The shad died peacefully in Li Si's palm, an eerie light flickering in the fish's eyes.
If I had known that the state protected animals would also be ...
"What are you doing ah ah ah!" Shuhua scrambled her hair, messing up her head style.
But she didn't have the time to pay attention to such a trivial matter, pouncing on Li Si's collar and shaking it desperately:
"Killing a national-level protected animal can be squatted for up to five years! And the shad hasn't appeared for over ten years, yet you killed the only precious sample? What were you thinking!"
Li Si stared at the fish in his hand and also panicked a bit.
After obtaining the [Poacher] template, he had inexplicably become interested in fishing, which was why he carried fishing gear with him.
Could it be that [Poacher] could increase the probability of catching precious wildlife?
At the thought of fancy rare insects, Li Si's heart went half-cold. He made up his mind to never kill another bug in his life.
Except for mosquitoes, mosquitoes must die for the master!
It was a foregone conclusion that Li Si had killed the shad, and after Shu Hua confirmed that there was no one around, he told Li Si to hurry and throw the shad into the river.
Water birds and predatory fish in the water would soon pick up the body.
It was a shame, but it was the only way to dispose of it in order to stay out of jail.
With a raise of Li Si's hand, the fish carcass slid out a parabola into the water with a tiny splash.
Shu Hua breathed a sigh of relief and urged Li Si to hurry up and clean the blood off the deck. She leaned against the railing and rubbed her temples.
Just then, Shuhua suddenly noticed a loud noise coming from the water.
She looked down in confusion, and it didn't matter if she looked, the sight in front of her stunned her, only to see that a strange fish was persistently chasing the [Minch].
It had a black dorsal crest, a triangular tail, and prismatic scales on its caudal fin. It had large nostrils, a muzzle that tapered forward, and a flat, flat head.
Shuhua wasn't just surprised, it had become horrified. She lost her voice and screamed out, "Clarion sturgeon?"
The physical features were the same, and the body length could be almost matched.
But wasn't it a fish that had been declared extinct?
Li Si didn't notice the sturgeon, but concentrated on cleaning the deck, the fish's blood flowing into the river water.
It was only then that Shuhua realised that it must have been the fish blood that attracted the Yangtze sturgeon, making it think that the boat was wounded and bleeding prey.
Telephone. Yes, hurry up and call!
Returning from his shock, Shu Hua took out his mobile phone in a rush. A still-surviving adult Clarion Sturgeon, this was a big discovery that shocked the biological world.
She was so excited that she almost couldn't hold it steady as she dialled the number, and after three rings, the call was answered.
"We have discovered the precious protected animal, which was confirmed extinct a few years ago, please quickly notify the scientific research team to come and investigate."
Without waiting for the opposite side to speak, Shuhua took the lead.
The person on the other end also got serious, and she could hear the sound of a pen and paper being taken out and prepared to record, "Please tell us the exact location."
"We're at ...," Shu Hua had just said a few words when she was suddenly splashed with water.
She looked at Li Si with annoyance, then her eyes instantly turned to disbelief. Only to see Li Si with an innocent face, carrying a bucket of water in his left hand and a long fish line in his right hand.
At the end of the fishing line, the Clarion Sturgeon fluttered breathlessly. Its body was covered with wounds cut out by sharp blades, and it looked like it was about to die.
Apparently, it was first hooked by the fishing line, and then hit the propeller during the struggle.
"It's alright. I'm sorry. I misread it." Shu Hua hung up the phone.
She looked at Li Si with the same eyes as she looked at a haystack.
"I just wanted to wash the fishing rod as well ...," Li Si explained feebly, but couldn't quell Shuhua's anger.
You threw the fishing rod into the river and happened to forget to remove the hook, and that hook happened to go into the mouth of the Clarion Sturgeon?
How in heaven's name can there be such a coincidence!
Shuhua wanted to roar like this, but she couldn't say a single word in her anger, and the sturgeon soon stopped moving, the bright red fish blood flowing all over the ground.
A few moments later, she said breathlessly, "It's better to throw the body into the river like last time. It'll have to do."
Li Si gave an oh-so-subtle cry and made a move to throw it. However, the door to the cabin suddenly opened, and Liu Jinsheng stomped out from inside.
At a glance, he saw the disfigured fish corpse in Li Si's hand.
"Such a big fish! I can't imagine that you still have this, you can have an extra meal tonight!" He said in surprise.
"No, this is ..." Li Si was about to speak when Shuhua covered his mouth.
Liu Jinsheng laughed out loud and joked that the two of you were really close while taking the fish from Li Si's hand.
"Well, this fish is so fat! The head is also so big, it must be very good for soup." Liu Jinsheng carefully examines it, the more he looks at it, the more he likes it.
Li Si subconsciously shook his head, but Liu Jinsheng misunderstood the meaning.
He patted Li Si's shoulder and smiled brightly, "Can I still let you suffer? I'll eat your fish today and take you to a good place some other day."
Liu Jinsheng winked mysteriously and carried the fish away, supposedly to the kitchen.
Shu Hua didn't let go until then, and without waiting for Li Si to ask a question, she said, "If everyone eats it, then they are accomplices."
After saying that, Shu Hua ruffled her hair and left in style.
Li Si also packed up his things and butchered away. If he had stayed a little longer, he was really afraid that he could have caught a ichthyosaur.
Inside the cabin, the argument had only just ended. Huang Ming and an actress were nose to nose and eye to eye, looking at each other with irritation.
It wasn't until Chef Zeng brought the steaming fish soup over that their faces looked a little better.
The fish soup simmered to a creamy white colour and was sprinkled with bright green spring onions. A few grains of corn and diced ham floated and sank in the soup, adding a fresh complex flavour to the fish soup.
Everyone was given a bowl of soup, but everyone who drank it raved about it.
"What kind of fish is this? It smells so good, I've never eaten it before." Zhang Zi said in surprise, "Where did you guys buy this fish from."
Liu Jinsheng was proud, after all, he was the one who pulled people into the programme, "Brother Li just caught it on the deck. How is it, fresh enough?"
"Oh yo, to catch such a big fish in such a short period of time, that's quite a handful." Chef Zeng praised while taking a sip of the fish soup.
"But it's really strange, even I didn't taste the type of fish. The fish was also almost shredded by the propeller when it was delivered." He put down the soup bowl, "What kind of fish is this?"
Shuhua calmly sipped her soup, and Li Si answered honestly as he had discussed what he had said with her earlier:
"I'm not sure, it's just that the nose is quite big and the head is quite flat, it seems to be a sturgeon, right?"
"Oh, the nose is quite big and the head is quite flat." Chef Tsang sipped his soup in thought.
Then he spat out all the soup with a poof.
Chef Tseng rushed into the back kitchen like a madman and emptied the rubbish bin of fish bones.
He endured the fishy odour for a spell, and finally, a crooked sturgeon skeleton appeared on the floor.
Chef Zeng: "It's a Clarion Sturgeon, cluck ..."
"Chef Tseng? Chef Tseng!"
Chef Tseng fell backwards, and the stars rushed up on their hands and knees to assist him. In the midst of the chaos, only Li Si and Shuhua remained seated.
Li Si inhaled another buttery mouthful of the fish soup, feeling very puzzled.
Why were they all saying it was good? Obviously the soup was so fishy.
...Small Extra ...
One week later.
Late night.
In front of Chef Tsang was a spread out animal magazine, he compared the picture of the Clarion Sturgeon with the bone specimen placed on the table a few times and finally confirmed it:
"Ouch! Turns out it's not a sturgeon, but an ordinary tongue fish. Worried for so many days for nothing."