Fields of Gold

Like an ocean spirit, Yu Xiaocao suddenly appeared in front of Jiang Sanshan and immediately became his last grasp at hope.

“Miss Yu! Quickly, quickly! Zhuang Xiaomo has been trapped by a giant pearl oyster on the seabed. If we’re any later, I don’t know if he’ll still be alive!!” Jiang Sanshan was a big, strapping, hulk of a man but he was now so worried that he was almost in tears.

Yu Xiaocao slightly frowned and stated, “You guys should continue asking for help in the surrounding area. I’m going to have Xiaobu bring me down to take a look! Don’t fret, perhaps it’s not as bad as you think it is!”

By the time Yu Xiaocao swam down, Zhuang Xiaomo, who had already given up, was unconscious from lack of air. Yu Xiaocao had the little divine stone create a bubble of air around Zhuang Xiaomo’s head and then forcefully made him cough up the seawater he had inhaled. Following that, she had the little divine stone imbue him with some spiritual energy to make him breathe normally again.

Although she could use mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to also do the same, this fellow was going to be her future older brother-in-law. In this ancient and feudal society, using one’s mouth to help a person breathe was too shocking and out of the norm. Since she had another method on hand, she decided to give up on the method that she wasn’t that good at anyway.

Zhuang Xiaomo was breathing again but hadn’t regained consciousness. Yu Xiaocao fed a drop of mystic-stone water to him and then ignored him for the more pressing matter at hand. She now gave her full attention to that gargantuan pearl oyster that was trapping the youth. Since Zhuang Xiaomo had risked his life to insert his hand in the creature, there must be a pearl of immense value and size inside!

Yu Xiaocao ended up using three drops of mystic-stone water to finally open up that crafty pearl oyster. Inside was a giant pearl. Even she felt her heart waver when she saw it. No wonder Zhuang Xiaomo would take such a risk. She retrieved the round and large pearl from the oyster and then patted the creature’s shell before she swam back to Zhuang Xiaomo.

She thought for a bit and then stuffed that giant pearl into his hand and then placed a purple pearl she had just gathered into his other one. Colored pearls were quite rare and purple was an auspicious and precious color. With those two added together, he should have no problems getting first place, right? After finishing this, she pulled on the rope that tethered Zhuang Xiaomo to the boat.

“Older Brother Jiang, Older Brother Jiang!! The rope is moving again!” A young man who was a few years older than Zhuang Xiaomo had been watching the rope like a hawk this entire time. At this time, he was quite agitated from excitement.

Jiang Sanshan had been yelling for a bit and his voice was quite hoarse now. When he saw this, he hollered at the younger man, “What are you waiting for ah? Quickly pull it up!”

The four men used all of their might to pull——it moved! Pure joy flowed through Jiang Sanshan and he yelled loudly, “Faster, faster ah!! Perhaps we can still save Xiaomo!!”

They very quickly pulled the rope onto the boat and the four of them all reached out to carry Zhuang Xiaomo onto the vessel. Jiang Sanshan immediately placed a hand underneath the unconscious youth’s nose and could feel him breathing. He then crouched down to listen to Xiaomo’s chest and everything seemed normal.

This was quite odd. Although he had transferred some air to Zhuang Xiaomo prior to surfacing, that bit of air should have been all used up by now. Also, didn’t people normally breathe in water when they became unconscious underwater? Quite a few questions circled around Jiang Sanshan’s mind.  

Immediately following the rescue, Yu Xiaocao had been delivered back to the surface with the help of Xiaobu. Although Jiang Sanshan had no idea how she managed to open that giant pearl oyster, he still sincerely thanked her for her help.

Yu Xiaocao waved a hand dismissively, “In actuality, I wasn’t that much help. By the time I swam down, Older Brother Xiaomo was already unconscious and that giant oyster was already slowly opening itself back up. I only waited a bit. Once the oyster was completely open, I helped him to pull on the rope that’s all...eh? Older Brother Xiaomo seems to have something in his hand, right?”

Jiang Sanshan and the other three people immediately turned their attention to Zhuang Xiaomo’s hand. They used a bit of force to pry open his hand and were instantly stunned by what they saw——it was a giant pearl and it had to be larger than a pigeon’s egg!!

Just as they were sighing over the specimen, Zhuang Xiaomo’s hand twitched and he slowly woke up. Jiang Sanshan shook him emotionally and his voice trembled as he said, “Xiaomo, you’re finally awake!! Look, look, you did it!! You finally got a superior grade large pearl!!”

Zhuang Xiaomo felt like his mind was in a fog and, for a moment, he had no idea where he was right now. He...wasn’t dreaming ah? He didn’t die? Also, wasn’t the pearl in Older Brother Jiang’s hands the pearl that he had seen in that giant pearl oyster that had trapped him? What happened? Did Older Brother Jiang bring someone over to save him and also bring the pearl up with them?

After Jiang Sanshan emotionally described the series of events that had just passed, Zhuang Xiaomo was even more confused. Logically, that pearl oyster would not have easily opened and allowed his hand to come out. How could it just randomly allow him to escape after just a short period of time? This...was truly out of the norm!

Eh? What did he have in his left hand? Zhuang Xiaomo discovered that there was something in his other hand and slowly opened it up. The fright on his face deepened a few fractions. A purple pearl? He only remembered that the giant pearl oyster seemed to have a big white pearl that was larger than a pigeon egg. Now, where did this purple pearl come from? Everyone else stared at the other pearl, spellbound.

“Wow! Xiaomo, you are truly too skilled. You even came across a purple pearl. Those noble and wealthy people really love purple colored items. This pearl must be worth a lot of money, right?” One of the younger men grabbed the purple pearl and carefully appreciated it. His eyes shone with a fascinated light.

Another young man nodded his head in agreement, “I heard the older generation say that many years ago, there was another pearl diver named Grandpa Lu, who was just as skilled as your grandpa, Xiaomo. He came across a purple pearl that was much smaller than this but sold it for around eight thousand taels ah. His whole family moved to the prefectural city and they bought a store to do business. They’re doing quite well now. Xiaomo, you’ve hit the jackpot this time!”

Jiang Sanshan waited until that pearl had made a round through everyone on the boat before carefully giving it back to Zhuang Xiaomo. He suddenly thought of something and said, “Earlier, Miss Xiaocao had swam over along with her dolphin friend, Xiaobu. She was the one who dove down and discovered that the oyster had let you go and pulled the rope for you to allow us to bring you back up. Eh? How come I don’t see Miss Xiaocao around anymore?”

The young man, who mentioned that Zhuang Xiaomo had hit it big, chuckled and said, “She has a dolphin bring her around, so who knows how far they’ve swam by now! Miss Xiaocao’s swimming abilities are even better than Xiaomo’s. There’s no need for us to worry needlessly about her.”

“It’s getting late, so let’s go back to the port ah! Xiaomo, you should have your body checked out by a doctor when we’re back on land to make sure you haven’t harmed anything during the interlude.” Jiang Sanshan had asked for Zhuang Xiaomo’s opinion before making a decision. The group of five directed their ship back home.

Zhuang Xiaomo vaguely knew within his heart that the purple pearl in his hand definitely was related to Xiaocao in some way. Since she chose such a surreptitious method to help him, it was likely she didn’t want anyone else to know about her involvement. Then...he should just pretend nothing had happened, right?

Ever since he moved to Dongshan Village, Uncle and Auntie Yu treated him like he was their own biological son. From the conversations he had with Xiaolian and the other family members, he discovered that everyone in the family had an unspoken trust in Xiaocao. Furthermore, this type of trust wasn’t reliant on her actions and abilities and instead seemed like a blind trust. Even if Xiaocao had somehow plucked the moon from the sky, they wouldn’t seem the least bit surprised.

Furthermore, from his observations, all of Xiaocao’s abilities and skills seemed to have come from nowhere. For example, the recipes for her cooking. She claimed that she had picked up an old book and learned from it. However, no one in the Yu Family had ever seen this book. Another example would be the greenhouse-grown vegetables that Xiaocao came up with. No one in the Great Ming Dynasty had ever heard of such an idea, so where did she learn how to do this? In addition, it seemed like that no matter what the Yu Family grew, they always seemed to get a higher yield than other people and their products also tasted better. Even the most ordinary cabbage that they grew was more fresh and tasty compared to the other cabbages on the market. From what the Yu Family mentioned, he knew that it seemed to have some sort of connection to Xiaocao as well. Xiaocao was like a little immortal girl who had come down to earth. No matter what sort of problem there was, she never seemed to have an issue resolving it.

Then, wasn’t the reason why he was able to escape with his life today related to her? Also, there was that purple pearl...it must have been that she could tell that he desperately wanted to win, so she decided to give a rare pearl that she had found herself to him.

Sigh...originally he had thought that he could rely on his own efforts to let the Yu Family regard him better. In the end, he still had to rely on the Yu Family. In fact, his own life had been saved by a member from the Yu Family. Zhuang Xiaomo silently vowed that if he had the fortune to be able to marry Xiaolian as his wife, he would definitely treat her as a precious treasure. He absolutely wouldn’t let her suffer one little bit!

Yu Xiaocao, who had no idea of the complicated thoughts that were going through Zhuang Xiaomo’s mind, was currently swimming freely on the quiet ocean floor, hunting for pearls. With the little divine stone’s air bubble protection plus its sensing abilities, she was able to find pearls quite easily. In fact, pearls that were smaller than the first segment of a thumb were deemed too small for her to get.

There were countless pearl oysters available that had their shells lazily opened, waiting to see if she was willing to take their treasures or not. It was as if she was perusing a glittering and fantastical jewelry shop that allowed her to carefully pick and choose what she wanted. In addition, this shop also didn’t require you to pay anything.

“Are there still any more pink pearls around?” Yu Xiaocao gazed into her pouch full of pearls and greedily asked the little divine stone.

The little divine stone morphed into its kitten form and paddled its four tiny legs in the water. It looked incredibly adorable as it swam through the ocean. It rolled its eyes at its master, who was getting pickier and pickier with time, and then swam over to a large pearl oyster that was about the size of a wash basin and waved a paw at it. The pearl oyster obligingly opened and inside, hiding, was a sparkling pale pink pearl that now revealed itself to Xiaocao. The pearl seemed to float up, as if it was being towed by an invisible hand, and headed towards Xiaocao.

“Little Glutinous Dumpling, that’s a great one! I still need two more and I’ll have enough to make a bracelet. Then, Xiaolian and I will both have one. These types of pink pearls are the best color for young maidens our age.” Yu Xiaocao moved the pearl next to her arm to show off how good it looked against her skin. The pale pink color of the jewel contrasted beautifully with the color of her skin.

The two of them, along with the dolphin, continued to swim leisurely through the water, going deeper into the ocean to search for more pearls. As they swam, Xiaocao suddenly hit a transparent glass-like barrier and bounced off. 

“What is this?” Yu Xiaocao squinted her eyes to look at the water in front of her. She couldn’t see anything. She carefully stretched out a hand to feel the space in front of her and found out that there truly was a transparent material there that didn’t allow her to pass through.