Chapter 297: Giant Trevally

"Jiaojiao, did you catch this?"

A few of them circled the Su Mei Fish, grinning from ear to ear.

The Su Mei Fish isn’t cheap, but this one was on the smaller side for its species, costing about sixteen yuan per jin.

"I didn’t catch it. I traded for it with that big bird."

"The sea eagle from before?"

’This scene sounds so familiar.’

Yun Linhe suddenly asked, "It couldn’t be the same sea eagle as last time, could it?"

Yun Jiao nodded. "That’s the one."

Yun Linhe couldn’t help but laugh. "How do you always run into it?"

’And you manage to swindle its fish away every time.’

Yun Jiao said defensively, "I traded with it! It was thrilled to see all the fish I caught."

’Even though the combined value of all those other fish isn’t even a third of this Su Mei Fish.’

Yun Linhai chuckled. "Jiaojiao is so smart."

Yun Jiao: ’Of course I am.’

After putting the Su Mei Fish back on ice, everyone went to explore the island some more.

Chu An looked at their haul from the past two hours and clicked his tongue in amazement. "Do fishermen always catch this much?"

"Not everyone has a haul like this. A lot of people don’t even come to these islands."

"You wouldn’t get this much on the islands near our village."

Chu An was confused. "Why not? Other people must know that the farther islands have better hauls."

Yun Chen Nan explained, "It’s because they’re too far. And you’re only looking at the quantity of the haul. This stuff isn’t worth much if you sell it, and how much of it can you really eat at home? It’s like eating sweet potatoes every day—you’d get sick of it."

"The only reason we can come this far is that we don’t have to row back by hand. Otherwise, rowing all the way back with this much stuff, killing yourself with the effort only to sell it for a pittance, would be a real loss."

"Also, greater distance means greater danger. That’s why ordinary wooden boats like this don’t dare come out this far. As for the metal-hulled boats, they’d get a bigger haul just by casting their nets at sea than by foraging on an island."

Chu An was still confused. "Then why did you guys come out so far?"

’Is it because there are a lot of people on the boat? If they take turns rowing on the way back, it shouldn’t be too tiring.’

Yun Chen Nan didn’t answer him, just patted his shoulder and said, "You’ll see when we head back."

They didn’t get bogged down with the mussels and went to look for other things.

On an untouched island, you could always find some valuable seafood, even if it wasn’t a lot.

Yun Jiao discovered a school of groupers gathered together. These fish weren’t cheap either.

She didn’t just rush in. The spot was close to the open sea, and if she startled the fish, they would dart into the water and disappear in a flash.

She turned and went to find help.

Hearing there was a school of groupers, Yun Linhai and Yun Linhe grabbed a net and quickly followed Yun Jiao.

They saw the fish, and everyone was excited, but they were stumped on how to catch as many as possible.

After discussing it, they decided that Yun Jiao would take one end of the net and dive into the water, going deep, while they held the other end. They would try to catch the fish without startling them.

Yun Jiao grabbed the net, jumped into the sea, and swam towards the groupers.

She was fast and her movements were light. Since she was in deeper water, the groupers didn’t spot her.

She didn’t stop until the net was stretched to its maximum length. Then, holding the net, she quietly surfaced.

Yun Jiao gave a "go" signal to her father and the others, and both sides started pulling in the net together.

By the time the groupers realized what was happening and tried to escape, most of them had already slammed into the net.

Only a few managed to escape through the gaps in the net; the majority were caught inside.

There were over thirty of them in total.

They threw the ones that were too small directly back into the sea.

Seeing this haul, Yun Linhai and the group broke into wide grins, so happy they were showing all their teeth.

"It’s still early. Let’s use the net to cordon off this area and then go check out other parts of the island."

The groupers wouldn’t die in the seawater while enclosed by the net. In fact, taking them back to the boat now would make them less fresh.

After making sure the fish were submerged in seawater but couldn’t escape, the group eagerly headed off to other spots.

"Whoa, there’s a huge crab here! This crab... why is it so round?"

"And it’s holding a smaller one."

Yun Jiao recognized this crab. "This is a box crab. The little one is its wife."

She had seen them many times in the sea. The box crabs were rather plump and quite cute. She often saw a large one carrying a smaller one as they scuttled across the seabed.

Later on, she learned that the smaller one was the box crab’s wife.

Hearing this obscure bit of trivia for the first time, Chu An and Wang Hongfei crowded around the two box crabs.

"That’s so weird. Now I don’t have the heart to catch them and eat them."

"Then don’t catch them. There are other things to find."

The two crabs seemed too loving, and the group was so moved they couldn’t bring themselves to capture them.

"Uncle, there’s a snake over here!"

Hearing Shen Xiuyuan’s shout, Yun Linhai quickly called out, "Don’t touch it! All sea snakes are venomous!"

They rushed over, and sure enough, there was a black-and-white banded sea snake in a crevice between the rocks.

Yun Linhai said, "Everyone stay back. This thing is highly venomous."

For safety’s sake, no one tried to catch the sea snake.

Meanwhile, Yun Jiao liked to wander around and search on her own. She came to a somewhat steep part of the coast near the sea, and with her excellent eyesight, she spotted a massive fish darting between the cracks of the rocks below the island.

Some seabirds were flying over the water. Yun Jiao watched as the fish lay in wait among the reefs. When a seabird swooped down to catch a fish, the lurking giant fish exploded with incredible force and speed, its mouth snapping open to snatch the bird.

A fish eating a bird—that was a rare sight.

’What a thrilling hunt.’

She glanced at the distance from where she stood to the sea below. It was a bit high, about twenty meters. If she jumped down, she’d definitely get a scolding when she got back.

But seeing such a huge fish and not catching it made her itch with anticipation. It was unbearable.

"Dad! Uncle!"

She decided to just call them over to discuss it.

They came over—in fact, her one shout brought a whole crowd.

For some reason, no matter where Yun Jiao was, the moment she let out a yell, everyone else would come running over excitedly, no matter what they were doing.

Yun Jiao calling for help = she’s found something good.

That was the unspoken rule.

So everyone came over to spectate.

"What is it, daughter?"

"What good stuff did Jiaojiao find this time?"

Chu An hollered, "Wait, don’t do anything until I get there! I want to see it with my own eyes!"

Yun Jiao: "..."

Once everyone had gathered around, she pointed down below.

"A huge fish, probably over a meter long. And it hunts seabirds."

As she spoke, another unlucky seabird was eaten by the great fish as it leaped out of the water.

The group gasped in astonishment.

"A Cow Harbor Tuna! It’s a Cow Harbor Tuna!"

"Whoa, it’s huge!"

Wang Hongfei exclaimed, "My goodness, this fish even eats birds! That’s insane!"