Third Brother Liang led the group toward the fishing village, heading straight for the house of the most well-off family. From their conversation, Lin Suyu quickly realized this was the house of the village’s team leader.
Lunch was a table full of seafood. While not extravagant, it included clams, mussels, small crabs, and various shells—everything imaginable, all in a large, overflowing bowl.
Boiled, stir-fried, made into soup—various cooking methods showed the hosts’ genuine hospitality. Everyone ate heartily and left satisfied.
After lunch, Second Brother and the others didn’t plan to return to the beach. Collecting seafood themselves wasn’t worth much, so they figured it was easier to trade with the villagers for whatever they wanted.
At the village leader’s home, Liang Hui spotted shells larger than her hand and insisted on exchanging for them, even offering a few candies she had brought to entice the village leader’s granddaughter.
“Sister, take these shells. The candy is really good! My other friends have even prettier shells—do you want to trade for them too?”
In the fishing village, pretty shells were plentiful. Kids would happily trade a whole bag of them for candy. Seeing Liang Hui’s enthusiasm, the girl quickly gathered a group of children.
“Sister, these shells are all ones we collected ourselves. Which ones do you like? We can give them to you. Can you give us some candy in return?”
Liang Hui smiled as she chose her favorites. Lin Suyu had little interest in shells at first, but then she noticed one little girl had several bright pink conch pearls.
“These pearls have nice colors. Do you have more?”
Conch pearls weren’t worth much now, but in the 22nd century, they’d become rare jewels. Lin Suyu was happy to collect some early, knowing their value could rise—one of her usual investment strategies.
“Really? Sister likes these pearls that grow inside conches? I have some, and my sister has many more. How will you trade for them?”
The girl’s sharp little eyes studied Lin Suyu, trying to see if she could actually offer candy. She was clever but honest, making it hard to deny her.
Lin Suyu quietly opened her small backpack and took out a bag of biscuits and some candy, calculating a fair exchange.
“I have candy and biscuits. One candy or one biscuit for one pearl—does that work?”
As soon as she said it, several older kids shouted “deal!” and ran home. After all, they ate conches daily—who didn’t have some pearls at home?
About ten minutes later, more little girls appeared, holding small boxes and bottles. One candy or biscuit for one pearl—Lin Suyu let them count themselves and report the total.
“Hello, do you want to trade this pearl? How about this deal?”
The girl looked slightly older than Lin Suyu, shy and hesitant to ask a child for candy.
“Okay, that works. How many pearls do you have?”
Lin Suyu could immediately sense with her mental power that the bottle contained twelve conch pearls.
“There are twelve pearls. I was planning to make them into a bracelet. Will you really… really trade twelve candies for them?”
Lin Suyu pulled out twelve small fruit hard candies from her backpack and counted them out for the girl.
The girl unwrapped one and ate it, a sweet burst filling her mouth, and she smiled in satisfaction. Other children watched enviously.
Indeed, someone was foolish enough to trade candy for their pearls and shells.
Seeing this, more children swarmed, holding out their treasures for exchange. Lin Suyu quickly traded one by one, while Liang Hui also collected many uniquely shaped shells.
After the busy morning, Lin Suyu took Liang Hui to tour the team leader’s yard.
Earlier, when using her mental power to scan the pearls, she noticed items buried in the yard. A closer look revealed a chest in the corner containing gold bars and ancient scrolls. Could a village team leader’s house really hold so much wealth?
Curious, Lin Suyu still didn’t take anything—her own space already contained gold and treasure, and the family hadn’t wronged her. She quickly set aside the curiosity.
In the afternoon, seeing that Liang Hui and Lin Suyu had acquired what they wanted, Third Brother Liang discussed the types and amounts of dried seafood they needed with the team leader. They had planned this after lunch. Third Brother collected it all, planning to distribute it back in the city.
After hours of work, the cart was loaded to the brim with seafood. Everyone returned to the city in high spirits, thoroughly satisfied with the beach trip.
Back home, the neighborhood ladies brought shocking news about Wang Shunfa—an unexpected surprise. Lin Suyu hadn’t yet thought about how to take revenge for his earlier fright, and now his misfortune was happening naturally.
Wei Hongying had officially broken off the engagement in the busy alley. Naturally, the street’s women quickly heard the news. With a lively topic involving Huang Jinhua’s son, how could they not gossip? Overnight, Wang Shunfa’s broken engagement spread across the street.
Wang Shunfa didn’t go to work in the morning. Huang Jinhua could only offer a few sympathetic words, but by noon, after hearing the neighborhood gossip, her anger flared. Coming home, she saw her eldest son lying like a lump of mud on the bed and got even angrier.
Trying to prove her son wasn’t useless or unwanted, Huang Jinhua forced him out to go to work.
Wang Shunfa first suffered the emotional blow of the broken engagement, then was misunderstood and expelled by his own mother, and then overheard the street gossip. Negative emotions accumulated and, combined with the residual effects of Lin Suyu’s mental power, erupted quickly.
He ran crazily to Wei Hongying’s workplace and cursed her. Wei Hongying, no pushover, responded with sarcastic remarks about his family, though nothing obscene.
Wang Shunfa, further provoked, lost the last thread of rationality and began smashing machinery in Wei Hongying’s factory. Since she was a workshop worker, the machines surrounded her work area.
The workshop supervisor immediately restrained Wang Shunfa and inspected the machines—tens of thousands of yuan in equipment were partially destroyed, requiring expensive repairs.
Now, Wang Shunfa had deliberately damaged state property, delaying production. He would owe a fortune in compensation—likely more than he could ever pay.
The supervisor couldn’t shoulder such a severe responsibility and quickly reported the situation to the factory director, who contacted the police and told Wei Hongying to go home and await instructions.
Angry that her job might be at risk, Wei Hongying gathered her family and went to confront the Wang family. Since the Wei family had already provided compensation for the broken engagement, there shouldn’t have been any follow-up incidents with Wang Shunfa.