CHAPTER 322: CHAPTER 322: CATCHING RABBITS

"Hey, what brings you to Paris all of a sudden?"

After chatting casually for a while, Pierre suddenly became curious about why Chen Yiyang was in Paris.

Pierre hadn’t heard of any plans for Chen Yiyang to travel to Paris before.

Chen Yiyang didn’t hide the truth and directly shared his troubles.

"Hahaha." Pierre laughed after listening to Chen Yiyang. "I think you don’t need to be too worried about this situation."

"Why do you say that?" Chen Yiyang asked out of curiosity.

"The old guys in Paris won’t go out of their way unless there’s something in it for them.

I think the reason this group suddenly targeted the fish roe from Huaxia is most likely to extort some money."

"Extort?"

"That’s how I understand it." Pierre shrugged and continued, "Based on what you said, Huaxia’s fish roe is much cheaper compared to wild fish roe.

Unless the two kinds can be distinguished by normal people with one bite, why would restaurants choose to buy the expensive one over the cheap one?"

After digesting Pierre’s words, Chen Yiyang thought for a moment and said, "So according to you, the people from the French International Cuisine Association want to monopolize the import business of Huaxia’s fish roe, buy it cheaply from Huaxia, and then sell it to restaurants at a high price?"

"That’s probably the idea. If you talk to key figures in the Cuisine Association, they might stop attacking Huaxia’s fish roe, but from then on, the pricing power would rest in their hands."

"If that’s the case, I find it unacceptable."

Chen Yiyang thought Pierre made some valid points. The sudden emergence of chefs criticizing Huaxia’s fish roe must be driven by profit.

If things go their way, Huaxia’s fish roe wouldn’t be sold cheaply, but it would lose its brand recognition, and pricing power would be controlled by others, taking away most profits.

It’s like working for free.

"I can only offer you my advice." Pierre said with his hands out, "Like me, ordinary people don’t meet big shots in the Cuisine Association, but I do have a friend who inherited a vineyard estate. I’m just not sure how close she is to those food association folks."

"By the way," Pierre invited Chen Yiyang, "It’s just right, I’m going to help my friend with a rabbit problem tomorrow; want to tag along?"

"Rabbit problem?" Hearing Pierre’s words, Chen Yiyang thought it might be local slang.

"Yes, the rabbit issue. My friend’s vineyard is overrun by rabbits, and I have hawks along with hunting permits, so I’ll take the hawks tomorrow to help catch rabbits."

After that, Pierre led Chen Yiyang to the backyard of his house.

The backyard wasn’t big, but had plenty of iron cages.

He showed Chen Yiyang his hawks in some of the cages.

"These are Harris’s Hawks, excellent rabbit catchers. I’ll bring one tomorrow to help my friend catch rabbits."

It was only now that Chen Yiyang truly believed Pierre’s plan to use hawks was real and not slang.

This hunting method seems quite ancient.

But maybe there aren’t many rabbits, and using modern tools to catch them is boring, so for fun, they keep hawks to hunt rabbits.

The next day arrived.

Seeing he had no important deals today, Chen Yiyang went to find Pierre.

Since he was visiting Pierre’s friend’s place, he couldn’t bring a guide today, so he went alone.

But his two hired bodyguards weren’t idle; they followed him remotely to prevent any mishaps.

After arriving at Pierre’s, Pierre took one of his Harris’s Hawks and drove with Chen Yiyang straight to a vineyard outside Paris.

Paris has historically been a place of abundant vineyards, with many estates.

But due to urban development, most vineyards were abandoned.

The vineyard they visited wasn’t large but the walls and ancient decorations suggested it had a long history.

"Thank goodness you’re here. I’m about to go mad because of these rabbits."

A tall young French woman, Reya, welcoming Pierre and Chen Yiyang, walked out of the estate.

After exiting, she first hugged Pierre and then greeted Chen Yiyang.

"Hi, I’m Reya." She introduced herself.

After brief introductions, Reya led Chen Yiyang and Pierre into the estate.

"Haven’t got the permit for large-scale rabbit hunting near the estate yet?" To accommodate Chen Yiyang, Pierre chatted with Reya in English.

Reya’s English was much better than Pierre’s. She spoke directly, "No, the departments only approved small-scale rabbit capture. And after catching them, we can’t kill them; have to release them elsewhere. Those idiots make me want to burn down their office buildings sometimes."

"Release is literal?" Chen Yiyang asked, intrigued.

"That’s right," Pierre replied, "In France, even though rabbits outnumber humans, hunting rabbits still requires several departmental approvals, which must be applied for in advance.

Moreover, captured rabbits shouldn’t be killed unless necessary; they must be driven away to the wilderness for release. Sometimes I feel like appointing black people as department officials might be better; at least they wouldn’t stop us from hunting rabbits."

Chen Yiyang and Pierre chatted in Reya’s estate for a while.

Soon more people arrived.

These people Reya invited to help solve the rabbit problem included even a fourteen-year-old girl.

"Don’t be fooled by her age; she has five or six years of experience training hawks." Her father introduced her to the group.

But most of the time, everyone communicated in French, which Chen Yiyang didn’t understand. He relied on translation software to guess the general topics they discussed.

Once everyone gathered, the hunting action officially began.

Besides four hawks, they brought six Anglo Minks.

Anglo Minks aren’t common in the country but are the world’s third largest pet.

Today was the first time Chen Yiyang learned these cute creatures can hunt rabbits.

Image of Anglo Minks.