Just as she was thinking this, Huai Zi sat down in front of the stove. He started poking at the ashes in the firebox with a pair of tongs and said, "Did you put a stew pot in here to make some kind of soup? We won't be able to eat it tonight then, it'll have to be tomorrow morning. Whoa! What's this?"
He hadn't pulled out a stew pot. Instead, he felt the tongs hit a hard lump. Not knowing what it was and afraid he might break it, he didn't dare to move it around recklessly and quickly asked Juhua.
Juhua couldn't help but laugh—she had just been thinking he wouldn't find it, and now he had. She walked over with a smile and crouched beside him, resting a hand on his knee. "Ai! You found it so quickly," she said. "I was hoping you'd have to search a little longer. Go on, pull it out. And guess what it is. If you get it right this time, I'll be really impressed."
