Chapter 358 - 355: Yun Xiaowu’s Composition

Placing the small wooden carving in her room, Yun Jiao took a closer look at her treasures.

She now had five Conch Pearls.

They varied in size. Three were relatively round, while the other two were a bit strange-looking.

But Yun Jiao didn’t mind.

She put them together with the fishtail-shaped pearl she had found earlier and the Black Pearl.

Yawning, she flopped onto her bed and quickly fell asleep.

Maybe it was because she was home, but Yun Jiao slept very soundly.

She didn’t wake up until the next day.

And it was her brothers who woke her.

"She’s awake! She’s awake!"

Yun Jiao opened her eyes to the sight of several familiar, magnified faces.

Yun Xiaowu and his brothers were all jostling each other, trying to get right in front of her.

"Jiaojiao, look at me! Look at me first!"

Yun Xiaowu, being the strongest, shoved his other brothers aside and cupped Yun Jiao’s little face in his hands.

"Sis, I missed you so much!"

"Yun Xiaowu!"

Yun Xiaojiu’s angry voice called out.

Yun Jiao turned her head slightly and saw Brother Nine sitting on the floor, fuming.

He must have been pushed over just now.

"Don’t look at him, look at me! Sis, hurry up and say you missed me."

Yun Xiaowu gave her a gentle turn, bringing Yun Jiao’s face back to his.

He grinned, showing his teeth in a goofy-looking smile.

Yun Jiao mumbled that she did.

"Get lost, it’s my turn! Jiaojiao, I missed you too. You have to say you missed me too."

Yun Xiaoqi pushed his way in, while Yun Xiao Ba and the now-standing Yun Xiaojiu refused to be outdone.

Yun Jiao: "..."

’It’s only been a few days. Why are they acting like it’s been years?’

And then the four of them started fighting.

Yun Xiaoqi was the one who started it.

"Fifth Brother, I saw it just now! It was Little Eight who stepped on you."

"Little Nine, you’re so dumb. If you team up with Little Eight, you can totally beat Fifth Brother."

Yun Jiao sat cross-legged on her bed, her hair a bit messy, and rested her chin on her little hand as she watched her brothers fight.

She wasn’t worried. After all, this sort of thing happened all the time at home.

That’s what happens when you have a lot of boys in the house. The smallest bump or scrape could lead to a fight, but they’d make up again just as quickly.

Before they could finish, the door to Yun Jiao’s room was pushed open. Wang Mei stood in the doorway holding a stick, her eyes blazing as she stared at the heap of brawling boys.

Yun Jiao went, "Uh-oh~"

’My brothers are doomed.’

Yun Xiaoqi was the first to notice. He immediately switched from instigator to peacemaker.

"Stop fighting! Don’t fight! We’re all brothers..."

Yun Jiao rolled her eyes. ’Brother Qi is the slyest of them all!’

"You little brats!"

Wang Mei’s furious voice boomed. The brothers, who had been fighting energetically just a moment ago, immediately separated. The expressions on their faces changed the second they saw the stick in her hand, and they took off running.

Yun Xiao Ba was too slow and got a smack on the butt.

"OW! Fifth Brother hit us first!"

Yun Xiaowu tried to take the opportunity to bolt out the door, but he still got whacked by Wang Mei before he managed to escape.

"Little Eight stepped on me first! These are my new shoes!"

Yun Xiao Ba: "I did not!"

Yun Xiaojiu obediently admitted his mistake. "Little Aunt, I know I was wrong. Can you hit me gently, please?"

He held out his hand, looking at Wang Mei with teary, pitiful eyes.

"But... Fifth Brother pushed me down first. It really hurt."

Yun Xiaoqi rolled his eyes. ’There Little Nine goes again.’

Sure enough, hearing Yun Xiaojiu’s plea, Wang Mei’s heart softened, and she couldn’t bring herself to hit him.

"That Xiao Wu, he’s always the one causing trouble! And you," she said, pointing at Xiaoqi, "don’t think I don’t know you’re always the one fanning the flames."

Yun Xiaoqi immediately proclaimed his innocence.

"I told you all that your sister was sleeping and not to bother her! Every one of you promised, but then you all came over here the moment my back was turned."

"All of you, go do your homework!"

Wang Mei turned to Yun Jiao. "Jiaojiao, did you sleep well?"

Yun Jiao nodded, and the little tuft of hair sticking up on her head swayed back and forth adorably.

"Come on, let’s go wash your face and brush your teeth. Auntie will comb your hair for you."

"Okay."

By the time she had her slippers on, Wang Mei had already neatly folded Yun Jiao’s bedding.

Downstairs, only Grandma was making breakfast. Her mother had gone to feed the pigs.

Their family was raising two more pigs this year.

"Jiaojiao’s up. Here, have an egg."

Granny Yun handed Yun Jiao a boiled egg.

She took it and tapped it all over on the stove top, which would make it easier to peel.

"Dad?"

Wang Mei combed her hair. "Your dad and your little uncle both went to the docks. Your godfather came back for a visit last night, and some people came early this morning. They said they were experts who wanted to see the things you all salvaged from the sea."

Yun Jiao finished the last bite of her egg and let out a soft "oh."

After her Little Aunt finished combing her hair, she went to wash her hands and then sat on the threshold, resting her small chin in her hands and spacing out.

’She wasn’t really spacing out, though. She was wondering if she should tell her godfather about the Bronze Tripod she’d found and hand it over.’

’As for the three bolts of fabric, she had no intention of handing those over.’

"Jiaojiao, come quick and see how my essay is."

Yun Xiaowu ran out with his notebook, his tone full of a desire for praise.

She sat up straight and took it to read.

The essay topic was "My Favorite ____."

Yun Xiaowu had written "Sister" in the blank.

Yun Jiao: ’I have a bad feeling about this.’

’Although she was gratified that she was her Fifth Brother’s favorite, his writing was... truly hard to look at.’

Sure enough, she read the first line.

"My sister is fair and plump, with big eyes, a small nose, and red lips. She is the most brawny and powerful in the family..."

Yun Jiao: "..."

She closed her eyes. Thanks to her incredible natural memory, even at only five years old, she understood language far better than her Fifth Brother did.

’So... what the hell kind of description was that? Was ’brawny and powerful’ supposed to be used like this?’

Faced with her Fifth Brother’s expectant gaze, Yun Jiao opened her mouth, then decided to just keep reading.

"She is smart and bald-headed, has infinite strength, and is a treasure that everyone in the family wants to kill..."

Yun Jiao couldn’t read any further. It didn’t matter how expectantly her Fifth Brother was looking at her.

The feisty Little Yu threw the notebook right in her Fifth Brother’s face.

"You dummy! The phrase is ’exceptionally brilliant’! And what the heck is ’everyone wants to kill them’?! Can you please stop misusing idioms!"

You couldn’t say he was uncultured, because he knew how to sprinkle in a few idioms.

But you couldn’t say he was cultured either, because he completely misunderstood them and even wrote the characters wrong.

Yun Xiaowu was dumbfounded. "Huh? It’s ’exceptionally brilliant’? I knew something felt a little off. But I asked my deskmate, and he said that when you’re too smart, the hair on your head gets thinner and thinner, so that’s why it’s called that. So what’s the difference between that and being ’bald-headed’?"

As he spoke, he glanced at Yun Jiao’s hair several times with a worried expression.

"Jiaojiao, maybe you shouldn’t be so smart after all. Being bald really isn’t a good look. Our principal is bald, and his hair is so sparse, there’s more grass in our fields than hair on his head."

Yun Linhai and the others arrived home just in time to hear Yun Xiaowu’s breathtakingly idiotic words, and their expressions were something to behold.

The corner of Sun Yaotong’s mouth twitched.

Yun Jiao had already snapped, flipping him to the ground with a shoulder throw.

Yun Xiaowu: "!!!"

’Oh no. My sister is really angry this time.’

Grimacing in pain, Yun Xiaowu scrambled to his feet and quickly apologized.

"Sis, I was wrong!"