The Sea Queen of 1985

Chapter 178: Chapter 178: A Special Gift

Granny Cai was taken aback. ”Don’t you find their love story moving? They only get to see each other once a year!”

Yang Minmin shook her head. ”I don’t think their love is moving at all. I just think Niu Lang... he peeked at a woman bathing and even stole her clothes. If that’s not being a scoundrel, what is?”

”Last winter, around here, a man got caught peeking at a woman bathing and was sentenced to three years in prison. My dad told me that peeking at women bathing is wrong. It’s what scoundrels do.”

Hearing this, Granny Cai burst out laughing and patted Yang Minmin’s little head affectionately. ”Minmin, you’re so smart. Stealing someone’s clothes is indeed wrong.”

Han Xiaorui smiled and asked, ”Minmin, if Niu Lang is a scoundrel, then what do you think of the Weaver Maid?”

Yang Minmin thought for a moment, then said, ”I think the Weaver Maid is a little dumb. How could a girl just secretly bathe in the wild like that? What if she ran into a bad person?”

”Besides, I can actually understand why the Jade Emperor and the Queen Mother were angry. Their daughter was disobedient and ran off with a man. They looked down on Niu Lang for stealing their daughter’s clothes, and on top of that, he deceived her.”

”My grandpa always says that the only reason he let my mom marry my dad was because he saw that my dad was polite, followed the rules, and was a man of good character. That’s how you get parents to not oppose a marriage.”

Han Xiaoqing gave Yang Minmin a thumbs-up. ”Sister Cuicui, Minmin’s got it all figured out. This child has a good head on her shoulders and a righteous heart. She’ll definitely turn out great.”

Wu Cuicui was both surprised and delighted. She truly hadn’t expected her daughter to be so clever. ”It’s all because her teachers are so good.”

”The teachers are good, but you and Brother Jianguo also lead by example. A child has to be smart to begin with to be so discerning,” Han Xiaorui said with emotion. ”If Pingping and An’an are even a third as sensible as Minmin in the future, I’ll be more than satisfied.”

Wu Cuicui returned the compliment, ”Pingping and An’an have also improved so much. Look how happy they are playing.”

Han Xiaorui and Han Xiaoqing smiled. ”Yes, they’re very happy.”

Just then, the sound of a vehicle stopping came from the entrance, and Han Xiaorui got up to open the door.

Standing at the door was Ye Feng, holding a bouquet of fresh flowers.

Han Xiaorui froze, looking from the flowers to Ye Feng. ”Aren’t you supposed to be at home resting? Did you come all this way just to bring me flowers?”

Ye Feng held the bouquet in one hand, and with the other, he pulled a palm-sized velvet box from his pocket. ”For you. Today is the Daughters’ Festival. Grandma said it’s a very important day for women.”

Hearing this, Han Xiaorui broke into a radiant smile. ”It is indeed very important. We’re celebrating the Qixi Festival right now. Come on in.”

Everyone had met Ye Feng before and greeted him.

The driver who had come with him carried a box over and placed it in the yard.

Ye Feng said to Pingping and An’an, ”This is a gift for you. Open it and see.”

At the mention of a gift, all the children ran over, their eyes wide with anticipation. They opened the box to find it filled with all sorts of stuffed animals.

Pingping hugged a little dolphin, An’an held an elephant, and Cai Wenjun liked the tiger.

Yang Minmin waited for the younger children to choose theirs first, then she picked out the giant panda toy. ”Thank you, Uncle Ye.”

These stuffed animals had all been bought from abroad. They were exquisitely made and also very cute.

”You’re welcome. Their eyes are switches. Press them, and they make a sound,” Ye Feng pointed out.

When the children pressed them, the toys not only sang but also lit up, which was a wonderful novelty.

Han Xiaoqing gently nudged her sister. ”Why don’t you take Brother Ye out for a walk?”

”Alright, I’ll leave you to entertain everyone here.” Han Xiaorui thought for a moment and nodded. She went back into the house, tucked the gold ingot into her pocket, and grabbed two gourd-shaped Qiqiao cakes. ”Ye Feng, I’m heading to the pier. Want to come?”

”I do.” Ye Feng chuckled, his handsome face softening.

This was Han Xiaorui’s way of creating an opportunity for them to be alone.

The two of them walked toward the sea. With just the two of them on the path, Han Xiaorui handed Ye Feng a Qiqiao cake. ”It’s delicious. Eating it brings you peace, safety, fortune, and prosperity!”

Ye Feng took a bite before accepting it. ”This must be Lady Cai’s handiwork.”

Han Xiaorui nodded and smiled. ”Yes, they’re so meticulously made—beautiful and delicious! Hurry up and eat it. I have a gift for you, too!”

”Oh?” Ye Feng was skeptical. ’Was it because he’d arrived in such a hurry that her gift was just something she threw together? Or did it mean that if he hadn’t shown up, she wouldn’t have given him this gift at all? It seems I’ll have to come over more often in the future!’

Ye Feng finished the Qiqiao cake, chewing it carefully before slowly swallowing. Full of anticipation, he asked, ”What’s the gift?”

Han Xiaorui pulled the gold ingot from her pocket and placed it in Ye Feng’s hand. ”It’s pure gold. Guess where I got it?”

Ye Feng was slightly stunned when he saw the gold ingot. Although the color was off, he could estimate its density. ”This really is a gold ingot! It has traces of seawater corrosion on it. Don’t tell me you fished it out of the sea?”

Han Xiaorui nodded. ”Technically, I didn’t fish it out myself. A hawksbill turtle gave it to me.”

”Ever since we caught a hawksbill turtle in our fishing net last time and cleaned the barnacles and other parasites off its shell, that same turtle has been calling its friends, bringing lots of other sea turtles and hawksbill turtles to us so we can clean the barnacles and parasites off them, too.”

”While the fishing boat was trawling, everyone was idle anyway, and we all feel that sea turtles are very spiritual creatures, so we were happy to help clean them off.”

”Especially that first hawksbill turtle. It’s incredibly smart. It brought this gold ingot to me in its mouth, and tomorrow, it’s going to lead us to a shipwreck reef.”

Hearing this, Ye Feng’s expression turned serious. He gripped Han Xiaorui’s hand. ”Do a lot of people know about this?”

Han Xiaorui shook her head. ”Only I know. When Xiao Dai gave me the gold ingot, no one else was around.”

”I know that sunken treasure is incredibly tempting. The more people who know, the more danger and trouble there will be.”

”The location is in international waters. I was originally trying to figure out how to recover the treasure, but my little sister saw this gold ingot.”

”She said our family is already quite wealthy and has attracted the attention of some unsavory characters. If word got out that we’d also salvaged a sunken treasure, we’d never have any peace. Desperate and vicious people might even be driven to do something drastic.”

Hearing this, Ye Feng let out a long sigh of relief. ”You’re smarter than I thought, not spreading it around. There was a case last year involving murder over an antique. And that was just for one antique that was only worth a little bit of money. If it were for all these gold ingots, who knows what would happen?”

Han Xiaorui scratched her head. ”After thinking it over and over, my sister and I decided not to salvage it. But it seems like such a waste to just leave all that treasure in the sea. So I wanted to tell you. Whether you report it to the government or find people to recover it yourself, that’s your business.”

Ye Feng smiled. ”If I report it, I’ll have to explain how I got the coordinates. It wouldn’t be appropriate for me to just report a set of coordinates out of the blue.”

”You want to find people to salvage it privately?” Han Xiaorui had originally thought that, given Ye Feng’s character, he would report it directly.

’Could it be that Ye Feng was also feeling greedy about the sunken treasure?’

’Was it really a good idea for her to hand it over to him so easily?’