Chapter 168: The Orca’s Hunting Ground
What else could Yun Linhai do? He could only poke her small forehead.
“That’s what you say every time!”
Yun Jiao lowered her head, looking at her toes without speaking.
“Woof woof woof…”
The two little puppies were quite protective of their owner. Their tiny noses, so small, stood in front of Yun Jiao, barking fiercely at Yun Linhai.
They didn’t know Yun Jiao had gone on an adventure; they only knew this big person was scolding their little master.
Yun Linhai: …It’s as if I’m the bad guy.
He had no choice but to let Yun Jiao go and attend to the swordfish.
Over there, several people were looking at the swordfish from all angles.
Although the swordfish was fierce and rare, it wasn’t considered a top-tier ingredient.
Its price wasn’t extremely high, but it wasn’t cheap either.
It could probably be sold for around one yuan per jin now.
But this one was so large, at least eighty to ninety jin, so it could fetch a good amount of money.
The bled swordfish was placed into a large box filled with ice.
This item was something Yun Linhai and Yun Linhe had bought from Awang.
They had no choice. Every time they went out to sea with Jiaojiao, they found rare and precious seafood. Some seafood’s meat would easily spoil if not frozen; poorer quality items would depreciate, and even worse, they couldn’t be sold for money or even eaten.
So, it was being used now.
The ice was packed in large boxes lined with old cotton quilts. Even if it couldn’t fit the entire fish, it was enough to lower the temperature of this swordfish.
Otherwise, they would have to return after only just setting out.
“I wonder which sea area we’ve sailed to.”
Their boat had previously been dragged forward by the swordfish for a considerable distance.
They didn’t know where they were now, so they would just keep going, leaving it to fate.
Today, they had brought two hand-thrown nets and a longline.
Just as Yun Linhai and Yun Linhe were preparing to cast the longline, Yun Jiao’s eyes suddenly lit up with surprise.
“Father, Uncle, don’t cast the longline yet. Keep sailing in that direction; there’s an orca pod hunting.”
“What?”
The two of them were a bit confused. What did an orca pod hunting have to do with them?
Were they going to deliberately go and watch them hunt now?
Yun Jiao’s clear and bright eyes looked at them.
“It’s a school of fish. They’re encircling a very large sardine school.”
This was information Yun Jiao had gleaned from the sounds made by the orca pod.
A sardine school.
Anything that could be called a school of fish was already very large.
Hearing this, Yun Linhai and Yun Linhe didn’t say another word. They used all their strength, rowing the boat with all their might in the direction Yun Jiao indicated.
Soon, they could see seabirds circling in the distant sky.
Yun Linhai and Yun Linhe became excited.
“So many seabirds, that fish school must be huge!”
Seabirds also eat fish. Flying high in the sky, they naturally gather wherever there is food.
Just looking at the dense seabirds in the sky indicated that the fish school was definitely not small.
So, they rowed even harder towards that direction.
The orca pod clearly had extensive experience in cooperating to hunt, and a large school of sardines was encircled by them into a circle.
They had already been eating for a while.
But the sardine school was still enormous.
They moved closer, and even from two to three hundred meters away, they could see how spectacular the scene was as the encircled sardine school churned on the sea surface.
“Hurry up and go.”
Yun Jiao stood at the bow of the ship, letting out calls towards the orca pod.
Shen Kuan and Shen Xiuyuan were stunned at this moment. Going out to sea was too exciting!
What was Jiaojiao doing?
The sounds Yun Jiao made were somewhat similar to the cries of orcas, and most of these sounds were inaudible to human ears.
But the orcas responded to her.
‘Human, come quickly, hunting.’
‘So much, prey, come quickly.’
The familiar orca pod enthusiastically invited them to hunt together, not minding at all that they might snatch prey.
One orca even found their boat too slow, so it swam behind the wooden boat and nudged it forward with its head.
Those on the boat who hadn’t steadied themselves were thrown off balance by the inertia. The unlucky Shen Xiuyuan rolled like a ball, falling directly off the boat this time.
“Ah, holy crap! Glug glug…”
Yun Jiao promptly had an orca rescue him.
Shen Xiuyuan sat stiffly on the back of an orca, afraid to move, screaming internally.
Ahhh, he was riding a fish, a fish this big!
Shen Kuan, who had climbed back onto the boat, was first relieved to see that his younger brother, who had fallen into the sea, was fine. He was also very unsettled at this moment.
Their little cousin, what exactly was going on here!!!
“What are you still standing there for? Cast the nets!”
Such a large-scale fish school was extremely rare.
Sardines were not valuable; they were only one mao per jin.
But there were so many of them.
With such a large quantity, the weight increased, and so did the money.
Yun Linhai and Yun Linhe each took a hand-thrown net and cast it towards the fish school. They hadn’t completely lost their heads; they specifically avoided the direction where the orcas were.
Soon, a net containing over a hundred jin of sardines was pulled in. The veins on the adults’ arms bulged as they pulled the net.
Yun Jiao ran over to help.
She was strong. Yun Linhai’s net was pulled in first, so she went to help her father.
Yun Linhe shouted, “Shen Kuan, come help quickly.”
Shen Kuan pulled his stiff, dazed brother onto the boat from the orca’s back: “Coming.”
“Quick, let’s go help.”
At this moment, they didn’t have time to think too much. They only had one thought: pull the net, put the fish into the boat’s hold, without even checking the fish in the hold, continue casting the nets, and pulling them in.
The orcas surrounded the sardine school, opening their huge mouths to eat and eat.
The commotion here was significant. Even if they couldn’t see the sardine school, nearby fishing boats could spot the seabirds circling and gathering in the sky.
Experienced fishermen guessed that there was a fish school and started sailing towards this area.
It was indeed a fish school, but seeing so many orcas, those fishing boats dared not get too close.
The feeling of only being able to watch but not fish was too uncomfortable.
What was the difference between this and watching a lot of money in front of you but being unable to pick it up?
“Look quickly, is that a boat fishing over there?”
Someone with good eyesight spotted the wooden boat fishing amidst the orca pod and exclaimed in surprise.
The others followed their gaze; it was indeed true.
“Good heavens, who has such courage?”
“Those orcas don’t seem to be attacking them.”
The other fishing boats were envious. If no one dared to approach, they wouldn’t feel anything, but with one boat venturing in, the other boats that were already restless wanted to take a risk.
“Let’s go for it, get closer, we’ll go fishing too.”
“With such a large sardine school, even without getting close to the orcas, we can cast our nets on the periphery and still have a good harvest.”
Although it was the orcas hunting, the sardines gathered in such large numbers that they attracted other predators in the ocean.
These fish ventured closer to scavenge while the orcas were eating sardines, which was easier than hunting on their own.
