Chapter 14: Chapter 14: Clam King
Yun Jiao smiled, hugging a coconut snail bigger than her own face.
She didn’t want to sell it, not because she was craving it, but because she sensed something was inside.
’It’s probably a pearl,’ she thought, ’but I can’t be sure until it’s opened. The sensation is very faint.’
"Jiaojiao, how did you learn to swim? Show Fifth Brother how you swim."
Yun Jiao handed him the large, treasured snail, instructing him earnestly, "Hold this tight, Brother. Don’t lose it. It’s my treasure."
Yun Xiaowu nodded. "Okay, okay, I know it’s your treasure. I’ll take good care of it."
Satisfied, Yun Jiao immediately showed them how she could swim.
Yun Chenxi and Yun Xiaowu watched as she slipped into the water like a little fish, diving under and swimming about with effortless grace.
Yun Chenxi was dumbfounded. "I didn’t teach her to dive, did I?"
Yun Xiaowu’s eyes went wide. "I thought I learned to swim and dive pretty fast, but compared to Jiaojiao, I’m a complete dunce!"
"What the hell, why isn’t she coming up?!"
A full minute had passed. If he couldn’t see Yun Jiao still moving around, Yun Chenxi would have thought she was in trouble.
He dove headfirst into the sea and pulled her out.
"How are you feeling? Weren’t you struggling to breathe? You didn’t come up for air once?"
Yun Jiao’s cheeks were rosy and she looked full of energy. She even giggled while being held.
At the question, she tilted her little head in confusion. "Do you have to come up for air?"
’Oh, right. I guess humans can’t breathe in the ocean.’
Yun Chenxi was rendered speechless.
’Is she even human?’
"I feel fine, Second Brother."
Yun Chenxi said, "You... I’m actually jealous."
Yun Jiao kicked her chubby little legs, as fair and dimpled as lotus roots. "I wanna play more! Let me go, Second Brother."
"Alright, go on. But remember to come to the surface for air if you feel like you can’t breathe."
Yun Jiao obediently agreed.
Even though he let Yun Jiao play on her own, Yun Chenxi didn’t dare take his eyes off her, afraid the little tyke would get carried away and wander into the deep water.
As for Yun Jiao, she was completely at ease. Her vision wasn’t affected by the seawater at all.
Sure enough, she could clearly see clams emerging from the sand on the seabed.
Her chubby little hand snatched one up, and a plump clam was now in her grasp.
’There’s one here, and another one over there...’
On the beach, these clams are usually buried in the sand. They aren’t valuable, so people gathering seafood usually just dig them up for their own families to eat.
But here in the water, many of them were just sticking right out.
The water here was shallow, but the bottom was a bit murky. You couldn’t see them at all without looking closely.
The clams were small; even the biggest one wasn’t as large as her chubby little hand.
Soon, after picking out the best ones, Yun Jiao swam to the surface, holding a pile of plump clams.
"Look, brothers, look!"
Her second brother and Yun Xiaowu looked over at the same time, then found themselves at a loss for how to react.
’Wait, is she here to learn to swim or to go grocery shopping?’
’Are clams this easy to find? And they’re all so plump.’
"Where did you find them?"
Yun Xiaowu looked eager to try.
"Over there."
She pointed with her chubby little hand.
"Come on, take me with you."
Yun Chenxi called out, "Don’t you two go too far!"
Yun Xiaowu replied, "Don’t worry, I’ll look after my sister."
Yun Chenxi shot him a glare. "You’re the one I’m most worried about. Keep an eye on how far you go."
He still had to watch Yun Xiaojiu and the other younger brothers who were searching for things on the beach; he simply didn’t have enough eyes to watch everyone.
Yun Jiao and Yun Xiaowu dove underwater together and quickly found another patch of clams.
Yun Xiaowu, however, couldn’t see very clearly in the water.
The water wasn’t deep here, but the slightest movement stirred up the sand, making the water so murky he couldn’t even open his eyes.
No one noticed that Yun Jiao’s eyes were now as if covered by a transparent film, protecting them from harm and allowing her to see everything in the sea with perfect clarity.
Yun Xiaowu searched for a while, but he barely found any clams. Instead, his splashing just made the water murkier and murkier, so he quickly resurfaced.
Not long after, Yun Jiao also poked her head out of the water.
"Fifth Brother, look!"
Holy cow, she was holding another pile of what looked like more than a dozen clams.
And him? After all that effort, he had only found four or five.
’The difference between us is just too huge.’
"I can’t see a thing down there! How did you find them?"
’That’s what I thought,’ he mused. ’If it were really this easy, other people would have definitely thought of this method already.’
"I just... found them."
"Let’s put these in the bucket first."
They swam to the beach and tossed the clams into the bucket, the clattering sound especially satisfying.
"Let’s find some more to take back and eat."
Yun Xiaowu took Yun Jiao’s hand. "Let’s not go back in the sea. We can just look on the beach."
’She’s been in the water for so long; I hope she doesn’t catch a cold.’
Yun Chenxi called, "Come over here and change your clothes."
Yun Jiao was just a three-year-old toddler, so changing clothes right there wasn’t a big deal.
He changed her into a slightly oversized white T-shirt but left her without pants, so they wouldn’t just get wet again.
The T-shirt came down to just above her knees, almost like a little dress.
"Here, little sister. Let’s dig for razor clams together."
Yun Xiao Liu shoved a small shovel into her hand.
The other Yun family boys were already digging randomly in the sand all over the place; it was hard to tell if they were looking for food or just playing.
Yun Chenxi grabbed a screwdriver and a small bucket and headed for the nearby reefs. "I’m going to pry open some oysters. Xiao Wu, watch your younger brother and sister, and stay out of the sea."
"Got it."
Yun Jiao said, "Second Brother, I want to go too."
"No, the reefs are too slippery and covered with sharp shells. You could get hurt easily. Jiaojiao, be a good girl and play in the sand with your brothers, okay?"
’I’m not just playing!’ Yun Jiao thought. ’I’m seriously trying to help find food, okay?’
’Fine, if he won’t let me go, I won’t go. I can dig up plenty of things in the sand, too.’
With her little shovel in hand, Yun Jiao started bustling about with great effort.
She found a patch of sand and started digging wherever she saw the telltale little holes.
’This razor clam seems a lot bigger than the ones we usually eat.’
’It looks so plump and delicious.’
’Whatever, I’ll just keep digging...’
’Hee hee... another huge razor clam.’
Yun Jiao’s little hands dug with even more vigor.
After digging for sand clams for a bit, Yun Xiaowu glanced over at his younger brothers, who were running wild, and then at his sister. She was a short distance away, her back to him, obediently digging in the sand without having moved an inch.
’My sister is definitely the best-behaved one!’
He walked over. "Jiaojiao, you... Holy crap!"
Yun Xiaowu stared, dumbfounded, at the razor clams in Yun Jiao’s little bucket.
"Wh-where... where did you dig these up?"
It wasn’t like they had never dug here before. Even other villagers came to this spot. But no one had ever dug up so many clam kings at once!
That’s right. What Yun Jiao had dug up were clam kings.
The local razor clams were mostly the long, thin "bamboo" variety, barely thicker than a chopstick and notoriously difficult to dig up.
But clam kings were much larger and thicker than bamboo clams. These were as thick as two fingers!
’His sister’s luck was simply heaven-defying!’
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