Chapter 13: Chapter 11 The Deepwater Golden Softshell Turtle
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Huo Sining took away her ID card and household registration book, but she still felt a bit nervous inside.
If Xu Lian found out, a big fight was inevitable.
Although she wasn't afraid of Xu Lian, she would rather not leave the Huo family on bad terms.
Luckily, in the evening Xu Lian called, saying she would stay the night at her older sister's place.
Huo Sining immediately breathed a sigh of relief.
As long as she wasn't discovered tonight, she would fly far away tomorrow, and by then even if Xu Lian knew about it, she could do nothing to her.
Huo Sining went out again at night.
Since she had plenty of time, she wasn't in a rush. After entering the water, she didn't start working immediately but dove deeper towards the lake bottom.
River clams generally live around the edges of the lake; the closer to the center of the lake, the clearer the water and the fewer the clams, but the more fish there would be.
Huo Sining planned to catch a few wild river fish to give to Liu Qingdong.
She wasn't ungrateful; even though her clams were valuable to Liu Qingdong, he had recognized right away that Huo Sining was a novice.
If Liu Qingdong hadn't told her the rules for selling old river clams that day, she probably would've really thought herself lucky to sell the clams to Liu Qingdong for three yuan per kilogram.
Liu Qingdong was a straightforward person, and naturally, Huo Sining was also willing to return the favor. The fish in the reservoir were plump and delicious, and Liu Qingdong, a true gourmand, would certainly like them.
Huo Sining wasn't very knowledgeable about fish species, but after living many years in Baiyun Village, she still knew which fish were more expensive.
Searching through the water, she spotted a mandarin fish that weighed about four to five kilograms and couldn't help but extend her "claws" towards it.
Although the mandarin fish was fat, it was also strong.
She thought it would take quite an effort to subdue this big fellow, but to Huo Sining's surprise, once she caught the mandarin fish, it was very docile, letting her handle it as easily as one would a rabbit.
Huo Sining froze.
She recalled the last time Huo Longjiang had pushed her into the pond, she had caught a crucian carp, which had reacted just like this mandarin fish.
Thinking of this, she couldn't resist letting go and conducting an experiment once more.
Sure enough, the mandarin fish seemed to have tasted something sweet and kept squeezing up to Huo Sining, its antennae rubbing against her nose as if sniffing something.
Once could be a coincidence, but with fish behaving like addicts again and again, something was definitely odd.
Huo Sining realized there was an issue. It seemed like the Water-Repelling Pearl had made her attractive to these fish; otherwise, these cunning creatures wouldn't be so unable to resist the temptation.
She remembered that every time she went into the water and muttered the incantation, the Water-Repelling Pearl would emit a gentle aura that enveloped her entire body.
It was likely that the fish were attracted to this Spiritual Energy, which is why they kept sticking around her and refused to leave.
This discovery both shocked and delighted Huo Sining, and after a few more tests, she became more certain of her speculation.
With the assistance of Spiritual Energy, Huo Sining turned into a master fish catcher.
With little effort, she caught a few mandarin and perch fish and felt that was enough. Just as she was about to head back, she stumbled over something.
She hadn't been paying attention and had kicked an object.
Looking down, Huo Sining wanted to see what it was, but saw a dark shadow extruding from the mud, slowly floating up, its legs flailing as though it wanted to flee.
A turtle?
Huo Sining was a bit surprised and, without much thought, chased after the timid creature.
Upon closer inspection, she realized she had made a mistake.
This was no turtle, but clearly a softshell turtle.
It's often that people curse "turtle egg" as an insult, but actually, a turtle and a softshell turtle are different species.
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The turtle's shell was hard, with crack-like patterns on the back that resembled a thirteen-petal flower.
However, the softshell turtle had a smooth shell with no patterns on the back.
The most important difference was that turtles were gentle by nature, while softshell turtles were fierce and easily provoked, and skilled at attacking.
Perhaps sensing danger from Huo Sining's chase, the softshell turtle labored to paddle its four hooves forward while it craned its neck backward to glare at Huo Sining with anger in its eyes, revealing sharp teeth within its open mouth.
Softshell turtles are an extremely ferocious aquatic species; if angered, they could fight humans to the death. Although Huo Sining had the Water-Repelling Pearl, she couldn't afford to be careless.
She seized the opportunity to snatch the creature's shell from behind.
After being captured, the softshell turtle initially tried to break free but soon seemed to sense something. It halted, sniffed before Huo Sining, and suddenly became docile.
Even such a ferocious creature could be subdued—clearly, the spiritual energy of the Water-Repelling Pearl was incredibly tempting to these aquatic beings!
Huo Sining was overjoyed. Softshell turtles were much more valuable than ordinary fish and were seldom seen in Baiyun Village. Many believed them to be beneficial for health and virility; even the ordinary softshell turtles could sell for dozens to hundreds of yuan each, let alone wild living ones, which were extremely rare.
Usually, the older the softshell turtle, the more expensive and medically valuable it was. However, Huo Sining didn't know how to determine their age. The turtles she had seen all had dark green shells, but the one she was holding was yellow and incredibly large, probably weighing at least ten kilograms.
Instinct told Huo Sining that this big fellow must be very valuable.
After tying up the large softshell turtle and separating it from the live fish, Huo Sining caught some clams, estimated the time—it was almost four in the morning—and then went ashore.
Baiyun Reservoir was about three or four kilometers from the entrance of the village. During the day, Huo Sining had borrowed a tricycle from Old Zhang in the village to quickly drag the clams to the entrance and hide them in a nearby water channel.
Having finished all this, she hurriedly returned the tricycle and rushed home.
Liu Qingdong was woken early by his ringing phone. Groggy, he opened his eyes and saw an unfamiliar landline number on the display.
He almost hung up, but then he suddenly thought of someone and hurried to answer the call.
"Uncle Liu, I'm at the entrance of Baiyun Town. I've prepared the goods for you, could you please send a vehicle to pick them up as soon as possible?"
Liu Qingdong glanced outside the window; it was still somewhat dark—wasn't it just before six o'clock?
However, the girl on the phone sounded anxious, so he quickly got up and promised he would arrive within half an hour.
Huo Sining was also anxious. The bus to the county town departed at six thirty, and it wouldn't be long before people would arrive at the village entrance to catch it. If they found out she had caught so many clams, busybodies might spread the word to Xu Lian, which could potentially kick up a big fuss.
Huo Sining did not want to take any risks, especially since Xu Lian was due back in the morning, and she had no wish to run into the woman.
True to his word, Liu Qingdong drove up to the village entrance in less than half an hour in a van.
From a distance, he saw a young girl standing by the roadside, craning her neck in anticipation, which brought a smile to his face.
But his amusement was short-lived as his eyes widened at the sight of bag after bag of clams in the water channel.
My goodness, he estimated roughly; there had to be five to six hundred pounds of them.
"You've cleaned out all the old clams from your secret pond, haven't you?"
Liu Qingdong was astonished. The young girl was formidable—catching clams was no easy task as they hid in the mud, and one had to dive to the bottom of the water to feel for them. It seemed this girl was quite adept at swimming.
If Huo Sining knew what Liu Qingdong was thinking, she would have laughed out loud. She was a landlubber—what the devil was swimming skill, and could it be eaten?
Despite his surprise, Liu Qingdong's movements were efficient, and he quickly loaded the clams onto his vehicle.
As he picked up the last snakeskin bag, its contents suddenly jerked, startling Liu Qingdong: "What's this?"
"Oh, that's for you, Uncle Liu—just some wild fish, not worth much."
With a smile, Huo Sining opened the snakeskin bag: "Also, I caught a big softshell turtle. Could you please check for me, Uncle Liu, how much this turtle might be worth?"
"A big softshell turtle?" Liu Qingdong's eyes lit up, and his curiosity piqued. He hurried over and sucked in a breath of cold air when he saw the yellow turtle in the bag.
"Is this… a Golden Softshell Turtle?"
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