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

"All right, we will go through another entrance." Madame Delaval nodded slightly to the cathedral official and signaled her students to follow her. "Kids, we are 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 disappear. Alex will keep her and Monsieur Thomas busy."

"Hmm... thank you. I want to go back to the shuttle bus," Emma said. She did not dare to risk showing herself around the cathedral at the moment. If the police arrive and somehow recognize her, she didn't want to be arrested.

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

Haoran seemed to understand that something must have happened to Emma. The girl suddenly turned pale, not as usual.

He immediately walked to find Alex and said something to him. The young man nodded and gave Horan an OK sign with his index finger and thumb. 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's hand back to their shuttle bus, which was parked in the next block. Emma was still trembling when she finally sat in the bus seat. She was scared to think that there were policemen out there looking for her.

Haoran did not ask anything when they arrived on the bus. He felt that Emma would have told him herself what had happened if the girl wanted to. He did not 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 visiting Notre Dame. I heard the church was magnificent."

Haoran only shrugged.

"I've been to Notre Dame, really," the young man answered casually. "I already know what's inside. I've also climbed to the tower at the top of this cathedral. So I won't miss out on much."

Emma looked at Haoran with rounded eyes. "Have you ever been to Paris?"

Haoran just smiled at that. 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 was very easy to just travel to Paris.

"All right, then," Emma nodded.

"You want to tell me what happened?" Haoran asked her finally. He looked at Emma with a gaze that was neither judgmental nor nosy, making the girl actually feel uncomfortable to keep a secret from him. She decided to tell him the truth.

"I'll tell you what happened, but not now. Do you want to wait?" the girl asked quietly.

Haoran nodded. "Of course."

"Thank you," Emma said. The girl closed her eyes while ma.s.saging her forehead. She still felt her chest pounding. It would be terrifying if the police did know that she was the person who had done something to the orange tree.

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 was determined to be very careful when using her powers. Last night's event was totally unnecessary.

Next time, she would test her power to control the plants when she was in a remote place, so she wouldn't need to worry that someone could see 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 was busy with their own mind.

At 12.30, the other students finally came back to the shuttle bus with their two teachers.

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

The shuttle bus immediately drove to the Versailles area on the outskirts of Paris. At 1 pm, the group finally 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 have asked permission, and we can enjoy our lunch while having a picnic in one of the gardens in Versailles Palace," said Madam Delaval happily.

When students got off the bus, they were given a paper bag containing their lunch. In it, they could find a sandwich, croissants, fruits, and bottled water. As usual, the Palace of Versailles was very 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 of St. Catherine had to wait in line long enough before they could enter the palace compound.

However, the wait was truly worth it. Once they set foot behind the wall, they could see the beautiful garden arranged by professionals. It was one of the many gardens in Versailles Palace. The compound was so huge that the establishment provided buggy for people who 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 students who walked while admiring the large garden they saw from above.

Emma was very interested in seeing the many orange trees in the first garden. The girl really liked plants, and it had become a habit for her to always pour some water from the bottle she was carrying on the plants that she pa.s.sed every day. She often found plants that appear to be suffering from drought or were not taken care of properly when she was walking around her neighborhood or her school.

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, suddenly Emma remembered her father, Kaos.h.i.+n Stardust. Father would be pleased to be in this garden, she thought.

Haoran, who walked near Emma and Alex, immediately pulled Alex's hand and interrogated him about what had happened at Notre Dame earlier. The way he asked Alex in a whisper 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 Horan.

Alex just shrugged and whispered back. "I do not quite understand. I suck at French. But clearly, it seems like some of the officers there talked about a magical orange tree that suddenly produced so much fruit in one night. We then peeked from the top of the tower to find out what tree they were talking about. I managed to take a picture, by the way... "

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Proudly, he 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 took pictures. The policemen were a.s.sisted by two cathedral staff who looked confused.

"From what I've heard, they were confused. 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," Horan said. "If it is, then it is actually not a bad thing, because we can have more fruits in such a short amount of time."

"From their att.i.tude, it seems like they take this more seriously than that. I heard they used words like bio-hackers or something," Alex said in a tone as he was discussing conspiracy theories. "They fear there are some bio-hackers who could change the composition of plant genes in a short time. It seems like this has happened before."

"Has it happened before?" Emma immediately narrowed her eyes and looked at Alex attentively. She became very interested. "They said that?"

"My French is not so 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. And I heard they were discussing whether this incident was carried out by the same person like the incident from 15 years ago."

"Fifteen years ago ??" Emma felt her chest 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. We can find out later," Haoran, aware of Emma's changing att.i.tude, then decided to stop their conversation. Their schoolmates had already left the three of them. "Come on, we must follow the group, don't get separated. We can discuss it again later."

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

2041. Bio-hacker. France.

ENTER

Her topaz eyes went round when she saw several news links with similar contents, about a mysterious harvest in one region in France. While continuing to follow Haoran, Emma clicked on a link to read it.

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

Is this the incident they were talking about? Emma furrowed her brows when she read it. She quickly skimmed the content under the headline. She found 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 became a national concern because there was a farmer who committed suicide due to depression. He was depressed because the failed harvest threatened him to lose his home and farm that were mortgaged to the bank.

One day in July 2041, all of a sudden, the crops they grew immediately gave them abundant harvest. All happened in one night.

This must be father's doing! Emma thought with overflowing happiness. There was no mistake. This must be Kaos.h.i.+n Stardust's doing.