Chapter 316

Yun Linhai and the others kept muttering that it was a pity to eat it.

Yun Jiao just looked at them with pitiful, pleading eyes.

"But I really, really want to eat it."

She tugged lightly on Shen Yunlian’s sleeve, acting just like a precious, snow-white kitten begging for a treat.

Who could possibly resist that?

"We’ll eat it! It’s just one fish. We’ve been fishing for ages, why can’t we eat our own catch?"

Yun Linhe declared magnanimously, completely forgetting that he had been one of the ones lamenting the cost just moments before.

The children were simply overjoyed. Who wouldn’t be happy about getting to eat something delicious?

However, they didn’t know how to prepare it. They would have to find a chef who knew how to cook tuna.

Yun Jiao said, "I’ll go! I’ll ask my master if he knows anyone."

Shen Yunlian added, "Then remember to invite your master, and your senior brothers and sisters, too."

Yun Jiao nodded. "I know."

Yun Linhai said, "I’ll take Jiaojiao."

They were people of action. They left immediately, and the motorcycle got them to the county seat in no time.

"Master~!"

Her voice preceded her.

Yun Jiao’s cheerful voice made everyone in the medical hall turn to look at her.

"Jiaojiao, you’re here! Come, have some roast chicken."

After welcoming Yun Jiao, they greeted Yun Linhai as well.

Yun Jiao wasted no time, grabbing a chicken leg and starting to munch on it.

"Senior Sister, does Master know any chefs? I caught a tuna and want to have it made into a delicious meal."

"What?! A tuna? You’re just going to eat it? You’re not going to sell it?"

In her mind, fishermen who caught such a prize fish would never eat it themselves; they’d sell it for a good price.

Yun Jiao lifted her chin proudly. "My third brother was the top scorer on the college entrance exam! He’s going to Qingbei University, so we have to celebrate."

Hearing this, Qin Xin and Song Chengyou nodded. "That’s definitely worth celebrating."

Getting into a normal school might not be a huge deal, but getting into Qingbei absolutely had to be celebrated.

"Not bad at all. What kind of tuna did you catch?"

"A yellowfin tuna."

Her little face was shiny with grease around her mouth from eating. Qin Xin gently wiped it for her.

"You don’t need to ask Master about this. I know someone who’s great with seafood and an excellent cook. When do you need him?"

"Tomorrow," Yun Jiao said.

"I need to go get some more seafood today."

"Alright. Then I’ll have him go over first thing tomorrow morning."

After settling things with her senior sister, Yun Jiao went with her dad to invite the other people they knew.

Her music and dance teachers, as well as Ancient, and Uncle Wang’s family...

After making their rounds, everyone they invited confirmed they would be there tomorrow. Only then did Yun Jiao and her dad head home.

Now that they had confirmed they were hosting a banquet the next day, the adults of the family had to get busy.

Yun Linhai went to inform the village chief.

Unexpectedly, when the village chief heard the news, he immediately pulled him aside.

"Don’t you worry about buying vegetables. I’ll talk to the villagers. Each family can contribute some of whatever they’re growing in their fields."

"With such wonderful news, you must remember to go to the Mazu Temple to offer thanks tomorrow. Jiaojiao, you should go too."

Yun Linhai nodded. "That’s what we were thinking. After the big incident yesterday, we have to go to the Mazu Temple to pay our respects."

He then added, "We’ll go today, to the one in our own village."

Their village had its own temple, but it wasn’t large. For major festivals, people usually went to the largest Mazu Temple in town.

The village also had an ancestral hall, but since they couldn’t afford to repair it, it was rather rundown.

While Yun Linhai, Yun Linhe, and the others were busy running around, Yun Jiao had already slipped into the sea.

The feast tomorrow couldn’t just have one star dish—the tuna.

Carrying two large net bags, Yun Jiao began her "undersea haul" for the day.

She was already very familiar with these waters. First, she headed toward the island where she had pried abalones before.

Below the island, numerous abalones clung to the reefs deep on the seafloor.

This time, Yun Jiao was looking for smaller ones.

The reef had not only abalones but also many sizable sea snails, and she pried them all off.

Armed with a screwdriver, she spent about two hours just prying off abalones and various sea snails.

The deeper she went, the larger the abalones became.

Yun Jiao circled the reefs. ’I’ll leave those bigger abalones for now,’ she thought. ’I can come back for them next time.’

Swimming became difficult while carrying a large net bag full of abalones and sea snails.

’No problem,’ she thought. ’Time to find some helpers.’

About ten minutes later, just as Yun Jiao discovered a den of lobsters and was figuring out how to catch them, two sea turtles swam over.

Yun Jiao greeted them and offered them the jellyfish she had caught earlier.

"Go on, eat up. After you eat, you can help me with something."

The hawksbill sea turtle was the livelier of the two. It circled Yun Jiao happily twice, then rubbed its head against her palm.

Just like a puppy.

"Such a good boy. Let me see if you have any barnacles."

She found two and promptly pried them off.

She patted its shell with a pained expression. "This shell of yours is valuable, you know. It won’t be as beautiful if barnacles ruin it."

The patterns on a hawksbill’s shell were truly a dazzling, intricate sight.

After eating the jellyfish, the two sea turtles dutifully began to tow the net bags for her.

Freed of her ’baggage’, Yun Jiao was much faster. WHOOSH! She zipped over to the lobster den, reached out, grabbed a large lobster by the antennae, and pulled.

Lobsters are fast when they try to escape, and surprisingly strong.

But it was no match for Yun Jiao’s strength.

Just like that, a lobster the length of her forearm was caught.

She stuffed the lobster into a net bag and went back for more.

The other lobsters sensed the danger and scrambled into the reef’s crevices.

Some she could reach, others she couldn’t.

’No matter,’ she thought. ’I’ll just catch the ones I can. I can always check other spots if I have to.’

"This one’s too small."

Yun Jiao caught a small one and immediately let it go.

"I’ll come back for you when you’re bigger."

It was a good thing lobsters aren’t intelligent, or it would have definitely found a way to curse her out.

After catching the lobsters, she moved on to other areas.

Actually, Yun Jiao wanted to go somewhere farther, like the area of the sea where the killer whale had brought her the Black Pearl.

But the trip there alone would take a long time; a round trip would probably take at least half a month.

’Better forget about it, then.’

’A school of small yellow croakers!’

Suddenly, Yun Jiao’s eyes lit up. A huge school of small yellow croakers was gathered just a kilometer away.

’I have to go get some of those!’

Large yellow croaker and small yellow croaker—though the names differed by only a single word, their prices were worlds apart.

Still, these fish were more expensive than common baitfish.

About two yuan per jin.

These wild small yellow croakers rarely grew to be heavier than a jin.

They were delicious whether grilled, deep-fried, or made into dried fish snacks.

Yun Jiao cursed herself for not bringing a proper fishing net. With such a massive school of croakers, she could only chase after them and catch a small fraction.

She was fast. Holding a fine-meshed net bag, she charged forward, pulling the mouth of the bag wide open as she crashed straight through the middle of the school.

In an instant, the net bag was half full.

Her eyes sparkled. ’Again!’

The startled school of fish sped up, but they couldn’t escape Yun Jiao’s clutches. She blindly scooped up another load, then gleefully chased the school several more times.

The net bag Yun Jiao had brought was a larger one, and it was now filled with roughly a hundred jin of small yellow croakers.