Big Shrimp

Ban Ming said mysteriously, "That kind of bird is different."

Jian Mo: "How different?"

Ban Ming: "Jian Mo, you know that birds lay eggs and then collect them to hatch together, right?"

Jian Mo nodded; after all, he was a veterinarian, and he had studied it in school.

If bird eggs are not hatched immediately after being laid, they will enter a dormant period, which keeps them fresh for a period of time. Therefore, birds usually collect the eggs and hatch them all at once after they have accumulated a certain number.

Ban Ming: "The bird we're looking for incubates five eggs at a time. If it doesn't have five eggs in the nest, it will lay five more before incubating. So, when it has laid three or four eggs, we can take two of them and then wait for it to lay more."

Jian Mo was amazed. "You can do that?"

Ban Ming: "Of course it can. Touching two eggs won't affect it at all; it won't even notice. But touching too many won't do. If it touches too many, it won't be able to lay any more eggs. In its frustration, it will push all the eggs out of the nest and smash them."

Jian Mo: "That sounds pretty irritable."

Ban Ming grinned, flashing a bright white smile, "Yeah, its name is Violent-Violent Bird. What do you say, Jian Mo? Want to come with us? If you do, don't call yourself the clan leader!"

Jian Mo: "Then can I tell him?"

Ban Ming: "I can tell you, but it's best not to set off together. I always feel uncomfortable going out with the clan leader."

Jian Mo: "Okay, then I'll tell him we won't be going out together."

Ban Ming nodded. "That's fine. We've already found the location; it's over at White Sandbar. Tell the clan chief that it's very safe there; there aren't any dangerous creatures."

Jian Mo told Wu Jiong that night.

Wu Jiong said, "The Violent-Violent Bird' is indeed good; its eggs are fresh, but it's quite fierce and will peck people."

Jian Mo: "It's alright, I'm going with Ban Ming and the others, and Xi Lu and the others are going too, so nothing should really happen. The Violent-Violent Bird isn't very big, is it?"

Wu Jiong: "It's about the same size as the Purple Bird we used to eat."

Jian Mo understood immediately; it was about the size of a duck. "That's alright. It's much smaller than us, so it shouldn't cause any serious consequences."

Wu Jiong: "Then you guys go ahead, I 'Ban Ming."

Jian Mo: "Alright, let me catch a few more bird eggs and fry some for you."

Chapter 75 Big Shrimp

The next morning, Ban Ming and his friends waited in Jian Mo's yard.

Under the Wu Jiong gaze of the dark-skinned man, they regretfully abandoned their plan to freeload breakfast, only managing to get two pots of tea instead.

Jian Mo was filled with great anticipation for stealing bird eggs. He used to go up the mountain to steal birds and down the river to catch fish when he was a child. He hadn't done these activities much since he became an adult, but he resumed his childhood hobby after coming to the beastman world.

Not only him, but everyone was really looking forward to taking bird eggs.

When they set off, the young people ran faster than anyone else. Jian Mo sat on Ban Ming's back, holding tightly to the back of his neck to avoid being thrown off.

Upon arriving at their destination, before even starting to work, Jian Mo's hands were already aching terribly.

The place where they were collecting bird eggs was a peninsula in a lake.

This lake is quite large, with several rivers flowing into it; it's a very beautiful freshwater lake.

The lake is located on the border between them and the Yigu Tribe; half of it belongs to them, and the other half to the Yigu Tribe. Both tribes frequently come here to hunt and gather.

We're lucky today; they're the only group that came here.

Upon arriving at the location, before even beginning a thorough search, Jian Mo immediately noticed numerous bird nests in the bushes, some even nestled directly on the ground, their pale blue eggs exposed right before everyone's eyes.

Jian Mo looked at it several times, feeling an itch in her palms.

As the leader of the group, Ban Ming unusually emphasized a few words to everyone before they started collecting the bird eggs. "When you're collecting the eggs, do it in human form. If anything seems wrong, run away immediately. Don't fight with these birds."

Everyone nodded seriously in agreement.

Jian Mo a little surprised. "Why can't we fight? Is it because we're in the wrong for coming out to steal bird eggs today?"

Ban Ming shook his head honestly. "No, that's not it. If they accidentally fight and destroy the nest, these Violent-Violent Bird might never come here to lay their eggs again. It would be a real loss to lose a regular foraging spot."

A Hu added from the side, "If the tribe finds out that we disturbed the birds by taking their eggs and chased them away, we'll get a beating."

Jian Mo: "Who's beating us up? Wu Jiong?"

Ban Ming: "It's mainly my dad and his men who beat us. The clan chief usually doesn't care about these little things, De Jiang will beat us too. You don't know how sharp my dad and his men's sense of smell is; even bathing doesn't help."

Hearing them say that, Jian Mo suddenly asked, "You guys weren't beaten up for damaging the bird's nest, were you?"

Several orcs chuckled awkwardly, and Xi Lu, suppressing a laugh, said, "Of course, we've figured out everyone's escape routes."

Ban Ming cleared his throat. "Nothing has happened yet, so let's not discuss whether we'll get beaten up or not. Everyone, divide into groups and start taking the bird eggs. Remember, you can only take a maximum of two eggs from each nest. If there are only two eggs in a nest, then you can only take one."

Everyone agreed and quickly formed teams with people they got along well with.

Jian Mo, Ban Ming, and A Hu teamed up. Before they parted ways, he called out to the young man carrying a basket and shared the hay inside with them.

With hay as a cushion, the bird eggs are less likely to break when placed in the basket.

After everyone shared the hay, they tried it out and praised Jian Mo's method.

Ban Ming first placed a tree branch next to the bushes as a marker to indicate that they had been there.

In that way, the people of the Yigu Tribe would know that the tree branches were still fresh because they had already taken the bird eggs.

Bird nests were everywhere, Jian Mo quickly found a bunch.