"Big brother, this is it—the place I like best." Shi Yuwei plucked a lotus leaf and wore it on her head like a straw hat. "You can catch fish and shrimp here, watch little tadpoles, peel lotus seeds, pick lotus flowers, and dig up white lotus roots. There are waterbirds, dragonflies, and little butterflies too. You can swim, skip stones, and jump into mud puddles."
"I'm amazing at skipping stones. Watch!"
Whoosh! A pebble went biubiubiu across the water's surface, skipping thirty times before it finally plopped into the water.
"Ha ha!" Shi Yuwei raised her hands happily. "I broke my own record!"
"Thirty skips are nothing. Watch mine." Shi Tiexin picked up a pebble too and flung it out with a whoosh. It skipped forty times before falling into the water.
Shi Yuwei threw another, and Shi Tiexin did the same. Before long, their stones were skipping sixty, then seventy times across the surface.
"Hey!" Shi Yuwei's expression turned intent. She threw out a pebble, and it seemed to carry some innate rhythm as it skipped a hundred times amid the rolling waves, far beyond the range of an ordinary person's sight.
As they competed at skipping stones, Shi Tiexin's eyes darted about. He secretly stretched a foot beneath the water, then gave it a fierce hook and sweep.
With a loud splash, a great sheet of water flew toward Little Calf.
Shi Yuwei had been focused on skipping stones. Without thinking, she dodged, spinning like a dancer and avoiding every drop. Only then did she turn her wide eyes on him. "Big brother, what are you doing?"
"Having a water fight. Haven't you played one before?" Shi Tiexin suddenly crouched low, scooped beneath the water with one large hand, and flung it forward with force. "Take this!"
This