The four of them were very excited. Each of them took a bowl and rushed directly to the reef. They only ate the oysters that grew naturally on the stone wall. They ignored the other fresh vegetables, clams, Buddha's hands, small abalone, ox eyes, etc.
How can these be as attractive as oysters now
It’s not too late to dig those things up later.
Few people come to these isolated islands. Occasionally, those who have boats at home may come here to dig up some food to take back. They also need some shellfish to change the taste of fish and shrimp every day. It is rare to see people like them who come here every few days for fun to try their luck. Everyone would rather spend time fishing in the sea for money.
Ye Huimei also excitedly took a bowl and joined them in opening oysters. She was so surprised that she almost jumped up at the first bite.
"Aaaaah...Pearl!"
"Ah? What the hell?" Ye Yaodong turned around when he heard her surprised voice, "You dug one out!"
“Ah~ Let me see, let me see…” Others also ran over in a hurry, all full of envy.
"Why are you two so lucky?"
"Yeah, I've opened several, but none of them worked."
Ye Yaodong said with a smile: "It's normal that it didn't open. I heard that only one out of 20,000 oysters can be opened. My sister must be a newbie with good luck."
He, maybe it's because of Mazu's blessing! He has a lucky bonus after being reborn!
Ye Huimei's face flushed with excitement. She held the pearl in her hand and kept looking at it left and right in the sunlight. "Third brother, give me one of the two you just picked to compare."
Ye Yaodong searched his pockets and found that the two he had just found were exactly the same size, and were rare in that they were evenly rounded.
"Mine is a lot smaller than yours."
"That's great. Dig another one to make a pair. You can make them into pearl earrings as a dowry in the future." Xiao Xiao said jokingly, which made Ye Yaodong glare at him fiercely.
"Hurry up and get to work. No one has visited this island for who knows how long. The oysters are over 5 in size and super fat. If you dig two at random, they will produce pearls. Maybe there will be more."
The specifications of oysters are classified by weight, 1+ means 1 tael and above, 2+ means 2 taels and above, 3+, 4+ and so on, 5+ is a first-class large oyster.
These pearls are the result of the oyster's biological processes as it protects itself from foreign substances.
A particle of foreign matter, such as a grain of sand, may enter the oyster and get stuck between the mantle and the shell. This can irritate the mantle, just as if you had a sawdust on your finger, you might get irritated by rubbing it.
To protect itself, the oyster's natural response will be to cover up the irritant, which it does by causing its mantle to cover the irritant with a layer of nacre.
Pearls in shellfish are usually formed in this way, but the probability is relatively low and it takes a long time to form.
No one understood what 5+ meant and simply skipped it. They continued to work with the bowl in one hand and the tools in the other, full of motivation.
Ye Huimei no longer thought about fishing in the sea, but just worked hard to open oysters.
The oysters were big, and Ye Yaodong filled up his small bowl in no time. He stood up and looked around, and found that the tide had receded again, and more shells were exposed on the surface of the reef.
He thought, since there was nothing left to put it in, he might as well dig it back and open it slowly. He didn't know if he could still get pearls out of it.
These two are enough. Xiaoxiao's words just now also reminded him that he can keep them for himself and make a pair of pearl earrings for his wife later.
He took the bowl back to where the pots and pans were placed, took out a few sacks from the bucket, spread out three of them, shook them, and held them all in his hand. He didn't go over to join in the fun, but went straight in the opposite direction to dig nearby. He dug up whatever he saw and just threw them into the sacks according to categories.
Any snail on the island is as big as a longan, and there are whole patches of dandelions growing everywhere, not to mention other things. Ye Yaodong had a lot of fun picking them up, and he only regretted that he didn't have enough hands.
At this moment, he heard another excited cry of "Fuck!"
"Ahahahaha~ I finally dug one out!" The fat man was holding a bead high in the air and was in ecstasy.
Ah Zheng knocked on the bowl with envy, "Damn, when did oyster pearls become so common?"
"That's right!" Xiaoxiao agreed with an unbalanced feeling.
The fat man was very proud, "I am lucky. Today's trip was not in vain."
"snort… "
The two men who still had nothing to show for it continued to work hard. The fat man seemed to have tasted the sweetness and poured the full bowl of oysters directly into the pot, freeing up the bowl to continue filling it.
Ye Yaodong took a look and couldn't help but sigh that the fat man was lucky. Looking at the sack that had just been filled with a lot of oysters, he wondered if he could get more pearls when he took it home
When he had almost dug up all the goods on the lower reef, he climbed up again with the sack in his hand, but because of his slipping feet and the weight of the sack in his hand, he fell down, upside down...
"Ah~ Shit~"
When others heard his exclamation, they thought he had found something valuable again, but when they turned around, they saw that he had dropped it.
"Hahaha~ You made me nervous for a moment. I thought you had found something big again." A Zheng patted his chest in an exaggerated manner.
Xiao Xiao also said exaggeratedly: "It made me panic~"
"Fuck... Damn it, you don't even care about me."
Ye Huimei said with a smile: "Since you can still curse, it should be fine."
He patted his butt and stood up, saying speechlessly: "It's only because the tide has receded. If it hadn't, I would have slipped off the reef and rolled into the sea. I would have been seriously injured or at least skinned. It would have been even worse for someone who can't swim."
"Why don't you sit down and rest for a while? Stop climbing?"
He looked up at the steep reef, which was densely covered with many shelled creatures. He hesitated whether to climb up further.
At this time, I felt a little pain in my left arm. I raised it and saw that there were several long cuts on it. My clothes were torn and a few beads of blood were oozing out.
"Fuck, so sharp."
Ye Huimei heard his movement and walked over to take a look. "Are you really injured? Then sit down and rest for a while. Third brother, I'll dig a little more and give you some."
He patted her head and said, "Don't worry about it. Just have fun. Don't dig so hard. Be careful and don't climb up. The tide is just going out. These rocks are very slippery. The ones with shells on them are very sharp. You just need to walk around underneath."
"Oh fine."
He threw the sack aside, rolled up his trouser legs, picked up the bucket and the fire tongs, and planned to go fishing first, and at the same time look for good things around the ebb tide, or a spot that is easier to climb.
Ye Huimei thought about it and decided not to crawl anymore. She followed Ye Yaodong's example, rolled up her trouser legs, and followed him with a sack in her hand, intending to dig some dirt in the easy-to-dig spot below.
He walked down until the tide reached his calves, then he walked outside the rock and saw a large nine-segment shrimp swimming in the tide. He grabbed it with tongs and threw it directly into the bucket. This one was quite big, and looked to be nearly one or two pounds.
Not far away there was an octopus wagging its tentacles. He waded through the sea water, took a few quick steps, walked forward, and picked it up and put it into the bucket.
At this moment, he caught a glimpse of a group of light brown fish, sized like sea bream, swimming in a shallow pool between two reefs.
His eyes suddenly lit up and he quickly took a few steps forward. When he took a closer look, he recognized that this was a stone clam fish.
The body is light brown with some green mixed in. There is a blue vertical stripe under each eye socket on the head. The fins are yellow, so it is also called yellow-winged fish in some places.
This is a species of snapper. No wonder he thought it looked like a snapper from a distance, but he was not sure what kind of snapper it was.
This kind of fish usually travels at night and is a nocturnal fish. During the day, they mostly gather around independent reefs or at the junction of sand and mud, and disperse at night to find food.
Now that the tide has receded, they have been exposed. Ye Yaodong roughly estimated that there are about twenty or thirty of them. Each one looks to weigh more than two or three kilograms, which is not small. These fish are noble ones of the carved species and are not cheap.
From the time he made the surprising discovery to the time he approached and estimated in his mind, it was only a matter of seconds.
He excitedly shouted to Ye Huimei, "Little sister, go get me the hand net, hurry up."
There was full of joy in the voice, and everyone could hear it.
"What good stuff did you find, Third Brother?"
"What else? Dongzi?"
"Go and get it for me first."
The sea water kept washing over them, and he was worried that they would swim out of the puddles and head for the sea, and then he wouldn't be able to catch them all at once.
Seeing that he was in a hurry, Ye Huimei hurried back to help him with the scoop net.
The fat man climbed down from the reef, curiously planning to go over and take a look, and at the same time stretch his waist, as his waist would not be able to bear being bent like this all the time.
"Little sister, what did your brother find? Why are you so excited?"
"I don't know either. I didn't see it."
Ye Huimei picked up the scoop net and quickly passed it over. When she got closer, she saw that it was a school of sea bream.
"Ah? So many fish! Third brother, what kind of porgy is this? I only know black porgy, yellow porgy and red porgy!"
Ye Yaodong lifted the hand net and answered happily, "This is a stone clam fish."
"Grouper? No, this isn't a snapper..."
"It's a clam, a stone clam."
"Stone clam fish?" The fat man also came over. "Fuck, the whole puddle is full of them!"
His voice immediately attracted Zheng Xiaoxiao, who was still struggling hard.
"What? Grouper all over the puddle?"
"What kind of grouper is that? Tiger grouper? No way?"
The two were surprised and slid down from the reef.
The fat man said angrily: "Fuck, you are deaf, I already said it is a grouper! You said it is a grouper, a grouper, tiger, your head is not as valuable as this fish..."
Ye Yaodong shrewdly divided the fish in the puddle several times and scooped them all into the bucket, then happily handed it to the two people who had just come running over.
"It's a stone clam!"
"Fuck~"
The two of them didn't know what to say anymore, they could only shout "Fuck" in unison.
"There are no pearls, and there are no fish. Damn it, I just have to watch you get rich alone..."
"Damn, this bucket is worth a lot of money. Dongzi found it again! Let's go and take a look around with the bucket. We can't let him take all the good stuff..."