Chapter 150: Coconut Crab

"Brother, hurry up and climb the tree to pick a coconut for me."

They had just arrived in a coconut grove.

Yun Jiao stood under a coconut tree, her mouth watering as she stared up at the coconuts.

With a few quick moves, Yun Xiaowu was already scrambling up the tree.

"Okay! Stand back a bit, these things are heavy."

Yun Jiao nodded and took a few steps back.

Clinging to the tree, Yun Xiaowu struggled to pick a coconut.

Now standing at a distance, Yun Jiao searched the ground, hoping to find a fallen coconut she could eat.

She didn’t find any coconuts, but she did find something else—a creature eating one.

’Yikes... This thing looks like a giant spider!’

To be more precise, it looked like a cross between a spider, a crab, and a shrimp.

It had large, long legs, a head that looked a bit like a lobster’s, and a tail, also like a lobster’s, curled up under its belly.

Seeing it eat the coconut, Yun Jiao leaned in for a closer look, her curiosity getting the better of her. She even reached out a hand to poke it.

But the creature was surprisingly aggressive, raising a large pincer to snap at her hand.

Of course, Yun Jiao was quick on her feet and snatched her hand back just in time.

She glared at the big creature, her eyes narrowed.

"Jiaojiao, what are you doing?"

Yun Chen Nan walked over, saw the creature in front of her, and exclaimed in surprise, "A coconut crab."

Yun Jiao looked up at her third brother.

Yun Chen Nan squatted down beside her.

"These things are very rare now."

"Can you eat it?"

Yun Jiao asked.

’This thing looks so weird,’ she thought. ’Better ask to be sure.’

"You can, and they’re delicious."

"That’s the problem. They’re delicious and big, so they’ve been overhunted. There used to be coconut crabs in the groves near our village, but they were all eaten to the point of local extinction."

They’re bigger than regular crabs, have more meat, taste better, and sell for a good price. In any coconut grove near a village, if one shows up, it gets caught immediately.

He had eaten one twice when he was a kid, but unfortunately, they became rarer and rarer. It had been years since one had been spotted.

As soon as she heard it was delicious, Yun Jiao no longer cared about the creature’s bizarre appearance.

’There are much weirder things in the deep sea, after all.’

’On second thought, it’s actually quite handsome~’

"Brother, let’s catch it."

Then she added, "We’re not selling it. We’re eating it ourselves."

Yun Chen Nan chuckled. "Okay, we’ll eat it ourselves."

Her interest piqued, Yun Jiao wanted to see if she could find any more coconut crabs on the island.

So, grabbing a small stick, she started wandering around.

Meanwhile, Yun Xiaowu had just managed to get two coconuts down, but when he looked, his little sister was gone!

’My sister was right here! Where’d she go?’

Yun Jiao was originally looking for coconut crabs on the ground, but she suddenly heard a noise from up in a tree.

She looked up and was stunned.

’This... this giant crab can climb trees!’

That’s right, a coconut crab was currently on a coconut tree.

And it was a big one, too.

Yun Jiao tried to climb the tree, but alas, she just didn’t have the knack for it.

After a few failed attempts, she gave up and decided to call for backup.

"Brother!"

Her shout brought several of her brothers running.

They all thought she was in danger.

No danger. Yun Jiao just pointed at the big creature in the coconut tree. "Coconut crab. I can’t get up there."

Yun Xiaowu and the others looked up and were also stunned.

"What kind of crab is this? It can climb trees?"

Obviously, Yun Xiaowu had also never seen a coconut crab.

"Third Brother said this is a coconut crab, and it’s delicious."

Hearing it was delicious, Yun Xiao Liu immediately rolled up his sleeves. "I’ll get it!"

Yun Jiao said, "Sixth Brother, be careful. This coconut crab is really fierce."

She handed Yun Xiao Liu a wooden stick.

"Use this to poke it."

Watching Sixth Brother quickly scale the coconut tree, Yun Jiao was filled with envy.

The big coconut crab soon fell, bounced when it hit the ground, but wasn’t dead. A moment later, it was as lively as ever, raising its massive pincers to ward everyone off.

Yun Xiaowu offered it a wooden stick, and the coconut crab easily snapped it in two.

"Yeesh... Man, if that thing clamped down on your hand, you’d lose it."

Yun Jiao nodded in agreement.

They used palm leaves to bundle up the coconut crab’s massive pincers, and only after tying them securely did they feel safe enough to toss it into their bucket.

"Come on, let’s keep looking."

The group spread out to look for more coconut crabs and soon found three more.

However, two of them were small. For the sake of sustainability, they released the two smaller ones.

They had caught three large coconut crabs.

"This one is so big."

Yun Xiaowu held one of the largest coconut crab’s pincers. Fully extended, it could cover his entire upper body.

"The kids in the village have definitely never seen a crab this big."

"Heh, and it’s a giant crab that lives on land."

Still, the creatures were rare. They had searched the coconut grove for a long time and only found a few.

Yun Chen Nan said, "Alright, it’s time to head back."

They had been out for about three hours.

They’d gotten addicted to foraging on the island, and they had caught a lot of things along the way.

Fish, crabs, shrimp, octopuses, and sea snails.

Their buckets were already overflowing; they had to put the sea snails in a burlap sack.

The coconut crabs were also put into a burlap sack.

Yun Jiao rubbed her belly. She was hungry.

"Let’s go, let’s go! I want to eat instant noodles."

At the thought of instant noodles, everyone’s mouth began to water.

They felt even hungrier.

They had planned to stay until the afternoon, so they had also brought things to cook a meal.

The siblings returned boisterously. Before they even arrived, Yun Xiaowu and the others started shouting loudly.

"Grandpa Yun, Grandma, Mom, Dad..."

"We’re back! Look what we caught!"

Shen Yunlian and the others had already started a fire under the pot.

They had even already steamed a pot of oysters.

Granny Yun called to them, "Hurry over and get ready to eat."

The main course was toasted steamed buns.

The oysters were pure, plump meat. All you had to do was roll one in the dipping sauce for a bite that was both tender and incredibly fresh.

Of course, they had brought the three packs of instant noodles. They tossed them right into the pot, adding some cleaned shrimp and crabs, instantly creating a deluxe seafood ramen.

"It smells so good..."

The whole family’s stomachs were rumbling.

After washing their hands and grabbing their bowls, everyone sat right down on the reef rocks and dug in.

Yun Xiaowu and the others were incredibly excited, chattering away and blurting out everything they had found.

Clearly, their harvest had been bountiful.

"Jiaojiao found a clam this big!"

Yun Xiaowu spread his arms wide to demonstrate, but the exaggerated arc made the adults laugh in disbelief.

Yun Chen Nan stated matter-of-factly, "It wasn’t as big as Xiao Wu is making it out to be, but it was as big as the washbasin at home."

"What? You really found a clam that big? Where is it? Let me see,"

Wang Mei was extremely curious. What kind of island was this where clams could grow so huge.

Grandpa Yun, however, had an idea. "It must have been a Conch."

He couldn’t think of anything else that could grow that large besides a Conch.

Yun Chen Nan nodded. "Mhm, it was a Conch."

"Where is it? Where is it?"

Yun Jiao slurped down a mouthful of noodles.

"We put it back in the sea. Third Brother said it’s a protected animal, so we couldn’t take it."