Fields of Gold (Web Novel)
chapter-158

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Zhou Shanhu, who was nearby, was slightly worried as she watched the little fellow fall into the water. She asked in a low voice, “Xiaocao, can your kitten swim? It won’t drown, right?”

“It won’t, it won’t! Little Glutinous Dumpling loves to swim! Don’t worry!!” Yu Xiaocao saw the little golden kitten paddling with its little paws and had almost reached the shore, so she went to look for sandworms without worry.

The little golden kitten’s entire body was wet when it got ashore, and appeared to be in a very embarrassing state. The little divine stone snorted as it approached Yu Xiaocao, who was currently lying on the beach and digging for sandworms in the sand. It shook its body vigorously and shook the seawater onto Xiaocao’s face. Then, it raised its head and walked away briskly. While no one was paying attention to it, it secretly used its power to dry its hair.

Xiaocao deliberately moved farther away from the crowd. She found an area with more wormholes, and then used the spade to dig a square pit that was half a meter big. After that, she submerged the multicolored stone on her wrist into the seawater inside the sandpit.

The little golden kitten, who ran out of nowhere, saw its true form being soaked in the muddy seawater. It walked around her anxiously and said, [This seawater is too dirty! This Divine Stone likes to bathe, but you can’t use fishy and dirty seawater ah!]

Yu Xiaocao squatted beside the sandpit and watched a sandworm come out of the sand on its own initiative and slowly approached the multicolored stone. She replied nonchalantly, “What else could I do? I want to use your spiritual energy to attract the sandworms. If you don’t want to soak in it, then give me a better method?”

The little divine stone angrily threw a tantrum at her, and then helplessly said, [Take my body out. I can release my spiritual energy at will now!]

“Oh! Your power advanced again? Congratulations!!’ Yu Xiaocao sincerely congratulated it because she knew that she would be the one who benefitted the most from the improvement of the little divine stone’s power.

The little divine stone watched her take its body out of the sandpit, and then it supervised her to wipe clean the multicolored stone. After she put it back on her wrist, it lazily stretched out its little paw and emitted a little bit of golden light into the sandpit.

“So little? Will it work?” Beside it, Xiaocao expressed her doubts.

The little divine stone rolled its eyes at her and said, “It’s enough! If I released anymore, these ugly bugs will explode from the overconsumption of spiritual energy!”

As they spoke, all the sandworms in the sandpit rushed out one after another. Xiaocao happily picked them up one by one and put them in the bucket. After she picked up all the sandworms, the little divine stone waved its paw again and retrieved the remaining energy, lest it attracted other marine creatures.

The little divine stone could now control and freely retrieve the spiritual energy it produced. For example, it had filtered and screened the mystic-stone water used to water the Yu Family’s watermelon fields so that it would only be useful for plants. If they used the mystic-stone water that could attract game like before, the watermelon fields would definitely be completely devoured!

Yu Xiaocao chose another place and dug an even bigger sandpit. Although it was bigger, it wasn’t very deep. She was able to dig the sandpit with ease even with her small body. During this time, Xiaolian had came over to take a look. She thought that her younger sister had given up digging for sandworms and was digging the sand for fun. But Xiaolian didn’t force her younger sister to keep working. Tongren Medicine Hall offered a high price, but with the Yu Family’s current income, it wasn’t really that attractive to her.

When Xiaocao finished digging, the little golden kitten came to the pit and waved its paw while also complaining, [That damned seawater made my paws wet. It feels so uncomfortable. How can you be a master like this? Can’t you just put me in your pocket?]

Yu Xiaocao sewed a pocket inside her jacket, which was originally made for her to put her valuables when going out. Thus, it was more than enough to carry a miniature cat.

The tide had just receded at the beach, so it was still wet. There were also small puddles at some low-lying areas. The little golden kitten was super miniature in size and wasn’t even as big as her palm. It was really quite hard for it to walk on such a wet beach with its short legs.

Yu Xiaocao picked up the kitten mercifully, let it dry its wet paws, and then stuffed its tiny body into her jacket. The little golden kitten held onto her collar with its claws, revealing a glittering little head.

Sandworms crawled out one by one and wiggled their fat bodies into the sandpit. Xiaocao counted the sandworms. There were over ten plump sandworms in this sandpit. After washing the sand off the sandworms with seawater, it still looked rather disgusting to see all the fleshy worms gathered together. But when she thought of their value, she could endure it.

Two hours swiftly passed just like this. Zhou Shanhu waved her hands at her and shouted in the distance, “Xiaocao, Doctor Sun has started to purchase the spoon worms. Come here quickly!” As she shouted, she ran towards a direction along the shore. She needed to occupy a good position, lest Tongren Medicine Hall collected enough and they ended up working in vain.

Xiaocao carried her heavy bucket, so she definitely couldn’t walk very fast. Xiaolian had already quickly arrived at that place, but when she saw her younger sister’s slow and struggling appearance, she ran back to help her.

She had originally thought that with Xiaocao’s speed of playing while working, she surely wouldn’t get much harvest. But she hadn’t expected that when she took Xiaocao’s bucket, she almost couldn’t carry it due to its weight. There was a lid on Xiaocao’s wooden bucket. She couldn’t see the contents inside, so she assumed, “Younger Sister, sandworms aren’t fish. They won’t die quickly after leaving the sea. Putting so much water in the bucket makes it really heavy ah! Let me help you pour some out.”

As she spoke, she leaned the wooden bucket to one side and took the lid off with her other hand.

“Don’t…” Yu Xiaocao didn’t expect her to move so quickly. When she tried to stop her, some of the sandworms in the bucket had already slid out of the bucket and landed on the beach. She quickly squatted down and picked up the sandworms that had fallen on the sand and put them back into the bucket.

Xiaolian was obviously stunned. She looked at the sandworms crowding in the bucket. There was actually more than half a bucket! She roughly weighed it with her hands and realized that there were at least twenty or thirty catties. No wonder her younger sister was struggling with the bucket.

Earlier, she had been paying attention to her little sister, but she didn’t see her digging seriously. How did she dig out so many spoon worms in such a short period of time? It was obviously her younger sister’s first time digging for spoon worms when she first started! Was this the so-called ‘just like being helped by the gods’?

Xiaolian remembered that her younger sister’s abilities had always exceeded all expectations after they separated from the main family, so she stopped thinking about how she was able to catch so many sandworms. She didn’t want to let her younger sister hold something so heavy, so she said, “Younger Sister, you run faster and wait in line. I’ll carry these sandworms!”

Since someone was willing to help her carry it, Xiaocao was naturally very happy to comply. With her thin arms and legs, she had never really done any heavy labor since she was reborn. Xiaocao swiftly ran at full speed towards the long queue.

Zhou Shanhu, who stood closer to the front of the line, saw Xiaocao running over while panting, so she waved her hands and said, “Xiaocao, come quickly! I told my older brother to save a spot for you!! Why are you and Xiaolian so slow ah?!”

Yu Xiaocao looked at Zhou Shaohua, who gave up his position, and then looked at the long line behind him. She felt that it seemed somewhat unethical to cut in line. In the midst of her hesitation, Zhou Shaohua pulled her arm and led her into the line. He whispered, “I gave this spot to you, so it doesn’t count as cutting in line.”

Yu Xiaocao gave the person behind her a slightly apologetic smile and noticed that it was an acquaintance—Auntie Shuanzhu. In fact, most of the people lining up to sell sandworms were the fishermen of Dongshan Village. As fellow villagers, even if Zhou Shaohua didn’t give her his spot, they could still forgive a little girl for cutting in line.

There were around ten catties of sandworms, which were cleaned very well, in the basket that Shuanzhu’s wife carried. She looked at the kitten’s little head in front of Xiaocao’s chest and laughed, “Oh! Xiaocao, this little kitten that you’re raising looks very spirited and has a very bright color. Xiaocao, you’re standing in line, but where are the sandworms that you dug out?”

Xiaocao smiled bashfully and said, “Xiaolian is carrying it! She’s over there and will come over soon! Auntie, you got a good harvest today. You can probably sell them for one or two taels!”

Shuanzhu’s wife beamed with delight and said, “That’s right! Your Uncle Shuanzhu went out to the sea, so I was idle at home. I heard that someone was buying sandworms, so I came out to earn some money. I didn’t expect myself to be so lucky!”

It wasn’t the first time Tongren Medicine Hall collected sandworms. Doctor Sun came with quite a few workers and had even brought three or four scales over. Each person’s harvest was weighed one by one and there was a person responsible for bookkeeping and paying, so their working speed was quite fast. By the time Xiaolian arrived, there weren’t that many people in front of her.

When it was Zhou Shanhu’s turn, the little girl and her older brother dug out a total of twelve catties of sandworms and earned one tael and two mace. Zhou Shanhu held the silver bits happily and smiled like a blossomed flower.

When it was Xiaocao and her sister’s turn, the smile in Doctor Sun’s eyes deepened. He had a very deep impression of the Yu Family. He had been a doctor for decades and there were very few instances in which he had misdiagnosed and made the wrong judgement. But it was different for the Yu Family.

Yu Xiaocao was born with a weak constitution. Even if she was nourished with medication, it would still be difficult for her to live beyond the age of ten. However, this little girl, who was already nine, was not only alive and kicking, but after diagnosis, all her previous symptoms had disappeared.

Half of Yu Hai’s body had been severely bitten by a bear. Other people would have died a long time ago, let alone keep that fleshless leg. Yet, he not only recovered well, but he could also walk with ease now.

Yu Hang, who worked as an apprentice, was beaten until he had internal bleeding, and even several of his sternal ribs were broken. For cases of internal bleeding like this, ninety percent of them ended up being hard to save. However, with Yu Hang’s body constitution, his bleeding was quickly stopped, and his bones also recovered very quickly. It usually took a hundred days to recover from serious injuries. But Yu Hang was able to follow his father to the town market in less than two months. After taking his pulse, he noticed that not only had his bones recovered, but Yu Hang’s body had also gotten stronger.

He was seriously perplexed by all these cases! Could it be that the Yu Family’s physique was different from that of ordinary people? But there didn’t seem to be anything different from their pulse ah!

With this thought, Doctor Sun took the initiative to greet her, “Little girl, how’s your harvest today?”

“Hello, Doctor Sun!” Whether it was in her past life or this life, it was necessary to have a good relationship with doctors. Yu Xiaocao greeted him politely and said, “Should be pretty good! Will your pharmacy be able to use so many sandworms?”

Sandworms? Worms in the sand! This little lass was really out of the ordinary. Actually, this name was quite vivid.