Ye Chenghu quickly pulled the bucket behind him too, watching his mother warily.
Dad was better after all!
But while they were distracted, the red octopus they had just tossed into the bucket climbed out again. Its long, large tentacles moved especially fast, and before anyone noticed, it had climbed onto a table leg and was crawling along the crossbar.
Seeing that Lin Xiuqing had backed down, Ye Yaodong was about to sit down to eat. He rested his foot on the crossbar, and the soft lump beneath it felt like he had stepped in shit...
"What's that?"
Startled, he hurriedly looked down at the table leg.
"Ah! It climbed out again..."
Everyone else looked over too and discovered that the big red octopus had escaped again.
Lin Xiuqing immediately said, "See? I told you we couldn't keep it! You only just caught it, and it's already escaped again. Leave it overnight, and it might even crawl into your beds."
She had planned to stir-fry the big red octopus for dinner, but the two children had cried their hearts out and flung themselves over the bucket, piling on top of each other and holding it down tightly, refusing to let her take it.
She had no choice but to give up for the moment and wait until they went to school tomorrow to cook it secretly.
Now she could take it and cook it openly. With that thought, Lin Xiuqing put her plan into action.
She caught the red octopus crawling beneath the table and said, "We'd better cook it right away, or you won't be able to find it anywhere tomorrow. It's only truly yours once it's in your belly."
Unwilling to give up, Ye Chenghu asked, "Can we tie it up?"
"Uh..." Ye Yaodong looked at him with