If there is no more than one hundred grams,
Be careful if you have ten pounds left... Oh my god! That’s fifty thousand beli, and the money I’ve saved over the past year isn’t even enough to pay for it!”
"Why isn't it enough?"
Seeing how serious she was, Nuo Xia was a little amused, "I have been in the army for so long. Although the salary of the sailors in the branch is not high, they still get 60,000 to 70,000 Baileys a month. You said you saved for a year, how could you not even get 50,000?"
Can’t even take it out?”
"Because I only keep three thousand Baileys for myself every month." Bellemeier said, "The rest, I have deposited it in the bank regularly for three years..."
"Three-year fixed term?" Nuo Xia frowned, "Why did you save it for so long when you had nothing to do? You weren't deceived by the salesperson from the bank, were you?"
"How could I be deceived?"
Bellmere snorted, "Of course I save money because of something, and this matter is very important and related to someone sitting here right now..."
Um?
Nuo Xia's heart suddenly skipped a beat, and a bad premonition flashed through her.
Something's wrong...something's wrong!
It seemed like I was getting burned, so I took the initiative to send it to my door!