Chapter 58: The Money Turtle That Fears the Soft and Is Afraid of the Hard

  Thanks for the support of Zui Xiao Mi Le and Qi Liang Huang Pi!

  You can't carry those wild bananas up the mountain! Put them aside and pick them up on the way back, and a group of people will follow the stream up. There is no road in the stream, only a small creek above, everyone can follow it up. The creek water is all natural mountain spring water, which is very cool at this time. Mountain spring water and well water have a characteristic: warm in winter and cool in summer.

  Chu Jiaqiang remembered that when he was young, in order to explore the source of this small stream, he followed it up with a few companions. It wasn't until they were almost at the top of the mountain that they discovered the spring water was flowing out from a crack in the rock. At the time, he couldn't understand why the water inside the crack never seemed to run out.

  Because it is rich in minerals, the mountain spring water of this stream is exceptionally sweet, and everyone in the village likes it very much, but no one comes to fetch water from here. Because it's too far away, just the cost of pipes alone would be enough to bankrupt someone.

  "Oh no!" Chu Jia Yan had just stepped on a yellow stone, and suddenly slipped and fell into the small pond, instantly getting completely soaked.

  Chu Jiaqiang frowned slightly: "How can you be so careless? Your clothes are all wet, hurry back home!"

  Chu Jia Yan got up, feeling a bit wronged, and looked at that yellow stone. She thought she had an illusion, just now when she stepped on it, this stone actually moved, so she fell down. She took a closer look, and suddenly let out a terrified scream.

  "What's wrong with you?" Chu Jiaqiang turned his head and looked at her.

  "Brother! What a huge turtle! It's actually yellow." Chu Jia Wan pointed at the yellow thing.

  Chu's family looked back, and their pupils suddenly contracted. It was a half-square-meter-large golden turtle, with three black lines standing on the huge golden turtle shell, one in the middle was long, and the two sides were short, symmetrically distributed. At this time, it actually raised its head to stare at Chu's eyes.

  Those children all gathered around, and that giant turtle was not afraid of people at all. Facing the crowd, its momentum did not fall behind, as if it was very annoyed that Chu Jia Yan had stepped on its back earlier.

  Everyone was amazed, turtles are not uncommon, and there are some in the Chu family river. But such a big one has never been seen before, and it's golden yellow in color, seemingly with quite a bit of courage. As everyone knows, turtles are very timid, otherwise why would people say "turtles shrink their heads"? Generally, when turtles are attacked or see an enemy, they will withdraw their heads and tails into the shell. But this giant turtle still dares to stare with its eyes wide open, which makes everyone click their tongues in wonder.

  "Uncle Qiang, how old is this turtle?" a little boy asked. In the countryside, when asking "how big", it doesn't mean the actual size, but rather the age.

  Chu Jiaqiang forced a bitter smile and shook his head. He had never seen such a huge tortoise before, although he had seen one in the city that was not as big as this one. It was said to be a thousand-year-old tortoise. This wasn't surprising, as turtles were symbols of longevity.

  "Brother! Why is this turtle yellow? It's so strange! What kind of turtle is it?" Chu Jia Wan was not afraid of a turtle staring at her, but she didn't dare to provoke this fiery guy either. After all, turtles can be quite terrifying when they attack, and once they bite, they won't let go.

  In rural areas, there is a saying: that is, the turtle bites people and does not respond to thunder! In fact, this is not a legend. All living things in the biological world have a great fear of thunder. As a timid species, turtles are even more so. When they hear the sound of thunder, they dare not be reckless, and their lives are at stake.

  Of course, it's not that they won't open their mouths at all. If you put them in water, they will generally open their mouths, or block their noses tightly, and they will have to open their mouths to breathe. This method requires you to endure some pain, because turtles can hold their breath for a long time and won't die from lack of oxygen even after a long while.

  Chu's family naturally knew the giant turtle in front of him. This turtle was quite famous, and people generally called it the Golden Turtle. The scientific name for the Golden Turtle is Trionyx sinensis, also known as the Three-lined Closed Shell Turtle, Red-edged Turtle, Golden-headed Turtle, or Red-bellied Turtle, which is a traditional Chinese medicinal material.

  Its head is smooth and scaleless, with a distinct and rounded eardrum; the neck plate is narrow and long, the first block of the vertebral plate is pentagonal, the fifth block is fan-shaped, and the remaining three blocks are triangular. The rib plates have 4 blocks on each side, and the marginal plates have 11 blocks on each side. The dorsal carapace is brown with 3 black longitudinal keels; the ventral plastron is black, with yellow edges on the marginal plates. The dorsal and ventral shells are connected by a flexible band on both sides, and the ventral shell is also connected by a transverse band between the thoracic and abdominal marginal plates. The fingers and toes have webs; the tail is short and pointed.

  "This is a money turtle, you've been to high school, you should have heard of this term." Chu Jiaqiang smiled and said.

  "Ah! Is that the Money Turtle? I've heard it's very valuable." Chu Jia Wan's eyes lit up immediately, staring at the giant turtle as if she saw a huge gold ingot, with an appearance of a little money enthusiast.

  "Haha! Of course, it's worth a lot of money. The whole body of the golden turtle is a treasure, and it is one of the traditional export goods of our country. Not only does its meat taste good, but it also has medicinal effects such as nourishing yin and reducing fire, tonifying heart and kidney, and strengthening muscles and bones. It can be used to treat diseases such as bone tuberculosis, joint tuberculosis, chronic osteomyelitis, rheumatoid arthritis, chronic cough, uterine bleeding, spermatorrhea, and throat pain."

  Chu Jiaqiang was well aware that this turtle is a first-class protected animal, similar to the giant panda, both of which are endangered species. Of course, this refers to wild ones. Outside, a golden coin turtle seedling can cost anywhere from several thousand to over 30,000 yuan, and that's still cultivated. A single kilogram of golden coin turtles can cost tens of thousands of yuan, it's hard to imagine how much a wild one would cost.

  "Brother! Let's catch this money turtle and sell it!" Chu Jia Wan said mischievously, looking at the fierce-looking money turtle.

  "Haha! You silly girl, can't you take care of this treasure yourself? Why sell it? Are we short of money?" Chu Jiaqiang scolded with a smile.

  "But this guy seems to be very fierce!"

  "You just offended someone, can't they be angry?" Chu Jiaqiang burst out laughing, this girl actually dared to compete with a money turtle.

  "Splash! Splash!" At this time, Little Jin had also arrived, looking at the Money Turtle and starting to provoke it. Actually, Little Jin had been following beside them all along, but this little guy was very afraid of water and couldn't follow Chu Jiaqiang and others on the water route.

  That golden turtle was no pushover either, and it turned around with a menacing "hiss!"

  "Go! Don't come back and cause trouble." Chu Jiaqiang drove Xiao Jin away.

  But Chu Jia Wan shouted loudly: "Xiao Jin, have a fight with it."

  Chu Jiaqiang tapped his sister's head lightly and said in a bad mood, "What are you hitting? Girls shouldn't be so unseemly, going crazy all day."

  And Little Gold saw the Money Turtle open its mouth, revealing rows and rows of tiny teeth inside. Not to be outdone, it compared teeth with him, completely unaware of the danger. The two large molars exposed on the outside were no joke, and it took a bite of a nearby rock.

  "Crack!" With a single sound, the stone was suddenly missing a piece.

  The golden turtle didn't expect that this little guy's teeth were so fierce, and suddenly he shrunk his head, shrinking into the turtle shell.

  Everyone was stunned, and it turned out that he was still a softie who bullied the weak and feared the strong.