Chapter 56: Chapter 56: The Foolish Sea Eagle
Beneath the kelp, the blue mussels grew so densely it was enough to make your skin crawl.
Blue mussels are also called jadeite mussels due to the jade-like green ring on their shells. Varieties without that green ring are also known as sea mussels.
The sun-dried meat of blue mussels is known locally as dried mussels.
They also had these things in the coastal waters near Bailong Village. Sometimes, a large cluster would even wash up on the beach.
That’s because they tend to grow in clusters, attaching to one another in a rope-like fashion.
Although blue mussels were quite pretty, they were very cheap because they reproduced quickly and were easy to find.
Whenever anyone found them, they just took them home to eat.
But... Yun Jiao had never seen blue mussels this big before.
Every single one was bigger than her palm.
The blue mussels found on the beach in Bailong Village were all very small. A single one here was as large as four or five of those smaller ones combined.
She plucked one out, tossed it aside, and then continued plucking more.
In just a short while, she had plucked a small pile.
As she held another large blue mussel in her hand, a bird suddenly fell from the sky, landing right on her pile of mussels. For a moment, she and the bird just stared at each other.
Yun Jiao’s gaze shifted to the fish in its talons.
The fish wasn’t too big, probably a little over two pounds.
Compared to most sea fish, two or three pounds was considered relatively small.
The most striking thing about the fish was the several orange-yellow diagonal stripes on its body.
Even in the large bird’s grasp, it continued to struggle and squirm desperately.
The large bird looked a bit awkward. It flapped its wings, trying to take flight again with the fish.
Unfortunately, the fish was too heavy, and the bird was exhausted from the journey. It couldn’t get off the ground.
Yun Jiao hesitated for a moment, then used her small trowel to crack open a blue mussel. She scooped out the meat and offered it to the sea eagle.
"Can I trade you for the fish?"
’Trading something small for something big.’
’Only an idiot would take that deal!’
The sea eagle glanced at the small piece of meat in her hand, then looked back at the large fish in its talons.
It stared at her blankly.
’Are you kidding me?’
Yun Jiao squatted face-to-face with it and explained in all seriousness.
"You’re tired right now anyway, and you can’t carry a fish this big. Why not trade it to me? If you think it’s not enough, I have other things."
"Wait, I’ll go get them for you."
She then ran over to her dad and the others’ bucket and grabbed several small fish and shrimp.
"Look, I’ll trade you all of this. You’re not getting a bad deal now, are you?"
The sea eagle stared at the small fish and shrimp placed before it. In the end, its simple mind was won over; it released the large fish from its talons and began to eat.
It ate them one by one. CRUNCH. Delicious. This even saved it the trouble of having to peck the meat off a bigger fish.
Yun Jiao stroked the big fish, her eyes curving into happy crescents.
’I don’t know what kind of fish this is, but it’s definitely more valuable than those small fry.’
"Eat up, eat up. There’s plenty more where that came from, enough to fill you up."
Yun Jiao carried the large fish over to the bucket and dropped it in, then grabbed some more small fish to bring back.
"What’s Jiaojiao up to?"
Yun Linhai and the others, who were bent over harvesting kelp, were panting with exhaustion. They saw Yun Jiao bustling about but had no idea what she was doing.
Yun Linhe said, "I’ll go take a look. I hope she hasn’t dug up something else astonishing."
Yun Linhai and Yun Chendong exchanged a look. They thought it was entirely possible.
So, filled with curiosity, they walked over as well.
Then, seeing the Three-blade Fish in the bucket, all three adults fell silent.
It was a truly strange sense of calm amidst the shock.
’We’re used to it. We’re used to it.’
’Like hell we are!’
That was a Three-blade Fish, and a huge one at that!
It had to be over two pounds, maybe even close to three.
As far as they knew, most Three-blade Fish they caught were around one pound. Ones over two pounds were a rare sight.
The largest this fish could get seemed to be around three pounds.
Most importantly, this fish was expensive!
They went for seven or eight a pound, and one this big could probably fetch an even higher price.
"Where did this come from?"
Yun Jiao pointed to the sea eagle happily munching on small fish over there.
"I traded it for those small fish."
Yun Linhai: ’What a stupid sea eagle.’
Yun Linhe: ’What a dumb bird.’
Yun Chendong: "..."
So, where did the sea eagle come from in the first place?
Yun Jiao pointed at the sky. "It fell down. Right in front of me."
The three men: ’...What ridiculous luck.’
The men walked over. The sea eagle glanced at them a few times and went back to eating, not the least bit afraid.
Yun Linhai and the others didn’t dare get too close. They just watched as Yun Jiao fed it the small fish.
"Are you full yet?"
"You can’t eat too many, or I’ll be taking a loss on this deal."
The three men screamed internally, ’There’s no way you’re taking a loss! You could give it two or three times as many small fish and it would still be a steal!’
After careful observation, Yun Linhai came to a conclusion. "This must be a young sea eagle that has just left its parents to hunt on its own."
It wasn’t fully grown, looked a bit clumsy, and wasn’t very wary.
But it had great luck, catching such a large fish in one go.
It was just inexperienced, and the fish was a bit too heavy, so it lost its grip and fell.
What was even more ridiculous was that their Jiaojiao had actually managed to trade a few small fry for such a large Three-blade Fish!
Who could have predicted such a turn of events?
The moment they looked away, Jiaojiao would always manage to give them an unexpected surprise.
Once the sea eagle was full, it didn’t fly away. Instead, it found a spot nearby to preen its feathers.
It was simply too tired from flying.
Yun Linhai and the others had guessed correctly. This sea eagle had just been kicked out of the nest by its parents two days ago.
It had always relied on its parents, but now it suddenly had to fend for itself. It hadn’t caught any food in two days.
Tired and hungry, it had finally, miserably, found a dead fish to eat, but it wasn’t enough to fill its stomach.
Its luck turned today, and it finally caught a big one.
But it had no energy left, and the large fish was still struggling, exhausting it to the point that it lost its balance and fell right out of the sky.
Now that it was finally full, the sea eagle felt too lazy to fly. The base of its wings was still sore, so it stayed to the side, preening its feathers and curiously watching what the humans were doing.
When Yun Linhai and the others came over, they naturally spotted the huge patch of blue mussels as well.
They might not be worth much, but you couldn’t argue with the sheer quantity!
Yun Linhai called to his son, "Bring a sack! We’ll take a bunch of these home to dry and eat."
It wasn’t worth selling them. Ah Wang probably wouldn’t take too many anyway.
These things grew all over the seaside, and even though those were smaller, they were still the same species.
They reproduced and grew quickly, and you could always find a huge patch, so very few people by the sea actually bought them to eat.
If anyone wanted to eat some, they could just go pry some off the rocks themselves. Who would spend money needlessly?
The shells of these blue mussels were large, and they quickly filled a whole burlap sack.
Yun Chendong said, "These shells are so big we can’t fit much. Why don’t we shuck the meat and take that home right before we leave?"
The meat from a whole sack of those blue mussels would probably only fill a small basin.
Taking all those shells back would waste space in the sacks and be bulky.
"Alright. We’ll stop gathering mussels for now. We have enough kelp, too. Let’s look for other things. Search carefully through the kelp, there might be something good hiding in there. But be careful, there could be sea snakes."
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