"Jiaojiao, are you sure you’re not going?"
Yun Jiao shook her head. "Let my brothers go."
She had already gone once, so she wanted to leave the next opportunity for her brothers.
After the meal, they went back to shucking oysters.
Cries of pleasant surprise rang out from time to time in the small courtyard. Everyone was happy, even if they only opened an oyster to find a less-than-perfect pearl.
In the end, they only managed to find about twenty pearls in the entire pile of oysters, and Yun Jiao alone had found eight of them.
The best one—a milky white pearl over 8mm in size—was found by her.
Including the ones they had found before, they now had a total of thirty-two pearls.
The whole family beamed as they looked at the milky white pearls soaking in the water.
"Alright, stop crowding around. Get back to your chores."
Granny Yun left, carrying the oyster meat. She planned to dry it all.
There was far too much to eat at once.
Everyone else got busy with their own tasks.
After the pearls were cleaned, they were dried with a piece of paper and placed into a small box.
They would take them to the city to sell tomorrow.
Once the oysters were all shucked, Yun Jiao, who had no other chores, strolled out to play.
Well, it wasn’t exactly playing, since she was taking the poultry she was raising with her.
It was the same group as before, though the chicks hatched by the old mother hen still refused to follow her.
Yun Jiao walked through the countryside fields holding a small stick and a toy monkey her fourth brother had made for her.
She didn’t walk too quickly, stopping every now and then to overturn a few rocks. The ones that had been pressed into the earth for a long time were the most likely to hide plump earthworms and small red insects underneath.
And those were the protein-rich snacks her poultry loved most.
"MEOW."
A cat appeared. It was one Yun Jiao knew.
She looked toward the sound and saw a tabby cat running toward her, something in its mouth.
But behind it, a few people were in pursuit.
"Over there! Stop!"
"Drop the rabbit!"
The tabby cat, carrying a rabbit, ran straight to Yun Jiao’s side.
"Yun Jiao!"
Yun Jiao raised an eyebrow as she watched the group of people run over.
"What do you want?"
Yun Zhaodi glanced around. Seeing that Yun Jiao’s brothers weren’t with her, her courage turned to malice.
"What do we want? Your cat stole our wild rabbit! Hmph, you’ll have to pay us back with two!"
Yun Jiao looked at her as if she were an idiot.
"Yours?"
She bent down, picked up the rabbit, and pointed to the wound on its neck.
"Did you bite it?"
With her hands on her hips, Yun Zhaodi retorted arrogantly, "None of your business how we got it! The point is, your cat stole our rabbit, and now you have to compensate us. If you don’t have another rabbit, money will do."
Her eyes scanned Yun Jiao up and down, noting that her clothes had no patches and were even decorated with little flowers. She also saw the pretty hairpin in her hair and the toy in her hand.
Remembering the beautiful clothes and shoes she had seen that little boy buy for Yun Jiao, Yun Zhaodi couldn’t hide the jealousy in her eyes.
"And you’ll compensate me with that toy of yours, too."
As Yun Zhaodi spoke, she lunged forward to grab it.
But Yun Jiao wasn’t about to put up with that. She whipped the slender little stick in her hand, striking out at her.
In the blink of an eye, she had struck her several times.
"OW, OW, OW! Yun Jiao, what are you doing?! Stop! You’re killing me..."
This hurt even more than when her own mother hit her.
Yun Jiao retorted, "Trying to steal my things? You’ve got some nerve!"
Yun Zhaodi ran around, trying to dodge the blows, and yelled at her stunned friends.
"What are you all just standing there for? Grab her! She’s just one little girl; she can’t beat all of us! HISS..."
The kind of kids who hung out with Yun Zhaodi were all a bit crooked themselves.
Hearing Yun Zhaodi’s words, they lunged for Yun Jiao, and then...
"AHHHH, it hurts, it hurts! Yun Jiao, how dare you hit us! We’re going to tell our parents!"
Yun Jiao didn’t care. She would hit them first and deal with the consequences later.
The thin stick was surprisingly painful, leaving red welts on their skin with every strike.
"Find sticks! Find sticks and stop her!"
They found sticks and tried to hit Yun Jiao, but she easily disarmed them.
They were simply no match for Yun Jiao’s strength. She snatched their sticks away with a single hand and continued to strike them.
Finally feeling the pain and a growing sense of fear, Yun Zhaodi’s group stopped trying to stay and fight. They turned and ran back toward the village.
But Yun Jiao held a grudge. She wasn’t about to let them off so easily and gave chase.
"Boss, take the chicks and the others home!"
With that one instruction shouted behind her, Yun Jiao pumped her little legs, chasing after Yun Zhaodi and her friends.
"Don’t run! If you’ve got the guts, then let’s keep fighting!"
"Yun Jiao, my parents aren’t going to let you get away with this!"
The girl running in front didn’t forget to shout threats.
And for her trouble, Yun Jiao singled her out and hit her a few more times.
The pain made them howl and cry for their mamas.
The aunties and grannies chatting at the village entrance heard the commotion and all turned their heads to look.
Yun Zhaodi cried, "Yun Jiao’s gone crazy! Help! She’s going to kill us!"
They thought that with so many people watching, Yun Jiao would surely stop hitting them. But to their surprise, she caught up and gave them another thrashing.
"AHHHHH!!!"
"What’s all this? What’s going on? Jiaojiao, let’s talk this out calmly."
"Aiyo, what did you all do to provoke Jiaojiao?"
Yun Zhaodi and her friends stubbornly insisted, "It was Yun Jiao! She stole our rabbit, and when we asked for it back, she started hitting us!"
"Yeah, she’s so shameless!"
Yun Jiao struck them even harder, her childish voice tinged with anger. "You’re the shameless ones! You tried to steal my rabbit, my toy, and my hairpin! My brothers gave me these things, what right do you have to snatch them!"
"You’re always stealing things from other kids."
And it was true. Yun Zhaodi and her friends had a bad reputation among many of the adults, so most of the onlookers were more inclined to believe Yun Jiao.
Of course, some relatives of the other girls were also present, and they naturally sided with their own children.
"Yun Jiao, put the stick down first. You can’t just go around chasing and hitting people like this."
Yun Jiao pointed her little stick at them. "They started it."
Yun Zhaodi put on a pitiful act. "You’re lying! Look at all the bruises you gave us! There’s not a single scratch on you."
Yun Jiao shot them a sidelong glance. "That’s because you can’t beat me."
"The rabbit! She really did steal our wild rabbit."
Hearing this, the relatives of the other girls immediately started accusing Yun Jiao.
"How could someone so young steal from others?"
"I don’t know who she learned it from, but that’s a terrible temper. Chasing and beating people over such a small thing. Just look at the state they’re in."
"Yun Jiao, what you did was wrong..."
Yun Jiao frowned, her little face fierce. She was not happy!
"What are you all talking about? What makes you say it was Jiaojiao who stole their rabbit?"
Someone on good terms with the Yun family couldn’t stand it anymore and stepped forward to defend Yun Jiao.
"Exactly! It’s obvious they were ganging up on Yun Jiao. You can’t just take their word for it."
"Jiaojiao is usually so well-behaved. She’s never lost her temper and hit anyone. Why would she suddenly start hitting them today?"
"That Yun Zhaodi and her friends have snatched things from my kid before. I think it’s more likely they were trying to rob Jiaojiao."
The crowd broke into an argument.
"Who’s bullying my sister!"
The Yun brothers came running over, looking furious.