Jiaojiao attracting so many goldfish clearly shows sheās a naturally blessed child. For a child with such good fortune, everyone just wanted to absorb some of her luck; nobody would entertain other thoughts.
While they were chatting, over on the other side, Jiaojiao had fished up yet another cluster of goldfish.
The vendorās face had completely lost all traces of a smile, his expression turning visibly pale with suppressed frustration.
Jiaojiao truly felt bad now. She still had over a dozen fish already. If she kept fishing like this, sheād clean out the entire basin. It was really embarrassingārunning a business isnāt easy, and here she was wrecking the stall. She was worried the vendor might even beat her up!
"How about... I stop now?" She raised her head to ask the Ruanlin family members standing behind her.
"No worries, darling, go ahead and fish as much as you like if it makes you happy," said Ruan Jianguo, completely unconcerned about the vendorās increasingly dark expression. Everything revolved around their little darlingās happiness.
Jiaojiao turned her head to look at the vendor again. The vendor felt utterly miserable. He had been running this stall for several years, and every Lantern Festival he would make a nice profit. He figured this year would be no different.
Who couldāve predicted someone like Jiaojiao would show up and clean him out?
He couldnāt say anything, though. If word got out, heād have trouble doing business in the future.
But deep inside, it ached. Covering half his face with one hand, he simply avoided looking, waving his hand at Jiaojiao as he turned his head to the side. "Go ahead, fish, just fish."
"..." Jiaojiao.
Licking her lips, Xiu Xi immediately handed over a thermos cup. Jiaojiao took a couple of sips and then picked up another fishing line, lowering it toward the basin.
During this entire process, the surrounding crowd subconsciously held their breath, waiting to see if another miracle would happen.
And indeed, it did.
Jiaojiao was clearly a child of great fortune.
The moment the fishing hook went into the water, yet another cluster of goldfish was caught.
One by one, she transferred all of the goldfish into her buckets, until she had filled five full buckets.
When she placed the final fishing line into the bucket, the surrounding crowd erupted in cheers, clapping enthusiastically.
Jiaojiaoās face turned bright red.
Holding five or six fishing lines in her hand, she extended them toward the vendor, who looked completely numb by now. "Uncle, Iāll return these to you."
"..." The vendorās mouth twitched uncontrollably.
The goldfish were already all goneāwhat good were these lines to him now?
"Hahaha... Our darling is amazing!" Ruan Jianguo was so excited that he looked like he wanted to scoop her up and spin her around in circles.
Ruanlin Familyās matriarch also seemed happy as she looked at the five buckets of goldfish. Luckily, there was no shortage of places to keep themāthey had several lotus ponds in the Shu family gardens. They could just drop the fish into any one of them.
But noticing how pained the vendor looked, she thought for a moment, then took out a red envelope from her pocket. Stuffing it with enough money to buy all the goldfish, she handed it over. "Happy New Year, brother. Take this."
"This isnāt right, this isnāt right." Though he felt a bit heartbroken, the vendor understood that business couldnāt be done this way.
"Itās fineāitās New Yearās, a time for good fortune. Just take it." Mrs. Ruanlin smiled as she firmly pushed the envelope into his hands. She then instructed Ruan Jie to consolidate the five buckets of goldfish into two buckets.
"What about these buckets..."
"These arenāt worth much, donāt worry about it. Just take them with you," the vendor said with a smile. Despite the loss, he still felt some happiness encountering customers like this.
When Jiaojiao was lifted into the air by Ruan Jianguo, she noticed what Ruanlinās matriarch had done and finally felt a sense of relief in her heart.