Chapter 387 - Unexpected Fleet of Ships (2/2)

Yu Xiaocao had never bothered to find out just what type of work Zhu Junyang had to do. She thought for a bit and then guessed, “Perhaps...he’s just an idle royal prince? With a title and lands, isn’t it normal for him to spend more time on his own lands?”

After hesitating for a bit, Yu Hang finally asked the question that had been tormenting him, “Younger Sister, in the future...will you marry Royal Prince Yang ah?”

“If he still wants to marry only me by the time I turn eighteen, then I’ll marry him! What else can I do?” If there was a man who was willing to wait for her for that many years, that meant that it was worth it right? That being said, now that he’s managed to control his inner demon, the young royal prince didn’t really have any large flaws besides being a little arrogant from time to time. She was willing to be merciful and grant him his wish of marrying her!

Yu Hang lightly sighed and then softly asked, “Younger Sister, do you like him? I really don’t want you, for the sake of preserving our family, to sacrifice yourself…”

Yu Xiaocao stopped what she was doing and then looked at him in surprise, “Is that what you’ve been worrying about ah? Don’t worry, even if I refused the young royal prince’s request, he wouldn’t threaten our family for this. He’s not that type of person! I’m still young, so I’m not sure whether or not I like him that way. In any case, I don’t hate the fellow right now! So, Older Brother, you don’t need to feel guilty towards me! That being said, am I the type of person to silently suffer?”

Yu Hang thought for a bit and then lightly shook his head. With Royal Prince Yang’s status and power, he was always afraid that he would force his younger sister to do something. As her older brother, he was powerless to do anything about it, so he felt quite helpless and resentful about this.

Yu Xiaocao continued to comfort her older brother until he finally looked a bit more cheerful. After she finished baking two patches of flaky pastries, Yu Xiaocao sent him off to give a batch to the Liu Family along with some peaches. She then called Steward Yingtao over from the other room and sent her to the West Mountain’s residence with a box of flaky pastries.

After Xiaolian finished inspecting the piggery, she came in from the gate. Currently, they were raising around three hundred pigs in the piggery and they were all about half grown. Everyday they ate so much food that it surprised everyone. All of the more hardworking children in the village would always cut a few baskets of fishwort to sell to the Yu Family so they could earn a few copper coins as spending money. Ever since Royal Prince Yang sent them some capable stewards and senior servants over, Xiaocao also sent one of them to the piggery. That person managed the piggery very well and it was even better than when Xiaolian was there last year.

“Younger Sister, right now is low tide, do you want to go diving right now?” Recently, Xiaolian had spent a lot of time in the water with Xiaocao and Zhuang Xiaomo, so her swimming abilities had also gone up a notch. Her diving skills had also improved perceptibly.

Xiaocao wanted to go out to the deep sea to dive to find some superior grade abalone and sea cucumbers. If she went out with Xiaolian and Zhuang Xiaomo, it’d be hard to shake them off. She shook her head, “I won’t go today. Go see if our neighbor Shanhu wants to go and bring her along instead!”

The current mentality of people was that men and women should not touch when giving or receiving things, and it was quite embedded within society. If Xiaocao didn’t go along, Xiaolian definitely wouldn’t go to the beach with Zhuang Xiaomo as they’d be a single man and woman together alone. Although Xiaolian was still a young girl of twelve, there were still differences between men and women. She was afraid that other people might start gossiping about this.

Xiaolian remembered that Zhuang Xiaomo had told her yesterday that he wanted to take her to an area that had a lot of seafood underwater. If she suddenly changed her plans today, she was afraid that he would wait for no reason. After thinking a bit, she changed into her swimsuit underneath her outer clothes and then took her bamboo basket with her as she went to go find Shanhu next door.

Not long after Xiaolian left, Yu Xiaocao also secretly changed into her swimsuit and left in a different direction to go to the beach. She found a secluded area and then stashed her outer clothes into a small rocky cave. Then, she dove and swam in the water like the descendant of a fish. Before long, a gray-blue dolphin about two meters long appeared and gleefully swam circles around her as if it was a little dog who hadn’t seen its master for a long time.

A small golden light next to Xiaocao gradually became bigger and then formed into the shape of a little cat. The little dolphin curiously used its long mouth to poke at the golden kitten but was pushed back by the little divine stone’s claw. The cat could swim and actually swam very well. If other people saw this, they would definitely think they were only dreaming or in a fantasy world.

With the little divine stone by her side, Yu Xiaocao didn’t need to worry about having to surface up to breathe. In fact, even the increasing water pressure that occurred as she dove deeper wasn’t a problem. She climbed onto the little dolphin’s back while the kitten stayed on her shoulder and the three of them swam deeper into the ocean.

Before long, Yu Xiaocao had filled up her little bamboo basket with seafood. This time, her harvest was truly too good and full of variety. In the deep ocean waters, the little golden kitten gave off a golden glow and she could see everything in the ocean very clearly. Giant abalone and fat sea cucumbers came to her hands easily. Yu Xiaocao also caught a one meter long lobster that weighed about a catty. It was going to be the perfect supplement to the Yu Family’s table.

[Master, not far from here, there’s a giant fleet of ships in the ocean! They have a somewhat bad smell coming off of them!] The little divine stone seemed to sense something and gave her a warning.

Fleet of ships? If she was remembering correctly, they should still be in the waters that were owned by the Great Ming Dynasty, right? If these were ships from the Great Ming Dynasty, the little divine stone definitely wouldn’t be giving her a warning. She needed to surface up and take a look. Yu Xiaocao was a very brave little girl and patted the little dolphin’s head and directed it to the surface. The little dolphin very obediently swam in the direction she wanted.