The wedding went off without a hitch, except for the fact that Adeline’s three older brothers were thoroughly embarrassed thanks to the state of their hair and clothes. This prompted Big Sister to hide the beautiful jade necklace given to her by her Great Aunt with Aunt Baba, making the latter promise to not share this news with Niang. Niang confiscated the gifts that started arriving, keeping the best ones for herself. The age difference between the two frightens Adeline, who vows to never be married off at such an early age. The truth comes to light when Big Sister reveals that there are plans to marry her off to Samuel, the son of the family doctor. The book then moves on to note the mysterious disappearances of Big Sister from the household, often accompanying Father and Niang on business trips. Adeline’s grief is deep, with the chapter closed off with the burial of poor Precious Little Treasure. Big Brother chooses PLT, who is then mauled by a tempted Jackie. Later that night at dinner, Father wants to test out Jackie’s obedience and asks for a volunteer duckling. Aunt Baba sees her wound and tries to cheer Adeline up with the contents of the safe deposit box, at the same trying to prevent any waves to be kicked up. When trying to compensate for the loss of worms by digging in her home’s garden, Adeline is attacked by Jackie, the dog. Adeline tries to take special care of her duckling, finding and feeding it extra worms but is stopped by her jealous Second Brother. Named “Precious Little Treasure” (PLT for short), the duckling is especially cognizant for it’s age, recognizing Adeline and following her around. That did not matter though, as Adeline grew to love the duckling above all else. Adeline, naturally, was left with the scrawniest of the birds.
The Huangs have brought with them the gift of baby ducklings, one for each of the children.
Most of the visitors only knew of the existence of Niang’s two natural born children, since Niang did not want people to know she was a stepmother at her age. Huang-friends of Aunt Baba from Father’s first marriage-has the unique consequence of the recognition of all seven children within the household.
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