A small low house is Donna's home at the top of the world.
Inside the room, Nini was holding the bowl on the table, eating while talking excitedly with Shanshan beside her.
They were just talking about some ordinary trivial matters, but she couldn't help but feel happy. Shanshan, who was sitting next to her, listened quietly.
Donna, who was drinking mushroom soup, watched this scene with a smile. Adults' happiness is sometimes mixed with too many things, but children are different, their happiness is sometimes so simple.
"Mom, can Shanshan sleep with me tonight?" Nini asked excitedly, holding a spoon in her hand.
"Okay, but you have to go to bed early at night and not hide under the covers and whisper."
Hearing her mother's words, Nini immediately raised her spoon and cheered.
"Eat quickly, the bread is getting cold."
The oil lamp on the table was swaying slightly, and the small room was filled with warmth.
After dinner, the farmers had no entertainment activities, so they washed up and prepared to go to bed.
Inside the large patched quilt, Nini and Shanshan huddled together, whispering to each other and giggling from time to time.
Nini, with a happy expression, squeezed towards Shanshan and said, "Shanshan, I've talked enough about my story. Now tell me about your story. Have you encountered anything interesting?"
Looking at the low ceiling above, Shanshan recalled the memories from when she was born, which was less than a year ago.
"Well... I once found a big bone in the sea. It was so big that I could crawl into it and play with it. It was fun."
"Anything else? Anything else? Tell me more." Nini's eyes lit up.
Shanshan thought hard and finally shook his head. "Nothing else, just this one."
Nini's eyes widened in surprise. "No way, this is the only interesting thing?"
Seeing Shanshan nodding, Nini asked again: "What about your family? What kind of people are your parents?"
When it comes to her mother, Shanshan starts talking immediately.
"My mother does a lot of things every day. I don't really understand those things, but she sometimes plays ball with me and I like it very much. I also like the smell of her body."
"She would speak to me in a different language. A language that no one else knew except me, my dad and my mom."
"When I was not very good at speaking, my mother asked me to come out and play with others and learn to speak, so I learned it. I love my mother."
Nini nodded. "Well, I love my mom too. What about dad? What kind of person is your dad?"
“Dad…” A hint of reminiscence flashed in Shanshan’s eyes.
"One time when I went to look for him, he didn't recognize me. The last time I went to his place, he stayed with his mother every day and ignored me."
"Besides, he doesn't play ball with me like mommy does, and he never hugs me to sleep. I'm a little scared of him now. Do you think he doesn't like me?"
"Will your father bring you something delicious when he comes back?" When Nini said this, a hint of reminiscence flashed in her eyes.
"I remember before I was three years old, my dad would bring all kinds of delicious food every time he went back to the dock. I don't know what those things were called, but I just remember they were delicious. They were not available on the island. There were sweet, numbing, and spicy ones."
Nini nodded while lying on her stomach. "It sounds like your father is a bad father. Maybe it's because he doesn't see you often because he's out at sea, but..."
At this point, Nini said with a hint of envy: "But having a father is better than not having one. Even if my father never pays attention to me again, I still want him to come back. At least in this way, I won't be called a child without a father by others."
As soon as Nini finished speaking, suppressed crying sounds were faintly heard from the next room.
Nini looked in the direction of the voice, and quickly put her finger to her mouth, made a shushing gesture, and said in a low voice: "Shanshan, let's keep our voices down. Mom seems to have been woken up by us."
Shanshan nodded and imitated her tone and said, "Okay, let's talk quietly, Nini, where is your father?"
"My father never came back a long time ago, but it doesn't matter. There are many people on this island who don't have fathers. Some people say we don't have fathers, so we team up to beat them up."
"Where are their fathers?"
"Their father was just like my father. He went out to sea and never came back."
Shanshan listened in confusion, "Is it dangerous at sea? I don't feel any danger at all."
"It's very dangerous." Nini opened her arms and imitated her mother's tone and said, "The environment on the ship is very closed. If something goes wrong, it will be a big trouble. Without water, we will die of thirst. Without food, we will die of starvation. There are also all kinds of scary monsters in the water that specialize in eating disobedient children."
When Nini said this, she couldn't hold it in anymore and threw herself on Shanshan and started giggling.
Her laughter gradually faded, and her expression became a little depressed. "Actually... I heard all this from my mother. I don't know if the sea is dangerous or not. I only know that my father never came back after he went out. I... I miss my father so much now."
The room gradually became quiet, and Nini's cheerful laughter was no longer heard.
"The sea is very dangerous. Is it possible that Dad will never come back?" The strange creature with two noses that used its claws to pull Dad's boat from the water to the surface flashed through Shanshan's mind.
Suddenly, an emotion she had never felt before arose in her heart. She suddenly wanted to find her father and beg him not to go to the sea again.
Although her father ignored her much, she didn't want her father to be like Nini's father and never come again.
Before she knew it, the next day arrived. When Nini woke up, she saw Shanshan staring at the ceiling with his eyes open.
She reached out for a hug. "Good morning, Twinkle, are you awake so early?"
Without waiting for an answer, Nini seemed to have noticed something. She held up the oil lamp next to her and walked towards the window.
When she saw the wonderful scenery outside the window, her eyes suddenly lit up with excitement.
"Shanshan, look, it's a rainy day today. That's great. We have one rainy day this month. We will definitely have a good harvest of ryegrass in our field!"
Outside the window at this moment, gray powder was slowly falling from the sky like snowflakes. There were no snowflakes on the Earth Sea. This was just the Crown of the World beginning to spread spores. For ryegrass, these were rare good things.
Nini suddenly thought of something. She ran to the kitchen excitedly and asked her mother who was making breakfast, "Mom, it's a drizzly day today, so can Shanshan go home later?"
(End of this chapter)