IACF [QT] Chapter 4.3

“Yi Yi, what did you and Xiao Yan buy?” 

Xiao Xing and Su Wanting were carrying vegetable baskets. Grandma Qu had her hands free and leaned over to look at the paper bag in Su Yi’s hand.

Su Yi smiled shyly, with joy in her eyes, “Xiao Yan gave me a skirt.”

“Really?” Grandma Qu looked at Xiao Yan and said with a smile, “Xiao Yan, I’m sorry for the expense. I’ll make you a delicious meal when we get back.”

“You’re welcome.” Xiao Yan’s tone was still not very warm.

But in Grandma Qu’s opinion, this boy was just a man of few words, and he was already very polite. 

She asked Su Yi again, with a bit of anger that only close people would have, “How could you let Xiao Yan buy something for you? Did you say thank you?”

It happened that Xiao Xing had just put the things away and closed the trunk door. He walked around to the front and heard this sentence. 

He smiled and said, “He is Yi Yi’s brother. Isn’t it normal to give her a gift? Don’t be polite.”

Before Grandma Qu could say anything else, Su Wanting opened the car door and held her shoulders, “Mom, get in the car first.”

The car moved slowly to avoid the flow of people. Grandma Qu stopped talking, took out the skirt, looked at it, and praised Xiao Yan for his good taste.

When she got home, she asked Su Yi privately: “Yi Yi, did you say you wanted to buy that skirt, or did Xiao Yan buy it on his own initiative?”

“I took a few glances outside the store. He thought I wanted it, so he bought it.” Su Yi said truthfully.

Grandma Qu thought for a moment and said, “It’s probably what your Uncle Xiao meant. Forget it, since he gave it to you with good intentions, we don’t need to be petty. Just accept it and think about how to respond to him later. But you must not ask for things, it’s not polite and will make people look down on you, understand?”

Su Yi nodded obediently, “I know.”

Grandma Qu knew her granddaughter well. She was very sensible, unlike those spoiled children who had no sense of propriety. 

She did not explain much and asked again, “The skirt is not cheap, is it?”

Su Yi got excited when she heard it and made a four with her hand, feeling quite smug: “The original price was 580, and I got it down to 400.”

“Wow!” Grandma Qu was really surprised. She smiled so much that wrinkles appeared on the corners of her eyes. 

“Our Yi Yi knows how to bargain now. She even bargained down more than a hundred yuan in one go. That’s amazing!”

Su Yi smiled, and her eyebrows curved, revealing a row of white teeth.

Grandma Qu couldn’t help but touch her head. 

Four hundred yuan for a thin skirt was certainly not worth mentioning to the father and son of the Xiao family. But in her eyes, it was still very expensive. However, the child was rarely happy, so she couldn’t bear to say anything.

In the evening, after the seawater receded, Su Yi changed into rubber shoes, carried a bucket and a shovel, and went out to catch the fish. She had told Grandma Qu earlier that she would add an extra meal for dinner to her family in the evening.

There were many tourists on the beach, and it was very lively. There were only a few people on the mudflat, all from the village.

Su Yi found an unmanned area and put on gloves. She first turned over all the stones that had just receded in the tide nearby and dug out a few blue crabs. 

For some stones that could not be turned over, she put the hook into the gap and stirred it, waiting for the grumpy crabs to clamp the hook by themselves, and then she dragged them out.

She looked down on the small ones and only focused on the big crabs. She picked and chose, and finally, she put four or five crabs in the bucket.

There were many small round holes in the ground. When it was dug with a shovel, there were often fresh clams or razor clams inside, and sometimes shrimps. Su Yi didn’t pick and choose, and just threw them all into the bucket.

She also picked up an octopus from a crevice in a reef filled with seawater.

Some people were more fully equipped than her. They were rowing small boats and swaying on the reefs not far from the coast. There were many mussels, barnacles, and others, and if they were lucky, there were plump oysters.

As soon as the sun went down, she carried half a bucket of her harvest home, eager to prepare the seafood for dinner.

 

 

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