The seabed was "arched" out of the sea surface by an average of more than one meter, and the most obvious place was even 3 meters above the sea surface.
The seabed, which was supposed to be very deep, suddenly rose to become land, large areas of reefs were exposed, and marine life such as abalone, lobsters, crabs, etc. living on the underwater rocky reefs were instantly exposed in broad daylight.
Thousands of abalone are all attached to the reefs. In the past, abalone mostly lurked in the reefs, but today they are all exposed to the sun.
The little green dragon was swimming near the charred rocks underwater, and the crabs seemed insignificant.
Mother Ye stared at the scene in front of her with wide eyes, and was so shocked that she couldn't make a sound for a while. After a while, she said, "This... did all of this appear suddenly?"
"Yes, when the third brother and I came here last time, there was no reef island nearby. This should be due to the impact of the earthquake, and the reefs on the seabed were pushed up." Father Ye said happily, rubbing his hands.
It was all pitch-black reefs with no vegetation on them, only some seaweed swaying there. You could tell at a glance that they had just appeared on the sea surface not long ago.
"The earthquake was so strong that it pushed up the reefs? So many abalones and small blue dragons were exposed..."
"Who cares? Just catch him first. We're going to make a fortune. Shit..."
Ye Yaodong climbed off the boat with a look of joy on his face and tentatively stepped into the water near the reef. The sea water instantly reached his knees. The little green dragons and crabs next to him ran around in panic. They were agile and quickly ran back into the sea.
The ground under the water was not very flat, but luckily he was wearing rain boots so his feet wouldn't be hurt. He just let it get wet.
All you can see are tens of thousands of huge abalones, exposed on the surface in groups. These are good things.
"Dad and I will go in the water, but you and my little sister shouldn't go in. The water is too cold. You can just use the hand nets to scoop up the little blue dragons and crabs in the water."
Mother Ye saw that there were many living things under the water, clearly visible, so it should be no problem to use a scoop net to catch them. "Okay, I'll go get the scoop net, and your little sister and I will each take one side."
Ye Yaodong and his father looked at the surrounding stone walls covered with thousands of abalone, their eyes shining with wolfish light. They were big and plump, attached to the rocks on the shore one by one, looking very spectacular.
Normally, abalone can survive three to five days out of water, but if exposed to strong sunlight, they will die within a few hours.
Fortunately, although it was sunny these two days, the winter sunlight was not very dazzling and was very weak.
It is not known when this reef was pushed out of the water. These abalone are still attached to the reef. Perhaps because of the occasional flushing of sea water, they are still alive and well.
Ye Yaodong tried to pry it off with his hand, but found that it was attached very firmly and was difficult to pry off. He took a lot of effort to pry one off.
The abalone that had just been pulled off was oval in shape. It was the common nine-hole abalone on the market. Its shell was green-brown with a pearl-like colorful luster. It was not small in size, about the size of a baby's fist, and the soft flesh on it had contracted a little.
He rubbed it with his thumb, turned to Ye Huimei happily and said, "Please bring me a bucket and a hook. There are hooks in the basket in the corner of the cabin. Bring one for Dad too. This one is too slow to break."
The abalone has a rather peculiar appearance. Only one side of its body has a shell, and the other side is attached to the reef. Once there is any disturbance from the outside world, it relies on its developed muscle strength to firmly attach itself to the reef. At this time, even if the shell is smashed, it will not come down from the reef.
It would be difficult to use brute force. It is best to approach it carefully and then suddenly hook its shell with a small iron hook, so that you can catch it by surprise.
Ye Huimei obediently ran to the cabin to find an iron hook, and then handed a hook and a bucket to him and his father respectively.
At this time, Ye's mother said angrily: "These little blue dragons and crabs ran too fast. I just caught one net and the ones next to them immediately jumped into the sea. I couldn't catch them. I didn't catch many in total."
Ye Yaodong climbed up a reef and took a look at the place where his mother had just fished, and it seemed that all the fish had run away.
"Then why don't you look in another direction and pick up whatever you can find? They are not dead, so they will definitely not wait there for you to pick them up. When no one is around, they can still swim there leisurely. If someone tries to catch them, they will definitely react and hide in the sea."
"It ran too fast this time. It ran away before it could catch two nets. It's such a pity, isn't it?"
"Just catch as many as you can. It's free anyway."
These are all running around near the reef. Apart from hand nets, there is no other efficient tool. If they run away, there is nothing they can do. They can't just dive into the water to catch them, right
Fortunately, these abalones are slow in movement and cannot tell the direction, so they can only wait to die on the reefs and wait to be picked up by them.
These reefs are not only clinging to abalone, but also to many conchs, all of which are large conchs or oyster snails. Each one is at least the size of a baby's fist, and some are as big as an adult's fist. They are all firmly clinging to the reefs, which is very pleasing to the eye.
Ye Yaodong and his father would use small hooks to hook down anything that caught their eyes. From time to time, a "dong dong dong" sound could be heard from the bucket, which sounded very pleasant.
Not long after, they heard Ye's mother calling out, "There are no little blue dragons. They've all run away. I'd better go into the water and dig abalone with you guys."
There were so many big abalone on the reef, and no one knew when they would be able to pick them up. She felt anxious just watching them on the boat, and she was itching to try her hand.
"Why go into the water? It's not good for you women to soak in the sea water in winter. If there is really nothing to fish for, then ask Dongzi to take you to the small island over there, and you can go there to dig for shellfish."
"Mom, how many little blue dragons have you caught? Do you know?"
"Not much. They were packed together with the crabs. Not even one basket was full. And it looked like there were more crabs."
"Then count them first to see how many little blue dragons there are. After you're done, ask Dad to take you to the island. You and Dad can take care of the reefs here. You two are going to dig for shells anyway."
It was such a cold day and the sea water was icy cold. They really couldn't come down to take a dip.
"Okay then." Ye's mother nodded reluctantly. At least she had work to do and didn't have to just stand there and watch.
Ye Huimei also knew that she was about to get married, and it was not good to soak in the sea water for such a long time, so she never asked to go into the water. She could go to the nearby isolated island with her mother to dig up some shells, and maybe she could find treasures.
While Ye's mother was counting the little Qinglongs, the buckets of the father and son were almost half full and they couldn't stop at all.
They didn't specifically separate the abalone and conchs, as that would be too troublesome. They could just scoop them all into a bucket together and sort them out slowly later.
"Damn, we only dug up a small piece after digging half a bucket. How many abalone and conch can we get back?"
Father Ye was also very happy and smiled. "It will definitely sell for a lot of money. Abalone is very valuable. Each one of them is quite big. They are usually found in the reefs on the seabed. Where can we catch them?"
"Dad, we'll each take half of this stuff today. Those little blue dragons and crabs were caught by mom and little sister, so they're yours too. I'll give you the oarfish from two days ago at the end of the month."
"It's okay to count them all together. Just split it in half. I've made a lot of money by hiring you as a boatman. I've made much more than trawling with your brothers during this period. As for the oarfish, just count the profit together with the fish you usually sell. After all, you found it, and I just helped to lift it. If I had seen it, I might have just ignored it."
Father Ye's mind was still very clear. The third son's luck was indeed better than that of ordinary people. Looking at the densely packed abalone on the reef in front of him, his old face was full of smiles.
"Let's talk about it later. Let's dig first and pick up all the abalone on the reef."
"I don't know how long we'll have to dig this up. We don't even need to drag the net today."
"Why drag the net? I can't even pick up all these abalone. I'll just throw the hooks and sticky nets into the sea and retrieve them when I return."
These abalones are enough for them to make a fortune. They don’t need longline fishing or sticky hooks. Ye Yaodong smiled so hard that his teeth were showing.
Ye Huimei was a little proud of herself at this time and asked for credit, "I said you should take me with you. If you take your aunt and second aunt with you, most of the profits will be given away, and our family will earn half less."
Mother Ye couldn't help but say: "Your aunt and second aunt are not outsiders..."
"That's not ours, so we should keep it within our family, right, Dad?"
Father Ye smiled and nodded, "Family is good."
"I counted them. There are 26 small blue dragons. Some are only two or three taels, and some are large, six or seven taels. They are not bad. They should be able to sell for a good price."
"I don't know what this little green dragon tastes like..." Ye Huimei picked up a large tentacle, only to see its tail curl up immediately and move constantly.
Mother Ye glared at Ye Huimei, "When did you become like your third brother, who only knows how to eat."
"I was raised by you guys. When Dad goes out to sea with my third brother, he brings back good things every few days. Hehe, it's much better than going out to sea with my eldest and second brothers..."
"Your father and your elder and second brothers know how to live, but your third brother..."
"What's wrong with me? I'm giving you food and you're still complaining? Even the food can't stop you from talking." Ye Yaodong rolled his eyes. "Sister, let's keep a few more little blue dragons today, one for each of us, so that everyone can have a taste!"
“Hehe~”
"You're a spendthrift. You want to eat everything. Why don't you keep some to sell for money?"
Father Ye also muttered, "Don't keep everything, just sell it if it's worth it..."
"Mom, you see, we must have made a lot of money from these abalones today. It's not too much to leave a few little blue dragons to reward ourselves, right?"
"You have to make money, but you can't lose yourself, right? In the past, when you didn't have money, you were just stingy. But now, your three sons are married, you've built houses, you've separated, and your daughter is getting married soon. You and your father don't have any unfulfilled wishes, and you don't have anything to spend a lot of money on. You can't take all the money you've saved into your coffin, can you?"
"Save some money for retirement, for emergencies, and eat something nice when you make a lot of money occasionally, that's okay, right? There's no need to save and waste money..."
After hearing the first part, Ye's mother wanted to refute a few words, but after listening to the end, she felt that what the third child said seemed to make sense
I have built a house for my son, married him off, and my daughter is married off. It seems like there is really nothing left to spend a lot of money on
Then it doesn’t seem too much to improve the diet by eating something good occasionally
"Hahaha... Third brother is really good at speaking!"