Chapter 149: Conch

The fish in this area weren’t in schools, but there were still quite a few.

Yun Xiaowu quickly caught a fish of about five or six pounds.

Although it wasn’t a rare species, it still had a lot of meat.

Even if they didn’t sell it, it would make for a good meal at home.

"I want to fish too."

"It’s my turn, it’s my turn!"

Everyone scrambled for a turn with the fishing rod, and even Mr. Yun felt the itch to join in as he watched.

Just watching them pull up fish after fish was enough to put anyone in a good mood.

This just went to show that going out to sea yielded a much bigger harvest than foraging on the shore.

"Sister, look! I caught a really pretty fish."

Yun Xiaojiu pointed at the hairtail his second brother had just scooped up with a net. The fish was surprisingly strong; it had almost dragged him into the sea.

This hairtail was much larger than the ones that had washed ashore before. Its whole body shimmered with a silver light as if it were glowing. It was truly beautiful, but it also died very quickly.

Not long after being caught, it was dead as a doornail, and its silver sheen had already faded.

Yun Xiaojiu: "Ah... It turned ugly."

Yun Chenxi comforted him, "Hairtails are like that."

"Hey, I’ve got a bite over here!"

Mr. Yun hadn’t fought with his grandsons over the fishing rods. Instead, he was using the simple bamboo pole he had from before to fish from the boat.

He played the fish on the hook for a while before skillfully yanking it up.

"A sea bass."

’Not bad. Sea bass is delicious.’

"The tide’s going out."

The tide around the island receded, revealing most of its landmass.

"Quick, let’s go ashore."

After mooring the boat, everyone put on their waterproof boots and stepped onto the island.

"There are so many sea snails on the reefs over here, and they’re huge!"

For Shen Yunlian and Wang Mei, who often foraged on the shore, the various snails on the reefs were already a bountiful harvest.

They grabbed their tools and eagerly went to gather them.

CLINK, CLANK...

That was the sound of the snails dropping into their buckets.

"The oysters here are huge too."

Yun Linhai said, "Forget the oysters for now. Let’s go to the oyster bed. We still haven’t gotten the oysters we promised to feed the killer whale and the Whale Shark yesterday."

Yun Linhe added, "That’s right. We gathered a lot of oysters yesterday but didn’t take any back with us."

Yesterday, everyone was preoccupied with that bluefin tuna.

"So we’re going to shuck the oysters on the island?"

"Yes, and a lot of them."

Oysters weren’t worth much, so no one felt bad about feeding them to the killer whale and Whale Shark.

It was to help Jiaojiao maintain her fish network. Totally worth it!

Their family couldn’t eat that many anyway. Shucked oysters didn’t sell for a good price, and they were reluctant to sell the unshucked ones because they wanted to check for pearls. So, they could only eat them themselves.

They felt even less conflicted when they reached the oyster bed and saw the densely packed, massive oysters.

’Might as well shuck them. Plus, we can look for oyster pearls.’

The whole family swarmed forward, tools in hand, and began shucking oysters. They felt around for pearls, then tossed the oyster meat into a bucket.

A few minutes later, Granny Yun’s voice rang out in surprise.

"I found an oyster pearl over here!"

"It’s not very round, but it’s quite big."

"That’s fine. The boss should still buy this one."

Now, everyone shucked oysters with even more enthusiasm.

But repeatedly shucking oysters and feeling for pearls was a tedious task. Besides, you couldn’t open the shells without a bit of strength.

Yun Xiaojiu held up his slightly red and swollen hands, his eyes welling up with tears.

"SOB SOB SOB... I’m not shucking any more oysters! My hands hurt so much."

He even made a point of running over to Yun Jiao to cry, an expert at playing the victim.

Yun Jiao patted his hand and puckered her lips to blow on it a few times.

"Brother Nine isn’t shucking oysters anymore."

Yun Xiaowu and the other boys also tossed their oysters aside. "Dad, Mom, we’re going to explore somewhere else and see if we can find any big prizes!"

They had finally made it out here; what was the point of just sitting around shucking oysters?

Of course, Yun Linhai and the others knew what these little rascals were thinking.

"Go on, but be careful."

Wang Mei called out, "Yun Chen Nan, Yun Chenbei, you two go with them. Don’t let them wander into the sea."

The younger kids were like newborn calves, unafraid of tigers—utterly fearless.

If no one watched them, she was truly afraid they’d follow Yun Jiao and dive right into the ocean.

Yun Chen Nan and Yun Chenbei acknowledged her and followed along, carrying empty buckets.

Yun Jiao said, "Third Brother, Fourth Brother, bring some bags."

What if they found something good and the buckets weren’t enough?

The two of them clearly didn’t have as much experience as Yun Jiao. Hearing her, they grabbed two bags and hung them from their waists.

The group of kids left in a lively clamor, leaving the patient adults behind to continue shucking oysters.

Perhaps because the tide had just gone out, there were quite a few sea creatures on the island that hadn’t managed to retreat with the water.

"A sea cucumber! I found a sea cucumber!"

It was black and only about the size of a palm.

"There’s a cluster of scallops here."

Yun Xiao Liu shouted, "Third Brother, Fourth Brother, come quick! I found an eel but I don’t dare grab it. This thing is too fierce!"

Foraging on this island was just awesome.

Because few people had come here before, the island was still rich with life.

Yun Jiao also found a cluster of shrimp in a tide pool.

They were prawns.

She crouched down and tossed the prawns into her little bucket one by one.

There were also two small white octopuses.

"Huh?"

Yun Jiao had found a huge treasure.

It was stuck in a crevice in the reef below.

She jumped down and, with her bottom sticking in the air, fiddled with it for a good while before finally pulling the thing out.

"Whoa... what a huge clam!"

This was the biggest clam she had seen since coming to this world.

’She wasn’t too surprised, though. She had seen even bigger ones in her past life. After all, she used to have a giant clamshell big enough to fit her adult Merfolk body.’

Suddenly, she missed the round, sparkling pearls from her giant clamshell bed.

"Jiaojiao, what are you doing?"

Yun Jiao’s brothers came looking for her, and their eyes went wide when they saw the huge thing she was holding.

"Wh-what is that? Is that a giant clam?!"

Yun Jiao excitedly lifted the giant clam in her hands to show her brothers.

"Brothers, look what I found!"

She was so excited, she happily trotted over to her brothers while holding it.

The group of them surrounded the giant clam, completely amazed.

Yun Xiaowu and the others had never seen such a large clam before, and they all took turns touching it.

Yun Chen Nan said, "We can’t take this back with us."

His expression was serious. "This is called a Conch. I heard from my teacher that they’re very rare now because of overfishing. I think they’ve been classified as a protected species."

"What? Animals can be protected?"

They had truly never heard of such a thing.

Yun Jiao also looked curiously at her third brother.

Yun Chen Nan patted her hair. "We can look at the Conch, but we’d better not take it back. I’m afraid it could cause trouble."

Yun Jiao let out an "oh."

"So we can’t eat it."

’What a shame. It looked like it had a lot of meat.’

Yun Chen Nan said, "Let it go."

Everyone else was really disappointed.

’A clam this big... who knows how much it would sell for?’

But...

They were also genuinely afraid of getting into trouble.

Although Yun Xiaowu and the others weren’t old, certain things they had seen as children were deeply ingrained in their memories, even leaving a bit of a shadow.

For the sake of their family’s safety, it was better to let it go.

Yun Jiao hugged the Conch and tossed it directly into the sea.

"Bye-bye! I’ll come visit you next time."

Yun Xiaowu asked, "Will it still be here next time we come?"

Yun Jiao crouched on the reef, watching the Conch sink to the bottom of the sea.

"I don’t know. I’ll come look for it next time and see."