The sea surface was tinted a warm orange by the setting sun, with lazy waves gently lapping at the shore.
When the girls arrived, the tide had just receded, revealing a wide stretch of damp sand, like a blurry mirror reflecting the gradually shifting sky.
Ruan Zhixian, wearing little sandals, led An Qing across the wet sand, leaving behind a string of cute little footprints.
“An Qing, have you ever gone tide pooling before?”
“Nope.”
An Qing, tightly following behind the blonde girl, shook her head.
“The orphanage is pretty far from the sea, so I usually never go this far.”
“So this is your first time tide pooling, then? No worries, just follow what I do and I promise you’ll have a bountiful harvest!”
The blonde girl leading the way looked back with a smile, patting her own chest.
“Okay!”
“Actually, tide pooling isn’t hard at all. The easiest way is to turn over rocks. Usually, you’ll find little crabs and such gathered around the rocks.”
“Look, just like this!”
Ruan Zhixian set down her little bucket, bent over with a “heave-ho,” and forcefully flipped a big rock covered in seaweed.
Sure enough, hiding beneath the rock was a tiny crab, faintly visible amid the swirling sand and mud.
“Hmph, trying to escape?”
With sharp eyes and quick hands, the blonde girl instantly reached out and pinched the crab’s shell just as it tried to scuttle sideways and flee.
“See? Just like this, turn over rocks and grab the crabs.”
Ruan Zhixian smiled and held her prize up in front of An Qing. The crab flailed its eight legs wildly between her fingers.
“If you’re too scared to catch them by hand, worried the crab might pinch you, you can use a trowel instead—it just isn’t as convenient as grabbing with your hand.”
“Okay, got it.”
The black-haired girl nodded in understanding.
“Alright, I’ll help you catch a few more, then I’ll teach you how to spot the breathing holes in the sand!”
“Okay!”
“Hey, Zhixian, can you come look at this?”
Before long, An Qing, having gradually gotten the hang of things, was acting on her own with Ruan Zhixian. Suddenly, she straightened up beside a rock not far away and called out.
“Huh? An Qing, did you find something strange?”
Ruan Zhixian gave a little squeeze—her plump cat’s eye snail spat out the seawater with a “pop” and was deftly tossed into the bucket. Then she picked up her loot and turned to head toward An Qing.
“Yeah, it’s this thing. I think it’s edible, right…”
The black-haired girl held a thick, flesh-pink cylindrical object in her hand, looking rather similar to one of Ruan Zhixian’s dearly departed brothers.
“Uh, I think that’s a sea anemone, actually. They’re pretty rare…”
Ruan Zhixian gazed at the big sea anemone trembling and spurting seawater in the girl’s palm, a little wistful, as if reminiscing about something.
“Don’t worry, it’s edible… No, it absolutely must be eaten!”
Hmph! These things that make people sentimental should be completely wiped out!
The golden-haired girl gritted her teeth in her thoughts.
“Oh, as long as it’s edible, that’s good.”
An Qing nodded, a bit dazed.
“Alright, enough about that—come see what I just found!”
With that, Ruan Zhixian turned her back, crouched in front of the bucket, and her shoulders suspiciously shook for a moment.
When she turned back, she held a large handful of purple-red dragon’s beard seaweed under her nose, its long, lush strands hanging all the way to her chest.
“Hey there, little beauty~” Ruan Zhixian said in a muffled voice, wiggling the seaweed up and down as she spoke: “Want Uncle Ruan to treat you to something~?”
“Hahahahahaha…”
The black-haired girl doubled over with laughter at her silly act.
“Hahahahaha, Zhixian, what kind of ‘uncle’ are you trying to be?”
“Oh~ little beauty, you just don’t get it~”
Uncle Ruan kept up the clowning, deepening her voice:
“Who knows, maybe I really was an uncle in my last life?”
“Hahahahaha, even if you were an uncle in your last life, Zhixian, I bet you’d be a kindhearted one, not some weirdo luring little girls like this.”
An Qing wiped the tears from laughing with her elbow and said seriously:
“Because with how kind and cute you are, Zhixian, even if you had a past life, you must have been a really good person.”
Half of Ruan Zhixian’s comical dragon’s beard seaweed mustache fell off, swaying gently at the corner of her mouth.
A kind and cute girl, huh…
But An Qing, even if I’m not old enough to be an uncle, I really was a boy in my last life…
And I still remember what it was like to be a boy.
The blonde girl opened her mouth, wanting to toss out another joke to lighten the mood, but somehow, she couldn’t get the words out.
Besides, I don’t really think there’s anything cute about me in this life…
Even though I always try hard to dress like a boy, even in front of Dad and Mom…
“Zhixian, look—doesn’t it look like something’s curled up over there?”
Suddenly, the black-haired girl let out a little cry, her sand-speckled finger pointing past Zhixian’s shoulder to a spot not far away.
“Eh, what’s that…”
Her thoughts interrupted, Ruan Zhixian dashed over in three big steps and carefully dug through the wet sand with both hands.
All of a sudden, three tangled arms shot out from the sand pit, their suckers latching tightly onto the back of her hand.
“Whoa! It’s an octopus!”
The blonde girl excitedly cradled the translucent creature, its tentacles wriggling nonstop, then stood up and called out loudly to An Qing:
“An Qing! Look—”
Just as Ruan Zhixian was about to hold the octopus above her head with a smile, a gray shadow suddenly swooped down from the sky!
“Gaaawk––”
A chubby seagull—looking rather familiar—dived down and snatched the octopus right from Ruan Zhixian’s hand. A few drops of seawater landed on the girl’s frozen smile.
Then, the Fat Seagull landed on a distant rock, its gullet swelling as it swallowed the prize, shaking its head in triumph.
“Ahhhh, it’s you again! You nasty thief!”
Ruan Zhixian instantly recognized it by its cheeky manner—it was the very Fat Seagull that had stolen her fries a while back!
“Gawk gawk––”
The Fat Seagull tidied its wings, then circled the golden-haired girl—now hopping mad—twice, and finally soared off into the distance.
“Um, Zhixian, do you… know that seagull?”
An Qing asked hesitantly, watching Ruan Zhixian stomp in frustration.
“Ahhhhh, of course I know it! I’d recognize it even if it turned to ashes!”
Ruan Zhixian’s golden hair fluffed up in the sunset:
“That’s the second time it’s stolen my stuff! Last time it stole my fries! That was the first day I met you!”
“Oh.”
An Qing was surprised, recalling the scene—she remembered Ruan Zhixian feeding a dog some fries with wasabi, and then being chased by the dog’s owner all the way to the little park where they met…
So, actually, Zhixian was trying to get back at that greedy seagull, but didn’t succeed, and that’s how we met…
Thinking about it, maybe I really should thank that seagull for bringing Zhixian and me together…
“Yeah, Zhixian, you’re right—that seagull is really awful!”
The black-haired girl, still speaking against her true thoughts, walked over to Ruan Zhixian and patted her on the arm comfortingly.
“Next time we see it, we’ll definitely teach it a lesson!”
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