The Sea Queen of 1985

Chapter 364: Chapter 364: The Emperor Fish’s ”Final Destination

First thing in the morning, Officer Li brought his men over to collect evidence.

The cotton jacket on the wall and the footprints on the ground were all collected and photographed.

They were caught red-handed, and with so much evidence, it was more than enough for a conviction.

In contrast to the calm demeanor of the police, the people of Jinshan Bay were in an uproar.

”Between last year and now, two people here in Jinshan Bay have been bitten to death by venomous snakes,” one of the villagers whispered.

”That’s right. There was Song the Second last year, but he died at the docks. And a laborer from the seafood market was bitten by a venomous snake in the Peach Garden. Last night, another person was bitten by a venomous snake in the Peach Garden, and I heard they died from it!”

The crowd exchanged uneasy glances upon hearing this.

”Xiao Han often takes people to work in the Peach Garden. I’ve never heard of them seeing any venomous snakes!”

”That’s right. A while ago, I was the one who did the weeding for twenty yuan. I pulled every last weed in there and didn’t see any venomous snakes.”

”If there are no venomous snakes, then how did that guy Cao last year, and the one last night, get bitten and die?”

”Everyone, go home and tell your kids not to play in the Peach Garden anymore! If they get bitten by a venomous snake, their life is over!”

”Yes, yes! My little rascal—there isn’t a place in this whole village he hasn’t been. He’s always running to the Peach Garden to play hide-and-seek!”

”Mine too. Ever since she tasted the peaches from the Peach Garden last year, she’s been waiting for them to ripen again! I’ll have to make sure to warn her not to go inside from now on.”

...

Yang Zhigang heard the news as well and rushed over without even stopping for breakfast. ”Xiao Rui, are you all okay?”

Han Xiaorui nodded. ”Uncle Yang, don’t worry! We’re fine! Just as those four bandits were about to climb the wall, our Heizi and Dahuang spotted them!”

”The dogs’ barking woke us up immediately, and we called the police! Officer Li and his men arrived very quickly and caught the four of them with help from Heizi and Dahuang.”

Yang Zhigang nodded at her words. ”That’s good! I just heard someone was killed by a venomous snake. Is that true?”

Han Xiaorui nodded. ”When Officer Li was here a moment ago, I asked him, and he said the same thing!”

Yang Zhigang slapped his forehead. ”Back when the peach trees were blooming, I brought Pingping, An’an, and Wenjun to the Peach Garden to see the flowers!”

”We were lucky we didn’t run into any venomous snakes. If one of us had been bitten, I would’ve worried myself to death!”

Han Xiaorui knew the real situation. The Short-tailed Vipers normally hid in very secluded places and wouldn’t come out to attack people for no reason.

The reason they had attacked this time was to intimidate anyone with ideas about robbing her house and make them think twice.

Han Xiaorui nodded. ”Then it’s better to go less often from now on. You never know, you might just run into one!”

Yang Zhigang blinked. ”No, that won’t do. You have children at home, and you’re pregnant. It would be very dangerous if a venomous snake were to crawl over the wall into your yard.”

”I’ll go to the pharmacy later and buy some realgar to sprinkle around the courtyard walls. That should keep those venomous snakes from crawling in.”

”Well...” Han Xiaorui smiled. ”You don’t have to go to all that trouble, do you? The house has been here for many years, and I’ve never seen a snake at home.”

Yang Zhigang’s tone was resolute. ”Just because you haven’t seen one before doesn’t mean you won’t in the future! Now that we’ve identified a danger, we have to nip it in the bud.”

Seeing how insistent he was, Han Xiaorui didn’t feel right refusing. ”Then I’ll have to trouble you, Uncle Yang!”

”Leave it to me, I’ll take care of it!” Yang Zhigang said with a smile. ”Where’s Ye Feng? Is he not home?”

Han Xiaorui answered, ”He had some business yesterday that wasn’t going to be finished until late. I was worried about it getting dark, so I told him to just rest at our house in the city. I never expected thieves to pay us a visit last night, but thankfully, we discovered them early, and no major harm was done.”

Yang Zhigang thought for a moment and sighed, full of emotion. ”It must be because we’ve been catching so many fish and making a lot of money. It’s made people jealous.”

”Yes, Uncle Yang,” Han Xiaorui replied. ”But we can’t stop making money just because others are jealous. No matter who comes looking for trouble, they won’t get anything from me.”

Yang Zhigang was still worried. ”I need to have a good talk with Officer Li about this. It’s a good thing we agreed to have the police station built nearby; the response is fast. As long as you notice them in time, you can call the police immediately. Even if the phone line is cut, if you shout a few times from upstairs, the station should be able to hear you.”

Han Xiaorui smiled. ”That was our thinking from the start. Our household is mostly women and children, so having the police station nearby provides a sense of security. And as it turns out, it’s true. Officer Li and his men responded so quickly yesterday. Those thieves hadn’t even made it over the wall!”

”That’s wonderful!” Yang Zhigang said, relieved. ”I’ll get you a walkie-talkie to keep at the house. If the phone doesn’t work, you can use the walkie-talkie, or a bullhorn.”

”We don’t need a walkie-talkie. If we just bang on a steel basin with a stick, they’ll hear it at the station,” Han Xiaorui laughed. ”Don’t worry about us.”

”A steel basin isn’t as loud as a gong. I’ll go order a big gong. Now, you should go have breakfast with the children.” Yang Zhigang turned to leave, but he suddenly remembered something and stopped in his tracks. ”Xiao Rui, about that Emperor Fish—the meat is no good. It’s tough and sour. Zhang Guangnan didn’t want it, so I put it in the cold storage warehouse at the docks for now.”

Han Xiaorui scratched her forehead. ”If it’s not good to eat and we can’t sell it, then just grind it up for feed.”

Hearing this, Yang Zhigang didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. ”The Emperor Fish isn’t for eating, but it has a very unique appearance, and it’s a bony fish. A school called me. They said they want it to make a specimen for educational purposes.”

”Then let’s just donate it. It’s not like it would sell for much anyway.” Han Xiaorui wasn’t a stingy person; she was always a strong supporter of marine education and research.

Yang Zhigang was taken aback. He had been hoping to sell it. ”Alright then, we’ll donate it to the university! They want to study the ’earthquake fish’ and the causes of earthquakes. Maybe they can get some inspiration from it and find a good way to prevent earthquakes.”

Han Xiaorui nodded. ”It would be wonderful if they could figure something out from it. But this one is dead. A live one would probably have more research value.”

”Catching one alive is hardly easy. And even if you did, you couldn’t keep it alive in captivity,” Yang Zhigang replied. ”In the future, if the technology improves, maybe we could attach trackers to an Emperor Fish and collect a lot of useful information. But with our current technology, that would be difficult.”

Han Xiaorui gave Yang Zhigang a thumbs-up. ”That’s a very novel idea, Uncle Yang. We can’t do it now, but maybe someday we will. Uncle Yang, breakfast is ready. You should stay and eat with us.”

Pingping and An’an ran over, tugging on their grandfather’s arm. ”Grandpa, eat.”

Yang Zhigang loved when his granddaughters were affectionate with him, so he didn’t refuse. ”Okay, Grandpa will eat here. Thank you, Pingping and An’an.”

When Pingping and An’an gave their grandfather their favorite foods, Yang Zhigang was so moved he felt his nose begin to sting.