Wang Yi was no match for so many people, so in the end, he had to take the money.
"Is 120 enough?"
"That’s plenty. A hundred is fine."
"A hundred is definitely not enough."
In the end, they still stuffed 120 into Wang Yi’s hands.
The vouchers for those appliances were expensive, and more importantly, impossible to find even if you had the money.
They weren’t going out to sea today, so the whole family was busy harvesting corn.
Wang Yi tried shucking the corn, but he soon couldn’t stand the wriggling grubs and went home.
’He really shouldn’t be torturing himself like this.’
Yun Jiao’s family hadn’t planted that much corn, so with everyone pitching in, they finished the work in two days.
That evening, Granny Yun said to her two sons, "Your wives’ families should be harvesting corn soon, too. The rice harvest will follow right after, so they’ll be very busy. In a couple of days, you should both go back and lend a hand."
Her two daughters-in-law, Shen Yunlian and Wang Mei, were very happy to hear this.
"Okay, Mom, we understand."
Chewing on a piece of dried fish, Yun Jiao mumbled, "Are we going to Grandma’s house again?"
"That’s right. Do you want to go, Yun Jiao?"
Of course, Yun Jiao nodded. "I do!"
Before going to their grandmother’s house, they went out to sea again.
Yun Linhai and Yun Linhe went fishing, while Yun Jiao rode a killer whale to see if she could find any treasures on the ocean floor.
She and the killer whale swam out a bit far. The seabed was teeming with life. Using a large net bag, she caught several Little Green Dragons, big crabs, plump cuttlefish, and some beautiful, brightly colored fish.
Once her large net bag was stuffed with all sorts of odds and ends, Yun Jiao guided the killer whale toward the surface.
After surfacing, she had no idea where she’d ended up. She and the killer whale swam for a while longer before spotting a boat.
It was a large, steel-hulled boat.
She swam two circles around the boat from underwater. ’This boat has to be over twenty meters long. It’s huge. Isn’t this the kind of boat Dad wants?’
After a moment of envy, Yun Jiao cheered herself on. ’I have to work hard and make enough money to buy a big boat!’
Just as she was about to leave, she noticed two even larger boats approaching from the distance. They didn’t look like fishing boats, and one of them seemed to be flying a national flag. They were clearly chasing the first boat.
Yun Jiao was no longer in a hurry to leave. She and the killer whale lurked in the sea to watch the show.
’Let’s see what this is all about.’
"Boat ahead, stop immediately! Boat ahead, stop immediately, or you will face the consequences!"
"Listen up, everyone on the boat! Stop your futile resistance! Put down your weapons and the children you’ve captured..."
After listening for a moment, Yun Jiao understood. The people on this boat were human traffickers!
’Could they be accomplices of those two traffickers from before?’
Just as she was thinking this, someone on the boat started shouting curses.
"Fuck, Boss, what do we do? Those soldiers are right on our tail!"
"Go bring a few kids out! I refuse to believe they won’t back off with guns to their heads!"
Surrender? They knew if they were caught, they’d face a heavy sentence, possibly even death. For desperados like them, they’d rather take a gamble than surrender easily.
Besides, they had hostages. They believed the soldiers wouldn’t dare to act rashly.
A moment later, men on the boat dragged two children out. The gang’s boss held one of them, standing at the stern with a gun pressed to the child’s temple.
"Motherfucker! Back the fuck off if you don’t want these kids to die! Otherwise, I’ll kill one every minute!"
The two sides immediately fell into a stalemate, maintaining a tense distance.
Yun Jiao watched from the water.
The child held by the trafficker wasn’t crying or struggling, but his face was an unhealthy shade of red. He looked sick.
Suddenly, the child lowered his gaze slightly and saw Yun Jiao in the sea.
His eyes widened slightly. Yun Jiao raised a finger to her lips.
The gesture meant ’be quiet’.
The little boy pressed his lips together and said nothing.
While the trafficker boss was still arrogantly threatening the soldiers, Yun Jiao dove deeper into the sea.
"Do me a favor,"
she said to the killer whales.
A pod of killer whales surrounded her, looking at her with curiosity.
"Wait for my signal. When I yell ’Ram!’ you’re all going to ram the side of the boat."
The killer whales nodded and, following Yun Jiao’s command, all swam to the left side of the boat.
The men on the boat were nervously focused on the soldiers, so the whales’ silent approach went completely unnoticed.
Holding a sea urchin, Yun Jiao returned to her previous spot in the water.
The little boy’s eyes, which had dimmed when he saw Yun Jiao leave, instantly brightened again.
But he was more worried—worried she would be discovered by the traffickers.
While the trafficker was still trying to negotiate with the soldiers, Yun Jiao forcefully threw the sea urchin at the wrist of his gun hand.
SWOOSH! Before anyone could react, the sea urchin’s spines had pierced the flesh of the trafficker boss’s wrist.
The instantaneous pain made his hand go numb.
"AHHH!!!"
Yun Jiao commanded the killer whales, "Ram!"
CRASH.
Several killer whales rammed the boat at once, nearly capsizing it.
The people on board lost their balance. Some fell into the sea, while those lucky enough to remain on the boat were not much better off. Just as they shakily regained their footing, the military vessel closed in.
The little boy who had been held by the trafficker boss fell straight into the sea the moment the man lost his grip.
He couldn’t swim.
After falling into the water and choking on several mouthfuls of seawater, he was overcome by the agonizing feeling of suffocation.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Gunshots rang out from the boat. Just as the little boy thought he was going to die, a pair of small hands pulled him to the surface.
He coughed miserably, sputtering water.
Yun Jiao pulled him along and unceremoniously tossed him onto a killer whale’s back.
"Hold on to its dorsal fin."
With that, Yun Jiao quickly dove back into the sea to rescue the other unlucky child hostage.
Thanks to the killer whales’ strike, the traffickers on the boat had no time to react and were quickly brought under control.
Once all the traffickers were apprehended, the lead soldier asked, "Have the two children who fell into the sea been rescued yet?"
"Where are the search and rescue divers?"
Those divers... were currently staring dumbfounded at Yun Jiao and the pod of killer whales.
Sprawled on the back of a large killer whale, Yun Jiao watched the men in navy uniforms and raised a chubby little hand to wave.
It had to be said, probably due to her upbringing, Yun Jiao had a pretty good impression of soldiers in this world.
"Are you looking for these two?"
Yun Jiao pointed to the children on the backs of two other killer whales. One was scared stiff, looking dazed as if his soul had left his body.
The other had a flushed face and was still coughing.
"He seems sick."
The sick one was the little boy Yun Jiao had rescued first, and he was quite handsome.
’This is the first time I’ve seen a kid as good-looking as me and Brother Nine.’
"You..."
"What are you all doing? Did you find the kids...?"
A soldier on the boat had a booming voice. He spotted Yun Jiao and the pod of killer whales as soon as he shouted, and the rest of his words caught in his throat.
’What the heck is going on here?’