Chapter 3: Little Lucky Star
“My Jiaojiao is very well-behaved, she doesn’t cry at all. She eats a little of everything, rice paste, goat milk, and fish soup, she’s not picky. When she needs to go to the toilet, she knows to grunt to let us know.”
The Yun family’s boys also proudly boasted, “When my sister eats, she’s especially well-behaved, and she always smiles at us. She likes us very much.”
“My sister is the best-looking and most well-behaved child in our village.”
That statement… really couldn’t be refuted.
Look at little Yun Jiao’s face. Although she’s still a baby, she’s really good-looking.
Her big eyes, her eyelashes, I’ve never seen other children with eyelashes as thick and curled as Yun Jiao’s. Her hair is also thick, and her arms and legs are so chubby.
Yun Jiao, who was being praised, also did her part and showed a smile.
Soft and sweet.
Except when eating, when she’s a bit domineering, Yun Jiao is very obedient at other times, and when she smiles, it melts everyone’s heart.
Shen Yunlian and the Yun family’s boys showed her off to everyone they met along the way.
Later, when tide pooling, several women gathered and the topic turned to Yun Jiao.
“I’ve lived this long and I’ve never seen such a beautiful baby. No wonder the Yun Linhai family adopted her.”
Someone rolled their eyes, “No matter how beautiful, she’s not their own biological child, and she’s a girl. When she marries out, she’ll have nothing.”
Someone disagreed, “I think it’s quite good. The Yun Linhai family has too many boys. No matter how much they like boys, so many aren’t that special anymore. But this beautiful girl is quite endearing.”
Those who favored sons over daughters were indifferent to this.
“Ah ah…”
Shen Yunlian, carrying Yun Jiao on her back, squatted on the ground like other women in the village, digging for sand clams or some snails buried in the sand, which they would take home to eat.
Suddenly, she heard Yun Jiao, who had been quiet on her back, cry out. She quickly held the child in her arms.
“What’s wrong, Jiaojiao, are you hungry?”
“Ah!”
Yun Jiao, using her still not very obedient little chubby fingers, pointed in a certain direction ahead and continued to call out “ah ah” twice more.
There was something over there.
But her eyes were fixed on the sand clams in Shen Yunlian’s hand. She hadn’t eaten such small shells before, and she didn’t know if they were delicious.
Shen Yunlian smiled and tapped her little nose, “You can’t have this.”
“Ah!”
Hmph, when she learns to walk, she’ll dig it out herself and taste it. She continued to point in the previous direction.
Although Shen Yunlian couldn’t understand, she was compelled by an inexplicable urge to follow where the little one was pointing.
Then, under the reef, she saw something that looked like a snake twisting and trying to burrow into the reef crevice.
Holding Yun Jiao with one hand, she swiftly grabbed the tail of the thing with the other.
It was too slippery. After a few tries, she managed to pull the wriggling creature out and throw it onto the beach.
Looking at the thing, Shen Yunlian’s heart grew warm.
“It’s a large moray eel! This must be at least five or six jin.”
It was a bit slippery, so Shen Yunlian quickly threw the eel onto the beach, then, holding the baby with one hand, she rushed over and used her foot to pin the large moray eel on the sand.
She didn’t dare to grab it with her hands; this thing bites fiercely.
Then she brought over the bucket, laid it horizontally on the ground, and kicked the moray eel into the bucket with her foot.
Shen Yunlian was so happy she couldn’t stop smiling, and couldn’t help but turn her head and kiss little Yun Jiao’s fair and soft cheek.
“Jiaojiao, you’re truly my little lucky star. This moray eel can sell for quite a few yuan!”
Yun Jiao’s eyes curved, revealing her toothless smile.
Yun Xiaowu asked, “Mom, what are you doing over there? Sister is still so small, don’t let her come into contact with seawater, she’ll catch a cold if she gets wet.”
The seven-year-old boy was acting like an old mother.
Shen Yunlian was in a good mood at the moment and wasn’t angry at her son’s words.
“Look, our Jiaojiao is truly a lucky star. If not for her, we wouldn’t have found this moray eel.”
“Wow!!!”
The Yun brothers’ eyes lit up when they saw the moray eel, and they instantly became happy.
“Let’s go, Mom, let’s quickly take this moray eel to sell, lest it dies.”
The group hurried towards the seafood purchase point.
The purchase point in their village was privately owned by a villager.
They also had some distant family ties with the Yun family.
It was opened by the youngest son of Old Master Yun’s paternal cousin.
“Sister-in-law, what good thing did you catch?”
Seeing Shen Yunlian arrive with a group of boys, the middle-aged man who was weighing goods for others at the purchase point stood up and greeted them with a cheerful smile.
Shen Yunlian showed him what was in the bucket.
“Awang, see how much you’ll give for this eel.”
“Oh, you must have caught this tide pooling, sister-in-law. You’re really lucky.”
Shen Yunlian, carrying Yun Jiao on her back, smiled and said, “Yes, this large moray eel was discovered by our Jiaojiao.”
Yun Wang’s gaze fell on the little girl she was carrying on her back.
At this moment, Yun Jiao was obediently lying on Shen Yunlian’s back, her big eyes rolling around curiously, a fair and soft little bundle, looking like a ball of glutinous rice.
Yun Wang was also charmed, and his tone was a little envious.
“She’s so beautiful, no wonder you decided to raise her.”
Such a beautiful child, most people wouldn’t bear to give her away after picking her up.
The large moray eel weighed a total of six jin and five liang. Because the meat is delicious and it’s relatively rare, the price was higher than ordinary seafood, at 1.2 yuan per jin, totaling 7.8 yuan.
Besides the eel, the Yun family also found three swimming crabs this tide pooling, weighing two jin and three liang, which were 1 yuan per jin, amounting to three yuan.
The rest were inexpensive sand clams and oysters, which they would take home to eat themselves.
“A total of ten yuan and eight mao.”
Tide gathering is like this. If you’re unlucky, you don’t get much harvest; at most, it adds a bit to the family’s meals and reduces their food expenses.
If you’re lucky, like today, the income is higher than an adult’s daily salary for working on a boat.
Shen Yunlian held the ten yuan and eight mao with a smile on her face. Today’s luck was really good, over ten yuan. She had never sold so much money from tide pooling before.
She said goodbye to Yun Wang, then carrying Yun Jiao on her back and calling her sons, they headed back.
Upon returning, Shen Yunlian told the family about it, and the whole family became even more fond of Yun Jiao.
“Our Jiaojiao is truly worthy of being sent by the Dragon King, she’s so spiritual.”
The reason their village was called Bailong Village was because they worshipped the Dragon King. Legend has it that a long time ago, the village saw a white dragon soaring through the clouds by the sea, which is why the village got its name.
Yun Jiao opened her innocent big eyes, not quite understanding.
“Ah ah…”
She wanted food.
“Jiaojiao, are you hungry? I was just warming up some goat milk.”
Yun Jiao sat on Granny Yun’s lap, contentedly drinking goat milk.
Her gums had been itchy during this time, and she always wanted to gnaw on something to relieve the itch.
Then she clutched the spoon and wouldn’t let go.
The spoon was made of wood and had been polished very smooth, so there was no fear of hurting her mouth.
Granny Yun pinched the flesh on her cheeks and looked inside her mouth. On her upper gum, near the front teeth, a tiny white speck was visible, looking quite cute.
“Jiaojiao is teething. Eldest, make a teething stick out of bamboo in a couple of days.”
The teething stick was an exclamation mark-shaped small stick, about the size of a child’s finger, smoothly polished, and hung on the child’s wrist with a string. When teething, infants like to put things in their mouths, and that’s perfect.
After going tide pooling with Shen Yunlian that time, every few days afterward, Yun Jiao would cry out, wanting to go tide pooling with them.
Gradually, everyone noticed that whenever Yun Jiao accompanied them, their tide pooling income increased.
“Jiaojiao is truly our family’s little lucky star~”
Yun Jiao stared at the fragrant meal on the dining table and cried out, but she could only look and not eat.
She was so angry that her little face puffed up, and then she turned her back to everyone, completely sulking.
Hahaha…
Everyone was amused.
Since the contract hasn’t been signed yet, only one chapter will be updated for now. After the contract is signed, two chapters will be updated. If no contract is signed before next month, two chapters will start being updated on the first.
