Chapter 75: Little Sister, You’re Really Making Me Look Useless

Yun Xiaowu, off to the side, was writing quickly, but it was just a scrawl.

The youngest generation of boys in the Yun family all had "Chen" in their names. The first four brothers were named after the cardinal directions: east, south, west, and north.

The fifth through eighth brothers were named after the four classical arts: the zither, Go, calligraphy, and painting. However, the character for zither, "qin," sounded a bit feminine, so they used a homonym, "Qin," instead.

Yun Xiaowu’s full name was Yun Chenqin, Yun Xiao Liu’s was Yun Chenqi, Yun Xiaoqi’s was Yun Chenshu, and Yun Xiao Ba’s was Yun Chenghua.

As for the youngest, Yun Xiaojiu, they simply picked a character with an auspicious meaning.

His name was Yun Chen’an.

Yun Xiaowu’s name had many strokes. Combined with his scrawled handwriting, you could barely recognize it without staring.

He was the first to finish, but his work was quickly rejected.

"What is this supposed to be? Can you even read this writing yourself? Do it over!"

Yun Xiaowu tried his best to argue. "What do you mean you can’t read it? It looks perfectly fine to me!"

With a dark expression, Yun Linhai retorted, "Your handwriting is even worse than your old man’s!"

Yun Linhai used the red eraser on the end of the pencil to wipe away the characters Yun Xiaowu had written.

No sense in wasting the rest of the notebook paper.

"Do it over!"

Yun Jiao was hunched over the table, writing for what felt like an eternity. She had only managed to fill less than half a page with her crooked characters.

"This is so much... Daddy, can I please write a little less?"

It had to be said, the punishment was indeed harsh.

Yun Jiao played to her strengths, starting to whine and act pitiful.

Who could possibly resist the pleading gaze of such a soft, adorable little girl?

Yun Linhai cleared his throat. "Jiaojiao, just write one page of your name. For the rest, write two pages of the numbers 1 and 2."

Yun Jiao’s eyes lit up. "Thank you, Daddy!"

Such a sweet-talker.

Yun Linhai couldn’t help but add, "Just don’t go running off into the sea again, alright? You have no idea how worried we were."

Yun Jiao said in a small voice, "But it feels so nice in the sea. My arm doesn’t hurt as much, and my feet don’t hurt as much either."

She lifted her chubby little foot for Yun Linhai to see.

Children are flexible. With her soft bones and chubby little legs, she easily lifted her foot over her head, as if doing a split.

Yun Linhai gently squeezed her chubby calf, which was delightfully squishy, and took a look.

He froze when he saw it.

The blisters on her feet, which had been lanced, really did look much better.

’Could it be that the sea is actually good for Jiaojiao?’

He muttered to himself.

"Alright, I’ll talk to your mother about this."

With her punishment lightened by her father, Yun Jiao finished her writing much more quickly.

After all, writing "1" and "2" was much easier than writing out her name.

She had an adult check her work before she was finally let off the hook.

"Jiaojiao, did you catch all of this on the seafloor?"

Yun Jiao nodded.

"I’m amazing."

She lifted her little chin, looking particularly proud.

Yun Linhe asked her how long she could hold her breath.

Even though it was the shallows, for a girl Yun Jiao’s size, it was still quite deep—at least two meters.

Yun Jiao replied, "A really, really long time."

An instinct for self-preservation kept her from telling her family that she could breathe underwater.

She knew she was different from everyone else. Her father and brothers had to surface for air when they dove; every human did.

Only she was different.

Yun Linhe and the others didn’t press the issue, and so the matter was dropped for the day.

The next day, Yun Jiao’s feet had healed considerably, and she was able to walk around.

The weather wasn’t good, so they didn’t take the boats out for safety reasons.

But they still went down to the shore to forage.

Yun Chenxi asked, "Jiaojiao, you want to go play in the sea again?"

Yun Jiao looked at him with wide, hopeful eyes. "Will I have to write lines?"

Yun Chenxi laughed and pinched her little cheek.

"I’ll go with you today. You can play in the sea for a bit."

At his words, Yun Jiao’s face broke into a wide smile. Her clear, beautiful eyes seemed to sparkle like sunlight on the surface of the sea.

"Wait, I have to bring my little followers."

Yun Jiao scampered on her short little legs over to the chicken coop. When she emerged, a trail of fuzzy fluffballs was following at her heels.

CHEEP CHEEP, PEEP PEEP! It was quite a lively procession.

Yun Jiao marched at the head of the procession, leading the way with her little pail and shovel in hand. Behind her trailed her little followers, and behind them came the adults of the Yun family.

The other villagers on their way to forage on the beach couldn’t help but stop and gawk at the peculiar sight.

"Yun Jiao, why are all those chicks and ducklings following you?"

Yun Jiao replied in a clear, bright voice, "They’re my followers."

"Whoa, look how well-behaved they are! They’re even following her in a line."

"How’d she get them to follow her like that?"

"Heh, if she lets them forage for themselves on the tidal flats, they’ll certainly eat their fill."

The adults followed along for a bit, finding the scene too amusing to miss.

Many of the other children started to follow as well. Yun Xiaowu and his brothers puffed out their chests, filled with pride.

’Who had a cooler sister than them?’

Of course, there were also those who were resentful and jealous.

"Always showing off. It’s just a bunch of chicks and ducklings, it’s not like I’ve never seen them before."

Yes, that was Yun Zhaodi.

Yun Jiao felt her stare, glanced over, and made a face at her.

That just made Yun Zhaodi even more furious.

She didn’t dare fight her or curse at her, so all she could do was fume in silence.

Yun Jiao led her procession to the tidal flats left by the receding tide. She found a spot rich with small clams, squatted down, and started digging with her little shovel.

"Come on, everyone, find something to eat."

The clams were tiny. She dug them up, cracked them open, and let the little birds peck at the meat inside.

The chicks ate only the meat inside, but the ducklings and goslings sometimes swallowed the shells right along with it.

If she came across any tiny shrimp, she would give those to them as well.

There was an abundance of food like this by the sea; she didn’t have to worry about them going hungry.

After cracking open some more clams for them, Yun Jiao spotted a small hole in the sand and immediately started digging at it with her shovel.

She dug and dug, going surprisingly deep.

Yun Jiao had no idea what lived in the hole; she was just digging to see what she would find.

When the hole was about as deep as her forearm, she saw something squirming.

Yun Jiao freed up a hand to grab it.

After a moment, she pulled out something with a big "nose."

It was a geoduck.

It was bigger than her palm, with a thick, meaty siphon.

Geoducks have a strange shape, and this one did look a bit like an elephant’s trunk.

Its siphon was much larger than that of ordinary clams or snails.

Yun Jiao scanned the area, spotted a similar hole in the sand, and started digging again.

She occasionally glanced up at her flock of chicks and ducklings, cracking open more small clams or snails for them whenever they finished what they had.

"Jiaojiao, have they had enough to eat yet?"

Yun Xiaowu and her other brothers came running over.

The tide had just gone out, so their first order of business had been to snatch up the sea creatures left stranded.

Now that they had collected most of what was on the surface, people were starting to dig in the sand.

Yun Xiaowu showed Yun Jiao the contents of his bucket.

"Jiaojiao, look! I found three conches and even caught a Stonefish."

Yun Jiao glanced over. The fish wasn’t big, not even a pound.

It wouldn’t fetch much money, but it would be a nice addition to the family’s dinner.

"You’re amazing, big brother."

Yun Jiao praised him, but her hands never stopped moving as she rooted around in the hole she’d just dug.

"What are you digg—"

Yun Xiaowu’s words caught in his throat.

Because he had just watched his little sister pull an enormous geoduck from the sand pit.

Yun Xiaowu was speechless.

’Sis, you’re really making me look useless here!’