“Little sister, what are you doing?”
Yun Huaimin walked in carrying half a basket of spotted babylon shells and saw his younger sister crouching on the ground. Next to her was an overturned basket—the very one brought back from their second uncle’s house the day before yesterday. Some of the old clothes inside had fallen out.
These old clothes were still waiting for their mother to come home and sort through. Seeing the situation, Yun Huaimin set down the shells in his hand and prepared to pick the clothes back up.
But before he could even reach out, his sister stopped him.
“Big brother, I’ve discovered a secret.”
Yun Su looked up at her eldest brother, her expression still carrying a hint of surprise. It wasn’t that she hadn’t seen the world—but honestly, could someone please explain to her why there were several “big yellow fish” hidden inside an ordinary basket of old clothes?
Yes, big yellow fish. Not the kind you catch from the sea. These were the gleaming, precious metal kind—gold bars.
Although the gold bars were wrapped in newspaper, Yun Su had already examined them one by one. After checking them, she was so shocked that she stuffed them back into the old clothes.
That was when she realized the gold bars had been wrapped in a tattered piece of black cloth, which was then wrapped in the pile of old clothes. In short, this wasn’t a coincidence—someone had deliberately hidden them inside this basket.
Either someone had secretly stashed them there and then forgotten, or for some reason couldn’t retrieve them.
Yun Su leaned toward the latter. After all, even if gold prices weren’t high in the 1970s, gold bars were still hard currency—extremely valuable!
So, did the gold bars belong to the owner of the clothes?
—
Yun Su didn’t think so. The old clothes had been collected by her aunt, who would have inspected each piece before putting them in the basket. So her aunt had no idea about the gold bars. And Uncle Dalin, who had helped bring the clothes back, certainly wouldn’t have rummaged through them.
Her second uncle and aunt had picked up two baskets of things from Uncle Dalin’s house and probably hadn’t inspected them right away either. After all, one basket contained a few roast chickens, the other held old clothes.
Of course, everyone’s attention would have gone to the roast chickens first.
And that was exactly what happened. Yun Su remembered that when they went to pick up the things two days ago, her second uncle’s family had focused entirely on the roast chickens. Plus, their youngest son, Acai, had licked each chicken one by one. In the end, their family only brought back the basket of old clothes.
At the time, her little brother was pretty unhappy about it.
But in the end, it seemed her family had come out ahead.
Yun Su glanced down at the gold bars, sighed a few times, and didn’t keep her brother in suspense. In a few words, she told him about the gold bars and her suspicions.
And her eldest brother, Yun Huaimin, was exactly as Yun Su remembered—calm and able to handle things.
After hearing about the gold bars, he got excited for a moment. Then he immediately started considering where they had come from, mainly concerned about whether it was safe. As for returning them? That wasn’t likely. Whoever had hidden gold bars in a stranger’s basket probably wasn’t a law-abiding citizen.
“I suspect these big yellow fish were planted on the boat.”
Yun Huaimin’s guess was very plausible. Yun Su thought so too.
There was no way the old clothes had any hidden items when they left her aunt’s house. The boat journey took over two hours. Uncle Dalin had gone to Yangcheng to buy supplies for their production brigade and brought the baskets back on his way. He certainly wouldn’t have been watching them the whole time. That gap was the only opportunity for someone to sneak the gold in.
Something must have happened on that boat!
For now, there were no other clues. But both siblings decided to discreetly inquire about what had happened on that boat.
Yun Su had her brother put the gold bars away. Then Ji Xiangtian suddenly came to mind. He had been on the same boat as Uncle Dalin to the island. Something had happened, and he’d been pushed from the deck into the sea.
So, were these two things connected?
Yun Su decided to ask Ji Xiangtian about it when he returned.
—
But…
“Big brother, if we hadn’t seen Acai licking those roast chickens that day, would we have split the chickens and the clothes with second uncle’s family?”
Yun Huaimin nodded. “Yeah. If you hadn’t suggested going there together, we would have arrived later. We wouldn’t have seen Acai’s disgusting act, and we would’ve taken half the chickens and half the clothes.”
So, if Yun Su hadn’t been there, they would have taken half the chickens and clothes that day, leaving the basket and the other half for their second uncle’s family.
That way, the gold bars would have been discovered by the second uncle’s family. And after that, it would have had nothing to do with their family.
Thinking about this, Yun Su nearly jumped to her feet.
She remembered now. She had skimmed through the original story, but she recalled that the starting point of Yun Feng’s rise to wealth was cashing out a large sum of money to add canning equipment to the island’s only seafood processing plant. After that, the plant’s canned seafood became a hot seller.
And that large sum of money, Yun Su remembered, came from selling the family’s ancestral gold.
But now that she thought about it, neither her family nor the male lead, Gu Zhengrong’s family, seemed like they would have any ancestral gold.
So, by chance—because of her presence—the gold that was supposed to launch the female lead’s fortune had ended up in her own family’s hands.
What a twist…
Yun Su couldn’t help but remark on how terrifying the butterfly effect could be.
“Anyway, big brother, you hide these ‘big yellow fish’ first. When Mom and Dad come back, we’ll ask them about Aunt’s situation.”
Both siblings felt that the gold bars had nothing to do with their aunt’s family. But they still needed to discuss it with their parents to be sure. Their parents were well-traveled and had spent several days in Yangcheng—maybe they had heard some rumors.
“What big yellow fish? Are we having big yellow fish for lunch?”
The sound of their younger brother Fuzai’s voice came from outside. Yun Su and her big brother exchanged a glance and burst out laughing.
“No big yellow fish. We’re having spotted babylon shells today. Come on, come with me to slice some ginger…”
—
On the other end, far away in Yangcheng, Yun Su’s parents were also talking about home—right at that moment, in the hospital.
“It’s all my fault. We were supposed to go home tomorrow, and I had to be so careless as to hurt my hand.”
They were supposed to head home tomorrow. Early this morning, the couple had gone out to buy some pastries to bring back for the kids to try. But luck wasn’t on their side—a big truck turned a corner and nearly hit them.
In a panic, Yun Su’s father pushed his wife out of the way. He was a step too slow, fell to the ground, and ended up with a hairline fracture in his arm.
“Don’t talk nonsense! If you’re blaming yourself, then shouldn’t I blame myself for being slow to react? You got hurt saving me!”
Yun Su’s mother spoke briskly and forcefully; even her words of concern came out sounding like scolding.
But her husband knew his wife well. He found her words very comforting.
After addressing her husband, Yun Su’s mother turned to the doctor who was bandaging him: “Doctor Ji, my husband doesn’t need to be hospitalized, does he?”
Ji Xiangtian shook his head. “No, just come back for a check-up in half a month. If it’s inconvenient to come to our hospital, the military hospital on the island can do the follow-up as well.”
Hearing this, Yun Su’s mother cheered up. “Doctor Ji, you know we’re from the island?”
Ji Xiangtian had seen the address on their referral letter—Yunjiacao Production Brigade—so of course he knew they were from the island.
Moreover, this brisk, energetic auntie looked very familiar. And the injured uncle bore a striking resemblance—about seventy or eighty percent—to his new acquaintance, Yun Huaimin.
Recalling what he’d heard the day he visited Yun Su’s home, Ji Xiangtian guessed that this couple was Yun Su’s parents.
So, after the treatment and bandaging, Ji Xiangtian honestly mentioned that he knew Yun Huaimin and his two siblings.
Yun Su’s mother was overjoyed.
Being away from home, even for someone bold, could still be a little scary when going to a big hospital for treatment. She hadn’t expected to run into a young man who knew her children.
“What a coincidence! Such a coincidence! Make sure to come visit the island when you’re on holiday. I’ll whip up some dishes for you—I promise you’ll eat so much seafood you won’t be able to walk…”
After a lively farewell, Ji Xiangtian returned to his department, only to be pulled aside by his friend with questions.
—
“Was that patient a relative of yours?”
Ji Xiangtian shook his head. “A friend’s parents. They came to Yangcheng to visit relatives and had a little accident.”
He hadn’t expected that his first meeting with Comrade Yun Su’s parents would be in a hospital.
Lin Daming heard this and didn’t think much of it. Instead, he asked about something else: “I heard you’ve been running to the director’s office a lot lately. Did something happen?”
Then his expression turned a bit strange. “Come to think of it, did something good happen when you took that vacation back to the island? Ever since you returned, I’ve seen you clutching your chest and grinning to yourself.”
Ji Xiangtian instinctively shook his head. “I wasn’t grinning to myself. But you—do you have nothing better to do? If you’re that bored, consider studying another specialty.”
Lin Daming really had nothing to do. He was probably the most idle person in the entire hospital. Why? Because he was a specialists in men’s health.
And men in this day and age were reluctant to see a doctor. Even if they had some embarrassing issue, they rarely came to the hospital. If they did, they’d hem and haw as if they’d broken some heavenly law.
So yes, Lin Daming was very bored. So bored that he spent half the day haunting the orthopedics department to bother his old friend.
“I’m not studying anything else. If it weren’t for this family specialty, I wouldn’t want to be a doctor at all. Oh, by the way—I heard the head nurse is planning to set you up with someone again!”
His old friend was tall, handsome, came from a good family, and was highly skilled at work. Sometimes Lin Daming felt a little envious.
But the heavens were fair. His friend had everything going for him except one thing: he was quiet and didn’t like to talk. That kind of person wasn’t popular with young women but was very popular with their elders.
Lin Daming thought his own credentials were pretty good too, but the elders always said he had a silver tongue and couldn’t be trusted. Heaven knew—he, Lin Daming, was over twenty and still a virgin!
One look at Lin Daming’s expression and Ji Xiangtian knew exactly what he was thinking.
As for being set up with someone, he really wasn’t interested. If he had time off, he just wanted to go back to the island. His thoughts drifting, Ji Xiangtian found himself thinking of Yun Su again…
This had happened many times since he’d returned to work at the hospital. After a moment, Ji Xiangtian clapped his hands together and decided to follow his heart’s desire.
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