Eat My Childless Life: The Little Fisher Girl is Poor and Fierce

Chapter 26 What a huge turtle! It's bigger than my little brother's face!

That loud voice clearly showed how happy he was.

Lin Chang'er just happened to pick a large blue crab out of the crab hole and replied, "Okay, Auntie will come right away."

The little goldfish rushed over to help.

The crab's body alone was as big as his hand, and its legs were still waving wildly. The little goldfish had to press his thumbs against the crab's shell and his index fingers against its abdomen to hold it steady.

Lin Chang'er then loosened her grip on the crab, worried that Gu Xiaoman might be disappointed if she waited too long. She instructed, "Let me check on Xiaoman first. We'll tie it up with long grass and put it in the basket later." This way, the crab legs wouldn't be damaged and the price wouldn't be good.

The little goldfish nodded obediently.

Lin Chang'er turned to look at Gu Xiaoman, her eyes crinkling as she said, "Let Auntie see what kind of little duck egg our Xiaoman found!"

Gu Xiaoman, who had been waiting impatiently, smiled and spread out her palms, looking for praise. "Auntie, look, a little duck egg!"

"Wow, our Xiaoman is really amazing." Lin Chang'er was very supportive, praising him with her eyes closed. When she looked down, she saw two eggs the size of pigeon eggs lying in his palm.

He paused for a moment, then picked up the "little duck egg" and shone it under the windproof lamp, and a certain guess suddenly came to his mind.

When she heard Xiaoman call it "little duck egg," she didn't think much of it, assuming it was just a smaller sea duck egg.

But upon closer inspection, it's not a duck egg at all, it's clearly...

Before she could even speak, Gu Xiaolu said, "The duck eggs that my little brother found are so small, but so cute!"

Gu Xiaoman received praise from her aunt and was also complimented by her older sister.

With a beaming smile, she exclaimed, "There are so many! Xiaoman hasn't finished picking them all yet, let's do it together, sister!"

"Okay, okay!" Gu Xiaolu is a sucker for good looks. As long as something is cute and pretty, she doesn't care about its size. She's overjoyed.

The siblings then held hands and headed over.

"Wait!" Lin Chang'er hurriedly called out to them.

"Auntie?"

"mother!"

The siblings looked at her with suspicion.

Lin Chang'er smiled and said, "Let's go together."

"Auntie's here!" Gu Xiaoman hurriedly led the way.

Lin Chang'er had to look after the children and do chores, but she couldn't keep them tied up, so she hung the windproof lantern on a low tree and told the three children that they could only go as far as three trees away from this tree.

So, after just a few steps, they arrived at the place where Gu Xiaoman had found the "little duck egg".

“This is it,” Gu Xiaoman said, pointing to the tree hole under the low tree.

Lin Chang'er quickly squatted down and examined the tree hole by the light. Sure enough, she found the turtle's footprints at the entrance of the hole.

This was an experience she learned from a blogger on Douyin who caught turtles.

This is where freshwater and seawater meet, so we can conclude that what Gu Xiaoman picked up was probably a turtle egg, not a sea duck egg.

She wasn't in a hurry to explain; she simply picked up the remaining turtle eggs and gave them to the children to share.

She used fire tongs to dig a hole in the tree herself. The children, seeing her so focused on digging, had a million questions in their minds: "What is Mom doing?" and "What is Auntie doing?"

I refrained from disturbing them, keeping my eyes wide open and unblinking, afraid of missing anything.

The little goldfish wanted to help, but he was still holding the big blue crab and couldn't free his hands, so he could only watch from the sidelines, waiting for an opportunity to act.

After all, if you can't free your hands, you still have your feet!

Lin Chang'er was engrossed in digging the hole and knew that the three children were behind her, so she didn't have time to look at their reactions.

The tree roots were tangled and the tools were not handy, so she had to use a lot of effort to finally dig open the tree hole.

Then a childish exclamation came from behind, "Turtle, a big turtle!"

It was Gu Xiaoman's voice. Lin Chang'er looked closely and sure enough, she saw a gray-backed creature.

Lin Chang'er didn't hesitate at all and pulled the turtle out.

The children immediately erupted in excitement. Gu Xiaolu exclaimed happily, "Wow, what a huge turtle! It's even bigger than my little brother's face!"

Gu Xiaoman not only didn't mind, but also chimed in her sister's sweet voice, "It's even bigger than Xiaoman's face!"

Perhaps they had never seen a soft-shelled turtle before, so they mistook any creature that resembled a turtle for one.

Lin Chang'er wasn't in a hurry to correct her. She splashed water on the turtle's body, and Gu Xiaolu and Gu Xiaoman helped to scoop up water. Once the mud on its back was washed away, the gray on the turtle's back became even more noticeable.

Oh, it's a soft-shelled turtle (a type of turtle), Lin Chang'er said after looking closely. "This is a soft-shelled turtle, not a tortoise!"

"Hehe, it looks like a turtle!" Gu Xiaoman laughed happily.

Gu Xiaolu corrected him firmly, "Mom said it's a soft-shelled turtle!"

Gu Xiaoman insisted, "It looks like a turtle."

Gu Xiaolu was still intrigued by the turtle and didn't correct him anymore.

Lin Chang'er didn't take it too seriously since it was just a child. She used the light to examine the turtle's abdomen and saw that the turtle's white and tender flesh had formed a complete skeleton with its eyebrows, indicating that it was at least an old turtle that was eight to ten years old.

Looking at its rear end, it extends beyond the hem of its skirt, so it's a male turtle.

Male turtles don't lay eggs, so theoretically there should be a female turtle inside.

However, for the sake of sustainable development, Lin Chang'er does not plan to dig anymore.

"Mom, do you need help? I'll go call Uncle Si over!" Little Goldfish asked. Although he was the same age as Gu Xiaolu, he was the older brother and his thoughts were always a little different.

Lin Chang'er shook her head, "No need, we can handle it ourselves."

The commotion was so loud that the Gu family members had already gathered around without them even needing to call for help.

Mr. and Mrs. Gu were the first to arrive. Mrs. Gu asked anxiously, "Third sister-in-law, what happened here? I think I heard the children shouting something about turtles?"

After she finished speaking, her gaze first swept over the large blue crab that the little goldfish was holding in its hand, and her eyes lit up. She exclaimed excitedly, "Sister-in-law, this one is worth two of what I caught!"

Then, noticing the large turtle in Lin Chang'er's hand, his eyes widened even more. "What's this?"

“It’s a soft-shelled turtle!” This time, Gu Xiaoman explained like a little adult.

"Oh my, our Xiaoman even recognizes turtles?" Aunt Gu praised without reservation. She herself has no children and usually dotes on her children.

Gu Xiaoman tilted her head back and giggled, "Auntie taught Xiaoman this, and Xiaoman even collected a lot of little eggs!"

As they were talking, Gu Silang, Gu's mother, Gu Erlang, and Gu Ersao also came over.

Before they could even ask, Gu Xiaolu spoke up, "Grandma, Second Uncle, Second Aunt, and Fourth Uncle, come quick! My mom caught a giant soft-shelled turtle!"

Upon hearing this, Gu Silang darted over, exclaiming, "Wow, this is the first time I've ever seen such a big turtle! How did you catch it, Third Sister-in-law?"

As he spoke, he reached out to touch the turtle's back, but Lin Chang'er quickly stopped him, "Don't touch it!"

Gu Silang abruptly pulled his hand back, narrowly avoiding being bitten by the turtle that had stretched out its neck.

Seeing this, Gu Erlang joked from the side, "This guy is pretty fierce!"

Lin Chang'er chimed in, "Luckily, Si Lang stopped in time. If he had been bitten, it wouldn't be a joke."

Upon hearing this, Gu Silang patted his chest in relief.

Seeing that everyone was there, Lin Chang'er said, "We were able to catch this guy thanks to Xiaoman for discovering the tree hole first. When we sell it for money, we have to give Xiaoman a share."

Second Sister-in-law Gu quickly gestured and said, "Xiaoman was just playing around; it's all thanks to Third Sister-in-law. He doesn't need to get credit for it."

Gu Erlang also said, "Xiaoman wouldn't recognize turtle eggs or turtle caves. She has to be with her third sister-in-law. If it were us, we wouldn't recognize them either, so how could we catch these turtles?"

Gu Xiaoman, in a sensible little voice, said, "Xiaoman didn't know. Xiaoman thought it was a duck egg. Auntie caught it, so it's Auntie's..."

Seeing that none of them wanted to take credit, Lin Chang'er didn't say anything more, but she had already made up her mind...