Chapter 359 - 356: Never Write an Essay About Me Again

Yun Jiao tried to pull her short leg free from his grasp.

"Let go!"

"Don’t be mad. If you’re not mad, I’ll let go."

Yun Linhai felt mortified. He and Ah Lian were such proper people, so how did this son of theirs turn out to be such a scoundrel?

He stomped over and yanked his son up from the ground.

"You little brat, are you asking for a beating?!"

Yun Jiao felt wronged too. She held up the essay Yun Xiaowu had written and handed it to her dad.

"Dad, look at this garbage Fifth Brother wrote!"

Yun Linhai scratched his head. Well, the thing was... he was the family’s illiterate one.

Few people from his generation had learned to read, and Yun Linhai, in particular, had never been fond of studying, so...

He couldn’t understand it, so he passed it directly to his younger brother.

His younger brother was literate; he had learned quite a bit when their mother taught them their characters.

Yun Linhe took it, and the moment he looked at it, he burst out laughing.

As Yun Jiao shot him a tiny, resentful glare, he tried to hold it in, but... he just couldn’t! Bwahaha...

Sun Yaotong also took a glance, and that one look made him snort with laughter.

He was at least a little more reserved, merely turning away as his shoulders shook.

Yun Xiaowu didn’t think he had used the idioms incorrectly. He explained the phrase "so smart you go bald" again.

He even used his school’s principal as an example.

"Our principal is just too smart, that’s why he’s bald! Otherwise, how come he’s the principal and nobody else is?"

"And that saying, ’may everyone get and pearl her’! Doesn’t ’pearl’ mean pearls and jewels? When people get jewels, they treasure them, right? It means our family cherishes Jiaojiao like a precious gem!"

Yun Jiao gritted her teeth, wishing she could just take a bite out of Yun Xiaowu.

"That’s ’execute,’ as in to kill!"

Yun Linhe was laughing so hard he was nearly in tears. "You wrote the wrong character. It’s not that ’pearl.’"

And he kindly explained to him what "may everyone get and execute them" actually meant.

Yun Xiaowu scratched his head and shot a guilty glance at Yun Jiao.

"And what about ’stalwart and mighty,’ ’possessing infinite strength’? Are those phrases to describe a girl? Anyone who didn’t know better would think your little sister looks like a boy!"

Yun Xiaowu retorted, "But Jiaojiao *is* really strong! How cool is that? I wish I was that strong."

"You still can’t write it like that!"

Yun Jiao pressed her palms together. "I’m begging you, Fifth Brother. Please don’t ever write about me in your essays again. Write about Dad instead."

’Sorry, Dad.’

Yun Linhai: !!!

"No, no, no, you should write about your grandpa instead."

Mr. Yun, who wasn’t there, let out two loud sneezes.

Yun Xiaowu pouted. ’Is it really necessary to be so disgusted by the idea?’

"You are not allowed to take this essay to school."

’Don’t I have a reputation to uphold?’

"Fifth Brother, rewrite it. Don’t write about me. Write about Dad."

Yun Linhai quickly interjected, "Don’t. Write about your grandpa."

Yun Xiaowu wailed, "No, Jiaojiao! I worked so hard to get the word count up! I used every idiom I could think of. Writing another one will be the death of me!"

Yun Jiao snatched the essay back. "I don’t care. In any case, you are not taking this essay with you."

’That was close. Thank goodness Fifth Brother showed it to me first. Otherwise, before I even started school, I would have already died of social embarrassment in his classroom.’

Sun Yaotong was about to die laughing at this family.

’They really are a lively bunch.’

Yun Linhai quickly took Yun Xiaowu to rewrite the essay. He had to keep an eye on him; otherwise, what if the boy really did write about him?

"Godfather, did they take the treasures away?"

Sun Yaotong nodded. "They took everything they were supposed to."

A lot of people came, so the items were moved out quickly.

Yun Jiao let out a cheer. "Then how much is left? I want to go see."

"Alright. We’ll go after we eat."

Sun Yaotong actually knew that Yun Jiao must have discovered the shipwreck long before the salvage operation. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have found it so quickly.

Besides, other than some porcelain shards, a small number of ceramics, and a few other worthless items, there was nothing else around the shipwreck.

’She must have brought it all back herself.’

But he didn’t ask a thing.

’Yun Jiao found it all through her own abilities, so those things belonged to her.’

Back then, regulations on antiques weren’t that strict. If fishermen found things in the sea and secretly sold them or kept them at home, no one would usually bother them.

His, however, was a legitimate salvage operation, so of course he had to apply for a permit.

After the meal, the whole family went to the boat.

"The officials took the more important items. Among them were a bronze sword, a Bronze Goblet, and some fragmented scrolls and paintings. There was even a calligraphy piece by Wang Xizhi."

He said this with a look of regret.

"Unfortunately, they were soaked in seawater for a long time. It’s hard to say if they can even be restored."

Yun Jiao was completely lost. She didn’t know much about antiques.

"Is that the Wang Xizhi who wrote the *Lanting Preface*, known as the finest example of running script in the world?"

Yun Xiao Ba suddenly spoke up.

Sun Yaotong was a little surprised. "You know about him?"

Yun Xiao Ba nodded, his eyes filled with longing. "My master told me about him and even showed me a copy of the *Lanting Preface*."

He was currently learning calligraphy from Ancient and had grown interested in the art form.

"If only I could see the real thing."

Sun Yaotong hadn’t expected the eighth child of the Yun family to be interested in such things.

"Maybe you’ll have the chance someday."

Yun Xiao Ba nodded.

As they spoke, they arrived at the boat.

When he saw the antiques, Yun Xiao Ba’s eyes lit up.

He quickly picked up a porcelain plate and began to study it.

Yun Jiao, on the other hand, had her eyes fixed on a chest of pearls.

They were pearls as big as the marbles her brothers played with, and they were golden!

There were white ones too. An entire chest was filled with just pearls.

"So pretty!"

Sun Yaotong said, "If you like them, pick a chest to take with you."

Yun Jiao nodded. "Can I pick some of the gems too?"

That’s right, there were gems too—red, blue, and green ones.

There were even a dozen or so of the legendary Luminous Pearls. However, only three were large and perfectly round; the others were smaller, and their colors were less pure.

"Of course you can."

"Gold! So much gold!"

Yun Xiaoqi was the most interested in the gold. He picked some up with both hands and was about to rub it on his face.

Wang Mei slapped his hands away. "They haven’t even been washed, and you’re putting them on your face? Filthy!"

Yun Xiaoqi wasn’t annoyed at being hit. He just stared at the gold, his eyes gleaming.

"Wow, look at all this treasure."

Grandpa Yun looked around and felt like he was really seeing the world for the first time.

Just the gold and jewels alone were enough to dazzle him.

Sun Yaotong said, "The antique experts took a look. Based on these items, they determined that even if the shipwreck didn’t belong to the Song Dynasty’s Royal Family, it must have belonged to some great, influential clan."

"It’s a shame the ship was in such bad shape. Otherwise, we probably could have found clues on the hull itself."

Those ancient clans were ridiculously wealthy. Isn’t there a saying? "Clans are forged from iron, while emperors flow like water."

An Emperor might have his lean times, but a great clan that had accumulated its wealth over several generations, or even several dynasties, would never be poor.

And look, the shipwreck they’d salvaged was certainly a rich one.