Golden Eagle

Chapter 26: Golden Eagle

Ye Yuan looked down at Big Yellow and reached out to pat his dog head a few times. Now he understood why Big Yellow had dragged him here—it wanted him to save this young eagle.

He took a rope from his space, tied it around his waist, and fastened the other end to a tree half a meter thick. He gave the rope a hard tug; it held firm. Ye Yuan carefully approached the eagle's nest, stepping on the protruding rock crevices of the cliff as he slowly moved closer. The sea wind howled, blowing against the nest. The young eagle lay motionless inside, its chest rising and falling faintly, proof that it was still alive.

Ye Yuan finally reached the nest. Gently, he placed the nearly dying young eagle into his space, then climbed back up to the top of the cliff.

He found a tree and sat down, letting Big Yellow lie beside him, then entered his space. Looking at the pool not far away, he saw the young eagle struggling to get up.

Ye Yuan scooped up some pool water and fed it to the eagle, then tore up some fish meat and fed it as well. After a while, the little creature regained some strength. The distinctive cry of a young eagle rang out through the space, one call after another.

Ye Yuan brought the young eagle out of the space. When Big Yellow saw the eagle in Ye Yuan's hands, he barked at it. The young eagle, having recovered some strength in that short time, chirped back at Big Yellow.

Watching this exchange between the dog and the eagle, Ye Yuan found it amusing. He remembered he still had Spirit Opening Pills and thought, why not give one to this young eagle? That way, when he went out to sea, he'd have an extra lookout—not a bad idea.

He took a Spirit Opening Pill from his space, crushed it, and fed it directly to the young eagle. After eating the pill, the eagle showed no reaction.

"Does the Spirit Opening Pill not work on birds?"

Ye Yuan wasn't sure about the reason. After all, he had only used it on Big Yellow once and never tried it on any other animal.

Seeing that it was already late, he took the dog and the eagle back home. Everyone in the house was already asleep. He tiptoed into his bedroom, grabbed a cushion, placed it on the windowsill, set the young eagle on it, and went to wash up.

When he came back, the young eagle was still there, so he went straight to sleep.

Early morning, while Ye Yuan was still half-asleep, he heard chirping sounds coming from outside the window. He opened his eyes and saw the young eagle standing on a tree across from the villa. When it saw Ye Yuan walk to the window, it chirped at him, then flapped its wings, ready to fly over.

Maybe because it had just learned to fly and wasn't very skilled yet, it flew straight down to the ground in front of the villa. Looking up at Ye Yuan by the window, it chirped incessantly, as if telling him it needed help.

Seeing that Ye Yuan wasn't coming to help, the young eagle took a few running steps on the ground and tried to fly back to the windowsill again. This time, it finally got airborne, flapping its wings clumsily. Because it couldn't land steadily, it crashed directly into Ye Yuan's chest.

Ye Yuan quickly caught the young eagle in his arms. The eagle used its already sharp beak to preen Ye Yuan's hair.

Looking at the white streak on the young eagle's tail feathers—since it had been too dark last night to get a good look—Ye Yuan suddenly realized, seeing the eagle's appearance now, that this might be an extremely rare bird of prey: a golden eagle.

An adult golden eagle's average wingspan could reach over two meters, and its height could exceed one meter. Golden eagles were extremely rare. They preferred to inhabit high mountains, grasslands, and deserts, and sometimes circled at altitudes above four thousand meters.

Golden eagles typically preyed on squirrels, wild rabbits, small goats, and foxes, and sometimes ate other birds and fish. When they spread their wings, their flight speed was astonishing; they could snatch their prey in a flash.

Thinking that the bird before him might be a golden eagle, Ye Yuan immediately pulled out his phone and compared it to the young eagle's appearance. Finally, he could confirm that this young eagle was indeed a golden eagle.

"How about I call you Little Gold from now on?"

Whether the golden eagle understood what Ye Yuan said or was just excited about learning to fly, it broke free from Ye Yuan's hands and flew out. It circled freely above the villa, occasionally chirping.

When Little Gold got tired, it landed directly on the villa's roof. Ye Yuan didn't keep teasing it, since he still had a lot to do today.

Blue Island City. Zhao Chuan was flying back today. He had planned to stay a few more days, but because of the Tourmaline, he was rushing to deliver it. That batch of broken jade had also arrived in Blue Island today. After Zhao Chuan took Ye Yuan to pick up the goods, Ye Yuan drove Zhao Chuan straight to the airport.

After seeing Zhao Chuan off, Ye Yuan was dragged by Second Brother to buy a lot of high-end sea fishing rods in Blue Island, along with some fishing line specially designed for catching big fish.

Second Brother had come this time specifically to go fishing with Ye Yuan out at sea. For some reason, Ye Yuan felt that Second Brother had another motive, but he didn't know what it was, so he didn't press. His own brother wouldn't harm him, would he? After buying the gear, the two also bought several sets of diving equipment, then drove back toward Pinghai County.

When they drove back to the Pinghai County dock, they found a crowd gathered around a fishing boat at the pier. Ye Yuan wasn't planning to check it out, but he was surprised to see his father standing at the front of the crowd, apparently arguing with someone on the boat.

Ye Yuan quickly walked over. As he got closer, the shouting became clear to him.

"You ungrateful snake! We people of Ye Family Village misjudged you!"

"That's right!"

The chaotic curses rose and fell. Ye Yuan saw Ye Zhuang standing on the boat with a few fishermen he didn't recognize, while the people on the dock were all future employees of his aquaculture farm.

Ye Yuan looked at his father and asked, "What's going on?"

Father Ye hadn't expected Ye Yuan to show up here. He then explained the whole story to him.

It turned out that Ye Zhuang had returned home the same day Ye Yuan sailed back. His uncle and aunt, who had refused to acknowledge him, heard from the villagers of Ye Family Village that Ye Zhuang was doing well now—earning eight thousand yuan a month in salary, plus various bonuses, totaling at least ten thousand yuan a month.

They came to Ye Zhuang's house together, weeping about how hard their lives had been back then—how they couldn't even afford to eat, how they had to support the elderly. They came up with all kinds of excuses.

Ye Zhuang's memories of many things back then were already hazy. Thinking that this was his only remaining relative in the world, he forgave them.

What he didn't expect was that their real purpose was because Ye Zhuang's younger brother was working in another city and wanted to buy a house. They wanted to borrow a down payment from Ye Zhuang.

Ye Zhuang had only worked on Ye Yuan's boat for a few days; how could he have any money to lend them? With them crying so much, he really had no way out. He remembered the reef cluster where Ye Yuan had taken the crew to catch abalone. Without thinking too much, Ye Zhuang took his uncle and the others out to sea.

When they reached the reef cluster, several of them dove down and found nothing—only a few baby abalone that were practically seedlings. The uncle was unhappy about this. After they returned, he started arguing with Ye Zhuang at the dock.

He said that if Ye Zhuang didn't want to lend him money, fine, but why trick them? Not only had they not made any money, but they had also wasted fuel. He demanded Ye Zhuang pay for the fuel.

Through this incident, Ye Zhuang finally saw his uncle for what he was. But as luck would have it, Father Ye and the people of Ye Family Village were heading to Fishing Bay Island today. When they heard about this, Father Ye was furious.

Fishermen have rules. If you work on someone else's boat and the captain discovers a fishing spot, you're supposed to keep it secret from other fishermen.

Upon hearing this, Father Ye led the villagers to block Ye Zhuang's uncle's fishing boat and started cursing.

PS: Thanks to 08a for the reward, thanks to book friend 160325022226442 for the monthly ticket, and thanks to the many friends who gave recommendation tickets. Last night, Fingertip received a site message. On the 3rd, there will be a recommendation in the category popularity serialization. This is something I didn't expect, and it's also everyone's credit. Here, Fingertip thanks you all.