The ocean fell dead silent.
Seven-year-old Jiang Tuntun wiped her barbecue brush on a clean kitchen towel. She picked up her three-gallon sauce crock, gave the Kraken’s black tongue an affectionate pat, and hopped off his lower lip like she was jumping down from a front porch.
SPLAT.
Her yellow rubber boots landed cleanly back on the cruise ship’s deck.
“Daddy, I’m back!” Tuntun chirped, holding up her sticky tongs. “The hook is gone, and I put the garlic sauce on his boo-boo!”
“Good job, sweetheart,” Gu Changsheng said. He used a damp linen cloth to wipe a speck of chili oil from her round cheek. “Go wash your hands.
We have lunch coming up.”
“And take these three Spirit Stones I refined out of that ugly bone-hook, Second Brother!” Tuntun handed three sparkling crystals to twelve-year-old Ye Xiao, who tucked them neatly into the family travel ledger pouch.
