Chapter 187: Digging for Crab Tiger Fish

Soon, Ye Cheng discovered another hole, a bit larger than the last one. He first dug a few shovelfuls, lowering the hole a little, looked at it with his headlamp, and felt around the opening with his hand—it was sticky and gooey.

This meant there was a catch. Ye Cheng reached in; the hole was a bit deep, extending to his forearm, his face almost touching the mud. Only then did he feel something, and it seemed there was more than one.

"Xiao Hu, come help, this should be a nest." Ye Cheng pulled his hand back; the mud on his face couldn't hide his excited expression.

"Wait, bro, I think I have one too over here." Xiao Hu, being more rough, shoved his whole arm in, poked to the bottom, then shoved harder, and yanked out sharply.

With a loud "pop," Xiao Hu pulled out a crab tiger fish, about five taels in size.

"Sure, come on, help me dig the mud here quickly." Ye Cheng handed over the snakeskin bag, letting Xiao Hu toss it in.

Then each grabbed a shovel and began digging hard near the hole opening.

Although the mud is soft and easy to dig, it's truly heavy; after digging about half a meter deep, their arms started to ache, and according to the earlier depth estimate, this depth was still insufficient.

So they widened the radius a bit, digging a pit nearly 70 centimeters deep.

"Bro, look, there's movement—bubbles are coming up." Xiao Hu pointed at the hole opening.

"Scoop, you go up." Ye Cheng gave Xiao Hu a look.

"No way, bro, you're scared of this too?"

"Let me tell you, the ignorant are fearless; you're not unafraid because you're brave, but because you're ignorant. Hurry up, I'll rest a bit."

Ye Cheng made excuses, not knowing why; whenever he reached into the pitch-black hole to fetch something, he always felt an inexplicable fear.

Xiao Hu also knew his routine, so he just made a teasing remark, then squatted down and began to reach inside.

Just after reaching in a little, Xiao Hu pulled out a crab tiger fish covered in mud, this one smaller, about four taels.

Immediately after, Xiao Hu kept pulling out eight more from there, big and small, the largest eight taels, the smallest four taels, feeling like a whole family had been swept away in one net.

"That's all, bro." Xiao Hu gave one last reach—there really was nothing left.

"Then let's switch to another spot; it feels like there are plenty of crab tiger fish here."

Ye Cheng searched while glancing at his luck value: 70+20, a total of 90 luck points—if he had 90 luck, today's haul would definitely be good.

The two walked slowly along the tidal flat; Ye Cheng took a few steps and felt something under his foot. He looked down—it was a shell, not small, but he had already stepped it into the mud.

Ye Cheng casually picked it up, took a look, and saw it was a yellow clam.

Yellow clams are also called yellow clams (huang sianzi); their shells are yellow or yellowish-brown, thin-shelled with tender meat, high sweetness; compared to the flower clam king, they are a bit smaller in size and cheaper in price, making them a high cost-performance shellfish.

Ye Cheng swept the area with his headlamp; there were many yellow clams. Lin Feng bent over and picked them up bit by bit; after over half an hour, it felt like they had gathered about ten catties.

"Bro, over here, over here there are still crab tiger fish." In the distance, Xiao Hu lay on the ground, stuck his hand into the mud, and pulled out a dark-colored fish.

"You handle that first; I'll go pick a few more yellow clams, there are still some here." Ye Cheng acknowledged, then kept picking.

Mainly picking things up, which is obviously easier than digging.

Each did their own thing; Ye Cheng picked up half a snakeskin bag of yellow clams, finally having cleared this area pretty well, then he went over to check on Xiao Hu.

Xiao Hu caught another three crab tiger fish, but his whole body was rolled in mud, like a mud monkey.

"Damn, stay away from me—if you laugh again in the middle of the night, I'll think a ghost showed up."

Xiao Hu smeared his muddy hand across his face; now it was even darker.

"Don't mess with it; later we'll go to the seaside to wash with water. Any more holes?"

"Yeah, bro, over there I still saw several holes."

Ye Cheng walked in the direction Xiao Hu pointed, and indeed there were several holes.

"Let's get to it—this thing is really tiring." Ye Cheng complained; if the crab tiger fish weren't worth some money, he wouldn't want to get all dirty.

The soil here is a bit harder; Ye Cheng's shovel only lifted a little each time. After digging for nearly ten minutes, he finally grabbed two crab tiger fish from below.

Xiao Hu is stronger, his speed more than double Ye Cheng's.

The two continued digging around this tidal flat, excavating every visible hole.

Today's high luck value is good—Ye Cheng's dug holes yielded a catch 90% of the time, Xiao Hu about half-half; seeing the snakeskin bag nearly full of crab tiger fish, Ye Cheng really didn't want to keep digging.

"Come on, let's go over there to wash up, then keep digging—we'll become professional lotus-root diggers."

He had seen those lotus-root diggers; they were all manual, said manual digging tasted better, but he couldn't understand that.

But digging that mud pit is truly terrifying—nearly a meter deep of sludge, they'd dug it all the way through; for the sake of food, these people really work hard.

The two headed toward the seaside, picking up some yellow clams along the way.

Seawater surged up, reaching just above Ye Cheng's calves; he hurriedly cupped water and washed his limbs and face, laughing at Xiao Hu's blackness—he himself wasn't much better.

They washed up fairly well; not spotless, but at least you could tell who was who.

"Put the stuff away, let's go take a look over there." Ye Cheng pointed toward the bend.

After turning, it was still a stretch of tidal flat.

"Bro, do you see something? It feels like it's jumping up and down—could my eyes be playing tricks?" Just after turning, Xiao Hu pointed at the tidal flat and asked.

Ye Cheng stared intently; indeed there were some things moving on the tidal flat, but the motion was slight and not fish-like, since they weren't jumping.

"Come on, let's go check."

The two quickened their pace to get there; this time they didn't mind the mud specks—mud flew up as they moved.

It wasn't a problem until they got close—once they approached, both froze.

Holy cow!

So many, densely packed.

All were small octopuses.

This is the watching tide, also called short octopus, a small octopus species that lives in the intertidal zone; fishermen can observe them, hence the name watching tide.

Watching tide specimens are usually small, generally 5–15 centimeters long, weighing less than half a catty. Though small, their meat is fresh and tender, with a Q‑elastic texture; they are delicious blanched, steamed, stir‑fried in sauce, or grilled.

Of course, there are also some strong‑taste ways to eat them: raw.

Take a live watching tide, dip it in soy sauce and mustard, bite in—its eight little legs can still struggle in the mouth; supposedly the texture is great, but Ye Cheng can't stomach it.

Moreover, watching tide is hard to catch on a large scale, so most are obtained by fishermen gathering at sea or by fishing.