Chapter 200: New Species

’Oh,’ Yun Jiao thought. ’No wonder they were in such a rush.’

But!

’What gives them the right to bother our family?’

Thinking of the injuries her family had sustained, Yun Jiao seethed.

’I’ve got to find a chance to give Yun Zhuangzhuang another beating.’

When she got home after hearing all the gossip, Yun Linhai and the others were discussing what gift to give for her apprenticeship ceremony.

Things like cigarettes and alcohol... they figured an old traditional Chinese doctor like Elder Xu probably wouldn’t indulge in them.

As sea people, their specialty was seafood. But they hadn’t been out to sea in a long time, so they didn’t have any impressive seafood to offer.

Mr. Yun took a drag from his long-stemmed pipe. "Here’s an idea. See what the weather’s like tomorrow. If you can go out to sea, head to the Red Forest on the island and see if you can catch something good."

Yun Linhe nodded. "That’s a good idea. If we really can’t find anything, we’ll just buy something to give him."

Yun Jiao raised her little hand. "I want to go! I want to go too!"

Her reason was quite sound: "Jiaojiao wants to find a gift for Master herself."

Yun Linhai picked her up and sat her on his lap. "Alright. If the heavens are kind to us tomorrow, we’ll all go together."

Everyone was very happy, so no one mentioned Yun Dan’s family.

It would be bad luck to bring them up at a time like this.

After a day of rest, the heavens were very kind on the second day.

The weather was good. Although it was cold, the sea was calm, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.

Yun Jiao put on her rain boots and a small, butter-yellow raincoat.

From a distance, she looked just like a fluffy little yellow duck.

Carrying her little bucket with a water bottle slung over her shoulder, she waddled along behind her dad and her little uncle.

As she left, she turned back to wave goodbye to everyone.

"Grandma, Grandpa, Mom, Auntie..."

"Goodbye! We’ll be back soon!"

She didn’t find it a bother at all, greeting each of them in turn.

On this somewhat gloomy, cold day, the little girl in bright yellow added a splash of beautiful, vivid color.

After the tide went out, the Red Forest became a stretch of wet mudflats.

It was somewhat difficult for people to walk through it.

But it was the favorite habitat for crabs, shellfish, and shrimp.

There was also a patch of Red Forest near their village, but many people went there, so the good stuff inside was a bit hard to find.

The one they were going to today was the Red Forest they had discovered on that island before.

They hadn’t been to that island’s Red Forest yet because they had been busy looking for other things on the island.

The Red Forest on the island wasn’t large, but since no one had visited it before, there were probably plenty of good things inside.

After landing on the island, they waited for low tide and then headed straight for the Red Forest.

On the way, Yun Linhai and Yun Linhe kept giving instructions.

"Jiaojiao, you have to stay close to us. The path in the Red Forest is hard to walk on, and you have to be careful of snakes..."

Yun Jiao listened earnestly and nodded.

Once they reached the Red Forest, the swamp-like soft mud was truly difficult to walk through.

Especially since Yun Jiao was short.

But she was strong and could pull her own short legs out of the mud they got stuck in.

"Hey, I found a huge mud crab! This one must be at least three pounds."

It was a good start. Not long after entering the Red Forest, Yun Linhe had found a mud crab.

A mud crab this big wasn’t cheap, and it would be a very presentable gift.

The Red Forest was rich with food. Even though the peak season for mud crabs had passed, the crabs and shrimp here were still large and plump.

"Whoa, and it’s a roe crab, too!"

Among mud crabs, roe crabs were more expensive than ordinary ones.

The roe inside was the most delicious.

Soon, Yun Linhai also found something.

Following a hole, he dug out something that looked like a swamp eel, but this type of eel had a larger, somewhat triangular head.

It was a bone eel.

This creature was highly nutritious, and many locals liked to stew it as a health tonic.

Yun Jiao saw that her dad and little uncle had both made a catch while she was still struggling with the sticky mud, and she instantly got annoyed.

’Could you please not like me so much?!’

Walking with difficulty through the mud, Yun Jiao’s eyes darted around for a moment before she spotted a rather large mound.

The mud was shallower here, and some spots were even dry.

’There must be something inside that mound,’ Yun Jiao thought.

So, Yun Jiao grabbed her small shovel and began to dig laboriously.

The hole was very deep and difficult to dig.

After struggling for a good while, she finally dug the thing out.

"Dad! Look what this is!"

Yun Jiao dangled the creature by its long tail. It was huge, almost as long as her little arm.

’I’ve never seen this before. It looks a bit like a shrimp, but also like a scorpion.’

Yun Linhai took a look. Huh? It was something he didn’t recognize!

"Lin He, come take a look at what Jiaojiao’s holding. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one before."

Yun Linhe looked. "Hsss... I’ve never seen this thing either."

It was a new species to them.

The two brothers stopped their search and hurried over to Yun Jiao to examine the creature.

"This thing is a type of shrimp, right? But its tail is so long. It kind of looks like a scorpion."

"It’s a bit like a lobster."

"It’s pretty big, and plump too."

Yun Linhe rubbed his hands together, his voice excited. "If we’ve never seen it, it definitely wasn’t here before. Let’s take it back and ask around. It might be something valuable."

"Jiaojiao, where did you find it?"

Yun Jiao pointed to the spot she had just dug.

"Let’s look around here too."

Yun Jiao tossed the big shrimp into her bucket and started searching earnestly as well.

Once they started looking, they discovered that there were quite a few of these shrimp in this area.

Some had even crawled out on their own.

But the ones inside the burrows were especially hard to dig out.

The burrows were too deep, and some shrimp would flee at the first sign of movement.

Still, this harvest was enough to make them beam with joy.

Yun Linhe said, "Brother, Jiaojiao, you two keep catching these things. I’m going to look for mud crabs."

Compared to this nameless shrimp whose price and taste were unknown, mud crabs were obviously a more reliable bet.

For Yun Jiao’s apprenticeship ceremony tomorrow, they planned to gift mud crabs.

"Alright. You be careful."

Yun Jiao didn’t just look for that shrimp; she looked for other things too.

For instance, bone eels, mud crabs, and some of the fish in the Red Forest.

Whatever she found, she tossed it into her bucket.

"What’s this? It looks so weird."

Yun Jiao had found another strange creature. It looked like an oversized beetle with a tail that resembled a Devil Fish’s.

She poked it, and the thing immediately started moving.

She turned it over and saw that its shell was huge. Underneath the shell, there was almost no flesh to be seen, just a lot of legs.

It looked even more like an oversized beetle.

"Dad, what’s this?"

Yun Jiao lifted the creature by its tail.

Yun Linhai took a look. "This thing... it looks like a horseshoe crab."

"This thing’s blood is blue. It’s really strange, and there’s not much meat on it, so nobody really eats it."

Yun Jiao said, "Oh," then swung the horseshoe crab by its tail for a moment before tossing it back.

She patted its shell.

"Go on, go on. Go somewhere far so I don’t step on you."

After letting the horseshoe crab go, Yun Jiao went back to looking for other edible things.

’Huh, there seems to be a huge mud crab over there, even bigger than the three-pound one my little uncle found earlier!’