Chapter 129

Chapter 129

The little penguin stood in front of Lin Qianyu, its small wings pointing toward the big fish over there, chest puffed out proudly.

The scene was a bit awkward for a moment.

The fish in its mouth seemed unsure whether it should eat it or not.

Neither eating nor not eating felt quite right.

After a brief thought, the little penguin bowed its head and started crawling into the fishing net.

It had the feeling of “eat first, talk later.”

The arctic wolf, which had kept its distance to avoid water earlier, noticed the movement and ran over. It froze for a moment when it saw the little penguin.

“Ahhhh?! It’s really a penguin! So gray and fluffy, so cute.”

“Looks so small, the fishing net can completely cover it. Is it as big as a little snow leopard?”

“Why is it still eating even though the arctic wolf has its eyes on it?”

“The little penguin caught red-handed for stealing food.”

Lin Qianyu pulled the fishing net back a little. The little penguin had already secured itself inside the net, and when the net moved, it was dragged along.

Not far from the ice hole, it stopped and opened the net.

Inside were quite a few lively big fish struggling while the net was closed. Now with the net open, the fish tails splashed down, making a constant “pitter-patter” sound.

The little penguin stood up with effort, squatting bewilderedly among the large fish. The fish tail it held kept flicking it several times, but it was too stunned to eat.

Clearly, it was shocked by the scene.

Lin Qianyu used a wooden stick to herd the fish jumping toward the ice hole back, smiling and asking the little penguin, “Where’s your parent?”

The little penguin looked quite young. Compared to an adult penguin, it was less than half the size when standing.

Especially since it had just come out of the sea, its feathers were wet, making it look even smaller and thinner.

It had some black on its head, light gray on its back and belly, and black claws.

Lin Qianyu observed the little penguin, “Feels like it’s still a chick.”

The little penguin wasn’t eating much, taking a bite here and there, already filling itself up. It blinked its eyes at Lin Qianyu, its goose-yellow beak opening and closing silently.

Lin Qianyu sat on a nearby rock, supporting her chin with one hand, puzzled: “At this age, penguin chicks should be in the male emperor penguin’s brood pouch. How did it come out to hunt by itself?”

Especially with no other emperor penguins around.

If there were other emperor penguins here, this catch would probably have been eaten until only the net remained.

The little penguin wiggled its body and shyly brushed against her side, “Ah!”

Lin Qianyu pointed at the fish on the ground, “Not going to eat some more?”

During this period, other animals had likely visited her fishing net; there wasn’t a single dead fish inside. Instead, there were some leftover scraps stuck in the net that hadn’t been washed away.

Although trapped, big fish underwater could still be quite aggressive. A careless tail swipe could knock out a small animal. Compared to that, eating fresh dead fish was much easier.

The little penguin was clearly wary of the unfamiliar human, its eyes fixed on Lin Qianyu, cautiously moving as if preparing to escape.Seeing its cautiousness, Lin Qianyu didn’t stop it. “The emperor penguin group should be nearby.”

If the little penguin remembered the way home, it should be able to run back by itself.

Besides the arctic wolf by her side, there didn’t seem to be any other large predators around.

Momentarily distracted, the little penguin seized the chance, twisted its head, and ran off. Its short legs struggled hard, and its little wings spread out like arms at its sides, looking like a chubby gray cylinder running on long legs.

But it tripped over an ice block after just a few steps.

This was a large chunk of ice Lin Qianyu had dug out when opening the ice hole before.

Lin Qianyu quickly said, “Be careful.”

The little penguin fell flat and slid forward, dragging the ice block forward a bit as well.

The line left on the ground made Lin Qianyu narrow her eyes; it looked somewhat familiar.

The lines she had seen in the snow earlier looked similar to this. Most likely, that was made by adult emperor penguins sliding on the ice with their bellies.

The little penguin was eager and tried to crawl into the ice hole, clearly not the first time here, at least familiar with the underwater path.

—“Ah!”

Off it went!

The little penguin’s call was carefree.

However, the ice block sliding along with it got stuck diagonally in the ice hole, forcibly narrowing the hole’s width by half.

The little penguin, freshly full and with a swollen belly, was halfway into the hole headfirst, claws stretched upward trying hard, clawing in the air like swimming in the sea, very determined.

Lin Qianyu: “...?”

Comments: 【!!!】

【Pfft hahahaha, the chubby one can’t get through.】

【Such a silly and cute little thing. Eating that won’t affect its IQ, right?】

With an ice block stuck beside it, no matter how hard the little penguin tried, its belly was tightly stuck. Its head was fully inside, upper body barely in the water.

Fearing it would struggle and make the ice block stuck even tighter with the ice hole,

Lin Qianyu stood up and went forward, turning the little penguin over and carrying it out.

When lifted, the little penguin was unaware, still kicking its claws hard.

“Hey? Are you okay?” Lin Qianyu turned it upright and realized its eyes were closed, swimming with absolute focus.

If it hadn’t been stuck in the ice hole, it might have already swum back to the penguin group with its eyes closed.

After swimming for a while, the little penguin opened its eyes, saw Lin Qianyu face to face, immediately stopped moving its little claws, its small wings stiffened at its sides, and it stared wide-eyed, quite scared, “Ah!”

“Ah…” Lin Qianyu imitated it by opening her mouth and couldn’t help but smile, “You said ‘off I go,’ but where exactly are you going? You ate my fish, so stay and work off your debt.”

The little penguin was weak; its struggling was less than a kitten’s. Plus, limited by its size, it wasn’t very agile. Twisting and turning in Lin Qianyu’s hands, it couldn’t find a way to escape.

Lin Qianyu rubbed the little penguin and said, “Stop struggling, wait for your parents to come redeem you.”The little penguin struggled for a long time until it was completely exhausted, its beak opening and closing as it panted. Without Lin Qianyu saying anything, it gave up on its own.

Lin Qianyu was just teasing the little penguin and had no intention of taking it back. After rubbing it a bit, she placed the little penguin aside.

She squatted down to help scoop out the piece of ice in the ice hole that hadn’t yet been fully plugged.

The little penguin wanted to run as soon as it landed, but since it swam underwater to get there, it wasn’t very familiar with the routes on the ice surface. After taking a few steps and seeing the completely unfamiliar surroundings, it stopped and curiously watched Lin Qianyu’s movements.

Digging ice inevitably made her gloves wet.

Lin Qianyu cupped her hands on the ice block, lifted it up, and once on the ice surface, her gloves froze stuck to the ice. She forcefully pulled them off, then took off the wet gloves and folded them together.

She pushed the big piece of ice farther away, fully clearing the ice hole. Lin Qianyu clapped her hands and said, “Now you should be able to get in.”

With the current size of the ice hole, the little penguin could easily squeeze in even after eating two or three big fish.

The released little penguin lifted its chin slightly, no longer in such a hurry to go down.

Perhaps realizing the human in front of it wouldn’t harm it, the little penguin appeared less tense.

Lin Qianyu waved at the little penguin and turned to tidy up her pile of fish.

After staying on the shore for a while, none of the spread-out fish moved.

Lin Qianyu started a fire, hanging her gloves on both sides to dry. Thick cotton gloves take a long time to dry after getting wet, but since she had many fish to process, by the time she finished, the gloves were almost dry.

The little penguin stood nearby for a while, then slid into the ice hole along its edge.

It entered the water silently, sliding in as if smoothly, without causing a splash.

The arctic wolf stood on the shore looking down.

To prevent small animals from accidentally falling in, Lin Qianyu had narrowed the ice hole, leaving just enough space to put the fishing net in.

Turning around, she used the axe to cut open the fish’s belly and called out, “The penguin has already left, stop looking. Come eat something, fresh fish. Eat more before it freezes.”

The arctic wolf could also fish but was not skilled, and not every arctic wolf had the ability to fish. Most of the time, they ate reindeer or caribou, rarely fish.

Lin Qianyu first tossed the processed fish meat to the arctic wolf. When it had a small pile of fish in front of it, she threw the rest onto the wooden board.

The sound of biting raw fish was crisp. The arctic wolf lay on the ground, using its uninjured front paw to hold the fish as it bit and ate.

Seeing it eat so eagerly, Lin Qianyu picked a fish for herself to roast. “The fish in this net are all pretty big.”

Any fish Lin Qianyu casually picked was about as long as her forearm.

This was probably thanks to the longer time the net had been set — smaller fish had been eaten by bigger fish, leaving mostly larger ones behind.

A faint splashing sound vanished quickly, like something breaking the water surface and swimming rapidly past.

Lin Qianyu instinctively looked down but saw nothing unusual. She frowned and wondered if she’d heard it wrong — mistaking the wind for water flow.

The fish-eating arctic wolf licked its nose and lowered its head, staring intently at the ice beneath it.

The ice was covered with snow and looked no different from flat ground; the naked eye couldn’t see anything.

Lin Qianyu raised her hand and stroked the arctic wolf’s head. The ice was so thick that even hitting it with an axe took a long time, so there was no worry about any fierce beast suddenly emerging from underneath.

In this environment, the only relatively dangerous large marine creatures seemed to be orcas, narwhals, and belugas — they simply couldn’t come up here.As the sound of flowing water grew louder, the arctic wolf shifted from lying down to standing up.

In the next moment, not far away, the ice hole suddenly splashed upward. While seawater hit the surrounding ice surface, the wet little penguin hurriedly darted out from the ice hole.

It turned its head and saw Lin Qianyu; the little penguin’s eyes widened in panic. “Ahhhh!” it shouted loudly while running toward her.

From the ice hole, a big fish followed closely, rushing straight out. The narrowed ice hole allowed the little penguin to slip through but left no space for the large fish, which got stuck tightly as it surged upward.

“What, what should I do?!”

“What kind of fish is that? Why is its head so big?”

“Wow, this fish seems bigger than the penguin. It wouldn’t be chasing the little penguin as food, would it?”

“Ahh!” The little penguin stood in front of Lin Qianyu, its small wings pointing at the big fish over there, chest out and head held high.

“I’m awesome, right!”

Lin Qianyu raised an eyebrow. It seemed the little penguin thought it had caught the fish.

Rather than the little penguin being chased by the fish, it was more like the little penguin was bait, attracting the big fish’s attention and leading it back.

Seeing the little penguin’s proud look, Lin Qianyu couldn’t help but smile and praised, “So impressive.”

Author’s note: Good night, sleep early, love each and every one.