"It is getting late. Hurry back home. Your wife must have cooked dinner and is waiting for you."
The Old Village Chief listened with pleasure, his face full of wrinkles, smiling like a chrysanthemum.
"Ah, I'm going right now."
Su Hu happily said goodbye to the Village Chief and hurried home, eager to share the good news with his family.
****
"Father's home!"
Li Xiu'e had finished cooking dinner and was fanning herself, waiting for her husband and children to come back from school. She saw her husband's familiar figure approaching and opened the fence door to welcome him.
"Wife, Sister Qiao's schooling in the county is settled now."
Su Hu removed his basket, placed it in the courtyard, and immediately noticed the river clam in the big water vat. He didn't finish his sentence before being left speechless: "My God, where did this giant river clam come from? It's enormous!"
"Sister Yu got it from the river bottom."
Li Xiu'e heard half of the sentence and was about to express her joy, but she noticed her husband staring blankly at the river clam, she couldn't help but laugh at him.
"Dad, there might be pearls in the clam. Be careful when opening it so you don't damage the pearls,"
Su Qingluo peeked out of the window after waking up and happily looked into the courtyard.
"Sister Yu, did you really get it?"
Su Hu couldn't believe his eyes, his face showing a strange expression, "I've never seen such a big river clam in my whole life. Maybe it's some kind of spirit?"
"What nonsense are you talking about!"
Li Xiu'e glared at him: "Be careful not to frighten the children."
Stories about spirits have been widespread among the commonfolk, and some villagers firmly believed in them. When they encountered inexplicable, fantastic events, they liked to blame spirits, making stories more and more eerie.
A river clam the size of a washbasin, Su Hu, not to mention his father, his grandfather, and his great-grandfather, had never seen before.
At first sight of such a huge river clam, he unconsciously thought of spirits.
"Mom, don't worry, I'm not that timid."
Su Qingluo, with her agile little body, quickly came up to the big water vat.
The cheeky little girl, staring at the river clam at the bottom of the vat, made a face and laughed mischievously at it.
"My father says you've become a spirit. If you can understand me, open your shell and spit out the pearls. If you don't obey, we'll smash your shell and make soup."
"Gurgle."
A string of bubbles came from the bottom of the vat, and the river clam seemed to tremble slightly, too fast to see clearly.
"If you don't open your shell voluntarily after I count to three, I'll have my father smash you with a hammer."
Su Qingluo's bright eyes flashed with mischief, and her delicate little white hand reached out to the water, extending her fingers one by one.
"One, two, three."
"Gurgle."
A long string of bubbles rose from the bottom of the vat, and the river clam shook violently, as if scared, shivering.
"My goodness, Father, you might be right, has it really become a spirit?"
Li Xiu'e's hairs stood on end, and she was covered in cold sweat.
"Sister Yu, what should we do?"
Su Hu was also horrified, eyebrows raised, and instinctively looked at his daughter.
In his opinion, his daughter was a Fortune Child favored by the heavens, and what she said couldn't be wrong.
"I'll give you one last chance."
Su Qingluo paid no mind to her parents' panic, and a flash of gold appeared from her forehead. An invisible pressure reached the bottom of the vat and enveloped the massive clam: "Behave, and I'll let you go home."
"Gurgle."
With nowhere to escape under the invisible pressure, the river clam trembles in fear. The clamshell slowly opened at the bottom, revealing dozens of pigeon-egg-sized pearls inside.