Chapter 81: Game Over

’I’ll just grab a few more for my net bag.’

Suddenly, an orange fish swam over.

The fish was quite pretty. Yun Jiao had noticed it a while ago, secretly observing her from a nearby coral patch.

She was curious to see what it was up to.

The Sparrowfish swam in front of Yun Jiao, and once it had her attention, it darted forward.

Yun Jiao tilted her head. ’Is it trying to lead me somewhere?’

’Come, come...’

A fragmented voice echoed in her mind.

It wasn’t as if Yun Jiao could communicate with all marine life. It depended on their level of awareness and intelligence.

She could barely communicate with the Sparrowfish before her; it just kept repeating the same word over and over.

When the Sparrowfish saw Yun Jiao wasn’t following, it swam back.

But it was wary of the three killer whales and didn’t dare to get too close.

Yun Jiao decided to follow it and see what was going on.

The Sparrowfish led her to a spot with a large patch of seaweed and countless sea urchins.

The Sparrowfish seemed furious. It picked up a sea urchin in its mouth, swam up to her, and dropped it into her net bag.

It looked desperate, as if it wanted to give her every last sea urchin to take away.

Yun Jiao was speechless. ’It’s actually giving me sea urchins voluntarily?’

Most of the marine life in her previous life was different from this one, so Yun Jiao truly had no idea what kind of fish this was.

The Sparrowfish bustled about for a while, going back and forth, tossing all the sea urchins that were munching on the seaweed into her net bag.

After watching for a moment, Yun Jiao understood. This fish was farming the patch of seaweed, and the sea urchins were here to steal its food!

"You’ve been working so hard."

A fish that could farm its own seaweed and even catch sea urchins for her... Yun Jiao couldn’t possibly bring herself to catch such a hardworking creature.

She cracked open a sea urchin and offered it to the fish. The Sparrowfish glanced at the three killer whales.

Seeing they didn’t move, it zipped over and, with a swiftness fueled by some personal fishy vendetta, devoured the sea urchin in a few bites.

The killer whales whined pitifully. ’Why does that little pipsqueak get a sea urchin and not us?’

Yun Jiao had to open sea urchins for them, too, before they finally settled down.

After that, even the killer whales started helping to catch sea urchins.

Soon, Yun Jiao’s net bag was full and heavy.

She caught a lobster as long as her arm, said goodbye to the Sparrowfish, and left.

The Sparrowfish followed her reluctantly for a good long way, unwilling to part.

Yun Jiao called out, "See you around~"

Clutching the large lobster, she swam toward the surface, a young killer whale carrying the heavy net bag in its mouth.

Only after she broke the surface did Yun Jiao realize it had started to rain.

The whole ocean looked dark and gloomy.

"Little sis! Jiaojiao!"

Spotting Yun Jiao and the killer whales from a short distance away, Yun Xiaowu shouted frantically.

Yun Jiao and the young killer whales swam over to him.

"You were down there forever! It must’ve been half an hour!"

Even though he knew his little sister was extraordinary, being out of sight for that long really put his fragile heart to the test.

"Brother, look."

Yun Jiao held up the enormous lobster for him to see.

Yun Xiaowu’s eyes went wide. "Holy shit! Such a huge Little Green Dragon!"

It was way bigger than the ones they had caught before!

"Did you catch this on the seafloor? Are there more?"

It made him itch with curiosity; he really wanted to go down to the seafloor.

But he knew he couldn’t!

Yun Jiao nodded.

The tail section of this Little Green Dragon alone was as long as her arm. Including its head and two long antennae, it was so heavy that Yun Xiaowu struggled just to lift it.

"Oh, sweet mother of pearl, this Little Green Dragon must be worth a fortune! We’re rich, we’re rich! Hahaha!"

Yun Xiaowu was so excited his face flushed red, and his eyes seemed to glow.

Yun Jiao pointed to the net bag held in the killer whale’s mouth.

"And there are all these sea urchins, too."

Once his excitement subsided a little, Yun Xiaowu pointed to his own net bag to show her.

"Jiaojiao, look! I caught three big yellow croakers! You wouldn’t believe it, a whole school of them swam by over there. It’s a shame they were too fast—I only managed to grab three. If only our family’s boat could run into a school like that out at sea. We could catch so many with just one net!"

Besides the yellow croakers, Yun Xiaowu had also caught a large, cyan-colored fish.

Its color was even more beautiful than the Sparrowfish Yun Jiao had seen.

"And this big one here—I’ve never seen anything like it. We’ll take it back and have Dad and the others identify it. It’s gotta be worth money!"

Since it was raining, they decided not to stay in the sea any longer and had to get back quickly.

So, with the day’s bountiful harvest in tow, they had the killer whales swim them purposefully back toward shore.

They were fast, spotting the coastline in a little over half an hour.

The trip from that patch of sea to the shores of Bailong Village probably took less than an hour.

Yun Jiao cracked open some sea urchins for them as a reward.

’If you want the fish to swim, you’ve got to give them a little something.’

The killer whales were very satisfied with their snacks, and they all swam over to nuzzle against Yun Jiao one by one.

One of the larger killer whales nuzzled her so hard it knocked her right over. Her two chubby, snow-white feet flailed in the water for a few moments before she finally managed to right herself.

"I’ll pet your head, but no more nuzzling!"

’How embarrassing for me!’

’A kid has her dignity, you know.’

Yun Xiaowu watched from the side with envy. Since no killer whales came to cuddle with him, he could only sneak in a little pat while they were nuzzling his sister.

The killer whales didn’t mind at all.

After lining up for their turn to cuddle and nuzzle Yun Jiao, the killer whales departed.

Yun Xiaowu stared at the huge net bag of sea urchins, his brow furrowed in concern.

"Hey, Sis, how are we supposed to get such a huge bag of sea urchins home?"

In the water, it was easy. The killer whale carried the bag, and the buoyancy helped.

But on land, that wasn’t going to work. No one would dare to just pick up and carry a bag full of spines like that.

Without a second thought, Yun Jiao said, "Go get Dad and Uncle."

She was afraid of getting pricked by the spines, too.

Yun Jiao handed the big lobster to him.

"I’ll... guard it!"

’And maybe have a little snack.’

"Okay, deal. Just don’t you run off, you hear?"

Both pained and overjoyed, Yun Xiaowu carried his heavy burden, running and panting all the way back home.

The family had assumed the two of them were just out playing.

So when Yun Xiaowu returned with so much rare seafood, they were all shocked, each more so than the last.

"Where did you get this?!!"

Overly excited, Yun Xiaowu blurted out, "We caught it in the sea! Dad, Uncle, you have to come with me to the shore, quick! There’s a huge bag of sea urchins, and Jiaojiao’s watching over it."

Yun Linhai suddenly roared, "Did you take Jiaojiao into the sea? Into the deep sea?!"

Seeing the dark expressions on his family’s faces, Yun Xiaowu’s excitement instantly cooled.

’Oh no,’ he thought. ’I’m in trouble!’

He turned to run, trying to bluff his way out of it. "No, we didn’t! We just found all this while foraging on the beach!"

Yun Linhai slipped off his shoe and gave chase. "You little brat, you get back here! You’ve got some nerve, thinking you can fly to the heavens! Do you think you can find things like this just by strolling on the beach? Get back here and explain yourself!"

Shen Yunlian cut in, "Let’s go get Jiaojiao first. The rain is getting heavier."

No matter how angry they were, the entire family set out to retrieve Yun Jiao.

Yun Jiao quite liked the rain; she was even sitting in it, singing a song.

When she saw her family approaching, she was about to wave happily, but her sharp eyes caught that something was wrong. The expressions on her dad’s and mom’s faces were off; they were suppressing their anger.

Her mom was even twisting Fifth Brother’s ear.

Yun Jiao: ’Uh oh...’

’Should I bravely face my family’s wrath? Or should I run for it?’

Seeing Yun Xiaowu suddenly get smacked, Yun Jiao took two steps back and gulped.

’You... you hit Fifth Brother, so you can’t hit me, right?’

"Yun Jiao. You stand right there."

They used her full name. The powerful young Merfolk’s heart skipped a beat.

’I’m so toast!’