Li Jin couldn't describe the scene he had just witnessed.
If he said it out loud, anyone listening would definitely think he was crazy!
"Li Jin?" Xiao Yi prompted him.
Li Jin braced himself and nodded. "Yes! They rolled over on their own!"
Li Jin was already mentally prepared to be mocked by Xiao Yi.
However, upon hearing this, Xiao Yi said nothing.
He simply held the stone that Duoduo had just brought back and examined it closely.
Li Jin looked at Xiao Yi suspiciously. Why didn't Xiao Yi react to what he said?
Could it be that he hadn't expressed himself clearly?
"Your Highness, what I'm saying is that those stones rolled over on their own."
Xiao Yi nodded. "There is nothing wrong with my ears."
Now it was Li Jin's turn to be surprised.
Was he really the only one who found this abnormal?
Li Jin asked Yingniang, "Yingniang, don't you think it's strange that these stones rolled over on their own?"
Yingniang looked happily at the stone in her hand.
"Father, look, these stones are perfectly round, so naturally they will roll!"
Li Jin was at a loss for words.
It seemed he truly was the only one who found it bizarre.
But then again, it made sense. After all, he was the only one who had seen the scene of those stones rolling toward them from the river.
He knew that even if he told them, no one would believe it.
Forget it, he would just chalk it up to his eyes playing tricks on him!
"Duoduo, this stone looks quite nice. Can Father have one?"
Xiao Yi picked up one of the larger ones and asked Duoduo.
Before Duoduo could answer, Li Jin hastily snatched the second largest one.
Li Jin felt there was definitely something weird about these stones and wanted to take one to study.
"Princess, your teacher also wants one! We went to pick these up together, after all!"
Duoduo nodded with a beaming smile.
"Take whichever one you like!"
Yingniang also happily picked out a stone she had been eyeing for a while.
"Thank you, Duoduo!" Yingniang was overjoyed; she now had a stone too.
Duoduo had brought back a total of six stones, in various sizes.
Now that three had been distributed, there were three left.
Seeing that everyone liked the stones so much, Duoduo's eyes crinkled into little crescents of joy.
"Of these three, I'll save one for Mother and Aunt Xu, and give the smallest one to Lüdou!"
Duoduo quickly allocated the remaining three stones.
Yingniang was a little surprised. "Duoduo, aren't you keeping one for yourself?"
Duoduo pointed to the one the village head had given her. "I have one!"
"But that one wasn't picked up this time!"
"Duoduo, my mother doesn't really like stones anyway. Why don't you keep it?"
Yingniang suggested.
Duoduo tilted her head and thought for a moment.
"Then I'll ask them later. If Mother and Aunt Xu don't want it, I'll keep it!"
Xiao Yi kept examining his stone.
Because it had just been fished out of the water, its surface was very clean.
The stone he had taken was quite beautiful, with a faint reddish hue.
Xiao Yi thought that it wouldn't be a bad idea to have someone polish it later and turn it into an ornament.
However, no matter how he looked at it, it was just a stone.
How could it have rolled to the shore on its own?
Li Jin must have been speaking nonsense!
Xiao Yi cast his gaze out the window, where he could see the river flowing.
Some branches washed down from the mountain tumbled in the river before being pushed to the bank.
These stones must have been pushed ashore in the same way.
Xiao Yi chuckled inwardly.
He was just being too sensitive!
Xiao Yi casually set the stone aside and resumed looking at his map.
"Duoduo, look, my stone has green patterns."
"It's different from yours!"
Yingniang had made a new discovery.
Duoduo leaned in to look. "Huh? It really is!"
"Teacher, what color are the patterns on your stone?" Duoduo looked curiously at the stone in Li Jin's hand.
Li Jin had also been turning his stone over and over in his hands for quite a while.
He just couldn't figure out how this clearly heavy stone could have rolled to the shore.
Logically speaking, shouldn't it have sunk to the riverbed?
Unable to make sense of it, Li Jin heard Duoduo's question and handed his stone to her.
"Take a look."
Duoduo took it, and Yingniang leaned in as well.
"Father, yours is just like mine, it's green!"
Li Jin found this amusing.
"What do you mean green? It's not a gemstone..."
Halfway through his sentence, a flash of inspiration hit Li Jin.
He hurriedly took the stone back and examined it closely.
The water on the outside of the stone had completely dried, making it look dull and gray.
"Yingniang, where is the green?" Li Jin looked at Yingniang in confusion.
Yingniang looked at Li Jin with a puzzled expression. "Father, look right here!"
Yingniang pointed to a crack on the stone.
"Duoduo says this is green!"
Li Jin and Yingniang's conversation caught Xiao Yi's attention.
"Duoduo, then what color is Father's stone?"
Duoduo answered obediently, "Red! A beautiful red!"
Li Jin was surprised. He suddenly thought of a possibility.
Could it be that Duoduo was just like what was written in the books?
Did she have x-ray vision?
Duoduo looked guiltily at the golden words floating in the air.
[Green? Top-grade jadeite! This family has struck it rich!]
[Red jade? Also top-grade! So rare!]
......
The golden words in the void, which hadn't moved for a long time, started scrolling frantically when Duoduo was playing with the stones.
[Yellow jade? Such rare yellow jade has appeared!]
[There are still so many jade stones in the river! Hurry and pick them up!]
[A single jade stone is worth a thousand pieces of gold!]
......
Duoduo had originally been looking down with Yingniang to study the stones in their hands, so she hadn't seen the words in the void.
When she suddenly noticed them, the words were scrolling violently.
She even suspected there was something wrong with her eyes.
After Duoduo saw them clearly, she hesitated for a moment but ultimately chose to believe them.
First of all, the words that appeared here had never lied to her.
Secondly, the words had moved her.
"A single jade stone is worth a thousand pieces of gold!"
If she could pick up a few pieces, wouldn't she be able to gather enough capital for Lüdou to open a shop?
When she proposed going to pick up stones, she had already prepared arguments in her mind in case her father disagreed.
However, her father agreed without even a second thought.
Duoduo had been a bit surprised at the time.
Her first reaction was that her father had also seen the words in the void.
But when she brought the stones back, she saw that her father didn't seem to have much of a reaction.
She then knew that she was still the only one who could see these words.
Xiao Yi nodded. Now that the water on his stone had dried, the red color was no longer obvious, but a little bit could still be seen.
Li Jin's stone was green? Out of curiosity, Xiao Yi took it to look closely.
"Duoduo, how could you tell that this piece is green?"
Xiao Yi's question made Duoduo feel a little guilty.
