Although they were not piled up into small hills, their beach area was not small, and the number of them forming a coastline was also very considerable. No wonder his mother was so excited that she came over and dug them all up.
In these days, the catch of scallops is relatively small, and only in the future will people gradually start to cultivate them and the output will increase.
They rarely see scallops on the beach on a normal day, let alone like today, where they have been washed into a coastline, which is simply spectacular.
You can pick up a lot of them just by picking them up.
Whether it is valuable or not is another matter. It is also valuable in large quantities. For example, starfish are very cheap, but there are many of them. Picking up a few in a day is also a considerable amount, which is better than working for a day. It is not easy to make money these days.
What's more, these scallops are valuable.
No wonder there are no good fish left at the door. It is one thing that they were not picked up in time and were swept back into the sea by the waves. Or perhaps it is possible that these shells built a small dam. In addition, the terrain is higher towards the shore, which blocked a lot of the aftermath of the tide and reduced the amount of fish washed up.
Because the beach has been washed by sea water all year round, a lot of sand, silt and various stones have accumulated on the coast. The terrain becomes higher and higher towards the shore, forming an inclined shape.
After being surprised, Ye Yaodong looked for his parents and saw them standing with their buttocks sticking out diagonally opposite him, struggling to scoop up the shells on the shore into the winnowing basket in front of them with both hands. Soon the winnowing basket was full, and they immediately poured the shells into the basket.
The same goes for others.
Everyone wanted to take advantage of the daybreak when the villagers had not yet come to the beach to watch the tide and bring back more fish, without bothering to pick and choose.
Ye Yaodong squatted down beside his mother and saw all kinds of shells, but scallops were the most numerous.
Some of these scallops have meat, some just have shells, and many other shells also just have shells. The same goes for juvenile shells, not all of them have meat.
No one knew how much of the meat in the basket his mother had gathered was empty, but at the moment, no one had the time to sort out which ones had meat and which ones didn't.
You can only put as much as possible back first. Only those things you put back are yours. It’s the same if you take them back after you have packed everything and sort them out slowly.
He also saw a lot of scallops jumping in the water and escaping into the sea along with the rolling waves.
Although I have seen it before when diving on the seabed, it still looks funny when I see it again. At this moment, there is still a group of scallops running into the sea.
Although the typhoon had passed, the tide was still very strong, and the scallops that returned to the sea disappeared soon.
"What are you looking at? Help me load it quickly. Once everything is loaded, you can take your time to choose. If you are a little slower, the whole village will come."
There was an octopus that was washed up by the waves. Ye Yaodong ran over to grab it, but his arm was immediately entangled. There was also a large conch at his feet.
He picked them up before saying, "I'll go back and get the dustpan and gloves."
There were only two bamboo dustpans and a sweeping bucket in the house. The dustpan was woven by himself and used to hold sand and stones when the house was built. After the house was built, the family divided the two, and his father and mother each took one to hold garbage, so he had to go back to fight.
I just came out in a hurry and forgot to wear gloves. The edges of these shells are very sharp. If you are not careful, your hands will be cut and bleed. You have to wear gloves for protection.
"I told you there were a lot of scallops before, but you took a long time to come out, and you didn't bring anything with you. You had to wait for instructions for everything. You are already a grown-up..."
Ye Yaodong has become accustomed to his mother finding fault with everything and nagging about everything, so he just pretends he hears nothing and runs back.
He was woken up early in the morning when he was half asleep. How could he react so quickly or think so carefully? What's more, seeing is believing. He hadn't even seen it before, so how could he know what to bring.
When he ran back, Lin Xiuqing was also running out wearing a raincoat. Ye Yaodong quickly reminded her to bring gloves and tools, and the two ran back.
When the couple ran to the beach, a few people from the village also went to the beach in twos and threes to see if the waves were big and to see if there was anything to pick up. When they found someone collecting shells at the edge of the tide, they immediately ran home and asked people to help collect the shells.
Lin Xiuqing's eyes lit up when she saw the long arc line made of shells on the beach.
"So many? In the past few years, they were scattered, and the number would increase after the tide receded, but there were not as many as today. They have all washed up on the shore."
"Just pick it up. Who can predict the future on a typhoon day? The wind was strong and the waves were huge yesterday."
“Is there any meat?”
"Look over there!" Ye Yaodong pointed at the scallops that were escaping in the sea water. "It's running so smoothly, do you think there's any meat on it?"
Lin Xiuqing widened her eyes and saw many scallops swimming rapidly in the turbid water in the shallows. They were bouncing towards the sea with the aftermath of the tide. They were running very fast and agilely, as if they had legs.
If Ye Yaodong hadn't pointed it out to her, she wouldn't have noticed that the sea water was too yellow and too turbid.
She asked in surprise: "Can this scallop still run?"
"Of course."
Otherwise, why would the company that raises scallops suffer huge losses year after year, only to tell everyone at harvest time that the scallops had run away
"Hurry up and pick them up. There will be a lot of people around soon. Be careful and squat behind the shells. Don't go forward."
"Why."
Lin Xiuqing excitedly squatted down and picked up the bucket. She stretched out both hands and dug them into the pile of shells. Then she dug them into her arms. It felt so good to fill a bucket in just a few strokes.
"What are you going to do without a dustpan..."
She had just filled a bucket and poured it into the basket when she wanted to turn around and ask him how he was going to fill it without a bucket.
I saw him sticking a stick in the shallow water, and then he picked up a stone and hit it with it, trying to get the stick deeper. It looked weird.
"What are you doing?"
"Just pretend, you'll know later."
After Ye Yaodong inserted a stick next to him, he ran to the front and inserted another one, and then inserted a third one.
The three points are separated by about seven or eight meters from head to tail, and the diameter of the two nets when spread out is about ten meters.
Ye's mother turned around and saw it, and started scolding again, "I asked you to do some work, why are you running around? Didn't you see that there are several more people on the shore, and you are still running around? I can't count on you for anything. I've been here for a long time, and I haven't seen you pick up two..."
"Just do your thing, why are you talking so much?"
Ye Yaodong was busy with his own things, and he always turned a deaf ear to his mother's words, which went in one ear and out the other. He had heard too many things and was full of disgust.
After inserting the bamboo in the shallow water, he waded through the water a little further into the sea to insert the bamboo. The bamboo in the sea had to be inserted deeper.
Although the typhoon had passed and the waves were not as strong, the sea was still very full and he did not dare to go too far forward.
After a busy period of hammering and banging, he tied the fishing net he had just brought out and threw on the shore to a wooden stick to prevent it from being washed away by the waves.
Lin Xiuqing had been watching his actions, and was even more surprised to see that he actually laid a fishing net in the sea.
When he came back and was about to pick up the bamboo after using the stick, she quickly asked again: "What are you doing?"
"you guess!"
"I forgot to ask you just now, where did you get those two fishing nets? I didn't see them during the day yesterday. Didn't you only bring back the traps to wash?"
"The people next door, Lan Da and Zhou Laoer, used their fishing nets to catch people yesterday. Later, they were in a hurry to send their family back home and didn't have time to take the fishing nets back. My father and I were afraid that they would be washed away by the waves, so we picked them up in the yard first and planned to take them back today."
Unexpectedly, the waves rolled all kinds of shellfish from the sea onto the shore. Just when he was about to go back to get the dustpan, he saw the fishing net in the corner of the yard. He suddenly had an idea and brought it over, along with a few sticks and bamboos.
"Then why do you put the fishing net underneath?"
As soon as she asked the question, Lin Xiuqing thought of the scene of the scallop escaping just now, and she reacted quickly, opening her mouth into an O shape in surprise.
Then he immediately followed up with, “Are you going to lay out the nets for the scallops?”
"That's right. This thing can escape even without legs. Just lay out a net and let it fall into the trap. The sea side is a little higher, so it won't be able to get out after it crashes into it."
She looked at him in surprise, "This is very convenient..."
"It's convenient, but you can only catch the first few meters of the net. There won't be a lot of fish that stray in from the side or are washed up by the waves, but I can guarantee that most of them are meat."
It's not as fast as the speed they catch in the winnowing basket, but fortunately the scallops caught are basically alive and meaty, and they can also catch some fish, shrimps and crabs washed in by the waves.
"That's fine too. It's easy to look at and not troublesome."
"Um."
The main thing is that you don't have to worry about the net once it's spread out. Once everyone has picked up most of the fish, he can just fold the net up.
He followed suit and set up another net on the side.
The waves came up one after another. Even though the typhoon had passed, the waves had not receded and were still surging. He was on the shore, but it was a little difficult to set the net, and it took some effort to tie it up.
Thinking of the four rows of ground traps at home, he ran back home to push them.
Fortunately, he had left it on the cart after washing it two days ago, allowing it to take a light bath without having to go through the trouble of moving it around at this critical moment.
He pushed the traps to the beach on a cart, then moved them down one by one, preparing to place them horizontally on the beach, connecting them head to tail and anchoring them. Seeing this, Lin Xiuqing also helped him move the traps.
"I'll take care of it. Don't get too close. There are still waves. Just collect the shells on the shore."
"Oh well."