Chapter 48: Chapter 48: Return to the Rightful Owner
Yue Qingqing nodded, her eyes unblinking as she stared at the bottom of the pond.
Last time she came with Yue Qingqing, she was left aside and hadn’t discovered anything.
But now, being held by Yue Jiandong and overlooking the entire fish pond, she noticed a shimmering luster at the very bottom.
It flickered slightly in the ripples, but Yue Qingqing couldn’t make out what it was.
Ordinary families wouldn’t pay it any mind.
The Yue Family, although not as blindly convinced of Yue Qingqing’s fortune as Lin Chunju was, still privately believed that this little girl was a lucky star reborn.
Without giving it much thought, Yue Jiandong took off his shoes, rolled up his trousers, and jumped into the pond.
Yue Qingqing gestured clumsily with her hands from the side as if to direct him.
A baby directing a grown man would certainly seem absurd to anyone else, but these two seemed completely natural.
Seeing Yue Jiandong’s palm press down on the glowing spot, Yue Qingqing became so anxious she nearly leapt out of her stroller.
Yue Jiandong understood and groped around in the mud until he found an odd, hard lump.
Ele pulled out the mud-covered lump, and after rinsing it in the water, its warm luster became even more apparent.
Yue Jiandong exclaimed, still wet from the climb he took no time to dry his trouser legs, spreading the item on his palm for a closer look.
It was a piece of fine mutton-fat jade, intricately carved with the character for ‘forest’.
Even after he wiped the water away with his top, the jade remained soft and mois, without a hint of dryness.
Yue Qingqing watched curiously but noticed her father’s expression growing more and more excited.
“This is the jade piece mother lost!”
He felt the carved lines on the jade with his palm, becoming more certain it was the same piece he had seen as a child.
One year, their house was burglarized, and the jade was lost.
Sometimes, when the family really couldn’t make ends meet, his mother would lament that if only they still had that piece of jade, they could sell it for emergency money.
“You really are our family’s lucky star.” Yue Jiandong patted his daughter’s little head, tucked the jade close to his chest, and pushed the stroller quickly towards home.
He was moving so fast that Yue Qingqing was jostled all over the place.
By the time they got home, she still felt like there were stars floating above her head.
“Mother!” Even the usually composed Yue Jiandong couldn’t help but call out.
Lin Chunju, busy with the family’s daughters-in-law sewing shoe soles, looked up and responded.
“Why are you back? Didn’t you say Yingzi would bring you lunch at noon?”
And looking at the position of the sun, it wasn’t even mealtime.
This time, Yue Jiandong shut the door behind him in broad daylight, sneaking into the inner room like a thief.
The water dripping from his trouser legs drew a look of disdain from Lin Chunju, “Go dry off outside before coming in. The house was just cleaned.”
“Mother, look what I found in the fish pond.”
Yue Jiandong pulled out the mutton-fat jade from his chest pocket, and Lin Chunju glanced over nonchalantly, then suddenly froze.
“This… this is my jade.”
“Yes, just now Qingqing kept pointing at the bottom of the pond. I jumped down and found it,” he said.
Lin Chunju didn’t hear what her son was saying, reaching out mechanically to take the jade from Yue Jiandong’s palm.
Even without understanding the value, Zhang Ying and Wang Xiaoni could tell that this pure white jade, free from any impurities, was something special.
The jade was circular and evenly thick, with only a character carved in the center.
The extending cloud-like patterns wrapped around the character, giving the central “Lin” a lifelike, animated quality.
Ignoring the material of the jade, the craftsmanship alone would qualify it as a work of art.
Lin Chunju gently caressed the carved character with her fingertip, her eyes full of nostalgia.
“Ah, I never thought it would be found again.”
That year when they were robbed, the family lost many things, but Lin Chunju cared most for this piece of jade.
It wasn’t just because it was valuable; it was almost her only link to her previous life.
But who could have imagined such a coincidence would occur?
The Yue Family had contracted that fish pond, and this piece of jade was just at the bottom of it.
All these days the two brothers cleaned it out with an iron shovel, and yet this small item wasn’t disposed of with the rest of the trash; it had been just pressed under the mud that was left behind.
Could this be the legendary return of lost property to its rightful owner?