"Where’d these come from?"
Ah Wang stopped eating, his eyes shining as he looked at the goods.
Yun Linhe’s expression didn’t change. "Caught them."
Ah Wang: ...You can catch such fine goods in the sea around here?
’Fine by me. My job is just to buy them.’
The three large yellow croakers sold for the usual price. Totaling seven and a half catties, they came to 22.5 yuan.
The Qingyi was fifteen yuan a catty. This one was three point eight catties, so it sold for 57 yuan.
Finally, there was the large lobster.
Not only was the lobster’s color beautiful, but it was also the rarest kind Ah Wang had ever bought—one weighing over five catties.
This one was six point three catties!
’I really can’t imagine where they caught this. Surely it wasn’t just washed ashore by a typhoon, right?’
After a round of haggling, Ah Wang bought the six-plus-catty Little Green Dragon for fourteen yuan a catty.
Even brothers settle accounts clearly, so it was only natural for both sides to bargain for such a good find.
On this trip to sea, at the cost of getting a beating, Yun Jiao and Yun Xiaowu ended up making 167.7 yuan.
"Next time you have goods this good, you have to remember to come to me," Ah Wang said. "I’ll definitely give you a great price."
’Ah Wang was starting to understand. His third uncle’s family had been having great luck with the sea these past few years, bringing in good things to sell every so often.’
’Other people foraged the surf just to get by. Selling something for a few or a dozen yuan was already considered a good day.’
’But this family? He’d lost count of how many times they’d made over a hundred yuan.’
’Luck was truly something no one could predict.’
...
Knowing that Yun Jiao could breathe underwater put the family’s worries to rest.
She loved the sea so much that there was no stopping her, but now that she had this extra layer of safety, everyone felt relieved.
Of course, she was still too young, so Grandpa and Grandma Yun didn’t want her going to the sea too often.
"So many boats go out to sea every day. If you go into the water too often and someone notices something’s off, wouldn’t that be dangerous?"
"So, if you want to play in the sea now, you have to wait until your dad and the others go out. That way, you’ll have a cover. When you’re older and everyone knows you’re a good swimmer who can hold her breath for a long time, as long as you’re careful with your timing, no one will likely suspect you can actually breathe underwater."
Yun Jiao nodded to show she understood.
"We’re not going to the shore today. Come with Grandma to the fields to pick some gourds."
Yun Jiao happily went to get her small basket.
"Grandma, are we picking cucumbers?"
"There are cucumbers, pumpkins, and small green squashes..."
Yun Jiao declared, "I’ll bring the little chicks too!"
"Alright, go let them out."
And so, when Yun Jiao left the house with her little basket and Grandma, a long line of followers trailed behind her.
As they walked through the village, Yun Jiao noticed several households were in a state of pandemonium.
The entire village was filled with the sharp cries of chickens, ducks, and geese.
Yun Jiao asked, confused, "Grandma, why is it so noisy today?"
Granny Yun laughed. "It’s all because of you! Because you took your little followers to the shore and they even helped you find ark clams. Now other people want to try it, but the moment they let their chickens, ducks, and geese out, they just run wild."
As they were speaking, they passed a house, and a small chick darted out from inside.
Someone chased out after it.
"I told you it wouldn’t work! Look, now the chicks are running all over the yard, and we have to waste time catching them all again. Isn’t this just a waste of time?!"
"Oh, look, it’s Jiaojiao and her grandma."
Yun Jiao crouched down and picked up the fluffy little chick that had mixed in with her entourage.
Nearby, the auntie and Granny Yun had already started chatting.
"These last couple of days, haven’t people been trying to copy your Jiaojiao and take their chickens and ducks to the beach? None of them succeeded. Ma Po even lost one of her chickens. She stood in her yard yelling for half the day, asking who found it, but it turned out her own grandson had stolen it to eat."
"Oh, by the way, are you two heading to the fields?"
"Yes, to pick some gourds for dinner."
Yun Jiao handed the little chick to the auntie.
"Jiaojiao is so well-behaved, and so capable too."
The woman asked, "How on earth do you get them to be so obedient? My boy tried to copy you, and now our chicks are running all over the place."
Yun Jiao replied, "They just are."
She squatted down, beckoned with her little finger, and went, "TSK TSK TSK..."
The little creatures came running, flapping their still-featherless little wings, and surrounded her, chirping up a storm.
The auntie thought, ’Isn’t that how you call a dog?’
She squatted down too and copied Yun Jiao, making the same "TSK TSK TSK" sounds.
Awkward. Not a single one paid her any mind.
Undeterred, she turned and tried to summon her own chicks.
The result was the same...
Granny Yun couldn’t hide the pride in her smile.
’Her Jiaojiao was just so amazing!’
Once they reached the field, Yun Jiao picked and ate cucumbers as she went.
The cucumbers were the length of an adult’s palm, plump and roundish, with small spines on their skin.
Granny Yun casually picked a leaf and easily rubbed the fine spines off before handing one to Yun Jiao.
Yun Jiao took a bite with a CRUNCH. The cucumber was succulent, its fresh fragrance filling the air.
She helped pick more as she ate.
Being short, she just picked the ones she could reach.
From time to time, she’d poke the soil with a small stick, letting the chicks and ducklings find their own bugs to eat. If they turned up an earthworm, it was a bonus meal.
She caught a grasshopper and tossed it to them.
A few green caterpillars, she tossed those over too.
They swarmed together and devoured them in a few pecks.
They could also find grass seeds to eat.
’If they ate their fill outside, she wouldn’t have to feed them at home. It saved her trouble.’
Yun Jiao, who had been helping Grandma pick gourds, gradually got distracted and focused all her attention on feeding her little fluffballs.
Especially the little bugs on the vegetable leaves.
She just had to press a leaf down a little, and the chicks, with their sharp eyes, would expertly pick off the plumpest bugs without damaging the leaf at all.
They ate little snails, too.
Just as she was enthusiastically catching all sorts of little bugs while squatting amidst the large pumpkin leaves, she suddenly heard the sound of a conversation.
"You said it yourself. Fifty yuan for finding you a child. A better-looking one would fetch a higher price."
Yun Jiao froze.
The pumpkin leaves were large and grew densely.
A tiny girl like Yun Jiao, squatting among them, was impossible to spot without looking closely.
Besides, the two people talking were some distance away; it was just that her hearing was a little sharper than most.
"Shhh... No noise."
Yun Jiao whispered.
The fluffballs immediately ran over to huddle by her feet, as if being sheltered under a mother hen’s wings, and obediently fell silent.
Yun Jiao perked up her ears and continued to listen. It was the voices of a man and a woman.
She had never heard either voice before; they were completely unfamiliar.
"I’ve found a very pretty little girl in this village. Her skin is very fair, and she’s plump and chubby. But her family watches her very closely. It won’t be easy to trick her into coming out."
The man lowered his voice. "I don’t care about that. If you want the money, you figure it out yourself. If she’s as pretty as you say, I’ll give you this much."
The woman’s voice was clearly more excited. "Deal!"
"I’ll figure something out."
The two of them, likely afraid of arousing suspicion, parted ways after their conversation.
Squatting among the pumpkin leaves, Yun Jiao rested her chin in her small hands. ’They couldn’t be talking about me, could they?’
Little Yun Jiao was quite confident, after all. She was the cutest kid for miles around!