Chapter 162: Chapter 162: Rescuing the Third Brother-in-Law

The person who caused the Shark Pearls to react was also in this room. Lan Yin closed his eyes, carefully manipulating his spiritual power to search.

After a while, he "saw" a person through his spiritual power.

It was a Merfolk, just like him. He was so weak he couldn’t even maintain his legs. Many scales were missing from his tail, and it was unclear whether they had fallen off naturally or been plucked out.

Lan Yin was sure he had never seen this Merfolk in the clan. The Shark Pearls glowed faintly. It seemed this Merfolk was not from the Treasure Pearl Sea.

’Could he be from the Beast God Continent?’

But no matter where he was from, he was one of Lan Yin’s subjects, one of his people. Now that he was able to act, he had to find a way to take his kinsman with him.

’If I have the strength to spare...’

Lan Yin’s gaze swept over the others nearby. If he had the strength to spare, he hoped all these Beastmen could return home safely.

After resting for a night, they were roused early the next morning to line up and soak in a pool.

They jumped into the pool one after another like dumplings being dropped into a pot. Lan Yin saw the man from yesterday.

He was too weak to maintain his human form and had reverted to his beast form, leaning against the edge of the pool.

He was actually a Dragon Clan Beastman. This was the second Dragon Clan Beastman Lan Yin had ever seen; the first was Ao Wu.

’Speaking of which, since they’re from the same clan, I wonder if they know each other.’

Perhaps fearing he would die, someone carried him away after only a short soak. No one else in the pool was envious, because being taken away like that meant the Dragon Clan Beastman was on the verge of death.

They endured another full day. When they returned to rest again, many people collapsed onto their beds and fainted the moment they lay down.

The guards were used to this and just told them to take care of each other.

The Male Sea Serpent adeptly took care of the Beastman next to him. Lan Yin looked around before going to care for the Dragon Clan Beastman.

When the Dragon Clan Beastman woke up, he thanked Lan Yin but said nothing more, his eyes filled with utter despair.

Lan Yin hesitated for a moment, then asked in a low voice, "You’re a Dragon Clan Beastman. Do you know someone named Ao Wu?"

The Dragon Clan Beastman froze, then whipped his head toward Lan Yin. "You... You know Xiao Wu...?"

His voice was hoarse, and his intonation was a little strange, likely from not having spoken for a long time.

Seeing his reaction, Lan Yin nodded and briefly explained his connection to Ao Wu.

The Dragon Clan Beastman grew agitated, his voice a little louder than before. "Xiao Wu... Xiao Wu is still alive! I’m his third older brother, Ao Shan."

’Alright, confirmed. They’re all family.’

Just as he had with Mo Yan and Feng Xuan, Lan Yin worried that Ao Shan was too weak and that something might happen to him, so he added a few drops of Divine Spring Water to his water.

Ao Shan tasted that something was different the moment he drank it, but he didn’t ask any questions and silently finished it.

He felt some of his strength return, but he had been depleted for so long that he couldn’t recover in just a short time.

But this was enough. Ao Shan felt he could hold on for a while longer.

Lan Yin spent over ten days searching the entire room and found a total of five Merfolk. None of them were in good condition.

He used the time in the pool to approach them one by one and discovered they didn’t know where they came from.

For as long as they could remember, they had lived in a lightless cage. There had originally been over twenty of them, but over time, many had slowly died off.

Later, they were brought here to soak in the water, and they had been doing so since they were teenagers.

They had thought about escaping and had even tried, but unfortunately, they never got far before being recaptured.

After meeting Lan Yin, learning he was the Merfolk King, and especially after he gave each of them a few drops of the strange water to drink, they found themselves inexplicably believing that he could lead them out of this hellhole.

"Could it be? Can we really get out of here alive?"

one Merfolk muttered to himself. The others were no longer dejected; a flicker of hope had inexplicably ignited in their hearts.

...

Yu An and her group began a new round of searching for a needle in a haystack—this time, the needles were Mo Yan and the other two.

Luckily, they had photos of them, which everyone used to search everywhere.

With no time to look after the Zaizai, Yu An placed them in her space. They could take care of themselves and even look after their two unhatched younger siblings.

At the end of another day, Yu An returned to their agreed-upon meeting spot only to find that everyone had come back empty-handed.

"Where on earth could they have gone?"

Yu An scratched her head in frustration, and the others looked just as worried.

Just after she brought everyone into her space, she discovered that the quest panel, which had been silent for a while, had issued a new quest.

[Sell five hundred servings of dumplings within seven days. Type not specified.]

Yu An, who had been sitting down to rest, suddenly shot to her feet, her expression excited.

Ao Wu quickly asked, "An’an, what’s wrong?"

"I’ve got it," Yu An said eagerly. "It’s hard for us to find the three of them, but they can come find us!"

"Starting tomorrow, we’ll go back to our old business. We’ll definitely become famous, and when Mo Yan and the others hear about us, they’re sure to come looking."

Han Li agreed. "Great idea! Word of mouth will surely spread. If the three of them hear about it, they can ask around and find their way to us."

"Let’s do it," Yu An said, pretending to think for a moment. "We’ll sell dumplings."

"Dumplings?"

Yu An nodded and began instructing them on how to knead dough, chop meat, and mince vegetables.

As the old saying goes, "If you don’t eat a bowl of dumplings on the winter solstice, your ears will freeze off and no one will care." Yu An calculated the date; it happened to be the Winter Solstice from her previous life.

Since everyone was tired today, Yu An decided to make just one type of filling: pork and green onion.

The pork and green onions were minced and mixed together. Then, water infused with scallion, ginger, and peppercorn was added, along with soy sauce, salt, and other seasonings, before being stirred evenly in one direction.

The kneaded dough was divided into several small portions and dusted with dry flour to keep it from drying out.

Yu An took one portion, rolled it into a log, and then divided it into small, even pieces.

Next, she used a rolling pin to flatten the pieces into round wrappers. Yu An demonstrated once, and Han Li and a few others learned quickly.

Afterward, she taught the others how to wrap the dumplings. She knew several folding techniques; whether she was "squeezing" or "pinching," the resulting dumplings were always plump and chubby.

Da Hu and the other little ones also learned to wrap them. Since their hands were small, Han Li specially rolled out some smaller wrappers for them.

Ao Wu, on the other hand, had quite a talent for wrapping dumplings. He learned quickly, and the ones he made were neat and proper, with consistent sizes and folds.

Yu An also made some fancier dumplings shaped like rabbits, goldfish, and more. They were small and exquisite, so lifelike that they drew gasps of amazement from the Zaizai.

They had spent the past few days searching for people with long faces, so it was rare to have such a cheerful moment.

Perhaps at the thought that Mo Yan and the others would soon find them, a hint of a smile appeared on Yu An’s face.

Chun Nuan saw this and quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

As they finished wrapping, they started boiling a pot of water. They dropped the dumplings in, and after adding a splash of cold water three separate times as it came to a boil, the dumplings were ready to be taken out.

Han Li used a slotted spoon to scoop the dumplings onto a large platter. Yu An had also prepared some chili oil, which she placed alongside vinegar, minced garlic, sesame oil, and other condiments for everyone to take as they pleased.

The space was filled with lively chatter. Perhaps sensing the excitement, the two unhatched Zaizai began to move restlessly.

Da Hu inadvertently noticed a crack on the fifth egg’s shell and exclaimed, "Female Mother, Beast Father, my little brother and sister are about to hatch!"

At his words, everyone’s eyes instantly snapped toward the egg.

The fifth Zaizai—would it be a boy or a girl?