"I have good eyesight. Several crabs were covered in mud and hiding in the mudflats. I almost missed them." He admitted that he was indeed lucky, but part of it was due to his experience.
"I was quite happy because I caught a blue crab, but this comparison really dampens my happiness. It's like a dwarf compared to a giant." Ah Zheng shook his head and said depressedly.
"It's okay. The tide hasn't risen yet. Let's go around the surrounding mudflats. Hey, where are Fatty and Guang?"
Xiaoxiao pointed to the beach near the reef and said, "Look~ Fatty is taking a nap there."
Ye Yaodong turned sideways and looked in the direction of his finger, only to see the fat man lying on the beach with his hands behind his head and his hat covering his face.
"Fuck, he can sleep like this? Is he a pig?"
"Isn't he a pig?"
I am speechless!
Under such a scorching sun, he can actually use the sky as a blanket and the ground as a bed. I really admire him!
"A Guang went to pick up small abalone. He thought the ones on the reef were more suitable for him."
"Oh!" He also saw a figure with its butt sticking out on the reef. "Then you guys keep looking. The tide will rise in a while. I'm going to take a rest first."
As he said that, he walked towards the muddy and sandy place where he had caught sea centipedes before. There was still half a bucket of sea centipedes he had caught before. It was a good time for him to take a break and continue catching them.
Although this thing may seem a bit disgusting, it is also a delicacy for gourmets.
There is no such thing on the beach in their village. Now that the sea water has not risen, he can continue to dig holes and catch some. He doesn't know whether their pier will close.
It doesn’t matter if they are not collected. As long as they are not killed, they can be left alone for two or three days. There are many people in his family, so I guess they can’t be left alone for three days. They will be killed in two days at most.
He caught sea centipedes, some 20-30 cm long and some only a few centimeters long, out of the hole one after another.
"You're still catching them? You don't find it disgusting."
Ye Yaodong knew it was Ah Guang from the voice, and said without even looking up: "It's OK to catch them one by one, they are just centipedes in the sea, it's not like we haven't seen them before."
"Are you going to sell all these? Or are you going to eat them all?"
"Let's see if Ah Cai will take it. After all, we don't have this stuff at the dock. If they don't take it, just keep it for yourself."
Ah Guang looked at the bamboo basket beside him and said, "There are also blue crabs. They are quite big. It's a good harvest. I can barely earn a day's wages."
"I'm so envious of you. I caught seven, two females and five males, all of them are very fleshy." Ye Yaodong was quite proud. He had never thought that the resources on the isolated island were so abundant.
"What? Seven? You're so unlucky!"
Ah Guang opened his eyes wide in disbelief and shook the bamboo basket. Sure enough, he saw several large pliers from the bottom.
"Ah Zheng and Chen Wei each caught one. Do you want to go for another look? The tide hasn't come in yet."
"Go, go now, and tell me where you caught it!"
Ye Yaodong pointed to it and assured him, "That place, but I've basically been there. You can go a little further. I haven't been to that place."
"knew."
A Guang ran excitedly to the direction he pointed. Once the tide started to rise, it would rise quickly. Moreover, it was already the first day of the new year and the water level had not receded very low today.
Ye Yaodong didn't expect that just a suggestion from him would allow Ah Guang to harvest two blue crabs, one of which was huge, even slightly bigger than his biggest one.
Come back and make others envious.
Xiao Xiao said jokingly: "Master Dongzi, can you give me some pointers sometime?"
"Yeah, if I had known earlier, I should have asked you where you caught them, maybe I could have caught two too!" Ah Zheng regretted it so much that his intestines turned green. He was still chatting with Dongzi in front.
Ah Guang was a bit too eager to get the taste, and said with a look of regret: "Alas, I went too late. I only found two before the tide came in. The second one was almost washed into the sea by the tide. Fortunately, I was quick."
"That's enough. Now you have two blue crabs. Fatty and Xiao Xiao don't have any. If I had known there were some over there, I would have gone there myself." Ye Yaodong smiled and reminded everyone, "The tide is coming up. Let's pack up and get on the boat."
"Let's go, let's go home. I'm starving."
"Me too. I'm starving."
"Wake up the fat guy..."
"Just leave him here as a savage..."
"You're talking so loudly, do you think I'm deaf and didn't hear you?"
Everyone joked and carried their own buckets and tools onto the boat first. Then A Guang untied the rope and used the bamboo pole on the boat to create distance from the shore before starting the machine.
It's three o'clock now. We have been on the boat all day since we left early in the morning. Everyone is exhausted. As soon as they got on the boat, they sat or leaned in a crooked manner.
"It's quite hard to fish in the sea. Fortunately, we had a good harvest today, so it was not a wasted trip." Chen Wei twisted his neck and said.
He is not as lively as them. Usually, while they are making jokes, he doesn't talk much and only speaks occasionally.
The fat man rolled his eyes, "Why do I feel like you are mocking me?"
"Hahaha, be more confident and remove the word 'feel'." Ye Yaodong said with a laugh.
Others couldn't help but laugh.
"Fatty, you might as well not come. Look at your fat white face. It's all tanned."
"It's okay for a man to be a little darker, it's just that it's really too hot and too sunny, I won't come next time."
"Tomorrow I will go to Dongzi's homestead to help and I will also have to dry the sun..."
Ye Yaodong quickly said, "Hey, I won't force you. It's so hot, who wants to work under the sun? I won't force you. It's up to you whether you come or not."
The fat man said a little embarrassedly: "I'll help a little bit depending on the situation."
"It's okay. Building a house is not a matter of one or two days. We have hired workers. You can do whatever you want."
Everyone nodded and decided to help out depending on the situation.
The boat sailed for more than ten minutes before arriving at the pier. After docking, they all got off the boat, leaving only Ye Yaodong on the boat watching.
They had to go back and get sacks to load the goods. There were several piles of shellfish they had found on the deck. They also had to push a cart over because otherwise they would be too heavy to carry home.
While he was waiting, fishing boats came in one after another. It was already afternoon, and it was time for the fishing boats to come in.
We were all from the same village, so how could we not know each other? Everyone greeted him. Seeing that his boat was full of shellfish, they asked him a few questions out of curiosity, but he evaded the question every time.
Seeing that they were all common on the reefs, no one thought it was strange, but they felt that there were too many of them, filling the entire boat. Seeing that Ye Yaodong was unwilling to say more, they stopped asking, but could not help but take a few more glances.
These things are not worth much. There are few people in the village who have boats. Most of them have small hand-cranked wooden boats. Moreover, everyone's boats are used to fish and make money. Otherwise, there will be nothing left on the surrounding islands.
After waiting for a while, he saw his mother appear on the shore. She must be waiting for his father.
Mother Ye also saw him and called out to him, trotting towards him, "Why did you just come back? You've been away for a whole day... Why are there so many shells?"
Before she could finish her words, her eyes widened in surprise at the shelled things piled all over the boat.