Chapter 56: Such A Stupid Sea Eagle
Under the kelp, the dense mussels made one feel claustrophobic.
Mussels, also called jade mussels because their edges have a circle of jade-like green color, and some varieties that lack that green circle are also called sea mussels.
When the meat of mussels is dried, it becomes the local dried seafood.
In the nearshore areas of their Bailong Village, they also have these, and sometimes a large cluster is washed ashore on the beach.
This is because they like to grow in groups and attach themselves to a rope.
Although mussels are quite attractive, their strong reproductive ability makes them easy to find, so they are very cheap.
Everyone who found them took them home to eat.
But… Yun Jiao had never seen such large mussels before.
Each one was bigger than her palm.
The mussels found on the beach in Bailong Village were very small; one here was as big as four or five of those small mussels.
She pulled one out and set it aside, then continued pulling.
In just a short while, she had pulled out a small pile.
As she held another large mussel in her hand, a bird suddenly fell from the sky and landed right on her pile of mussels, and she found herself staring at the bird.
Yun Jiao’s gaze shifted, staring at the fish in its claws.
The fish wasn’t too big, weighing only a little over two jin.
Compared to most sea fish, two or three jin would be considered a relatively small fish.
The most vibrant part of the fish was those few orange-yellow diagonal stripes.
Held by the big bird, it was still struggling and twisting desperately.
The big bird looked a bit awkward, flapping its wings as it tried to fly up again with the fish.
However, the fish was too heavy, and it was exhausted from the journey, so it couldn’t fly anymore.
Yun Jiao hesitated for a moment, then used her small shovel to pry open a mussel, took out the meat, and handed it to the sea eagle.
“Can I trade you a fish for this?”
Trading small for big.
Only an idiot would do that!
The sea eagle glanced at the small piece of meat in her hand, then at the large fish in its claws.
It stared at her expressionlessly.
Are you kidding me?
Yun Jiao squatted down face-to-face with it and explained earnestly.
“You’re tired now anyway, and you can’t carry such a big fish, so why not trade it with me? If you think it’s not enough, I have other things too.”
“Wait a moment, I’ll go get them for you.”
Then she ran to her father’s and their buckets and grabbed several small fish and shrimp.
“Look, I’ll trade you this much. You’re not at a disadvantage now, are you?”
The sea eagle stared at the small fish and shrimp placed in front of it, and in the end, its brain wasn’t enough, so it let go of the large one in its claws and started eating.
One bite after another, crisp and delicious, it even saved itself the trouble of pecking at the fish meat.
Yun Jiao touched the big fish, her eyes crinkling with a smile.
Although she didn’t know what kind of fish it was, it was definitely more valuable than those small mixed fish.
“Eat up, eat up. You can have as much as you want; it’s enough to fill you up.”
Yun Jiao picked up the big fish and put it into the bucket, then grabbed some small fish to put in.
“What are you doing, Jiao Jiao?”
Yun Linhai, who was bent over harvesting kelp, was panting from exhaustion. Seeing Yun Jiao running around busy, he didn’t know what she was doing.
Yun Linhe: “I’ll go take a look. Don’t come up with anything surprising again.”
Yun Linhai and Yun Chendong exchanged a look and thought it was quite possible.
So they also walked over with curious hearts.
Then, looking at the three-knife fish in the bucket, the three adults fell silent.
Truly, in the shock, there was a hint of eerie calm.
They were used to it.
Used to it, my foot!
That’s a three-knife fish, and such a big one!
It must be over two jin, almost three jin.
As far as they knew, the three-knife fish they had caught before were mostly around one jin, and those over two jin were quite rare.
The largest this fish could grow to seemed to be around three jin.
Most importantly, this fish was expensive!
Seven or eight yuan per jin; for one this big, they might even be able to raise the price.
“Where did this come from?”
Yun Jiao pointed at the sea eagle happily eating small mixed fish nearby.
“I traded it with it for those small fish.”
Yun Linhai: What a stupid sea eagle.
Yun Linhe: What a silly big bird.
Yun Chendong: ………
So, how did that sea eagle come about?
Yun Jiao pointed at the sky: “It fell, right in front of me.”
The three of them: … What absurd luck.
The few of them walked over, and the sea eagle glanced at them before continuing to eat, not showing any fear of them.
Yun Linhai and the others didn’t dare to get too close, just watching Yun Jiao feed it with small fish.
“Are you full yet?”
“You can’t eat too much, or I’ll be at a loss.”
The three of Yun Linhai shouted in their hearts: You won’t be at a loss, even if you give it two or three times more small mixed fish, you won’t be at a loss!
Yun Linhai observed carefully and concluded: “This should be a young sea eagle that has just left its parents to start hunting.”
Its size wasn’t very large, it looked clumsy, and it didn’t have much vigilance.
But it was very lucky, catching such a large fish in one go.
It just lacked experience, and the fish was a bit too heavy for it, so it accidentally fell.
Even more absurdly, their Jiao Jiao managed to trade such a large three-knife fish for small mixed fish!
Who could have predicted this development?
In the blink of an eye, Jiao Jiao could always bring them unexpected surprises.
The sea eagle finished eating and didn’t fly away. It found a spot nearby to preen its feathers.
It was simply too tired from flying.
As Yun Linhai and the others guessed, this sea eagle had only been driven out of its nest by its parents two days ago.
Having relied on its parents before, it now had to rely on itself, and it hadn’t caught food for two days.
Tired and hungry, it could only find some dead fish to eat sadly, and it wasn’t even full.
Today its luck was good, and it finally caught a big one.
But because it was out of strength, the big fish was still struggling, making it lose its balance and fall directly from the sky.
Now that it was full, the sea eagle was lazily unwilling to fly, its wings still sore, preening its feathers nearby, and curiously watching what those people were doing.
Yun Linhai and the others naturally noticed the large patch of mussels as well.
Although these things weren’t valuable, their sheer quantity made up for it!
Yun Linhai called to his son: “Bring a sack, let’s bring more back to dry into dried mussels.”
Selling them isn’t worth it, and A’wang probably can’t take too much.
These grow abundantly by the sea, and although they are small, they are still of the same species.
These reproduce quickly and grow quickly, so one finds a large area. Therefore, few people by the sea buy these to eat.
When people want to eat them, they just pry some off themselves; who would spend money unnecessarily?
The shells of these mussels were large, and soon they had filled a sack,
Yun Chendong: “The shells are too big to fit much. How about we pry the meat out and take it back when we’re heading home?”
The meat from that sack of mussels would probably only fill a small basin.
Taking so many shells back would take up space in the sack.
“Agreed, then let’s not pick mussels for now. We have enough kelp. Let’s look for other things, carefully sifting through the kelp, perhaps there are good things hidden, but be careful, there might be sea snakes.”
