When Gustave woke up, it was more than ten days later. A considerable amount of events had transpired during this recovery period.
For example, when Zhang Zhiwei returned to Lin Jiu's world, Ren Fa generously gave Gustave and Zhang Zhiwei 100,000 silver yuan each to express his profound gratitude for saving his life. In addition to the bounty money from previous adventures, Gustave was now considered a small wealthy man in Lin Jiu's world, although he had been unconscious when the money was delivered.
When the payment was delivered, Ren Tingting specifically inquired about Gustave's current condition. She was quite concerned about his wellbeing.
Zhang Zhiwei's response was: "Gustave was seriously injured when fighting against the Fat Baby Demon God and has returned to his master. However, with the assistance of his master, his condition has improved considerably and he will recover soon."
Ren Tingting breathed a sigh of relief when she heard this reassuring news, but it was unfortunate that there was absolutely no romantic possibility between her and Gustave.
The second significant development was that the Bamboo Staff had stopped at an island in the East Blue. There was a village on this island called Cocoyasi Village.
When the ship docked at Cocoyasi Village, Luffy couldn't contain himself on the ship and secretly went to the island to explore and play.
Like Zoro was naturally terrible with directions, Luffy wasn't much better in terms of navigation skills. After wandering around the island for a considerable while, he managed to get himself completely lost and disoriented.
Luffy, feeling increasingly hungry and tired, walked weakly with his tongue hanging out pathetically. Suddenly, he discovered an orange orchard not far away.
This orange orchard appeared like a gift from heaven to the famished Luffy. Luffy didn't care whether this orange orchard had an owner or not. Besides, he wasn't the type of person who would worry about such details. Luffy now had only one overwhelming thought, and that was to eat!
So Luffy quickly leaped into the orange orchard, picked several oranges from the trees and began devouring them eagerly.
"So incredibly sweet!"
It was the first time that Luffy had tasted such amazingly sweet oranges. The ones he had eaten before always carried a sour, unpleasant taste. He genuinely didn't know how these particular oranges had been cultivated.
Therefore Luffy began eating with even larger, more enthusiastic mouthfuls. He probably consumed all the oranges from five or six entire orange trees before he released a satisfied burp.
It was a long-standing tradition in Luffy's family to sleep immediately after eating and to be able to fall asleep virtually anytime and anywhere. Even Ace, who had been adopted by Garp, had learned this remarkable skill of sleeping anytime and anywhere.
After eating his fill, Luffy collapsed to the ground and bubbles of snot began emerging from his nose.
While Luffy was sleeping soundly and peacefully, a beautiful girl with vibrant orange hair was walking toward the orange orchard.
The girl's name was Nami. She would become a member and navigator of the Straw Hat Pirates in the future, Luffy's precious nakama, and the Straw Hat Pirates' chief financial officer. But today, Nami's encounter with Luffy was not particularly pleasant.
"When these oranges are fully ripe, we can sell them for substantial money. This way, Bell-mère won't have to work so hard."
Although Nami often quarreled with her adoptive mother Bell-mère, she was not an ignorant or ungrateful child. Every time they prepared meals, Bell-mère would ensure that Nami and Nojiko ate first, while she would retreat to the back and consume whatever leftovers remained. Sometimes when there were no leftovers available, Bell-mère could only rely on oranges to stave off hunger. Nami observed all of this sacrificial behavior.
Nami attached tremendous importance to the orange orchard, which represented the family's primary livelihood. She came to inspect it almost every single day. Only when the oranges were successfully sold could Bell-mère avoid having to work so exhaustingly hard.
"I heard from Genzo that a huge floating restaurant called Bamboo Staff recently docked in the village. The owner of the restaurant appears to be very wealthy. If we can sell our oranges to them, we will definitely receive much more money."
With the hopeful idea of selling oranges to Bamboo Staff, Nami approached the orange orchard.
Everything appeared normal outside the orange orchard, and the oranges hanging on the trees were plump and appealing, making people salivate just by looking at them.
"Alright, everything looks normal today too. Nami, you've got to keep up the excellent work!"
Nami encouraged herself with determination and then walked toward the orange orchard area near the forest at the back of the mountain. The oranges located there were the absolute best in appearance and taste throughout the entire orchard, and they were precisely the ones Nami intended to sell to Bamboo Staff.
"Why is there snoring coming from somewhere?"
As soon as Nami arrived at the high-quality orange section, she heard a fairly regular snoring sound.
Following the direction of the mysterious sound, Nami ran several steps and discovered Luffy lying unconscious on the ground. Around Luffy's sleeping form, there were orange peels scattered everywhere, and there were several orange trees surrounding him that had been picked completely clean.
"How can this possibly be happening? These are the absolute best oranges in the entire orange orchard. They were specifically meant to be sold to the owner of that restaurant on the sea. Now that so many of them have been eaten, all of Bell-mère's painstaking hard work has been completely wasted!"
Nami clenched her fists tightly and lowered her head, tears threatening to fall from her eyes.
"No, I absolutely cannot cry. I have to make that guy who stole our oranges pay proper compensation for this!"
Nami strengthened her resolve, sniffed back her tears, then quickly walked to Luffy who was still sleeping peacefully, raised her fist determinedly, and struck Luffy firmly on the head.
Bang!
A massive bump appeared on Luffy's head, larger than any bump previously caused by Gustave or Ace. Perhaps Nami possessed some natural talent for disciplining Luffy.
"Who is it?"
Luffy was suddenly jolted awake from his peaceful sleep, and then saw Nami glaring at him with obvious anger.
"Who are you and why are you hitting me?"
Luffy touched the substantial bump on his head and questioned Nami with a thoroughly wronged expression on his face.
"You are a thief who stole other people's precious oranges!"
Nami yelled with all her considerable might.
"Hurry up and compensate me properly. These oranges were planted by Bell-mère with tremendous effort. They finally bore beautiful fruit, but you ate so many of them..."
After her angry outburst, Nami couldn't help crying after all. These represented the results of Bell-mère's dedicated hard work, the absolute best quality batch, but Luffy had stolen so many of them.
Although the oranges cultivated by Bell-mère were genuinely delicious, due to transportation problems, even when outside merchants came to purchase them, the price they offered was disappointingly low.
Nami had been optimistically thinking that she could sell the oranges to Bamboo Staff Bistro at a fair, normal price this time, but when she witnessed that Luffy had stolen so many of them, she felt so thoroughly aggrieved that she couldn't prevent the tears from flowing out of her eyes.
"Don't cry, please! I'll pay you right away!"
Seeing Nami crying so pitifully, Luffy was completely at a loss. If he encountered dangerous pirates or threatening bandits, Luffy would not be afraid, but facing a girl's tears, Luffy was utterly helpless.
"Pay the money, pay it immediately."
Nami cried and demanded that Luffy provide financial compensation.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I'll pay you back right now."
Luffy apologized profusely, reaching desperately for his pocket.
"Oh no! I sneaked out today!"
Luffy only now remembered that he had sneaked out today and didn't have a single penny on his person.
"Well, I don't have any money on me currently. Can I wait until I get back to retrieve the money and then I'll compensate you?"
Luffy forced an awkward, ugly smile, hoping that Nami would be more lenient with him.
But how could Nami possibly know whether what Luffy was saying was true or false? If Luffy simply ran away and Nami didn't know his identity, how could she ever get the money back?
Therefore, Nami, feeling tremendously aggrieved and angry, grabbed Luffy firmly and took him directly to her home.
Bell-mère and Nojiko were preparing dinner when they suddenly heard Nami crying and angrily cursing someone outside.
"Nami!"
Bell-mère ran out of the door in alarm, and then saw Nami gripping a little boy's hand tightly, while the boy displayed an embarrassed expression on his face.
"Nami, what's happening here?"
Bell-mère bent down and gently wiped the tears from Nami's face.
"This guy stole all the best-looking oranges from our orchard. I asked him to pay compensation, but he couldn't give it to me!"
Nami sobbed as she accused Luffy of his crimes to Bell-mère.
Luffy, who was standing awkwardly aside, blushed deeply as he listened. The person who was destined to become a great hero in the future had been caught stealing oranges and couldn't afford to pay for them. It would be incredibly embarrassing if everyone knew about this incident.
"I thought it was something more serious, Nami. They're just some oranges. We have plenty of them in our orange orchard. Just forgive him, okay?"
Bell-mère patted Nami's head affectionately and comforted her.
"I'm truly sorry, I was really hungry, so I ate them secretly. I will definitely compensate you!"
Luffy hadn't expected that Bell-mère would be so generous and forgiving toward him. Luffy, feeling extremely guilty, immediately bowed deeply to Bell-mère and Nami to apologize.
"Nami, did you hear that? He ate the oranges because he was hungry. I told you before that when you encounter someone in trouble, you should help them. Today, these oranges helped him. Do you understand?"
Bell-mère continued to persuade Nami with patient wisdom.
"But, but..."
Nami still didn't understand why Bell-mère was defending the orange thief.
"Nami, we need to help those who are in need."
Bell-mère patted Nami's head again and spoke with gentle authority.
Nami didn't reply immediately, but she gradually loosened her grip on Luffy's hand.